the president apolgizes and pledges improvements at walter reed
I criticize this President and this administration often. I make no secret that I have big problems with the way they have mismanaged and mislead our country since coming to office in January of 2001.
But today, George Bush made me proud.
Today, Bush visited the much maligned Walter Reed Medical Center. The facility and it's leadership have been under fire since pulitzer prize award holder Dana Priest broke a story exposing the failure of "providing the best care possible" as promised, especially failing the patients of the now infamous and closed "building 18.
Shortly after the break of the story, current Defense Secretary and Iran-Contra scandal veteran Robert Gates took swift and severe actions with the leadership. Heads rolled at the top and the clear message that sub standard performance would not be tolerated under his watch. Gates, a veteran of knowing the value of not letting a scandal snowball by denying the obvious or stonewalling under false guises certainly demonstrated that his tenure would be quite different than that of his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.
That was all great, but aside from posturing speeches and press releases not much had actually happened to actually improve our care to ensure that our volunteer soldiers did indeed get the "best care possible." At least not much that had been reported. Also, in the wake of the news about Reed and building #18, more stories came out showing sub standard care at many facilities nationwide, mirroring what had been reported by Priest.
But today, President Bush stood up in front of a small audience, mostly military and / or medical personel, and bluntly apologized to the soldiers and the American people for the lack of leadership and execution in caring for our best and bravest. Bravo!
He also promised reforms, reported on the progress of building #18, which includes a new roof amongst other improvements that are currently underway and described efforts to get enough professionals there to properly handle the case load at the troubled outpatient sections of Walter Reed . Mr Bush also introduced General Tucker to the audience. Tucker is not a doctor, as he explained, but a "beauracracy buster." His job will be to ensure that no soldier gets buried in the beauracracy and that no "red tape" prevents any soldier from getting the care they need and deserve.
In addition to the president's efforts, and those of the commission he has assigned to analyze and make reccomendations for our veteran's hospitals, the house this week passed a bill sending more case workers et al to improve the quality of our veteran's care.
In virtually every other "controversy" with this administration, I have seen them do things that I can in no way endorse. In this situation, both President Bush and Secretary Gates have taken the right 1st steps. Heads have rolled. Unqualified and heartfelt apologies were made for the mishandling of the situation. And it does at least appear that they are reforming and looking to improve as quickly and as much as they can. Understanding of course, that government, especially ours, never moves quite as swiftly as anyone would want them to.
I doubt this is a trend with this administration, but one must always give credit where due. And here, team Bush has earned it...so far. I hope they "finish the job" here better than they have elsewhere.
"