Ok, So I am really not trying to start a flame war on my first day back, not that I really would mind, just take it as it's meant, me letting off steam on my first day as a civillian again.
In the last year I have gone through quite a bit, some I'll talk about some I won't. I guess to begin with I must say I am disgusted that this nation has esentially forgotten that they have soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan. Iraq is so much at the forefront that it costs soldiers in Afghanistan not only notice, but funding, equipment and support from outside the theater. The draw down in Afghanistan was down to ten thousand troops not long after I got there, we are now at double that again, fighting has started up again on a regular basis, with foreign terrorists and old school (released) taliban making a come back. The situation in Afghanistan wasn't stablized by our going in their and fixing things, it was done so by our looking the other way at the drug trade, human rights violations, and the continuation of the fudal system of government that they have always had. Karzai, while I belive he wants to do the right thing, is esentially useless. The Taliban and the people that worked with them are still in a great many positions of power. >From my perspective we did enough there to pacify the US populace after 911, >and then moved on to GW's true goal, the ouster of Sadaam, and the >solidification of less free america. We have done it on the backs of the >American military. Extended deployments, under trained troops in combat >situations that they shouldn't be in (air force finance clerks doing convoy >security) improperly equipped soldiers, and finally mistreatment of the >soldiers they do have. By the end of next year every single member of the >reserves and national guard will have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. >My battalion has been alerted to an Iraq deployment next year. Most of them >are still in Afghanistan. There is still no end game, no solid goal or way >out of either situation. These people have dug a whole that there is no >getting out of. KBR charges $35 a plate for slop in our chow halls. They pay bus drivers $80,000 a year, and soldiers families are on food stamps and WIC. My son was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) while I was gone. There was no child shrink available for three months, so I have been going out of pocket to pay these medical costs. We were so undermanned that we could not send home people on emergency leave, one sgt had a son with lukemia and they made hime stay. Everyone there is done. The stat of virginia will be unable to field a battalion after this deployment, let alone the brigade it's supposed to have. I don't think people understand just how thin we are spread. So add to this the fact that this adminstration added the largest department ever (Homeland Security) is making intelligance services larger, took away civil rights (patriot). I am at a loss for words at this point. I need to time to think about what I believe and what we can do to fix things I guess. Thanx for listening. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:158464 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
