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BushCo Slaughters Sacred Cow
By Nancy Greggs
Over the past few years, as the crimes of this Administration have been slowly but steadily exposed, millions of American citizens have wondered what the tipping point would be – that long-awaited moment when they did something so vile, so heinous, so inhuman, their own last diehard supporters would turn against them in a wave of unprecedented disgust.
With the exposure of the conditions at Walter Reed Hospital, I think we’ve hit that point – and then some. The tip of this particular iceberg will, in all probability, be the disaster that sinks the Bad Ship BushCo. And when the true size and nature of that iceberg slowly rises above the surface of the muddied waters, there won’t be enough lifeboats in the world to save the hapless passengers.
As with all great yarns, there is of course that twist of irony. It was this president and the Republicans themselves who turned our troops into the Sacred Cow, the one group no one could defile, abuse, nor say a word against without being accused of treasonous motives.
“Support the Troops” was the banner which all GOPers waved in the face of anyone who dared question their activities in any other area. It was the smokescreen that obscured all sins, and the shield that protected every outrageous act from scrutiny.
“But WE Support the Troops”. It was a statement yelled from the rooftops every time something unsavory came to light, meant to put an end to any further discussion. And up until now, that tactic invariably worked.
In fact, our troops have been treated miserably by this administration since day one; their pay, pensions and benefits were gutted during the years of Republican control of the House and Senate. They’ve been sent into combat ill-equipped and ill-prepared, thanks to the war machine that requires expediency above safety, along with ensuring a hefty bottom-line for the war profiteers.
And thanks to the compliance of the MSM, the general population has been kept, for the most part, unaware of the true nature of BushCo’s brand of ‘support’ when it comes to our soldiers.
But with the now-emerging details of the conditions under which our returning troops are forced to live, the inadequacy of their care, and the bureaucracy that ensnares them into accepting far less than they are entitled to, the Sacred Cow held up by this president and his supporters as proof of their patriotism, and their loyalty to its defenders, now lies dead in a pool of red blood and red tape.
And there can be no question as to who slaughtered that Sacred Cow – and given its sacredness, the citizenry are not about to accept ignorance of the facts as an excuse for its demise, no less the reasoning that while we spend billions of dollars on the War in Iraq, pennies must be pinched when it comes to caring for the very people who fought that war.
The obvious question to be asked is: How did this Administration, and its attendant GOP toadies, think the true state of affairs would never see the light of day? What made them think they would get away with pouring even more of the taxpayers’ dollars into the pockets of crony-run private companies without getting caught?
The answer there, I think, is part and parcel of BushCo’s favorite but ill-advised answer to everything: “Failure is not an option.”
Just as they never devised a Plan B to deal with an insurgency in Iraq, they never faced the possibility of losing a Republican majority, with its attendant loyalists in office to ensure that certain facts never came to light.
They never foresaw a time when a well-spoken, well-groomed GOP operative wouldn’t be able to smooth over the worst catastrophe by appearing on a couple of Sunday morning talk shows, smiling reassuringly. They never planned for the day that Uncle Dick would be compared to Baghdad Bob – the latter being more believable.
They never took into account the statement that inevitably follows failure not being an option: “Shit happens.” And if you don’t have an option for when it does, you’re screwed.
Call it a pre-November 2006 mindset, a time when a sudden terror alert would get the citizens back in line, a time when it would always be business-as-usual because the Democrats would never be in a position to ask questions and demand answers, pursuant to subpoenas and testimony under oath.
In short, they left themselves no exit strategy – surprise, surprise.
So now the Sacred Cow has had its throat slashed by its own creators, an act meant to have been carried out in secret, and its blood paints the door lintel of the White House itself. How apt in this season of the year – but this time, the Angel of political death is not likely to pass over.
The Sacred Cow that was used for photo-ops, as a backdrop to every lie about the war, as a crutch when the administration was crippled by one scandal or another, is now just a reminder that “Support the Troops”, like every other BushCo/GOP slogan, is just that – a few words on a bumpersticker meant to divert the eye from the slaughter, and the public’s mind from the truth.
Will anyone ever again see a photo of a smiling Bush at the bedside of an injured soldier, and not wonder what conditions are like in the room of the soldier just down the hall? Will anyone ever again hear a Republican talk about supporting the troops, without questioning what he knew, and when he knew it?
I think BushCo and its Republican apologists are about to discover that when it comes to our troops, all the bumperstickers in the world aren’t going to cover up the holes in the walls at Walter Reed, or the holes in the broken system that they themselves not only created, but allowed to flourish.
And the fact that all roads inevitably lead to Halliburton, or a subsidiary thereof, really doesn’t bode well for an administration and a party that has shoveled millions of dollars into the same ever-open pockets on a no-questions-asked basis.
In the end, despite the best professional obfuscation that money can buy, Sacred Cows never die in obscurity. Their carcasses tend to litter the political landscape, and the stench of their remains never goes unnoticed – and their deaths never go unavenged.
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