Another Funeral Bush Won't Attend

Link via Atrios. The All Spin Zone has a story about Dave Guindon, age 48, who just came back from a six month Iraq deployment:

“It feels fantastic. It’s hard to explain it, it feels so good,” Guindon said about being home, shortly after he arrived at Manchester Airport. “I’m just going to take today slow, wake up tomorrow, and see what it’s like to be back in a normal place.”

...Sharon Guindon, Dave Guindon’s wife, said she was elated. While no definite plans for his return had been made yet, she said, the two plan to catch up on all the things that have happened during the past six months.

“I tell you, it’s such a big relief that he’s coming home,” Mrs. Guindon said, adding later, “You don’t realize what they go through until you have someone over there.”

Less than 24 hours later, Guindon apparently killed himself.

This is sad enough--Guindon leaves behind his wife and two children. But that's only part of the story. "Richard Cranium," writer of All Spin Zone, links to the online newsletter of Guindon's unit, the 157th Air Refueling Wing of the New Hampshire National Guard (.pdf file).

Note the following:

We were in field conditions for 6 days, the only thing close to home were the 8 Porto potties that were there. No showers or hot food. Only all the MREs that you could eat.

Cranium picks up on this:

The NHANG team was stationed at Camp Anaconda in the Sunni triangle of Iraq. They ran over 100 missions in their short time in Iraq. A quick google search on Camp Anaconda turns up many hits - many of them relating stories of mortar attacks, insurgent activities, convoys being attacked (the NHANG team appears to have been largely involved in convoy escort), and the generally crappy conditions in the camp.

Now, who do you think provisions Camp Anaconda? That's right: Halliburton.

You know, I've already got in my head a topic for my next post, namely, the contempt with which Bush, his neocon henchment, and their supporters hold the Iraqi people. But it's also evident that they hold our own soldiers in contempt as well. Without any qualms or scruples, they deliberately sent young men and women into combat with NO plan to adequately provision them--for months, soldiers were missing basic items like Kevlar vests and night vision goggles, adequate supplies of water, spare parts for equipment, and so on--yet we spend $400 billion dollars plus on the military. Where the hell is the money going?