From The Associated Press, 3/30/07:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/30/ap3568982.html
Associated Press
Bush Apologizes for Walter Reed Woes
By JENNIFER LOVEN
President Bush apologized Friday for the shoddy conditions at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center and promised during a visit to the facility
for war veterans that "we're going to fix the problem."
Critics questioned the timing of Bush's visit six weeks after poor
conditions and neglect of veterans were exposed there.
Bush toured the main hospital and Abrams Hall, where soldiers were
transferred after they were vacated from the facility's Building 18,
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 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 awarded 10 Purple Hearts 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, cut short from its planned length by almost an
hour.
"I apologize for what they went through and we're going to fix the
problem."
He 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," Bush said.
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The "Support Our Troops" kid's a li'l late, ain't he
Harry
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