For a change, a Bush administration scandal seemed to be producing real results. Revelations about U.S. war veterans, recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, living in deplorable conditions and being ignored by a callous bureaucracy captured the political world’s attention. Usually, under these circumstances, the White House would stall for time, and wait for the storm to blow over. This time, the Bush gang took action and relieved Maj. Gen. George Weightman, the head of Walter Reed since August, of his command
Finally, the political world said, something resembling accountability from the Bush administration. Walter Reed’s treatment of outpatients was a disgrace, it was exposed to sunlight, and within a week, the facility’s director was fired. This is how the process is supposed to work.
And then we learned who the new head of Walter Reed is going to be: Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley.
At first I thought this was somebody’s poor attempt at humor. Literally yesterday, on the front page of the Washington Post, we learned that Kiley, who was head of Walter Reed through 2004, heard complaints from troops, their families, veterans’ advocates, and even a member of Congress about the awful treatment of the veterans, but he chose to do nothing. Kiley lived right across the street from Building 18, where war wounded were “housed among mice, mold, rot and cockroaches,” but apparently didn’t cross the street often.
Worse, when Americans first started hearing about this scandal earlier in the week, it was Kiley who downplayed its significance, insisting that the problems in Building 18 “weren’t serious and there weren’t a lot of them.” He was covering his own ass — since the problems erupted during his tenure in 2003 and 2004.
The Bush administration, in other words, has picked the man chiefly responsible for the problems at Walter Reed to be in charge of Walter Reed.
Just yesterday, I wrote that the Bush gang has a “tendency to reward those who screw up the most,” but this is painfully ridiculous.
A WaPo editorial noted just how little sense this makes.
Much of The Post’s article detailed the abuse by omission that Gen. Kiley, not Gen. Weightman, committed, first as head of Walter Reed, then in his current post as Army surgeon general. Gen. Weightman, who very well might deserve his disgrace, has commanded Walter Reed for only half a year, while Gen. Kiley, now back in charge of Walter Reed, headed the hospital and its outpatient facilities for two years and has led the Army’s medical command since. Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife say they repeatedly told Gen. Kiley about unhealthful conditions in outpatient facilities.
While Gen. Kiley was ignoring Walter Reed’s outpatients, he was assuring Congress that he was doing just the opposite. A staffer for Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) told us yesterday that Gen. Kiley told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2005 that the performance of the medical holdover program, which covers 69 of the 76 residents of Building 18, “is a good-news story.” In response to questions Mr. Davis submitted, Gen. Kiley stated, “the Army Surgeon General has made their care the medical treatment facilities’ top priority.” At best, Gen. Kiley was ignorant of the conditions at Walter Reed.
We are glad that the Army is finally taking the issue of outpatient care seriously enough to effectively end the career of a major general for presiding over the disgraceful condition of Building 18. But the evidence compiled so far suggests that Gen. Kiley has been more complicit in the scandalous neglect of Walter Reed’s outpatient facilities for longer than Gen. Weightman has been. It also indicates that the Army’s reshuffle is really about projecting the appearance of accountability, not punishing those most responsible.
The “appearance of accountability” describes so many of the administration’s fiascoes, doesn’t it?
To appreciate just how ridiculous this is, consider this anecdote.
In 2004, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife stopped visiting the wounded at Walter Reed out of frustration. Young said he voiced concerns to commanders over troubling incidents he witnessed but was rebuffed or ignored. “When Bev or I would bring problems to the attention of authorities of Walter Reed, we were made to feel very uncomfortable,” said Young, who began visiting the wounded recuperating at other facilities.
Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, “I went flying down to Kevin Kiley’s office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else.”
Young said that even after Kiley left Walter Reed to become the Army’s surgeon general, “if anything could have been done to correct problems, he could have done it.”
Now the Bush gang believes Kiley is the right man to help fix Walter Reed.
Just when I think these people can no longer surprise me, they sink a little further.