George Bush Hearts the Troops

Wednesday, 08 February 2006
Been Hit? Tough Shit. Pay Up. Get Out.

That's the stirring motto that George W. Bush and Don Rumsfeld have adopted when extending their paternal care to the soldiers being maimed for life in "Operation Crony Profits" over in Iraq. Below are excepts from an inspiring story of how these right-wing poobahs "Support the Troops."

From the West Virginia Gazette:

The last time 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood. A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again. But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago.

He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle. He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months. Rebrook, 25, scrounged up the cash from his Army buddies and returned home to Charleston last Friday.

Rebrook was standing in the turret of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle when the roadside bomb exploded Jan. 11, 2005. The explosion fractured his arm and severed an artery…Doctors operated on his arm seven times in all. But Rebrook’s right arm never recovered completely. He still has range of motion problems. He still has pain when he turns over to sleep at night.

Even with the injury, Rebrook said he didn’t want to leave the Army. He said the “medical separation” discharge was the Army’s decision, not his…“They said that I owed them $700,” Rebrook said. “It was like ‘thank you for your service, now here’s the bill for $700.’ I had to pay for it if I wanted to get on with my life.” In the past, the Army allowed to soldiers to write memos, explaining the loss and destruction of gear, Rebrook said. But a new policy required a “report of survey” from the field that documented the loss. Rebrook said he knows other soldiers who also have been forced to pay for equipment destroyed in battle.

Rebrook, who graduated with honors from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, spent more than four years on active duty. He served six months in Iraq. Now, Rebrook is sending out résumés, trying to find a job....

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