The “Death Gratuity” is an emergency financial distribution ($100k) to the family of a service member killed in action. It’s typically sent to families within three days to help cover funeral costs or travel to meet the flag-draped coffins of their loved ones.
Sunday night was not a good night for troops on the ground. A Marine was killed during a combat patrol. A platoon from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment helicopter assaulted onto target. In the end, four died—two Rangers, two attachments. There were so many wounded by the command detonated IEDs and suicide bombers that the platoon was rendered combat ineffective. For those of you that have served, it was the nightmare you hope you’d never have to face: it was a mas-cas.
But because of what I can only describe as one of the grossest failings of our government during the current shut down (and that’s saying something, I know), the tragedy of Sunday night’s actions are just beginning.
According to sources inside of Special Operations Command, this morning at roughly 0930 there was a video teleconference. In the conference, liaison personnel who were already tasked with the almost impossible job of telling these families their son or daughter has been killed in action, now have to tell them something else: that their government has failed them and they will not be getting any governmental assistance until the government shutdown is over. (continue reading)
Five servicemen were killed in Afghanistan this past weekend. The DoD has released the following statement:
“Unfortunately, as a result of the shutdown, we do not have the legal authority to make death gratuity payments at this time. However, we are keeping a close eye on those survivors who have lost loved ones serving in the Department of Defense.” – Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the DoD
Today, in all its glory, the left wing rag The New Republic went so far as to suggest the Obama Administration break out the tanks, and do some killing of Republicans, to “put the boot on the throats” of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Actor James Woods tweeted the adage to me a few weeks ago, if you scratch away the surface of a leftist, you expose a fascist. Nowhere is this more evident and proven than the suggestion by The New Republic’s Senior Editor Julia Ioffe’s suggestion that Obama act as Boris Yeltsin did when he shot up Russia’s Parliament building with T-72 tanks.
Nazih Abdul-Hamed Nabih al-Ruqai’I (Anas al-Libi for short) has been on the “kill or capture” list for 15 years. He was a middle level al-Qaeda guy in the 90’s and thought to have been behind the cell that carried out the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings in 1998.
