The Bonus Army

Col. Looseleaf Harper: Wars would be a lot better,
I think, if guys would say to themselves sometimes
''Jesus -- I'm not going to do that to the enemy. That's too much.''
--Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Kurt Vonnegut
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''Nearly two dozen officials who received hefty performance bonuses last year at the Veterans Affairs Department also sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments.'' (''VA Bonus Recipients Had Role in Payments.'')

''The documents show that 21 of 32 officials who were members of VA performance review boards received more than half a million dollars in payments themselves.

''Annual bonuses to senior VA officials last year averaged more than $16,000, the highest average in government.

''Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., has introduced legislation that would freeze 2007 VA bonuses for "senior politically appointed officers" -- such as assistant secretaries or deputy undersecretaries -- until the agency pares its disability claims backlog to fewer than 100,000 cases.''

Why do Senior Executive political appointees need bonuses for any reason?

In WWII, the government was manned on many fronts by ''Dollar a Year Men.'' We won that war with talent, skill and bravery. It is safe to say that these Dollar Year Men are a sacrifice from the past.

Where has the spirit of America gone? When people like Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Gonzales, Rice and Gates define patriotism, then something has seriously gone wrong. Our government has been preempted by corporate interests, which do not trickle down to the service-connected veterans who instead must grovel for their benefits.

Those with no military service are the new leaders and beneficiaries in our new yellow-ribbon America.

God Bless them all.