See, here’s the thing. Everybody complains about the government. And the government earns our scorn, mostly. Something that big is bound to make mistakes, and something that impersonal is bound not to consider the specific interests of ordinary people like you or me or an E-5 in the military very much when carrying out policy.
So yes, there are some complaints to be made. But for people like RTFirefly, those general complaints aren’t enough. Everything has to be pinned on the administration or the Republican congress somehow because they were in charge. And if the problem predated them, well, it doesn’t matter because they should have fixed it since. Nevermind that the same could be said about the previous administration as well.
I’m not taking Clinton to task over this. In fact, I’m giving him due credit for fixing the VA. The problems with fixing military health care are systemic, and stem from a lack of resources in the BRAC era and bad decisions by the military itself.
That’s a very nice dodge. I’ve made specific, particular arguments concerning why I think the GOP should be specifically held accountable here. And you choose to respond with vacuous handwaving that nobody in particular is responsible, that anything as big as the government “is bound to make mistakes” so nobody in particular should be accountable for treating our wounded soldiers like shit.
Wow, took you long enough.
And yet again, you might consider my analogy a few posts back.
Since you haven’t, despite my repeated calling of your attention to it, you obviously have no rebuttal to it. That pretty much says it, doesn’t it?
Didn’t make much sense to me, frankly. A shooting war this big could have easily begun under Clinton as under Bush, and the problems in the military medical care system would have become obvious then as well.
Or don’t you think Clinton was risking an escalation in the Persian Gulf when he struck Iraq during Operation Desert Fox?
The repubs were in charge when their genius Rummy said we fight with the army we have not the one we wish we had. They attacked Iraq. They could have waited until they were ready. Except every day it became more obvious there were no WMD.
When they were arguing the stupid financial giveaway to finance companies called the Bankruptcy Bill ,the dems offered an amendment to allow soldiers who keep getting called back to active duty an exemption. The repubs rejected it along party lines.
This war is particularly ugly with door to door hand combat and actually seeing who you are shooting. 35 % of the soldiers are coming back with immediate mental problems from the war. In time the percentage will grow. The repubs are in charge of VA hospitals and have cut funding.
Who supports the troops. The ones who want them home raising families or the ones using and abusing them?
I saw that, but then I saw the leadership compensation (which is what I alluded to), and it didn’t add up. It still seems like a worthwhile organization, and further research on Operation Homefront shows them to be a bit too “preachy” for my tastes, so unless I find a good reason to change my mind, Fisher House will be on my list for this year.
I’m not sure that you would be so eager to share the blame if the Democrats controlled the White House. One party has pretty much controlled Washington for six years and they ruled with an iron fist. Were conditions at Walter Reed a top priority for Clinton? Probably not. But then Clinton didn’t start a war leading to these high numbers of injuries. Blame should be shared only if both parties were equally negligent.
