(HOST) Commentator Bill Seamans has been watching the ripples spread from the Walter Reed scandal, and he's wondering where they will stop.

(SEAMANS) With the firing of Generals Kevin Kiley and George Weightman, the two top commanders at Walter Reed Army hospital have borne the heavy penalty of accountability - a rare commodity in Washington. Their departure symbolizes the promise of a new era of better outpatient care at Walter Reed and for Veterans Administration hospitals around the country.

President Bush took the familiar Washington political damage control action - he appointed a bipartisan investigative committee chaired by Bob Dole and Donna Shalala - even though Congressional oversight hearings will continue.

As committee investigations go and the fact that they will examine the whole VA medical support system around the country we can expect that at Washington bureaucratic warp speed it could take up to a couple of years before recommendations for improvements are made, put into effect, and actually reach the veteran.

Between now and then will be a critical period for our veterans' battle for better medical care after they leave their hospital beds at Walter Reed and the Bethesda Naval Hospital. Because their situation is "being taken care of by the committee," as the politicians say, it is critical for their campaign that veterans and the public must not relax. We must recharge our determination to keep the pressure on our congress persons to make sure that our veterans' problems don't fade away in the fog and babble of endless hearings. When our legislators come home for a grip and grin - we can hold the handshake until they tell us what they are doing for our veterans. And we can ask blunt questions of campaigning presidential candidates.

So what have we learned so far from the Walter Reed scandal? The New York Times says one of the lessons is "that President Bush needs to learn that the horrors of this war can no longer be denied or hidden away." Also we the people, other than the relatives of our service persons, have been brought a step closer to the war from which we were excused when President Bush said we should live normally and go shopping.

One questions how the disgraceful treatment of veterans will affect Army recruitment which is having a difficult time meeting its quotas. And if enlistment falls off and our troops continue being stretched toward what military experts call an inevitable breaking point - does it mean that a draft is possible although no presidential candidate will dare make that suggestion.

Finally, some very pertinent words spoken by a well known General - he said "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive how the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation...." The General who said that was George Washington.

Bill Seamans is a former correspondent and bureau chief for ABC News in the Middle East.