Stars & Stripes letter: ‘No excuse’ for Walter Reed

[lebkuchen]

Below is the first letter re: Walter Reed in S & S (excerpted). I've also included an article from today's Stripes, which provides little detail but suggests that Italians attacked Vicenza-based American soldiers unprovoked a day or two after the large protests against base expansion in Vicenza. Unprovoked attacks against US soldiers have happened in Seoul, Korea, but this is the first time I've heard of it taking place against Italy-based soldiers, who love their Vicenza assignment.

‘No excuse’ for Walter Reed

“Wounded at war, lost amid red tape” (article, Feb. 20, The Washington Post, Europe edition), regarding the experiences of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, really pissed me off. There were no other better words that I could use to describe what I felt toward this story and the potential chance that I could be in this situation (let God protect me).

More...

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=43779

Italy-based soldiers involved in off-base incidents

Seven members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team were involved in three incidents late Sunday or early Monday — none of them in Vicenza, which hosted a huge anti-military demonstration on Saturday.
All the incidents are under investigation by Italian and American authorities, according to Maj. Ryan Dillon, public affairs officer for the Southern European Task Force (Airborne). Dillon said he didn’t believe that recent tensions over the Dal Molin airfield directly contributed to the incidents.

“Nothing that I have seen has led me to believe that,” he said.

According to a release issued by the brigade, the most serious incident involved a soldier who was involved in an altercation Sunday in Florence that ended with his head hitting the pavement. He was diagnosed with a skull fracture and underwent surgery at the San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza to relieve pressure on his brain. He was listed in stable condition in the intensive care section of the hospital Thursday, the release stated.

More...

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=43789

[babylonsister]

1. Bookmarked. Lots to absorb from those articles.

I really get the first one though.

[lebkuchen]

3. Once the former PM Prodi is replaced

we'll see if US base expansion at Camp Ederle will go to a referendum. If it does, then according to the base commander, Camp Ederle will be toast by 2010 w/gradual withdrawal. Either those soldiers will return to Schweinfurt/Bamburg in Germany, or their families will be sent home, and the soldiers will do unaccompanied six month rotations out of Bulgaria and Romania.

Ultimately, a tour of Italy will be yet another incentive taken away from troops planning to reenlist.

[babylonsister]

10. Is this the only base the US military has in Italy? What branch, though

if this happens throughout Europe, the blivet has well and truly cut our relationships and set diplomacy way back. And I'd post a smilie, but nothing truly reflects how I feel.

[lebkuchen]

11. There are other bases besides Vicenza.

Vicenza and Livorno are Army garrisons. Aviano is Air Force. La Maddalena is navy, scheduled to close Spring '08.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. TPTB have been wanting to close Walter Reed since at least 2005

http://wcco.com/topstories/topstories_story_237092855.html


There was a great cry against closing the place for all kinds of reasons. Gotta wonder if this Post article and the resulting bruha is a way to get the closure TPTB want.

[lebkuchen]

4. As Rummy would have said,

"You don't go to war with the hospital you want. You go to war with the hospital you have."

The RW whackjobs considered Rummy a brilliant strategist. Under his "leadership," we preemptively attacked a country that had done nothing to the US, and did so without the equipment and hospitals we desperately needed.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Maybe now they'll close Walter Reed like they wanted to in 2005

http://wcco.com/topstories/topstories_story_237092855.html

[lebkuchen]

6. To do so in the middle of two wars, maybe three, doesn't make sense

There has been a huge budget "reallocation" for FY 07 within DoD, which took place under the 109th Congress, with large swaths of money taken from non-defense programs, like hospitals and schools and welcome home ceremonies for the troops, and moved to war-related projects. Trying to get any statistics on this reallocation is near impossible. What percentage was the cut to these various non-defense-related programs? No one will say.

Bush is putting all available assets, and lots unavailable, toward his defense contract buddies and war with Iran.

[Recursion]

7. It's already BRAC'd, that's actually why they can't fix it

They can't get new money to upgrade a base that's being BRAC'd by 2010; all the patients are going to be split between Bethesda and a new hospital in Belvoir (not sure how Navy/Marines feel about taking in Army patients in Bethesda, but hey...)

[lebkuchen]

8. Base realignment has been a failure to date

Reagan's asst. sec. of defense had predicted as much a few years ago. I'll look for his op ed piece when I have more time.

There has been a lare realignment of funds taken from non-defense programs, however. The media isn't reporting it, but my own program has been cut drastically, emphasis on the last word. There may be no new money for FY 2008, is what unit heads are reporting.

No new money.

Bush has asked for an increase. So where is that money going to go?

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Yes. That makes sense

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