BAD SHINSEKI!

BAD SHINSEKI!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

Sounds like shin splints, which I’ve had, and are painful as hell, or maybe some sort of inflammation in the shin area of the legs that’ll put an athlete on injured reserve. But the shin that I’m talking about here isn’t a disease or an injury, rather a man, Eric Shinseki, who is of the Hawaiian Island extract. Born on November 28, 1942 (little less than a year before my birth), Shinseki was a career military man, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Duke University, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the National Defense University.

Shinseki served in the United States Army from 1965 to 2003 and achieved the rank of a four star General, was the Army Chief of Staff, the Army vice Chief of Staff, and is a highly decorated soldier, including the Legion of Merit (2), Bronze Star (3), and the Purple Heart (2).

After Shinseki retired from the military he served as a director for several corporations; Honeywell International and Ducommun, military contractors; Grove Farm Corporation, First Hawaiian Bank, the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. There are numerous companies and public leadership groups that he has served as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council of the United States, and the Association of the United States Army.

Shinseki was nominated and unanimously confirmed as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs by the United States Senate in January of 2009. Shinseki succeeded James Peake, who left in December of 2009 to become Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer of QTC Medical Services in Diamond Bar, California.

SHINSEKI QUITS V.A.

Amidst a growing scandal in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki decided to throw in the towel, hang up his cleats, or fade into the mist of former high profile political appointees. How much of the mess that the Veterans Affairs Department can directly be traced to Shinseki will be debated for months to come by all of those who will be seeking to make political hay from what is truly a sad situation.

I suppose that the buck stopped at the office doors of the Secretary of the Veterans Affairs, he was supposed to be in charge of an organization whose job it is, is to take care of, among other things, returning military servicemen from war zones, occupation duty, or support connected duty. Every time I read or hear about the service organizations that are connected with the United States Military, I get an uneasy feeling and the hairs on the back of my neck bristle.

Does anybody really know about or how the Veterans Department is supposed to offer post military services and care? I understand a little, like you could put what I do know into a sewing thimble…..just like most of the rest of the U.S. population.

Here is what Eric Shinseki said when he tendered his resignation this past Friday, May 30, 2014;

“The United States Department of Veterans Affairs with 312,841 employees (as of December 31, 2013), an annual operating budget of $78.4 billion (as of December 31, 2013), 21 different regions throughout the United States, 1,254 medical clinics and hospitals, and all of the headaches connected with Senate hearings, budget meetings, and the glaring lights of public retribution for issues that have little to do with the Secretaries job description.”    

Why anybody would want the job is beyond me, I guess that I value my privacy way too much to ever consider such a job. And now we come to the thorniest part of the secretary’s job…..qualifications. Who in hell carries the qualifications around in his brief-case that would enamor himself to those individuals whose job it is to screen and then reject or offer such a job to somebody?

Government truly is a mess…..it’s like my mother used to say to me, “you’ve got two seconds to clean that mess up…..clearly the mess took hours to make, so she was simply setting me up to fail.” Government seems to work much the same as my mother did, and she loved me…..I think.

THE V.A. HAS BEEN A MESS FOR A WHILE NOW

The single biggest reason that the Veterans Affairs is such a mess is the fact that, medically, soldiers are saved from what used to be catastrophic war injuries that 20 30 and 40 years ago only required a body bag or field coffin. The arguments against war used to be because it caused deaths, today that argument has changed; now it’s the after-costs that are causing the worst pain…..and in some cases, death.

No one person can keep tabs of what the V.A. does on a day to day basis, like many other of our government agencies, it’s grown out of control…..it’s taken on a life of its own. What we’re going to have is Senate hearings, committees that mull the situation over, suggest ways to stream-line departments and medical care…..and…..nothing will actually happen.

The problems with the after care of war, occupation, and service has evolved into one issue…..money, staff, and facilities that can deal with those men and women coming back from our western front! The cost to be the policemen of the world is overwhelming and an untenable situation for any one country.

There are hot spots all over the world, will we continue the same attitude that has gotten our returning military personnel into areas of non-medical care. Post traumatic stress is a condition that isn’t understood, and in fact in many quarters disdained by those ranking military personnel that are in overseeing positions.

The medical advancements that have been brought on by these new types of wars is, to me, unbelievable, but I’d personally trade the changes in for some world peace. How long is it gonna be before we wise up to the fact that killing people so that other people can live under our rules and regulations is simply flawed thinking. The cost in both human as well as monetary terms is simply too high to sustain.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!