‘Strangely Quiet’ Scene As Bush Visits Base Where Medically-Unfit Troops Were Deployed

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/05/bush-fort-irwin/

‘Strangely Quiet’ Scene As Bush Visits Base Where Medically-Unfit Troops Were Deployed

Yesterday, President Bush visited Fort Irwin, California, the main desert training camp where most U.S. soldiers are sent before deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Bush told the troops:

Ours is a remarkable country when people volunteer to serve our country in a time of war. The amazing thing about our United States military is thousands and thousands have signed up knowing full well that we’re a nation at war. The government didn’t say, you have to do this, you chose to do it on your own. You decided to put your country ahead of self in many ways.

That message must have resonated in a unique way for some of the soldiers present. As Salon.com’s Mark Benjamin reported recently, Fort Irwin is where some soldiers with debilitating injuries and other medical conditions, including female soldiers who were pregnant, were deployed for weeks:

Hernandez is one of a dozen soldiers who stayed for weeks in those tents who were interviewed for this report, some of whose medical records were also reviewed by Salon. All of the soldiers said they had no business being sent to Fort Irwin given their physical condition. In some cases, soldiers were sent there even though their injuries were so severe that doctors had previously recommended they should be considered for medical retirement from the Army.

Military experts say they suspect that the deployment to Fort Irwin of injured soldiers was an effort to pump up manpower statistics used to show the readiness of Army units. With the military increasingly strained after four years of war, Army readiness has become a critical part of the debate over Iraq.

As Steve Benen noted, Bush’s remarks to the soldiers yesterday hardly produced the rally-like atmosphere of years past. Reuters reported that troops “sat quietly at their lunch tables, some joined by family members, as Bush spoke.” The Houston Chronicle’s Julie Mason described the event as “less than a rally, more than a stare-down,” and said the troops were “strangely quiet.”

[KansDem]

1. "You decided to put your country ahead of self in many ways"

Bet that statement stuck in his unctuous AWOL throat...

[MurrayDelph]

4. No, the part he had to choke back

was to not follow that statement up with "Suckers!"

[Arugula Latte]

2. We're at war, eh ... Funny, I don't remember Iraq attacking us.

I must have missed that part.

[rodeodance]

3. the bloodlust is drying up

[jazzjunkysue]

9. I think it is. Let's hope a few Iranian mishaps don't restart it. n/t.

[gratuitous]

5. Better go throw out a first pitch somewhere, Chimpy

Your stale act has grown exceedingly thin when even the people who are ordered not to boo you under threat of imprisonment can't muster any kind of enthusiasm for you.

I like how Little Boots plays up the troops' volunteering: From the sound of it, he's absolving himself of all responsibility for their good treatment and fair handling. "Hey, you volunteered. You fucked up -- you trusted me!"

[Olney Blue]

6. These troops are smart- they know the score.

[AwakeAtLast]

7. If you've lost your military, you're toast

He's lost the military.

[Generic Brad]

8. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all

Kudos to those brave men and women.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

10. Maybe they were picturing him looking under the table

for those darned WMD's, and trying to figure out the joke that was funny as hell to the media two years ago. Poor junior. Just wasn't his room.