Sanchez: Troops in Iraq to Serve 1 Year

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030812/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us_troops&cid=540&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD, Iraq - All troops in Iraq (news - web sites) should expect to serve for at least a year, with brief rest breaks in the region and possibly a few days at home, the commander of U.S. forces said Tuesday. That came as news to some soldiers on the ground.

"It's a one-year rotation," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told The Associated Press in an interview. "Every soldier has been told that they'll be deployed for a year, and then at the end of the year we'll be working to send them home."

But some of the 148,000 soldiers in Iraq said nobody had told them how long they would remain in the country, where guerrillas attack Americans daily and high temperatures hover around 122 degrees.

Pfc. Deacon Finkle, 20, of Dallas, screwed up his face — red from the heat — when asked how long he would be in Iraq.

"Don't know. No idea," he said.

more

[damnyankee2601]

1. Anybody having Vietnam flashbacks yet?

I think a good 1968-style protest/riot at the RNC convention is in order.

[psychopomp]

11. Yes, sort of...

...I was too young to remember Vietnam, but after reading this, I am beginning to get an inkling of what it must have been like.

The Iraq Page Remembering Those who Lost Their Lives in the Iraq War of 2003

[underpants]

2. and then at the end of the year we'll be working to send them home."

Not really a promise.

Okay it is a hardship tour and the General has to leave the options open (really he doesn't have to do anything but tell them they aren't going anywhere when a year is up) in case of "worst case scenarios" pop up, more than they are right now anyway.

[Zero Gravitas]

4. Working to send them home

in the next year or two. They'll have to stay longer than a year. The combat forces are spread too thin and other countries are not willing to send their own troops to die for George W. Bush.

Have "the twins" enlisted yet?

[underpants]

5. Oooh ouch

I am reminded of all the "kids" I saw screaming at the top of their lungs at a "pro-war" rally here in Richmond (they had to be seperated from the small anti-war march). I wonder how many of them have signed up or are going to now.

[bluedeminredstate]

6. I'm from Richmond too

and I love all those letters in the Richmond Times-Disgust criticizing other letter writers for questioning the Chimp and this military fiasco. I wonder how they'd like a few months in 122 degree temps being shot at and ambushed by the folks who were supposed to welcome them...

:dunce:

[underpants]

7. Uggh the Times-Disgrace

I read it every once in a while just for laughs. I especially love the "news stories" that are compiled "From wire reports", that means they had to cut and paste the parts that agreed with them.

Sunday's op-ed's featured someone praising Anne Coulter as a "true conservative" and that all Repubes should follow her example. Goose stepping into the 21st century.

[Walt Starr]

3. And it's one two three, what are we fighting for?

Don't ask me I don't give a damn.
NEXT STOP IT'S IRAQNAM!

[9215]

16. Country Joe has been banned from

singing that song by court order. :crazy:

[Minstrel Boy]

8. "at least a year"

And then...well, we'll see what we can do.

There are going to be some seriously messed-up kids returning home at the end of that tour of duty.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

9. yeah, right

one year is just for starters.

[psychopomp]

10. Same story, different link

Also from Yahoo. Longer, more quotes, including this gem:
-snip-
But on the Internet, some soldiers' families criticized the vacations, saying commanders should instead work on a way to get the soldiers home for good.


"My son-in-law has been in Iraq since March. ... He has been given orders that extend his stay until JULY 2004," reads a message signed "Bette" on the Web site of Military Families Speak Out.


"His company just had a two-day vacation(?!) in Qatar. President Bush (news - web sites) has just left for his MONTH-LONG vacation on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Let's send all of the troops to President Bush's ranch and send the President to Iraq."

more

[maxsolomon]

12. they volunteered

they posted "funny" pictures calling protestors "pussies", and that we should "shut the fuck up" while they protect america.

their families questioned our love of our country & told us to leave.

perhaps they & their families realize now who had their best interests at heart. but i doubt it. they'll likely all vote bush because he rode in a plane & fakes a texas accent.

i want to empathize, but i don't. i pity their foolishness, youth & naivete, but i don't feel sorry for them. they made their beds.

[9215]

17. Out of the hundreds of posts at DU on this topic

Yours is the best I've seen so far.


I was thinking of how this sounds like a bunch of kids playing army and now they want to come home for dinner. In this regard it is worse than Vietnam. I remember people who were "Gung Ho" and I used to cringe at their ignorance, but I have a new respect for them now. At least they beleived in something. These children, yes children, in Iraq have no more knowledge of what this world is about than pre-schoolers.

What kind of society, what mechanism of perception management, produces people who are so ignorant???????????????

Is this the result of cathode ray tube existence?

If there is not a surge of activism in this country from all of this I am going to set my sights on finding another country to live in if at all possible.



During a particularly horrific slaughter during the Civil War Robert E. Lee was watching the Yankees getting mowed down-- "fading like snow falling on warm ground"-- and he said something like:

"It is good that war is so horrible, lest we grow fond of it".

Let's see how fond this country is of war after a summer in Iraq.

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. a three month tour....

a three month tour....

The weather started getting hot
The tiny troops were lost
If not for the stupidity of Bush and crew
Our soldiers would be safe
Our soldiers would be safe

[Pastiche423]

14. That little ditty

would be funny, if it weren't so true.

[Sick of Bullshit]

18. The Veep took charge of the show

from his uncharted hidey-hole
With Duhbya-gan
Rumsferatu
The millionaires
And their Rice
Halliburton
The Wolfie an' Lieberman
Here on Duhbyagan's Isle

[wellst0nev0ter]

15. Gee, My Birthday's In January

Guess I'll be expecting that card in the mail anytime soon :(