Support Your Troops?

Even if you were for the war in Iraq, you have to admit this is definitely very shoddy behaviour. Next time someone tells me that they refuse to see Fahrenheit 9/11 because it wouldn’t be showing support for the troops (and someone I know did use this incoherent argument) I’m going to tell them about this:

Discontent in the ranks [of the US military] has also been stoked by reports that life insurance sales agents have been using compulsory financial planning sessions with raw recruits to sell them expensive policies.

An investigation by the New York Times found that many of the soldiers who signed policies had no idea what they had bought, believing that signing the documents was obligatory and that they were agreeing only to put aside savings. In fact, they had agreed to pay inflated monthly premiums for less coverage and benefits than the standard package offered by the army.

Source: The Guardian

The NYT article is here (and requires you to register with the site). Apparently the scam has been commonplace since Vietnam, but has naturally had a recent surge.

If you haven’t heard of bugmenot.com, now might be the time to try it out. Go there, type in the address of the site you want to view (but can’t be bothered to register with) hit return, and the bugmenot database will provide you with a username and password valid for that site. No need to give away your email address and other personal details. I love it.