Full Retreat
That's what the Pentagon is in now that word is out about its plan to cut combat pay for troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf. Reading their weasily denials, it seems the Administration is trying to 1) blame Congress (in Republican hands, remember) and 2) suggest that the combat pay rules actually tied their hands with respect to "other means of compensation" for the soldiers and their families. Since these guys always tell the truth, I guess we'll just take their word for it.
What's astonishing is the stupidity of getting cheap with the genuinely brave and often heroic folks who are doing Cheney and Wolfowitz's dirty work on the ground in Iraq while there is a live debate over the merits of the President's tax giveback to the wealthy. It's certainly going to hit the fan next year when the returning soldiers won't be able to find jobs in the anemic, hollowed-out economy, and it has already been shown that most military families don't make enough to qualify for the tax cuts. Why throw gasoline on the fire with something this blatantly idiotic, and, let's face it, unpatriotic? Maybe Rove and the others have really started drinking the Kool Aid with respect to Bush's snake-oil economic policies and it's affecting their political judgement.
9:38:46 AM 
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