Scandal at Walter Reed gives only a partial picture

Support for the troops has taken on a whole new meaning with the Washington Post's exposure of the abandonment of wounded soldiers to squalid, understaffed quarters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
While peeling paint, moldy walls and vermin infestation provided the early visual aids for the Walter Reed story, the real scandal is the difficulty soldiers have been having in receiving proper medical treatment and the disability benefits to which they are entitled.
In response to hearings held at the hospital by both House and Senate committees, President Bush named former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Service Secretary Donna Shalala to lead the administration's investigation into problems at Reed.
And during a speech at an American Legion convention, the president said, "We have a moral obligation to provide the best possible care and treatment to the men and women who served our country. They deserve it, and they're going to get it."
The question, of course, is how the White House, Congress and the various branches of the armed services could have been oblivious to what appears to be such an obvious national scandal. How could two reporters working for four months on a telephone tip uncover horror stories of wounded soldiers and families who felt betrayed by the government for which they had sacrificed?
Early response
There have been a few quick firings and resignations, but no one can pretend that the secretary of the Army and the commander of the hospital for the last six months shoulder the entire blame. But the larger question, beyond what went wrong, is how can the nation make this right.
A bipartisan White House inquiry may answer some immediate questions, but a broader, nonpartisan working group may be in order.
The potential problems dwarf that of the immediate instances of inadequate care or incompetent paper-shuffling.
Field doctors and hospitals are doing a marvelous job in Iraq, saving thousands of lives that would have been lost in any earlier war.
The breakdown, by all reports, begins when the soldiers and Marines arrive home.
The Post reports of conditions at Walter Reed, the nation's premier military medical facility, seem to have opened the floodgates, with reports following of soldiers returning to hometowns where they find that their medical records have been lost, they can't get appointments with physicians and proper medicines and protheses are unavailable..
Hidden injuries
And most of those reports concern soldiers with readily diagnosable injuries. Thousands of others who did not suffer penetrating injuries may have sustained brain injuries from multiple concussions caused by explosions that rattled their skulls.
Clearly, the government is as yet unprepared for the challenges ahead. As Newsweek magazine reported, the Congressional Budget Office continues to estimate the cost of treated soldiers injured in this war at about 5 billion over the next six years. A Harvard study estimates the cost at 20 billion.
That's a lot of money, obviously, but there is no question it will have to be found. The need for such a huge expenditure suggests that the nation may not even have the facilities or trained medical personnel necessary to provide appropriate care.
There is a lot of work to be done if our wounded troops are going to receive the care they need. And the time to start assessing the needs and providing the care has already passed.