It appears the military has fixed the Walter Reed problem. They will just send the soldiers back to Iraq, complete with injuries. OK it really isn’t that, but this is just as troubling as the Walter Reed fiasco and another prime example of the lack of support our troops get from their command in chief:

“This is not right,” said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear. “This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers,” he said angrily. “If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight.”

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical conditions from the 3rd Division’s 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible for handling each soldier’s “physical profile,” an Army document that lists for commanders an injured soldier’s physical limitations because of medical problems — from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five-second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers’ profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny.

So why don’t these young Republicans, who are out there beating their war drums, sign up and go fight? If we want to succeed in Iraq then we need fresh soldiers. 

We need to get word about this article out. Salon reported about the problems at Walter Reed two years ago and it didn’t gain much attention. We can’t wait until 2009 for this problem to gain attention. Everyone needs to call their congressman and senator to let them know about this. The netroots can give this article the vital attention it needs.