[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 35 (Thursday, March 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2441-S2442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, first let me extend my condolences to 
the Republican leader and to the people of Kentucky for the loss of 
their courageous native son.
  Mr. President, I rise this morning because in recent days we have 
learned, to our great dismay, that this administration has let one of 
our most sacred promises go unfulfilled.
  In Rhode Island last week I visited veterans convalescing at our VA 
hospital in Providence. On Tuesday, members of Rhode Island's branch of 
the Disabled American Veterans came to talk with me in Washington. They 
came to appeal for those returning from the war in Iraq.
  Of course, there are many brave veterans whom I have met with 
throughout my State over the past several years at American Legion 
posts, senior centers, Fourth of July and Memorial Day parades, and at 
our many community dinners in towns all over Rhode Island. They were 
men and women, young and old. They served in our Nation's wars from 
World War II to Vietnam to the conflict in Iraq. Like the DAV members I 
met yesterday, they wanted us to hear what they had to tell us: the 
infuriating truth that we are failing to support our troops as they 
return from Iraq and Afghanistan.
  When we ask ordinary men and women to do the extraordinary and stand 
up and serve in harm's way, we know that we can never fully repay what 
they and their families have given us. The service of Lance Corporal

[[Page S2442]]

Otey, which we just heard about from the Republican leader, certainly 
emphasizes that point. But we can surely pledge to these men and women 
that we will give them what they need in the field, and when their 
service is ended we will care for them adequately. Breaking that 
promise is a dishonor to them and to their sacrifice, and it is not 
supporting our troops.
  I believe--as do many of my colleagues--that the best way to support 
our troops would be to deploy them back out of Iraq and define a more 
sensible and responsible strategy against terror. Some on the other 
side of the aisle have claimed our calls for a new strategy in Iraq 
mean we do not support our troops. This argument is truly horrible, 
thoroughly false, and I hope people watching can understand how it 
shows the depths to which this debate has plummeted.
  To add on that for a moment, I say that not because on this side of 
the aisle we are too thin-skinned to take a shot in the give-and-take 
of politics. That is the nature of what we signed up for. That is not 
what this is about. What this is about is that the battle of slogans we 
are seeing over this important issue for our country right now 
displaces the exchange of ideas and a thoughtful and realistic 
discussion of what our new strategy options are, and in that sense it 
greatly disserves the American people.
  Let's judge the support for our troops within this Chamber and within 
the administration by real actions, not inflammatory and phony 
rhetoric. By that measure, it is fair to question whether the Bush 
administration and those in this Chamber who support the President's 
Iraq policy truly understand the need of America's veterans--men and 
women fighting in Iraq--and those who will soon join them there as this 
President escalates this conflict.
  We want our troops now in Iraq to come home safely. They want to send 
tens of thousands more there. They have sent them without adequate 
support personnel, equipment, or armor. Indeed, during the course of my 
campaign to come to this place, I heard from mothers who had to go into 
their pocketbooks to pay for body armor for sons and daughters headed 
for Iraq because they could not count on this administration to provide 
them that basic need.
  Also, we have sent them without adequate assurance that should they 
be injured in the line of duty, they would be properly cared for when 
they return. That is not supporting the troops. In America, we have the 
best doctors, nurses, facilities, and medical equipment. From combat 
medics to VA hospitals, the military can and does provide our Active-
Duty military personnel and veterans with medical care that is second 
to none. But despite all this, our military and veterans health care 
system has a crushing, all-encompassing problem; that is, access to 
that care.
  When service men and women enter the VA system, too often they begin 
a long, uphill battle for access to the care and benefits they need to 
get well and rebuild their lives. The war in Iraq has triggered a flood 
of new veterans that risks overwhelming the VA system. Mr. President, 
700,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to enter the 
military and VA health care systems in coming years at a projected cost 
of as much as $600 billion.
  According to the Army Times, the number of service members being 
approved for permanent disability retirement has ``plunged''--to use 
their word, ``plunged''--by more than two-thirds since 2001. The Army's 
physical disability caseload has increased by 80 percent since 2001. As 
it attempts to process new benefits claims in fiscal year 2006, the VA 
is experiencing a 400,000-case backlog. Veterans frequently wait 6 
months to 2 years before they begin to receive monthly benefits.
  These problems are especially acute in the area of mental health. 
More than 73,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan treated by the VA 
since 2002 have been diagnosed with a potential mental disorder. More 
than 39,000 have been tentatively diagnosed with post-traumatic stress 
disorder, and 35 percent of Iraq veterans have sought psychological 
counseling within a year of returning home. But where the VA spent over 
$3,500 per veteran on mental health care back in 1995, it spends just 
over $2,500 today--a drop of close to $1,000 per veteran.
  These are troubling statistics, but they fail utterly to capture our 
dismay at the reports published over the past several days in the 
Washington Post and Newsweek magazine of the unacceptable living 
conditions for outpatients at Walter Reed Medical Center and the 
stifling bureaucracy that blockades many veterans' access to care.
  The Washington Post wrote of soldiers living in Walter Reed 
facilities infested with mold and mice, unable to get new uniforms to 
replace those cut from their bodies by military doctors in the field, 
forced to bring photos and even their own Purple Hearts to prove to 
file clerks that they, indeed, served in Iraq. Waiting months, as the 
VA processes benefit claims in what Marine Sgt Ryan Groves called ``a 
nonstop process of stalling,'' these soldiers and their families move 
from appointment to appointment and submit form after form, often to 
replace earlier forms already lost by the system. Many suffer, as we 
saw on television the other night on ABC, from brain injuries, from 
post-traumatic stress disorder, or from other mental health conditions, 
but Walter Reed's outpatient facilities lack sufficient mental health 
counselors and social workers to help them navigate the system.
  The Post tells us many Walter Reed outpatients now face ``teams of 
Army doctors scrutinizing their injuries for signs of preexisting 
conditions, lessening their chance for disability benefits.'' Veterans 
often must navigate this convoluted system alone, carrying stacks of 
medical records from appointment to appointment. The Post quoted Vera 
Heron, who lived on the post for over a year helping care for her son. 
Here is what she said:

       You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are 
     disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don't put any 
     priority on it.

  The care of our veterans returning home from Iraq should be among our 
Nation's highest priorities. For these soldiers and their families to 
feel as forgotten and abandoned as they do means simply that this 
administration is not serving them as it should. It is not serving them 
as they served us. It is not supporting our troops.
  The Air Force Times just reported that soldiers at Walter Reed have 
now been told not to speak to the media and that the Pentagon has--and 
this is a quote--``clamped down on media coverage of any and all 
Defense Department medical facilities . . . saying in an e-mail to 
spokespeople: `It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the 
media while this review takes place,' referring to an investigation of 
problems at Walter Reed.''
  This administration cannot and must not just bury its failure to 
support our troops behind a muzzled spokesperson cadre. I commend our 
Armed Services Committee, including my senior Senator, Rhode Island's 
Jack Reed, for that committee's announced hearing on conditions at 
Walter Reed Hospital. I hope they will be relentless in their 
investigation.
  My colleagues and the constituents we represent wholeheartedly 
support our troops and our veterans. Anything else one hears is a lie. 
We believe it is time for our soldiers to redeploy out of Iraq because 
we believe that is our Nation's best strategy forward in the Middle 
East and to combat terror. But we also believe that as they serve and 
when they get home, we must make good on our promises--our promise to 
train and equip them in their service and our promise to care for them 
in their injury and illness. It is our obligation to do this. In the 
face of all we have heard and seen, that obligation, like so many 
others, has been failed by this administration. I thank the Chair, and 
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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