LIFE AND LIMB? IS THAT ALL YA GOT?

Just allowed myself to get caught up in some Bullshit Exchange about Prince Harry visitin' Arlington that immediately decayed into a buncha mouth about how our Current President doesn't respect Our Fallen, with no kinda actual examples or facts given.  Just a buncha mean-spirited hot air.

Pissed me off.

So, I decided to gather some facts and figures and assemble them into an example of what I consider to be one of the most extreme examples of Disrespect for Our Troops in my lifetime.  Actual facts.  What a concept.  (If you have any questions regardin' my sources for any of this information, I welcome them...)

I did some diggin', crunched some numbers...

If you happen to be an Avoider of Truth, you may want to look away.  Gonna get a little ugly...

A while back, we sent our Boys into Harm's Way in Iraq based on some fabricated Bullshit WMD "Intel" that was leaked to select Bush-friendly members of the Press by Dick Cheney, then cited by him on the Sunday mornin' talk show circuit like he knew nothin' about it.  

Now, over Four Thousand, Four Hundred of our Boys have died durin' the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  (Killer name!)  Thousands of others have come home forever injured- permantly debilitating head injuries, devastating burns, missing limbs, (missing limbs- don't shoot past it- missing limbs), PTSD, etcetera.

All predicated upon a Lie.

 

Dick Cheney's Halliburton received 39. 5 BILLION DOLLARS during the first decade of the Iraq War, most of it on no-bid contracts.  ("So, how much ya want for that?"  "A Shitload."  "Okay...")

Let it soak in- 39.5 BILLION DOLLARS.

39.5 BILLION DOLLARS.

39.5 BILLION DOLLARS.

39.5 BILLION.

BILLION.  With a friggin' "B".

This is how much of OUR TAX MONEY wound up in the hands of our Vice-President Dick and the War Machine that he and his Associates had spent decades creatin', while also hammerin' away at changin' Government Policy so that more and more military work and logistics became "privatized".  Then they just "happened" to have a Mechanism in place to step to the fore in this New Theater of Commerce, just as it became a Reality.

"Create a need, then fill it."

This means that, by Simple Math, Halliburton made approximately Eight Million, Nine Hundred Seventy-Seven Thousand Dollars for every Dead Soldier.  This does not include other smaller contractors and the cash they pulled down.  We paid for this with our tax money.  Our Soldiers were forced to use other forms of Currency.  Some of our Best and Brightest- we cashed 'em out.  

Their Wives, Children, and Mothers?  They got a Friggin' Apology.  It should have gone somethin' like this:

"So sorry for your Loss.  But you can be Proud in knowing that your Son/Husband/Father forfeited his Life in the Name of Capitalism..."

The Blood of Our Children is now traded as a Commodity.  Shouldn't be long until it's assigned a Ticker Symbol.

Those that Fall are considered as having Failed the System.  They have rendered themselves Devoid of Net Worth.  They are no longer capable of supplyin' Corporate America profits via their Surplus Value.  In fact, they are now an Ongoing Liability.  A Drain on the System.

Unless they are Among the Dead.  

Much simpler, then.

And, in the Right hands, a Damn-Good Public Relations Opportunity.

Mission Accomplished.  The Real One.

Fish