As the truth about Walter Reed Medical Center and the rotten treatment of wounded soldiers and veterans emerges, it is hard to overstate the profound betrayal of the military perpetrated by the Bush administration. And yes, betrayal is the right word. America is graced to have a volunteer professional military that surpasses all armed forces in the world. Yet the root of that military is trust. The men and women who serve, their immediate spouses and children, and their extended families all place their trust in the American people as represented by the government. These true patriots have been betrayed by this administration, repeatedly and thoroughly, on the block of its own ideology. It is not too strong to say that this betrayal is a disgrace.
Many Americans were shocked to find out that the administration of Walter Reed Medical Center was outsourced to a Halliburton subsidiary led my a man whose record exudes corporate incompetence. Why was it outsourced? Because of the ideological belief that government cannot do anything right, and privatization is always better. And perhaps, to line the pockets of cronies. Hanging in the balance are the men and women of the Army who were wounded, many of them severely, in battle.
Let us recall that this was not the first time we were shocked by the impact of ideology. Secretary Rumsfeld sent over a hundred thousand American soldiers into Iraq without the proper equipment, despite funding levels for the war that now approach half a trillion dollars. When challenged by uniformed soldiers about the lack of appropriate armor, Rumsfeld said flippantly, “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might wish to have.” He failed to remind us that the Iraq War was a war of choice.
President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld sent the troops into the war without proper armor on their vehicles, and without the helmets that could protect soldiers from the traumatic brain injuries that are rampant among our soldiers and Marines. In all the money to fund the war, they could not find a way to buy the helmets that would most help our men and women. Non-profit organizations had to be formed to raise money and buy the helmets one at a time to protect our soldiers. Is this not a profound betrayal of our trust? Don’t we—all of us—expect more from our civilian leadership in this government?
Perhaps the single most cynical act of all became evident this week through the Scooter Libby trial, and the guilty verdict. One juror said: “We felt sorry for him because he is clearly the fall guy.” It was not Libby who was the source of the cynicism, but Dick Cheney and George W. Bush themselves. They made a false case for war. They knew it was false. They even tried to take out a vendetta on those who called them on the lie by compromising national security by outing a CIA agent. They sent our men and women into a war that was not necessary, that had nothing at all to do with terrorism, and they knew it. The did it to serve an ideological goal that had no basis in fact.
Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have demonstrated themselves to be dishonest enemies of the American military. They demonstrate the most profound contempt for the men and women who serve. When the families of soldiers killed in action are invited to visit the president, they may not show him pictures of their sons and daughters. He vacuously refers to them as “the loved one.” Never a name. Never a face. Nothing but contempt for the pain of others caused by their own cynicism. Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have betrayed our military and the American people. There is no other way to say it. These men—Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush—are an American disgrace.
