They gave up their lives for America, but their boss made them charity cases.
Brave soldiers Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, and Special Agent Joseph M. Peters made the supreme sacrifice last week, defending our liberties and sovereignty on the battlefield so that partisans, political hacks, limousine liberals, and other assorted bottom-feeders could rail away to their heart’s content from the comfort of their offices, desks, and armchairs in the greatest nation on earth.
It’s a small measure of comfort that the fallen heroes didn’t live to know that their employers at the Department of Defense — the world’s mightiest military with a $700-billion budget — didn’t pay a cent for their funerals or for death benefits to their grieving families because of the federal shutdown. But instead left it to a veteran’s group to step up and make the payments until Congress reopens.
The buck — consider it an occupational hazard — stops with the president. But he is more preoccupied with vilifying Republicans to right the wrong of kicking to the curb heroic Americans such as Patterson, Hawkins, Moreno, and Peters, without the likes of whom the likes of him would not be grandstanding in the Oval House.
What a horrifying morale bust it must be, too, for troops battling in Iraq and Afghanistan to know that Obama does not have their backs. And to try and reconcile — all while fighting a brutal enemy — that their commander-in-chief didn’t even bother to sign an executive order on their behalf in a timely manner to reinstate the $100,000 death gratuity, usually wired within three days to cover all expenses related to the death of a soldier in the line of duty.
Once again the patriot’s pain is the enemy’s gain. The shutdown hasn’t stopped Congress from lavishing U.S. tax dollars on rogue regimes, including the one in Afghanistan, where the four troops were killed. Since 2001, that ungrateful gangland has received more than $90 billion from Washington, which is also trussing up Afghanistan’s national healthcare system, among providing other services, while doling out crumbs to Americans through Obamacare.
It is anybody’s guess who is profiting from the generous cash flow, according to the special inspector general for Afghanistan’s reconstruction. He warned Capitol Hill in an audit last month that the handouts were at risk of being exploited or stolen through corruption. He also found more than 50 deficiencies in the foreign aid agency’s handling of the funds, and urged for the cash spigot to be turned off. But Obama is too busy playing partisan politics with fellow Americans to care about adversaries advancing their evil agendas with our hard-earned money — or about the selfless service of our troops.
One U.S. soldier — alive or dead — is worth the combined lives of all our enemies and their families. He or she deserves the highest honors and accommodations for paying the ultimate price to keep the land of the free and the home of the brave just that.
https://twitter.com/#!/BritShavana