Outrage of the week: Screwing the troops, Part II

It continues to amaze DC Clipmonkey how members of the military get routinely screwed by their leaders yet continue to strongly support their government (For Part I, click here). It is particularly stunning how anyone in the military would vote Republican after the disaster that is the war in Iraq.

The fruitlessness and short-sightedness of the Iraq war aside, in recent weeks we've learned:

• Injured soldiers who've returned to the U.S. are continuing to receive combat zone wages, but are later sent huge bills to repay the government for its mistake.
• The Armed Forces earn $120 million from on-base slot machines, forcing many servicemembers into debt (You can't help but wonder if Abramoff is behind this.).
• The Army has tried to cover-up the truth about how football star-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan.

These bits of news come on the heels of a Pentagon report that the Bush Administration failed to pay attention to prewar intelligence that "predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq." According to USA Today:

"In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right," they write.

U.S. servicemembers, Pat Tillman's family and the American people deserve better than the dishonest, short-sighted, malevolent leadership of the current administration and its civilian cronies at the Pentagon.

Update: For even more military shenanigans, click here.