Well, gosh darn. Shoot. Heck yeah. Finally.
Believe it or not, the Bush administration military is saving you
some money! That’s right, just when you thought you’d heard all you could possibly hear from those cowardly, whining liberals about the government spending all of your money on an illegal war
about oil and commerce and hiring those monstrous, over-charging companies like Halliburton and Blackwater to march in and help the peace process going on with Operation Iraqi Freedom, your United States military has figured out a way to cut costs so that your tax dollars aren’t spent so frivolously. Did you ever think that would happen? I didn’t. What with all of the billions and billions of dollars that have been spent on the war so far to keep us all safe here “on American soil,” I really couldn’t figure out a way for the government to shave some of that spending without really making us more and more vulnerable to attack here at home again. That kind of protection does really cost a lot of money, you know. But they did it. They found a way. There’s been a little coverage of it on some of the cable news networks but not really all that much, so I figured I would at least do my part in congratulating them. Have you ever heard of the Minnesota National Guard or, as they are sometimes called, the Red Bull Brigade? Well, just in case you haven’t, they volunteered to serve and help out during crisis situations in their own state, like most National Guard units. When the war with Iraq busted loose and they were needed, they did their duty. And they did so longer than most anybody who’s served over there yet. Most of them were there for an unprecedented 22 months. They were there in the middle of all that hell, fighting on the ground, never knowing from one minute to the next if they were going to be blown to bits and they stuck it out — ALMOST until the bitter end. Luckily, the military let them come home a little early. While some of them were home in May of this year, Vice President Dick Cheney was so moved by their service — you know what a nice man he is! — he went up there and gave a speech. He was so impressed with his words, he put the speech on the White House Web site: “America is also deeply grateful to the men and women of the Red Bull Division — the 34th Infantry Division. Your recent missions include operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Egypt, and Honduras. And you have mobilized and deployed in the global war on terror. You’ve sent in units as part of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and right now soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team are on the ground in Iraq as part of the largest overseas deployment of the Minnesota National Guard since World War II. Our nation owes an incalculable debt to all branches of the armed forces, and to the Guard and Reserve units all across the country. It is impossible to overstate how much they’ve done to make this nation safer, and to bring freedom, stability, and peace to a troubled part of the world.” That was really sweet of him, wasn’t it? And really sweet of the military to let them come home early. Yes, it was just one day early, but still. And now there are some left-wing nuts out there who are angry because it has come out that the reason they let them come home one day early is because that way, they don’t have to give them as much financial aid to go to school as they would have if they had stayed there in hell that extra ONE DAY. See, if they had stayed the extra ONE DAY, the government would have to give them roughly $800 a month in education benefits. But since they brought about half of them home ONE DAY early, they have to pay them only about $200 a month. And that is where the army is saving you, the taxpayer, a lot of money! See, it was a really smart move on the Army’s part. Oh, yes, some of the soldiers think it stinks while some of the others, who are just a bit more patriotic, say they think that the decision to bring them home a day early could possibly have been just an oversight or a fluke. Shame on those soldiers who are complaining about being treated this way for their service in the war in Iraq. It’s not like they really did all that much. So what if they had to live through that nightmare for almost two years of their lives and lose jobs and be away from loved ones and all that? Don’t they know the government and especially its military chiefs have to show some fiscal responsibility? In fact, they just did it again. Get this from CBS News: “The opening of a mammoth, $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which had been planned for last month, has now been delayed well into next year, U.S. officials said. The Vatican-sized compound, which will be the world’s largest diplomatic mission, has been beset by construction and logistical problems. ‘They are substantially behind at this point’ and it would be surprising if any offices or living quarters could be occupied before the end of the year, one official told the Associated Press on Thursday.” Now then. See? I bet if they just cut out the $200 in benefits altogether, rather than giving these veterans the ridiculously high sum of $800 a month in benefits, they might just be able to go ahead and get this construction project finished. I bet if this building is for the top officials in the army, it will be really swell.