There’s an old bumper sticker with the message
“It’ll be a great day when our schools get all the money that
they need and the Pentagon has to hold bake sales.” Well, guess who now has to hold bake sales to get the
supplies they need? Not the Pentagon, of course — its official budget
is half-a-trillion dollars a year. But the grunts — soldiers putting
their lives on the line in Bush’s war — are so inadequately
supplied that they must turn to family members, churches, or charity to get
vital battle gear. It’s been widely reported that the Bushites have
failed miserably to provide the lifesaving armor that our soldiers need.
But less well known is that even basic items are not provided — such
as ballistic glasses that are less likely to fog up in Iraq’s
120-degree heat, shirts and socks that wick sweat away from the body,
helmet sweatbands, and water pouches. These are products that can make a
life-or-death difference for our men and women who are fighting in this
land of oppressive heat, and all are readily available in the U.S. market
— in fact, they are commonly issued to police forces at home. The Pentagon, however, says that such items are too
costly, so soldiers wanting them must get them on their own. Hello,
Pentagon brass, you routinely waste billions of our tax dollars on
razzle-dazzle weaponry that isn’t needed and doesn’t work, but
you can’t find a few extra dollars to give every grunt the goggles
and socks they need? Some soldiers make a little as $14,000 a year: Why
should their safety be a matter of personal wealth? Where are the Bushites and Congress when it comes to
making “Support our Troops” more than an empty political
slogan?
This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2006.
