You know, when the knights of KBR and the military-industrial complex literally clean-up as the War in Mess O'Potamia grinds on the men and women who are serving in the military as junior enlisted are getting help...but not from a source that could do some good (like, say Congress), rather from coupon-cutting patriots:
Some are frail, their bodies riddled with arthritis. Others are confined to walkers or wheelchairs.
Spread out across the country is a small army of old ladies determined to do their part in the war on terror. Their weapons of choice: scissors and coupons.
They cut out a couple hundred each day, a few thousand a week, and send them to military families in the Middle East and elsewhere overseas, who redeem them at commissaries. It may not seem like much, the ladies say, but every little bit counts.
It has long pissed me off that the average E-4 (and below) with a family has to work two jobs to make ends meet and that's after working long hours and facing the hardships of family separation and massive deployment.
We take good care of junior officers (who are usually beneficiaries of things they never use like moving allowances... I know from personal experience) and senior enlisted, but somehow these men and women who are making up the vast majority of our forces find themselves in a position where life consists of the Eagle shitting every two weeks, food stamps and other indignities of being a guardian of our Republic.
It's a small miracle that they show up for work everyday and demonstrate the pride we all feel when the colors go up the pole at the beginning of the day, and retreat is sounded in the evening. But how long will that last as contractors get fat dollars for nothing and politicians (of both parties) use them for eternal photo-op backstops in every political campaign that comes along?
