Tonight on Countdown, Keith Olbermann asked Jim Webb what he might suggest next in support of the troops and Senator Webb though committed to their cause did not have a ready answer. For me, whenever I see an insipid Support The Troops sign on someone's lawn, or worse, a bumper sticker to that effect on a gas guzzling SUV, I think Why not a $ 10,000 bonus for each tour that these folks have served and will continue to serve? If all these Superpatriots were willing to put their money where there overly large mouths are, Support The Troops might mean something to war critics like me.
To make this seemingly sarcastic suggestion a bit more serious and palatable to my fellow Americans who are so committed to having a government that runs without tax revenue (yes, I'm talking about you, Grover Norquist), I would suggest funding these bonuses by taxing the folks who benefit the most from the service of our men and women in uniform. Sadly, I speak of the oil companies. Just today we read confirmation of what most of us here at DKOS knew from the gitgo. This is a war of blood for oil. As Marine General Smedley Butler wisely wrote at the end of his valiant career: I Was A Gangster for Capitalism!
Now our fine men and women have been traduced into being mercenaries for the oil companies. Today it is revealed that agents of our government have advised and maneouvered their lackeys in the Iraqi Oil Ministry to effect the theft of Iraq's oil reserves to the benefit of the American and British Oil giants, big surprise, huh?
So with over 4,000 of our service men and women dead and thousands maimed and ruined for life, now we nakedly steal their resources. The least these scumsuckers that rule us (the oil and weapons' companies) can do is pony up a few lousy sheckels for the folks who are sacrificing and dying on their behalf. What about that Senator Webb? Dare I ask, how about that Senator Obama? How about that fellow Kossacks, any takers for this? Can we run it up the flagpole and see who will salute?