he also prevented the top US medical army officers, Command Sgt. Maj. Sandra K. Townsend and Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. James B. Peake, from entering Iraq during his visit to Baghdad Airport during Thanksgiving, I believe because he was going to The Dungeon.
Three days after his visit, 61 of our troops were injured in a suicide bombing at a US base entrance in Mosul, and our top military medical officers had no idea of hospital manning levels because they couldn't get clearance to enter Iraq. Why not? I think it was because the *ies didn't want them clued in to "the dungeon." Here's a cut and paste from an archived post. Unfortunately, the Stripes URL for the Stripes article is no longer valid. The article, “War leaves little relief in sight for taxed medical troops,” was dated Dec. 6, 2003.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=886935#887267http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=19105 <snip>
Command Sgt. Maj. Sandra K. Townsend spoke with medical soldiers and with wounded troops Thursday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
“What they’re saying is they need more people,” Townsend said of medical troops during an interview Thursday.
<snip>
Hospitals such as Landstuhl already are at 80 percent manning and must be bolstered with Reserve and National Guard troops to do their wartime mission, she said.
<snip>
The two leaders were unable to visit medical troops in Iraq, however, because President Bush’s visit made it difficult to get clearance, she said.