...is the title to an article in last week's Army Times. It looks like the rank and file in the military is not as smitten with GWB as he might have us believe.

Since it's Veteran's Day, it's important to remember that it is the regular soldier who is defending our country.

Where is the logic in our government cutting benefits to soldiers and their families at a time when we need them most?

Some of the article is below, and the entire article can be found in the link attached.


"An act of ‘betrayal’
In the midst of war, key family benefits face cuts

By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer

Commissaries and the Defense Department’s stateside schools are in the crosshairs of Pentagon budget cutters, and military advocates, families and even base commanders are up in arms.
Defense officials notified the services in mid-October that they intend to close 19 commissaries and may close 19 more, mostly in remote areas.

At the same time, the Pentagon is finishing a study to determine whether to close or transfer control of the 58 schools it operates on 14 military installations in the continental United States.

The two initiatives are the latest in a string of actions by the Bush administration to cut or hold down growth in pay and benefits, including basic pay, combat pay, health-care benefits and the death gratuity paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty.

The roots of all these efforts reach back to the highest levels of the Defense Department."


http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-2335705.php

Well, when you have given trillions in tax cuts to the wealthy and billions in contracts to Halliburton and tens of billions to make sure the Iraqi's all have new schools and full medical care, new cel phones, trash trucks and a zip code system, and you pay to build new buildings for the ones you've blown up, there just is not a lot left to go around.

Especially after you have sat by and watched millions of jobs -- and the taxes that would come from those jobs -- eliminated on your watch.

This reminds me of the article we had nere a couple of weeks ago about the reservists saying they are not getting medical care for what happened to them in Iraq.

Same old, same old from this Administration, it seems to me.

John,

Do you want to whine about the situation, and recite a list of phony reasons for it, or do something?

Probably the most effective thing would be to bring the issue to the attention of a member of the House Armed Services Committee. The list of members is here .

For the Senate, the committee members are in this list .

I don't see any California senators there, but I'll be letting Sen. Nelson of Florida know what I think of this.

And overall, to the original article that Phlebas cited, I think some bean counters have lost sight of what a force multiplier is.

Jeff