I am talking to a soldier friend

[Mortos]

right now and I am seriously depressed by listening to my friend blow off steam about what has happened to our armed forces because of Bush's unnecessary war. She is demoralized by the actions of our President and is telling me how bad moral is in her unit. According to her, most people in her unit are trying to get out. Retention is at an all time low. If it wasn't for the stop loss order in effect keeping our troops in against their will, we would be fucked.

Bush is responsible for this mess and he must be defeated. I am sick of witnessing my friend's deteriorating moral and disillusionment with the military she formerly loved. She is depressed and I understand why. She transports patients from an out of country hospital to treatment facilities within the US. She wonders if the chicken hawks in this government would be as gung ho for war if they unloaded from C130's and C17's and C140's the 70 injured soldiers 3 times a week like she has and you look into the eyes of young men and women on respirators, without arms and legs, with gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

She loves her job and she loves this country. But she hates what has happened to her unit and her compatriots. She hates the fact that we went to war based on lies. She wants to help her fallen comrades and she is rewarded by the fact that she takes care of our injured soldiers and she has the ability to make their suffering more bearable.

She has been in just under 4 years and she has been twice deployed to combat zones and once in an "other than combat zone" in support of Iraqi freedom. She is a reservist and she is going back in early next year to serve again in Iraq again. Her entire unit is on "stop loss" orders.

She also happens to be gay so she is serving a country and a president who overtly attacks her lifestyle and tries to limit her right to equal treatment under the law. If she dies in combat, her spouse receives nothing, no visit from the military. No death benefit. Nothing. She is a true patriot. She is a real American.

Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfield, Mr. Ashcroft, Ms. Rice, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Powell on behalf of my friend...go fuck yourself.

[Renew Deal]

1. That's a moving post.

Thanks for posting this. I find it outragous that a gay person can die for this country if they don't tell anyone, but they can't have equal rights otherwise.

[HuskerDem]

2. I would stand up and let my rainbow flag fly HIGH

if I were her. Nobody is safe in this administration. God bless and keep her. I hope your friend comes home to enjoy a long life with her spouse.

[Mortos]

4. Thanks

I will let her know. I am going to forward the original post and all replies to her.

[NMDemDist2]

3. my sentiments exactly go fuck off you rat bastards n/t

[opihimoimoi]

5. As this unfolds, 2000 of Hawaii Nat Guard gears up for Iraqi deployment

People are sick of this unneccessary shit... all for the money to Bushies friends... there is no hiding that...

[Robbien]

6. What also worries me is that we need these guys, now more than ever

We have so many people angry at us now. People whose only recourse is to strike at soft targets. We need our Guard and Reserves here at home and in good moral spirits.

So BushCo has Cheney'd them in pay and benefits and has Cheney'd us by leaving us less protected.

Please thank your friend for me. I am glad to know the wounded are being taken care of by people such as your friend.

[vetwife]

7. This is exactly what I have been saying about learning today

They are duped with no end in sight. Iraq has become their Vietnam and Fallujah is their Hamburger Hill. It IS AFFECTING VETS and active military ! Trust me !

[Cleita]

8. We need more posts like this.

They are ancedotal but this is how the truth will rise up and through the propaganda muck.

[jobycom]

9. Good post, thanks

I've been in a funk today because a friend at work told me his son is going to Iraq in August. He's in the National Guard. This friend is the only liberal (really moderate) at my work. My friend's opposition to Bush just got really personal.

Aside from the personal side, what got me was this: This soldier is full time National Guard. He's got active duties that are rather important. Now he's being sent to a region that we supposedly pulled out of. Who does what he was doing before?

We as a nation are in more serious danger than we know.

[northofdenali]

10. What a moving post, Mortos.

I will keep your friend in my thoughts. I'm glad you've joined us on DU.

[faithnotgreed]

11. sending prayers. we are all part of this, have to speak up & stay together

may i ask if she has family at home she can turn to? does she or other soldiers she knows of need anything - maybe letters or packages or something to lift morale? i know this isnt much but can certainly go a long way for those who dont have some support from home

and may i ask - how do they feel when theres so much opposition here? opposition to the war and opposition by the wh to truly supporting them and telling them the truth

you hear all the time that we are demoralizing the troops and i was wondering how they feel.

i hope they feel loved along with everything else. we are against this war (even chris matthews spoke out tonight given todays senate report) but no one is against the troops

[Sugarbleus]

12. Your closing line is VERY, VERY well stated!!

This is the type of news that tears my heart out and makes me more than livid!!!!!!!!!!!

Many in my family served in the military. We are extra sensitive to what your friend is going through and what our service people are going through.

Please tell your friend she is very much loved and appreciated by so many of us who understand what she's dealing with. She is a true American and Patriot. I bless her for all she does. I just wish that she, and those soldiers she looks after, didn't have to be in the situation they find themselves in. It is a scandal and an outrage and I, for one, WILL NEVER FORGET.

Peace~~~~

[NJCher]

13. your friend

Keep on being a good friend, Mortos. The best thing you can do for your friend is be a good listener.

And thanks for the insights on what it's like in the military now. We get so little news about what it's really like to be stuck there, now that they have implemented stop-loss. But it is something I think of all the time. As long as our country is putting our fellow citizens in harm's way unnecessarily, it will continue to hang around us like a cloud.

Here's an example of how such thoughts never really go away.

A couple days ago I had prepared an organic spray for some pests that are attacking my shrubs, trees and other garden plants. I had been spraying for almost two hours when I ran into a serious infestation. At this point I lost it and sprayed like a madwoman.

All of a sudden I stopped and thought, "Wow, imagine if you were in Iraq and you were perceiving a danger to your life instead of just your trees and plants!! Could you lose it and just shoot at anything that moved? It's the little things like that I curse bush for every day. He has not just devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, he has altered the existence of us all--each and every one of us who thinks and cares about fellow human beings.

Every night at 6:41 I sit down and cry a river over this war. Why 6:41? Because that's the time when CBS Evening News takes a couple minutes to talk about a "fallen hero." They show a picture and tell about the person and his or her interests. Whether there are a wife/husband and children. I refuse to turn away, even though avoidance might make my life a little less sad and traumatic.

It angers me deeply that under our present system, your friend's significant other would be without benefits. There is just so, so much wrong with this picture.


Cher

[CRK7376]

19. That next to last paragraph

has me choked up some....I'm currently stationed overseas without my family, and dont't get to see CBS, so to hear that they are showing a "Fallen Hero" story...gets to you....I'm in a profession that I love and serve faithfully. I've been there with the fallen heros and will probably end up going back again...I loathe bush and his cronies...so thank you for taking a few minutes daily to watch CBS and the Fallen Heros...

[Mari333]

14. amen.

the troops are at the lowest low they could be. Michael says they are watching F 9/11 there, in Iraq, and he knew this war was a fraud from the getgo..a lot of them are waking up..they are sticking by their friends right now, and they want to come home...
Bush and his policies have destroyed our military, completely and utterly destroyed it in no time flat.
No one wants to join or enlist, and people wont go back in.
Bush and his friends dont care..they would send the Boy Scouts if they could, like Hitler did at the end of his war..sending in 12 yr old kids to fight.
Tyrants like Bush dont care about the soldiers. They are meaningless to him and his friends.

[sherrem]

16. long rant

My sister's best friend is in the Guards. She returned from Iraq a month or so ago. Interestingly enough she is under house arrest right now for her second underage drinking escapade (committed before she was deployed). Old enough to die for your country, not old enough to drink.

I digress...she said upon arriving in Iraq many of her fellow soldiers fully supported the war, and Bush. Something I find extremely creepy is, that many of these soldiers referred to Bush as "dad". "We are fighting this war for our dad, don't speak against our dad". Anyway, after being there for 6 months, she said not one of those soldiers plans to vote for Bush in November. She went to bed every night bawling, not because she was homesick, not because she didn't want to die, but because the longer she (and all of them) was there, they grew increasingly aware they didn't know WHY they were there, and felt like they weren't wanted there.

Women in her Company were not allowed off the base for fear of being raped. The men were told, and I quote directly from her, "don't shake hands with the men, they use their hands to wipe their asses". She and her company were mearly bodies in the desert. They didn't do any "reconstructing", didn't see any combat. They dug themselves a pond to swim in and played playstation all day long.

She was literallly released from jail (the underage drinking thing) to serve in Iraq, and immediately upon returning, placed back there until she was able to get her sentence reduced to house arrest. That just seems so messed up to me.

These soldiers need to speak up. They need to tell the world what they saw. I feel republicans especially, are totally detached from what our soldiers are going through--and for what? Whether they are seeing combat, reconstructing, or "just" a body in the desert, they need to tell their stories to make aure this war comes home for all the people who think this thing makes sense.

On a side note, my husband was in the Army for 8 years, and was discharged in 2001. While speaking to my republican aunt about the situation, voicing my concerns for my husband who may or may not be ripped away from his civilian life to fight in a war he does NOT support, and for a president he does NOT support, she told me "don't worry". Don't worry? If this jerk off is re-elected, I can kiss my "I served my time in the Army" husband good bye. When I asked her why she supported this war, she told me "just because". So if my husband is shipped off to Iraq, and our 4 children ask why their daddy has to leave my response should be "just because"? All the soldiers coming home in caskets or coming home missing arms and legs lost their lives and limbs for the republican justification of "just because"?!

These soldiers need to know we support them whole heartedly, and that we wish they weren't fighting this war anymore than they do.

[Mari333]

17. Good rant, and right on

this reminds me of Vietnam...when the soldiers started coming home FUBAR and dead to the small towns, and everyone knew someone who was over there, thats when people started changing their minds..
Its hard for me to believe the US public bought this whole stinking lie of a war from the beginning..I had hoped they would have learned by now..I guess not..
(((hugs)))
and welcome to DU..one of the only places where the soldiers and their families are treated with decency and dignity.
http://www.mfso.org
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com

[Qanisqineq]

23. Mari --

are they really able to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 over in Iraq? If so, how? If they can, this will blow my husband's mind!

[davsand]

15. Blessings on your friend and all our people serving right now.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't damn Bush and his regime for the death, sorrow and pain they have brought to the world--and to people like your friend in the service. I can only hope that one day justice for all will be a reality--either in its mercy or its anger.

Brightest blessing to your friend, her partner and family, and all who have been hurt by bush.

Laura

[Tsiyu]

18. But, but....

"Nobody cares about Iraq anymore."

Neil Boortz

Friday July, 9, 2004

http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html



Only imagine the descriptions: "...on respirators, without arms and legs, with gunshot and shrapnel wounds."

So we could secure an oil ministry building and the oil itself, so Cheney's buddies at Halliburton can commit yet another of the seven deadly sins.

And Cheney wouldn't stand there watching these fellow Americans for even a second. He just says "Go F*** yourself"

Nobody cares about Iraq anymore. And some very powerful, well connected demi-Gods are making a whole lot of money. They would tell your friend, Mortos, to just shut up. "And go...." You finish the sentence. I'm too sick.

[Arianrhod]

20. "If it wasn't for the stop loss order in effect keeping our troops in...

against their will, we would be fucked."

Which is why, of course, there is a stop-loss order in the first place.

I don't talk about my son's unit, but the one he's just PCSed to came back from Iraq around the same time his other one did. (He was with the first wave back then.) We were afraid that his new one would be rotated back this year. A little investigation revealed that when this unit returned, and the stop-loss was lifted for them, so many members got out of the Army that now they need my son just to help man the base. As a result, it's highly unlikely that he'll find himself once again living in the basement of a palace in Baghdad any time soon.

* is destroying the military.

[calimary]

21. Welcome to DU, Mortos. Our prayers are with you AND your friend.

I'm glad you'll be sending this to her. She needs to know she's not alone, and not without support. We who protested and wrote and emailed and phoned and faxed and petitioned to stop the war - failed on that score, but we didn't give up. As time goes on, there is more and more proof that WE were correct, and the chickenhawks - ballsy enough to send your friend and so many other people's loved ones to war, but too quick to run and hide and offer excuses when THEY had a chance to prove their own love of country - were WRONG!!!

Your last line? I feel like I must mumble that to myself 30,000 times a day. Please tell your friend that she and her colleagues, fellows, and loved ones, are all in our prayers. Let her know that she and everyone she works with and suffers with have NOT been forgotten, and are VERY MUCH cherished. We're STILL doing everything we can to get our fellow Americans OUT OF THERE, and get bush and his thug pals OUT OF THERE, TOO! Come to think of it, it might be nice if these two groups switched places...

[bleowheels]

22. She and all of the troops need to get with us and vote...

Bush out of office.