Walter Reed: How the Hell did this happen? - Part 1
If you ask this question, you will no doubt get a variety of answers varying from, "...it's a leadership issue..." to "...it's a communications breakdown..." to "...it's because of all the privatization." These are only a few of the answers I've been given. I've talked about the problems at Walter Reed - Building 18, in particular - to friends on active duty, retired officers, retired enlisted personnel, doctors, nurses, private sector hospital workers with no relation to these events, and civilians of many descriptions. Most shook their heads and uttered one of the reasons I mentioned. Some yelled angrily that it - the problem - starts with President Bush, or with former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.
They're wrong. Let me say that again: They - are - wrong.
What created the circumstances that allowed the conditions in Building 18 to exist, and persist, is far worse and much bigger than issues of leadership, communication, and privatization combined. That’s not to say that these three points haven't played their part - they have. But, they’re only parts...and rationalizations.
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