US Soldier: "Bush can come fight here. He can take my 1,000 dollars a month and I'll go home."

[sabra]

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070320004302.w8d2wm3v

US troops in Iraq want out

<snip>

"We just want to get out of here as soon as possible," said one vehicle commander in one of his few printable comments.

"It's because the Iraqi army is so scared that we have to come here to die," he added, asking not to be named.

...

Added yet another, "Bush can come fight here. He can take my 1,000 dollars a month and I'll go home."

Commander of the night operation, Lieutenant Brian Long, said the anger was understandable.

"One of the men has five children, another has three. Another has a boy aged four -- he's missed two of those years. He'll never get them back," said Long.

[SaveAmerica]

1. Sing it, soldier

[lonestarnot]

2. 1k a month! Dat man is reeeech!

[rodeodance]

3. send this article to your congresscritters---Dem and Rep. alike!

[gatorboy]

4. $1,000 a month? It's an insult!

They were just discussing on the radio yesterday how the mercenaries for hire make up to $600 a day. Bush likes to talk about boosting moral but how does he think the military feels having to work next to someone making thousands more for doing the same job?

[Horse with no Name]

5. That is one of the atrocities of this war

The soldiers make very little money, their families cannot live in base housing during deployment, and many of the families survive month to month on food stamps and government assistance.
Support the troops!! Yeah!!Getcha one of them thar magnets to let everyone know how much you care. God Bless Murika!

[Sirveri]

18. As a military family, she lives in base while I'm deployed.

They aren't going to kick your wife out on the street simply because you get deployed. It actually works out to ones benefit to be married in the military, because then you don't have to live in the barracks and gain the option of a housing allowance to live out in town.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

6. kick!

Down with Repuke tyrants!:grr:

[CJCRANE]

7. B*sh is storing up trouble

for when the troops do eventually come home for good...there will be some mighty p*ssed off soldiers.

Of course the B*sh family will have relocated to Paraguay by then and Cheney will be in Dubai.

[whoneedstickets]

8. Support our Troops, Bring them Home.

nuff said

[earth mom]

9. 1000K a month + crappy care at V.A. Hospitals...

my my my...look how wonderfully the rethugs support the troops. :sarcasm:

[maxsolomon]

10. my empathy only goes so far

i don't WANT to feel this way when i read about our sacred troops having a change of heart, but i do. and i suspect others do, too, but this is the one place no one can go in america - to call the american military machine, and the people that sign up to staff it, one of the problems.

they signed up - often knowing full well that they would be sent to iraq.
they signed up knowing what the pay grade was.
they signed up knowing how many children they had & that they would be deployed during their childhoods. or they proceeded to procreate willy nilly (5 kids on an enlisted salary?) once committed to the military.
they signed up, ignorant of the history of imperialism, the definition of fascism, or foreign culture & languages, but filled with nationalist confidence in the righteousness of america.
they sent emails in the run up to this clusterfuck of a war with a ww2 propaganda poster altered image saying: "shut up pussies, we'll defend america!".

we've (and by this i mean *, cheney, the neocons, and the 80% of americans who thought iraq was a good idea) played directly into OBL's strategy - by reacting to 9/11 with fear & anger, rather than love. or at least patience & methodical analysis. and in rushing in to iraq, we've bankrupted our country, wasted our hegemony on a fool's errand, turned the majority of muslims against our country & people, and created another generation of wounded american bodies & minds that will take decades to heal.

what will the memorial to this war look like? a pit a mile deep?

on edit: also, blair is at fault as much as cheney - he could have stopped *.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. Don't Worry. I Have More Than Enough To Make Up For What You Inappropriately Lack.

[maxsolomon]

12. do you know the radiohead song that goes

"you do it to yourself, yourself, you & no one else"? thus it goes for the individual volunteer, the pentagon, the congress, the executive & his advisors, & the majority of the american populace. ultimately, you bring it on yourself through your choices.

i HAVE empathy for the troops & see hope in their growing awareness that they're getting fucked for nothing, for a hole in the ground, but it is not limitless. they are not draftees.

bill hicks said during gulf war 1: "i supported the war, but i was against the troops". the irony was funny, but it pointed out the genius of the "support the troops" propaganda - as long as no one can say what he said, the BS takes up all the air in the room.

[Morgana LaFey]

14. they signed up because

they were poor and had few other options.

It's an ECONOMIC "draft" --

And I SERIOUSLY doubt that you know the motivations of all who signed up and found themselves over there, or the lies that were told to them ("Nah, you won't have to go to Iraq, not your MOS.) Or how many times they've been back there now, or how long their end of service commitment has been overwith except for the Stop Loss orders. Or how many of them were CALLED BACK into service after they'd left the service entirely.

Do you know 50+ year olds have been called back to service and sent over there?? (Actually, I think they've been mostly Reserves and Natl Guard, but still.)

[Lars39]

15. Yes...an economic draft.

Not everyone has the education, savings, networks,"good" local economy and just plain good luck to be able to avoid the only job option available in some areas. :(

[maxsolomon]

17. i don't know the individual histories

& i am aware of the 'economic draft' aspect (i have long considered the military part of the welfare state), the lies recruiters tell, and the call up of 50 year olds. this is nothing new, nor is it surprising.

i cannot absolve ALL of our troops of ALL culpability for the circumstances they find themselves in. we are an empire with a military who's budget exceeds that of all other countries on the planet. we are the aggressors, but we consider ourselves the victims. as long as people sign up to man this machine, for whatever reason, patriotism being the most foolish, it will grind on in pursuit of oil, corporate greed & hegemony. the military is the PROBLEM, not the solution, in the GWOT.

join the coast guard, join the peace corp, ANYTHING but the army/marines.

[Jcrowley]

13. K&R n/t

[butterfly77]

16. K&R