You Won't Hear This From The "Truth Tour"

Democratic Veteran passes on this story from the Tacoma, WA News Tribune.

The Bush Administration pays to send right wing radio talk show hosts to Iraq and has to be bullied by Congress to restore minimal funding for the Veterans Administration. Yet, when a soldier is critically injured in Iraq, fighting for a cause that changes with the President's mood and White House polling results, that soldier gets treated like Rory Dunn.

Dunn’s forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel; the left eye nearly so. His hearing was severely damaged.

Within minutes of the May 2004 explosion, he was strapped on a stretcher and flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad – the first step in his 10-month struggle to recover.

Yet, even as Dunn fought to overcome his traumatic brain injury and other wounds, his mother, Cynthia Lefever, fought the Army to ensure her son continued to receive critical care from Army specialists. Lefever said the Army tried to pressure her son into accepting a discharge before he was ready – pressure other severely wounded soldiers say they’ve experienced, too.

Lefever and other critics say the Army’s medical system, particularly Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has been overwhelmed by the number of wounded returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. They accuse the Army of attempting to discharge wounded soldiers before their essential medical needs are met and transfer them to Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

“The Army tried to get rid of him,” Lefever said. “It was immoral and unethical. The Army owes these kids.”

Our country "owes these kids" and our country's leaders owe us all an explanation for this immoral behavior.