The fact that repeated deployments are killing our military is nothing new, but it hit home for a few of us last week. Like many urban twentysomethings with privileged upbringings, this war has demanded next to nothing from my peer group -- if it had, we might not have such a flaccid anti-war movement among us.
Not knowing anyone who had served on the ground, I and many others found gripping, chilling accounts of daily life as a soldier in Iraq reading Colby Buzzell's blog My War, one of the best and most widely read blogs coming out of Iraq.
Buzzel is being redeployed for a second tour in Iraq three years after leaving the army. He mused about his possible obituary in a heartbreaking op-ed in the San Francisco chronicle last week, which inspired this week's song The Second Time Around.
Max and the Marginalized are a band and a blog. They do a song every week on the Huffington Post, all of which are available for download here. Add them on Facebook.
Click the play button below to listen:
The Second Time Around
Write the info on the luggage tags
Loop the elastic through the handle on the bag
They say it ain't that bad, it ain't a folded flag
If that counts for something
400 some-odd days behind, they might not be over
The flipping calendar in mind, July through October
It's an awful lot of time, does that count for something?
And some might say that they signed up for that
When they wrote their names on down
And it's bad enough to readjust to the silence in this town
They'll keep jumping up the ante, in for a penny, in for a pound
The bombs get louder the second time around
400 some-odd days ahead, so much for high hopes
There's things they'd rather do instead, they're stretched like a tightrope
They say they planned ahead, but you know and I know
No one signed up for that when they wrote their names on down
And it's bad enough to readjust to the silence back in this town
They'll up the ante, in for a penny, in for a pound
The war gets slower the second time around
Follow Max and the Marginalized on Twitter: www.twitter.com/maxmarginal
in the year I have been listening to your band, I have seen you get more and and more talented.The song you did this week is slower, which I like actually because it shows what a cute little accent you have. The videos are a nice touch as well. They kind of have a vintage scooby do type look
to them.
Please stop doubting yourself and keep playing you are good at what you do.
Sincerely PUNKY/A.K.
A Kristy
Then, he forced an illegal reduction in recuperation time between too-long deployments, made it possible for soldiers to be redeployed more than once in a year, stripped funding from military defensive developments, military hospitals, and the VA en toto;
and did so with the full knowledge that such frequent and lengthy deployments severely reduce troop effectiveness and alertness, exponentially increase the likelihood of PTSD, suicide, and other mental and emotional problems, put too great a strain on the military so that it ceases tobe effective, destroy soldiers' families and jobs back home, contribute to increased disability and decreased functionality when out of the military, and incapacitate a volunteer-filled military while simultaneusly making people less likely to join in replenishment of the losses.
2. The same intellegence chief who advised Clinton advised Bush. No human intelligence anymore? Whose watch was it when that happened?
3. 911 happened. It wasn't a "conspiracy" according to Bill Clinton and although it could have been prosecuted better, our country hasn't been attacked since Bush reacted. How many times were our ships and embassies and the world trade center attacked on Bill's watch?
4. Now you want to put not only a weak democratic president but a pandering Congress back into the White House?
this is such hogwash. How many times per day are american interest in Iraq currently attacked? 20? 30? You can't count the U.SS. Cole and teh US embassy as an attack against americans and tehn ignore the dozens if not hundreds of daily attacks. All Bush did was line up our american's, paint bullseyes on them and giftwarp them and then deliver them to teh terrorists back yard to make it easier and less expensive for the terorrists to attack. Bush has had an attack on a level with the U.S.S. Cole on a daily basis since 2003. Whereas Clinton had about 4 attacks on U.S. interests in 8 years, Bush has managed a few thousand per year.
1. A Democrat was president during that time, but it was Cheney, as Secretary of defense in 1990, and Rumsfeld, as Secretary of Defense under Bush, who "gutted" your military, wanting a "smaller, leaner, faster fighting force." Just because something happens during teh same time doesn't prove causality. Check your facts before you make false accusations.
2. The "intelligence" was cooked, and even the Intelligence Community affirms this. Any "intelligence" that didn't support the Bush Administrations foregone conclusion was suppressed or changed.
3. Out country hasn't been attacked since 9/11 ... and you assert that is "proof" that the measures work? Again, let me direct your attention to my previous statement about "proving Causality." I started a new job shortly after 9/11 and we haven't been attacked. By your logic, *I* am responsible for this "secure" period.
BTW, your argument is particularly disengenuous when you try to work the same conclusion from opposite situations. No attacks = Proof security is working. Attacks = Proof we need additional security. Such arguments are dishonest and unproven.
4. No, quite the opposite: We want to remove a weak president and continue removing a pandering Congress. HTH.
Rumsfeld ,and Cheney were both in the Nixon Administration.
and Who made all of the money Dredging the rivers of Viet Nam and building bases ?
That's Right Kellogg,Brown and Root
A division of Halliburton
Please pass the sushi.
second point, in Buzzel's blog post he say in part: "But now, thanks to not enough Americans volunteering for military service..."
This is an incorrect assumption. Following a trend, Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force enlistment quotas were met or exceeded last month (some were huge). So what he points to is in addition to normal full staffing... can you think of a reason the military needs more than their enlistment quotas?
When the drum beats this loudly for additional war, you have to pay attention. When the rattle of sabers drown out your 150 db speakers, you should start making plans. You may get your "draft dream" after all. Take to the streets.
alienated in Seattle