Jesse Jackson: Troops Suffer While Bush Cronies Make Out Like Bandits

Here:

In the world of top dogs and underdogs, the Bush administration has made it clear that it stands with the ''haves and have mores'' that the president called ''my base.'' So we have ''trickle down'' tax cuts -- with millionaires pocketing tens of thousands of dollars every year while most taxpayers get less than $100.

That was, perhaps, to be expected. But amazingly, that same lack of concern about workaday people is at display in Iraq -- and the young men and women whose lives are on the line are paying the price.

Item: The White House wants to paint the picture in Iraq as rosy, so the Pentagon has banned photos of coffins and body bags leaving Iraq or arriving in the United States.

Worse, the president hasn't attended funerals or memorials for the soldiers who have lost their lives, breaking with military tradition. President Bush apparently doesn't want to draw attention to the U.S. casualties.

Item: Reservists and National Guard members were called up for three months, and then told their tour would be a year. Many are now being told they won't return until 2005. Across the country, traditional, pro-military families are now petitioning the Pentagon to honor a one-year tour of duty and bring the troops home.

Item: If and when the soldiers make it home, this administration isn't exactly on their side either. The president promised that we would ''provide the best care for anybody who is willing to put their life in harm's way.'' But on the same day, his administration announced it was cutting off access to its health care system for 164,000 veterans.

When I reported on the wounded and sick Reserves and Guards on ''medical hold'' at Fort Stewart, Ga., I was flooded with letters describing similar conditions elsewhere. At Fort Knox, Ky., UPI reports on wounded soldiers spending eight weeks in dilapidated World War II barracks with no air-conditioning, leaky roofs and primitive facilities simply waiting to see a doctor.

Item: Speaking to the National Guard and Reserves, the president thanked them and their families for being ''willing to sacrifice for our country.'' But less than two weeks later, the administration opposed giving National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon's health insurance system. This despite a recent General Accounting Office report that estimated one in every five Guard members has no health insurance.

Item: Bush promised to make certain ''that our soldiers have the best possible pay.'' But the Army Times reports that the administration wants to roll back recent increases in monthly imminent danger pay and family separation allowances for troops getting shot at in combat zones.

Given the soaring cost of the war and the record budget deficits, some might argue that Bush has no choice but to make these tough calls on resources. But apparently the tough choices apply to the troops but not the top dogs.

The Center for Public Integrity reports that the ''stench of political favoritism and cronyism surround the contracting process in both Iraq and Afghanistan.'' Politically wired companies with few or no credentials have landed multimillion-dollar contracts.

Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, is the top recipient of contracts, with more than $2.3 billion. This is the same subsidiary that Newsweek reports just paid $2 million to settle a criminal charge for overbilling the government. Then we learn that Halliburton is charging $1.59 a gallon to import fuel that the Iraqi oil company says it can import for less than a dollar.

Top floor or shop floor, yacht club or kitchen table, the cronies or the troops -- one thing about this administration is clear: We know where it stands.