The DoD Under Gates

It is just possible that Robert Gates understands what kind of trouble the Department of Defense is in because of the Rumsfeld years.

The rumors are that he fired the Secretary of the Army because Harvey went on the defense in reaction the problems at Walter Reed. First the wounded were pulled on base and told not to talk to the media to prevent any bad news leaking out, with the daily inspections thrown in as a threat. Then Maj. General Weightman was fired, despite only being in the job for about six-months, and Lt. General Kiley was put in charge, even though Kiley was the commander when the problems were first reported years ago and did nothing about it. This was a standard stall tactic. Harvey was planning to form a committee to study the issue until it faded from public notice, the standard Rumsfeld/Republican response to problems.

The Shrubbery has announced he is forming a panel to study the issue, so he can avoid responsibility for what he has done for the last six years. The Snowman will be telling reporters how the White House can’t comment on ongoing investigations, the standard dodge.

I think Gates has figured out that this isn’t going away, because Congress and the Washington Post [they love the smell of that Pulitzer] won’t let it go away. This isn’t going to swept under the rug, like Abu Ghraib, to fester, as Gates understands that he is going to have budget problems if progress isn’t made. The Democrats are investigating the problem, and Gates has to know by now that the entire military medical system is screwed up because of the lack of planning by Rumsfeld. Gates is dealing with a lot of political flag officers and he is going to have fire them before the remainder understand that they are going to have to do their jobs and not just brown nose.