Still silencing the victims of Bush's warmongering

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I wrote yesterday about the silencing and mistreatment of soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Well, conditions may soon improve -- may. For the Pentagon has acted:

The commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center was fired [today] after the Army said it had lost trust and confidence in his leadership in the wake of a scandal over outpatient treatment of wounded troops at the Northwest Washington hospital complex.

Army Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who assumed command of Walter Reed in August, will be temporarily replaced by Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. But the appointment of Kiley, who had earlier been the facility's commander, surprised some Defense Department officials because soldiers, their families and veterans' advocates have complained that he had long been aware of problems at Walter Reed and did nothing to improve its outpatient care.

So, okay. The mistreatment has been exposed, there is "new" leadership, and something may be done about the horrendous mistreatment of America's wounded in action.

But here's the thing. Aside from the mistreatment, which is bad enough, the Army Times (which I quoted in my previous post) reported that soldiers were being prevented from talking to the media. That is, they were being not just censored but silenced.

The mistreatment may end -- hopefully it will -- but the silencing presumably will continue.

The warmongers will do whatever they can to keep the truth from coming out.

And that's still not supporting the troops.