Stars & Stripes letter: Fund welcome-home parties

[lebkuchen]

Troops were recently told that "the party's over!" There would be no more funding of "welcome home" celebrations for redeploying soldiers because there isn't enough money. Several letters have been published complaining about the latest insult to injury of US soldiers and their families. Below is the most recent, excerpted:

In his State of the Union speech, President Bush touted a booming U.S. economy. So why are we now being told that the U.S. can’t afford welcome-home family reunions for our soldiers returning from downrange deployments?

These soldiers and their families have made great sacrifices, and it’s inexcusable that their sacrifices mean so little to their commander in chief. It’s unbelievable that Bush thinks our military families should have potluck welcome-home celebrations.

Just how much money is the cancellation of these reunions going to save in Bush’s $700 billion defense spending package? Why does it seem more and more of the Department of Defense’s share of the budgetary pie is being diverted from projects that Vice President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and George H.W. Bush’s Carlyle Group don’t profit from?

I’ve got one recommendation: Finance welcome-home activities with the unspent $20 million that Bush’s 109th Congress reportedly set aside in its defense spending bill last October for a “victory celebration” over Iraq.

More...

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=43529

[lebkuchen]

1. Bush has proclaimed his concern for the troops during his press conference

On those grounds, I "bump" this Stripes letter.

[Solly Mack]

2. kick

[Hubert Flottz]

3. What the troops need is another tax cut for the have mores.

That's how you win a war...more tax cuts for rich republicans.

[gratuitous]

4. The troops are beginning to sound as ungrateful as the Iraqis

And after all this administration has done for the troops! You think all those Purple Heart medals would have been awarded without George Bush and his peculiar genius? And those flags for coffins don't just magically appear, you know. Maybe it's time to start billing for that free flight home for all those pine boxes? You don't hear Dick Cheney complaining that the tax cuts only "earned" him an additional $170,000 last year? No, he re-doubles his efforts to get even bigger tax cuts!

Bunch a lazy sods, that's what you lot are.