Support the Troops? Tell me about it ...

Please feel free to copy this letter directly, or cut-and-paste to reflect your own views, and mail/email/fax it to your GOP state representatives:



Dear --------:

Since the beginning of the War in Iraq, I – along with your other constituents and our fellow citizens – have heard you and your party members talk repeatedly about how you “Support the Troops”.

I would like to take you at your word. However, with certain facts having come to light over the past, and more facts now emerging, I am deeply troubled by the disconnect between your public statements and the true state of affairs.

If indeed you do support our troops, could you kindly address the following:

Could you please explain why our troops were sent into combat without sufficient body armor and vehicle armor? When we first became aware of this situation, we were assured that this problem would be addressed, but it persists to this day. This happened during your party’s control of the government. Could you please explain why?

Could you please explain why your Republican colleagues in office repeatedly voted to downgrade the pay, pensions, and benefits of our troops, while they were in combat and in service to their country?

Could you please explain why the families of overseas troops are being targeted by “loan providers” who are charging exorbitant rates of interest, in an effort to take advantage of the financial straits these families find themselves in, and you have done absolutely nothing to stop them?

Could you please explain why George W. Bush, who also professes that he “Supports the Troops”, is sending additional troops into Iraq as part of his “surge”, knowing they are being deployed without the necessary equipment, including weapons?

Could you please explain why our returning troops are currently hospitalized under deplorable conditions? Could you please explain why you and your party members have allowed this to happen, and why you are doing nothing to rectify the situation?

Could you please explain why, now that we are involved in two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan), the DoD has only three medical boards in one district with a staff of sixty, a decrease from the six boards and support staff of two hundred and forty under the previous administration?

Could you please explain why, in 2001, the number of veterans receiving approved disability ratings was 13% and now, in wartime, that rate has dropped to 6%?

Could you please explain why some of our injured troops are choosing to accept a disability rating that does not reflect the seriousness of their injuries (with the attendant lower payout), because they have been worn down by the lengthy, complicated red tape that drags their processing out for years, when that same process used to take months?

Could you please explain why soldiers returning from multiple tours of duty in Iraq with debilitating physical and psychological infirmities must wait months before even initial assessment and treatment can begin?

We are all cognizant of the fact that providing the best for our troops – including health care, rehabilitation and psychological counseling – is expensive, and spending the amount of money we are, fighting two wars simultaneously, decreases the available funds.

In light of that reality …

Could you please explain why you have not rescinded tax-cuts for the wealthiest Americans, as well as tax subsidies for the country’s wealthiest corporations, at a time when the revenues generated by their paying their fair share would provide additional resources to fund caring for our soldiers?

Could you please explain why you raised no objection to the awarding of no-bid contracts to companies like Halliburton, instead of allowing competitive bidding to ensure that taxpayers would get the best price for the services to be rendered?

Could you please explain why, when the Pentagon disputed almost $200 million in charges by Halliburton in January 2006, this administration ordered the monies to be paid without any further inquiry into the legitimacy of the charges?

Could you please explain why there has not been a single Republican-initiated inquiry into the exorbitant prices being charged by any of the defense contractors or service providers in Iraq, even though their abuses of public funds have been public knowledge for years?

Could you please explain why your party members failed to investigate the ‘disappearance’ of billions of dollars in the ‘fog of war’?

Could you please explain why your party, while in the majority, agreed to the allocation of almost a billion dollars for the building of a US Embassy in Baghdad at the same time US soldiers were fighting in its shadow without proper equipment to mitigate the probability of injury or death?

Surely you realize that the funds wasted and/or squandered by the above policies would have gone a long way in providing the urgently-needed monies necessary to provide proper care for our soldiers.

If you truly do “Support the Troops”, I have no doubt there are reasonable explanations for all of the above. I am anxious to hear them.

I would appreciate a direct answer to my questions. If the best you can offer is a generic, auto-generated email thanking me for my concern, please don’t bother. I will simply take that to mean you have no explanation, at least not one you are willing to go on record with.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Truly,
----------

... when it comes to this topic, Monkeyman.

But I will take that as a COMPLIMENT!!!

good job!!! Good luck on getting an answer.

... just too damned hard to put "Ah hamina, hamina, hamina ...", a la Ralph Cramden, into written form.

...Nance, this is BEAUTIFUL.
:applause::yourock::patriot:

The cold, icy, precise courtesy is so much scarier and packs a much bigger PUNCH than an angry tone...:scared:

Think there's gonna be some Congresspeople...reps and Senators both...needing Depends.





:kick:

I understand Halliburton will supply them at $1,500 per unit -- and no shipping or handling fees for senators and congress-critters!!!

that supposedly "Supports the Troops" I've yet seen anywhere.

This deserves to get picked up on a hundred other sites and blogs, and sent ricocheting to millions of inboxes and outboxes. I'm fully confident that is already beginning to happen.

... sending this to GOP reps via email.

Many of them refuse to accept emails from outside their own state, of course. But some DO, so I send if and where I can.

They may not want to run something written by a civilian, but their readership deserves to see this.

and we need ONE MORE RECC...





:kick:

You have a wonderful talent. You speak for me....thank you! :kick:

I wish someone like Tim Russert would actually go down your list the next time they have a member of the Bush Administration on their show. Of course it won't happen because no one in the corporate media dares ask the questions you just asked.

They are questions that need to be asked though, thank you for stating them so eloquently. K&R once again.

otherwise known as Senators Chambliss and Isakson. Felt good, too. Thank you.

These days, when someone refers to "two of the biggest national disgraces in America", it's hard to know which two you've narrowed it down to -- what with their being so MANY to choose from, and all ...

but as a proud:eyes: Georgia voter, I think I can make a fair claim to being represented by two of the biggest horses' asses to ever squeeze through the doors of the Capitol Building.

and I wouldn't do that anyway, so I'll just kick this thread.

Got the usual form responses from my senators, but at least one has promised me a detailed response later. Can't wait to hear what Senator Asshat has to say by way of rebutttal:

Dear JeffR,

Thanks for expressing your concerns.

As you know, we are working as little as possible and don't give two shits about the views of Murka-hating libruls such as yourself. Or about our fine men'n'wimmin in th'Armed Forces.

Yours sincerely,
Senator Hose-pail

I figured they'd be using the standard GOP form letter as a response ...

and worse, they know you are feeding us freedom-haters with our talking points.

you guys must live in an awfully big house! :rofl:
And K&R! It's going out from me, too. Great piece, Nance!

... we live in the teeniest, tiniest house imaginable.

JeffR's computer is in the East Wing, while mine is in the West Wing -- which means we are separated by three feet of hallway.

:rofl: if you will -- but we enjoy having delusions of residential grandeur ...

K&R

full of so much truthiness........

And just a question of curiousity?
Did you send this letter to the two criminals in the White House- or anyone else in that administration?

Rec'd, kicked, and read, in the usual order.

In process of being sent to Hutchison and Cornyn, for all the good it will do, but thank you for saying it for me!

Edited to say that I am going to research which of my magazines carried Molly Ivins (except for Texas Observer, because I'm sure you don't want to move here, and I don't blame you), and recommend that they consider you for her replacement. (Not that she can be replaced, but you are both wonderful in your own way.)

I have often thought the same thing. Nancy is so good and she could do so much more good for the nation if she could reach more readers.

If you need any help with your mission, please send me a personal e-mail. She is really the reason that I joined DU.

And really, Nancy doesn't even have to come up with any more columns, she has enough to fill a library already! But we know that she will, because she has to speak her mind.

She has a gift of stating the obvious and the truth with complete eloquence. It is the things that we're all thinking, but she can phrase it as no one else can.

Dawn