Friday, May 6, 2005

Pentagon stained by Rumsfeld policies


President Bush's unquestioning followers have been inundated with slogans—No Child Left Behind, Culture of Life, Mission Accomplished, Ownership Society and other such snake oil jingoisms.

One needs to be updated to read, "Support the Troops, Excuse the Brass."

A new investigative report shows that the Pentagon engineered another outrageous assault on the public trust.

The Pentagon finally 'fessed up and admitted it knew within a few days of his April 22, 2004, death that former football star-turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman had been riddled by gunfire from his own men.

Rather than tell the family the truth, the report reveals, high-ranking officers decided to say nothing while posthumously awarding Tillman the Silver Star, allowing a nationally televised memorial service to continue, and essentially doing nothing until after Tillman's bloody uniform and body armor were burned rather than preserved as evidence as required.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's policies have trashed the proud Pentagon tradition with this political deceit. The Tillman "friendly fire" incident is merely the latest. Check the list:

· Unable to get CIA agreement that Iraq was brimming with weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld formed a secret group to concoct a fictional, spine-tingling tale about Iraqi weapons.

· The Bush White House discussed attacking Iraq within days of the 2001 inauguration, yet American troops went into battle two years later with unarmored vehicles and insufficient body armor. Rumsfeld shrugged off deaths in unarmored vehicles with "things happen" and "you go to war with the Army you have."

· The only general to challenge Rumsfeld's war-on-the-cheap, Army chief of staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, was fired. His prediction of too few troops later was proven correct.

· Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton, overcharged the Pentagon hundreds of millions of dollars. The Pentagon didn't take notice until well after the fact.

· Hundreds of Muslims rounded up in Afghanistan and Iraq were sent to Guantanamo Bay and often tortured with Pentagon approval. Former Army Sgt. Erik Saar, formerly on the camp staff, writes in his book, "Inside the Wire," of abuses, also alleging the Pentagon knows most detainees there aren't terrorists and can't provide useful information.

· Prohibiting photos of coffins of dead soldiers being returned home was said to accomodate family feelings, which not even a federal court bought: It ordered Pentagon casket photos released to the media.

Rumsfeld and the generals are safe in the care of the Bush Administration. But the public may be catching on: Today 57 percent say the Iraq war wasn't worth it.




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