How Republicans 'Support the Troops'

This recent post from The Carpetbagger Report describes the disgusting and decrepit state of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center where injured soldiers are sent to languish in neglect and squalor. Here are some of the comments:

If there is one common denominator to define Republicans, it has to be hypocrisy. They are so blatant about it, it is mind boggling. Digby really did a number on them yesterday. Read ‘’Do as I Say, Not As I Said.'’ at http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Of course, tax cuts and war profits for Bush’s base of rich dipshits is so much more important. I see these support the troops magnets up here in Cannuckistan and it makes me want to punch out the drivers (mostly on SUVs, natch) when I see them because I suspect they are also the same assholes who constantly bitch about high taxes. It’s like they assume soldiers and their equipment are paid for by the magical mystical war fairy. The phrase “Support the troops” really irks me. Only an insane person wouldn’t “support the troops” (so insane I have trouble even imagining, though obviously the fevered brows in the GOP have no such trouble). What I hate about the GOP’s usurpation of the phrase “support our troops” is that, just like their flag-waving, it’s mere “holier than thou” posturing. As this sad story demonstrates, we clearly do not support our troops, anymore than those who ostentatiously proclaim themselves “pro life” give a damn the real lives of unfortunate people. Anymore than we care for the old people I observed this weekend living out out their days in what we euphemistically label a “rest home”. All our country wants is to put all such people out of sight and out of mind. It’s disgusting.

Anytime some right wing thug starts spouting off about “supporting the troops” or claiming the left “spits on vetrans” they need to be reminded who runs the vetrans hospitals and who cuts vetrans benefits. The ghastly evil men responsible for this shouldn’t be allowed to sleep at night.

“Supporting the troops” is a phrase that cannot be used with any legitimacy until every person serving in the theater of operations has the proper equipment, and the proper training; it also has to encompass the providing of proper post-war services and accommodations. Until then, this isn’t “supporting the troops,” it’s supporting a failed policy.

I don’t want to be all partisan about this, but there are way too many Republicans who don’t want to pay for medical care for veterans. Of course there are Republican veterans who understand how important it is, but sometimes that conflicts with their demands for “less government” or reducing spending on people. They can spend billions on military technology, but cringe when they need to spend money on human beings. I know it’s expensive, but it doesn’t matter. You don’t tell someone to fight for a country and risk death and then pretend they don’t exist after all the “fun” is over. The problem is funding for military medical centers, for infrastructure and veterans’ care, things which the Republican administration seems to think it can cut with no consequences. If you’re going to undertake a war, for God’s sake, you have to have the equipment and training and personnel on the one end, and you have to have the services for them when they return; this administration went into war with neither. They need to be held accountable for that, and if they won’t do it “voluntarily,” we need to force them.

President Bush has as much credibility and moral worth on the subject of his Iraq war as a discarded cigarette butt lying on the dirty curb of a mean street. My heart goes out to our fine men and women who have suffered from this president’s folly. Where is the Democratic office holder who is going to adopt this as his or her pet issue and run screaming with it? Tax breaks for the rich while we let our soldiers rot? I dunno, seems like a no-brainer to me.