Squalor surrounding wounded Iraq veterans shocks America

Squalor surrounding wounded Iraq veterans shocks America
The Bush administration has gone into damage control as the scandal over the treatment of injured soldiers grows, Sarah Baxter reports from Washington
March 05, 2007
WHILE he was recovering from a double amputation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington, Latseen Benson, 27, met a parade of VIPs.
Every time the President, the Vice-President or the Defence Secretary passed by, the military hospital would be thoroughly scrubbed. But the improvements would not last long, according to Diane Benson, the mother of the injured Iraq war veteran.
"I wasn't so bothered by the rats, although there were a lot running around outside, but I really wanted his room to be swept and kept clean," she said.
"You couldn't get people to mop the blood and urine from the floor while my son was there with his legs wide open."