Walter Reed Fallout

Fallout continues from the stories in the Washington Post regarding Walter Reed. What now has become overwhelming apparent is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Several stories are in the Post today. One is about the two generals in charge of Walter Reed. Gen. George Weightman seems to be the fall guy. The one who was fired. He seemed very upset that he let down the servicemen. But it also sounds like he was trying to fix the problems. The problems left to him to fix by General Kevin Kiley who is in see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil mode. He was the top person in charge and yet somehow everyone else is to blame but him. Several of those people testifying say they feel that Weightman is getting blames too much and obviously Kiley way too little.


The main story in the Post is just gut wrenching. This is one particular unbelievable exchange:

Shannon was shot in the head during a firefight near Ramadi, Iraq, in November 2004 and has languished at Walter Reed ever since, awaiting plastic surgery so he can be fitted with a prosthetic eye. Paperwork for his retirement from the Army has been on hold.

But his ire yesterday was less about his own treatment than about the sense of betrayal he feels for younger soldiers he has tried to shepherd through the bureaucracy at Walter Reed.

“I will not see young men and women who have had their lives shattered in service to their country receive anything less than dignity and respect,” said Shannon, who at times said he is having difficulty controlling his anger.

It is rather interesting that the Bush administration is bashing Democrats saying they don’t support the troops when they are the ones not supporting them. Once again we will get the slogan of the Bush Administration: no one could have foreseen. At some point it is there job to that.

This from Cheney:

Cheney said that President Bush “has made our administration’s priority very clear to the Congress and to the country: There will be no excuses, only action. And the federal bureaucracy will not slow that action down. We’re going to fix the problems at Walter Reed, period.”

Well it has to be more than Walter Reed. It seems the Post series has opened a flood gate of complaints about facilities all over this country.

A great article about all of this from Howard Kurtz and a little bit about the bitch de jour Ann Coulter.