Recent Republican shills like Sean “Ins†Hannity are declaring their disinterest in the mortgage crisis as he did recently on his radio show. They claim that American taxpayers should not have to pay for someone else’s misfortunes stating boldly that it was their own stupidity that got them in financial trouble. They divide the middle-class against the lower middle-class claiming that it would take $Billions to bail out a bunch of dead-beats that can’t pay their own bills. A bunch of dead beats huh? What if I were to tell you some of these dead beats were members of the United States Military?
It’s true, apparently many members of the Armed Services are having trouble making their housing payments. The banks are often ignoring them (of course, like they care), and many soldiers are slipping through the cracks. This is not because they were discharged or anything like that, it’s just that financial institutions were in such a desperate need to take advantage of people looking for the American Dream, that they ripped off American soldiers! After all, corporations have no nationality, so why should it make a difference right? They just got taken advantage of the market place right? That’s the way the cookie crumbles, let them go broke, that’ll teach those bottom of the latter idiots how to handle their money right?
Well of course this would be consistent with Republican and Conservative beliefs, they’d just as soon let these lower class peasants crawl back from Iraq before they cared, that is, accept when they’re politically using the Armed Forces to extract $Billions of taxpayer bucks from a naive and trusting populace. In other words, they’re making hand over fist using our soldiers to justify needless contracts that make the “Bridge to Nowhere look like the freaking Freedom Tower (which is probably seeing much of the same thing anyway just like The Big Dig in Boston made Bechtel monstrously richer). The only difference is that public works projects, like The Big Dig can get you in trouble, land you in lawsuit hell and destroy your image. Defense spending is just so much easier. It uses a cloud of secrecy, patriotism and back room deals to keep nosy civilians out. Only problem is, you need to keep your poster-child, that great epic American soldier sober, proud and happy. If this gets out in a big way, that soldiers are not being paid enough, being taken advantage of by the banks and generally not profiting in the way that they’ve been portraying, it would be a PR blunder, one that could shake public confidence even more and shut down the gravy train that flows unquestioned throw the Pentagon and trickles but a few drops for our nation’s finest.
Can’t you see our heroes now, standing tall from a low angle, the sun and American flag behind them, holding strong at attention, Christian ideals & freedom flowing through his mind, as a tear drips down their cheek while the Star Spangled Banner blares in the distance? Wow! The Military is nothing like that. These poor guys generally com from the lower rung, many, like my buddies, are smart guys, things just never quite panned out for them. Was it because they didn’t have the money or the motivation or the whatever? Who knows. All I know for sure is that in many cases the military seemed like a good option from where they were standing at the time. They didn’t have the fun fraternity lives that so many of these Republican elitists get to enjoy, or the call from daddy to get them into a top notch gig somewhere. No their options were very different and the life they left behind was generally not exploding with opportunity.
Most of the people I know did quite well in the Service. They got to see the world, save their money and party like only the military knows how (including many things always known but never talked about). It’s a far cry from the Christian Republican vision of military life, but then again, most of them never served. The ones that did, probably wouldn’t recognize the military of today with its off-base credit unions, vast track housing complexes and on-base Subway Sandwhich or Taco Bell. It’s a different American society and certainly a different American Military.
The only thing that hasn’t changed too drastically, is the American Soldier. Boys fall in love, girls do too. They meet each other, now right in the Military and start families, live off-base, buy a house and try to enjoy the American Dream. Of course this becomes difficult in the Military. You’re constantly moving around from base to base. I remember my uncle lived out at March AFB, he was content with his life, settling in until they shut down March and shipped he and his wife back East. This put a lot of strain on things. Selling the house in desperation, packing up, preparing the kids for a new life. With wartime deployment’s and Bush’s extended & stop-loss deployments, these families are strained more than ever. Now let’s really test these marriages by throwing in high gasoline, inflation and a housing crisis. As banks needlessly raise mortgage rates while the Fed is lowering them, these families are facing twice as expensive monthly mortgage bills.
I suppose this was bound to happen. Republicans who love to talk about smaller government (while completely hypocritical) love to attack the nation’s largest employer, they just always seem to forget the largest branch of that employer is without a doubt the United States Military. The American taxpayer pays out trillions to fund a massive apparatus of military bases, government contracts and down at the bottom of the list… the troops. Many of these bases spurn new cities, many of the bases are cities themselves complete with fast food restaurants, creating a high demand for bars, restaurants, credit unions and housing for off-base families. If you’ve ever ventured onto a modern base, or been around a massive military installation, you know what I’m talking about. These days, thanks to the deregulated private contract system (pushed through by Dick Cheney under Bush I) and the massive ramp up of military spending, these areas have exploded into a system completely interdependent on a permanent standing army. It’s like the Roman Legion system on amphetamine.
On the surface, this doesn’t seem that bad. It’s just our troops and we need to keep the world safe for Democracy or from Democracy and for Capitalism or something like that. However we’re setting ourselves up for disaster. The standing U.S. Army is MASSIVE with over 700 basses in foreign countries. It’s a cesspool of corrupt government contracts and industrialists who profit from death and war. This is exactly what Bush and Cheney wanted, they ARE industrialists who profit from death, war, government contracts and, as Republicans, they profit their party by increasing the size of the traditionally Right-leaning military and the local wannabes who suck up to the military. It seems ingenious or, should I say ingenuous.
When you really analyze what Bush and Cheney did with the Military, you begin to see a short term financial shot in the arm that is doomed to failure. As the need to keep a standing army recedes, Americans will be stuck paying out billion dollar contracts for submarines and planes, purchased to fight Al Qaeda’s giant Air Force and Navy (as Robert Scheer has recently pointed out). By the time Al Qaeda even builds a fleet of row boats, our subs will be scheduled for decommission. Just another monument to the enormous waste of the Military Industrial Complex.
It’s a terrible misuse of quality manpower when you think about it. They prop up our soldiers as heroes, then pay them the least, even tried to cut their combat pay from $220 a month to $150 a month a few years back. Furthermore, they’ve denied medical benefits for unjustifiable reasoning, like some sort of Insurance company and even recently, Republicans like John McCain did not support an increases to the Montgomery GI Bill ( must be that whole officer thing) and now, they even allow their houses to be foreclosed upon. It’s even big business down at Eglin AFB, just look at this local realtor.
I’ve seen many friends and family do the Military sojourn. It’s not just a job, it’s a commitment. You don’t always lay your life on the line, yet it’s always there on the table and when Uncle Sam wants to gamble with it, you can bet your chip will look just as shiny as the rest. This is why we pay Massive Veteran’s medical bills & pensions for decades. Our veterans deserve housing benefits, tax breaks, education grants, permanent medical and a host of other incentives. Do the American people understand this is NOT something we can cut later. Unlike the Republicans who voted today to withhold medical benefits from Filipino soldiers who fought for the U.S. in WWII (when the Philippines was an American commonwealth)! Will they turn their backs on our future Vets? They will if we let them!
Republicans and Conservatives, have a different view on spending money. They historically were against the Interstate System, bonus pensions for WWI Vets, Social Security and just about any expenditure of money on anything that benefits the infrastructure or people of this country. However when the banks like Bear Sterns go under, WELL NOW THAT’S A DIFFERENT STORY! Time to shell out $Billions of bucks to make sure that JP Morgan Chase could get a good price. Sure we’ll say we don’t like it and then do nothing to stop it. It had to be done for the sake of American Capitalism.
Meanwhile, what have Republicans done for the proud men and women of this nation that put so much on the line? From where I can stand, not a damn thing. No sir, not a damn thing!