Breaking: Secretary of the Army steps down

[malaise]

Resignation accepted. Gates speaking on MSNBC now.

Fugg off Harvey and take Bush and Cheney with yah.

Walter Reed sure has them on the run.

Add.

[Marnieworld]

1. My oh my. on a Friday afternoon no less

:eyes:

[malaise]

2. Dump, dump n/t

[XOKCowboy]

Yeah imagine that. 4PM on Friday...

These guys are masters of controlling the media.

[Poiuyt]

3. Why don't they get rid of the guy who was actually in charge of Walter Reed?

US Army Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley

[malaise]

6. He's next n/t

[Sydnie]

7. Gates said that was coming too

Just not today ... but soon. Like rats from a sinking ship ...

[walldude]

10. What about this guy?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x317019

They are claiming that he was in charge of Walter Reed.

And my question would be why don't they get rid of a president who made many visits to Walter Reed and conveniently overlooked the conditions it was in.

[Sydnie]

15. Now, now, how could we expect him to know?

He is escorted to the photo-op and escorted out. They don't tell him anything that would upset him, don't 'cha know? :sarcasm:

They don't let him roam around on his own ... he might hear the truth or stub his toe on some brush or something!

[Clark2008]

43. Because he wasn't in charge. Halliburton (or one of their

subsidiaries) was.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Another "sacrifice" to cover Shrubs ass.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Sadly, yes

..

[malaise]

12. This crap has been going on for years

They thought they could get away with it but public reaction has exposed their hypocrisy. The buck stops with Bush. Bill Press is letting Bush have it. Says it took Bush two weeks to say a word on this disgrace at WR.

[marmar]

8. Sooner or later, they're going to run out of bodies to throw under the bus....

n/t

[dkofos]

9. I expect to Iran in flames next week.

[Old and In the Way]

16. That's what I wonder, too.

Somethings up. Is this the 1st of many senior military officials who won't imbibe the Cheney-Bush fantasy of another military adventure in the ME?

[dkofos]

21. We will know for sure next week

[napi21]

11. STEPS DOWN? Err, how about DISMISSED!

Whydo they always have to sugar coat these stories? My bet is someone said "Get out and don't let the door hit ya.....!"

[babylonsister]

13. Nom! Accountability? Be still my heart!! nt

[Monkeyman]

14. Ok here one reason why this is going on

Waxman is going to hold hearing at Walter Reed plus Bush is going to have a stacked Commission to look at all VA's and Military Hospitals he will tell us all about it in his radio address

[Sydnie]

17. Wonder if the ink is dry on the halliburton contract yet?

You just KNOW they will be making the repairs!

[conscious evolution]

19. Actually,I think KBR

has already been paid for repairs and remodeling.
w8liftinglady here on DU has been digging up some interesting stuff on Gov. contracts concerning WRMC

[Sydnie]

22. Now, why doesn't THAT surprise me?

Bastiges! Every single one of them.

[gratuitous]

18. Is the picture getting ANY clearer for the military brass?

You be loyal to Bush, or you can be loyal to the country, your honor, your duty and your integrity. But you can't do both. Keep in mind that by being loyal to Bush, you'll be the first one chucked over the side when the boat hits the iceberg. Also keep in mind some wise words about trying to serve two masters: You will love one and hate the other, or hate the one and love the other. So if you choose loyalty to Bush, you will come to hate your country, your honor, your duty and your integrity.

[malaise]

20. Bingo

The entire military is breaking about now. They must be pissed and at some point they will resist being made scapegoats. The shit has hit the proverbial fan.

[alfredo]

34. Wait until the Taliban offensive coming this spring. Will the military

have the troops to hold them off? Will bush have to pull troops out of Iraq?

[Nikki Stone1]

23. YES!

You hit it on the nose

[Sydnie]

24. And hate yourself in the process

Could be why some use their revolver on themself, couldn't it? I know I couldn't live with myself.

[Atman]

25. I've been out for a few hours...turn on Cabal News Network and...

It's like I never left. They're still on the Atlanta bus crash.

.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. The Cronies jumping ship to save Belzi-shrub will no doubt...

embolden the terra-ists!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

27. my thought? the gag order was the last straw.

When Gates found out about it, I bet he saw just how counterproductive it was, and he got even more pissed.

That gag order came from the people in Wally Reed, at least as to the injured.

[w4rma]

28. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you if you don't think that gag order didn't come from

Rove/Cheney/Bush or someone else political.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

29. I like bridges. I really do. Think they are cool. BUT

they may have directed someone at Wally Reed to issue the gag order, but Gates, I suspect, did not know about it.

Cheney? very likely. But I suspect Rove as the culprit.

[malaise]

30. Dana Priest is tearing them a new one

on Tweety.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. saw that. smiled. Still like bridges.

tweety sees where his bread is buttered, and actually let her speak without interrupting more than 12-15 times.

[malaise]

33. Well she demonstrated that a journalist can

do her home work so he had no choice but to shut the fugg up.

[Joe Chi Minh]

46. Put your money where your mouth is and buy that bridge. Words are cheap...!

[Joe Chi Minh]

45. Self-deleted

[malaise]

31. You are correct but

Gates has no plan of being made a scapegoat at this time.

[bluescribbler]

35. With all due disrespect

Gates is new on the job. It's just possible he hadn't gotten around to visiting Walter Reed yet. It's really Rummy's fault.

[malaise]

36. We all agree on that one

but the buck stops with Bush.

[bluescribbler]

40. I agree on that as well

It stops with Bush and Cheney.

[Joe Chi Minh]

37. “Also I am concerned that some do not properly understand the need

to communicate to the wounded and their families that we have no higher priority than their care, and that addressing their concerns about the quality of their outpatient experience is critically important. Our wounded soldiers and their families have sacrificed much and they deserve the best we can offer.”

What a weird statement! The ONLY meaningful way to communicate to the wounded and their families that they have no higher priority than their care, and that addressing their concerns about the quality of their outpatient experience is critically important; and that the wounded soldiers and their families deserve the best they can offer, is by taking the appropriate remedial actions in their regard. For that matter, yesterday.

He's made an aspirational statement, described the motivation for his pending agenda, as if the agenda itself were a "fait accompli", indeed, a habitual feature of the care they showed those soldiers and their families; worse, still, that the problem was merely a failure in communication. Cool Hand Luke, thou shouldst be living now.

It almost makes "spin" seem desirable.

The speech seems to have disappeared, but whoever that officer was, I would heartily recommend that Bush recruit him as his spin doctor in place of Rove.... just so long as he doesn't second Rove to oversee the military hospitals.

[Disturbed]

38. What did Rumsfailed know and when did he know it?

He is acountable is he not?

[Joe Chi Minh]

51. What he knew about it would not have been of the least interest to him.

That's not a snide remark. I believe it's the simple truth. I think he would have ben annoyed if someone had bothered him about it.

[lonestarnot]

39. I heard him speaking his concerns on NPR on the way home.

[AnnieBW]

41. They Should Make Him Stay In those Rooms

Secretary Gates should make all of the people responsible spend a month in those rooms, getting the EXACT same treatment that the wounded vets were given.

[nealmhughes]

42. Anyone with an iota of common sense doesn't go to "preannounced" inspections and not see a Potemkin

Hospital. You just decide one day, "Let's go to Walter Reed from top to bottom," taking only a handful of people with you.
The hospital is so big that the SecDef/Sec of the Army couldn't get the word from everyone that he was coming that damned fast -- have the flukies fan out and start raising hell, taking notes and names.

I saw Admiral Rickover once. He suddenly appeared in the halls of the old NPS in Orlando, just a guy who drove him from the airport. Tiny litle man with a baggy suit and a cane. Everyone snapped to attention and he got miffed. "Go study!" he yelled, and then sat in on a few classes, luckily not mine! Then went to the mess decks there and raised hell about the quality of food. I don't think the MSs knew who that little old man was, but the guys with eagles who suddenly appeared sure did!

Back on the Kamehameha, the Captain would awaken at 3 am or so and just come back to maneuvering and relieve the EOOW and stand proficeincy watch beside me! Sometimes calling up to the OOD for a drill or two to be run with him in charge of the engineering spaces. That is how you find out what is going on...not by formal inspections. That is for book keeping and clerks to handle.

[Kool Kitty]

44. Has Rumsfeld made any kind of statement about

this? (Or have I missed it?) He still has an office in the Pentagon, it's not like it would be inconvenient or anything for someone to ask this prick what he knew about this.

[Joe Chi Minh]

47. Whe he was in Vietnam, an aussie mate of mine asked an American

lad, if he would do another tour after that one. "Hell, no!" he replied, "If they want to find me, they'll have to burn down the forest and sift thrugh the ashes!"

I wonder what he'd have thought of this lot of chicken-hawk profiteers!

[Zambero]

48. How many scapegoats does it take to unscrew a dim bulb?

The answer: an infinite number. Scapegoats come and go, but the dim bulb will always stay in place, no matter what.

[Toots]

49. I thought we had a Commander in Chief,,where does the buck stop anyway?

Oh that's right Bush* has never accepted responsibility for anything in his entire life.

[Hubert Flottz]

50. Secretary of the Army steps down...

into some very deep Doo-Doo!

[ProudDad]

52. Another corporate piece of SH*T

out the revolving door. Now he can cash in again:

"The majority of Harvey's career has been spent with corporations that provided products and services to the federal government, particularly the United States Department of Defense, and included a year of government service. He was formerly CEO of the IT Group, a defense contractor."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_J._Harvey


On edit: No sympathy for this slime here... :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: