Besides not really feeling well over the last week or so it seems as if I've had a kind of writers block to contend with. Just a general disinterest or lack of ideas we could call it. I don't know why, I guess just because I've felt under the weather. Of course , It could be the thought of the results of King George's war in Iraq which have been making me feel bad. It Seem's a madness has come over King George. Although some of us here in the 11th District think it could just be a old fashoned case of "Chainsaw Charlieitis". BUT, Paying the bill for King George's war in Iraq, This subject is just to important to pass up! So lets look at some of the effects that have resulted from our involvement there.

A fellow Veteran ,who operates the county library and I were recently discussing the loss of so many Veterans records of late and he hit on a plausible idea of organized crime being into it. OK, seems as reasonably of a explanation to me as anything else. Let's review the situation. It is a well known fact that the VA would like nothing more than to privatize the system as a whole while being able to force as many of us out of the system as they can. First, 25.6 million records were stolen and now they admit they could have been compromised! Then 2 weeks later 16,000 turned up missing from the Indianapolis Regional Office. On March 16th the Marines reported 207,750 records of retired Navy & Marine personnel were reported missing from a grad student who had them and then 2 weeks ago another 38,000 vanished from the VA. Now, Math was not my strong point in school , but those figures would account for one heck of a lot of vet's!! If King George rids himself of all of these Vet's then that is one budget he dosent have to worry about!

Then I was browsing thru my issue of the 31 July 06 Army Times and came across a two page story by Staff Writer Gina Cavallaro on the effects of of more than four years of war on the state of Army garrisons. In her report, Cavallaro examines exactly how the Trillion dollar figures to pay for King Georges War along with a shortfall of $530 million in the last round of supplemental funding has affected the Army. You know, I know things were hard during WWII, but I did once hear the statement that war was a good thing as it caused mass production that provided lots of jobs. Well ,to that I say,Bullshit!!! Evidently the person who made it was full of it!
Although the Army, along with the other services has always been underfunded, there is less money to operate on now than before the war and as it continues even less will become available.

On 02 June 06 the IMA (Installation Management Agency) issued a news release announcing the following cost saving measures. * A 100% hiring civilian hiring freeze. * 300 temporary employees were released from their jobs. * Release of some short term employees as quickly as legally possible except for those who directly support life,health ,safety & the Global War on Terrorism. * Reduction & cancellation or deferment of maintenance & service contracts. * Cancellation of all non tactical training such as computer classes and some civilian development classes. * Reduction of travel(Note: OK, Here I give up, if travel is reduced how do we get troops needed in critical areas there?).* Reduction in use of pagers,cell phones & government vehicles. * Deferment of as many expenses as possible, including use of electricity ,curtailment of gym & other recreational facilities.

OK, I see there trying to tighten their belt some but how does the use of a pager affect the war in Iraq? At Fort Sam Houston in King Georges home state of Texas ,they actually got behind in paying the power bills which resulted in the lights almost being cut off for good. The shuttle bus shut down and the laundry & sewing services are curtailed. Sounds like troops will be taking “Sewing your unit Patch on 101” and somebody's gonna have stinky underwear! At Ft.Knox, the rock solid home of the Armored & where I went thru Basic Training they only received only 70% of its required $110 million. Believe me, This is one BIG base!!! So on the 20th of July they shut down 3 more of the 12 mess halls. The Know chow hall bill is $18 Million annually. Sounds like somebody better get used to the WWII mainstay, SPAM! All grounds Maintenance contracts were suspended so the grass on the parade field is 2 foot high. I can picture it now, 12,000 troops armed with a pair of scissors each on hands & knees cutting the grass. Now the US Army in Europe got exempted from some ,but not all.

Here are a few of the measures being undertaken at other Army locations. * In Ft.Meade,Md., Government vechiles were reduced by 20% and 1 swimming pool was closed while ones in the housing areas remain open. * At Ft. Sill,Okla.,Motor pool fleet reduced by 117 vehicles,92 civilian hiring positions have been restricted and Thermostats were ordered to be set at 78 degrees and the hours recruits can get their class “A” uniforms reduced. * Ft.Jackson,SC, Nonessential travel cut out, Grounds Maintenance cut,Purchase of non-essential item cut and custodial services curtailed. *Ft.Eustis,Va., Cell phones cut 40%, Vehicles reduced 14%, Nonessential facilities maintenance, such as light bulb replacement,deffered, Expenditures for supplies cut to absolute minimum. * In Heidelberg, Germany Most supplies are now bought in bulk and now they use more government owned vehicles than rentals. One plan being considered for all bases is to eliminate post library's in favor of boosting the local civilian area library. While Secretary of the Army, Francis Harvey stated he was committed to giving soldiers a quality of life that matches the quality of service the IMA is just looking to make it thru the year.

Who is ultimately in control of funding? Yep, You guessed it! The House and Senate Appropations Committees and people serving on them such as “Chainsaw Charlie Taylor”! In a outstanding move , even under a threat from King George Himself, the Senate Appropriations committee took $9 billion dollars away from the 2007 defense appropriations bill to spend on domestic programs which have nothing to do with National Security. Of course, This practice of tapping into the defense budget is nothing new. Committee leaders were even successful in getting Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who is the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee , to oppose a $95 billion funding bill for military construction & veterans programs. The reason, simply, because it would have provided $735 Million to shift from the base closure and realignment programs to the veterans' health care programs.

I don't know about you, but all of this seems really wrong to me. King George has us involved in a war,a conflict or whatever you desire to call it ,which has truly started to look just like another Vietnam to some of us just as it was predicted to do. King George wants this to go on and basically he wants the very best soldiers available. How he plans to accomplish this is truly another matter as it appears to me that our troops currently involved in training and serving their country here stateside have been already put in harms way without going to Iraq thru all of these funding cuts. They have truly been jeopardized! King George has taken his eyes from our real target,
Mr. Bin Laden and the entire GOP membership has allowed him to get away with it! NO! NATO is not in control and being successful in Afghanistan! If they were then why were some of my personal friends who are high ranking NCO's get placed on an Operations Team to go to Afghan land just for the purpose of setting up a new base for a full airborne brigade! It dosent sound to me like anyone is in control there! What it does sound like however, is that the time has come for everyone, Democrats & Republicans alike to wake the heck up and get these bumbling idiots like Bush,Taylor,Dole,Burr and the list go's on ,out of office and replace them with political canadates who have some common sense and know how to end this madness! Yes , I support our troops,those in Iraq,in Afghanistan,in Germany and here at home in the USA but I sure as heck DO NOT support their political leadership! Now “Chainsaw Charlie”, take that and put it in your Russian Bank and stew on it for a while! Of course we could re-name him to “Charlie the Chainsaw Commie”.