More Tragedy Bush's War

This really gets my goat. All we hear from the Bushies and the GOP is how we have to support our troops. If you don’t support the troops you are a traitor. The excerpt below comes from a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune and us absolutely heartbreaking. The tragedy is that this is not isolated to southern California. This is happening all over the country. Military families are having to turn to charities to survive while their loved ones are fighting Bush’s war of swagger. Some heads in the Pentagon and Congress should roll for this kind of shit. There is absolutely no excuse for it. None.

The women and children who formed a line at Camp Pendleton last week could have been waiting for a child-care center to open or Disney on Ice tickets to go on sale.

Instead, they were waiting for day-old bread and frozen dinners packaged in slightly damaged boxes. These families are among a growing number of military households in San Diego County that regularly rely on donated food.

As the Iraq war marches toward its fourth anniversary, food lines operated by churches and other nonprofit groups are an increasingly valuable presence on military bases countywide. Leaders of the charitable groups say they're scrambling to fill a need not seen since World War II.

Too often, the supplies run out before the lines do, said Regina Hunter, who coordinates food distribution at one Camp Pendleton site.

“Here they are defending the country. . . . It is heartbreaking to see,” said Hunter, manager of the on-base Abby Reinke Community Center. “If we could find more sources of food, we would open the program up to more people. We believe anyone who stands in a line for food needs it and deserves it.”

The base's list of recipients swells by 100 to 150 people a month as the food programs streamline their eligibility process, word spreads among residents and ever-proud Marines adjust to the idea of accepting donated goods.

At least 2,000 financially strapped people in North County qualify for food and other items given out at the center and a Camp Pendleton warehouse run by the Military Outreach Ministry.

Snip

Tip to Shakespeare’s Sister