Veterans' Group Blasts Bush on Transport, Housing SNAFUS

Veterans For Peace:

‘Mission Accomplished!’ Who does Bush think he’s kidding,” ask vets?

On the fifth anniversary of President Bush announcing “Mission Accomplished,” a national veterans’ organization today blasted the administration’s treatment of soldiers returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Citing recently-revealed snafus where civilian airlines have stranded troops in the Mideast for more than a week beyond their scheduled return dates, and dangerous housing conditions on at least one stateside Army base, the two top officers of Veterans For Peace said such treatment makes a mockery of the Bush administration’s “support the troops” rhetoric.

“‘Mission Accomplished!’ Who does Bush think he’s kidding?” VFP President Elliott Adams asked angrily. “Five years after he commandeered an aircraft carrier for a stunt announcing the end of combat operations in Iraq, our troops are still getting killed and apparently we can’t even fly them back home on schedule or house them properly when they do get home.”

Adams, a Viet Nam combat veteran, referred to news reports revealing that ATA airlines, after being dropped from a team of military charter firms by FedEx Corp. went bankrupt, shut down operations, and stranded thousands of homebound troops.

A second fiasco was uncovered by the father of a soldier returning to Ft. Bragg, who posted photos of a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/29/bragg.barracks/">unsafe, contaminated barracks on YouTube. Army officials quickly began making repairs, but several comments posted on the site claimed equally bad conditions exist at other Army posts.

“Are we supposed to believe that there isn't one airline out there that has an unoccupied airplane? For that matter, the president has at least two 747s reserved and the vice president has at least one. If anyone cared they could send them over to pick up few soldiers,” Michael McPhearson, VFP Executive Director and Desert Shield/Storm combat veteran, whose son served a year tour in the current occupation of Iraq.

“And the revolting housing conditions at Ft. Bragg and elsewhere are simply inexcusable,” McPhearson continued. Fayetteville, NC is my hometown and I served some time on Bragg. It sounds like these troops are coming home to some of the same buildings I lived in that needed repair over 20 years ago. If ‘Support the Troops’ meant anything to the people living comfortably in the White House, they would never have let this happen.”