Bush’s Contempt for Our Soldiers
By NoQuarter on November 20, 2007 at 8:46 PM in Iraq, Soldiers/Veterans
Some may say that our soldiers are just fodder to the Bush administration.
It’s good, though, that the administration is watching out for every penny of taxpayers’ money, and holding THOUSANDS of soldiers accountable for fulfilling their missions or paying us taxpayers back: Although Bush called Jordan Fox’s mother last May to ask how her son is doing — Fox was sidelined when he was hit by a roadside bomb that injured his back and destroyed his vision in his right eye — his administration now wants the wounded soldier to return the re-enlistment bonus because he didn’t fulfill his three-month obligation. (Thanks to Brenda Stewart for the story and link.)
Compare and contrast how the Bush administration goes after the bad guys who steal and use the Iraq war to line their pockets: The Seattle PI carried a story about an Army captain who’s charged with “conspiracy, bribery and money laundering” for accepting “tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors in Iraq to steer Army contracts to them.” TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!
Sounds like the feds really investigated his crimes, and are gonna nail the bastard. But what about these other bastards? …
From TPM Muckraker’s “$20 Billion in Afghanistan, Iraq Contract Cash Goes to Unidentified Companies“:
Ah, Iraq. The land of milk and honey for a defense contractor. Not that all those contractors have such high profiles. In fact, due to a clever bit of disclosure chicanery, some of them are completely unknown, even to budget watchdogs.
The Center for Public Integrity’s brand-new report on Iraq contracting, Windfalls of War II, identifies at least $20 billion in contract money that has gone to non-U.S. companies that it cannot identify: … READ ALL.
And, from Charlie Cray’s story, “KBR’s Giant New Contract,” June 2007:
Just days after Stewart Bowen, the Special Inspector General released a new report which explains how KBR has been gouging taxpayers from inside the Green Zone, the Army announced that the company (which was split off from Halliburton this year) will divvy up another $150 billion with two other contractors — Fluor and Dyncorp — over the next ten years.
The results of Bowen’s audit come as no surprise, because they track the kinds of abuses that whistleblowers and others working for the company and the military have said are quite common. For example, one of Bowen’s conclusions is that the company lacks adequate inventory controls, and hasn’t kept good track of the fuel it is disbursing.
That problem should remind everyone of the situation that ultimately led the military to cancel a gasoline contract years ago.
In a report on that earlier scam, GAO report found “a pattern of contractor management problems” at KBR, including ineffective planning, a poor materials requisition system and inadequate supervision of subcontractors.
At one point investigators working for Rep. Henry Waxman reported that KBR had charged an extra $165 million to transport the gasoline into Iraq. The situation caused an embarassed Pentagon’s Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) to stop using KBR and take responsibility for its own fuel supply in April 2004. (A year after it lost the contract, KBR reportedly attempted to disrupt fuel deliveries by other subcontractors.)
Now, three years later, KBR seems to be up to its old tricks. The “inadequate controls” over the gas inventory provide another opportunity to cook the books and bilk the taxpayers. All from the comfort of the Green Zone.
And who was going to catch them if Bowen didn’t conduct the audit?
In its 2004 report, GAO criticized military officials for failing to properly oversee Halliburton’s work. GAO reported interviewing military officials who “told us that they knew nothing about LOGCAP before they deployed and had received no training regarding their roles and responsibilities.”
But now that they are promising KBR and the other companies another ten years and up to $150 billion worth of contract work, the Army says hold on, it has found a solution: To beef up its ability to provide adequate oversight, it hired another contractor. … READ ALL.
$20 BILLION DOLLARS.
$150 BILLION DOLLARS.
Army Capt. Cedar Lanmon’s take that’ll NO DOUBT land him in the slammer? “About $40,000.”
I’m glad the feds are catching the really bad guys.
To the rich everything is permitted and to the poor and those in the middle, everything is required and nothing is permitted. We’ve grown up thinking of ourselves as a democratic and fair society, but this is now far from true. “The troops” have become a propaganda set piece for those in power, and woe betide anyone who questions the war; they’ll be accused of dishonoring the troops. But their cynicism in their manipulation of these men and women has been betrayed again and again.
In reading this story on another blog, I recalled an artist I know who was active in Weimar Germany. Some of his drawings portray this very theme — wounded veterans from WWI, and poor civilians too, alongside fat indulgent wealthy citizens who who studiously ignore those who are suffering. Here are two drawings.
http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/images/weimar5.jpeg
http://pirazhvu.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/the-owners_1920.jpg
To me, these pictures reflect all too well our own society today.
Oops. Forgot to give the artist’s name. This is George Grosz. He also did a lot of work during the fascist period. Lived in the US during WWII, then went back to Germany.
BTW:
Dan Abrams had the soldier on and says that the Pentagon has reversed the request for the reimbursement …. but the soldier said that he hopes that ALL the wounded soldiers who’ve gotten these bills will speak up so they also get the Pentagon to back off. It wasn’t clear from Abrams’ “breaking news” report from the Pentagon if this applies to all wounded soldiers or just to Jordan Fox.
War profiteering reminds me of a Laurel and Hardy movie about WWI. The two boys join up and serve in the trenches. One thing they learn is that the hardtack or whatever issued by the Army for food is inedible, as hard as a brick. After the war the boys return home. At a party they’re introduced to a personable young man. They’re told he’d “done his bit” at home by producing that #@$&*+ hardtack! The boys attack him with extreme prejudice and try to force feed him some of his own hardtack just to show him how inedible it really is.
Next time you hear some *ss wipe rethuglican disparage Henry Waxmen for his oversight investigations or praise a rubberstamp Republican representative of the day, like Issa (R-CA), for being dismissive about the claims, don’t forget how vigorously they pursued the vet and how lamely they pursued their campaign contributers and NO BID fortune 500 subcontracters. This is YOUR MONEY people.
If you don’t understand how Washington is broken by now, re-read this story.
The purpose of government has been subverted by Bush and Cheney and Delay and Abramoff to be the legal theft of your wealth and your children’s wealth.
I hope there is a god and I hope she has her day of vengence because the day of judgement for Bush and Cheney and their cast of co-conspiritors will not come on this earth.
Slightly OT / from my senator, Patty Murray:
Veterans: Shocking News Report Reveals Frequency of Veterans Suicides
Last week Senator Murray talked about the CBS News report.-
On Wednesday (11/14), I spoke on the Senate floor in response to a sad and shocking CBS News report that revealed new figures on the number of veterans who have committed suicide. CBS News’ five-month investigation into veteran suicides found that at least 120 Americans who served in the U.S. military killed themselves every week in 2005. That’s at least 6,256 veteran suicides in one year – a rate twice that of other Americans.
:::::::::::
MORE BUSH HANDIWORK:
WA Heath, Labor, and Education: Bush Vetoes Nearly $8 Million for our State
On Tuesday (11/13), President Bush vetoed a critical spending bill that included funding for health, education, and labor projects throughout Washington state.
View the projects the President vetoed funding for in your area.
BUSH’S VETO INCLUDES FUNDING FOR HOMELESS VETERANS — From Sen. Murray’s Web site:
Senator Murray released the following statement after President Bush vetoed the bill:
“Today President Bush said no to nurses in Spokane, low-income students in Seattle, and forest workers in Lewis County. He dashed the hopes of the uninsured in Olympia, new parents in Tacoma, and homeless veterans across the country. He did so under the guise of being a fiscal conservative, but nobody’s fooled.”
“While this President puts one hand out for another $196 billion for the war, he stamps a veto on investments in our future with the other. By vetoing this critical funding the President reaffirmed that educating our kids, treating our sick, and building our workforce are secondary to the War in Iraq.
“I will work with my Senate colleagues to override the Presidents veto and bring these much needed federal dollars to our state.”
Our only hope will be President Lou Dobbs.
http://www.LouDobbs4President.com
GB
A legend in his own mind.
Larry: Check out MSN this morning:
Headlines:
McCLellan: Bush Misled public on CIA
The Press Sec. says both the president and vice president involved in leaking Val’s Name!!!!!!!!
This is big! I mean..this ain’t no 2nd rate break in at watergate..The president was involved in a very serious act of breaking the law..
To Quote from his book ” I had unknowingly passed along false information. and five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff and the president himself.”
I hope this story gains traction…now i’m willing to discuss high crimes as we read in the constitution. CAUSE IT IS A CRIME! Not a policy..not a military action..not a political course of action..But a crime!
“Criminal conspiracy.”
Put IT back on the table, Nancy.
I recall as a child in Japan seeing WW2 Japanese veterans blinded or missing limbs that were begging in the street, still in their uniforms. We have seen that kind of shameful treatment here with our Vietnam and Gulf War vets. Our veterans deserve better.
Sadly, there is a signature wound of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, perhaps the equivalent of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Brain Injury Trauma.
Even Stalin funded soldiers who had suffered from BIT. Not for compassionate reasons, simply to get them back in the field. The father of neuropsychology, Alexandr Luria, was a pioneer in the field of brain injury trauma.
http://www.pubserv.com/mitecs/pdf/cole.pdf#search=’stalin%20neuropsychology%20brain%20injury’
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-03-brain-trauma-lede_x.htm
I imagine Mr. Johnson will be spending quite a bit of time over the holiday, planning what he’s going to write about what McClellan has to say, in his upcoming book, about the Valerie Wilson/CIA Opporative leak.
YES! WE CAN HOPE! I could post some quotable about it but I’d far rather read what Larry has to say on the entire matter since Larry is a true expert on the entire chronology, and minutae, of the case.
I saw this McClellan thing and i am so happy for Valerie and Joe. Finally the truth is oozing out of this miasma called the bush administration.Of course it takes another one of these bums peddling a book to get the truth, but I’ll take it never the less.
if Bush and Company makes it through his term WITHOUT being brought to IMPEACHMENT or charges, then we don’t deserve to be called a nation of laws and we should just shut our pie holes on preaching democracy .
What do you have to do to get impeached in this day and age? screw sheep on the white house lawn in front of FOXNEWS camera’s while saying there is no God?
WTF?
Unfortunately, everyone, according to TPM, McClellan doesn’t have the spine to go after his old boss after all. Today his publisher is assuring everyone that all he’s saying is that Bush unknowingly misled him. Of course he did. False alarm. Go back to sleep. Georgie is an honorable man. So are they all, all honorable men.
Shit.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/11/publisher_of_mc.php
Look, then it means Bush is incompetent.
Susan, as I mentioned in my other reply I see double standards creeping in here. When you send hired killers…and call them what you will, our nations finest, upright soldiers, when you send hired killers out into society expect bad things to happen. I think this recent event will put things in perspective.
Today in Perth a young woman was air lifted to hospital with critcal injuries. She apparently had hopped over the fence of her neighbour’s house to rescue a puppy in distress. And this puppy really was in distress. It was about to become a meal for two starving big bull mastifs. Unfortunately, in her charity, the woman became a much more favourable object as a much needed meal.
The police, for once, arrived in time and attemped to tazer the dogs to no avail and they were eventually shot.
Was the dogs owner wrong in starving his/her dogs to provide an extra perceived level of sercurity? The dogs were there to protect the premises and a woman trespassed. Although she trespassed in good will, following her conscience to rescue a little puppy in distress. Now apply that analogy to the troops in Iraq. The troops are the big dogs and the Iraq innocents are the young woman following her conscience.
The owner of the home in Perth felt there was a need for security and there are certainly criminal elements in Perth as there are in Iraq. But when security defies conscience isn’t that an attack on God? Isn’t that the time to say we must stop this?
I love your posts about withdrawing the troops no questions asked, but any attempt to validate their role I cannot accept.
[...] UPDATE 2: SusanUnPC at Larry Franklin’s blog draws some interesting parallels that are worth noting. [...]