[Petra]

Dishonoring the Sacrifice

I can't believe the gall of it all. How low can you go.

Last February, he was in one of Rumsfeld's unprotected Humvees when it was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Loria's left hand and forearm were blasted off. He spent months in rehab. Finally, just before this Christmas, he was due to be released and return home when he was hit with another bomb.

Rumsfeld's Pentagon presented Loria with a bill for $1,700, claiming he'd erroneously received family separation pay while in rehab, plus travel expenses connected to his treatment. Also, they billed him for some of the Humvee parts damaged in the bombing that tore off his hand.

WTF?

Thanks to press coverage and intervention by some members of Congress, Loria's nightmarish treatment by the Pentagon has finally ended. The Army was forced to clear Loria's hokey debt and send him home. But why should a soldier who's made such an extreme sacrifice be treated so shabbily in the first place? And how many others are getting the same back of the hand?

I'm horrified that it took press coverage and intervention to drop his *debt*.


As the article, an admittedly partisan op-ed piece, asks: How could this happen, and how many others are treated so badly?


"Support the Troops", my arse.