In yet another Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment involving the ongoing Veteran’s Administration (VA) scandal, former Navy Commander and Pentagon spokesman J.D. Gordon has come forward to confirm that in fact, detainees at Gitmo are receiving better quality healthcare-and faster service-than our Veterans. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, we find out that military doctors treat Al Qaeda terrorists in Gitmo at the drop of a hat for anything from back pain to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)-how is that for irony folks? Yes, that is right our tax dollars are enabling military psychiatrists to treat radical Muslim terrorists for PTSD when our hero’s are being told to wait for months for lifesaving treatments and are committing suicide while waiting for psychiatric care! In fact the ratio of patients to doctors in Gitmo is 1.5 to one, in the VA system it is 35 to 1!

This all comes as no real suprise to me since my aunt was turned into something that resembled an extra on the show “The Walking Dead” after sustaining a serious injury as a psychiatric nurse while in the Army. Over the twenty years following her injury, VA docs over medicated her transforming her from a track athlete and prosthetics pioneer (her feedback helped design the first Flexfoot) into a drug seeking addict who no longer resembled her former self.

Another worrisome topic that I haven’t seen much discussed in the Main Stream Media (MSM) is the fact that many doctors in the VA system are in fact foreign nationals. Is there such a dirth of medical talent in this country that we must import medical graduates from places like Nigeria to serve in our VA system? Out of 12,000 doctors employed in the VA system, 1,000 of them are graduates of foreign medical schools. This number may, or may not, include Americans educated in foreign medical schools according to an article in the Plain Dealer in 2004. Evidently this has been going on since the 1990’s and was enough to catch the attention of the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the later half of that decade.

So, if you ask me if this latest revalation about terrorists getting better medical care than our veterans shocks me? I will have to say only this-same old, same old. Our vets deserve better and one representative in the House actually seems to agree. Representative Jeff Miller (R-FL) chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee is asking Eric Shinseki in a letter to allow veterans who have been waiting more than thirty days for care to seek treatment through private physicians that would be paid by the VA department. And the Dems like to say that Republicans have no heart! I say support Representative Miller in his effort which includes offering to introduce legislation that would allow this solution to the current problem in the VA system. According to Rep. Miller:

“Now is the time for immediate action. We simply can’t afford to wait for the results of another investigation into a problem we already know exists,” Miller said in a statement.

“That’s why I’m calling on Secretary Shinseki to take emergency steps to ensure veterans who may have fallen victim to appointment wait time schemes or delays in care get the medical treatment they need.”

Amen and godspeed to men like Rep. Miller who fight for our fighting men and women in the face of nothing more that sheer contempt from the current Administration.