Pottery Barn rule for wounded soldiers

By Libby The rule seems to be if you get broken in combat, you have to pay the government for the privledge of having your life ruined. Following up on Fester's post about Jordan Fox, the wounded soldier who received a demand letter from DoD asking for a partial return of his signing bonus, which I addressed at my own blog yesterday, there's good news today. [Army Spokesperson Major Nathan] Banks said via phone, "We are. We are ... definitely working it out. We have seen where the problems have been made, the system, and we're just making - you know, give us the opportunity to make a wrong a right." Major Banks says Fox will not have to pay back his bonus. Fox says "fine," but he wants more. "Hopefully this will turn into change for not only me but many other soldiers that have lost limbs, you know, become permanently deaf," he said. "I hope to see a change for everybody." Clearly the mistake was sending it to Fox after Bush met with his mom and all and generating all that lousy publicity but it doesn't address the inhumanity of the policy. As Jordan notes, there are others in the same boat, like this guy and this one and this one and this one. The Pentagon will not comment on allegations that thousands of other soldiers just sent home from Iraq and other invasions, including Afghanistan, will not receive these sorts of bills. They cannot comment on those cases. That's fine. I've heard enough empty rhetoric about supporting the troops from these bureaucrats when they want our tax dollars to support their follies. What they need to do is act to revise this policy immediately and withdraw any actions they've already taken against other vets.