I’m sure that most people now have caught a glimpse into the pathetic stories emerging from Walter Reed and other military facilities. Not enough heads are rolling if you ask me, and of course, the first head to roll should be the commander in chief…

But I just wanted to clarify something, which some news stories are not getting quite straight. The military hospital system is run by the Department of Defense, and is entirely separate from the VA system. Yet, some reporters seem to be meshing the two together. Most independent researchers (at least the reports that I have read) who have compared the VA with private hospital systems found the VA far superior in most measures of quality of care. To be sure, the VA has its own problems, which will be complicated by the cuts that Bush is trying to push through (why care for our sick and injured soldiers once they can no longer be sent to Iraq to secure his oil?), but that’s another issue entirely.

Bottom line is that the military hospitals treating soliders fresh from active duty, and the VA system, should not be confused.