Hundreds Re-enlist to Deploy with 3ACR to Iraq

[Zep]

So DUers, especially with some military background, do you
believe this story?

We hear about an objector/resister/deserter here and there.
But what is that to this? :mad:

-----------
NOTE: This is an official Army press release

Hundreds Re-enlist to Deploy with 3ACR to Iraq
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,usa1_120604.00.html

By Sgt. Shauna McRoberts
Army News Service
December 06, 2004

FORT CARSON, Colo - About 250 Soldiers re-upped to stay with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and deploy to Iraq in a mass re-enlistment ceremony at Fort Carson Dec. 1.

"I've never experienced anything like it before," said Sgt. Michelle Calder, a truck driver with the regiment's supply and transport troop and a recent a re-enlistee who participated. "It was a really nice event for the Soldiers."

A team of 3rd ACR career counselors and retention noncommissioned officers spent several months planning the massive re-enlistment ceremony. Sponsors donated flowers for spouses and a large flag, the 3rd Cavalry Museum provided historical items, and Fort Carson's Harmony in Motion sang the national anthem and the Army Song.

(more)

[Left Brain]

1. Duplicate

from LBN

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Yeah, I believe it...

the military is expert at group cohesion. They offered these people goodies to re-up, and made a big party out of it. The party is the unusual thing, no the re-upping.

During Viet Nam, I saw lots of guys going back there. Some had a year to go, some re-upped to go back, but a surprising number "had" to go back.

There were lots of reasons for that, including a fair number of pathological types who just liked the adrenaline and the killing, but most went back because they felt extraordinary guilt at leaving their units behind in that hellhole.

Teh military does things to your mind that people outside of it can't fully understand. The mindfucks they pull aren't unheard of outside of the military, but they make it an art form.

[Zep]

4. So the hype about this and that resister ...

... even that Marine who was in Moore's movie, is homefront stuff only.

There will be no wave of mutiny. It being an "all-volunteer" force and all.

It really can't be like Vietnam, and I don't mean from a freeper perspective. Every war is different.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. The resisters are real...

and they might be hyped by the antiwar movement because there are so few of them. It takes some serious stones to try to resist the system, and many give up long before they are heard from.

On the other hand, there are, as far as anyone knows, several thousand AWOLs and deserters that no one talks about. I've heard it's as high as a hundred a day from our forces worldwide. But they don't get hyped, and many of them aren't conscientious objectors-- just people who couldn't hack the life. Add to these the ones who get out on medicals or generals for not being able to adapt, or various forms of depression, stress and battle fatigue.

Iraq is becoming more like Viet Nam every day.

[Zep]

10. Iraq is becoming more like Viet Nam every day???

It is not.

I'm not saying it's right to do what the USA is doing.

But let's stop fighting the last war.

The "all volunteer" thing makes a difference, the few resisters notwithstanding.

We have to deal with it, not stick out fingers in our ears and go la-la-la.

No war is like the last war. This isn't Vietnam.

Fight like it's Vietnam and lose.

It's something new.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Yeah, it's a new war but...

the goals of the war are becoming confused, if they ever existed, just like Viet Nam.

As time goes on, things are becoming less stable, just like Viet Nam.

Public support is dropping, just like Viet Nam.

More troops are needed, just like Viet Nam.

Iraqi forces we are supposed to be working with are useless, just like the RVN troops.

There is no stable local government that can exist without our support, just like Viet Nam.

The "enemy" is not an opposing force, but a guerilla operation with foreign support. Just like Viet Nam.

It's costing a hell of a lot more in money and lives than they thought it would. Just like Viet Nam.

The Iraqis have lost any reason to trust us any more than the guerillas, and have divided loyalties, if any loyalties at all. Just like Viet Nam.

There seems to be no end to it, or it will most likely end very badly.

Just like Viet Nam.

[colonel odis]

3. where else can you walk around and shoot ragheads whenever you like?

for some people, the military's the sweetest job there is. until they come back here and become mall security guards.

[placton]

5. colonel

your comment leads me to a larger thought: does our military deserve the "we support you heroes" attitude as the obligatory Dem one? It appears our military is, shall we say, a tad fascist, racist, and not feeling bound by civilized norms

[colonel odis]

6. interesting point. i can't really say i support our military anymore

since abu-ghraib and the murder captured on tape a few weeks ago.

i do have friends who have friends over there. my next door neighbors have a friend from their church who's just a regular national guard shlub who's getting screwed with the back door draft. how can you not have people like that in your thoughts and prayers and want them to get back home as soon as they possibly can?

yet we have a war run by maniacs, trying to recruit junior maniacs.

[pfitz59]

8. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Tax-free reenlistment bonuses. Just in time for XMas!

[alcuno]

9. Excellent! Everyone who wants to go should go.

I hope that they enjoy their stay and never realize that their sacrifice is for nothing. I'll watch as the NewsHour flashes their picture on the screen and remember them fondly.

[blueatheart]

12. off topic

video my husband put together and asked me to post. Warning, some pictures are very violent. Its not streamed and just over 2 megs.

http://home.comcast.net/~cinbud2004/index.html

[Sugarbleus]

13. Last night on KGO a report was read that at least 5,500 people

deserted. They refuse to go back or go at all. Apparently, this is punishable by death?

So, I don't know who or how many are still excited about enlisting.

There are always a segment of the military that drink the Kool aid, allow themselves to be brainwashed either by military or by family, and go to war. Then there are the "rest" of the people in uniform who just gag at the position they find themselves in. It's those folks that I support. The one's who will come back and reveal the truth..or desert/resist.

Just as in any group, there are differing attitudes/ideals among the whole. We ought to try to sort out the wheat from the chafe.