Topic: Iraq War
A thought on the Walter Reed scandal (with apologies to George Bernard Shaw): The American soldier can stand up to anything except the American politician.
Knowing the Army as I do, I was totally unsurprised by the news that wounded soldiers at Waller Reed Army Medical Center were being poorly treated in some respects. I could easily image what had happened: the hospital's resources swamped by an influx of combat-wounded troops, housing shortages, budget difficulties, bureaucratic buck passing. No one intended to do wrong by the troops, not really, but people were still operating on peacetime assumptions. "It's not my problem," they told themselves, and kicked the can down the road. This is no excuse for what happened, but it's the reality of life inside an enormous bureaucracy.
We have leaders, civilian and military, to cut through the bureaucratic red tape when action is urgently needed. That's what these people are paid to do—and they utterly failed to do it in this instance. Kudos to President Bush and Secretary of Defense Gates for taking immediate forceful action when the scandal came to their attention. But why, why, did it take so long for the Commander-in-Chief to get the message? Were I the President, with the responsibility for ordering men into battle, I'd be taking a personal, daily interest in the welfare of the wounded. George W. Bush didn't do that. Presumably he trusted the bureaucrats to do the right thing. Really, Mr. President, you should have known better. And this scandal will remain as a deserved blot on your record.
