At long last, they have no decency...

Everyone on our side of the aisle has heard them: Republican accusations that we don't support our troops. I have a question for my right-wing counterparts: what does supporting our troops mean?

Does it mean sending them into a situation in Iraq that has led to their being caught between lines in a civil war? Does it mean stretching them far too thin and sending them back into harm's way over and over again? Does it mean inept leadership at the top of the Defense Department? Does it mean refusing to fund the Veterans Administration and military hospitals, forcing our wounded troops to live in filth, surrounded by rats?

It must be, because this is how we see Republicans showing their patriotism and support for our troops... that and magnetic yellow ribbons. The Bush Administration has systematically shown nothing but disregard for our troops. The Veteran’s Administration is screaming for more money, to no avail. Sure, the budget will increase, but at a rate far behind the growing need that was foreseeable with troops in a major engagement. How is this supporting our troops? The Republicans are willing to send them overseas to fight and die, and will support them with no more than a faded magnetic sticker and a “Mission Accomplished” banner, now disgusting to witness in its insincerity and falsehood. What about caring for our troops after they’re done fighting to keep Halliburton profitable? How about making sure these men and women will get the medical care they’ll need well into their 60’s and 70’s?

Further, how dare any member of this administration dare say that they support our troops while men and women still enlisted sit in squalor at the Walter Reed outpatient care dormitory? This is a disgrace that goes clear to the top of the military chain of command. More than the Surgeon General of the Army, Army Chief of Staff, and head of the medical care unit have to go. This shame requires a wholesale change at the top of military policy in America. It demonstrates a system that was patently unready to care for troops coming home from war.

More than the disgusting treatment given to our troops, there was a top-down failure to understand the commitment required to prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Major General Paul Eaton has accused former secretary Donald Rumsfeld of gross incompetence in the planning and prosecution of the war in Iraq. In the cited article, and recently on Real Time with Bill Maher, he has stated that there is a disconnect between the speeches of high ranking administration officials and the reality of war. They have demonstrated a disregard for the interest in the American soldier, and have sacrificed him in favor of their own political gains. The only problem with his accusations of callousness and incompetence is that he does not go far enough. For a failure to be this wide ranging, the entire upper echelon of military appointees must be held accountable. The preparations for this war were not carried out solely by the President and Donald Rumsfeld. Policy was set by an entire staff of political appointees and was sold to the American people by the entire White House staff. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rove, Rice and more are responsible for using our Army as not only the tool of a failed foreign policy, but of a corrupt domestic strategy. This President campaigned on the necessity of a war that we now know is based on a lie. He campaigned on support for our troops that his administration failed to give.