President Bush on Friday met with his Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, saying that he would “support their work and will address the problems that they find.” Bush created the commission, chaired by former Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, in response to the reports of substandard outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the bureaucratic maze faced by wound war on terror veterans. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has questioned whether the President has given the commission enough time to perform a thorough review.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
