The 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard recently ended a 22-month tour of duty in Iraq, the longest deployment of any ground-combat unit in the Armed Forces. Many of its members returned home, looking forward to using education benefits under the GI bill.
For example, John Hobot, a platoon leader, said, "I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home."
It's not working that way. The Guard troops have been told that in order to be eligible for the education benefits they expect, they had to serve 730 days in Iraq. They served 729.
Scroll down this Congressional Quarterly report to read how one Republican Senator attempted to get Homeland Security to give him dirt on political foes. This was before it was called Homeland Security. To their credit, the FBI provided minimal assistance. From the article (referring to former CIA chief George Tenet and Republican Senator Richard Shelby):
----------------Tenet got back at Shelby in a little-noticed passage in his memoir.
He recounted how, in December 1996, shortly after President Bill Clinton nominated his national security advisor Anthony Lake to be CIA director, Shelby approached him after a committee briefing. (Tenet was then deputy director.)
“George, he drawled,” according to Tenet, “if you have any dirt on Tony Lake, I sure would like to have it.”
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