Why Does The President Hate Our Troops?
March 1st, 2007 | by Ken Grandlund |In an exchange with reporters concerning deployed Army units sent to Iraq without desert and counterinsurgency training, all as part of the Bush Surge, White House spokeshole Tony Snow tried to smoothe things over with this exchange:
Q: There was also a report this morning that two Army combat brigades are being sent to Iraq without desert training — the Associated Press has a story out today — and that it’s because they’re being rushed to Iraq to help get the surge in place.
MR. SNOW: Again, let me stress, what happens is, a lot of times you will also do training in theaters, as well as equipping in theater. The generals have made it very clear, and military commanders have made it clear, nobody is going to go into combat activity without proper equipment and training. Period. So if things –
Q: But the story flatly says that two brigades are going in without desert training in California. So that doesn’t sound like –
MR. SNOW: All right, I understand.
Q: — they’re getting the training.
MR. SNOW: Well, but they can get desert training elsewhere, like in Iraq.
What gives? It wasn’t enough to send under-armored troops into Iraq? It wasn’t enough to bombard their surroundings with depleted uranium ammunition? Must we now send untrained units into the hellhole Bush created in Iraq?
OJT is the best Snow can come up with? On the job training is great in peacetime conditions, and can be vital in the field, but unless you have the foundation of skills to survive urban warfare in hostile climates, OJT isn’t going to help much. Yet the president’s insistance on sending in more troops has reduced an already thinly stretched Army to sending in soldiers who aren’t prepared for battle. Bush might as well just sign every fifth guys death certificate now and get it over with. And he better start building more hospital wings for every three of the remaining four. Why do you hate our troops Mr. President? Why would you so callously expend them like this?
And speaking of hopsitals, it seems that the Army’s recent black-eye regarding Walter Reed isn’t going unpunished. Soldiers staying in the Medical Hold Unit are now being subjected to daily room inspections by 7AM, something most soldiers leave behind after basic training. I thought these guys were there trying to recuperate and heal after being wounded in battle. I can only imagine them trying to make military corners on their hospital beds, lining up their toiletries along the sink, or pressing their hospital gowns with perfect creases. Some are also being told that they can’t be talking to the media.
Some are calling it a case of retribution for disclosing deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center, and the Army has taken additional measures to limit interaction between recovering veterans and the media by relocating them to a building on base and unaccessible without escort, as opposed to their previous building just outside the base boundaries. Soldiers also say that most platoon leaders and first sargeants have been relieved of duty or transferred.
In exposing the problems at Walter Reed, the Bush administration gets another punch in the nose, as wounded vets and their families realize that all the promises and sound bites about “supporting the troops” were but hollow rhetoric. But instead of taking its licks, fixing the problem and moving on, the Pentagon decides to muzzle its wounded vets and treat them like raw recruits instead of the honorable, sacrificing soldiers that they are. The Pentagon leadership is civilian and political and an arm of the Bush administration. It is reasonable to assume that this behavior just mirrors attitudes from the top of the ladder.
Why do you hate our troops Mr. President? What did they ever do to you?
[tag]military, Bush, Walter+Reed+Hospital, Iraq, Tony+Snow, surge, army+units+not+trained[/tag]
11 Responses to “Why Does The President Hate Our Troops?”
By Dusty on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
My neice was sent to Afghanistan as an Intel officer yet wasn’t taught even the rudimentary basics of the language. Oh, she did spend a year in AZ at a school that was supposed to educate her on such things…she spent it clearing flower beds and taking online education classes for her Masters in criminology.
The Iraq civil war is NOT the place for OJT. sorry but I am not buying what BushCo and Snowjob are selling here. I did love this part of the press conference where Snow casually mentions Iran’s contribution to Afghanistan: “There were many contacts with the Iranians with regard to Afghanistan throughout 2002 and 2003.”–Tony you jackass..it was more than “contacts”..they helped us quell the violence and install a gov’t there..then Bush called them the Axis of Evil..nice, very nice.
I can not read his bs any longer..I MUST STOP..its driving me mad.
Countdown did a piece on the W.R.A.H blowback on the soldiers who talked about the horrendous conditions of that shithole known as Bldg 18.
By REB 84 on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
Yet another example of the Bush Administration and its shock troops shooting the whistle-blowers. Once again, this crew as shown it values its phony image far more than substance.
By windspike on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
Yet another example of a strategy for war that is faulty to begin with.
By Tom Harper on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
That’s a hell of a way for someone to recuperate from a war injury — standing inspection at 7 a.m. like they’re still in boot camp or something. I guess we only “support our troops” while they’re fighting. Then we throw them away as soon as they come home injured. Sick.
By Dusty on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
Well, the sacrificial goat has been found for the problems at W.R.A.H…The fired the head military man.
By Brad Griffeth on Mar 2, 2007 | Reply
Isn’t it about time we got a federal prosecutor to draw up a series of arrest warrants for the whole Bushco Bunch? Then congress can debate whether or not to impeach them for as long as they want to; while they are held at a federal prison, unable to cause any more grief in this world. The lies, the spies, the coverup of 9-11, the shredding of the Bill of Rights , the development of the North American Union without any Congreessional review, and in secret from 99% of the public?
How about the missing trillions of our money “lost’ from the DOD, reported on 9-10-01????
IF THIS IS NOT ENOUGH, I’M SURE A COMPETENT INVESTIGATOR COULD FIND MORE! Oh wait, I forgot, Bushco replaced most of the federal prosecutors with his hand-picked crew, that needed no approval from Congress.
By Bruce Biles on Mar 4, 2007 | Reply
I wrote this song 25 years ago after finally tracking down a friend lost in the New Orleans VA hospital. I found the condition of his care appalling then and will not stand for it now. It is stunning to discover that our military has learned nothing from its lack of treatment of wounded vets from the Vietnam war. I have draft age nephews who are not inclined to join-up to serve thier country, get injured to come home and be stashed away and crapped on by our government.
Johnny Got His Gun
by Bruce Biles
…inspired by Dalton Trumble
My love, my country,
cries out to me, son
save me from reality.
No arms, no legs, no sight to see,
how I served my country,
how she’s screwing me.
Still the VA hospital is a cat house affairdirty bed sheets, scurvy, cheap medical care
and the vets they lie and at the walls they stare placing bets on the cock roaches racing there.
We’ve had nuclear power plants
that don’t work at all…
but nothing for the vet who did
or his child, The Agent Orange Kid.
We’ve had money for new highways
& church-schools to bare…
but nothing for the vet who did
or his child running lonely
or his wife running scared.
So what about the soldiers
who fought and died,
drifting away with the Mekong tide.
Hell, they’re dead & gone
so let’s forget about them,
their wives, their children.
They were honorable men.
If all you want to do is live & let live
my love, my country well fuck you then,
because right or wrong our soildiers
they fought for us all
and the blood of America
tackes care of its own.
And the love of America
takes care of its own.
By Bruce Biles on Mar 4, 2007 | Reply
I wrote this song 25 YEARS AGO after trying to locate a friend in the VA hospital in New Orleans. I found the conditions appalling then and will not stand for it now. Have we not learned anything from our treatment of wounded Vietnam Vets. I have draft age nephews and wonder how we can ask them to join-up to serve thier country, get injured to come home and be stashed away and crapped on by our government. 25 years ago…
Johnny Got His Gun
by Bruce Biles
(inspired by the book by Dalton Trumbo)
My love, my country,
cries out to me, son
save me from reality.
No arms, no legs, no sight to see,
how I served my country,
now she’s screwing me.
Still the VA hospital is a cat house affairdirty bed sheets, scurvy, cheap medical care
and the vets they lie and at the walls they stare
placing bets on the cock roaches racing there.
We’ve had nuclear power plants
that don’t work at all…
but nothing for the vet who did
or his child, The Agent Orange Kid.
We’ve had money for new highways
& church-schools to bare…
but nothing for the vet who did
or his child running lonely
or his wife running scared.
So what about the soldiers
who fought and died,
drifting away with the Mekong tide.
Hell, they’re dead & gone
so let’s forget about them,
their wives, their children.
They were honorable men.
If all you want to do is live & let live
my love, my country well fuck you then,
because right or wrong our soildiers
they fought for us all
and the blood of America
tackes care of its own!
And the love of America
takes care of its own!
By Bruce Biles on Mar 4, 2007 | Reply
I wrote this song 25 years ago after trying to locate a friend in the New Orleans VA hospital. I found the conditions appalling then and will not stand for it now.
Johnny Got His Gun….inspired by the book by Dalton Trumbo.
My love, my country, cries out to me, son save me from reality. No arms, no legs, no sight to see, how I served my country, now she’s screwing me. Still the VA hospital is a cat house affairdirty bed sheets, scurvy, cheap medical care and the vets they lie and at the walls they stare placing bets on the cock roaches racing there. We’ve had nuclear power plants that don’t work at all… but nothing for the vet who did or his child, The Agent Orange Kid. We’ve had money for new highways & church-schools to bare… but nothing for the vet who did or his child running lonely or his wife running scared. So what about the soldiers who fought and died, drifting away with the Mekong tide. Hell, they’re dead & gone so let’s forget about them, their wives, their children. They were honorable men. If all you want to do is live & let live my love, my country well fuck you then, because right or wrong our soildiers they fought for us all and the blood of America tackes care of its own! And the love of America takes care of its own!