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# Editor’s Memo: Disgraceful
October 24 2016
Written by Ken Draper.
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CITYWATCH TODAY—Many of you have heard the story. Ten years ago, needing more bodies to fight in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, California’s National Guard offered enlistment bonuses to Guard members. Close to 10,000 of them said yes and went off to battlefields to fulfill their part of the deal.
Turns out the Guard goofed. Bonuses had not been approved. Now, the Guard wants its money back.
Yes, you heard it right. The US military … the greatest waster of dollars on the face of the earth … mistakenly offered bonuses to CA Guard soldiers to go fight in a war that was started using the Saddam WMD myth as justification and now they want their money back. Is it any wonder Americans are even willing to vote for Donald Trump before they will support for one more day the clowns in DC that would accept this kind of misguided thinking?
Congressman McCarthy tagged it well: ‘Disgraceful.’ Read the rest [here.](http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bonus-guard-20161024-snap-story.html)) Then, do something. At the very least, let your congress person know how you feel.
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Tom Hayden has died. He was 76. He reflects a heady era that served as the platform for my growing up … anti Viet Nam, marching for civil rights, Bob Dylan, MLK, standing for something. At least we thought we were. Hayden did and it made getting elected difficult for him. In today’s political environment it’s hard to find anyone in search of any kind of truth … or, for that matter, capable of telling it. “If we appear to seek the unattainable … we do so to avoid the unimaginable,” Hayden said. Another light has dimmed. The Nation editor’s remember … in Today’s CityWatch.
Ken Draper-Editor, CityWatch
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