AN OVERWHELMED HOSPITAL

What is one to make of the furor at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.? The Washington Post described a shocking scene of filthy rooms, mice and cockroaches, black mold, and confusion and red tape aggravating the already stressed out wounded who have been shipped back from Iraq. Two hospital commanders have been fired in as many days, the secretary of the Army has been forced to resign, Congress is staging multiple hearings, and President Bush and Vice President Cheney promise to fix things up at Walter Reed and look for any similar abuses at other military and veterans’ hospitals.

Yet, the hospital’s technical skill in repairing battle wounds and supplying high-tech prostheses seems to be top grade. Maine’s Rep. Mike Michaud, a Democrat, while promising investigation and oversight as a member of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, says he found mostly “good service from a very caring and professional staff” on several visits to the medical center. The New York Times in 2004 published a glowing report of Walter Reed’s success in getting wounded soldiers back to active duty or an active life.

Trouble at Walter Reed is nothing new. Three years ago, the online newspaper Salon exposed wretched conditions at Building 18, a former hotel scheduled for decommissioning and in disrepair.

All it took to trigger the perfect storm of bipartisan outrage was one injured staff sergeant’s shock at the death by alcohol poisoning of a heavily medicated corporal returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder. The staff sergeant and others began monitoring the brain injury ward and found numerous abuses. Someone phoned The Washington Post, which assigned two top investigative reporters. They interviewed dozens of soldiers and their families, inspected conditions in the hospital and produced an explosive series of articles that ignited the scandal, triggered general outrage, led to the several dismissals and resignations and, incidentally, seemed headed for a Pulitzer Prize.

Walter Reed has been clearly overwhelmed by the pitiful arrival three times a week of the wounded and groggy soldiers in white-painted school buses fitted with stretchers and blackened windows. Many more must be expected as casualties mount in the current escalation of troop strength and fighting.

The injured troops found themselves crowded into sometimes shabby wards, stressed out by Army red tape and wartime confusion. Often resorting to carry-outs and hot plates because of the long walk to a mess hall, they naturally accumulated filth and drew the mice and cockroaches.

How did things reach this state? It may have been inevitable in the midst of a seemingly endless war that is losing public support and is costing so much that the Bush administration is cutting other spending in an effort to balance the budget.

Apologies, investigations, a big cleanup and more considerate treatment of the wounded are all the order of the day. “Support the troops” never had a more demanding message.