Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

These men of the Nixon Admninistration and the Ford Administration have a long history of under handed government dealings. In the past they condoned or actually approved of violations of the Nuremberg Codes of 1947 in regards to human experiments, with chemical weapons such as mustard agents, nerve agents, Sarim, BZ  and drugs such as LSD, PCP and anything else the CIA wanted to attempt.They could have objected to the continuation of the program, but alas they did not, so the program continued, with Rumsfeld even helping the CIA fund the programs in 1975 as Sec of Defense. When they got caught later in 1975 by the department of the Army Inspector Generals Staff, the Army and the CIA apologized, Rumsfeld and DOD kept silent.

Fast forward to 1997 and a group called PNAC, a group of Neocons that wanted President Clinton to invade Iraq, some of the names on the signature block, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, William Kristol the current head of PNAC. Of course Clinton never invaded.

Then in 2001 PNAC had powerful members of their group nominated to serve in the Bush Administration Cheney (elected)  Rumsfeld to Secretary of Defense (again) Wolfowitz as his deputy, now they could invade Iraq themselves, but then 9/11 happened and the fall of the Taliban came first and foremost, but they still managed to siphon off some of the funds for the Afghan war and build up Kuwait for the coming invasion of Iraq, they wanted.

The Taliban quickly fell, then the drumbeat to war, began in earnest, much like today's Iran nuclear mess, seems like Deja Vu all over again. The people who warned against using to small of a military force were dismissed, they even fired a white house economic guy who stated that the war might cost 100 billion dollars, they claimed he was way off base and the numbers were wrong, it would not even be close to that amount, that was the only part they got right, we are heading towards 400 billion now aren't we? I remember Wolfowitz claiming it would not cost more than one billion and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war and the rebuilding of the country.

I remember Rumsfeld telling a SP4 in Iraq that you "go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want"  since it was a war of choice, why couldn't they wait until they had enough armor for vehicles and troops?

Rumsfeld was complaining about having to sign three letters to fallen soldier's families, aw shucks that's right, people complained when they found out that DOD was using an automatic signature pen to do his signature on the letters. When I was in, I had to write letters to my fallen troops families. Automatic pen hell, I was lucky to find a pen half the time.

Rumsfeld and Cheney have brought terms like torture, renditions, dog interrogations, prisoner abuse, GITMO, they have caused more damage to America's reputation that any other men in history.

Along the way they have found a way to keep the enlisted men they harmed in those chemical weapons and drug tests from getting their veteran benefits, they have just kept the information bottled up inside of DOD not to be released until 2009, after they are out of office and the Bush 43 administration is out to pasture.

There should be some way to hold them personally liable for the financial suffering they have caused these disabled veterans and the surviving widows and children, if there is, does anyone know what it is? Can they be sued as indivduals or are they exempt for the conspiracy to deny these people their government benefits?