Saturday, April 07, 2007

14,000 National Guardsmen to be fed to Iraq meat-grinder

Can we finally agree to stop calling Bush's escalation of the Iraq occupation a "surge"?

From Reuters:

The Pentagon has identified some 14,000 National Guard soldiers who may go to Iraq as part of planning for deployments stretching as far as 2010, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.


Also

On Monday, the Pentagon said it would send about 4,500 active duty troops to Iraq before they had spent even a year back at home. The Pentagon's goal for active-duty troops is two years at home for every one year deployed.


So, Bush is ripping 14,000 civilian soldiers away from their families and jobs for potential deployments through 2010 and is as well sending active duty troops back into war with less than half the time at home considered optimum by the military.

And, as this Washington Post article illustrates, these deployments have real consequences for real people and the towns they come from.

Yet Bush has the nerve to claim that Democrats are the ones endagering our soldiers' safety.

Incredible.

4 comments:

RTO Trainer said...

Some meat grinder.

I'm an Oklahoma Guardsman.

I'm more likely to be hurt or killed in a training accident stateside than while deployed.

We've had over 3200 killed so far over 6 years. If we extrapolated the Gulf War fatality rate over 6 years, we'd have lost over 71000.

This is the most bloodless fight in history.

Anonymous said...

Well, it seems as though the war machine is finally catching up with the less famous blogs. Who is next?
Those of us having casual dialog at a coffee shop?

Citizen Kang said...

rto trainer-First, thanks for your comments and your perspective, as well as your service to this country.

However I must point out that our success in preventing fatalities through improved equipment, training, and tactics, has also resulted in a vast expension of the number of servicemen returning to the states with severe disabilities. So while I, as I am sure are their families, am glad that those who so suffer are still with us, that doesn't address the greater issue.

We shouldn't be in Iraq in the first place.

And however you parse it, placing an additional 14,000 Guardsmen in harm's way doesn't change that awful fact.

Citizen Kang said...

anonymous-I appreciate your sentiment, but I must say that I also appreciate all comments made in a courteous and thoughful manner, regardless of whether I agree with them or not.

Thanks much for your comment.