The Army forced its surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, to retire, officials said Monday, making him the third high-level official to lose his job over poor outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Kiley, who headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, submitted his retirement request on Sunday, the Army said in a statement.
Kiley had been a lightning rod for criticism over conditions at Walter Reed, including during congressional hearings on Walter Reed last week. Articles by The Washington Post described substandard conditions and bureaucratic delays at the facility overwhelmed with wounded from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’d add that Kiley has been “a lightning rod for criticism” because he deserved it. As the WaPo reported, it was Kiley who largely ignored complaints about conditions at Walter Reed, and even downplayed the controversy, insisting that the problems in Building 18 “weren’t serious and there weren’t a lot of them.” Kiley lived right across the street from Building 18, where war wounded were “housed among mice, mold, rot and cockroaches,” but neglected to help. In one instance, Kiley even ignored the concerns of a congressman’s wife, who urged him to help a wounded soldier lying in his own urine.
Given this, it was encouraging to hear that NBC reported that Kiley may be demoted in retirement, by at least one rank.
I have to admit, this is the first Bush scandal in six years in which it seems responsible officials are being held to account.
On Mar. 1, Army Secretary Francis Harvey fired Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who was the current head of Walter Reed.
On Mar. 2, Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired Army Secretary Harvey, because he’d given Weightman’s job to Kiley.
On Mar. 12, acting Army Secretary Pete Garem fired Kiley.
Newsweek reports this week that Gates is directing the clean-up.
When the Post first published its stories, Bush’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, called Robert Gates, the new Defense secretary. Bolten, who replaced Andy Card a little more than a year ago, is a results-oriented pragmatist. So is Gates. The two men agreed that swift action was called for. A senior White House official, who requested anonymity discussing the president’s private conversations, tells NEWSWEEK that Gates called President Bush and said: “I’m going to hold people accountable. I don’t know how high it will get. But it will be high.” Bush responded, the official says, “Do what you need to do.”
As Atrios put it after Harvey was fired, “This is the first time in the entire Bush administration that we’ve had anything which even felt remotely like a genuine ‘accountability’ moment.”
I’m just glad something could get the Bush gang’s attention. It took them long enough.