Sometimes Window Dressing Just Isn't Enough

The Army mobilized. Painters were deployed to cover the offending wall with a fresh coat of white semigloss. And television crews were invited in to inspect the result.

“Some of the paint is still wet against that wall, so be careful,” Walter Reed public affairs officer Donald Vandrey, standing on the bed in his socks, advised the film crews. “They just finished repainting it about 10 minutes ago.”

Mission accomplished?

Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley thought so. After the media tour of Building 18, the Army’s surgeon general gave a news conference. “I do not consider Building 18 to be substandard....” (source)

Sometimes I wonder about people. Maybe it’s America in general. I’m not sure. Some things really are just common sense I believe. Take the renovations going on at Walter Reed Medical Center, for example. When we heard about the sub-standard conditions solders were living in last week, it hit the fan big time. It was a huge embarrassment to the military and to President Bush who has stated that we will do whatever is needed for our soldiers who come home wounded and shell shocked from being in war.

Well, the repairs happening at Walter Reed Medical Center have all the brilliance of the war plan that took us to Iraq in the first place. And I have to ask myself, what the hell is going on here? I’m not a construction-type person, so I have no idea what needs to be done. But common sense tells me that if you are standing in your shower and can see the bottom of a bathtub from the floor above you, simply by looking up through a hole (from rot), that it’s going to take a little more than paint to do the job. Wouldn’t you think that if it were your own home?

If it were me doing the repairs, I would deem the entire building unfit for human housing, and condemn it until repairs are made, and I’m not talking about paint here. I’m talking about taking the rot away, the mold, putting in new walls, floors, and ceilings, if necessary. It all has to go. This of course, if the building is even worth saving. Sometimes, you save money by starting from scratch.

See, I understand these things. Why they are applying paint to this building to hide mold is beyond me. It’s just going to come back. You have to fix the source of the problem. What a waste of time and money (OUR money), and a major disrespect to the soldiers.

Why is it that I have a feeling that in a couple of weeks, after the paint has dried, that President Bush will be standing out in front of Walter Reed, in front of a big banner that reads, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”?

It’s time for the military to stop glossing over this issue, now that it’s out in the open, and get the job done. The men and women who put their lives on the line for this country deserve that!