[col. writ. 5/31/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
I first recall the name ‘Shinseki’ when during the failed presidential bid of U.S. Senator John Kerry; he invoked his name as a virtual talisman; “Gen. Shinseki”; “Gen. Shinseki!”
This was the 2004 elections, when the name could shield Kerry, a Vietnam vet, from the odious attacks of a team of Swift-boaters, who called into question his own military service.
When President Barack Obama ran for the office, he too invoked Shinseki’s name, repeatedly, to give heft to his critiques of the Bush-era military debacles unfolding in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Shinseki, like the ill-fated Moor, Othello, ‘has done the state some service’, and was rewarded with the honor of being named Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2009 by the President.
Erik K. Shinseki, who has spent decades in the military at various ranks (ending at General), began as head of the V.A. with a 2010 budget of $108.1 billion. In 2011, it ballooned to $141.1 billion. A year later, it shrank to $124.3 billion.
Is there any wonder that the agency is in disarray?
Nonetheless, no agency leader controls funding. Congress does. And this Congress has been driven by the desire to cut budgets, the better to free monies to grant to the rich in lower taxes.
They demanded the head of Erik Shinseki. And Obama gave it to them; a sacrifice to savages who are drunk on the blood of political virgins.
When I was a boy, I visited the Philadelphia Zoo, where I marveled at the sight of lions, tigers, gorillas and zebras.
Above all the cages and enclosures signs were prominent: “Please Don’t Feed the Animals.”
Perhaps a similar sign would be posted at the front door of Congress: “Don’t Feed These Animals (It Only Encourages Them.) “
-© ’14 maj