Thursday, May 1, 2008

Misson Accomplished

Five years have now passed since President bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, 4,056 Service Members have lost their lives; tens of Thousands have been gravely injured and uncounted thousands (possibly more than a million) Iraqis have also lost their lives. Millions more Iraqis are displaced and the region is much more unstable.

Please, sometime today think about that sunny day in San Diego. Think about how it really is a summation of the Bush Administration's efforts. The affair was a photo-op from start to finish. The theme put forward was a gross overstatement of the facts on the ground. Most importantly real service members got screwed over by Bush to make a political point.

Few people in the United States know what it like to live a military life. Fewer still have had to endure the prolonged separation that is a ship's deployment. It is hard on the sailors and it is hard on the families. It was especially hard for the sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln and it's support group. Their usual six month "cruise" had already been extended to support the mission in Iraq. They were so close to getting home; but instead of giving those sailors some much needed down time with their families, George W Bush had them doing donuts just off the San Diego, California shore. Those sailors much delayed homecoming was delayed one more day for a publicity stunt.

Flash forward to the present day and Bush-Cheney are still just as awful. Returning soldiers are being greeted at Fort Bragg by barracks not fit for housing stray, mangy dogs, never mind returning heroes. That is right, those soldiers are returning to rotten, mold infested, stinking "housing" that is an absolute outrage. Why? Because the funding for the barracks is held up in Congress because the Administration can not be bothered to make sure that the funding gets approved. Decent living conditions for our service members is just not a priority for Bush and Cheney. No ,what is a priority is magic hour photo ops with our military members used as extras.

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