From Rude Two: Federal Employees Are People, Too, Until They Go To War:
"You not only have a former Guardsman in the White House, you have a friend," President Bush declared during a 2001 visit to an Air National Guard base, according to a report on ArmyTimes.com. The former "Guardsman" (the AWOL coward/fortunate son variety; check out his note getting asking to be excused from duty four months after he stopped showing up to fulfill his commitment to the country) and the rest of the Republican War Machine refuse to compensate the otherwise federally employed reserve soldiers for time and income lost while serving in Iraq.
An estimated 23,000 people won't be receiving regular paychecks from their normal jobs because they were called to active duty in the name of the Bush family fortune. That's $80 million in withheld funds that will instead go to "rebuilding Iraq," or whatever the fuck is going on over there that continues to look more and more like fucking Vietnam, except with fewer reasons and somehow, miraculously, more homeland support (for now).

The message here is clear: You are serving us now, bitch. Stop questioning your government and get in the goddamned bread line with the rest of your ilk.

But let's be fair to President Bush and Dick Cheney and house negro Condi Rice. Let's not forget Donald Rumsfeld, who encouraged and applauded private employers for providing the very same benefits and provisions the United States won't cough up. The truthful message Bush should send to all soldiers is simple: "Fellas, if you're too fucking stupid to get out of active duty and/or obtain untaxed money from the private sector while working for the government, you're
sure as shit not getting any from me. Now, go forth and bring me the tender flesh of an Iraqi child, dipped in warm, delicious crude oil."

Meanwhile, the Great Oil Jihad of 2003 shows no signs of ending, regardless of the fact that it's been over for months. The silver lining in all of this is that it's just one more goddamned nail in the coffin of the huge, lumbering Republican bullshit machine. Somebody get a hammer.