Prioritize
November 25th, 2008 - 8:28 am
Your federal bureaucracy hard at work:
Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq — by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.
In each case, the Pentagon ruled that their disabilities were not combat-related.
C’mon. A trillion here for Wall Street, fifty billion there for Detroit… surely we can treat our vets better than this.
What do they mean “not combat related”? Does it have to be an actual bullet fired by the enemy or John Kerry to count?
I’m not sure despicable is a strong enough word here. Disgraceful. Maybe reprehensible.
Seems pretty simple to me. If you’re in a combat zone and something the enemy placed or lobbed at you explodes and you get injured, that’s combat.
Man, that pisses me off.
And, anybody who thinks “National Healthcare” is going to work any better than Veteran healthcare is deluding themselves. If people find this story at all disturbing, hopefully they might re-think placing all their healthcare decisions in the hands of government flunkies.
How about only combat veterans get to decide what is and isn’t a combat-related injury? Purple Hearts can come with a guaranteed job.
I can’t really see any reason they shouldn’t.
Wait. What? That’s insane. Any updates on this story? Like that the idjit in the Pentagon who made those calls has been reassigned or fired and the problems have been fixed? Who do we need to notify about this disgusting series of events?!