5 Days After Army Offers $35k-12 Army Officers Give Bushco "The Collective Finger"

[kpete]

Army Offers Captains $35K; Captains Give Blistering Response
by Brandon Friedman
Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 02:05:58 AM PDT

On October 11, just five days ago, the Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had authorized the Army to offer bonuses of up to $35,000 to keep captains from leaving the service.

Today, on October 16—just five days later—12 former Army captains (all Iraq veterans) responded by advocating for a withdrawal from Iraq:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101500841.html

There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.

America, it has been five years. It's time to make a choice.

Now, most Republicans will call this "defeatism." Rush will call this "phoniness." And Frederick Kagan will likely call this "short-term thinking."

I call this "the Army giving the collective finger."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/16/43813/628

[jojo54]

1. Don't care which repug it is calling this whatever they want to call it....

I call it "money dosen't buy anything & everything" as the repugs like to think. A life can't be bought back. Period. End of story.

[gratuitous]

2. I quit a job . . .

A couple of years ago, I was in a job where I was being underpaid, unappreciated, and that was killing my soul a little bit each day. In other words, nothing like being a soldier in a combat zone, but not a very good position nevertheless.

We had a judgment on appeal waiting to be confirmed and that I calculated would bring me a bonus of about $100,000 if and when it was finalized. I thought about my situation, and the likely timing of the appellate judgment, and concluded that it wasn't enough. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that the Army found a lot of its soldiers reach the same conclusion for a worse job and a lower bonus.