The "New & improved" military under G.W Bush!

[Gimpy]

Remember all the political rhetoric spouted by GEE-DUBYA in his campaign for president and how he PROMISED "help is on the way"? Well, it look like he was right about that----however, it appears the "help" he was refering to was for his corporate cronies and big corporations like Dick(head)Cheneys old firm, Halliburton when it comes to "military" so-called "improvements". This is disgusting! So says no less than retired Col. David Hackworth himself!

Check THIS out!
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Thanks for the M.R.E.'s
By PAUL KRUGMAN


A few days ago I talked to a soldier just back from Iraq. He'd been in a relatively calm area; his main complaint was about food. Four months after the fall of Baghdad, his unit was still eating the dreaded M.R.E.'s: meals ready to eat. When Italian troops moved into the area, their food was "way more realistic" ? and American troops were soon trading whatever they could for some of that Italian food.

Other stories are far worse. Letters published in Stars and Stripes and e-mail published on the Web site of Col. David Hackworth (a decorated veteran and Pentagon critic) describe shortages of water. One writer reported that in his unit, "each soldier is limited to two 1.5-liter bottles a day," and that inadequate water rations were leading to "heat casualties." An American soldier died of heat stroke on Saturday; are poor supply and living conditions one reason why U.S. troops in Iraq are suffering such a high rate of noncombat deaths?

The U.S. military has always had superb logistics. What happened? The answer is a mix of penny-pinching and privatization ? which makes our soldiers' discomfort a symptom of something more general.

Colonel Hackworth blames "dilettantes in the Pentagon" who "thought they could run a war and an occupation on the cheap." But the cheapness isn't restricted to Iraq. In general, the "support our troops" crowd draws the line when that support might actually cost something.

The usually conservative Army Times has run blistering editorials on this subject. Its June 30 blast, titled "Nothing but Lip Service," begins: "In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap ? and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately." The article goes on to detail a series of promises broken and benefits cut.

Military corner-cutting is part of a broader picture of penny-wise-pound-foolish government. When it comes to tax cuts or subsidies to powerful interest groups, money is no object. But elsewhere, including homeland security, small-government ideology reigns. The Bush administration has been unwilling to spend enough on any aspect of homeland security, whether it's providing firefighters and police officers with radios or protecting the nation's ports. The decision to pull air marshals off some flights to save on hotel bills ? reversed when the public heard about it ? was simply a sound-bite-worthy example. (Air marshals have told MSNBC.com that a "witch hunt" is now under way at the Transportation Security Administration, and that those who reveal cost-cutting measures to the media are being threatened with the Patriot Act.)

There's also another element in the Iraq logistical snafu: privatization. The U.S. military has shifted many tasks traditionally performed by soldiers into the hands of such private contractors as Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. The Iraq war and its aftermath gave this privatized system its first major test in combat ? and the system failed.

According to the Newhouse News Service, "U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up." Not surprisingly, civilian contractors ? and their insurance companies ? get spooked by war zones. The Financial Times reports that the dismal performance of contractors in Iraq has raised strong concerns about what would happen in a war against a serious opponent, like North Korea.

Military privatization, like military penny-pinching, is part of a pattern. Both for ideological reasons and, one suspects, because of the patronage involved, the people now running the country seem determined to have public services provided by private corporations, no matter what the circumstances. For example, you may recall that in the weeks after 9/11 the Bush administration and its Congressional allies fought tooth and nail to leave airport screening in the hands of private security companies, giving in only in the face of overwhelming public pressure. In Iraq, reports The Baltimore Sun, "the Bush administration continues to use American corporations to perform work that United Nations agencies and nonprofit aid groups can do more cheaply."

In short, the logistical mess in Iraq isn't an isolated case of poor planning and mismanagement: it's telling us what's wrong with the republicans current philosophy of government.

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How true! How true!

Everything ABOUT this administrations "philosophy" on government is nothing BUT absolute horse$hit!!
:cd: :cd:

[BLUEHAWK]

Good ole Hack...

When the Iraq theatre of our current digest of wars was heating up, a smallish contingent of Marines was shown on TV being let out on the sand in Kuwait, in a sandstorm, without any shelter at all those first few days.

Fussy me, I was not pleased. I am sure they sucked it up, yet we truly could have given them a better beginning. We, America, could have made sure for them, and we did not.

Among the more haunting images from the PBS Vietnam series was in the last episode, a camera panned for several minutes across acres,literally, of abandoned military equipment and supplies, after Saigon was given up.

[Gimpy]

ol 'Hack" tells it like it is alright. He could give a flyin shit less WHO he "hammers" when it comes to the injustices being committed against our troops in the field OR our retired and disabled veterans either.

Ain't it funny how apparently "absent" a lot of folks are these days, who were soooooo convinced that GEE-DUBYA was gonna "fix" all this crap when HE got in the whitehouse. Try and get them to admit now that GW is FULL of SHIT! Good luck--is all I gotta say!

[blues clues]

Gimpy my friend you can't even get them to admit that all these tax cut for the rich has done in our country and put millions out of work so why should they admit that little old dubby lied to us like a rug and has done nothing for the va's or the ones that are in this war that he and all the rich oil men wanted so they could get more money. but onebody will admit it,who said that take him out and have him shot.


razz

[MORTARDUDE]

OK...riddle me this...

Please list specific proposals from the 9 declared Democratic candidates to address these issues :

1. The budget deficit

2. The VA health care crisis

3. Medicare

4. Social Security

5. Proposals to retain Active duty military personnel

6. Position on con-current receipt

It is one thing to spew invective, hate, and negativity. It is quite another to find solutions to problems that benefit all. I don't trust ANY politicians. Their lies stretch across the universe. All who have eyes can see that. If you can find what I am asking, I would be satisfied. Thank you.

Larry