Say Anything Blog

Remember when the Democrats/media were using the admittedly substandard conditions at VA hospitals as a political football to bash the Bush administration with?  Well their overreaction and partisan manipulations prompted an overreaction from the VA that now has the taxpayers providing a lot more services than are needed.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – In a rush to correct reports of substandard care for wounded soldiers, the Army flung open the doors of new specialized treatment centers so wide that up to half the soldiers currently enrolled do not have injuries serious enough to justify being there, The Associated Press has learned.

Army leaders are putting in place stricter screening procedures to stem the flood of patients overwhelming the units — a move that eventually will target some for closure.

According to interviews and data provided to the AP, the number of patients admitted to the 36 Warrior Transition Units and nine other community-based units jumped from about 5,000 in June 2007, when they began, to a peak of nearly 12,500 in June 2008.

The units provide coordinated medical and mental health care, track soldiers’ recovery and provide broader legal, financial and other family counseling. They serve Army active duty and reserve soldiers.

Just 12 percent of the soldiers in the units had battlefield injuries while thousands of others had minor problems that did not require the complex new network of case managers, nurses and doctors, according to Brig. Gen. Gary H. Cheek, the director of the Army’s warrior care office.

The overcrowding was a “self-inflicted wound,” said Cheek, who also is an assistant surgeon general. “We’re dedicating this kind of oversight and management where, truthfully, only half of those soldiers really needed this.”

This reminds me of the body armor situation in Iraq.  A couple of years back some liberals in Congress started making a big deal about how the Pentagon wasn’t using the latest and greatest body armor.  Naturally the left railed against the Bush administration for trying to save money, and show favoritism to certain defense industry allies, by not giving the soldiers the best body armor available.  But it turned out that the defense department hadn’t picked up the new body armor because most of the soldiers didn’t really want it.  It was restrictive in combat, and while it would stop more bullets the additional weight and loss of movement put the soldiers at much more risk than the lighter armor.

This is what happens when partisan politicians try to use military issues as political footballs.  Rarely are they trying to do what’s best for the military.  Usually, they’re just looking for a handy weapon with which to beat up the opposition.