Cards for Wounded Warriors

You know the drill: An elementary school class, or just a concerned citizen, will spend some time around Xmas writing letters and cards and sending them to a generic "wounded warrior" at a military hospital, like Walter Reed.

I can recall doing something similar when I was in grade school, sending a note to an anonymous recipient in a VA hospital. We all felt good about doing it, and when we even got a note back from the disabled veteran thanking us for our thoughts it made our day.

So it is with some concern that I have learned that those cards and letters are no longer being delivered to their intended recipients.

Apparently the brass/the suits are worried that those third-graders have somehow gotten ahold of a barrel of anthrax and are intent on finishing the job that "the terrorists" started. Or that somehow the recovering soldier will get a letter attacking him or her for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bullshit. I'd prefer to be charitable about it and think that this is just some overzealous underling at the Pentagon who has made this decision, but with everything we know about the Baby Doc Maladministration and its contempt for the rank and file military -- especially disabled veterans -- maybe not.

In the meantime, wasn't it nice of the Pentagon to let everyone know that those cards and letters addressed to those generic wounded warriors are just thrown away, without ever getting into the hands of those they were intended for? But I guess even that's asking too much from the most secretive administration in American history.