Army Surgeon General, the man responsible for the care of wounded U.S. soldiers

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The Thing Which is Not

By Watts | bio

http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/douglas_watts/2007/feb/26/the_th

ing_which_is_not

" He replied, that I must needs be mistaken, or that I said the thing

which was not. (For they have no Word in their language to express

Lying or Falsehood). "

-- A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, Swift.

Lemuel Gulliver, please meet Lt. General Kiley, U.S. Army

Surgeon General, the man responsible for the care of wounded U.S.

soldiers at Building 18 of the Walter Medical Center,

Washington, D.C. who told Judy Woodruff of PBS this week:

Oh, I think the repairs are going to be done by the end of the week,

with the exception of one thing, which is a leaky roof, which we

need to wait for the roof to dry. The contractors have already told

us we'll get that sealed up. ... I guarantee you that the health

care here is of the very highest order and has been. The issues, as

you've heard in several press conferences, have been about the

quality of life, specifically some of the issues in Building 18, and

then the bureaucracy, which is not a function of letting soldiers

languish.

Excuse me, but these are pretty disgusting and disingenuous words

coming from a Lt. General in the U.S. Army charged with providing

decent, modern care and treatment for badly wounded soldiers who was

caught red-handed not providing it.

What we have here is a Lt. General simultaneously stating there are

no problems and the problems are being fixed as quickly as possible.

What we have is a General simultaneously saying that soldiers have

always been getting the finest treatment possible and that all of

the existing deficiencies in their treatment are being corrected.

Except for the leaking roof of course, which can't be fixed until it

dries out.

Is this guy running a U.S. Army hospital or trying to rent a slum?

We can't fix the leaking roof until it dries out. ?

What if it rains ?

Perhaps the most galling part of the Lt. General's comments were his

haughty and transparent efforts to re-spin the story, to tell the

reporters they did not see what they could plainly see, or as Lt.

Gen. Kiley bluntly described his task ... to reset their thinking:

It is our responsibility to look at the process through the eyes of

our patients. And we need to be well-focused on that. And those

great, young Americans deserve nothing but the very best health

care, which I believe they're getting. I want to reset the thinking

that, you know, while we have some issues here, this is not

horrific, catastrophic failure at Walter . I mean, these are not

good. But you saw rooms that were perfectly acceptable.

Let's now catalog the General's quantum spin:

1. So long as a few rooms are " perfectly acceptable " , we should

ignore all the rooms that are covered with mold and mildew. Again,

is Lt. Gen. Kiley a slumlord in his spare time? Does he run a cheap

motel that advertises " Some Rooms Perfectly Acceptable " ? Or a

restaurant where " Some Food Not Tainted " ?

2. So long as the disgusting conditions at Building 18 at Walter

do not constitute a " horrific, catastrophic failure " of health

care, this is really much ado over nothing, and it's your fault, the

press, for blowing this all out of proportion. Implication: I would

not be standing here if not for the Washington Post's meddling --

and I deeply resent it.

3. " I want to reset the thinking that ... " Translation: I want to

reset your thinking. I want to change the subject. I want to rewrite

your story. Let's talk about all the good things we're doing. How

come you only come down to Walter to do negative stories. Why

can't you write about the rooms we've got that aren't covered with

mildew and the roofs that aren't leaking? Why do you hate America so

much?

Now we get to the thing which is not:

" I guarantee you that the health care here is of the very highest

order and has been. "

Here we have the U.S. Army Surgeon General at a hastily called press

conference, showing off rooms with still-wet paint to cover up the

mold and mildew, with a leaking roof that he says can't be fixed

until it " dries out, " all of which was only made public by several

months of undercover reporting by the Washington Post, and he claims

the health care at Building 18 has always been of the " highest

order. "

If so, why the need for all the fresh paint, fixing the roof, or

even the press conference ? Doesn't the singular fact that 20 news

crews and the Lt. General are in the same location at a hospital

building with just-painted-over mold and mildew and a still-leaking

roof provide object evidence that health care at Walter has not

lately been of the " highest order " ?

Here's where Lt. General Kiley demonstrates how stupid we and the

press are. The deplorable conditions in the patient rooms at

Building 18 -- as all health care professionals know -- are

not " health care related issues. " They are merely " quality of life

issues " and are thus totally separate and distinct from the quality

of the health care the wounded soldiers receive in the actual

treatment rooms. It's perfectly normal for hospital rooms to be

filled with mold and mildew and mice feces, so long as the treatment

rooms themselves are somewhat clean. You see, laypeople like us do

not appreciate this difference. Just like a broken clock is right

twice a day. And a leaky roof stops leaking once the rain stops.

Let's remember what Lt. General Kiley would prefer we forget. If not

for two journalists working undercover for many months, Building 18

at Walter would be just as decrepit today as it has been for

many months, and the U.S. Dept. of Defense would still be doing

absolutely nothing to fix it.

Except saying the thing which is not.

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Feb 26, 2007 -- 12:39 PM EST

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On February 26, 2007 - 12:56pm hcberkowitz said:

Even more than Kiley, I'd like to hear from the major general that

actually commands Walter .

--

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

" Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it "

[ Santayana]

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