Hiding the Bodies

[Plaid Adder]

I have to say that although I find the Walter Reed story disgusting and saddening, it does not surprise me one bit. There is, predictably, a lot of outcry about how, with all the "support the troops" rhetoric, the Bush administration can have the unmitigated gall to treat wounded soldiers this way. It seems, I dunno, inconsistent. But actually, there's nothing inconsistent about the way this administration treats soldiers.

Let's see, so far the Bush administration's record as far as its treatment of "the troops" is as follows:

* Created an unnecessary war and then sent them to fight it.
* Sent many fewer troops than were necessary to have a hope of success.
* Failed to provide the best possible protection for them, despite the billions of dollars burned every month during the war effort.
* Indefinitely extended their tours of duty.
* Refused to bring them even after it's clear that their sacrifice is serving no concrete purpose.

So, now we find out that when these soldiers are grievously wounded, the Bush administration wants them out of sight and out of mind. Well, to me that makes perfect sense. After all, if you have committed a crime and you want to escape punishment, the first thing you need to do is hide the evidence.

That's what these soldiers are: evidence of the horrible price that the troops we are constantly exhorted to 'support' have paid and are still paying for Bush's illegal and unjustifiable war. Of course they want these people warehoused and left to rot. Honoring them, or even respecting them enough to put the effort into healing them, might expose them to the public eye, and that might remind people that Bush is responsible for their condition. Which, you know, we can't have.

Having beaten up on the Post in the past, I want to thank them for paying for and printing this story, because at least it is having a concrete and positive impact on the lives of the people in Building 18. I certainly hope that we are able to keep the heat on, because obviously as soon as this story is off the front pages, this bunch of criminals will go right back to hiding the bodies.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[TZ]

1. You are right

this is straight in line with the thinking of Chimpy and Co. Its very consistant. Its like the story I recently heard about NIH where it seems while the scientists carry on (mostly) good science for the benefit of all the maintence people are suffering due to the fact that there is a lot of dangerous asbestos they have to deal with and they are not getting the correct or needed safety equipment and are therefore getting sick.

[LiberalEsto]

2. That explains the disinvited vet

A couple of days ago an amputee vet was disinvited from a B*sh photo op. B*sh didn't want to be seen with the blatant evidence, as you so rightly observe, Plaid.
Thanks for putting this in the proper perspective.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Well said, PA!

Now off to the Greatest Page ...

[tom_paine]

4. I KNOW they are suppressing the death tally (I guess it actually is 5-8K)

but once again the Busheviks shock with their mercilessness, even to their stage props, who are in reality our brave and wounded soldiers, as the hide and suppress the living, as well.

They treat them like settings in a play to be moved around here or there, put away and repainted when the curtain goes down.

It is disgusting and outrageous in equal measure.

The Busheviks truly are the closest thing to Nazis that America has ever seen (and hopefully, will ever see).

They are murderers and criminals masquerading as patriots, all the while sucking the blood from the REAL PATRIOTS, many of whom are lying in Building 18.

[dsharp88]

20. Here's how they supress the death numbers...

Two army trucks - one behind the other - going down an Iraq highway - two people in each truck. Front truck hits a landmine and blows up killing both people. Second truck swerves to avoid the first truck and flips over killing both people. How many people died? The pentagon will report two deaths, not four, because the two behind were killed in a motor vehicle accident, not as a result of military confrontation.

[followthemoney]

5. Bush has done everything short of spitting on the troops to let them know

...how he really feels about them.

Time for Bush to Swift Boat the wounded at building 18.

[dsharp88]

6. Senate Republicans killed the Veterans Healthcare Bill in April 2005...

so they can't plead innocent on this one. They were the enablers for this travesty.

[bonito]

7. K&R

[Richard Steele]

8. K&R

[NanceGreggs]

9. So happy to see this on the Home Page ...

... I only wish I could recommend it again - and again, and again, and again.

GREAT piece of writing, Plaid Adder!!!

[Kurovski]

10. K&R.(nt)

[diane in sf]

11. Thank you PA

this is a great summary of Bushco's criminal behavior toward our troops.

[Swamp Rat]

12. k&r

[Bucky]

13. I'll bet the WIAs would be treated better if Halliburton was running Walter Reed

Or maybe not.

But I don't doubt that one reason the facility is in such horrible condition is that it's not a source of revenue for Bush & Cheney's friends. They can send billions into the Iraqi furnace because Halliburton and KBR pull a few cents commission off of every buck burned over there. This war is in part a premise for the right contractors to let Cheney stuff a lot of bills down their pants.

[DWilliamsamh]

14. Q: Bush, Gambino, Scarfo, Bruno: What do they have in common?

A: They are all organized crime families.


All good crime families know this basic tenet of doing "Business:" Hide the bodies. Work in the shadows as much as possible, while running a "legitimate front business in the light. Another common factor some times the Under-Boss (Cheney) is really running things when the Boss turns out to be to stupid, yet ego-maniacal, to truly run the family effectively enough to make sure all the Capos are getting paid.

[LiberalEsto]

22. Georgie "The Chicken" Bush?

The perfect Mob nickname for him.

[Zambero]

25. And Dick "Chump Chicken" Cheney

Birds of a feather!

[mwb970]

15. Still nothing about Walter Reed in the conservative Columbus newspaper.

Our single newspaper, the right-leaning Columbus Dispatch, serving a left-leaning county, has not yet run a single story about the outrageous Walter Reed scandal and coverup, despite its massive presence on cable TV and the Internets.

[Zambero]

24. They're too busy pushing yellow ribbon car magnets

That's how conservatives wash their hands as far as "supporting the troops" goes. Empty slogans over substance.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

16. And when our servicemen and women pay the ultimate price

Their returning coffins must not be seen on TV.

Thank you PA.

K&R!

[Vinca]

17. Add this to the legless kid who wasn't allowed to show up at a

citizenship ceremony for his friend, apparently because the Thug-In-Chief doesn't want to be photographed with the maimed. Somehow it makes sense the yellow "Support the Troops" ribbons are made in China. Nothing is genuine, especially the mission our soldiers were sent on.

[Time for change]

18. Yep, that says it all

Bush and his cronies are nothing but a bunch of criminals, and until enough Americans are able to understand that, our country is likely to make the same mistakes over and over again.

[lonestarnot]

19. I was not surprised. Not shocked or awed either. This is everyday

practice for those "troop supporters." And on a quick read it looks like you left out the benefit cuts in your list of lovelies.

[indepat]

21. That 'pukes support the troops is yet another monstrous lie as is their entire agenda

[BEZERKO]

23. Hiding bodies is nothing new for this pack of goons.

There's that whole Lancet thing. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/43224 /

But Iraqi deaths don't count, "we don't count Iraqi casualties" (Tommy Franks).

"They hate us because we're free." yeah right.

[montanto]

26. one thing that sickens and saddens me is

that this took so long to get out. if the conditions are as bad as we hear (and i have no reason to doubt that they are) why didn't we hear about this long ago? how is it that there were not some people inside willing to say how bad things really were? are we to believe that all soldiers AND all the doctors, nurses, and staff at the VA are republics? where were we?

[Mandate My Ass]

27. It is perfectly and absolutely consistent for them

When you realize they are not running this country except to run it into the ground, to enrich the top 2% at the expense of the rest of the 98%. This war of choice has been false from the get-go: false justification, false planning, false goals imposed on others that are impossible to meet and shift constantly.

To them, the military is filled with useful pawns to enrich them and their cronies, and when they become useless pawns, they are thrown out with the trash. The talk about troop morale only gets trotted out when they see much-needed public support for their debacle slipping. They know that troop morale actually means something to us, and therefore they use it to bludgeon us into silence.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they said that WaPo is responsible for lowering troop morale for printing "only the bad news."

[deepthought42]

28. ...

[ensho]

29. kick

(ensho - formerly donsu)