July 28, 2004
Don't Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry
Offbeat News Report: Bigger breasts offered as perk to soldiers
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The U.S. Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be All You Can Be," but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime.
The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction, and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills.
"Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible," Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine, which said soldiers needed the approval of their commanding officers to get the time off.
Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said.
The magazine quoted an Army spokeswoman as saying, "the surgeons have to have someone to practice on."
Yeah, why not? The troops are already guinea pigs anyway -- testing the viability of the Bush Doctrine, and the tolerance of the American public. So far, the loss of soldiers' lives and limbs are considered "strategically insignificant". Good to know -- if you don't give a fuck about the lives destroyed.
Posted by Eddie Tews at July 28, 2004 01:02 PM
Comments
Well, at least its _somewhat_ of a step up for the troops. See, the troops get to _decide_ if they want to undergo the surgery, their not being forced to take it. Where as normally the soldiers are _forced_ to be exposed to chemical and nuclear weapons when we don't even know what the health affects are going to be. -- Posted by: Robert on July 29, 2004 12:54 PM