Galloway: Walter Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw' As The Washington Post probe proves, there's more to supporting our troops than making "Support Our Troops" a phrase that every politician feels obliged to utter in every speech, no matter how craven the purpose. How can they look at themselves in the mirror every morning?
By Joseph L. Galloway
(February 21, 2007) -- There’s a great deal more to supporting our troops than sticking a $2 yellow ribbon magnet made in China on your SUV. There’s a great deal more to it than making "Support Our Troops" a phrase that every politician feels obliged to utter in every speech, no matter how banal the topic or craven the purpose.
This week, we were treated to new revelations of just how fraudulent and shallow and meaningless "Support Our Troops" is on the lips of those in charge of spending the half a trillion dollars of taxpayer's money that the Pentagon eats every year.
The Washington Post published a probe, complete with photographs, revealing that for every in-patient who's getting the best medical treatment that money can buy at the main hospital at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, there are out-patients warehoused in quarters unfit for human habitation.
Some of the military outpatients are stuck on the Walter Reed campus, a couple of miles from the White House and the Capitol, for as long as 12 months. They've been living in rat and roach-infested rooms, some of which are coated in black mold.
There was outrage and disgust and raw anger at this callous, cruel treatment of those who have the greatest claim not only on our sympathies, but also on the public purse.
Who among the smiling politicians who regularly troop over to the main hospital at Walter Reed for photo-op visits with those who've come home grievously wounded from the wars the politicians started have bothered to go the extra quarter-mile to see the unseen majority with their rats and roaches?
Not one, it would seem, since none among them have admitted to knowing that there was a problem, much less doing something about it before the reporters blew the whistle.
Within 24 hours, construction crews were working overtime, slapping paint over the moldy drywall, patching the sagging ceilings and putting out traps and poison for the critters that infest the place.
Within 48 hours, the Department of Defense announced that it was appointing an independent commission to investigate. Doubtless the commission will provide a detailed report finding that no one was guilty -- certainly none of the politicians of the ruling party whose hands were on the levers of power for five long years of war.
They will find that it all came about because the Army medical establishment was overwhelmed by the case load flowing out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, brave soldiers who were wheelchair-bound with missing legs or paralysis, have been left to make their own way a quarter-mile to appointments with the shrinks and a half-mile to pick up the drugs that dim their minds and eyes and pain, and make the rats and roaches recede into a fuzzy distance.
All this came on the heels of my McClatchy Newspapers colleague Chris Adams's Feb. 9 report that even by its own measures, the Veterans Administration isn't prepared to give returning veterans the care they need to help them overcome destructive, and sometimes fatal, mental health ailments. Nearly 100 VA clinics provided virtually no mental health care in 2005, Adams found, and the average veteran with psychiatric troubles gets about a third fewer visits with specialists today than he would have received a decade ago.
The same politicians, from a macho president to the bureaucrats to the people who chair the congressional committees that are supposed to oversee such matters, have utterly failed to protect our wounded warriors.
They’ve talked the talk but few, if any, have ever walked the walk.
No. This happened while all of them were busy as bees, taking billions out of the VA budget and planning to shut down Walter Reed by 2011 in the name of cost-efficiency. Among those politicians are the people who sent too few troops to Afghanistan or Iraq, who failed to provide enough body armor and weapons and armored vehicles and who, to protect their own political hides, refused to admit that the mission was not accomplished and change course.
But it's they who are charged with the highest duty of all, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural in 1865: "to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."
How can they look at themselves in the mirror every morning? How dare they ever utter the words: Support Our Troops? How dare they pretend to give a damn about those they order to war?
They've hidden the flag-draped coffins of the fallen from the public and the press. They've averted their eyes from the suffering that their orders have visited upon an Army that they've ground down by misuse and over-use and just plain incompetence.
This shabby, sorry episode of political and institutional cruelty to those who deserve the best their nation can provide is the last straw. How can they spin this one to blame the generals or the media or the Democrats? How can you do that, Karl?
If the American people are not sickened and disgusted by this then, by God, we don’t deserve to be defended from the wolves of this world. ***
This column has drawn very wide response from readers and demands for action. Here is a sampling:
Click here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph L. Galloway (letters*editorandpublisher.com) is a legendary war correspondent, winner of a Bronze Star and co-author of "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young." His column on military affairs is distributed by Tribune Media Services.
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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Army fires commander of Walter Reed hospital POSTED: 8:04 p.m. EST, March 1, 2007 Story Highlights• Commander of Walter Reed Army hospital fired after poor conditions found • Building 18 has mold, holes in walls, newspaper said • Army secretary said top brass didn't know about problems • Wounded troops from Iraq, Afghanistan wars treated at facility
Adjust font size: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top general at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was fired Thursday, the military announced, following revelations of poor conditions in the building where troops who were wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq are treated.
Maj. Gen. George Weightman's firing was the first major military staff change after reports surfaced last month about substandard conditions in a building that is part of the facility.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey, who removed Weightman from his post according to an Army statement, had blamed a failure of leadership for the conditions, which were first reported by The Washington Post.
According to the Army statement, "Maj. Gen. Weightman was informed this morning that the senior Army leadership had lost trust and confidence in the commander's leadership abilities to address needed solutions for soldier-outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center."
"The commanding general of U.S. Army Medical Command, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, will be acting temporarily as Walter Reed commander until a general officer is selected for this important leadership position," the statement said.
The Post report centered on Building 18. Last week, workers were repairing plumbing, covering holes in ceilings and repainting mold-covered walls in the building. (Watch a tour of the run-down facility )
Weightman also served as commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, the statement said.
Last week, Harvey directed that Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Richard Cody develop and implement an Army Action Plan to address shortcomings at Walter Reed and elsewhere.
The focus areas are: soldier accountability, health and welfare; infrastructure; medical administrative process; and information dissemination.
Cody put a 30-day deadline on many of these actions.
In an interview with CNN last week, Harvey said, "if we would have known about this, we would have fixed it. Unfortunately, we didn't know about it."
The Post article, titled "The Other Walter Reed," said outpatients at the facility also include veterans who suffer from depression and were involved in overdoses and suicide attempts.
Walter Reed is the Army's top medical facility. It opened in 1901 in a single small building and now is a complex of structures with 28 acres of floor space.
The hospital can accommodate 250 patients and admits more than 14,000 a year. Thousands use its outpatient facilities daily.
President Bush has visited wounded troops at the hospital several times, and presidents often receive medical care there.
The Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005 recommended closing Walter Reed in 2010.
Harvey said an "action plan" was being put together "to ensure across the board that our soldiers are being taken care of with the highest quality medicine possible in the kind of facilities that provide a quality of life for the soldier that is equal to the quality of their service."
He added, "To have it in this condition is disappointing to me, unacceptable to me as the secretary of the Army, and we have a plan in place."
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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It is sad when you see these things going on, it seems to be more common these days. It happens in many phases of health care not just the military. You wonder where all the people are that work in these facilities and do inspections(i assume they do them). I am sure some people are afraid of their jobs, but there are others and with all the cell phone camera's and regular small camera's, it seems so easy to expose these things without jeopardizing your job. I guess there are many reasons why they do not get exposed very quickly, but it still hard to understand. You wonder where all the breakdowns were in the system.
The one part of the article that talked about painting over the mold, sounds like rooms that i would really want to stay in for very long. In a lot of cases with mold, the surface mold is only the tip of the iceburg and especially in a building this old. I sure hope they did not just paint over with regular paint, but for some reason this would not surprise me. Killing the surface mold will not likely solve the major problem, only hide it.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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It's enough to make you cry and I can't understand why there is not public out rage.
Don't Americans understand what these brave young people have done.
There country said go and they went.
They were sent by criminal politicians,corupt ceo's,and oil company's that are making more wealth than some small nations.
I guess the portion of the nation that does not feel that this is as impotant as Anna Nicole's burial site is showing there true colors now.
I hope this country is never in a WWII again where the US needed every able bodied man and a complete shared sacrifice out of whole nation.
I feel if we were people would try to cut a deal with the invader as long as they were allowed to keep there life style they could care less of the outcome or what eles they had to give up.
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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bond, this isn't something alot of people want to hear, but the the fact is that the VA is several TIMES better today than it was when i was first "introduced" to the system in the early 80's....
i suggest checking out a movie called "Article 99" with Kiefer Sutherland. It was a movie, and as such must be taken with a grain of salt, but there was a lot of truth in it too....
and yes, the troops deserve much more and better, and i think it's coming because Bush has once again been shamed...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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Here is a problem VA health care might face in the coming years. _________________________________________________
Bush budget cuts veterans health care in 2009 POSTED: 1308 GMT (2108 HKT), February 13, 2007 Story Highlights• Bush budget assumes cuts in veterans' health care in 2009, 2010 • VA medical care costs have risen yearly for 20 years • Number of veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan expected to increase 26 percent
Adjust font size: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration's budget assumes cuts to veterans' health care two years from now -- even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system.
Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012. But even administration allies say the numbers are not real and are being used to make the overall budget picture look better.
After an increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly -- by more than 10 percent in many years -- White House budget documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.
The proposed cuts are unrealistic in light of recent VA budget trends -- its medical care budget has risen every year for two decades and 83 percent in the six years since Bush took office -- sowing suspicion that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better.
"Either the administration is willingly proposing massive cuts in VA health care," said Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas, chairman of the panel overseeing the VA's budget. "Or its promise of a balanced budget by 2012 is based on completely unrealistic assumptions."
A spokesman for Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called the White House moves another step in a longtime "budgeting game."
"No one who is knowledgeable about VA budgeting issues anticipates any cuts to VA funding. None. Zero. Zip," Craig spokesman Jeff Schrade said.
Edwards said that a more realistic estimate of veterans costs is $16 billion higher than the Bush estimate for 2012.
In fact, even the White House doesn't seem serious about the numbers. It says the long-term budget numbers don't represent actual administration policies. Similar cuts assumed in earlier budgets have been reversed.
The veterans cuts, said White House budget office spokesman Sean Kevelighan, "don't reflect any policy decisions. We'll revisit them when we do the (future) budgets."
The number of veterans coming into the VA health care system has been rising by about 5 percent a year as the number of people returning from Iraq with illnesses or injuries keep rising. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans represent almost 5 percent of the VA's patient caseload, and many are returning from battle with grievous injuries requiring costly care, such as traumatic brain injuries.
All told, the VA expects to treat about 5.8 million patients next year, including 263,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The VA has been known to get short-term budget estimates wrong as well. Two years ago, Congress had to pass an emergency $1.5 billion infusion for veterans health programs for 2005 and added $2.7 billion to Bush's request for 2006. The VA underestimated the number of veterans, including those from Iraq and Afghanistan, who were seeking care, as well as the cost of treatment and long-term care.
The budget for hospital and medical care for veterans is at $35.6 billion for the current year, and would rise to $39.6 billion in 2008 under Bush's budget. That's about 9 percent. But the budget faces a cut to $38.8 billion in 2009 and would hover around that level through 2012.
The cuts come even as the number of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is expected to increase 26 percent next year.
In Bush's proposal to balance the budget by 2012, he's assuming that spending on domestic agency operating budgets will increase by about 1 percent each year.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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Senators Vow Quick Action In Wake Of Scandal (AP) WASHINGTON Lawmakers promised a quick response and sought an independent commission as they expressed outrage Sunday over the poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I’m worried about if it’s this bad at the outpatient facilities at Walter Reed, how is it in the rest of the country? Because Walter Reed is our crown jewel,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
In a letter Sunday to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday, Schumer asked for an independent commission, possibly headed by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, to investigate all post-combat medical facilities and recommend changes.
“To think that men and women are serving their country in the most honorable and courageous way possible and all we give them is a dilapidated, rat-infested, run-down building to recover is a disgrace,” Schumer wrote. “My fear is that Walter Reed is just the tip of the iceberg, and merely highlights the pervasive and systemic mistreatment of our service members.”
President Bush last week ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at the nation’s network of military and veteran hospitals. They have been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The White House said the president would name a bipartisan commission to assess whether the problems at Walter Reed exist at other facilities. Last week, Gates created an outside panel to review the situation at Walter Reed and the other major military hospital in the Washington area, the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md.
Gates also dismissed Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey, who had fired the medical center’s previous commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, and replaced him with Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the Army’s surgeon general and a former commander of Walter Reed. Gates said that Harvey’s response was not aggressive enough.
The Army announced that Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker will be the new commander of Walter Reed, which is in Washington.
In addition, the Army took disciplinary action against several lower-level soldiers at Walter Reed, but officials have declined to publicly confirm any details of those actions. Peter Geren, the undersecretary of the Army, will serve as Harvey’s temporary replacement until Bush nominates a new secretary.
The moves came in response to a series of Washington Post reports about substandard conditions and bureaucratic snafus affecting the care of injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to Walter Reed, one of the military’s highest-profile and busiest medical facilities, and its outpatient facilities.
The reports embarrassed the Army and the Bush administration at a time when the White House is scrambling to shore up eroding support for the Iraq war. They have prompted numerous calls in the newly Democratic Congress for more information, and sullied the reputation of what is supposed to be one of the military’s foremost medical centers.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., praised Gates’ quick response. “He’s taken action, and not only low-level people but high-level people have been replaced, and I think that’s welcome action.”
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he probably would support such a commission. “Investigations are not always the best way to go, but I think we ought to do whatever’s necessary,” he said.
Lott said the revelations show that President Bush and Congress should take a look at all Veterans Affairs hospitals and military hospitals to be sure they are providing adequate services.
“It is indefensible and appalling,” Lott said. “Why didn’t we know more and do more? I’m not, you know, trying to fix blame. I want to know how we’re going to fix it.”
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., called it an “appalling situation. Hopefully they’re putting in place the leadership that will make sure that our troops get exactly the kind of quality care that they make. The sooner they get focused on this, the better.”
Schumer and Lott spoke on ABC’s “This Week.” Feinstein and Hoekstra appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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