That may be his attitude, but it is not the reality on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Far too many Americans Bush has put in harm's way are trying unsuccessfully to stay alive in soft-armored Humvees while wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets. Far too few of them have the Intercepter Vest designed in the late 1990's to protect its wearer with Kevlar lining and ceramic plates in front and back pockets to shield vital organs. Day after grinding day in the filth and horror of a war with the "front line" anywhere the enemy decides it will be, ill-trained and ill-equipped Americans are losing the battle to stay alive -- and there is no end in sight.
Most Americans neither know nor care about what is going on, but the mothers know. They are not only spending thousands of dollars sending critical armor, night-vision goggles, and other needed equipment to their children, but are sending food as well.
Journalist Bob Kerr writes in The Providence Journal that Marine Nick Andoscia called and asked his mother to send food. Kerr said Nick told his mother that he and the men in his unit had shed about 10 pounds in their first few weeks in Iraq. They were pulling 22-hour patrol shifts, and were getting only two meals a day -- not meals to remember. He said they were going to the Iraqis and literally begging for food.
The lack of support this administration gives its uniformed personnel is monumentally ruthless and evil. Since Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq, nearly 12,000 soldiers have been evacuated because of disease. Some of the sickness can be attributed to Halliburton-KBR serving tainted water and rotten food in the mess halls, but most is undoubtedly from radiation poisoning due to the widespread use of the deadly Depleted Uranium.
Blaming the Troops
One of the more frightening things about wars, especially immoral wars like this one, is the enemy must be dehumanized so soldiers and marines can be kept under control and "up" for the killing they must do. Normal human beings can't turn cruelty on and off like a faucet; therefore, the troops must be also be dehumanized to the point of madness. They become predators without conscience -- drugged and brainwashed into a continuous white rage, not only willing, but eager to kill.
Their commander-in-chief is a ruthlessly self-centered, single-layered demon whose hypnotic cadence of kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill has succeeded in turning them into the monsters they must be for his world dominance aspirations to succeed. The US military are victims of a cruel fascist regime. They are used, then tossed aside to come to terms with what they have become on their own. It is a rare soldier who returns to find professional help available.
For many, the final battle with their predator leader is one too many. Because of the values they were taught from birth -- it all comes crashing down. Many can't cope with the magnitude of sheer evil that envelops them. Some commit suicide. Others become alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless, the walking dead.
When torture, murder and war crimes committed by Americans in places such as Guantanamo, Haditha, Abu Ghrab, Ishaqi and Fallujah, as well as in Afghanistan, comes to light, Bush and his criminal defense department initially try to conceal the atrocities. If forced to investigate themselves, they find no wrongdoing. When all else fails, Bush comes out, blames the troops and says the few bad apples will be brought to justice. Commanders stand silent, refusing to defend or protect those for whom they are responsible -- mute acknowledgement that, as Henry Kissinger said, "Soldiers are expendable -- dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."
Every single member of Congress, every single member of this filthy administration, every single commander on the ground, and every single member of the shameful corporate US media must be blamed for allowing George Bush's rampant maiming and destruction of American citizens and for the genocidal murder waged against innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Every single one of them should be forced to don Vietnam-era flak jackets, crammed into unarmored Humvees and ordered to drive across Iraq, fighting to stay alive while choking on depleted uranium dust. Then they might acknowledge who is to blame for this fiasco.
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
As a Vietnam vets thank for your OpEd News piece.Bush does not support the troops here or there.One he has let DOD put kids with mental problems like PTSD on meds and sent them back to Iraq.When the wounded troops get discharged from Military Hospitals they have to fight for their benefits.When you send kids off to fight a war you have to support them there and here the Republican do not.
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Monkeyman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 55 diaries, 43 comments)
on Monday, June 12, 2006 at 8:04:11 PM
Again, Sheila, you have performed your chosen task of "telling it like it is". In reading your account of the plight of our soldiers in Iraq, I had a sudden memory of reading of the trials of Napoleon's army in the ill-conceived attack on Russia. There, of course, the weather was cold rather than blistering hot, but many of the conditions were the same, inadequate clothing, arms, and ammunition, only an endless flood of human bodies to throw against an entrenched enemy. In the end, in hopeless retreat, ill and starving, having slain and eaten their horses, they were reduced to devouring the bodies of their comrades in arms as they fell victim to the brutal conditions.
Our own little Bonaparte similarly cares nothing for the lives of his little tin soldiers or the safety of their souls. "Victory" is all that matters to him. His only problem will be in knowing when or whether he ever achieves it.
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Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 169 comments)
on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 8:37:25 AM
Thanks...I just got a response from a "former Marine" who said the only way to support the troops was to support President Bush. He said if we had another 9-11, he hoped everyone I loved was killed but me so I could live in grief and agony for the rest of my life.
Real bummer. Wish I could understand how a uniformed military could see so many of his counterparts killed for no good reason -- and still support their killer...
ss
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Sheila Samples (50 articles, 3525 quicklinks, 42 diaries, 377 comments)
on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 6:17:29 PM
