Miracle Man?

In the wake of the recent Walter Reed hospital scandal, I wonder how Bob Woodruff's recovery to 90% of his former glory can be considered a "miracle." Certainly similar miracles are possible if we afford our returning soldiers the same medical treatment offered to injured war correspondents.

If you're not fully aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community, well, you've got trouble my friends. Trouble right here in River City., reached at Walter Reed, please read this article. We're talking about soldiers, freshly released from the hospital, struggling to find their rehabilitation assignments--then languishing for weeks in roach-infested hellholes while waiting for follow-up treatment. This is the thanks they get for putting their lives on the line? This is what they survived an improvised explosive device attack for--to come home to be buried alive in bureaucratic red tape?

It goes without saying that the government must do better--and cost is not an excuse. For every brain-injured soldier, every soldier suffering from PTSD, every soldier who spends two years away from their family awaiting their fate--time is of the essence. Their treatment will only become more difficult and more expensive as the months lapse. It's almost as if Walter Reed--and other facilities like it--have become factories for churning out this generation's homeless vets. And I wasn't aware that was something every generation needed.

EDIT: I'm aware that Walter Reed hospital has and continues to provide top-notch medical care. I am referring to the conditions experienced by outpatient (and some inpatient) soldiers as exposed by the well-researched articles in the Washington Post. And I have ALWAYS supported the soldiers who bravely put themselves in harm's way.