Wonder if this Marine will be in deep trouble once

[rodeodance]

he is identified!


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2147052,00.html

Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis

Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
Sunday August 12, 2007
The Observer

US marines asleep at their base in Falluja, Iraq
US marines asleep at their base in Falluja, Iraq. Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty images

[rodeodance]

1. sorry, I can uplift the pic but worth a click.

[TexasProgresive]

3. here's the pic-

[rodeodance]

4. Thank you

[Karenina]

5. Poor baby...

:cry:

[MissMarple]

2. "Fatigue Cripples US Army in Iraq" This administration and their supporters are insane.

"When he emerges from his naps there is something old and paper-thin about his skin, something sketchy about his movements as the days go by.

The Americans he commands, like the other men at Sullivan - a combat outpost in Zafraniya, south east Baghdad - hit their cots when they get in from operations. But even when they wake up there is something tired and groggy about them. They are on duty for five days at a time and off for two days. When they get back to the forward operating base, they do their laundry and sleep and count the days until they will get home. It is an exhaustion that accumulates over the patrols and the rotations, over the multiple deployments, until it all joins up, wiping out any memory of leave or time at home. Until life is nothing but Iraq.

Hanna and his men are not alone in being tired most of the time. A whole army is exhausted and worn out. You see the young soldiers washed up like driftwood at Baghdad's international airport, waiting to go on leave or returning to their units, sleeping on their body armour on floors and in the dust.

Where once the war in Iraq was defined in conversations with these men by untenable ideas - bringing democracy or defeating al-Qaeda - these days the war in Iraq is defined by different ways of expressing the idea of being weary. It is a theme that is endlessly reiterated as you travel around Iraq. 'The army is worn out. We are just keeping people in theatre who are exhausted,' says a soldier working for the US army public affairs office who is supposed to be telling me how well things have been going since the 'surge' in Baghdad began."

[lyonn]

6. When ever I read how miserable it is over there, only certain words

come to mind, "bush is a sick SOB....

Today one of my grandkids friends, (great kid) 19 when he left, now 20, is supposed to leave Iraq Today!!! I am holding my breath. He logged onto his web site yesterday. He never post anything, must just read comments from his friends. Then guilt creeps all over me for those that have been extended to 15 months! We treat a stray dog better than that.

[MissMarple]

7. My son,age 20, lost a friend last week.

The officers at his memorial service said he was a true casualty of war. they thought a lot of him. He was a medic. He shot himself...he had been called back up. In his first go around, in "Iraq", he was not sure where they were, they all were guessing Iran. This is in 2003. His chemical detection unit had been disbanded, he was home. He was called back. His current assignment and training was with psychological operations. He just wanted to help people. I don't think psyops actually does that. My heart is breaking for his mother, for his friends. May George Bush, and all who support him, rot in hell. For the grace of god, have mercy. But, right now, I'm a bit lacking in the mercy department.