Last month when Donald Rumsfeld announced that tours of duty for some U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq would be extended, he blithely said that:
…folks are so proud of what they’re doing and so convinced what they’re doing is right that morale has been uniformly very good, and I see it even among the families…
Does he? Apparently he hasn’t visited a website created for the families of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
My husband (like others) is tired. Morale over there is shit and they are being treated like yesterdays trash on top of it all…We can’t let the media and the governement just let them suffer in a shithole over there. We can’t let them think that we are ok with this. Don’t get me wrong…I am incredibly proud of my husband and what he is doing, but I will NEVER be ok with this! NEVER!!!
Hooya!
As has been reported, the tour extensions for the 172 Stryker Brigade was a particular kick in the gut because:
The brigade was so far along in the process of flowing out of Iraq after its yearlong tour that 380 soldiers had returned home to Alaska and 300 had arrived in Kuwait en route home, the Army said.
All of the brigade’s soldiers who had reached Kuwait were sent back into Iraq, the Army said. And now, 300 of the 380 who made it to Alaska will be sent back to Iraq within the next couple of weeks.
They are being sent into Baghdad, in the administration’s latest attempt to stop the Civil War that they claim isn’t happening. The heartbreak, fear and rage that the loved ones of these unfortunate men feel is palpable in nearly every post:
My world came crashing down. I sat down and cried, I didn’t know what else to do. How was I going to keep going by myself. I had already spent a year away from my best friend, my huband and now they want to keep him longer. My family is all the way on the other side of the country. I am alone. All I have is my kids. Ohhh, how am I going to tell my kids?
President Bush said the soldiers have to stay in Iraq, but he didn’t have to feel my heart breaking. He didn’t have to look into my kids eyes and tell them that there daddy isn’t coming home. He doesn’t have to live on edge constantly and fear everytime the phone rings. He is not loosing hair, having anxiety attacks, constant diarhea, and sick to his stomach every minute of everyday. I try to act happy and “normal” for my kids sake, but its all fake. Inside I feel like I am dying. I love my husband and I am proud of the work he does. However I feel he has done his job over there and now it is time for him to come home to his family. Please, I beg for your help to get our loved ones home.
Says another:
Slowly, day after day the shock wore off and anger replaced it. That our country would do this to ITS SOLIDERS! and ITS FAMILIES! […]
Most of our soldiers would never stand up and say it mostly because it would look bad on their careers. But us as military spouses and military families can.
I support my husband 100%. He knows it. I support even some of what we’re doing over there but it’s wrong to play mind games with the people who serve this country.
And from a military wife and mother:
I am the wife of a Soldier who has served his country for 15 years, and the Mother of a son who has served two. The last year my son has served his country proudly with the 172nd SBCT. So I am very familiar with military life. […]
My husband who proudly serves also feels like this is a slap in the face to our soldiers. […]
To President Bush, Donald Rumsfield, and the Pentagon….SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!! Bring our TROOPS HOME NOW. I am proud of all the soldiers out there. Stay strong and come home to us SOON. GOD BLESS OUR SOLDIERS……….
From a wife and apparently a part of Bush’s 38% approval rating:
I have read a lot of the previous submissions and I will have to say that I agree and disagree with them. As a former member of the military I have to say that I have always been 110% behind Bush and this war and everything he stands for. This extension has made me begun to question all of that.
There is much, much more and I encourage you to read what these people have to say.
As I read the various comments, I thought of the many times we’ve wondered if the “tipping point” regarding this administration had finally been reached. If the sentiments expressed by these people are any indication, the overwhelming support from the military and their families for Bush & Company may have tipped.
The only thing that I can say that would help the US government from not doing this is the voice of all of us enraged families. We are voters. Can we not rise up and let it be known that “NO WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS HORRIBLE TREATMENT!”. You treat us and our soldiers like this? Well fine we won’t vote for you.
Hope or pray for their safe return.
Heartbreaking. Cruel. Stupid. Unproductive. Inhumane.
Obscene.
ARRRRGH.
Maybe Bush and Rummy and Cheney will slap a shiny yellow ribbon on the back of their limos.
Lots of us have begun the turning of the tide, but THESE are the people who will make it stop.
Their pain is so much more intense than that of most of us, because they have more to lose.
And they are warriors, our voting has become meaningless.
I don’t even know what to say to express my deep concern for our military and their families. I am not at all a supporter of the “war” in Iraq. I am however supportive of our military men who are in just a terrible situation there. Why Rumsfeld is still “running the show” is beyond comprehension.
Support our troops, bring them home now. (PS, if you have a chance, vote for the real Dem in your State/District in November, and begin to get these neocons out of office!)
You all know me. I back our military always. My heart is with them. It has always been and will always be the leadership of this campaign that is to blame. It started and will not end with these republicans in charge of our military….never….the likes of bush, cheney and bush and their cabal are the ones to blame…all the undersec and their staff and those in the pentagon even and including some military men/women who are pushing this onward, that I blame. BRING THE HOME NOW..EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM…I contend do not leave anyone behind for we will have to send a delegation in to being them home in a body bag. Hear me now..or forever hold your peace. Not that I am arrogant in saying this this way, it is just a fact. We, none of us, are welcome right now in Iraq…I contend it will be after we are all long gone..and also our children too, that we will ever be welcome there, if ever we are welcome. Too much water has gone under that bridge to turn it around. Thanks Barbinmd. well done.
What kind of compensation can these soldiers be given for missing time with their families? And what kind of compensation can be given the children for the lost relationship with their fathers?
There is no compensation. I’m thinking about the ones who will be killed during this “extension”. What set of words or thoughts of condolence could ever ease the rage and despair that the family members of the dead will feel towards their government when that dead soldier was already back home in Alaska before being told they had to go back to Iraq?
Beyond the systematic murder of innocent Iraqi’s, this is to me, the most glaring example of the blackness of Bush’s heart and his disregard for anyone, including his own troops, who fight for him because they feel it’s their duty. My opinion is that it should be clear to all by now how little Bush thinks of anyone. How all of us are just pieces on his game board. How is it that there is still loyalty to this madman? I say that the duty of a soldier in this war, in this time in history, in this sickening situation we’re talking about here, is to his family. That his daughter needs her father, and his wife needs her partner, far more than his country needs him, or George effing W. Bush needs him.
Each one must make these decisions for themselves, but I wish more could see the waste of this war and lay down their weapons, while retaining their honor.
There are 8,000 troops who are resisting.
One of the reasons they are trying to recruit so many. Why? There’s been very “few” deaths. So why the rush to recruit???
Because so many are resisting. And… so many are disabled from the warring.
Thanks Janet,
can you point me to a source for the 8,000 number? I’d like to read more about them.
About this being a short war, there’s a statement to the troops from the beginning of the war, and I can’t remember if it was Rumsfeld, or maybe a commander who said it, but in line with the short war lie, the statement was, “the road home leads through Baghdad”. Meaning that as soon as Baghdad was taken, the war would essentially be over and troops could expect to begin the preparation for going home. Three years later they are no closer to going home than on the day that Baghdad fell, if it ever fell.
That is actually a line from the 1998 “mission statement” from PNAC. Part of their fantasy of the “new Middle East” (a line we’re hearing more and more of from this administration). It’s, “the road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad.” Something along the lines of a domino theory that would lead to democracy flowering…and a part of that whole, “they’ll greet us as liberators.” It was sent to Clinton in ’98. Signees included Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Kristol, etc.
Thanks, I didn’t know that. But I’m almost certain that I heard the same thing as an answer to a general question from the soldiers themselves. That the quickest way home was through Baghdad. Now I’m going to have to look it up :o)
It certainly wouldn’t surpise me if Rumsfeld popped off with some flip response like that. After all, he was the one who said something like, “Six day, six weeks, I doubt six months,” when talking about how long this war/occupation would last.
I found some references to the statement on some blogs, old CNN reports and at Common Dreams. It was attributed to Tommy Franks and the Commander of the 101st Airbone. Here are the two quotes I found.
From Common Dreams
And from theNational Review Online
Needless to say, there was never any intention to bring them home after Baghdad was taken. I give them a lot of credit for putting up with a world of shit that most of us couldn’t handle at all. But I think it should be clear by now that Bush cares for them about as much as he cared for the frogs he blew up with firecrackers when he was a kid. Sociopaths care none for any form of suffering. Only their own.
Nothing like Franks parroting the neocon talking points. Here’s the link for PNAC and some of their writing. The quote is in there somewhere, but I need to make dinner. I’ll look further later.
And for anyone who still believes that Iraq wasn’t a target pre-9/11, here the letter they wrote to Clinton.
Sorry Supersoling I heard it from MANY though at the VFP convention. I believe Dahr Jamial the journalist… and a few of the IVAW’s when speaking of the heroic war resisters. Basically how the media won’t tell the Americans what’s really going on in the military.
as always they’ll blame it on liberals and democrats.
When actually moral sucks because of stop losses, the cuts to their care, lack of a fucking agenda…
Remember, this was going to be a short war.
As I said below… in Viet Nam they people knew before they were deployed the date they’d return. Bush and his war supporters has hijacked that from these troops.
so I can’t really give a worthy opinion here…
but at the VFP convention, this was spoken about alot.
In Viet Nam, they said that before you were deployed you knew the date you were coming home. Bush/Cheney have taken that away from these troops.
Met a sister of a young man who due to stop losses committed suicide.
A man who said that Bush wasn’t going to take another birthday with his family away…. he died, during an extension, on his birthday.
being a soldier right now and on my way home THEN being told I had to go back for a few more months. Is this even legal? How can they get away with this stop/loss crap? Support the troops my ass! This administration supports nothing unless it benefits them and their cronies like Halliburton!
A question that keeps going around in my head is, “why is this necessary?” Are we stretched so thin that this is the only way to keep troop levels up? Recruiting must not be going so well. All this talk about war with Iran, what will the generals use for troops? Boy Scouts?
PETALS FOR PEACE – FRIDAY
Thanks for delivering Petals for Peace to Members of Congress in their district offices during the past few months. Another district work period is here.
Petals for Peace will be delivering flowers with messages of peace on August 18, 2006 during the working day. Terry O. asked us (Ann F. and Margaret N.) to let you know that Petals for Peace is making another effort to reach out to our U.S. Representatives with flowers and messages of peace.
I’ve appreciated Terry’s daily Petals for Peace updates and reminders when we’ve done this before. You will get an occasional Petals for Peace reminder this week, although we can’t promise the wonderful daily updates that Terry sent. Cheers for Terry – and let’s bring our count of Petals for Peace up to 1000 – delivered to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers’ district office. We almost reached that cumulative number of Petals for Peace in July. Help bring our total count of Petals for Peace to more than 1000 by the end of the day August 18th.
See the details on Petals for Peace below.
Peace,
Margaret N,
checking email and writing from glnawi2004@yahoo.com
Add your Rep’s info and deliver some Petals for Peace
When you have indefinate stop-loss, you don’t have to woryy about retention, so it isn’t too big of a deal at the pentagon to treat soldiers like sh*t. They forget, in normal times they lose the majority of career soldiers because families really have the last say in retention. Once the stop-loss is over, the military will be decimated – my prediction.