The next time President Bush goes to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I hope he gets to take his tests at the centers Building 18.
Building 18, a structure located in the shadow of the crown jewel in the US Army's medical system, is a disturbing place. It is home to many Iraq war veterans suffering from an assortment of battle-related injuries. In short, the four-and-six legged occupants of Building 18 are generally much livelier than their bipedal human counterparts. The mice and the cockroaches, you see, are not as intimidated by a filthy environment that includes mold-encrusted walls and holes in ceilings.
Building 18 and several other buildings within the Walter Reed complex are just the latest indicators of the low regard the Bush administration has for America's young men and women. To gin up a phony case for war and then send undertrained and underequipped troops to fight it is bad enough. But to compound that criminal oversight by shipping injured heroes back to a place like Building 18 is simply evil.
All the problems I've documented in civilian nursing homes and rehab centers are intact at Building 18. But at Building 18 problems with lost patients, missing medications and lost paperwork are compounded by a bureaucratic structure that seems designed more to sustain itself than to actually help America's heroes.
Consider these examples from the Washington Post:
- A one-time military scout no longer able to determine directions because of a brain injury, sent outside the building to find his quarters, only to fail at the task.
- Or how about the heavily medicated soldier who received orders to return to Iraq even though he was capable of little more than drooling on himself at the time.
- Then there are the stories of soldiers who go without uniforms because the proper paperwork is lost in the system.
The military bureaucracy is legendary for being difficult to navigate for those with their faculties intact. To subject those with brain injuries to jumping through an assortment of hoops is nothing less than cruel. It's enough to make you wonder if brain-dead paper-pushers aren't making decisions at the Pentagon.
Early in the Iraq war, officials in the administration objected to the images of flag-draped coffins containing the bodies of US servicemen and women. Little did we know then that those coffins were a mere distraction from the horrors that await those who actually survive an enemy attack.
So the next time President Bush gets his checkup I hope they will take some time away from the spotless and immaculately cleaned corridors of Walter Reed and look at some of the outlying buildings instead.
Because, when you're the decision-maker, the Commander and Chief, you would never subject those under your command to anything you would be unwilling to go through yourself.