It’s a shame, but it’s not “treason” as the perpetually reality challenged would breathlessly assert. Of course I’m talking about the WAPO’s article on the “Old Man” Walter Reed Hospital and it’s conditions for wounded and recovering troops.

“Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

This is of course is what is known as hit and run agenda driven sensationalist journalism at it’s best. The story isn’t new, and while it is disturbing, it’s not as “earth shattering” as “Leaky Dana” would have us believe. Here’s Dana reporting on her “super secret” trip to the “hell hole”:

“Not all of the quarters are as bleak as Duncan’s, but the despair of Building 18 symbolizes a larger problem in Walter Reed’s treatment of the wounded, according to dozens of soldiers, family members, veterans aid groups, and current and former Walter Reed staff members interviewed by two Washington Post reporters, who spent more than four months visiting the outpatient world without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials. Many agreed to be quoted by name; others said they feared Army retribution if they complained publicly.”

Unbelievable.¬† In other words, though eighty-percent of the hospital is doing good things the whole place is crap because of this twenty percent that has problems.¬† Not only is the story incorrect and misleading it’s blantantly muckracking at it’s core.

Even Priest admits:

“While the hospital is a place of scrubbed-down order and daily miracles, with medical advances saving more soldiers than ever, the outpatients in the Other Walter Reed encounter a messy bureaucratic battlefield nearly as chaotic as the real battlefields they faced overseas.

On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of “Catch-22.” The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.”

Notice the “Catch-22″ reference, no doubt Dana’s words as none of the soldiers there are old enough to remember one of the left’s premier anti war movie of the late 70s.

Walter Reed is set to close in 2010 where it will switch ops to Bethesda Naval Medical Center, which would be expanded to include a new 340-bed hospital, which will cost 1 billion dollars to build and will help considerably.  Thus everything is in transition. Additionally, the problems with Walter Reed are already in the process of being addressed as even Dana could figure out if she would have bothered to read the details of the new defense budget.

“The president’s budget requests nearly $87 billion in fiscal year 2008 for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Most of the money would go to health care and disability compensation. The White House said that represents an increase of 77 percent over the VA’s budget when Bush took office.”

As a disable veteran I know first hand of how we are “treated” not only as result of our injuries (service connected).¬† In the nearly 20 years I have received treatment from various VA clinics and medical facilities I have received stellar service.¬† Although “quality of treatment” is in the eye of the beholder.¬† Sure I remember being in similiar circumstances and worse while being treated at a VA clinic back in the fund-challenged 90s, when Clinton all but pulled funding for Walter Reed.¬†¬† But this isn’t a “blame game” I’m talking about here, it’s the way things have been for a while.¬†¬† Overall treatment in much of the VA healthcare system are markedly improved.¬† Point of fact I have four more facilities to go to here in South Florida because of increased funding during the last six years.

Or course it’s not been all wine and roses, but funding the largest healthcare system in America isn’t without challenges. Fact of the matter is that Walter Reed IS understaffed and over housed and that should be the point of the story. During the old man’s 100 year history this has always been the case, and make no mistake I’m not defending the problem, simply putting it in it’s proper and correct perspective.¬† The Washington Post should report this, however reporting a story only to create a false impression of neglect is not not only irresponsible but journalistic malfeasance.