Iraq vets join ranks of have-nots under Bush administration

[Say_What]

<clips>

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.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/jesse/cst-edt-jesse28.html

[Spazito]

1. Excellent!

Thanks for the link! Yet again, Jesse nails it!

[Bandit]

2. $600 a month

I guess since she is no longer a "troop" she needs no republican support. Now she will just be classified as someone sucking a government tit. Like a welfare reciprocate.

[E_Zapata]

3. Surely Hollywood is banging on her door to get exclusive rights

to her movie and book, right?

I mean, she was practically in the shadow of Saddam as a POW in Baghdad.

Saddam probably shot one ankle, and Osama shot the other.

Now that's a story, Hollywood!

Pitiful.....Jessica Lynch should be losing sleep in shame for helping to keep up her heroic charade!

[tom_paine]

4. Busheviks just don't like Amerikans very much

Low breeding. Vulgar upstarts. Useful as cannon fodder but otherwise should be encouraged to shut up and crawl into a cornr after said usefulness is over.

[ninkasi]

5. I think her ordeal

would make an excellent book, and movie. It would show not only what she endured while being held prisoner, but also the shameful, needless ordeal Bush and his gang are responsible for putting her through now.

I know I've mentioned this before, and ya'll are probably tired of hearing me say it, but the frightened look on her face while still captive haunts me. Her story would also be a much, much more realistic view of the way the current regime treats those it no longer has a use for.

She has a child to support, on top of everything else. I'm white, she's black, but we're both women, and if nothing else, her treatment should be a slap in the face to anybody who has a shred of compassion. This is simply vile and disgusting. And they wonder why we hate Bush?

[Say_What]

6. Disparity in pay for ex-POWs criticized

<clips>

EL PASO - The father of Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, a former prisoner of war, accused the Army on Friday of unfair treatment after a medical board offered her a smaller disability paycheck than fellow POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

Claude Johnson, who lives in El Paso, said the financial support Lynch is getting should be provided equally to all soldiers who are injured in the line of duty.

"She is not getting what she deserves," he said.

Family members confirmed that Lynch, snatched from an Iraqi hospital April 1 in a Special Forces rescue, is receiving an 80 percent disability. Shoshana Johnson, released April 13 with four other American POWs, has been offered 30 percent, Claude Johnson said.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/7102178.htm