Gates praised for handling US scandal but not by all
Source: Reuters
By Andrew Gray WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has won praise for the removal of two top Army officials over care for wounded troops, with admirers seeing a new commitment to accountability at the Pentagon. But analysts have cautioned that Gates' actions in one case should not be over-interpreted and at least one believes the former Central Intelligence Agency director over-reacted. Gates took over the Pentagon in December from Donald Rumsfeld, who was frequently accused of failing to hold top officials accountable, most notably over the abuse of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and the Iraq war in general. By contrast, the Army's top civilian and a two-star general were gone from their jobs less than two weeks after the Washington Post reported that wounded troops were living in shoddy conditions and caught up in a maze of red tape. "With responsibility comes accountability," Gates said during a visit last month to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the flagship Washington, D.C., military hospital which was the subject of the Post's reports. "It is my strong belief that an organization with the enormous responsibilities of the Department of Defense must live by this principle of accountability at all levels." Army Secretary Francis Harvey quit over the problems at Walter Reed, and the commander of the hospital was removed from his post. Defense officials said Gates had asked for Harvey's resignation. Those moves won plaudits from politicians and the media. "The traditional ethos of the command chain has been newly embraced, or at least apparently so thus far, and that's something that's different, for sure," said Tom Donnelly, a defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute. CAUTION ADVISED But Donnelly also cautioned against reading too much into Gates's actions. He said it was easier to determine accountability for administrative failings than for wartime military decisions or even the Abu Ghraib scandal, where unclear policy guidance made it more difficult to say who was ultimately responsible. Rumsfeld himself also offered to resign over Abu Ghraib but his offer was rejected by President George W. Bush. "We shouldn't get too carried away," Donnelly said. Both Donnelly and Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute, noted also that the political climate changed last November, when Democrats took control of Congress and vowed to scrutinize the Republican administration. Bush announced Rumsfeld's replacement the day after the Democrats' victory and Thompson said the administration was now much more concerned about being seen to be taking action on issues. He suggested that desire had led to a poor decision in firing Harvey, whom Thompson said had done a generally good job. "I think Secretary Gates's decision to force the resignation of the Army secretary was excessive and counterproductive," he said. Thompson said it would be difficult to find a good candidate to take the post when the administration had less than two years to run. "To essentially fire him for a single misstep, it sent a bad signal to anybody who might consider taking one of these jobs in the future," he said. Thompson noted Rumsfeld was often accused of being harsh in his personal dealings with officials and said it was ironic that Gates, who cultivates a much more mild-mannered style than his combative predecessor, had taken such a drastic step. "I just think it's odd," he said. "I think people should be accountable for their entire record."
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