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mikienes_forums
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 20
Location: Southern Pines, NC
Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:25 pm Post subject: death, $$ cuts for troops while Bush gobbles BBQ, rakes in $
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Hero Sandwiches -- Troops get death and pay cuts while Bush gobbles barbecue, rakes in dough
by Alan Bisbort - August 21, 2003
Who's got time for presidentin' when there's pig on the barbie?
"The men who go to war and live are spared for the single purpose of spreading bad news when they return, the bad news about the way war is fought and why, and by whom for whom, and the more men who survive the war, the higher the number of men who might speak." -- Anthony Swofford, U.S. Marine sniper, from his book Jarhead.
Not since the days of Marie Antoinette has there been such a disconnect between the ruling elite and what Marie might call the unwashed masses. A potent symbol of this cynical detachment is provided by George W. Bush's month-long vacation, during which his only forays among the unwashed masses have been to whack his little white balls around a golf course -- and to host a "down-home" barbecue to shake down rich donors for another run at the White House. The cover charge for barbecue with the Bushes? Each of the 350 "very special guests" paid $50,000 to nibble on those Republican pigs.
Meanwhile, the temperature in Iraq is 30 degrees hotter than it is in Crawford, Texas, and 20 degrees hotter than what killed 3,000 French people and hundreds of other Europeans. Iraq is, in fact, so hot that official meteorological data has been blocked from the media, presumably so that Americans won't know that our troops are the human equivalent of down-home barbecue. What the DoD has also tried to keep a lid on, though foreign news services haven't been so easily bullied as the embedded American press, is that our troops are operating in this inferno without adequate water supplies, sanitation, shelter or barbecue -- actually, any type of food.
To the ruling elite -- like the Crawford pork-nibblers -- these men and women in uniform are useful members of the unwashed masses. They served their purpose as of May 1, when Bush -- who went AWOL from military service during the Vietnam War -- dolled himself up with codpiece and flight helmet for his campaign photo-op aboard the aircraft carrier. "Mission accomplished," he trumpeted, and the media played along with the charade. Since then, at least 126 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and thousands have been wounded, physically and psychologically.
In the midst of Bush's month-long AWOL from his duties as president during wartime (and crises like the worst blackout in U.S. history), the Department of Defense announced last week it intended to cut the pay of the 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and the 9,000 still in Afghanistan. These troops were to receive increases in imminent danger pay (from $150 to $225 a month) and family separation allowance (from $100 to $250). Sen. John Kerry, who did not go AWOL during the Vietnam War, sounded presidential when he told an Iowa audience: "The Bush Administration says they just can't afford it. Well if they can't afford to pay our soldiers in harm's way, and support the families they left behind, then they better get their priorities straight ... The Bush Administration questions the patriotism of those who ask questions about how you win a war, but I know no deeper violation of patriotism than dishonoring those who wear the uniform of our nation ... ."
Am I the only American citizen who remembers Bush telling one of the network news dollies: "I hug the mothers and the widows of those who may have lost their life in the name of peace and freedom"?
As of this writing, no hugs have been extended to American mothers or widows by the commander-in-chief. Maybe Bush doesn't want that kind of photo-op, though it comes with his job. Or maybe he fears that he'll be slapped in the face, literally, just as his pick for the 9/11 investigation, Henry Kissinger, was figuratively slapped in the face by the families of the World Trade Center attack (thus leading to his resignation). The families of the troops are not taking this lightly. Because they, like the families of the World Trade Center victims, have been ignored by the White House, they -- and other veterans, active duty personnel and reservists -- have taken to the Internet, via www.bringthemhomenow.org.
The spirit of their dissent is summed up in this letter from a woman in Minnesota, posted online: "After watching a piece on CNN the other night about the wounded soldiers now being attended to at Walter Reed, many of whom are now minus one or two limbs, I couldn't help but wonder: Was it just me? Did I miss the coverage of the current White House resident spending some serious time visiting these young soldiers? It would have been the decent thing (not to mention the least he could do) for Junior to have spent the first day of his vacation visiting with these brave young men. Before going on to Crawford and picking up the golf clubs, how about having spent some time with the young man who will never be able to hold his newborn infant with both arms?"
_________________
"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. "
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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retried
Joined: 22 Apr 2003
Posts: 197
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 7:43 am Post subject:
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TO MIKIENIES: I think you're one of them "trolls" you can't be for real. Do you actually think any President and yes that includes a Democrat for President would not have fund raisers?, would not eat pork on the barbie as you stated?. You live in the land of Oz. Every war we had so far and every war to come in the future no President eat or will eat MRE's every day just because our GI's have/had to eat them on a daily basis. No President refrained from treating him to a sqare meal or a barbeque. And yes, they all had fund raisers too during these times of war.
Are all the bleeding, protesting hearts out there on a MRE diet because that is what our GI's are eating?
Wars are ugly, but at the same time life goes on, and that is a fact.
First people like you trashed Bush for not finding the WMD's yet Bin Laden and Saddam have not been found either does that mean these two evil individuals don't exist??
Statements like yours are asinine.
Just for the record: Bush was criticized big time for landing on that ship in a flight suit. One of the democrats who is also running for President and who also condemned Bush for landing on that ship had recently his picture taken IN FRONT of a Battleship, my husband and I saw it with our own eyes when they showed it on TV yesterday, yet he was the very one who condemned Bush, and no, it was not because he thought Bush didn't do his military duties, but accused Bush that the only reason he landed on that ship was to help his re-election, and yet this guy is doing the very same thing. Talking about left wing hypocrits.
Retired Army Wife
and proud of it
Last edited by retried on Sun Aug 24, 2003 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total
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wasters
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 37
Location: Savannah, GA
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 8:07 am Post subject:
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Mikienes quit monkeeing around. Are you still hiding in Japan? Did you vote in the last election?
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bppres_forums_forums
Joined: 29 Aug 2003
Posts: 1
Location: Clinton, IN
Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 3:20 pm Post subject: Hero Sandwiches
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I think Retried needs to read a little more closely and understand what the original post was all about. It was not just about the President playing golf or vacationing - and I think Retired knows that. The main complaint was that the President had a month to play golf and charge $50,000 a plate for a barbecue but did not have time to visit soldiers who lost their limbs during his war against Iraq. Many of our past presidents took time to visit to visit our wounded military - something President Bush could easily have done during his month long vacation. The original post did not say the President should eat MREs all day or that he should not have fund raisers.
It's obvious to me that Retried is one of those far right wing conservatives who twist what people say to make it mean something else and then attack them for what they did not say. That is a staple of the Bush/Cheney/Rove far right wing conservative movement in this administration.
People trashed the President - or really just told the truth - because we have not found those weapons when the President used that as his primary reason for war against Iraq. When you use that as your primary purpose for the war and then you don't find any then people have a right to question your sincerity. The inspectors did not find any of them and neither have our troops. Do they exist? I don't know and neither does Retried. But don't use them as a rationale for war and then say, "Well it doesn't matter if there were any weapons, what matters is that Sadaam was a bad guy." We all knew that going in. Are we now going to make war against any country who mistreats their people?
Yes, there left wing hypocrites but they have had such good examples to learn from on the right wing. Right wingers have made being a hypocrite a badge of honor. I don't condemn President Bush for landing on that ship in uniform - he is the Commander-in-Chief - but I condemn him for saying that basically the war was over when he knew it was not. We have lost more Americans since he made that declaration than we did before.
Right now I think we only have four choices in Iraq: 1) run away now; 2) continue muddling thru without enough troops to do the job; 3) send in about 300,000 American troops and wipe out any remaining hostiles; or 4) let the UN share a good part of the load and send it troops from the UN to keep the peace.
And don't call me unpatriotic which is the standard right-wing answer for anyone who disagrees with them. I proudly served 27 years in the military helping to preserve our freedoms and standing up for what I believed in. And the Democratic leaders who disagreed with the President's rush to war against Iraq are not unpatriotic - they are simply standing up for what they believe.
I disagree with President Bush on almost everything he has done in office except for his holding the country together after 9/11. He should be commended for what he did then. But most of his policies have destroyed much of what America has stood for for over 200 years and that's one of the reasons I declared my candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2004. That, and the fact that I think the White House and both party nominations are now auctions more than elections. Whoever raises the most money wins. I may not win the election or the nomination but at least people will know what I stand for and maybe enough people will get involved that we can change things in this country.
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retried
Joined: 22 Apr 2003
Posts: 197
Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 4:32 pm Post subject:
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TO bppres: You accuse me of twisting things around yet you are doing the same thing. I never said "it doesn't matter if there were any weapons of mass destruction". I said just because we could not find them yet doesn't mean there aren't any. Just like we can't find Saddam or Bin Laden, but that doesn't mean that these 2 evil individuals don't exist.
The latest news on all 3 cable channels says that the WMD's could very possibly have been transferred by Saddam to Syria or other countries close by. Would not surprise me. Another one of Saddam tricks to make us look bad. They knew we were coming do you actually think Saddam would leave his weapons there for us to find?? He either shipped them out, or buried them in the desert.
We just came back from a trip to Europe last April and almost everybody we talked to said right off the bat "Saddam shipped these weapons to other countries, the U.S. will never find them because they are not there anymore". We feel the same way.
Well, in a little over a year from now you have your chance to vote for another president, remember Bush did not vote himself into office, but the majority of the people did. So all the unhappy ones need to make sure to vote him out of office, and make sure that the chads down in Florida wont get pregnant again and screw up the system. Things could be worse, Saddam or Hitler could've been your president think about it and count your blessings
Retired Army Wife
and proud of it
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f15ak
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