I just found out that I have a nephew going to Iraq when the surge starts.

[mrcheerful]

His unit has been told they will be shipping out soon. I'm not sure how I feel about it, The god damn recruiters told him that he would never be shipped into a war because he was an only son, I knew that was a lie debunked by snopes, but I didn't find out about him joining until it was to late. I argued with family for 3 hours then pulled the snopes sight up for them to read,they kept telling me not o worry about him being sent to Iraq.

[C_U_L8R]

1. I have a nephew in training

and am so worried for him.
He doesn't deserve to have some half-cocked
dim-witted son-of-a-bitch presidunce direct
him into needless harm's way.

God save us from George Bush.

[annabanana]

2. I am sorry to hear that...

I hope he can keep his head down and come back safe and sound. Hard to be mr"cheerful" sometimes, isn't it....

[mrcheerful]

4. Don't get me wrong, the boy is a very likable kid, he is 18, but he isn't one of the brightest

members of my family, he has to "investigate" everything that catches his eye. It's got him into a few painful situations in the past. When he was 14 him and his friends were messing around with a pellet gun, pumping it up and blasting each other with air. One of his friends got the bright ideal to put a pellet in and my nephew ended up in the hospital with a tore colon. This don't bode well but I hope he has learned the two important things, don't volunteer and when the SHTF, duck and cover your ass.

[bonito]

3. Kicking and recommending for reality. n/t

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Straight Shooter]

5. The recruiters say, "Ooops, my bad, we meant to say *fortunate son*."

I think it's criminal that anyone would have to go there, but to put an only son, or only child, into that mess in Iraq is unconscionable.

This is really rotten news for your nephew and of course the rest of the family. I don't know what to say except I'm so sorry you will be even more personally involved in the war.

:hug:

[mrcheerful]

9. All kidding aside about his not being bright, bad attempts at humor to hide feelings

a personal fault. It angers me after everything this kid went through, a control freak for a mother who when he turned 9 sent him off to live with dad. A dad who is a jerk only concerned with himself, also dad was in the NG in the 80's. I feel for the kid, my gf's son and he are best of friends and though I was kept away from him for 16 years by both parents, in the last 3 years we got close. I've been anti war since 1967, When I was 11 I'd set up walk outs to protest the war in Veit Nam, after a cousin came back and spent 6 years in a mental hospital from shell shock, he saw his best friend step on a mine after switching places. I dis-like wars to the max, I can tolerate a short war, but never ending wars get to me. Sorry for ranting, shrub sucks, which was why I voted against him twice.

[Straight Shooter]

11. You've got to cope however you can with this kind of situation.

That's not a fault. No problem with the rant. Sounds to me like you've had too much experience with the aftereffects of what war can do to a person.

I really feel sorry for your nephew, and I hope he'll listen to you about what he needs to do to survive. I hope your gf's son will be strong in supporting him, and he'll also need your help.

gawd what a mess george bush has made of so many lives.

[uppityperson]

6. So sorry, hope he gets through it physically and mentally sound.

[ComeAndTakeIt]

8. The brother of a friend is going in March.

Straight out of high school to the military. I was just talking to him online, and was shocked when the otherwise nice guy (of lovely parents and with a lovely sister) says to me these things:

1) he will gladly serve in Iraq because that's why he joined the military; he has been trained to fight; not going to combat would be like studying for the SATs and not getting to take them;

2) war is inevitable because people will always rush to anger when someone pisses them off, and everyone wants to prove they are better than others; also, that we have to fight this war because we are the superior race (I asked him what he meant by that - Americans? - because Americans are made up of people from every ethnicity on the planet, so I didn't understand what he meant by "superior race");

3) it's genetic; look at animals; it's like how women will always pick the strongest guy to mate with, right?

:scared:

As you can imagine, I carefully and tenderly put my objections to him. The usual. Though, I will point out that he actually didn't have an answer for that old gem, "What if they gave a war, and no one came?" Edited to add: I wonder how his philosophy will hold up after he actually gets back from a real combat zone. If he gets back.

[Poiuyt]

10. My nephew is heading back for his second tour of Iraq in Feb

He's also had tours in Kuwait, Saudi, and Turkey since this thing started. His enlistment was supposed to be up in June, but it's being extended.

Good luck to all who have to go over there and strength to those of us back here who support them.