George Bush has appointed former Senator Bob Dole to investigate the mess at the Walter Reed US military and veterans hospital, where patients had to put up with squalid conditions.
Unbossed.com blames privatisation for the scandal that has led to the dismissal of two generals. The blog cites a memo first reported by the Army Times a publication that covers army matters.
"The memorandum 'describes how the army's decision to privatise support services at Walter Reed Army medical centre was causing an exodus of 'highly skilled and experienced personnel'. According to multiple sources, the decision to privatise support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support personnel at Walter Reed.'
Unbossed.com concludes that privatisation since 2002 has steadily sapped the ability of the federal government to do its job.
"It's just another side to the elevation of ideology over responsibility, which has become the hallmark of the Bush administration."
Taking a slightly different tack, The Middle Ground notes that the problems of veterans' treatment is not unique to the Bush administration and was an issue 140 years ago.
"In 1994, the run on the Veterans Administration by Gulf War I vets, combined with an aging Vietnam vet population and the existing World War II vets began to take a toll on the VA budget and was rapidly expanding disability payouts from a war that was, for all intents and purposes, the lowest casualty war in history."
The Middle Ground says the creation of new programmes to deal with problems, such as the Gulf war syndrome, added layers of bureaucratic complexity to complicate matters.
At the Washington Post, which broke the story in the mainstream press, media columnist, Howard Kurtz, says it is hard to avoid the impression that the Walter Reed scandal is the new Katrina.
"The VA is run by Jim Nicholson, a former Republican party chairman. It's all reminiscent of the less-than-qualified conservative loyalists who helped staff the CPA (coalition provisional authority) after the Iraq invasion."
