Bureaucracy is evil

In case you needed more proof:

His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.

The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.

But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.

Look, I'm not saying the military shouldn't account for things properly. Keeping good books is all that stands in the way of massive corruption, considering how much money we spend on defense. But in instances of combat injuries, the responsibility to get the numbers right should be on the part of the military, not the soldier, and if mistakes are made there should be no effort to collect those losses as debt. I think we owe Mr. Loria a lot more than the $600 the military says he owes us.

This isn't how to support the troops.