Another Walter Reed Scandal Bigwig Resigns
Something a bit unusual seems to be going around Washington these days….accountability:
The Army forced its surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, to retire, officials said Monday, 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, has been a lightning rod for criticism over conditions at the Army’s premier medical facility, including during congressional hearings last week. Soldiers and their families have complained about substandard living conditions and bureaucratic delays at the hospital overwhelmed with wounded from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kiley submitted his retirement request on Sunday, the Army said in a statement.
“We must move quickly to fill this position – this leader will have a key role in moving the way forward in meeting the needs of our wounded warriors,” Acting Secretary of the Army Pete Geren said in an Army statement.
Geren asked Kiley to retire, said a senior defense official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was not involved in the decision to ask Kiley to retire, the official said.
That may or may not be true. There is a PATTERN under Gates, which is greater accountability — which means consequences — versus in-your-face, let’s rally the base, toughing it out. We’ll know more in coming weeks as reporting from the newsmagazines, etc…come out whether this was more than merely a higher-up giving Kiley the boot, particularly when it is no secret Gates was reportedly furious that Kiley was appointed to take over.
ABC News:
Geren did not give a reason for Kiley’s retirement, but in a room packed with medical staff and troops said, “A soldier who fights the battle should not have to come home and fight the battle of bureaucracy. … I will never leave a fallen comrade — that means on the battlefield or in the hospital.”
That doesn’t exactly sound like a vote of confidence in Kiley.
The decision to fire Kiley comes 10 days after Gates fired Army Secretary Francis Harvey.Kiley, who served as the commander of the Walter Reed center from 2002 to 2004, came under withering criticism after stories in the Washington Post exposed the poor treatment and deplorable living conditions facing some wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.
Kiley’s first reaction was to criticize the stories as one-sided “yellow journalism.”
“I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army,” Kiley said in a written statement released by the Army.
“I want to allow Acting Secretary Geren, General Schoomaker, and the leaders of the Army Medical Command to focus completely on the way ahead and the Army Action Plan to improve all aspects of Soldier care. We are an Army Medical Department at war, supporting an Army at war — it shouldn’t be and it isn’t about one doctor.”
That’s pro forma: if it had come a week ago, it would have been a resignation. The word that isn’t used is: fired.
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7 Responses to “Another Walter Reed Scandal Bigwig Resigns”
I hope the brain-stem-level-at-best-IQ routine Bush-bashers won’t make idiots of themselves once more. VA health care has long been a problem. Look at “I Am NOT A Number!” sometime. VA hospital horror stories are commonplace in doctor training reminescences. VA horror stories are also a warning for those who have naive dreams of “Medicare for All” or any other kind of federal government-provided health care (such as under the weasel phrase of a name, “single-payer” [Who is the payer?].)
Not planning ahead of time for more casualties after the Iraq war? That’s a valid gripe, obviously. Not enough resources placed in Iraq, not enough at home, either.
Just review and reform the VA health care system. It’s a warm-up for all who want federally-provided “universal” health care in the USA. You’ll already be exchanging one set of problems for another by replacing HMOs with “gummint” health care. Why not forestall known problems (which most of you liberals will only now magically “discover”) before they affect everyone else outside the military, too?
The “I am not a number” program was launched several years ago. VA care has long been problem-ridden (those of us who are informed have long known it, but for those of you who have just “discovered” this under the latest Bush administration, well, it has been a problem for much longer). The most interesting debate lately has been if the quality care has improved recently, if anything, in later (i.e., Bush) years. There is no consensus on this, however.
As to the earlier program, here you are given a description from a source hardly what so many of you on here would call “far right” (anything to the right of the DLC-DNC):
The Legion, under a program entitled “I am not a number,� invited veterans to submit their experiences with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system. Thousands responded, many testifying that they have waited months, even one and two years, to see a doctor. [...]
“It’s unconscionable that hundreds of thousands of veterans are being denied health care. Our young men and women are sent off to war only to return to a health care system that’s falling apart. The President and Congress were in a great rush to send them into Iraq but seem to be turning a deaf ear to caring for them when they return.�
** 1993, not 2007 **
http://www.pww.org/article/view/3520/1/165/
Good luck trying to remedy this. Maybe it’s a way for Dims to steal some more disappointed-to-disgusted GOP voters.
Well, I have to admit, that’s a persuasive performance by the new SoD so far. Seems to be a guy who really puts the service first and idology second. Ok, he still has to follow the orders from the CiC, but at least he doesn’t allow cronyinsm to trump responsibility. That’s refreshing after all these scandals without accountability.
> [The SoD s]eems to be a guy who really puts the service first and idology second
> he doesn’t allow cronyinsm to trump responsibility
The one that will (have to) leave may be a fall guy.
This won’t stop the Usual Suspects, which as usual will just have their appetites whetted by honesty or concession of any kind.
More interesting will be how much finally is revealed about VA and what happens in the end. If both parties try to rush to improve VA medicine before the 2008 elections here, the vets probably stand to gain considerably (if the improvements are permanent).
From all I’ve heard, Gen Weightman was scapegoated for the problems at WR. I believe there was a public uproar after it was decided to put Kiley in charge-even temporarily. Kiley needed to go because he had long been aware of the problems, and minimized them. Worse he blamed them on some unnamed NCO’s. I wonder if he mistook Gates for Rummy, who put the blame for Abu Ghraib on lower level officers, while allowing the commander to escape without a scratch.
I would agree that there have always been problems with the VA, but when there are two ongoing wars with casualties, someone —like Nicholson needs to make sure the vets have ready acsess to government services. Also, why was a decision made to close WR, when it was so obvious that the facility was still needed for incoming wounded?
Of course it is not all Bush’s fault, but this administration has flaunted their devotion to the troops and their families, plus is responsible for putting them in harm’s way in the first place. The least they could do is make sure that they are taken care of by the army (at WR) and then by the VA. To blame the bureaucracy is poor leadership.
Thank you for this story and your interesting blog!
I failed to send the right trackback with my blog software. Sorry.
Here’s the correct link:German and American Volunteers Support US Soldiers at Landstuhl Military Hospital
[K]ritter wrote:
> I would agree that there have always been problems with the VA, but when there are > two ongoing wars with casualties, someone —like Nicholson needs to make sure the > vets have ready acsess to government services. Also, why was a decision made to > close WR, when it was so obvious that the facility was still needed for incoming
> wounded?
Why weren’t the borders with Iraq and Syria secured?
Poor planning.
Also you may suspect a desire to Cut Costs — and even suspect a desire to Cut Costs in order to redirect the money elsewhere (contractors).