I do not know if the people in charge have aplogized to Ranger Tillman’s family. It could be that many have apologized privately, for many many in the military are decent souls of conscience.

But, there is a litigation factor that the brass would also be watching carefully…

My personal experience at VA hospitals as many stand today: The god of white glove inspection might have sudden apoplexy. There might be a brand new computer on the desk but amidst dingy surroundings, pillars and other impossible to clean high ceilings with their carved heroic architecture, and often years of smoke, with under funded new projects using new equipment sometimes, but also ‘good enough’ equipment and in some cases, obsolete Government Issue equipment.

To me, the most miraculous thing is that many, many, esp the young docs and PAs and nurses are often enthusiastic, and try hard to help all they can.

Regardless, it still stands: Some patients receive care, some don’t. Some wait. And wait. Some die while they are waiting. Some die ..from.. having been made to wait.

Not the most rad hospital in the world is going to cure or help agent orange exposure with all its attendant debilitations if the Government refuses to recognize it as a deteriorative, life-thieving illness.

In the article link to the LA Times that you mentioned, I can see how hopeful that would be were it true. I am not certain, but there is a vagueness to the ‘study’ cited in the article.. I think it reads to me that way because as far as I can tell, the ‘study’ seems to be missing, amongst other markers, a precise control group(s) study with other hospitals at depth. I also see no longevity armature. It is hard to see this document as pure evidence-based science.

Likely unbeknownst to the reader. The “Institute of Medicine,” which is the sole source for the LA Times article, (you gave the link to, thank you) on how much better VA hospitals are than ‘regular’ hospitals… although not stated in the article, the “Institute of Medicine,â€? appears to be part of the “National Academy of Sciences,” which is an United States Government funded Institute for the most part, with some meager ‘matching grant’ monies in comparison, given by the Kellogg Company and a couple other corporate groups.

That the article says the ‘Institute of Medicine’ is consulted by the US Congress on matters of health et al, but without revealing the Institute of Medicine ..is.. the Government itself, well, it seems an odd way to present what is supposed to be seen as an independent authority.

Here is the intro to the bill which enacted the parent group for the Institute of Medicine:

“An Act to Incorporate the National Academy of Sciences
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled…” etc.

The Pentagon’s lies have backfired on them after all- have they even apologized to the Tillmans for compounding their terrible loss with all of those lies?

Surprised?

Recent news accounts about the shameful conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — a hospital unaffiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs — might lead you to believe that VA hospitals are a national embarrassment. That may have been true at one time. But VA hospitals have undergone a remarkable turnaround in the last decade and, on average, earn higher marks for patient safety and quality of care than most other hospitals in the United States.

For example, the VA system is well ahead of most hospitals in protecting patients from medication errors. The VA has adopted a system in which a nurse scans a barcode printed on the patient’s bracelet, indicating the name and dose of each medication the patient should be getting. The nurse then scans the pre-packaged medication to make sure it’s a match.

Read all about it at the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mccaughey2apr02,0,3030928.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

Just a comment about one of the comments above; the book contract was reported to be 1M, true, and in the same report it noted that half went to the writer, and half to Pfc. Lynch who told her story to the writer.

After the take of foreign and domestic agents, and Uncle Sugar’s tax cut re windfalls, I think that Pfc. Lynch’s share would have maybe just been under $200,000…that is, if some foreign countries where the book was published didn’t also take taxes out too.

My personal knowledge of the military is that veteran’s benefits for the disabled are often not only grotesquely delayed, the government budget side often argues hot with its own vets who have served, about whether they are worthy of continuing treatment or not. (Think mustard gas, think Kuwait oil fire, think agent orange… just to name a few)

If a soldier is not a CO, if his or her family has no ‘contacts…’ which is very often the case in the military… if the cameras have gone home and are no longer ‘watching’ what happens at VA hospitals here and overseas… a war veteran has to confront “the battle after the battle”, that is, they have to fight all over again just to receive the rights promised when he or she enlisted… especially those vets with painful lifelong conditions from war injuries… conditions that often deteriorate and devolve over time.

Pfc Lynch had her legs, arms and spine broken and shattered… over her lifetime there may indeed be additional deterioration of bone mass and limb function… The way I see it for now, is she has a chance at reconstructive surgery by a civie surgeon and one week in the hospital recovering… which could eat up 200k and much more.

She’s one of the fortunate few who has ‘resources’ by the luck of the draw. She can cut through military red tape and can help tend to her own health at least until the $ runs out… rather than having to wait possibly months and months and even years to get cleared through unbelievable amounts of military red tape in order to have what was promised when every civilian enlisted: more than minimalist health care…and for life.

Read about the cuts in GI benefits from 1950 onward and to date. I think one of the biggest questions for various military persons and thinkers, is yes, one about fair compensation, meaning, how can the USA government break its troth with its war vets who have given all of body, bones, blood and mind that they’ve got?

April 25th, 2007 at 9:09 am
But Rudi, Pat’s [fellow Ranger in a convoy merely hundreds of yards behind him when he died] brother is “an antiwar activist who has posted on far-left web sites�; the family is a bunch of atheists; and even worse, they were both against the war in Iraq! You obviously can’t trust these people who are doing all this for blatantly political purposes.

I am a Christian from the UK. The fact that Tillman’s family may be atheists is irrelevant to the discussion. Bush, Blair and Saddam are (or were in Saddam’s case) all theists but that doesn’t make any of them truthful as we all know. Bush and Blair and their supportes have lied repeatedly on many aspects of the so-called War on terrorism and have allowed thousands of innnocent Muslim civilians to suffer appallingly.

Pat Tillman’s bother is a brave man. He fought in Afganistan with the military and is now fighting the right wing extremists in the US government and media. He is the type of guy that gives me hope that not all Americans are as ignorant as we in Europe perceive them to be.

mikkel – When Wiccans die in the war their monument at military cemetaries can’t uses their symbol, Pat “Daddy get me out of Korea” Robertson doesn’t like those Pagans,

Wren yesterday described the Lynch incident as “hugely overblown” and symptomatic of a bigger problem. “The Americans never got out there and explained what was going on in the war,” he said. “All they needed to be was open and honest. They were too vague, too scared of engaging with the media.” He said US journalists “did not put them under pressure”.

Wren, who had been seconded to the Ministry of Defence, said he tried on several occasions to persuade Wilkinson and Brooks to change tack. In London, Campbell did the same with the White House, to no avail. “The American media didn’t put them under pressure so they were allowed to get away with it,” Wren said. “They didn’t feel they needed to change.”

“Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined, and that further information will emerge as Lynch is debriefed. Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they say, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed. Pentagon officials said they had heard “rumorsâ€? of Lynch’s heroics but had no confirmation. ”

So now, because the WaPo spoke to some unnamed “official” in the Pentagon, and blasted a front page story about something that was never confirmed, in fact was downplayed by the Pentagon, the military (and Rumsfeld) is being charged with lying about Lynch’s capture?………..

A new play called “Revisionist History” is now playing at Washington D.C.’s Political Grandstanding Theater just in time for elections. Call early for the best seating.