Army Emergency Relief Guilty! Vet Advocates Angry! You Know What the American Military is Like!

"Veterans advocates are venting anger and frustration toward the biggest charity within the U.S. military after revelations...."

"...Soldiers are squeezed for contributions...."

""...It just makes me sick to my stomach," said Amy Fairweather, director of the Iraq Veteran Project in San Francisco...."

And more of the same.

The Associated Press is into the second day of a shocking expose of how Army Emergency Relief (secretly related to the Army!!) has stockpiled lots of money by loaning it to GIs - interest-free.

Then, like the heartless minions of the military-industrial complex that they are, expecting the loans to be paid back.

Army Emergency Fund Loans: Shocking Revelations!!

I'll give The Associated Press due credit. They haven't, yet, descended into tabloid-style headlines for this little project.

On the other hand, I get the distinct feeling that AP is hoping that this will do what Haditha, Western Venture, Abu Ghraib, and Global Patriot reporting have failed to do: bring back the glory days of the Watergate era, when Americans imagined Robert Redford when they heard "investigative reporter," and cries of My Lai were heard throughout the land.

There may be a real issue here: but my guess is that The Associated Press should look around, see that this isn't the seventies any more, and deal with reality.

More-or-less related posts:

• "Army Emergency Relief Stockpiling Money Meant for GIs: Officers Involved in Coercive Tactics!"
  The Associated Press (February 22, 2009)
• "America, Racism, and What Didn't Happen at Virginia Tech"
  (January 22, 2009)
• "America is in Decline: and Has Been for Decades"
  (December 28, 2008)
• "William Felkner vs. College Conformity: Traditional Information Gatekeepers Face Another Challenge"
  (December 16, 2008)
  • Never heard of William Felkner? I'm not surprised
• "The New York Times, Insularity, and Assumptions"
  (October 21, 2008)
• "Obama's a Radical Muslim; McCain's a Racist: Facts, Mud and the Anonymous Expert"
  (October 7, 2008)
• "Haditha, Iraq; My Lai, Vietnam: This Isn't the Good Old Days"
  (July 13, 2008)
• "News, Truth, and Why America is at Fault"
  (June 20, 2008)
• "Westward Venture: American Ship Fires on (Iranian?) Fast Boats"
  (April 25, 2008)
• "Global Patriot Incident: No News,
  But Lots of Opinions"
  (April 7, 2008)
• "Global Patriot Reporting: Anti-American Bias? Could Be "
  (March 25, 2008)
• "U.S. Warship Kills Innocent Egyptian!! No Wonder Everybody Hates America!!! "
  (March 24, 2008)
• "America: What an Awful, Nasty, Disgusting, Smelly, Bad Country"
  (February 19, 2008)
• "New Leadership in Australia: Kevin Rudd Wins with Old Ideas"
  (November 27, 2007)

In the news:

• "Veterans advocates riled by report on Army charity"
  The Associated Press (February 23, 2009)

Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred.