A CHRONIC AILMENT
by Alex McRae

It may have been the most bipartisan moment in American history.

Moments after the story broke, all 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate crawled out of their plush offices, leaned toward the nearest camera and told the exact same lie. Individual versions varied, but the basic script went something like this: "I was (shocked, appalled, astounded, flabbergasted, bumfuzzled, concerned, angry) when I learned some wounded military personnel at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are receiving the kind of medical care you wouldn't give a dog. There is no excuse for this, and we will keep holding hearings until this problem is replaced by another headline."

That's the lie. Here's the fact ... any elected official who has been in D.C. over a week knew there were problems at our nation's military hospitals.

They chose not to act because there wasn't a huge national outcry until The Washington Post exposed just how bad things were at certain outpatient facilities at Walter Reed.

Walter Reed isn't just another hospital. It's one of the best hospitals on Earth. So is the D.C. area's other major military hospital, Bethesda Naval Medical Center.

Those two hospitals have the best facilities and finest medical personnel on the planet. The doctors, nurses and physical therapists at Walter Reed have done miracles putting together the bodies and lives of military personnel who suffered the gravest wounds imaginable in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

But like any other government institution, Walter Reed has its share of bureaucrats. They don't treat patients. They shuffle papers from desk to desk and patients from room to room. To some of those bureaucrats, wounded soldiers are just annoyances that have to be dealt with, which is why some wounded servicemen wound up in places like Walter Reed's Bldg. 18, one of 28 buildings on the facility's 100-acre campus.

The patients housed in building 18 were forced to live with rats, roaches and mold. For months they complained to superiors, and nothing happened. Finally, they complained to The Post. Within hours, the Army's top hospital brass was gone, and Congress was in a state of denial.

Maybe Congress didn't believe all the horror stories it had heard over the years. After all, our elected royalty only see the "good" side of Walter Reed. They only see the really "special" buildings filled with really "special" equipment and really "special" doctors and nurses always ready to treat really "special" elected officials.

Our elected officials don't wait in line for hours to get admitted.

They don't get hassled over insurance paperwork. They have their own "special" block of rooms, with no roaches, no rats and no waiting for a specialist or gourmet meal. Kings would kill for the kind of medical care Walter Reed serves to the top brass. In fact, kings are among Walter Reed's customers.

Now Congress is talking about treating soldiers with respect.

It may help. But the problem could have come to light earlier if we, the people, did two things: First, demand that congresspersons admitted to Walter Reed get the same treatment as our injured soldiers. Second, give our soldiers the gold-plated treatment elected officials now receive.

Our elected officials are supposed to be public servants. Instead, they live like royalty. While soldiers are being killed, maimed and disfigured on the battlefield, then ignored at Walter Reed, our "leaders" are out raising money for reelection campaigns.

It would be nice to see our elected officials live the soldier's life, to see them wait in line for hours to see someone, then be treated like dirt and shown to a roachy, moldy, ratinfested room. A few days of that and our soldiers would be getting world-class treatment faster than you can say roach motel.

It can't happen soon enough. (Send your e-mail comments to: alex@newnan.com)