Katrina on the Potomac;
We are seeing, as the disaster unfolds, that the levels of leadership that failed at Walter Reed go up higher and higher.
These Generals above Generals above Generals all failed to do their jobs.
This is a pattern that is not isolated to Walter Reed Hospital, not isolated to the Military hospital system, not isolated to the VA medical system, which we have been chronicling as badly broken.
This pattern is a top down pattern, just like Abu Ghraib, just like the humvee armor, just like the absense of kevlar vests... just like the failed WMD intelligence... just like the failure to secure IRaqi weapons and ammunition depots immediately after Bush's "mission accomplished" "shock and Awe."
This is Katrina on the Potomac.
Katrina showed us just how badly Bush had staffed the key appointments in the most important agencies and departments of government. Katrina should have awaked us to the reality that Bush and Cheney had done an equally or worse job staffing the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Now we have an even more crystal clear example of how the US military has failed its soldiers. When the military fails its own, you have to see this as the ultimate failure. If the leadership betrays the care it provides for its most vulnerable, most faithful, most heroic, then we must face the reality that the failure is systemic and the military system is deeply, deeply damaged, on its deathbed. Or... it should be.
The military leadership that allowed Walter Reed to deterioriate is the same leadership that is running the Iraq and Afghan “wars,” occupations,-- whatever you chose to call this disasters.
As I write this, C-Span is broadcasting hearings”
Convening congressional hearings, congressman John Tierny (D- MA) stated, "The army is literally trying to whitewash over the problems. These problems go well beyond the walls of Walter Reed. As we send more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, these problems are going to get worse, not better."
Staff Sargeant John Daniel Shannon "System is seemingly designed to run to cut the costs of fighting this war."
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