Cry me a river, "troops".

[TahitiNut]

“Morale is a tough issue right now,” said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Kauffman, a military guard at Camp Bucca, from Dothan, Ala.

Units are stretched thin. Soldiers are working 12-hour shifts at both prisons. Some work six, nine or 15 days without a day off. Most of them are Army reservists and National Guard soldiers, called up from civilian jobs to serve a year in Iraq for what some described as a tedious, boring job.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/8945412.htm

:wtf:
What the hell else is new? We pulled 12-hour shifts in 'Nam with one "day off" (except for rocket attacks and filling sandbags and perimeter guard duty) every 2 weeks. "Tedious"?? Damned straight. "Boring"? Of course. Who the hell hasn't heard about many hours of boredom punctuated with moments of stark terror? That's how my father and uncle described WW2. That's how one uncle described the Korean War. That's how Viet Nam was.

War is not a f*cking video game!! Jeeesus!! :puke:

[Wickerman]

1. Best job you'll ever love

I don't think they use that in the recruiting ads anymore, do they Mike?

[TahitiNut]

3. These "professional" troops appall me when they display ...

... such abject and total ignorance regarding what the military is all about. I have absolutely no doubt the morale is low. Ernie Pyle told us all about that in WW2. Do they think it was fun times in the trenches during WW1? It's really tough to keep happy when you're killing and being killed - when the "world" in which you live is insane. But whomever thinks that a war zone isn't every bit of that just didn't pay attention.

Just why the hell do these uniformed Bozos think it takes $120,000/year to entice someone only marginally less stupid than them to be in Iraq doing less under far more comfortable conditions??? Ferchrissakes! Pay f*ckin attention, Sarge! The clue trains are coming every minute. Climb aboard.

Be an "Army of One"? Damned fools. :puke:



As long as people can profit from ignorant, deluded, stupid people, the wealthy will do their best to keep an endless supply of such people coming out of our 'education' system.

[StClone]

2. Ah!!! But the Recruiter Said

"Get a degree by putting in a few weekends a year...War?! Forgiddaboddit. There are no more wars...and as a 'Servicemen' you'll get a job when you get out."

[iverglas]

4. "esprit de corps" - Cdn military magazine

I thought you might be interested in it, TahitiNut. I'm not endorsing it or criticizing it, myself - it's an idiosyncratic thing, a thorn in the Canadian Forces' side with considerable credibility among the rank and file, but not always "liberal", from my admittedly cursory experience with it.

http://www.espritdecorps.ca/

The current "in the news" articles include:
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/in_the_news.htm

Fear and mistrust deepen in Iraq
A detour with Kurdish secret police
Najaf nurses wounds of war
Shooting down missile defence plan
Americans take issue with news language
The Modern Coverage of War
An Inside Look at Elite Fighting Units
U.S. goes it alone in Iraq
Iraq Unravels: an Interview with Scott Taylor
NATO in Kosovo, a place of divided goals

"Americans take issue with news language" (May 3, 2004) --
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/new_page_168.htm

The terms used by various media outlets to describe Iraqi guerrillas have long been a sore point for U.S. military types. Following the publication of any of my news reports from Iraq that included the word "resistance," I have been inundated with hate mail from American soldiers, denouncing me as (among other things) an "Arab lover" and a "traitor." The common theme of all of these angry detractors is that only the word "terrorist" can be used to describe those who take up arms against Americans, along with the patriotic reminder to me that the U.S.A. "will never negotiate with terrorists."

... In three weeks of heavy combat, U.S. marines in Fallujah suffered more combat casualties than all the coalition forces had taken during the brief campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein last spring. Unfortunately, the only result gained from the marines' heavy losses was the establishment of several heavily defended strongpoints on the outskirts of the rebellious city.

Even with their air force employing powerful C-130 gunships to blast Iraqi positions - not to mention inflicting civilian casualties - U.S. ground troops were unable to penetrate to the centre of Fallujah.

By the middle of last week, the Pentagon was still trying to put a brave spin on its failed offensive, but beyond the bravado was the quiet admission that a "ceasefire had been negotiated."

For the first time, the word "terrorist" was officially being replaced with the term "insurgent."

The "Commentaries" section
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/new_page_4.htm
has an article on DU (the other one) and loads of editorials about Iraq, including this about Maj. Gen. Lewis Mackenzie, quite a "liberal" (although Conservative, when there was an actual Conservative Party here and not the new neo-Con one we have now):
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/new_page_36.htm

As American forces remain firmly bogged down in the violent quagmire, those Canadian hawks who once argued in favor of joining Bush's coalition refuse to see the error in their judgment. Last week retired Major General Lewis Mackenzie penned an editorial chastising Canadians for 'gloating' over our government's decision not to participate in what has admittedly become a "difficult, dangerous, and expensive" U.S. led venture in Iraq.

Mackenzie argued that a significant number of Canadians are "suffering from short term memory loss regarding the war in Iraq, and the U.S. decision to lead a multinational force to topple Saddam's repugnant regime." Ironically, it would seem that Mackenzie is suffering from this very same affliction. The original battle cry of George W. Bush was that Saddam Hussein possessed a massive arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and that Iraq posed a clear and present danger to world security.

... Unfortunately, given the fact that the Americans used falsehoods to justify their intervention, and proved unable to contain the post-war violence –– failure is the one word which sums up Bush's ill conceived foray into Iraq.

From the "Iraq Unravels" article (long, and I haven't read it all; these are just snippets) --
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/new_page_160.htm

Canada's top war reporter, Scott Taylor is known for his two books on the Kosovo and Macedonia wars, and especially for his frequent reports from Iraq – many of which have been gathered in narrative form in his recent book, Spinning on the Axis of Evil: America's War Against Iraq. ...

CD: Scott, what can you tell us of the famed private soldiers/contractors of Iraq?

ST: Iraq is now full of private security officers, former Special Forces and Gurkhas, all armed to the teeth. These guys tend to be outfitted with Kalashnikovs and pistols, which sets them apart from the standard-issue US soldiers. They drive around in these modified armored Suburbans with tinted windows and rear-facing seats for a tail gunner.

CD: About the four American guys killed and mutilated in Fallujah. Do you feel sorry for them, or were they tempting fate? Is it possible they were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time?

ST: Well, first of all, I can't say exactly what they were doing, but nobody just goes driving through Fallujah. They had some other role. But in any case they knew the risk. These guys were making $1,000 a day.

In some cases, the private contractors are in less immediate danger than the Iraqis – and always much better compensated. For example, the guys doing the de-mining training for Iraqis and mine-sniffing dogs are making from $14,000-$25,000 a month. But the Iraqis they instruct – the ones who actually have to go in and remove the mines – are making $152 a month.

CD: Does this piss them off? Are they even aware of the discrepancy?

ST: I spoke with Shaheen Jehad, a Turkman, former general under Saddam, and the nominal director of this de-mining program. He told me, "The salary is not important to us, because we are helping to make this a safer country for all Iraqi citizens." He was being sarcastic.

... CD: What about the relationship between the average US soldier and the private contractors? After all, like their Iraqi recruits the former are in more danger, and are less well-paid than the latter.

ST: There is a huge rift between the US Army and the Brown & Root guys. In fact, one soldier even asked me how much I was making to be in Iraq. I tried to explain to him that I was just a journalist, not a contractor, and I got paid by the story. He didn't seem to understand the difference. Referring to one of those guys making $14,000 a month, he scowled, "at least someone's making money out of this shit!"

[JohnyCanuck]

5. It can't be easy having to live on Vietnam Street.

Dr. Ali described more of the horrendous conditions the hospital has faced under the occupation like the ongoing power, water, medicine and equipment shortages. Again the other doctors nodded in agreement. "I think the cause of these worse conditions is the Americans," he said firmly at the end of our interview.

Driving out of the sewage-filled, garbage-strewn streets of Sadr City we passed a wall with "Vietnam Street" spray-painted on it. Just underneath this was written, "We will make your graves in this place."

Shortly after taking this picture from the car window, we were pulled over by two men in a beat up car who had waved us down. One of them, holding his hand on a pistol beneath his dishdasha, asked what we were doing, who we are, and why we were taking pictures. After our interpreter does a brilliant job of explaining to him that we were writing about the situation of the hospital and are Canadian, the self-proclaimed member of the Mehdi Army begged our pardon. "Excuse us, sir, but we are defending our city. We are at war with the Americans here, and we are responsible for patrolling this area."

When we told him we photographed the "Vietnam Street" graffiti, he said, "We call it this because we've killed so many Americans on this street."

Life and Death on Vietnam Street

[gratuitous]

6. Jon Stewart style: "Whaaaaa?"

War isn't a video game? Why didn't the recruiter mention that? Does that mean I can go home now?

I think the major thing I appreciate veterans for is their knowledge, based on experience, of what goin' off ta war really means. I can talk until I'm blue in the face about what being in a war zone does to our young men and women. They truly are never the same. The person who goes off is not the person who comes back. They've been changed in a fundamental, core way. And thus has it ever been -- I take no credit for knowing this or saying this (might as well feel proud knowing that gravity will cause something teetering on the edge of the table to fall off), but I do appreciate veterans who say it, too.

Which is why I'm pretty much against war. Everywhere. All the time. And in the present instance in Iraq, it's becoming clearer and clearer that there was no imminent threat to the U.S., no catastrophe about to overtake us that had to be met and countered.

And yet we've consigned tens of thousands of our fellow citizens to a life bent, deformed and fractured by the experience of war (to say nothing of those actually killed). These same citizens who today are celebrated in some precincts with cheap patriotism and "Support Our Troops" stickers will be condemned tomorrow when they need our assistance to put their lives back in some semblance of order.

"Ain't been right since he came back from Baghdad," the former supporters will cluck. "Crazy-ass veteran. Probably smokin' too much dope." Yep, and we sent that person over there for no good reason. You and me. At the behest of our insane, power-mad president and his cronies. On our tax dollar. So far, we've spent about $150 billion on these adventures in foreign imperialism, and we'll have to spend another $100 billion at least before we're through. Yet we'll begrudge those whose lives were ruined a thousand dollars a month to subsist in peace and dignity.

Shame on us, and shame on the corrupt administration that put them there.

[TahitiNut]

7. Maybe there was something unique about the "Vietnam generation"

I don't recall but a small scattering of prima donnas or gung-ho assholes in 'Nam - and their life expectancy was pretty near zilch in-country. Not my father and not a single one of my uncles ever talked about WW2 as some 'glorious' experience. It was filthy, tedious, frightening, chicken-shit, murderous, and insane - and had to be done. I had no illusions other than in my resignation to the draft. For me, the calculus was clear: as a citizen, I was obliged to be inducted lest someone else go in my place. To emigrate (to Canada) then but not at any other time was a self-serving admission that it wouldn't be about principle but just about saving my own ass. After all, it's the inescapable job of the People in a democracy to keep control of their government - all the people. Those in the military are obliged to surrender their will to that of the people. That's what the "service" is.

I think what made the "WW2 generation" seem a bit better in retrospect was growing up and, even while teenagers, helping support their families. My parents' generation did without. My parents' generation worked - scrounging whatever they could to help the family survive. My parent's generation knew the value of an education because it was the one thing more important than getting a job. They didn't have video games about war. They couldn't afford brain-draining 'entertainment' seven nights a week. The only people of my parents' generation who didn't learn these lessons were the ones who were rich enough to avoid them - and those were the ones who became war profiteers: bloated leeches on the body politic. Imagine: to be rich enough to buy ignorance, one of the most expensive "status symbols" anyone can buy.