No wonder so many veterans of military service have lost all faith in promises made by the government they defended. Decades of broken pledges and now, a deluge of reports of immoral, perhaps criminal behavior in the Veterans Administration are to blame.

A few weeks ago, a whistleblower accused VA health care officials in Phoenix, Ariz., of keeping veterans on waiting lists so long some died before they could be treated. There were efforts to cover up what happened, it was alleged.

Reports of similar misdeeds have since come in from VA health care facilities in several other states.

President Barack Obama’s reaction was political in the extreme. He appointed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors – a political operative – to oversee a review of the VA.

Obama either just doesn’t get it or doesn’t really care. Why on earth would veterans – and the tens of millions of Americans who revere them – expect anything more than a whitewash from such a review?

Members of Congress of both parties are angry about the allegations. They should channel that anger into a demand for a truly independent, bipartisan investigation of the VA. This is a mess that cannot and should not be covered up by the politicians.