The Walter Reed Medical Center crisis: it cannot be underestimated, and it is disturbing to think about.
Many debate the merits of the overseas wars we are fighting. Regardless of how our troops landed in that mess, the fact is that we should be caring for the wounded. As we know through reading the papers, you don't hear about simple surface or shrapnel wounds. You either hear about the mounting death toll, or about those who can no longer live normal lives afterward because of irrepairable damages to body and psyche.
Walter Reed Hospital, at one time, was the nation's crown jewel in care for war veterans. Now some ugly details have seeped through the cracks, as they show just how borderline inhumane the patients' living conditions are.
As was the case with yesterday's blog about the Stephen Grant case in Michigan, this entry will not gauge my reactions directly to the upcoming congressional investigation. Yet, without having been a war veteran myself, I can see how conditions can deteriorate in hospitals, and I feel for the vets who have sacrificed themselves for this country, and are now being under-treated.
Neighboring Allen Park housed the area's vets at a then state-of-the-art hospital. However, when my father and I visited the complex in the early 1990s to see a friend of his (I cannot recall who; it was a buddy of his), I was astounded at what I saw. Just because the building itself may have been sixty-something, did it mean the infrastructure had to date from about that time?
Leaky radiators. Equipment not working. The equipment that was working looking like it was taken out of a bad 1960s horror flick. Unsanitary conditions. Lack of activities for the mobile, and an absence of staff appearing to take care of those with pressing needs. Especially for those who had no nearby relatives, or no family at all, what type of thanks was this for providing the country the ultimate sacrifice?
I basically kept my mouth shut during the visit, as my complaints would have been only one of many, and who would listen to an early-20s person with no military experience? Within the last ten years, they've moved the vets to a much more modern facility, where I'm sure diversions are more plentiful. But I wonder how deep-rooted their pain was at the conditions they witnessed and lived through.
It's like that at Walter Reed today. How can rooming quarters for some injured veterans be shared by rats & other creatures? How can basic infrastructure be left to rot, and still be open to patients? Whoever brought these conditions forward to the press ought to get their own medal for the admission; they've just opened Pandora's Box - but in a good way. These conditions need to be rectified immediately.
With all the near-$100 billion annual requests for additional war funds for the Middle East being approved at the drop of a hat, exactly where are these funds going? Walter Reed aside, how is our equipment holding up? Armored vehicles aren't armored enough. Helicopters break down. Ground weaponry -- don't even ask. Our fighting men & women have the skills, but do they have the resources? How can the war be effective if it's being fought with ineffective parts?
The committee investigating the Walter Reed finds is said to be bi-partisan, and that's the best news you can find, although being bi-partisan should be a given, not news. No matter where you stand, these conditions must be reversed.
The war itself needs the headlines, true. But those that have thought need more than just a fleeting concern from the budget-makers in government.
The patients just got done fighting an enemy and have paid the price. They don't need another battle on their hands over their care & living conditions. The obvious should be done, and should be done NOW.
