Gov Fails Wounded Troops

Dana Priest and Anne Hull from washingtonpost.com report on terrible conditions at Walter Reed.

WP: Battling system at Walter Reed - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

"WASHINGTON - Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan..."

It's not the Crimea, but conditions are still woeful. We owe our troops far, far better than this. MSNBC has the article here. It is not an easy read, but it ought to be required reading for all war supporters and a guided elective for all opposing the war.