Memorial Day 2014 - A Continuing Failure of Leadership regarding Caring for Our Military Veterans

© 2014 Peter Free

 

26 May 2014

 

Regarding the VA treatment backlog mess, it is not just Secretary/General Eric Shinseki

 

A few days ago, I joined those who want Secretary/General Eric Shinseki booted from his position as head of Veterans Affairs.

 

With that said, I suspect that the Commander in Chief is even more culpable, although indirectly, for the whitewashing cover up going on in the Veterans Administration:

 

 

“We don’t need the VA to find a scapegoat; we need an actual plan to restore a culture of accountability throughout the VA,” says Tom Tarantino of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which so far has not called for Shinseki’s firing but has demanded reforms in the wake of the scandal.

 

© 2014 Kelley Vlahos, Memorial Day Nightmare, AlterNet (23 May 2014)

 

A President with purpose and a sense of duty would long ago have imposed his will on the recalcitrant and poorly supervised VA.  And he (or she) would also have humiliated Congress into doing its financial duty in support of the nation’s veterans.

 

That Barack Obama has not done anything worthwhile implies either that he lacks the purpose or is missing the capability.  Either way, the VA treatment backlog and its cover up is a sad reflection on President Obama’s leadership qualities.

 

The moral? — Political leaders are generally only as good as those who hold them accountable

 

That the nation tolerates avoidance of responsibility on so ethically important an issue says nothing admirable about the non-military public’s national character.