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associates of George Bush, Dick Cheney and other key American
officials scramble to enrich themselves from the suffering of
the Iraqi people, while soldiers’ families and other concerned
Americans collect old clothing to send to military hospitals in
Germany and the United States. Wounded soldiers, risking their
lives - not to “free the Iraqi people,” but to transform
Iraq into a safe haven for investment - are flown from Iraq in
flimsy hospital gowns or torn and bloody uniforms, missing not
only a hand, an arm or a leg, but also all of their possessions.
Soldiers are lucky to arrive at Landstuhl, Germany, where
wounded soldiers from Iraq are processed, or a stateside
hospital such as Walter Reid Army Medical Center in Washington
DC, with their few belongings in plastic garbage bags. In the
Danvers, Massachusetts post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of
the United States (VFW), VFW members are so upset by this idea
that they collect duffle bags or other luggage so that the
soldiers do not suffer the additional indignity of arriving with
their belongings in garbage bags, which appears to be the Army
way.
“I
asked the nurses and the chaplains what the soldiers needed; and
they said warm clothes, such as coats, sweaters, gloves, hats,
long underwear, sweat pants and sweat shirts, sneakers, socks,
new underwear… and anything else you can think of,” wrote a
visitor to the military hospital at Landstuhl. The weather in
Germany is already cold, and soldiers are dependent on the work
of the chaplains at the hospital who collect clothing and toilet
articles for the soldiers’ use. The Army, unable to provide
adequate equipment or supplies in Iraq, is even unable to
provide those basic things for young soldiers who will spend
their lives suffering from the serious injuries they received in
this unjust war.
War
profiteers do not bother to conceal their activities or their ties to
the Bush Administration. |
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As
if this was not enough insult, war profiteers do not bother to
conceal their activities or their ties to Bush Administration
officials; they promote them. “When Iraq is ready to rebuild,
we will be there,” reads the website of the Bush-connected
consulting firm, New
Bridge Strategies. “The opportunities evolving in Iraq
today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no
other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to
be effective both in Washington, D.C. and on the ground in
Iraq.” The firm proudly displays biographies of its leaders,
listing their ties to George Bush, leading potential clients to
believe that they offer not only easy access to government
contracts, but also the protection of the US Army in Iraq, an
essential factor for doing business there.
We
have been shipping food, clothing, water and, yes, even bullet-proof
vests to soldiers. |
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Independent
business people who travel to Iraq, their eagerness for easy
riches causing them to risk life and limb, find they are unable
to get in the front door due to their lack of connections with
the Bush Administration. Violating the principles of free market
that they claim to uphold (like all other violations of
democracy and freedom that have perpetrated the US government
since September 11), Bush officials come under criticism for
unfair contracts, awarded secretly without open bidding; again
they claim that this is to protect national security. But while
these greedy few complain of unfairness, the true injustice lies
in the tragedy of the Iraqi people and the soldiers and their
families, all of whom suffer while the wealthy profit.
The
United States Congress recently approved another $87 billion to
be divided by those profiteers, for reconstruction projects in
Iraq and for supplying the troops. We can only expect those
funds to be added to the billions already in the pockets of
George Bush’s friends - with a large portion reserved for the
infamous Halliburton, the company that sends Dick Cheney
millions of dollars. Subsidiaries of this company hold contracts
to provide the soldiers with food, water and mail delivery - the
provision of none of which has been a success.
For
many months, those of us with family members in Iraq have been
shipping food, essential clothing, water and, yes, even
bullet-proof vests to soldiers, the items that private-sector
companies are supposed to provide, companies receiving billions
of dollars of our tax money. Since soldiers do not come from
wealthy families, we have gone without paying our bills to
provide those things (some people keep the receipts, as if one
day they will have the opportunity to show them to George Bush
and demand restitution). Thinking we can rest in peace knowing
that our children will at least have food despite the great
cost, imagine our anger to find that in many areas of Iraq our
packages do not arrive for months. Halliburton, the very company
charged with providing food, water and other essentials, is
unable to deliver the mails, meaning our soldiers still lack
adequate supplies despite our efforts.
The
money transferred from the US government to those wealthy
profiteers has an additional effect on soldiers and their
families: it is draining the budgets of essential government
service programs, such as food assistance, health care and
education. The young families of soldiers (the wives are already
cutting their small budgets to send their husbands food) often
depend on those programs because of their low incomes. The
programs from which they receive food assistance for their
children have been reduced because of the drain of dollars, an
implication of the high cost of the occupation of Iraq. Their
children now attend overcrowded, inadequate schools, many of
which are unable to provide even the basics of education due to
the lack of funds. The families of National Guard and Reserve
soldiers are facing a huge cut in income, as the Army pay is far
less than what they received in the private-sector jobs they
were forced to leave. The prospect of soldiers staying in Iraq
for extended periods has provoked an outcry from families, not
merely because we miss our loved ones and fear for their safety,
but because this war is driving us deeper into poverty.
Operation
Iraqi Freedom does not represent freedom for neither the Iraqi
nor the American people; the freedom it represents is only for
war profiteers to enrich themselves at our expense. It does not
guarantee Iraqi or American security; it is driving us deeper
and deeper into insecurity. Iraqis and Americans are dying and
are being wounded daily; we are all facing an insecure future,
while George Bush and his friends hold barbeques at his ranch
and discuss the division of the spoils.
Jeri
L. Reed is
a PhD candidate in history at the University of Oklahoma and
member of Military
Families Speak Out, a group of families with loved ones
in the military who have opposed the invasion and occupation of
Iraq. Jeri is the mother of Cody, 21, a US soldier located at
the Abu Gharib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq.
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