Stiffing soldiers

In 1996 a law was passed allowing suits to be filed for injuries suffered at the hand of the foreign governments who had been designated as sponsors of terrorism. Since Iraq had been designated as such, a group of 17 soldiers who had been tortured while held captive by the Iraqi government during the first Gulf War filed a suit for compensation for their injuries. The courts found in their favour and the group was awarded nearly $1 billion which was to be paid for from Iraqi assets that have been frozen for a number of years.

For most of the men, the purpose of the suit was to recognize that they had been tortured by the Iraqi government. It was a validation of their experience. It said that yes, they had been tortured; yes, the Iraqi government was responsible and yes, the Iraqi government should pay.

The Bush administration, however, says that the soldiers are not entitled to an award because the frozen Iraqi assets were converted to American assets shortly before the war via an executive order, and once Saddam was removed from power, Iraq was taken off the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. They also maintain that if the confiscated Iraqi assets are used to pay for this war, it would damage the ability of our government to rebuild Iraq.

"No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through at the hands of a truly brutal regime," said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman. "It was determined earlier this year by Congress and the administration that those assets were no longer assets of Iraq, but they were resources required for the urgent national security needs of rebuilding Iraq."

Part of the problem, it seems, is one of timing. The soldiers filed their suit in April, when the assets were still considered as Iraqi assets and, with Saddam still in charge, Iraq on the list of terror-sponsoring governments. The Iraqi government never responded to the suit and in July, the judge ordered a default judgment in favour of the soldiers. By that time, Bush had converted the Iraqi assets and removed Iraq from the terrorism list.

Still, I find it troublesome that the Bush administration feels we can afford to retain all of the massive tax cuts he gave to his wealthy friends, but we can't spare $1 billion in confiscated Iraqi assets to try and compensate some of the soldiers who fought and suffered terribly during the first Gulf War.

I find that every time the administration says they have to cut back on some benefit for the military or even for the civilian population of this country on the grounds that we can't "afford" it due to the war, but does nothing to roll back any of the tax cuts that have recently been enacted, I get a bit angrier. The tax cuts totaled around $450 billion. If the administration would just repeal even a quarter of the tax cut, we'd have the full $87 billion for reconstruction - and then some. And we wouldn't have to shaft any soldiers to do it.

Posted by thorswitch at November 10, 2003 05:01 PM | TrackBack