Letters to the Editor
robotempire
Published Letters: 49 Editor's Choice: 9
-
Desertion by American forces...
[Read the article: Northern exposure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From what I've gotten out of this article, it seems that the U.S. military hasn't posted the series limit. Is it 2 of 3, 3 of 5 etc.? The so-called deserters have already done one or two tours of duty in Iraq. Forgive me if I'm a tad naiive but how can these people be considered "deserters"?
Yes, they enlisted, and lived up to their end of the bargain by serving. Does this mean that they owe the military for the rest of their useful lives? If that's the case, then I say bring 'em north for a hearty "bienvenue". They deserve some peace and a break from the insanity that surrounds the Bush war.
There isn't a "series limit" (?) on a servicemember's deployments. You enlist for four years of active service and four additional years of "individual ready reserve" service immediately after those four active years are over. While you are on the four years of active service, you are a contracted military member, party to a contract that you signed knowing full well the details. And, more than likely, at the time you signed it you did so enthusiastically.
The problem with the United States Army today (much, much less so the Marine Corps) is that there are too many sad-sack rejects who join only for college money. When they join, maybe hoping, maybe having been told they will not deploy, and suddenly find themselves actually *gasp* FIGHTING AS A SOLDIER, they start throwing a fit that "this wasn't what they signed on for." Today's U.S. Army is a public welfare project, not a professional military force. There are too many financial incentives to joining the military. And most of these incentives are the fault of the hyperventilating defeatist leftists who don't understand what soldiering is about.
If anything there needs to be an expose on how the Army is failing the American people by lowering their standards to a criminal level. There is something wrong when E-7s in the Army are sporting full gold false-fronts, something I saw yesterday at a memorial here in Iraq.
I'm sorry, but if people enlisting in 2004 or 05 didn't know they would be going to Iraq, or what being a soldier didn't otherwise entail, they're idiots and I'm just as glad not to have them in uniform.
Let the hyperventilators in this country have their Pyhrric "heroes." They are welcome to them.
-
Way to impugn me personally.
[Read the article: Goodbye, Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Leaving the wire once a week and interacting with the Iraqis makes you a diplomat, not a soldier. Soldiers are leaving the wire EVERY F*KING DAY and coming back in pieces because this is a real war with the real stench of burning blood and red mist.
You are being held hostage by this corrupt, filthy, lawless administration. You are being traumatically abused and dehumanized on a daily basis whether you are engaging the enemy or not. Therefore, your judgment is NOT what it would be if you were stateside, out of harm's way and able to freely choose an idea other than "shut up and hang on
Volaar, about 90% of the heavy lifting is being done by "diplomats" now. Progress isn't being made by shooting and blowing up. That's not how counterinsurgency works. Progress is made by building relationships, that's it. Now that we have the sheiks on our side in Anbar, we've made a huge step forward. Of course, summer is still picking up steam and it's likely to be a bloody and violent one. As far as your "real war with the real stench of burning blood and red mist," you sound like someone who's never been anywhere except maybe when you broke your ankle in Kosovo. Now, maybe you meant burning flesh?
At any rate, my judgement isn't at all impaired. Actually, I'm more cynical about this campaign since deploying here the first time. I have LESS hope than when I was sitting on my couch watching the invasion on TV in 2003. Why? Because I see the *reality*, not some idealized fantasy of what's going on here. Just like people who think this is all some Nazi-style holocaust, when they come over here, they are MORE hopeful, because they are confronted with reality, and facts, instead of some idealized fantasy of what's going on here.
No one at home, none of the talking heads, have any flipping clue what's going on here. They have no desire to find out. Can't be bothered to read blogs of soldiers and Marines serving over here when Salon.com serves up a tender, juicy filet mignon of recycled America-bashing Bush-hating rhetoric for you to dine on. Can't be bothered to go to DefenseLink and look up press releases. oh no no, everyone's far, FAR too busy using every one of my friends who gets shot or blown up as a political talking point to recognize that these same young troopers who are being held up as the reason we need ot leave Iraq are the ones you are hurting by objectifying in this way.
In short, I don't care that you're in a VA hospital. I don't give a shit if you fought in Vietnam or World War II or whatever. You have no clue what goes on here every day, you don't want to know, and the fact that you are using the salon.com liberal echo chamber to form your opinions is all the evidence I need that no right-thinking person can take you seriously. Don't use me, my friends or the job I bust my ass to do in the 100+ degree heat for your demagoguery. I won't have it and I'll fight you every step of the way.
-
blockquote
[Read the article: Goodbye, Baghdad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oops, left that [blockquote] open there. Volaar's quote ends after "shut up and hang on"