Typifying how this administration treats the wounded in its pointless (and damaging) war, Master Sgt. Joseph Santiago's life has been an ongoing saga of bureaucratic buffoonery:
Sergeant Santiago's odyssey through the Pentagon bureaucracy is one shared by scores of soldiers who have sustained traumatic brain injuries, whose repercussions can be hard to quantify and even harder to treat. Doctors say more than 2,000 soldiers have suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, though experts say as many as 150,000 troops may be grappling with the effects of head trauma....Of course, the bulk of his mistreatment came while Tom Davis was overseeing Walter Read. And that's not all -- the Army doesn't want him anymore because of his injuries, and the business he is trying to start was in danger because banks were unwilling to loan to a disabled vet ... until a non-profit stepped in to help him out. Not the government, a non-profit! Well, at least he's not homeless -- that makes him one of the lucky vets relatively speaking, I guess.Sergeant Santiago's family and friends describe his treatment as shameful. For three years, they say, doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have accused him of exaggerating his symptoms; they also have suggested that his inability to function normally is the result of a pre-existing malformation at the base of his skull.
Last year, a doctor at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington disagreed with that assessment, saying Sergeant Santiago's memory loss, slurred speech and nerve damage were caused by his fall. Still, without an official designation from a medical review board at Walter Reed, he is not entitled to collect the full retirement benefits awarded to injured soldiers. He has spent 25 years in the Army, and is scheduled to retire formally in three months.
The all important balance sheet!
Bush is corrupting everything he touches. Health care. The military.
Can 2009 arrive fast enough?
Bush would have ruined a less great, fundamentally sound country.