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Forced to battle the system at Walter Reed
msnbc ^ | Feb 18, 2007 | By Dana Priest and Anne Hull

Posted on 02/18/2007 8:51:08 PM PST by Flavius

WASHINGTON - Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: military; war
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if warriors are truly thrown at the bureaucracy, does anyone know if % of oil company profits could be diverted towards the medical treatment

since the dems are so concerned about the oil and oil needs a positive image

maybe they could instead of funding social programming for dems , divert the "sin" tax towards the military health

just a thought

1 posted on 02/18/2007 8:51:10 PM PST by Flavius
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To: Flavius

Remember, that this is MSNBC, a left-wing media outfit.


2 posted on 02/18/2007 8:54:40 PM PST by Thunder90
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To: Flavius
five miles up the road from the White House

This kind of story is being used to present an image of uncaring Republicans.

How's this angle: This is everyone's future under Hillary Care?

3 posted on 02/18/2007 9:00:45 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (] Tagline Under Construction [)
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To: Thunder90

It's a Washington Post story that was posted earlier today.

I think it is BS myself, but we need to have some verification of the condition of this.

On the other post someone suggested perhaps the D.C. Chapter could take a look.


4 posted on 02/18/2007 9:01:30 PM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...call 'em what you will...They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: kristinn
Another one kristinn, same writers though.

Busy little jihadists, those two.

5 posted on 02/18/2007 9:03:43 PM PST by smoothsailing
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To: Flavius

It beats me why anyone would post propaganda from msnbc, much less why anyone would deign to comment or argue on its merits, of which it probably has none.


6 posted on 02/18/2007 9:05:41 PM PST by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: Flavius

The author is Dana Priest. The reporter who leaks classified material for disgruntled CIA employees, including one Mary McCarthy.

Part of the cadre making up a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy determined to bring down President Bush.


7 posted on 02/18/2007 9:07:15 PM PST by pinz-n-needlez (Jack Bauer wears Tony Snow pajamas)
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To: Flavius; All

If conditions are really so dire, perhaps DC area FReepers could get together and volunteer to do a clean up weekend like people do sometimes at schools and parks.

The main DC VA hospital is in reasonably good condition. I have no idea what that place is like.


8 posted on 02/18/2007 9:17:30 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: gleeaikin

Amazen that this story just came out?


9 posted on 02/18/2007 9:22:43 PM PST by neverhillorat (IF THE RATS WIN, WE ALL LOSE)
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To: neverhillorat
That is what thought today.

Just after the Senate vote on Iraq Saturday.

10 posted on 02/18/2007 9:32:04 PM PST by Buddy B (MSgt Retired-USAF)
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To: Flavius

There was a nearly identical story posted yesterday, but it was related to a VA hospital, not Walter Reid. I smell a rat.


11 posted on 02/18/2007 9:47:26 PM PST by Islander7 ("Show me an honest politician and I will show you a case of mistaken identity.")
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To: Islander7

This was mentioned by one of the Dem babes as evidence for Murtha's slur of lack of readiness. Surely with all the people who have been through there with cameras, skepticism is in order.


12 posted on 02/18/2007 10:37:52 PM PST by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: Flavius
I see a lot of tangential comments, but still the question is...

Is this true or not?

13 posted on 02/19/2007 12:43:52 AM PST by Tainan (Talk is cheap. Silence is golden. All I got is brass...lotsa brass.)
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To: Tainan

Unfortunately "support our troops" doesn't go much further than a Chinese made flag or yellow ribbon sticker on the family Toyota most times.


14 posted on 02/19/2007 2:14:17 AM PST by DragonflyX
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To: DragonflyX; All
There is a LOT out there that doesn't make the papers...a lot of individual citizens doing what the liberals want to block or pretend isn't happening. Shows of support that undermine their message of Vietnam indifference and disaster. People doing things like these people who have welcomed home soldiers nearly every single day for the last year at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

There are also the people like those who give up their Friday nights and Saturdays such as the DC Chapter of Free Republic to stand outside Walter Reed, to let our wounded soldiers and their families know that there are untold numbers of us who do care.

The people who collect boxes of various goods at the place where I work to send to deployed troops. And so on.

Just because we do not see them in the news, with the exception of things like the fellow who organized the welcome the troops group, doesn't mean there aren't a huge number of people out there who ARE doing things. We have around 300 million citizens of this country. If it is only 1/2 of one percent, that is still 15 million people doing SOMETHING.

Liberals would love nothing better than to have our troops return home in disgrace and defeat, allowing the libs to selfishly and self-centeredly savor their glory days of treason in the Sixties.

Not going to happen this time.

15 posted on 02/19/2007 3:38:02 AM PST by rlmorel ("Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.")
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To: Flavius
I noticed that this weekend, the Old Grey Whore and the Compost has kicked-off a "poor pitiful wounded warrior" expose. The Whore had a close-up of a Sergeant with one eye missing and no patch and this morning's Compost has a closeup of two relatives looking pitiful.

The latest talking points, I see.

16 posted on 02/19/2007 3:56:40 AM PST by Redleg Duke (Heaven is home...I am just TDY here!)
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To: Redleg Duke

actually that the same story as this

so obviously it is coordinated but are the guys without help or not


17 posted on 02/19/2007 4:42:35 AM PST by Flavius (Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: rockinqsranch

I've never been in this building, but I have seen more than one military hospital that looked and smelled like the men's room at a bus station. And yes, this is our future under HillaryCare. Except, does anyone really think Hillary and the other elites will use the same hospitals as the rest of us?

One of the happiest days of my life was when I got out of the Navy and got private health insurance. Picking my own doctor and hospital, getting an appointment without going through hoops and waiting weeks or months, clean, up to date facilities with the latest equipment--it was an amazing treat. Remember that Walter Reed and Bethesda are the showplaces, where the political elites go to get treated and get their photo ops with the wounded troops. The facilities in the hinterlands are not nearly so nice. If the building the article discusses is away from the main areas where reporters and politicians gather, I wouldn't be surprised if it's in bad shape.

And even though it may be the WaPo trying to make the Bush administration look bad, if bad press gets somebody on the stick to fix the building for our troops, then it's a good thing.


18 posted on 02/19/2007 6:38:22 AM PST by LadyNavyVet
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To: LadyNavyVet

I am on the "Left Coast", never been to Walter Reed. I have had the occasion to utilize the VA facilities near here (Pettus Memorial) in Loma Linda, California. Those facilities were quite impressive, immaculate I might state. Using that experience I simply cannot imagine Walter Reed in the condition reported.


19 posted on 02/19/2007 11:07:15 AM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...call 'em what you will...They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: rockinqsranch

I'm sure the lefty reporters made it sound as awful as possible, but I've seen military medical facilities that were every bit that bad. I also, whether INCONUS, OCONUS, on land or at sea, never worked in a facility that didn't have roaches.
I've only seen the outside of the VA hospital near me, and it looks very nice.


20 posted on 02/19/2007 2:07:37 PM PST by LadyNavyVet
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