The True Shame Of The Iraq War

[Justin]

The True Shame of the Iraq War
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucrr/2008052...roG_rTiEQEtbAF

WASHINGTON -- This is what I thought was the American social contract when I was growing up in the land of the free and the home of the brave: You could work your way through college, and if you got a decent job, you could buy a house within a few years.

And, you deserved a bit more if you served in the military: money or loans for college and something of a break on mortgage loans. The point goes beyond the danger of military service; the important fact is that you deserve something more than being underpaid if you give up two or more years of your life while your peers are working on careers, beginning families, or getting educations that will pay dividends for life.

That's the way it was for me, and I think kids today deserve the same. I could earn enough for college working summers and part-time; the military (Air Force ROTC) paid some of the bills. I got a job as an engineer for Ingersoll-Rand, and six years after graduation, with a little help from my parents, I was able to buy a small house on a lake in New Jersey.

Now, of course, college is more expensive -- as a father of five I have seen those costs rise faster than the cost of oil -- and houses in metropolitan areas are often more than young families can afford. That bothers me, a lot; it is a failure of the American way. But that bother is nothing compared with the screwing the government is giving to the young men and women serving in harm's way in Iraq.

Whatever one thinks of the war and the officials who planned it, those soldiers and reservists out there deserve more than moral support. My stomach literally turned when I read this paragraph in The New York Times last Thursday morning:

"President Bush is threatening to veto a bill that would pay tuition and other expenses at a four-year public university for anyone who has served in the military for three years since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A main reason is that it would hasten an exodus from the ranks."

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates put it this way: "Serious retention issues could arise."

I bet they could. And should. The war is being fought by a tiny percentage of the American people, and many of their lives are being ruined. You want a war, Mr. President? Then ask Congress to declare one. You want soldiers to be retained? Then ask for a draft. You want to support our boys and girls? Then support their education as other presidents and Congresses have done since the passage of the great GI Bill of Rights during World War II -- legislation that is still benefiting this country.

What is being done to our troops in Iraq is more than a failure of political leadership; it is an outrage. Forget the fact that we never declared war, or that we never had a real plan about what to do in Iraq, or that we are fighting on credit, leaving the bills for our children and grandchildren. Remember that only a small number are involved in this -- the same people, professionals and reservists, are being called back into harm's way again and again.

Those young men and women, serving a government without the guts to even talk about a draft, are essentially indentured servants. Worse. At least indentured servants knew when their obligation would be over. This is more than unfair; it is shameful, a stain on the democracy and its leaders. And now the president is considering depriving them of a reward they deserve because some of them might actually take it and not re-enlist.

This is a professional army? There was a time when troops treated that way, no matter how well-trained or equipped, were called cannon fodder. We owe them. The president whose ignorance put them in the Middle East owes them. The Congress, which is ever looking the other way and has not declared war on anyone since 1941, owes them.

This war is not worthy of a free country. And unless we do something for the young people bravely taking the punishment for the failings of their elders, we have no right to claim this is a land of the free.

[bunkum]

this is the true shame of the iraq war?

disgusting.

[Neko]

Don't worry, it's unlikely that many of those Iraqis would have been going to college anyway...

[bunkum]

for reference:

Documented civilian deaths from violence
84,050 – 91,713

Latest incidents Latest identified
Mar 29: Eight in US air strike on Hananiyah, Basra Details Saad Al-Shibli / Saad al-Shablawi Adult; Male; Local leader Details
Recent events
Thursday 22 May: 12 dead
Baghdad: 6 bodies.

Ninewa
Mosul: 5 bodies.

Kirkuk
Kirkuk: gunmen kill policeman.

More

[bunkum]

Originally Posted by Neko

Don't worry, it's unlikely that many of those Iraqis would have been going to college anyway...

[suedanim]

Excellent article! These young people deserve the very best from us after their sacrifice. Government has made them almost invisible to the American people, all film and photos sanitized so we don't know what is really going on with them or the Iraqi people.

MCain should have voted for it. But, he didn't cause he's owned now by neocons. His statement that came out to slam Obama seemed prepared ahead of time. For all his claims of keeping lobbyists out of his campaign, he's neck deep in them. For all his claims of a clean campaign, no dirt slinging, he hires one of the kings of dirt, chief swiftboater, John Timothy Griffin. This newly hired... research director.. was hired for one thing... dig for dirt on Obama.

I am losing any warm fuzzies I ever had for John McCain's service and sacrifice while in uniform. He's no maverick, no straight talker. One by one, he sells out on every declaration of commitment he makes. Now he fails them once again and support a Bush veto. I am coming to believe that despite his own service, he's forgotten, lost his own connection to military service, but uses it for political convenience. Any real compassion or commitment to the young men and women serving now is a shallow remnant of how he may have behaved 40 years ago. It appears his ambitions, poitical and personal, have pretty much led him astray again and again.

[1234567]

posting from the UK I agree, i think that the war had to happen but it has gone on for two long both american and british men have sacrificed there lives for us.

[bunkum]

Originally Posted by 1234567

posting from the UK I agree, i think that the war had to happen but it has gone on for two long both american and british men have sacrificed there lives for us.

whoa! talk about putting your head between the lions jaws! and on your very first post!

welcome to the boards, numbers.

why only to seven, by the way?

[potter]

Originally Posted by bunkum

whoa! talk about putting your head between the lions jaws! and on your very first post!

welcome to the boards, numbers.

why only to seven, by the way?

Judging from his post, it's his IQ.....

Supports the Iraq war indeed......

[clownboy]

Something stinks about the article - he got GI benefits from Air Force ROTC? That's just wrong.

That's the way it was for me, and I think kids today deserve the same. I could earn enough for college working summers and part-time; the military (Air Force ROTC) paid some of the bills.

[1234567]

potter do you agree with the Continuation of the iraq war?

[potter]

Originally Posted by 1234567

potter do you agree with the Continuation of the iraq war?

No, in fact I think things would have been much better all around if we'd never gone in. We have no business even being there. Fearmongering makes one imagine all sorts of unlikely things though, and the average person is easily manipulated.

At this point I think we need to pull out and let it take it's course, as it will do whether we're there or not. It's not our country, we need to quit treating it as if it is.

BTW...sorry about the cheap shot...just "testin' ya.....

[1234567]

i am not defending the issue of "lets kept them there", but iraq is not in the best state at which the govermentcan kept control, if uk and us men go what conformation have we got that the country will not go into a revolution.

[potter]

Originally Posted by 1234567

i am not defending the issue of "lets kept them there", but iraq is not in the best state at which the goverment can kept control, if uk and us men go what conformation have we got that the country will not go into a revolution.

I don't see where that's our business, and I think that will happen whether we're there or not...all we're doing is delaying the inevitable. We are not their nannies, and they were doing quite well as a fairly progressive Muslim country until we showed up and threw it back into the stone age.

It's unfortunate that everyone (the west, russia, etc...) seems to think they have the right to interfere and re-shape the ME into their own image....

BTW, welcome to the forum....