WASHINGTON, March 31, 2007
Bush Apologizes For Walter Reed Failures
Tour Was President's First Since News Broke Of Shabby Conditions At Top Army Hospital
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Play CBS Video Video Purple Heart Politics Sharyl Attkisson met with Sean Knudsen, a soldier who fought and was wounded in Iraq. He says that he deserves the Purple Heart, but it's being denied to him - and he's not the only one.
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Video Bush's Apology For Walter Reed CBS News RAW: President Bush took responsibility for the shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He made a visit to the hospital and met with wounded soldiers.
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President Bush visits with Sgt. David Gardner, from Fort Bragg, N.C., who was wounded in Iraq, at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington on March 30, 2007. With them are Sgt. Gardner's wife, Beverly Gardner, and their 2-month-old daughter Hailey. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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President Bush, right, shakes hands with 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center, March 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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Interactive Walter Reed Woes Revelations about care and conditions at army hospital prompt look into entire military health-care system.
Critics questioned the timing of Mr. Bush's visit, which came six weeks after poor conditions and neglect of veterans were exposed there.
The news of neglected war veterans outraged Capitol Hill, caused resignations at the Pentagon, and generated promises of better treatment from the Bush administration.
The revelations of shoddy treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington — considered one of the Army's premier facilities for treating those wounded in war — was an embarrassment to Mr. Bush, who routinely speaks of the need to support the troops.
The president toured the main hospital and Abrams Hall, where soldiers were transferred after they were removed from the facility's Building 18 — and where moldy walls, rodent infestation and other problems went unchecked until reported by the media. He said his conversations with those who had been in Building 18 left him "disturbed by their accounts."
"The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures," the president told about 100 medical workers and patients at the hospital. "The system failed you and it failed our troops and we're going to fix it."
Among the areas of the hospital that Mr. Bush toured were a typical — but empty — patient room in Abrams Hall that featured a large wide-screen television and a Macintosh computer, and the physical therapy unit of the main hospital. Along the way, he presented awards to soldiers recovering from serious wounds suffered in Afghanistan and Iraq
"It is not right to have someone volunteer to wear the uniform and not get the best possible care," the president said at the end of his more than two-hour visit. "I apologize for what they went through and we're going to fix the problem."
"Walter Reed is not a photo-op," said Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America. "Walter Reed is still broken. The DoD health care system is still broken. ... Our troops need their commander in chief to start working harder for them."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said "I would disagree with the characterization" that Mr. Bush is using Walter Reed as merely a picture-taking opportunity. She said it took some time to clear enough room on the president's schedule to spend more than three hours with patients and staff at Walter Reed, to find out from them what more needs to be done.
"He is going to spend ample time there to hear from them," Perino said. "He will talk about ... bureaucratic and administrative failures that need to be addressed."
Still, Mr. Bush's trip was cut short by about an hour.
The president said important steps, including the replacement of military leadership in charge of the hospital, have been taken already.
"We're not going to be satisfied until everyone gets the kind of care that their folks and families expect," Mr. Bush said.
The president, though, devoted much of his brief statement to praising the medical care veterans receive at Walter Reed.
"The soldiers and Marines stay here only for a few months, but the compassion they receive here stays with them for a lifetime," Bush said. "Americans must understand that the problems recently uncovered at Walter Reed were not the problems of medical care."
Mr. Bush has appointed a presidential commission to study the problems, and the Pentagon, Veterans Affairs Department and Congress are conducting a slew of reviews. But troops and veterans say many of the issues are well known and have long been in need of response.
Since the disclosures last month, three high-level Pentagon officials have been forced to step down.
This week, the House voted to create a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops. The bill also establishes a hotline for medical patients to report problems in their treatment.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 76 CommentsWhen cuts are made to Defense it's not across the Board and the Democrats haven't been cutting Vets Benefits. They've primarily cut the gold-plated weapons programs that the defense contractors try to sell as improvements(some are some aren't).
Bush has left things in the defense budget like the missle defense system that's been test fired over 100 times and not had a single successful test. That kind of defense spending only defends the corporate profit margin, it doesn't defend us.
Boy, they send them younger and younger to Iraq.
Actually, Bush does not feel anything about those deragotory comments since HE CAN'T READ them. Also, his aides, family and few remaining friends are all too afraid to tell him about the comments. So he still thinks that nearly everyone in the country thinks he's a swell guy. Shh..... Don't tell him anything different. He might get upset.
Re: "Democrats want most of the defense budget for abortions, welfare queens, needle exchange programs, and national health care."
As opposed to using the money to torture and mass-murder people, simply to line the coffers of greedy and subhuman Corporate interests?
What is your point?
They don't have a symbol of a bonehead fer nofin'.
As above, so below.... The logic that creates the actions in the universe(and right around our noses), feeds the logic to the brains in living things on earth. The commands, the unseen, the word of God.
Our memory is NOT limitless. We need to externally store. First with giant star monoliths, later with books, and now with teeny, tiny 1's and 0's. As we get more complictaed, we need to save more and more of the old stuff to re-load like a computer program. The foregotton stuff was just the gravity and gps, like remembering a song(Austrailian Aboriginies still faintly use it). If you don't think humans have such sensors, then explain why you don't get dizzy and fall over from the gravity of the moon? It is powerful enough to yank a whole ocean.
Wow! I must be a 333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 degree mason...lol.
Their secret is, that they are total morons!
How can you say that ? Bush is the Top Gun.
http://www.ericblumrich.com/topgun.html
Bush's privatisation of Walter Reed and cutting veterans funding is what caused this debacle.
Posted by BIGDADPATRIO at 06:09 PM : Mar 30, 2007
You like most FASCIST attempt to pull a swift one here. The Democrats have NEVER cut the budget to the VA, NEVER ONCE!! Bush has consistently!! Now go soak you fascsit brain and see if you can get it to grow bigger... maybe a little anyway. Sieg Heil.
Posted by Jebby_One at 04:35 PM : Mar 30, 2007
You Sir are a LIAR!! The VA does and always has assigned treatment by the situation the Vet is in and NOT by connections like Southern Fascist do things. The VA, since FDR, has been, until Bush, a place to treat Veterans who need Treatment. They have provided Veterans with the Treatment necessary and the money was available, UNTIL Bush needed the money for his Tax Cuts then the Budget for the VA was cut and has been cut by the Bush administration. THATS just the TRUTH!! Seig Heil Y'all.
'08 will come, the dem's will take office and we shall see what "leader" they set in the chair and how glorious our small world will be in Jan '09. I get jittery just thinking about it.
Politics, I'm loving it.
Posted by egotistic at 06:33 PM : Mar 30, 2007
The DEMOCRATS did NOT go around invading Countries that did nothing to us. The Democrats didn't create the 10's of Thousands of Veterans that NEED the VA. The DEMOCRATS have NEVER cut Veterans Benefits not ONCE. Bush and the Fascist have Cut them constantly including in the last Budget submitted by Bush to the Fascist Congress BEFORE the American People kicked them out. Oh! Don't hold your Breath on the Fascist returning to power anytime soon. LOL Last time it took 70 years and this time will most certainly be worse. Sieg Heil!! ROFLMAO
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