U.S. Soldiers Extended

[ajuhdg]

I looked for some articles about this, but it hasn't gotten much press. It was decided yesterday that the First Armored Division will have their tour in Iraq extended beyond the one year anniversary...which was to be on May 1st.

This sucks! My husband was supposed to be home in two weeks, and now they are telling us at least another four months. I'm not allowed to talk about why they are staying, but if you watch the news it's pretty darn obvious.

I'm very worried about the political and social repurcussions the events over the next couple months are going to have. What do y'all think?

aj

[WCUgirl]

All I have to say is that I have so much respect for you. My husband is a Marine...he just got out Jan. 31. We were so lucky that he wasn't called up - although at the last minute there it looked like he was going to be. But I am very thankful that he wasn't...I don't know what I would have done without him.

ETA: My point was that my thoughts are with you!

[queequek]

Originally posted by ajuhdg

This sucks! My husband was supposed to be home in two weeks, and now they are telling us at least another four months. I'm not allowed to talk about why they are staying, but if you watch the news it's pretty darn obvious.

So was my lil bro.
Maybe they are in the same division?

[AlphaGamDiva]

geez....i heard this and was like, "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."

luckily, i have no relatives or close friends (yet) over there, but i work with a girl not much older than me who's husband is over there......their son will be a year old soon and he's gonna miss it.

i'm tellin you what, though...i respect all members of the military and their families. what ordeals they all go through.....and to me, being in the military is the most honorable thing someone can do. whether you pay the ultimate price for your country, or come home safe and sound, they all truly sacrifice themselves for our freedoms and safety. truly amazing to me.

for those who have loved ones over-seas, please know that you are all in my nightly prayers. i pray for their safety and for the families to have peace knowing their loved one is doing the best job out there. this is not a waste of time, but a call for honor, courage, and duty....i admire and hold in the highest esteem all of our service men and women. i hate (!!) it that their stay has been extended, but it is for the greater good, no matter what some may say. be proud of the job they are doing, and take comfort that you are loved by these courageous individuals.

[DeltAlum]

More in theatre extentions were announced today.

While I feel badly for every family with a member away from home, I feel particularly for the families of National Guard or Reservists. While they should have realized when they joined that they might get a long call-up, many didn't really believe it, and many have serious hardships at home with loss of salary, etc.

Those who have read my posts over the long haul might remember that I believe(d) that this is an ill conceived adventure that we shouldn't have done in the first place. However, now that we've started it -- we have to finish it. If we pull out now, as we did in Vietnam, it will be an invitation to disaster for Iraq. Listening to NPR over lunch, a senior fellow from the Brookings Institute said that we will probably be in Iraq until the end of the decade. A sobering thought.

From a different perspective, during World War Two, once you were in, you were in for the duration -- or until you were badly injured or killed. In some ways that probably made it better, because it didn't set up false hopes. Others have argued that those soldiers fought harder because they believed it would get them home sooner. I don't know if that's true or not, but during Vietnam the "30 days and a wakeup" mentality did make many (not all) much more careful and less agressive toward the end of the tour.

We continue to pray for the safe return of all of our magnificent fighting men and women.

[krazy]

I have the deepest respect for you and the soldiers in your life. I am praying for them, and I am proud to know there are men and women in our country that are soooo much tougher than me. You know this already, but you should be proud.

[ajuhdg]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Those who have read my posts over the long haul might remember that I believe(d) that this is an ill conceived adventure that we shouldn't have done in the first place.

Due to these recent events, I have changed my perspective on this. At first, I was so optimistic about what was going on. The reintegration NCO (he gets barracks and stuff ready for return) came back a couple weeks ago, and we had a nice chat about what's going on, and that has totally made me rethink. He said that after being there, he can understand why Sadaam killed everyone! (And, you'll have to forgive me in advance, but I feel mean and selfish now!)

Those people don't care about anything. They have only known violence since the beginning of their existence, it will be impossible to 'educate' them. They view the demise of Sadaam as an opening in the power chain. The men live a life of self-centered indulgence. They rule their woman, and any other women that may cross their path. My husband said that a soldier waved to a girl (probably about 15), and she then got beat with a stick by her LITTLE brother...they guessed 11. I also heard that most of the men have a boyfriend as well as a wife. The wives are solely for reproduction. My husband is an MP and saw some pretty disturbing things...along the lines of a Michael Jackson sleep over. Which he said he's found is VERY common.

There is so much more I could share with you all, but it just disturbs me to think that we are trying to help these people! They seem to be perfectly content to kill themselves, so why don't we just let them! We need to start practicing some isolationism! UGH!

Again, it's been a rough week for me, but this little rant helped! Thanks for everyone's support!

aj

[moe.ron]

Latest word on the street (your gossip) is that bremmer and Sanchez is on their way out. I've talked to some people in Iraq and many (people that I talked to) agreed that Bremmer is seen as incompetent. The buzz is that Ambassador John D. Negroponte will be replacing Bremmer very very soon. I don't know how accurate that buzz is, so take it with a grain of salt.

Also, did you know that mercenaries (PMC) make up the 3rd biggest coalition force in Iraq. If you ever seen Bremmer walk around and there are people behind him with guns, those aren't US military personal. They are PMCs personal.

[Tom Earp]

Maybe, the problem is that The Head People, had no damn clue as to what is going on!

Their decision was so made from a Military Standpoint and not from what maybe was was best for not of The People!

A friend of mine was there as a Marine, but will have to go back in Jan! Swell! He is a researve Marine. The problem is, that during certain Presidencies, the Regular Military was cut back. Now, it is falling on the Civilian Soldiers, the Researves and the Natinal Guard!

He told me, figure at least 5 more years. It needs to be stabilized and that is not happening.

What should happen in his words, that where there are certain Areas, give the Civilian Population the chance to get out of the area, then level it!

He also stated, that because of the Ameican apathy, we are told to pull out and we cannot.

Oh, what is said, that most of you do not know what is really going on there other than what is reported.

[sigtau305]

I'm not too keen on the Idea to keep them over there for some extended period of time. I'm hoping for our Military to return home as quickly as possibe.

[The1calledTKE]

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by ajuhdg
Due to these recent events, I have changed my perspective on this.

Those people don't care about anything.

I understand your anguish, although I'm not comfortable stereotyping all Iraqis or all Muslims as bad.

Here are some opinions, though.

I said both recently and early on that there were spectres of Vietnam in this for me.

In both, we seem to have decided that a nation and its people need "freedom" whether they want it -- or even understand it -- or not. Getting rid of Saddam was a worthwhile thing to do. Trying to force feed a kind of government on a people who don't ask for it has been disasterous in the past and may be this time.

To us this is a war for some principle, to them it is a religions conflict. I don't know that the right people understand that religion and how it operates. In any event, fighting for ones religion brings a lot of passion to bear.

After the initial spectacular success of our armed forces, we are now forced into a conflict of attrition with groups who don't respect the rules of "civilized" warfare. (Kind of like what we did to the British in the American Revolution, by the way). You can't really fight a special operations war of this type with bombs and planes and tanks as you do big "set piece" battles in the desert. The majority of our forces aren't trained in house to house fighting.

We're fighting on their turf and damaging their country.

The bad guys are very comfortable with killing a few of us at a time through ambush and eating away at morale (national and armed forces). They really don't have to "win" anything -- just wait for us to give up (lose).

But to just pull out would be signing the death warrants of a lot of Iraqis and others -- very much like happened in Vietnam.

There seem to be huge amounts of corruption on both sides.

There is no real cohesive leadership -- and especially any leadership with any idea of how to run a democracy.

And, finally, and most importantly, the average citizen of Iraq probably is happy to see Saddam gone, but now just wants to be left alone. The longer this is prolonged, the less they will want us there.

But it's too late for that.

[The1calledTKE]

[Rudey]

Originally posted by The1calledTKE

You should include a cartoon with Kerry voting for the war and the not voting to fund it. That would be great. I can see it now. A soldier trying to shoot his gun except there are no bullets in it.

-Rudey

[Coramoor]

If we pull out now, as we did in Vietnam, it will be an invitation to disaster for Iraq. Listening to NPR over lunch, a senior fellow from the Brookings Institute said that we will probably be in Iraq until the end of the decade. A sobering thought.

End of the decade is an extreme under-estimate. Looking at it from my standpoint (and looking at history) we won't be out of there for half a century-hinging on if the next few Presidents decide to stick to their guns. Iraq makes a perfect base of operations for future manuevers. Like it's been pointed out before, we are still in Japan and Germany and it's been close to 60 yrs.

Those people don't care about anything. They have only known violence since the beginning of their existence, it will be impossible to 'educate' them. They view the demise of Sadaam as an opening in the power chain. The men live a life of self-centered indulgence. They rule their woman, and any other women that may cross their path. My husband said that a soldier waved to a girl (probably about 15), and she then got beat with a stick by her LITTLE brother...they guessed 11. I also heard that most of the men have a boyfriend as well as a wife. The wives are solely for reproduction. My husband is an MP and saw some pretty disturbing things...along the lines of a Michael Jackson sleep over. Which he said he's found is VERY common.

I've heard all that also. They treat their women like slaves-but that's b/c of their religious leaders that are total fanatics. The men are the leaders and they are extemely sexist. A women in power is a threat to them, so they don't let it happen.

Going back before Saddam's rule, Iraq had...better women's rights (good for the time period) and it had one of the highest educated populations in the Middle-east. When Saddam took over all the educated citizens moved out and women's right's were taken away.

It's going to take at LEAST a generation to fix their socities problems, maybe two. That's just what it takes.