Mission Unaccomplished

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11154

Mission Unaccomplished
By Ralph R. Reiland
Published 3/15/2007 12:07:02 AM

Is this what we've become, a wounded soldier in a rat-infested room at Walter Reed, too paralyzed to knock a cockroach off what's left of his body?

A case in point: Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, suffering from the loss of an eye and brain injuries from a rifle wound, told a recent congressional hearing of being released from Walter Reed Army Medical Center less than a week after he was shot in the head.

Shannon said hospital staffers simply gave him a map of the expansive medical complex and told him to find his way to the building where he'd be staying to receive outpatient services.

"I was extremely disoriented," he explained, "and wandered around while looking for someone to direct me."

Then, waiting for plastic surgery that would allow him to wear a prosthetic eye, Shannon said he "sat in my room for a couple of weeks wondering when someone would contact" him.

Overall treatment, he testified, seemed to be "designed specifically to reduce the government's cost of veteran care."

He's probably right. In his January 2005 article, "Balancing Act: As Benefits for Veterans Climb, Military Spending Feels Squeeze," Wall Street Journal reporter Greg Jaffe quoted David Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, as saying that increases in spending for veterans benefits pull money away from other military priorities such as recruiting and big-ticket weapons systems.

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