Bush Hypocrisy at Walter Reed

President Bush made a visit to Walter Reed hospital and after presenting medals to warriors who suffered serious injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan made the following statement, “It is not right to have someone volunteer to wear the uniform and not get the best possible care”.

Well, at least President Bush got that right.

He also said “I apologize for what they went through and we’re going to fix the problem,” . Hmmmmmmm. Let’s hope so although a review of the Bush administration’s 2008 budget is not too encouraging with further reductions in funds budgeted for the care of US military personnel.

The overall neglect and poor treatment of wounded warriors at Walter Reed was publicly disclosed about six weeks ago in a story in the Washington Post. It was highly embarrassing to the Bush administration, as it should have been, at a time when public opinion was turning vigorously against the Bush war in Iraq. So far the disgraceful scandal and subsequent bureaucratic delays has led to the resignation of the US Army Secretary and two generals.

There were those who were less than pleased at the way the President went about his visit. Some retired officers, who do not want to be named for rather obvious reasons, criticized the president for turning the visit into a photo opportunity.

President Bush really has no creditability on the Walter Reed issue and is showing just how hypocritical he and his administration can be. Veterans and active duty troops alike say a lot of the problems at Walter Reed were well known for years and had long been in need of attention.

Yet Bush and a flock of your US congressmen are saying that they were unaware of the problem. I guess that the thousands of letters written to government officials over the years by concerned servicemen and women and their families remain unread to this day.

With further budget cuts for veterans services scheduled for 2008 many of the problems are likely to remain. Bush and his statements are once again out of sync with his administration’s actions.

With Bush hypocrisy knows no bounds. Not even wounded warriors can escape.

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