Support Our Troops

The guilty verdict in the Libby trial is the latest example of the Bush Administration valuing appearances over the real lives of our troops. The counter example to that would be sending men and women to war and then leaving them to fend for themselves -- in atrocious conditions in a substandard hospital -- and to manage their own health care as veterans. Over the last 24 hours, the contrast has been shown between the all-out effort of the Bush Administration to sell this war, and the shameful way veterans of the war have been treated when they return home in need of medical care. The New York Times explores the issue:

But the fundamental responsibility rests with the president and his former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, who stubbornly insisted on going to war without sufficient resources -- and then sought to hide the costs of their disastrous mistakes from the American public.

Is it any surprise that the war's wounded have been hidden away in the shadows of moldy buildings by an administration that refused to let photographers take pictures of returning coffins? Or a White House that keeps claiming that victory in this failed and ever more costly war is always just a few more months away?

The Walter Reed revelations once again put the lie to the president's claim that everything is being done to support America's troops.

More from DNC Chair Howard Dean:

"It's appalling to think that, while President Bush had a high-level team in place to sell the Iraq war and viciously smear its critics, it has not given that same attention to plan for postwar Iraq, providing the proper equipment for our troops or ensuring that our troops and veterans receive the care they deserve."

There is no excuse for this, absolutely none.