March Madness

No, it's not about basketball and the final four or whatever. It's about the fact that it's March, and I'm mad. I'm mad that the defense budget's being cut again, that military folks returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and other trouble spots that the chicken hawks in the Bush Administration have sent them to have lower benefits that I received almost 40 years ago, after my two very reluctant years in the U.S.Army (the photo below is of me, taking a break while trying to keep the Viet Cong from overrunning at least one patch of South Vietnam, in 1966. And yes, that's a cigarette. We all smoked then. The Surgeon General hadn't gotten around to telling us that it would kill us all someday, more efficiently than the Viet Cong ever did. But I digress). The GI bill and education benefits helped pay for my graduate education, for which I'm grateful. I wish it hadn't been necessary to pay for the degrees that way, but the funding was available, so I used it.

And now? With the administration having to pay for the follies in the Middle East while simultaneously cutting taxes for their rich friends and family members, they've shredded support for veterans. While at the same time outsourcing much of the military's work to higher paid civilian contractors. It's all about the money, as has become increasingly clear in recent weeks--not about supporting troops, not about equiping them properly, not about planning the Iraqi War from the beginning. And it's infuriating. President Bush's ratings are at an all time low--but let's see how that translates into votes this fall. After all, it's the Congress that's supported these policies, approved the spending and budget cuts, and which bears the ultimate responsibility for the country's business.

A reminder: how many of the present adminstration are combat veterans? One. Jim Nicholson, the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs, served in Vietnam and, like me, earned a Bronze Star medal there (if his also has a 'V' for valor attached to it, it's not mentioned in the official bio). Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Secretary of Transportation Mineta, and Attorney General Gonzales all served in the military, but during peacetime. Of the cabinet members and inner circle advisors at the time of the Iraq invasion and its planning, only Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, had combat experience. And his advice was apparently ignored. Paul Wolfowitz, a primary architect of the anti-Iraq effort also never served. And the military records of President Awol and Vice President Too Busy to Serve are well known. Chicken hawks all.

One could also ask how many members of the present Congress have children serving in the military. According to New York Congressman Charles Rangel: one. Again, chicken hawks all.

Our leaders are thus removed from the actuality of war almost entirely. Few have any direct experience of it, virtually none have any personal investment of loved ones in the military. No wonder the government both acts as if the military is an instrument of policy without worrying about the human results, and simultaneously hides their casualties from public view as much as possible--no press coverage of caskets returning to the continental United States, and our leaders have yet to attend a single funeral.

It's March. This war--unjust, unwinnable, unnecessary--has now dragged on for three years. More than 2300 Americans have died in Iraq. See what I'm mad?