Issue date: 2/4/04 Section: Opinion

By Tony Piedra

On May 1, 2003, the sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln were delayed getting to port after a 10-month voyage because President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to make a speech declaring the end of major combat operations in Iraq on the aircraft carrier, was sleeping. Unfortunately, this incident was only one in a disturbing pattern in Bush's disregard for the needs of America's military. Although most voting members of the military are expected to support the president in his reelection bid this fall, the president has not earned their vote.

Twice, Bush has attempted to manufacture photo opportunities using the military as a backdrop. The USS Lincoln incident, when the president unnecessarily donned a flight suit and arrived via jet (even though the carrier was in helicopter range), was the first. Later that year, Bush was shown carrying a fake turkey while visiting troops in Baghdad during Thanksgiving.

Preposterously, some soldiers who walked as much as 15 minutes to the Bob Hope facility to see the president and get a Thanksgiving meal were denied entrance for security reasons, according to a letter to the editor in the military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes. Bush's visit to Iraq was supposed to be a morale builder for the troops, but how can turning soldiers away when they come to see you build morale?

Regrettably, Bush has made even worse decisions regarding the uniformed men and women in Iraq. In one case, it has literally been a life and death matter. When the war in Iraq was starting, only ground combat troops were issued potentially life - saving Kevlar vests. Only now is the Pentagon working to get these vests to all soldiers in Iraq, nearly a year after the war began. As commander in chief, it was Bush's responsibility to ensure that all of the troops in Iraq had these vests, but he failed miserably.

Last summer, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Bush administration approved a Pentagon plan to rollback an increase in "imminent danger pay" from $225 to $150. A wave of negative publicity ensued. This included a scathing editorial by The Army Times on June 30, 2003, titled, "Nothing but Lip Service," which stated, "President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly-deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap - and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately." It was only after receiving negative media attention that Bush signed a bill that kept the combat pay raises in place.

Continued...

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