Imagine you're a soldier in the US military. You joined the Army to see the world, to get money for college, to get out of a dead-end town, whatever. You are sent to Iraq to prop up a sham government against a broad-based popular insurgency while at the same time trying not to get killed in the crossfire of a civil war. You watch politically-connected mercenary armies like Blackwater parade around armed to the teeth and raking in big bucks while you have to make do with substandard equipment and your family struggles to make ends meet back home. Despite your best efforts you are shot or blown up, after which you are discharged from the military, shipped back to the United States and cast adrift in the underfunded bureaucratic nightmare that is the VA health system.
And then you get a letter from the Pentagon ordering you to return part of your signing bonus because you didn't finish out your commitment. Doesn't matter that you were wounded in the line of duty, pay up.
It is, to put it mildly, inhuman. What sort of bloodless leech could possibly think up such a scheme? Can the Pentagon not afford its latest gold-plated weapons system? Are they really passing the hat so Halliburton can get a few more billions in bonuses?
HR 3793 has been introduced in the House to put a stop to this ghoulish practice, and it already has 219 co-sponsors. This one really is a no-brainer.
And then you get a letter from the Pentagon ordering you to return part of your signing bonus because you didn't finish out your commitment. Doesn't matter that you were wounded in the line of duty, pay up.
It is, to put it mildly, inhuman. What sort of bloodless leech could possibly think up such a scheme? Can the Pentagon not afford its latest gold-plated weapons system? Are they really passing the hat so Halliburton can get a few more billions in bonuses?
HR 3793 has been introduced in the House to put a stop to this ghoulish practice, and it already has 219 co-sponsors. This one really is a no-brainer.
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