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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sawdusty who wrote (412033)	6/6/2003 2:54:04 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 769667

BUSH: The Biggest Disgrace Yet A Blog by "Democratic Veteran" usndemvet.blogspot.com Wednesday, June 04, 2003 The Biggest Disgrace Yet Is it Perlowitz making more statements about going to war for a country that is "floating on Oil"? Is it President Crotch-Sock lying and people dying? No? It's the shameful treatment of my fellow veterans who have been looking to the Federal Government to help them. Since the Bush administration took office, the percentage of total contract money going to veterans has plummeted, with the Department of Defense’s enormous coffers proving particularly elusive to the men and women who served their country. ... Yet since the Bush administration took office, the federal government’s performance in this area has been exceedingly poor. ... But their patience appears to have run out this spring as a flood of new funding for defense-related endeavors failed to trickle down to vets. With the Pentagon’s procurement budget now at $70 billion, and with defense officials largely overseeing the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts for reconstruction in Iraq, lobbyists say they faced a “closed door” in discussions with the Defense Department on how to involve some of the 800,000 veteran-owned businesses in fulfilling these contracts “The very people to create disabled veterans are some of the worst non-compliers,” said Joseph Forney, who says he was told no first by the Pentagon, and then by Coca-Cola when he asked the Atlanta-based giant for regional subcontracts. These are men and women looking for a hand, not a hand-out. They want to bid on contracting dollars that the same Uncle Sam who sent them into whatever military cauldron they served in, willl be spending now to procure goods and services for both military and non-military things. But no, not in this administration; veterans are to them husks, remnants, leftovers...good for one thing, perhaps another vote in the next election. Remember how many of the 1600 Crew served, think about how many have been part of the companies that are now getting the huge, no-bid contracts in Iraq. If you are a fellow vet, ask yourself this: Why are they doing this to my brethren? If there was ever a reason to question the commitment of the 1600 Crew to the common man, this is it. To paraphrase Mr. Heinlein again from Starship Troopers "Halliburton does the Buying, the Vets do the Dying". ...“The very people to create disabled veterans are some of the worst non-compliers” Words that should be written in fire, into our collective consciousness, throughout the internet before another soldier is killed or injured in Iraq or anywhere else.