Join IAVA's Paul Rieckhoff on TPM Cafe Today

Paul Rieckhoff is tireless and a straight-shooter.

He's posted another great response to the Walter Reed scandal brought to light this week (if you missed his response to the near media blackout of the Iraq War in favor of nonstop coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, that's worthy of a read, too).

Here's a quick taste from today's commentary:

Severely wounded Iraq veterans struggling to find their rooms, get appointments, or get their paperwork to the right offices. Families unable to communicate with doctors or find housing near the hospital. Mold, rodents and cockroaches in patients’ rooms.

At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the premier Army hospital in the country, wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are facing inexcusable conditions. The Army and the Department of Defense saw no need to fix these problems until they were embarrassed by a series of reports in the Washington Post. (Learn more about the issue, and hear IAVA’s response to the Walter Reed scandal on NBC Nightly News or Hardball.)

Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

Continuing:

Luckily, some members of Congress are taking the lead on this issue. Senators McCaskill and Obama have proposed legislation to improve the ratio of caseworkers to recovering veterans and establish timelines for repairing substandard facilities. We hope we can count on all other lawmakers to support this bill.

But problems at Walter Reed are just the tip of the iceberg. When these same veterans leave Walter Reed and return to their local clinics and hospitals, they will be entering the chronically underfunded and understaffed Veterans Affairs system -- where these very same veterans will again face the long wait times, aging facilities, and inadequate staffing.

Join Rieckhoff over at TPM Cafe today; he's replying to comments.


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