Waxman. “This is going on all over the country. People are flooding us with reports.”
What we see here is gross failure to pay attention, failure to do the job, failure to respect the soldiers, and there are more reasons to believe that these leaders, at the top of the “chain” are handling the situation in Iraq the same way they are handlling the situation at Walter Reed.
As I said, this is a top down problem. Bush, Cheney, their surrogates—they’ve done incredible damage to the contents of the leadership of the military. They have fired any leaders with the guts and integrity to speak up and disagree with the view of the world they wanted to see. That has left the US military—this huge institution in a massively disased condition, requiring major life-saving surgery. We are in no conditioin to be waging two wars, let alone a possible third war.
We must take the military away from the the historically toxic, incompetent, failed leadership that Bush and Cheney have perpetrated. The congress must make the tough decisions to stop funding any further failure by these leaders. The solution is to cut off further funds for Iraq. Period. The congress must hold hearings on the competence and functioning of the military at all levels. We can expect the military to resist, to use security—top secretness—as an excuse not to participate. The congress must not accept this. The only way the volunteers who enlisted in the military or the national guard will be protected is if the congress gets tough and does its job. It must wake up and face the reality that the whole military is afflicted of the disease which Walter Reed has already manifested the symptoms of.
Every day the congress waits is a tragedy that leads to the deaths of more troops who did not need to die or be maimed.
The Democrats have the numbers NOW to pass a resolution blocking further funding of the Iraq war.
The Democrats have the numbers NOW to block the senate from reaching the needed 60 votes to pass any further funding for the war.
Do they have the balls to stand up to the right wing lie-machine that will spin a bogus story that by cutting funds to the war they will be cutting funds to the troops.
The Bush leadership has already cut the funds to the troops-- again and again. It is time for the Democratic leadership to bite the bullet and do the right thing for the troops.
Maybe these hearings will disclose enough "Brownie" level incompetence in the military-- incompetence far beyond Walter Reed, so even the Republicans will get on board. Hopefully, the Democrats who were elected to do the job of extricating the US from this disaster, will act before the Republicans. Otherwise, it will be too late for them. They will have failed to do the job their constituents sent them a clear message to do.
Here's a statue associated with Walter Reed. At least it's been cared for.
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