Hightower Lowdown

If hypocrisy were a drug, Washington would be the crack capital of the world. Congressional and White House leaders these days seem to get up every morning and inject, smoke, snort, and otherwise mainline a doozy of a dose of hypocrisy to get them through their day. On no issue is this addiction more obvious than in their treatment of America's soldiers and veterans. Led by BushCheneyRumsfeld&Gang, politicians constantly bellow: "Support our troops!" They're particularly quick to hurl this red, white, and blue shout at any of us who dare to question the motives and rationale behind their bloody war in Iraq. Most recently, Bush positioned himself as the soldier's president during his State of the Union speech, declaring: "Many of our troops are listening tonight. And I want you and your families to know?my administration, and this Congress, will give you the resources you need to fight and win the war on terror." What a hypocrite! If you want to know how the Bushites "support our troops," check with any of the thousands of stunned military families who have learned that Bush's Pentagon has failed to provide essential equipment needed by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan—everything from life-saving body armor to warm gloves, from rifles that work to flashlights. The families, having received desperate calls, emails and letters from the front lines, literally have had to go to their local stores, buy equipment, and ship it to their loved ones! Yes, the same Pentagon that sops up $400 billion of our tax dollars every year (plus the $87 billion add-on it was given last year to pay for Bush's Iraqi occupation) is shamelessly short-changing the grunts who are putting their lives on the line every day.

Kevlar vests

One important innovation for ground troops is a simple, relatively lightweight vest that contains ceramic plates of boron carbide capable of stopping powerful AK-47 bullets and flying shrapnel. Simply put, these vests are life-savers in a firefight or a bomb blast—and they were readily available to the Pentagon from U.S. manufacturers. This is why Joe Werfelman was dismayed to hear from his son that he and other soldiers in Iraq didn't have the vests. "He called us frantically three or four times on this," Werfelman told The Washington Post. Instead, the troops had been issued Vietnamera flak jackets that, as one soldier put it, "couldn't stop a rock." So Werfelman scrambled, found a New Jersey company that makes the ceramic gear, paid $660 of his own money, and shipped it off to Iraq. Enraged military families later learned that even the small contingent of troops that Mongolia sent to Iraq came with the lifesaving vests. Hauled before a House committee, General John Abizaid, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq, said he couldn't "answer for the record why we started this war with protective vests that were in short supply." Thanks to the howl and heat from the grass-roots, Congress added money to the Pentagon's already bloated budget last fall, requiring body armor for all soldiers in Iraq. ... [ read more ]