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Editorial: Who’s to blame at Walter Reed

Defense Secretary Robert Gates got his first big test last week and showed exactly what kind of secretary he is.

Unhappy with a week of slow-burn obfuscation and missteps as the Army tried to downplay revelations in this newspaper and others about the deplorable conditions in which injured combat troops lived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Gates asked Army Secretary Francis Harvey to resign.

Commanders ultimately are responsible for what happens on their watch, so it makes sense that Harvey take the fall. But while Harvey can be faulted for the Army’s inadequate response, there are others far closer to the situation who likewise must go.

Harvey’s resignation followed by a day the firing of Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who commanded Walter Reed.

But the troubles at the hospital — substandard housing for injured troops and a dysfunctional medical evaluation system — did not start on Weightman’s watch.

As far back as 2005, service members spoke about these problems in congressional hearings. The Government Accountability Office reported on the problems last March. And the Army Inspector General has been investigating the problems for over a year.

Indeed, the GAO report traces the problems back to the tenure of Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, who commanded Walter Reed from June 2002 to September 2004.

It is impossible to believe Kiley, now the Army surgeon general, was unaware of this sorry situation when he commanded the hospital — and if he was, one must question his competence and leadership. Evidently, he has remained either willfully ignorant or unconcerned during his tenure as surgeon general.

When the scandal broke, in fact, Kiley blamed the media for exaggerating the problems, rather than acknowledging his own responsibility.

The secretary was forced out because the Army mishandled its response to the troubles at Walter Reed. But as the Army surgeon general, Kiley is ultimately responsible for not only that hospital, but the Army’s slow, complex and unfair disability evaluations system. He has failed in this role and should follow Harvey out the door.