Top Republicans Knew Of Walter Reed Neglect - Did Not Want To "Embarrass The Military"

Related : Who Supports The Troops?

The Mainstream Media continues fail to live up to even the most menial expectations while failing to report that Republican Congressional leaders knew of Walter Reed neglect for years and failed to act.

Congressional Quarterly reports that senior Republicans knew of the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed years before the recent Washington Post Op-Ed exposed them to the public.

Even in 2004 red flags should have been raised when the non profit group Disabled American Veterans was blocked from meeting with patients at Walter Reed.

Yesterday CQ reported that :

"C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., former chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he stopped short of going public with the hospital’s problems to avoid embarrassing the Army while it was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

It appears as if Young knew of conditions at Walter Reed as early as 2003 and claims he repeatedly approached the hospitals former commander, Gen. Kevin C. Kiley about the poor care soldiers were receiving.

During Congressional hearings Young claimed that “We got in Gen. Kiley’s face on a regular basis,” Though apparently the alleged pressure on Kiley did little to nothing to improve the conditions of the outpatient care or Kiley's on the job performance nor does it appear that genuine "follow ups" were made.

After the Congressional hearing Young retorted “What else do you want me to do? I am not going to go into a hospital and push my way into a medical situation,”

Those sound like excuses, feeble excuses for not calling attention to a dire problem within our own system, the system which was partially under his control.

“We did not go public with these concerns, because we did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the Army a black eye while fighting a war,” Young said.

WHAT?!? You know what I bet would "undermine the confidence of the patients and their families" even more?

Receiving poor care would most definitely undermine their confidence.

Having Congressmen and even the President come to pay visit but fail to blow the appropriate whistles because of political reasons would most definitely undermine their confidence.

That's what I bet would undermine the patients and their families confidence.

So what becomes of Kiley, the man who failed to provide our troops with a clean and respectable place to recover?

Did he get punished? NO! Kiley is now the Army's top ranking doctor, the Army Surgeon General! UP is DOWN people!

Thomas M. Davis, another Republican from Virgina also acknowledged he knew about problems at Walter Reed as earlier as 2004.

Davis also admited that he failed to appraoch other Republicans for more money or legislation to address the problems encountered at Walter Reed.

Davis's excuse? “We are not appropriators. . . . I don’t know what else we could have done,” and “If generals don’t go around and look at the barracks, how do you legislate that?”

What else could have they done?

Well, applying pressure to Kiley and other responsible individuals would have been appropriate. If improvements were not made then obviously going to the media would have been a feasible option.

These men knew about these conditions for years and failed to even let anyone know.

Washington Post reports on it on Saturday and by Monday repairs are being made.

It was that easy to help these young men and woman who served their country, while the people who asked them to do so hide behind a wall of excuses.