My Pet Goat II: President Sticks To His Story Even As Military Crumbles Around Him

Advance word indicates that President Bush will ignore the stark warning issued by his own defense department by failing to draw down troops in Iraq. Our military is in critical condition. And while Iraq continues to stretch our already broken military, President Bush will stick to his script.

A recent Pentagon health report concluded that prolonging and multiplying deployments will "compound injuries to those who have already served." The current course is shredding the very fiber of our military. The DOD report calls the situation what it is, a "crisis.'' You won't hear that from President Bush tonight.

The overwhelming majority of Army and Marine combat units have already deployed more than once to the war zone, some as many as four times or more. Some as many as six times. You won't hear mention of that brutality tonight, either.

What you will hear tonight is a call for more of the same. The president's call to stay firm in this "long war'' amounts to a potential death sentence for our military. The current course is simply not sustainable. It also happens to be unjust and exploitive of those that are captive to their military contracts.

Sooner or later, and likely sooner, we're going to hit the wall and something will have to change. Simple morality, and sense of decency, demands a change. We cannot continue taking such gross advantage of those who have offered themselves in service to our country.

The time for dithering is over. On 9/11, while reading My Pet Goat to a group of children, it took the president several minutes to put down his book after learning that America was under attack -- he might as well be doing the same today. Our military is breaking and he is sticking to his fictional story.

This is not sustainable. Our military cannot take any more of this. If we don't deal with it now, there won't be anyone willing to fight for us tomorrow.

Comments

[Pdubya]

This is a very moving video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19yTLq5HmtA&feature=related

[jcorrington]

But, But... republicans, plus pelosi, support our troops! (NOT) where have all yall malcontents been???

and yet...i would not be surprised if the polls show the majority of the military planning to vote republican again.



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[sugarmoes]

when bush gets thrown in prison he will be heard saying "it wasn't my fault... the democrats should have stopped me!!!"

[sugarmoes]

i have an idea...

IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY!

ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY!

PUT BUSH AND CHENEY ON TRIAL FOR WAR CRIMES!

PUT BUSH AND CHENEY IN PRISON FOR LIFE!

[desmirl]

My sympathies are with the concepts you put forth in your blog until you reach the final statement. Since 1945 when has the U.S. Military 'fought' for us? Were we in danger of an invasion from North Korea in 1950? Were we in imminent danger from the PT boats of North Vietnam in 1965? Were we in danger of losing our freedoms to Panama, Lebanon, or Grenada? Was Saddam Hussein going to send invading troops and take over the United States? Our troops don't fight for 'us', but they are being sacrificed for the interests of multinational corporations. And if you want to really get into a lengthy discussion, try to prove that either Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany had plans for the invasion and subjugation of the United States. The idea that our troops are fighting for 'us' is a myth you need to stop spreading.

[KnoxBlues1]

I've often wondered how the President and the Secret Service could be so certain that another airliner wasn't on it's way to crash into the school, and that it was OK for Bush to sit there and dither, even though his location had been public knowledge for days. Shouldn't he have been whisked away, a la Cheney, to some "undisclosed location"?

[SocialistDistortion]

Which is exactly why we need to get the hell out of Iraq as soon as we can in a safe manner. And I don't mean redeploying to Kuwait or Jordan or Turkey. I mean 160,000 American troops are in Iraq today, and 6 to 8 months from now, 160,000 troops are on American shores. Time for Iraq to step up to the plate and take care of themselves.

And I'm sure there will be posts here screaming for a return to the draft. Before you go down that road, ask yourself this: Would you solve an unpopular war by ESCALATING it? By FORCING young people from their homes to their deaths? Could you live with that on your conscience (if you indeed have a conscience to begin with)? I know I couldn't. Most people who will call for a return to conscription fall into one of the following categories:

1 - They themselves have never spent a single day in the military, and are now too old to do so.

2 - They have no kids

3 - If they do have kids, their kids are either newborn babies (in the hopes that this problem will be solved by the time their kids reach 18), or their kids are over 30.

No matter what your politics are...those who will never have to worry about killing or getting killed will always scream the loudest for others to kill and die.

It's like the old saying goes - "better you than me"

[LeftRight]

It's been said since the "surge" began that our Army and Marines would run out of men and women sometime around spring this year. After that time, we would need to cut our troop levels down, or our military would begin to collapse. In September, when we heard that we would begin drawing down our troops around spring this year, the reasons were apparent to anyone, including the moron currently in office. Now, I know for a fact, and so do all of you, that this man is going to renege on his promise to our troops. And our troops are going to answer back to him. Once he comes out and says, "sorry, guys, but you're screwed," they are going to simply shut down. You will see many mutinies, and a throwback to the Vietnam days, a lot of fragging going on. There will be desertions (not mass by normal measures, but compared to the standard the military currently sees....) and we will be unable to sustain even pre-surge levels.

Eventually, if we attempt to stay the course, our military will have to either resort to a draft, or shut down, cause they won't have the men and women to fight anymore.