Supporting the troops

I haven't blogged much about the atrocities revealed by the Washington Post's investigation into Walter Reed Army Hospital partly because I didn't have much of anything to add to what everyone else was saying (which hasn't stopped me before) and partly because I was so sickened by thinking about it. But, the further people look into this, the worse it gets. The treatment of disabled veterans is particularly revolting. Take this instance noted by BarbinMD at Daily Kos:

In Part II of the Washington Post series, was the story of Cpl. Dell McLeod:

Dell McLeod's injury was utterly banal. He was in his 10th month of deployment with the 178th Field Artillery Regiment of the South Carolina National Guard near the Iraqi border when he was smashed in the head by a steel cargo door of an 18-wheeler...Dell was knocked out cold and cracked several vertebrae. [...]

Doctors have concluded that Dell was slow as a child and that his head injury on the Iraqi border did not cause brain damage. "It is possible that pre-morbid emotional difficulties and/or pre-morbid intellectual functioning may be contributing factors to his reported symptoms," a doctor wrote, withholding a diagnosis of traumatic brain injury. [...]

"They said, 'Well, he was in Title I math,' like he was retarded," Annette says. "Well, y'all took him, didn't you?"

No brain injury? For a man who graduated from high school, had some college, worked in a steel mill and spent 19 years in the National Guard, here is a conversation with his wife:

"My name is Wendell," he says. "Wendell Woodward McLeod Jr."

Annette tells him to sit up. "Spell 'dog,' " she says, softly.

Spell 'dog,' " he repeats.

"Listen to me," she says.

"Listen to me." He slumps on the pillow. His eyes drift toward the wrestlers on TV.

"You are not working hard enough, Dell," Annette says, pleading. "Wake up."

"Wake up," he says.