Blog Me No Blogs: SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS

SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS

WITH ARMED GUARDS AND BARBED WIRE

Otherwise, They Might Get Away

It's tough, being in the military. You're separated from your friends and family. You're cut off from your own life, career, education, relationships. You're usually far from home, often in unpleasant places, under difficult conditions. Many military bases have upgraded their facilities so that they are not just camps, with barracks and latrines and chow halls, like concentration camps. Efforts have been made to make military life less like prison.

Still, you are "government property," twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for four, eight, sixteen, thirty two, and who knows how many more years. You signed up, or got drafted, to kill or be killed, and, legally, you have almost no rights. They can do anything they want with you, including medical and psychological experiments. If you don't like it, too bad. You signed a contract. They own you.

Under these conditions, it might seem that it would be difficult to get men, and women now, to give their all, to accomplish any mission, to make the ultimate sacrifice, to die for their country. We have some highly dedicated, totally motivated, patriotically activated soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and coastguardsmen and women out there.

They'll "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." All they ask is a little respect. And they're getting it, from the civilians back home. No matter what happens, we support our troops.

But they are not getting proper respect from our so-called leaders, the civilian politicans and bureaucrats, and the career military at the top of the chain of command. They are being lied to and intimidated into signing up, re-enlisting, extending their tours, volunteering for duty, accepting call-ups, and being deployed and redeployed. They are being held like prisoners in poorly equipped camps, and prevented from having any contact with their families.

They are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan on short notice, without complete training, and with inadequate equipment. They are being put in dangerous positions without the ability to properly defend themselves. They are being exposed to radiation and toxic substances that WE brought to the battlefield. They are being abused and misused and wounded and disabled and killed in battles without an overall military strategy, in a war based on lies, deception, and delusion, by the White House.

Read the articles I've linked to, below, and you'll see what I mean. This is not merely some liberal's opinion. These are facts. Whatever you may think of the goals and pretexts for this war, or the people who started it, this is no way to treat our troops.

They deserve respect from the very top on down to their own unit commanders. They deserve to be treated like human beings, even if they are going to war. They deserve to be treated like Americans, even if they are in the military. They deserve better than what the Bush administration is giving them now: Disrespect.

"Guardsmen Say They're Facing Iraq Ill-Trained"

"The Soldiers Who Said No"

"Troops feeling strain"

"GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets"

"Weapons of Self-Destruction"

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