Following up on the relief of MG Weightman from his command at WRAMC, we find that the Surgeon General, LTG Kevin Kiley has temporarily assumed command at the troubled medical center. Many consider this a good sign, an indication that things will now be put right.

Not so much.

It seems that LTG Kiley knew of the appalling conditions at Walter Reed and did nothing about it.

Yesterday, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the Army’s top medical official, was appointed acting head of Walter Reed hospital. As ThinkProgress documented, Kiley has known for years about the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed. Kiley was personally told about injured veterans who were “languishing and lost on the grounds,” sharing drugs and “drinking themselves to death,” and reportedly did nothing to address the problems. In one stunning case, Kiley took no action when personally informed that a soldier was sleeping in his own urine.

Representative Louise Slaughter (D [of course] – NY) has demanded LTG Kiley’s immediate dismissal also.

“The Department of Defense needs to make a choice: does it care about our wounded veterans, or does it care about public relations?” Rep. Slaughter said today. “While I was glad to see that initial steps had been taken to change the leadership at Walter Reed, yesterday’s news of Mr. Kiley’s appointment was simply baffling. How can a man who stood by for years while American soldiers suffered needlessly be expected to enact real reforms?”

“The outrage of the American public over the conditions at Walter Reed will not be pacified by simply shuffling the deck,” Rep. Slaughter said. “Secretary Gates must immediately remove from command anyone who allowed its facilities to fall into such a state of disrepair.”

“Our wounded soldiers deserve nothing less than the best health care this country can provide and the best leadership to ensure they receive that care.”

One contributing factor to this shameful situation at Walter Reed is the Army system of command. Leadership is an art, not a science. It is learned and cannot be taught. In today’s Army leadership appears to be a factor at the company level, and in some occasions, at the battalion level. Field grade and general grade officers are expected to be “managers” and not “leaders” and we are the poorer for this woeful state of affairs. While a knowledge of management is required for battle-set command, soldiers in such positions seem to lose sight of the fact that maneuver and combat are not markers on a map table, or icons on a screen but rather men and machines in the real world. And each of these is prone to breaking down, all too often in hideously violent, frightening ways.

There is a general lack of accountability in “management.” When you screw up someone else bleeds and dies, and you are rarely ever called to account.

In the old Soviet Army, and its Eastern European clones, there was a ruthless system of accountability called “the vertical stroke.” Serious mistakes at the platoon level, for instance, called for the punishment of the platoon commander (it happened on his turf,) his company commander (it happened on his watch,) and often the battalion commander (just what sort of idiots are you training down there?) If the screw up occurred in a unit above the platoon level, the vertical stroke just traveled higher. I’m not implying the Soviet Army produced great combat leaders, because we don’t know that, thankfully. I’m just noting they tended to take officer responsibility far more seriously than the US Army does.

LTG Kiley has earned an early retirement.