How BushCo. Supports Our War Vets

I took my buddy up to the Salisbury, NC VA hospital yesterday for his pre-surgery pin cushion routine. I got a chance to look around the campus and talk to folks there. Just thought I'd report back on what I saw.

When you drive in, a valet takes your vehicle and parks for you. I thought that was a cool thing. They say its next to impossible to find a parking place and a lot of folks were missing their appointments. Problem solved.

The facilities were pretty good. The people who worked there on all levels were very nice and helpful. My friend sez that so far, his medical care has been top notch (except his grouchy doctor creeps him out a little. Sez he looks like a Nazi. ) I said, on a scale of one to ten, how's the care here? He said, "excellent.. so far. Let's hope they don't remove my leg, accidentally!"

They have a great place, across from admitting, where folks who are waiting can hang out. There's a restaurant, a coffee shop and smoking/eating area right outside. The area inside is comfortable, too. Good place to catch up on reading while waiting.

Everything went fairly quick, too. Efficiency is very important. Based on what I remember (at times in the Army), it could take forever to be seen or to get anything done. My friend hardly had to wait, which was great. He was very pleased.

We were talking about the quality of the place and my friend said, "Yeah, it's great now, but wait till their budgets are cut and they have to start cutting back on staff. That's gonna really be f-ed up."

If anything, VA hospitals should be even more funded. Our vets deserve the best possible care and they won't get it if their budgets are slashed.



[edit on 19-09-2003 by EastCoastKid]

Originally posted by soficrow
They need frsh meat. Why would they take care of useless ex-soldiers?

Sad to say, but that is the truth of it. I hear the Pentagon's being questioned now over the true number of casualties. I've had my suspicions since the invasion that they were totally lowballing the numbers.

Here's the latest on how they're dealing with recruitment shortages. They want to bump up the length of time recruits have to serve.

US Army asks for longer enlistments as recruitment numbers fall

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Army has asked Congress to allow it to extend enlistment contracts offered to future soldiers by two years in order to "stabilize the force," as top defense officials warned that key recruitment targets for the year could be missed.


The request came as the House of Representatives on Wednesday put its stamp of approval on an 81.4-billion-dollar supplemental spending bill that contains new benefits for US troops deployed in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites).


But the new money notwithstanding, Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Franklin Hagenbeck told a House subcommittee that yearly recruitment goals for the Army reserve and the National Guard were "at risk."
story.news.yahoo.com.../afp/20050317/ts_afp/usiraqmilitary_050317075314

These guys are killing our military.

Originally posted by marg6043
If you notice the Iraqi war is bringing home a very substantial amount of disable and injured soldiers, and I wonder how they have been treated after their service is over due to injuries.

I have not seen much on the news, are they just going to be send in the streets with nothing more and nothing less than a purple hart to show how the nation honors them?

All I have seen is sporadic interviews with some of the disable soldiers of Iraq.

No, and sadly you won't. The U.S. had built many "rehabs" on military bases, in anticipation of wounded soldiers returning. But, they didn't build nearly enough. So, to keep the public from knowing the vast numbers, and the great extent that they are permanently wounded, they keep them in the crowded "rehabs". Keep them there on the bases, away from view of the world. I suppose it would be too much of an embarrassment to Bush, to have to explain to the public just what he has done to the lives of so many, who will never be the same again. Especially with his limited vocabulary.

But seriously, I really don't think that he cares at all for the wounded, the amputees, the ones who will never be the same in their minds, etc... he only cares that he doesn't look bad. So, keep the ugly far away from the spotlight for as long as possible. There is a thread I read, I believe it is in a different site, but it may have been here, that tells all about it, and from the victims mouths. It also has many pictures of young men missing limbs, hands, etc... a couple of the pictures are extremely gross (bloody), so if I can find that thread again, I may post it, but with a warning about the pictures.

The only stories you're gonna see in the mainstream media are those of the few gung ho guys who have been given a prosthetic limb (like from the knee down) who want to go back and serve in some capacity. Those few stories are definitely heart-warming and inspiring, don't get me wrong. But, there are far, far more stories you'll never hear, as mentioned in the last post and in Marg's. Those stories, in the hundreds and thousands, are about those lives that are forever destroyed by wounds that will never heal. It's tragic.

The only other stories you see are of units coming home to a grateful nation and their loved ones. It's always good to see; but there definitely needs to be much more balance in coverage.

If the media actually covered those stories of our heroes now enduring shattered lives, I wonder how long it would take for America to become utterly fed up with the Iraqi occupation and to demand a withdrawel? That was what ultimately killed the Vietnam operation.

I ran across this brief article this morning regarding the thousands of troops who have come home from our wars disabled. It talks about a bipartisan study (released in Feb.) on the Pentagon's ability to track them and their medical needs once they're home. According to what the article says about the study, it shows that there are just too many to keep track of. Our system is at overload. If that's true, it's a shame. And we are all, to some degree, responsible for not holding this administration accountable for piss poor planning.

I wonder how many maimed and broken soldiers its gonna take for the people of this country to stand up and demand accountability AND some kind of exit strategy.

Bush's Bureaucracy Stiffs Wounded Vets

By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. Posted March 19, 2005.

Not only did he use false pretenses to get Congress to rush into his invasion, not only did he send our men and women into battle without the protective gear they need to save their lives, not only did he grossly understate the depth of opposition our troops would face during the ongoing occupation, not only did he completely miscalculate the number of troops required to pursue his ideologically-motivated mission — but now we learn that he rushed America into the hell of war without preparing for the medical needs of thousands of soldiers who are coming home with severe wounds.

A February study by Congress' bipartisan investigative arm found that the Pentagon lacks the ability even to track the wounded, much less assure that each of them gets the full attention they've earned in battle. The report notes that hundred of those wounded in Iraq have returned home only to be ground up in Pentagon bureaucracy, going months without receiving the medical benefits and pay they earned.
www.alternet.org...