77,000 Body Bags

posted by Matt Bivens on 02/13/2003 @ 8:11pm

America may have lost 2.36 million jobs during George Bush's presidency, but good news! The White House work-creation program is finally getting some traction. "We are looking for candidates Nationwide!!!!" crows the ad for Navy morticians. There's even a $6,000 sign-on bonus.

The Navy denies this has anything to do with Iraq. However, the 77,000 body bags the Pentagon just ordered certainly are Iraq-related (and represent nearly five times the body-bag order placed before the 1991 gulf war). According to a Catholic Archbishop, thousands of body-bags and coffins have already been secretly delivered to a U.S. base in Italy. Then again, neither morticians nor body bags will be much use should the Pentagon follow through with plans to cremate American soldiers felled by chemical or biological attacks, and -- in a callous break with American military tradition -- to leave their remains to mix with foreign sands.

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Matt Bivens

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