G.I.'s Deployed in Iraq Desert With Lots of American Stuff

[sintax]

G.I.'s Deployed in Iraq Desert With Lots of American Stuff

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: August 13, 2005

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - First Lt. Taysha Deaton of the Louisiana National Guard went to war expecting a gritty yearlong deployment of sand, heat and duress, but ended up spending her nights in a king-size bed beneath imported sheets and a fluffy down comforter.
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Soldiers in their almost-home away from home at Camp Liberty.

She bought the bed from a departing soldier to replace the twin-size metal frame that came with her air-conditioned trailer on this base in western Baghdad. She also acquired a refrigerator, television, cellphone, microwave oven, boom box and DVD player, and signed up for a high-speed Internet connection.

"We had no idea conditions were going to be this great!" said Lieutenant Deaton, 25, the public affairs officer of the 256th Brigade Combat Team and an ambassador of the exclamation mark. "My first thought was, oh my God! This is good!"

As much as modern warfare has changed in recent decades, so has the lifestyle of the modern warrior - at least the modern American warrior on base.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/13/international/middleeast/13soldier.html

[alfredo]

1. And the Iraqis are struggling to get enough water to drink, or

energy to light and cool their homes.

[neweurope]

2. Now isn't that a comforting thought. It should be printed in every

newspaper in Iraq, especially in Baghdad. Where people are struggling with what little water and electricity is provided, never enough. Not even mentioning all the other problems people experience while being under occupation.

And it's supposed to show your 18-year-olds that war is good living. Enlist! Enlist! It's so revolting in every respect.

---------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[sintax]

4. I found this article to be particularly repulsive

and I suspect it was 'managed' by the Pentagon to be used as a recruiting tool.

It's gross

[Spazito]

3. As another DUer pointed out before...

"Lieutenant Deaton, 25, the public affairs officer" says it all. PUBLIC AFFAIRS equals more propaganda.

[Solly Mack]

5. She should have been there when my husband was there

in 2003...she'd be singing a very different tune.

[Arianrhod]

8. And my sons. nt

[leetrisck]

6. Don't imagine this does much for the morale

of other soldiers either - somehow I don't think this is how they are living.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. If you notice they were all officers

Let's ask the enlisted guys how they sleep, shall we?

[Miss Chybil]

18. A lot of them do sleep in "containers."

Portable rooms, so to speak.

[shanti]

25. that's what jumped out at me first too.

she's a friggin occifer. what about the lowly enlisted man?

[Oerdin]

36. We enlisted

slept in mobile containers if you were in a remote location or if you were lucky enough to be stationed in a place like the Green Zone or Tikrit then you stayed in one of the vast palace complexes which Saddam had built for himself and his Ba'ath Party officials. The containers had two sets of bunk beds in them and usually the four guys who lived in the container would pool some money and buy a minifridge and maybe a TV/DVD player. The one problem with the containers is they had thin aluminum siding which would turn them into hot boxes in the desert sun plus they were a magnet for motor fire especially in places like Balad.

[tanyev]

7. The empire rots from the top down.

[MidwestTransplant]

9. I am sure it's not aweful if you are "in the rear with the gear"

but if you are not, you can bet it sucks big time.

[w8liftinglady]

11. How else do you expect them to meet enlistment quotas?

...especially for officers.I can guarantee the troops do not have their own high speed internet,their own phones.I sent a few phone cards for my son's friends,so they could call their families.My son used to have to buy time from a local to use his computer.They now have an internet connection that all the soldiers have to share.My most recent pictures of my son's room are whitewashed walls and military beds.What a bunch of propaganda.

[yorkiemommie1]

12. note to self : send copies to Young Repubs

'down comforters', eh? because they have the luxury of turning the thermostat way down.

Pirated dvds sold by Iraqis...


Plasma tvs ...

Yessiree, the young repubs should be right at home there.

[jmowreader]

34. I would have a down comforter if I was deployed over there...

even if I lived in a tent and had to bring the damn thing from the US in a duffel bag.

You need something like that because the nighttime temperature in the desert is far below the daytime temp.

[comsymp]

13. There's a lotta truth to this story, Public Affairs spin or not

My BIL, who is definitely not "in the rear with the gear" has had a similar experience. He and his buddies have bought a lot of things from the troops they replaced, like microwaves, dorm fridges, etc., and plan to sell them to the next group when they come home. They also have high-speed Internets.

But the thing to take careful note of is that the troops are buying the "comforts of home" with their own $$. These are *not* provided by the DOD.

[shanti]

26. i daresay

that much of these goodies are coming from BACK HOME.

[Theduckno2]

14. "A Tale of Two Iraqs"?

I agree with sintax,'repulsive' describes it quite accurately. I am encouraged that so many spoke to the realities experienced by nearly everyone else in Iraq.

[ecoalex]

15. Another public affairs fluff story; things are great !

[daleo]

16. And Bush comes by nightly to tuck her in.

And Cheney sings a lullaby. Life is beautiful in Iraq.

[gizmo1979]

17. Notice the rank

no grunt there.I've seen some of the places they have.And rest assured they all do not have the lap of luxury.Plus you still have to go out everyday to get shot at and blown to bits.

[Miss Chybil]

19. Yes, it depends on your job. Grunts always get the worst of it. nt

[IndianaGreen]

20. NY Times is now working for the Pentagon?

I suspect that this is not true of most troops serving in Iraq, and they will be surprised that Lt. Deaton is doing as well as Milo Minderbinder, the black marketeer in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22.

[Voltaire99]

31. Mind the parachutes!

"...If I can persuade the Germans to pay me a thousand dollars for every
plane they shoot down, why shouldn't I take it?"

"Because you're dealing with the enemy, that's why. Can't you understand
that we're fighting a war? People are dying. Look around you, for Christ's sake!"

Milo shook his head with weary forebearance. "And the Germans are not
our enemies," he declared. "Sure, we're at war with them. But the
Germans are also members in good standing of the syndicate, and it's my
job to protect their rights as shareholders. Maybe they did start the
war, and maybe they are killing millions of people, but they pay their
bills a lot more promptly than some allies of ours I could name. Don't
you understand that I have to respect the sanctity of my contract...?"

[IndianaGreen]

32. I remember the bit about chocolate covered cotton balls

that Milo tried to sell someone else, and the time he hired the squadron to bomb American positions.

[despairing optimist]

21. "I put the stereo on so loud, I can't hear the RPGs whistling by. Great!"

Uh-huh.

[latebloomer]

22. I thought the headline meant they were "deserting"!

In the immortal words of Emily Litella-- "Never mind!"

[bribri16]

23. Talk about "sending the wrong message." This has to be a big one!

That bit of info should really further endear the Iraqi policemen and soldiers and the rest of the population.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Grunts won't appreciate the comforts of a PR second louis!

I think a picture of her quarters should become the pin up for our long suffering troops (together with the video of the prowar demonstrators in Crawford yelling "I don't care!" to Cindy Sheehan and the other antiwar gold star mothers.

[SaveAmerica]

27. Especially since he had to sleep in his humvee in the nights before

he was killed. There weren't enough cots where the rest of his group was (Casey that is).

[leesa]

28. OK so they need armour and bullets and they get designer sheets

and microwaves....sounds like corporate logic.

[Oerdin]

35. They bought these things themselves.

Those guys aren't being issued that stuff they're buying it themselves. If you're really lucky you get to stay at one of Saddam's old palaces though your still packed in pretty tight. Those trailers aren't spacious but they're not to bad and they do come with one AC unit which is a life saver when the heat gets up to 112. Units will spend their FU funds to buy community type things for for the whole unit like a TV and a satellite dish but there isn't a huge amount of money available for that stuff and it gets signed over to the next unit when you rotate out.

[Porcupine]

29. King Rat!!!

This oh so reminds me of a novel about a guy who profits in a Japanese prison camp while others starve and die.

[ngGale]

30. Iraq has now become ...

the Hilton, sure thing. Heavy propaganda ...argh!

[knitter4democracy]

33. Check out anysoldier.com for a debunking.

That site would make anyone cry. Those soldiers are lucky to be on base, but many, many, many are not so lucky.

http://www.anysoldier.com

[TexasLawyer]

38. looks like we are on the same wave-length!

[TexasLawyer]

37. AnySoldier.com

Visit this great website, where soldiers post their wish lists for care packages. You know when they ask for things like "food" and flea collars-- for themselves-- that things could be a little better over there for some of our soldiers.

Hey-- while you're on the AnySoldier.com site, send a care package to some soldiers. It costs just $7.70 to send a pretty good-sized USPS "flat rate" box no matter how much the box weighs.

I've sent a number of boxes and letters, and I know how much they're appreciated by the soldiers, since they almost always write back.

[OKthatsIT]

39. This a recruiter propaganda

come on...valley gals in Iraq