How We Got Enron!

I read a good letter to the editor re: the Iraq war and the troops today from some suburban Minneapolis/St. Paul paper off a link I saw on newsmap. Anyway, aside from thinking that the last sentence of the letter should be plastered on giant billboards near every polling station in the country before the mid-terms, I couldn’t help but notice the Google ads on the sidebar; each one hawking some sort of “Support The Troops!” swag. Our soldiers may be dying, but our demand for high-quality patriotic magnets and wrist bands remains as strong as ever!

In case the link is expired, I took the liberty of reprinting the letter here.

Letter: Empty words for U.S. troops
West Central Tribune
Published Friday, May 5, 2006

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“Any time we put our troops into harm’s way, you must have the best training, the best equipment, the best pay.” That’s what George W. Bush said on Oct. 8, 2003.Let’s examine the record.Of the 20,000 Humvees sent to Iraq, 6,000 had factory-installed armor. Nine thousand trucks were sent to transport our troops; less than 1,000 had armor. We’ve all heard the stories of the body armor purchased by individuals and families when the Department of Defense didn’t supply them to the troops. Radio jammers would have helped prevent so many deaths but they were not deployed to Iraq.When Donald Rumsfeld was asked about the equipment, his reply was, “You go to war with the Army you have… not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” Apparently it was only the war they wanted at that time.

What about the pay for those whom we have put in “harm’s way”?

As the deaths and wounds increased for our troops in Iraq, Bush’s budget for 2005 called for a decrease of their monthly imminent danger pay from $225 to $150 with an additional cut for the family separation allowance from $250 to $100.

In April 2005 the Veterans Administration pleaded for money for the hospitals, but Republicans in Congress defeated the measure to provide $2 billion for health care funding. In February 2005 patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were asked to pay for their meals.

But we are grateful for the sacrifices of our brave troops — why, the Department of Defense sent out letters of condolence to the families with Rumsfeld’s signature (added by a machine).

Is it any wonder that Marine General Greg Newbold said, “My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions — or bury the results.”

Support for our troops is more than a yellow ribbon on an SUV or empty words from the president. [emphasis added -jg]