Silencing the victims of Bush's warmongering

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From Army Times (a rather reputable source):

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity...

The Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities, to include suspending planned projects by CNN and the Discovery Channel, saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: “It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,” referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed.

The Gun Toting Liberal puts it well: "So there we have it; we now know what happens when the President becomes embarrassed. CENSORSHIP and more ABUSE of our fallen heros and heroines of the military. You keep hearing the President preach over and over again how much he feels for those who’ve given the 'ultimate sacrifice' but for those who’ve only given a limb or two, his actions speak louder than words, and that message is: 'Shut the hell up, quit your whining and go clean your rooms'. Just lovely, isn’t it?"

Lovely, indeed. Bush and his right-wing allies always talk about supporting the troops. "If you don't support Bush, you don't support the troops." That's the way the warmongers and their supporters try to back critics into a corner. After all, who wants to be against the troops? It's just like saying, and they also say it: "If you don't support Bush, you're with the terrorists."

But supporting the troops means something other than the pro-Bush spin. It certainly doesn't mean sending them into a war that doesn't make any sense, a war that has already been lost, an occupation that has been overtaken by civil war, a war that from the start has been grossly mismanaged. It may mean many things, including ensuring that they aren't put in harm's way without a clear mission, but it certainly means providing all necessary comfort and care to those who have been injured and who in the service of their country need to have their bodies and their lives rebuilt.

I have no doubt that many, if not most, are receiving excellent treatment. And yet there is evidently a Pentagon policy to silence and segregate from society those who have given so much for their country, as well as to subject them to mistreatment.

And where is the commander-in-chief in all this? Defending his war, more war, always more war, as troops at Walter Reed and elsewhere try to heal.

Who really supports the troops?