Iraq vets join ranks of have-nots under Bush administration

BY JESSE JACKSON
October 28, 2003

Former POW Shoshana Johnson has finally returned home, still suffering from injuries she received in the military. But now her postwar wounds are exceeding her war wounds.

First, she had to fight simply to get an assessment of her injuries so she could get medical care and disability payments. She had been shot in both ankles, beaten and imprisoned for 22 days, and her military career was cut short. For all this, she has received $600 a month disability compensation, far beneath her needs or what she deserves.

But Johnson isn't an exception. America's soldiers and veterans seem to be at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Iraq.

Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton is earning hundreds of millions charging U.S. taxpayers 85 percent more than Iraqi companies to import oil into Iraq. This tidy profit is on top of what Halliburton will earn for the multimillion dollar, no-bid contract it was awarded to rebuild Iraq's oil fields.

Even as taxpayer money is sluicing to Halliburton, the U.S. military refused to spend the money needed to supply soldiers on the front lines in Iraq with the modern body armor. Assigned to an occupation for which they are neither trained nor equipped, thousands of soldiers were sent out with outdated Vietnam-era vests. Desperate mothers and fathers have been buying their sons and daughters the modern vests -- even as the Pentagon dawdles.

So much for Howdy's "support" for our troops. The Administration seems more focused on lining the pockets of Haliburton, and other war profiteers.