Americans Now Have A Real Leader in Secretary Robert Gates

"US Army Secretary Francis Harvey resigned amid a row over the treatment of wounded US soldiers (at US Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC)."

Three cheers for leadership at the US Defense Department! Hip! Hip! Hurray for the newly appointed leader, our Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

In a bold but absolutely needed decision, Gates unilaterally took no prisoners in the face of US Army bureaucracy. He fired the General in charge of the US Army Veteran's Hospital at Walter Reed; he fired the freshly appointed and yet to be confirmed replacement because he heard from Veterans that the nominee was likely the root of the hospital's outpatient problems in the first place. Then, he even fired the President's appointed Secretary of the Army Harvey. Moreover, these actions were taken in time to steal the lead stories on all the Friday evening television news shows.

Thank you Secretary Gates. You are the leader this country is yearning for.

I'm sorry your leadership arrived so late in our efforts to win peace in Iraq.

"Our wounded soldiers and their families sacrificed much and they deserve the best we can offer," said Secretary of Defense Gates.

My husband is a US Navy Veteran of the Viet Nam War where he served two tours. Once, "in-country" with the Seabees in Chu-Lai; and back to the Gulf of Tonkin aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. Tonight, my husband said these stories about the shabby environment our brave US veteran soldiers are living in at out- patient clinics, while waiting for determinations about their active duty status, made him ashamed as an American. As a decorated and retired veteran of the Viet Nam War, this is a stunning statement from a career Navy man.

Public Television's "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer", heard Marine veteran and columnist Mark Shields says the reason this out-patient debacle is such a daunting problem is because the US military cannot discharge veterans, as they have done in past wars, because there aren't enough troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. (http://tinyurl.com/2k7vcx)

In other words, wounded veterans cannot be summarily discharged for health reasons because they might need to return to the war when they've recovered. Therefore, the holding bins in the veterans' out-patient clinics are piling up with recovering active duty military who are bureaucratically jerked around for 18 months while somebody in the Pentagon decides what criteria to use regarding their discharges.

Those Pentagon power-jerkers should open a book called "Notes on Nursing" by British nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) who cared for thousands of wounded English soldiers in the Crimean War (1854-1856). Nightingale wrote, "It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm. [1859]". It appears our veteran out-patient programs are doing emotional harm - degrading harm - by treating our veteran service men and women like cattle, instead of heroes.

Congratulations to Secretary Gates for exhibiting astounding leadership during a time when this attribute is sadly lacking.

Gates recognized the magnitude of the Walter Reed Army Hospital problem - it's about caring for those who care about us - our soldiers. This situation will undoubtedly reverberate into a bigger discussion with even bolder actions to change an apparently sick dynamic, endemic in our American government - i.e., indifference.

We cannot be indifferent to our veterans and their families, who are fighting and sacrificing in the War in Iraq on behalf of President Bush, who waged this war with no provocation; and again in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, where the enemy is now regrouping to defeat us.

Does anybody in the Republican Party see Secretary Robert Gates as a Presidential Leader? Hello? Are there any alert Republicans out there? Look here - there's a leader here for you - and he's finally taking charge of the Pentagon.