Stripes letters:DOD personnel system unjust/Troops need Sec. Harvey’s help

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DOD personnel system unjust

The Department of Defense’s proposed National Security Personnel System of rewarding employees considered “worthy” threatens to undermine workers’ collective bargaining and due process rights in the name of “national security.” This is Bush cronyism at its finest, designed to promote a system of amiable sock puppets, like those coached by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber during President Bush’s scripted videoconference propaganda stunt last month. It’s a system reminiscent of 1933 Berlin, when Adolf Hitler held a massive May Day celebration for workers as a ruse to outlaw free labor unions.

Let’s apply the NSPS to Bush, evaluating his administration on its goal to end “the politics of personal destruction,” unite the country with compassion, and bring honor and dignity to the White House. In fact, the Bush administration has smeared those with opposing views, a foreshadow of the NSPS’s hidden agenda — conformity or else. Recipients of Bush’s smear campaign include Rep. John Murtha, Joseph Wilson, CIA agent Valerie Plame, John McCain, Max Cleland, Richard Clarke, Eric Shinseki, Anthony Zinni, John Kerry, the National Education Association, Gold Star Mothers and residents of New Orleans. So much for unity and “Christian” compassion.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr., remained on the federal payroll up until his indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice during a war that resulted from the worst national security breach in U.S. history — Sept. 11. Karl Rove, under investigation for passing classified information about Plame to the media — information that goes to the heart of America’s security — remains Bush’s most trusted adviser.

As a retired veteran and civilian employee, I’m treated as a national security threat, yet Libby and Rove aren’t. Cheney can advocate the torturing away of America’s national security, Bush can make “a mistake” of killing/maiming more than 100,000 innocent people — Iraqi and “coalition” — while I’m either to march in lock step or find work elsewhere.

Just as the Patriot Act has nothing to do with patriotism, Bush’s regressive labor proposal, the NSPS, has nothing to do with national security. Furthermore, it is unjust and un-American, and must be rejected.

Edwin Thornburg
Würzburg, Germany


Troops need Harvey’s help

To Francis Harvey, secretary of the Army (“Army secretary: Can’t compare soldiers with contractors,” article, Nov. 9): Money isn’t everything but …

Mr. Secretary, I agree that service to your country should be paramount and you should be serving with honor. However, when many junior enlisted soldiers qualify for welfare, when a garbage truck driver in Chicago makes $75,000 a year and up, when many of the civilian contractors working side by side with the soldiers are making more than $100,000 a year, then we start losing our balance and are not really looking out for the welfare of our soldiers. We must also consider the real cost of employment of those contractors, as they work for “cost plus” corporations — and we all know what that means, sir.

Soldiers are not only responsible for the lives of the soldiers they charge into battle with, but also for millions of dollars of high-tech equipment during peacetime and while serving on the battlefield. Most soldiers are charged with a far greater responsibility than most politicians and certainly more than a garbage truck operator. Pay raises should be on a progressive scale from the bottom to the top. Instead of token 3 percent pay raises across the board, pay raises should be progressive with rank. Progressive raises at 5 percent to 6 percent are more appropriate and should be written into the budget with relative ease since “all politicians” claim to be supporting the troops.

Pride in service to your nation and to the world is in the hearts of all good soldiers, Mr. Secretary, but as a soldier leaves his family in the rear and puts his life on the line, he must know that he is also serving his family financially. As our leader, you are the one person we are counting on to help us maintain that balance: serving our country with honor while providing honor to our families. As you count on us on the battlefield, we count on you in the Pentagon.

Staff Sgt. R.W. Shirley
Camp Cedar, Iraq

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=33244