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Editorial: Blame at Walter Reed

In the wake of intense media coverage about problems with housing and medical evaluations plaguing injured combat troops who are outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the Army sacked the hospital’s commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman.

Commanders ultimately are responsible for what happens on their watch, so Weightman would appear to be a reasonable target for the service’s wrath.

Then again, maybe the Army fired the wrong general.

The troubles at Walter Reed —substandard housing for injured troops and a dysfunctional medical evaluation system — did not start on Weightman’s watch.

Service members spoke about these problems in congressional hearings two years ago. The Government Accountability Office reported on the problems last March. And the Army Inspector General has been investigating the problems for over a year.

The GAO report traces the problems back to the tenure of Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, who commanded Walter Reed from June 2002 to September 2004.

Kiley is now the Army surgeon general. And he is, in fact, the man who fired Weightman.

But wait. It gets worse. Kiley is also now the acting commander of the hospital.

It is impossible to believe Kiley was unaware of this sorry situation when he commanded the hospital — and if he was, one must question his competence and leadership. Evidently, he has remained either willfully ignorant or unconcerned during his tenure as surgeon general.

After the scandal broke, in fact, Kiley blamed the media for exaggerating the problems — even as Army Secretary Francis Harvey and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody acknowledged the Army’s failures.

Leaving Kiley to fix this mess is the latest misstep in a tragedy of errors that began with Army officials blaming the troubles on low-ranking noncommissioned officers and ordering (and then rescinding) mandatory daily room inspections for the very same injured troops who exposed the problems to the media.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., rightly points out that the problems at hand go well beyond Walter Reed — which makes them Kiley’s responsibility.

The general has failed in those responsibilities. He should resign.