Patient Care

We have all been disappointed and horrified by the reports of the condition of the housing facility for outpatients on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Hospital. It blends right in with the rest of the irrational conduct of the Iraq military operations.It has been a horror to our sensibilities.There is growing unison in asking "When and how will it end?" For those who cling to a happy ending scenario; I say "Wake up!" The sooner it ends the better will be our ability to function in the Middle East. McCain may be correct, when he says we are several thousands of men short of being able to call the shots in Iraq. Yet the longer it drags on and if it gets bloodier, any victory will be ashes in our mouth. The administration relied on our desire for retribution following 911.It is coming out that he had cooked thisup before the terror attacks.One can only believe that this had to do with the conspiring to harm his Daddy. That threat, they managed to foil. We are in a quandary a hundred times worse than Viet Nam, simply because Viet Nam exists in our frame of reference. No amount of gainsaying will make the pill easier to swallow; that the nation was led into a no-win situation. We are alienating our Sunni partners, the flow of oil is still less than optimum, there is little to point to that can be painted in a positive light; some among the Iraqis are playing Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The amount of violence Iraq is become inured to is phenomenal; and has been ongoing and will continue regardless of our egress from its borders. It is almost as though Bush wanted to bloody his army to a consequential degree as Commander in Chief, to show he isn't a pussy and avoided going overseas in 1968 for manly reasons. It is a horror show and needs mental health training to analyze it. The people have spoken, some would say, when voters reinstalled a Democratic majority in Congress. And some in Congress are attempting to find a way for an old dog to display its teeth.All the crosstalk going on about using funding as leverage, with the obvious pitfall of seeming not to support the troops, is nauseating, even while it is a vast improvement to the almost unanimous lockstep agreeableness that launched the invasion. Regardless of what the man says, Bush's stated goal of erecting a liberal republic was and remains a pipe dream,