Troops Pay Bag Charge on American Airlines

From Audrey Hudson of the Washington Times comes this story about how American Airlines is charging $100 bag fees to soldiers that the company's planes are transporting to Iraq.

Apparently it's on the soldiers to fill out the paperwork once they're on the ground in a war zone to get reimbursed for this travel expense. In other words, exactly the sort of thing we want our troops worrying about in Iraq--if stuff like this continues, perhaps we'll have a new form of PTSD, pre-traumatic stress disorder.

Of course, no story of this sort is complete without a preposterous statement from a corporate suit. And here it is:

"Because the soldiers don't pay a dime, our waiver of the fees amounts to a discount to the military, not a discount to soldiers," said Tim Wagner, spokesman for American Airlines. "Soldiers should not have to pay a penny of it."

Assistance with translation is welcome.