Let me see if I have this correct...the history of the Bush administration with regard to Americans in uniform over the past six years reads as follows:
George W. Bush sent an undermanned force (even John McCain said so) into Iraq without any understanding of what they would encounter on the ground. There was no intelligence estimate as to how the population of the country would respond and no thought given to how to govern a broken society. ("They will treat us as liberators" is not a policy nor a plan).
The soldiers were, and still are, improperly equipped to meet the challenges they face. Troops were scavenging metal plates to arm the floors of their vehicles. Parents were holding raffles to send proper flak vests to sons and daughters. No attempt was made to rush equipment into the field.
Troops living in places like Fort Bragg were subjected to barracks conditions that would cause migrant workers in California to head for the border.
If they were wounded, the medical care provided at such famed institutions as Walter Reed Hospital could only be described as deplorable.
Should they suffer from PTSD (presumably the Patton-esque vice president equates this with malingering) they are sent to a new facility at Ft. Benning. Unfortunately the quarters for these recovering personnel are 200 yards from a firing range. You can't make this stuff up. Exactly who decided that the best environment for shell-shocked troops was a live fire zone?
If by some miracle they manage to survive this "Born on the Forth of July" nightmare they can attend any state university on scholarship. That bit of largess comes courtesy of the U.S. Congress, having recently overridden a Bush veto of the new GI Bill. It seems that President "Vietnam No-show" decided that if service people could go to college after only a three year hitch they might not sign up for more of that first class treatment the Army provides. By the way, John McCain, the uber-sailor, agrees.
By any measure, the Bush administration's tone-deaf incompetence and indifference to the conditions faced by American servicemen and women border on the criminal. Face it, Kansas; this President doesn't give a good god damn about your sons and daughters fighting his war and none of you are holding him accountable. When a Pat Tillman or a Jessica Lynch provides a Kodak moment or an opportunity for a propaganda campaign we all don our flag lapel pins and join in the singing of God Bless America. When the bunting comes down it's the soldiers who are left to sweep up the confetti. But, hell, they volunteered, didn't they?
No comments:
Post a Comment