Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Slum Lords

There has been a lot said comparing this Presidency with the Imperial Presidency of Richard Nixon but having Slum Lords in the Administration is just too much.

The deplorable conditions in outpatient housing at Walter Reed Medical Center are inexcusable. Mice, cockroaches, stained carpets, holes in walls and ceilings, leaky faucets and rusty sinks and tubs. And not an illustration to be found. In any other city this building would have been condemned and burnt to the ground to decontaminate it and the land lords jailed.

You know what really makes me mad? All the hype given to the visits to the inpatients at Walter Reed by our Congressmen and Commander in Chief. Here sits Building 18, right under their nose, and nothing has been done until Dana Priest of the Washington Post broke the story.

I want to know where every single candidate for President that preaches his or her support for the troops has been. Along with all the others who tout their military service: Chuck Hagel,
John Kerry, John McCain, John Murtha, Jim Webb to name a few.

It isn't like this is some remote outpost like Mt. Home, Idaho. It's on the grounds of the Medical Center in Washington D.C. for heaven's sake. Right under their collective nose. Each and every one of them should be ashamed of themselves. Talk about lack of oversight!

Instead of arguing over useless non-binding resolutions about ending the war, how about apologizing to the troops already home and give them the care they deserve under conditions they deserve. They've lived through the devil's inferno in Iraq, leaving far too much of their minds and bodies behind. They shouldn't have to relive it when they come home.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are absolutely correct.

Well said.

Tom Wobker

Word Tosser said...

RIGHT ON !!!!

Betty said...

Oh, you know what happens. When they're at war, they are good political material. When they're at home, they're forgotten. Sort of the same way they all use the abortion issue. In utero, they're political fodder, after they are born, they're on their own. It's all "smoke and mirrors" with those people.

Bill McCrory said...

In addition to the grossly derelict and substandard conditions themselves, what I found galling was that there was a less-than-subtle effort at first to put the blame on some junior non-commissioned officers. They've got a freakin' three-star general running that place, which means he's got colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants below him, and yet they want us to believe some NCOs allowed conditions to deteriorate to the point they have? No way! I'd say that general and some of his subordinate officers need to dust off their resumes, because they're going to be looking for jobs very soon. And Mari, you're absolutely right: Where were the candidates? If any of them visited WRAMC and saw these deplorable conditions, why didn't they speak out? Good post on a very disgusting topic.