In 2004, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife stopped visiting the wounded at Walter Reed out of frustration. Young said he voiced concerns to commanders over troubling incidents he witnessed but was rebuffed or ignored. "When Bev or I would bring problems to the attention of authorities of Walter Reed, we were made to feel very uncomfortable," said Young, who began visiting the wounded recuperating at other facilities.
Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, "I went flying down to Kevin Kiley's office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else."
Young said that even after Kiley left Walter Reed to become the Army's surgeon general, "if anything could have been done to correct problems, he could have done it."
The Buzz linked to the story. Susan S started the first comment that set off a negative avalanche for the Congressman. Beverly Young gave a lengthy defense of her husband in the comments. In their defense, Bill and Beverly Young have donated much of their personal time to helping wounded soldiers. That is well-documented. The question is why they didn't do more? A powerful Congressman like Young could hold press conferences and get on talk shows to create pressure to improve conditions at Walter Reed. He didn't.
Republicans go against their best judgement to keep the White House from having to deal with controversy. Party discipline outweighs all other considerations. Salon documented in 2005 that wounded soldiers had to pay for their own meals. One soldier said, "You know they treat us like shit up here."
Young could have held a press conference with wounded soldiers and have them tell their stories of horrible treatment. Instead, he refused to publicly speak out. His loyalty to the White House outweighed his disgust about walter Reed. This explains everything that is wrong with the Republican Party.
Susan S deserves a lot of credit for bringing this story forward.
This whole story pisses me off. It isn't as if this hasn't been going on for a damned long time. Why is the story just now getting traction and attention? The Republicans are out of favor so the media can now do the story they have buried or avoided for years. And, the Republicans have the nerve to say they support the troops. Bush and his administration don't care about that, they can barely acknowledge anyone is being killed, and all the money is going to the contractors and black ops supporting the Taliban and Al Qaeda, so there isn't any funding to improve the conditions at these facilities. Some one should check the budget funding for Walter Reed for the past 7 years and see if there has been ANY facility funding whatsoever. Also, my understanding is that Rumsfeld announced Walter Reed as a closure with the other base closings several years ago.) I'll check into this a bit and see what I can find.
ReplyDeleteI agree COMPLETELY. (but I'm going to concentrate on Bill Young at this moment)
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly not the first opportunity that bill young has missed to lend his weight. He is quick to bring home the pork to his district but not to raise his voice. I started paying more attention to him when his wife got removed with cindy sheehan (he was quick to yelp THEN and I hoped for more heart from him)
I tried to feel good about him when he invited Samm Simpson to his office .. because of the first thing I spoke of ...
I can't believe they just gave up.
It makes me so tired.
Thank you, Susan S. !!! I bookmarked this for careful reading but never went back to it. I'm glad you did better. Thanks, again.