Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

It's appalling that even more serious problems are cropping up at facilities all around the country. This is like a replay of the Vietnam era, discarding our people after they've served their country with bravery and honor. My uncle was in the First Cavalry Division from 68 to 71, he was wounded though luckily not seriously. He had his difficulties with VA hospitals I remember. I'm sure he would be disgusted to see this happening all over again. He died of cancer in 2002.

'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'

[At the sprawling James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., Spec. Roberto Reyes Jr. lies nearly immobile and unable to talk. Once a strapping member of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, Reyes got too close to an improvised explosive device in Iraq and was sent to Walter Reed, where doctors did all they could before shipping him to the VA for the remainder of his life. A cloudy bag of urine hangs from his wheelchair. His mother and his aunt are constant bedside companions; Reyes, 25, likes for them to get two inches from his face, so he can pull on their noses with the few fingers he can still control.

Maria Mendez, his aunt, complained about the hospital staff. "They fight over who's going to have to give him a bath -- in front of him!" she said. Reyes suffered third-degree burns on his leg when a nurse left him in a shower unattended. He was unable to move himself away from the scalding water. His aunt found out only later, when she saw the burns.]

I think the reason that Harvey was forced out was his appointment of Gen. Kiley to deal with the Walter Reed scandal. He had been the previous head of Walter Reed. He was only out of the posting for 6 months, when the scandal came to light. I think it was the tone deafness of the appointment that forced Gates' hand. Appointing the man who had run the hospital up until just before a major long term scandal broke just politics played with a tin ear.

Hi Tom,

I respect your opinion but you are wrong here:

"I know Fran Harvey and think he was a great secretary who should have been given the chance to fix this problem rather than being ritualistically sacrificed"

Some kinds problems require fixing a priori.

Whatever Secretary Harvey's personal qualities, his initial reaction to the Reed story demonstrated more than just political obtuseness. He failed to look after his soldiers' welfare and the canning was well deserved.

After 40 years and numerous Congressional Committee hearings, each expressing "Outrage" over the way "Our Warriors" are treated by both Army Medical and VA, I'd have to say, It's "Congress and their imposed bureaucracy" more than it is any particular General or appointed Bureaucrat . . although, while watching the hearings yesterday I saw plenty of ass covering by everybody but Gen. Wrightman and the first three witnesses. (enlisted)

"Making the Army go without a secretary for several months and then enduring a new person for just the tail end of the administration might have felt good on the Hill"

Please. He wasn't fired by the Dems. He was sacrificed by Bush & Co to change the subject and move on. A very familiar sequence that Rove has applied for a patent on. All the Dems did is provide some oversight and actually listen to soldiers' complaints.