High Reenlistments in Iraq from Stop-Loss Order

posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:11 AM Permalink

It just sickens me every time our gasbag president and his sycophantic puppet generals tell the public that, "The soldiers in Iraq know what they are fighting for, why, and that is the reason the Army has a very high retention/reenlistment rate of soldiers in Iraq."

It's way past time to call B.S. on another bush maladministration propagandist lie, courtesy of a young man that grew up with my son, enlisted a couple of years ago, and is now stationed in Iraq with a stop-loss order preventing his departure from the Army. He's a very bright young man and I always thought of him as my son's brother and a member of our family; he is as honest as the day is long and such an honorable man that lying, unlike bush, doesn't come natural to him and it is something from which he refrains. In fifteen plus years neither my son nor his friend ever lied to me, even when they knew they were in deep doo-doo (kids will be kids).

He (an enlisted man whom I won't jeopardize by naming) called from Iraq the other night and told my son he had reenlisted. When my son asked him why, he stated that authorities there made it perfectly clear that he would not be released from the military for the duration of the war…uh…occupation, and the reason so many reenlisted was the realization they were going to be in Iraq and forced to stay in the Army anyway, so they might as well re-up and take the big bonuses the military is paying to keep people in service.

So it appears that they sucker our young into enlisting, then make it impossible to leave after the two year period for which they signed up and, after being browbeaten while living and warring constantly in Iraq they offer you these two choices:

1.-You are going to stay here for as long as the Army wants to keep you regardless of what you think or do, so
2.-Since you're going to be in a lot longer than another two years anyway you might as well reenlist and take the bonus.

Given such a Hobson's choice it is no small wonder so many of these kids reenlist since they are trapped anyway.

But the next time bush and the sycophants start playing this tune of "high reenlistment in Iraq from loyalty and understanding the seriousness of this war," listen carefully to how they parse the words and look behind the lies to see the real facts and know the truth.

Labels: Bush, war