Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup metatuning Hero Sandwiches

Hero Sandwiches
By Alan Bisbort
The Hartford Advocate

Thursday 21 August 2003

Troops get death and pay cuts while Bush gobbles barbecue, rakes in
dough

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, or at least Nancy Reagan, has
there been such a disconnect between the ruling elite and what Marie and

Nancy 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 pig and cow carcasses.

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 by the Department of

Defense, 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 pig-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 on Media Whores 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?"
-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

Hero Sandwiches

🔗kraig grady <kraiggrady@...>

🔗monz@...

🔗kraig grady <kraiggrady@...>