"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Dec 8, 2004.To be more clear the Republican Party loves the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC). Republicans do not see individual soliders, they don't exist in the Right-Wing mind. What the Republican Party believes in is the "Military".
As such, when the shameless, gutless Congressman Paul Ryan said, “We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice. We don’t think the generals believe that their budget is really the right budget.”
Note the use of We. Ryan is not speaking just for himself, he's speaking for the Party. The Party which views the individual solider as a prop, as an asset, as a piece on a strategic map of resources.
Paul Ryan felt he had a free hand to call "the Generals" liars because he is the perfumed dandy attack poodle of the Plutocracy. Ryan's status as the Architect of the Path to the Penury will never cost him the support of the 1%, what he is defending is the Massive Transfer of Wealth from the American People (and the Iraqis or the enemy du jour) to the MIC.
Congressman Joe Walsh is running against Tammy Duckworth. Walsh is a pure opportunist. He's a man, "the guy who sleeps in his office", without a useful trait or accomplishment to his name, but, Walsh felt safe belittling and slandering Tammy Duckworth. When asked about Duckworth, he off-handedly dismissed her incredibly grievous injures as "Ehhh... Let's move on..."
This wasn't the first time Tea Party Republican Joe Walsh felt comfortable bashing Veterans. Walsh called Veterans who participated with #Occupy and OWS "anti-American". And why? Because he's a Republican it's understood that in the Budgetary circles he will vote the Right way for more money to the MIC.
Conservative Champions of the MIC loved Pat Tillman, until it was learned he was anti-war and wanted to meet Noam Chomsky. Then right-winger chicken hawks Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter ignored or off-handedly smeared Pat Tillman and duped conservative war-mongers could attack anyone who dissuade them of the easy stereotype of the Warrior Pat Tillman.
A simple breakdown of every leading Republican and conservative shows they don't serve in the military [See my post, CPAC=Chicken Hawks United] but, they all sure wave the flag proudly and talk tough and loud about attacking Iran from the safety of their posh air-conditioned offices.
The Republican Party's shameful disregard towards returning Veterans isn't just confined to slandering individual Veterans like Duckworth or Tillman, but extends all the way up to their cutting off of funds and shameful mistreatment of wounded at Walter Reed and and the epidemic of homelessness and joblessness [See my post: Republicans Piss on Veterans where Senate Republicans couldn't find any money in the Budget to aid homeless Vets] the Republican seem content to ignore in the ever increasing escalation war against the President.
The Walter Reed Scandal was known as early as 2004 but it took until 2007, when the Democrats regained control of the House and Senate for anything to be done to alleviate the suffering of those whom the Republican Party and Conservatives view only abstractly through the lens of Right-Wing jingoism.
This is the heart of the Republican Party, it only supports military members who pledge blind allegiance to Right-Wing Dogma. Anyone who dares express a different viewpoint of the Trillion Dollar Plus Yearly Budget allocated towards the DoD is ostracized and cast out as Anti-American so that the Military Contractors can continue to inflate their budgets and steal hundreds of Millions of Dollars from the American people, while the Neo-Cons and Right-Wingers send the poor off to die in far away lands for the enrichment of the 1%.
They say that every civilization ended similarly to this one.
ReplyDeleteThe propagandized people on the bottom voted against their economic interests every time in favor of those in the nice clothes with the hyped, fancy patter (in the pay of the military).
You'd think that progress would have brought our civilization some relief from this nonsense, wouldn't you?
Greed reigns supreme.
Still.
It seems.
Suzan,
ReplyDeleteThe classic case was the Roman Empire, wherein the military expansion and every economic fix could not stem the tide of monetary inflation and the need to pay more and more for a larger and larger standing army.
The British abandoned their Empire after the Second World War, when Churchill realized they could no longer pay for it, which we happily inherited.
The problem is, under Truman and Eisenhower we decided to pay for our Empire, with a 52-54% effective Corporate Tax Rate, a tax on financial transactions, and a 91% Tax rate on the 1%.
Now, thanks to the Reagan and W(orst President Ever) tax cuts the Wealthy reap economic rewards and pass the economic costs and blood costs increasingly onto the Middle Class.
Because what they want to do is destroy the economic and political power of the Middle Class and reinstitute Wage Slavery.
You do realize that two out of the three biggest chicken-hawks in the US Senate are either retired military or in the reserve - John McCain retired as a Navy Captain (O-6) and Lindsey Graham is a full
ReplyDeletecolonel (O-6) in the reserve as a
JAG Judge (that one is scary). Joe Lieberman never served.
Yes, I see the shit you wrote about happening every day -Cuts to the VA and raises to charges for Tricare - the militry health program for dependents and retirees. That is getting some serious opposition.
Now, as to Vietnam - I joined the Air Force to keep my ass out of Vietnam - I won't lie about that.
Ended up at a bomber base in Thailand went Saigon went under anyway.
Good post; thank you.
Sarge
Sarge,
ReplyDeleteRight-Wingers learned that with Vietnam if they pounded their breasts and talked rela loud they wouldn't have to crap their pants in actual combat.
I think most Republicans hide from military service because they know with the liberals out of the picture in Iraq, Afghanistan young conservatives would finally have a chance to have consensual sex with women, instead of having to rely on the James O'Keefe method of seduction...