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America's Broken-Down Army »
Posted by: Karina 2 years, 8 months agoFor most Americans, the Iraq war is both distant and never ending. For Private Matthew Zeimer, it was neither.
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Karina
Karina Longworth blogs about film at Spout.com. She co-founded the film blog Cinematical in March 2005, whilst simultaneously completing an MA in Cinema Studies ...
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Comments: 355
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time4change
April 5, 2007, 12:58 p.m.This situation is deplorable !! Where did the billions and billions and billions of taxpayer's money go ?? Certainly not to our troops !! The $$ has gone and will go to line the pockets of Halliburton (Cheney), private industry/companies with no bid contracts with US and "payoffs" to Iraqi leaders we use as puppets !! AND BUSH WANTS MORE $$$$ !! STOP THIS INSANITY NOW !! Support our troops and bring them home !! Congress should cut off the funds forcing them home....things in Iraq will never change despite $$ and the blood of our children/spouses !!
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bacalaoyplatano
April 5, 2007, 1:11 p.m.While some of us disagree with this war, to blame this administration for these problems, its ridiculous. The author has to know that previous administrations were responsible for the lack of personnel, yet all the blame goes to Bush.
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Justice4All
April 5, 2007, 1:20 p.m.Place the blame where it belongs. Bush and only the Bush administration is responsible for the lies. I fault the Democrats for not taking a stronger stand against this nonsense and will not vote for anyone who stood with bush on this.
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bacalaoyplatano
April 5, 2007, 1:32 p.m.Go back in history and look at what your hero, Clinton, did to the military. You'll see he left us very ill equipped to fight any war.
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walden3
April 5, 2007, 1:40 p.m.this is sad. all the more reason a commander and chief and the people who blindly follow him need to be more cautious of sticking our noses where it doesn't belong.
there always seems to be enough funds for the big ticket high tech items that go to the corp welfare defense contractors and never enough for clean water, vests, armor, bullets that drop bad guys and good food.
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bonaroo
April 5, 2007, 2:33 p.m.What do you expect from a broken down administration. I remember Rumsfelds words, "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had".
It must be tough to scrape by on 100 billion dollars a year.
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joeblowe
April 5, 2007, 3:03 p.m.I've never really agreed with the practice of reducing the military whenever a conflict was "over." Reduce the ACTIVE military, maybe, but keep the reserves of trained personnel high enough to fill it out quickly at need. Let's face it, history clearly indicates that there is always another one coming. And -- the further down the road we go, there are more people and fewer resources so I have to expect there are going to be MORE conflicts - not fewer. I do think we should keep developing more and better weapons though. As there are more and more people available all over the world to try and kill us through the use of enormously large armies, we will have to kill more of them, faster if we want to prevail. China comes to mind.
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xlegultx
April 5, 2007, 3:10 p.m.Iraq is a black hole which Americans keep on trying to fill with soldiers and money. All our money being sent there is being taken by corrupt Iraqi officials.
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Balitri
April 5, 2007, 3:18 p.m.time4change, If you completely cut off the funds, there won't be money to return...effectively leaving 150,000 (give or take)behind. I'm not saying that I support or don't the administration in their decisions, but I have supported the war effort. There will never be enough training / money / equipment to keep our fellow soldiers out of harms way short of a nuclear bomb. Like I've said before and I agree with BoBo somewhat. Either stay the course (and build permanent bases like the ones in the Balkans or Korea) or just cut bait and leave all together. So long as the now dead Hussein is out, we've done our part and more. Please reply all that you want, but please no extremist BS please (either Right wing or Left).
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bubba2
April 5, 2007, 3:32 p.m.From the article --
It was Bush, on the eve of the 2000 election, who promised "to all of our men and women in uniform and to their parents and to their families, help is on the way."
So it is no small irony that today's U.S. Army finds itself under the greatest strain in a generation. The Pentagon made that clear April 2 when it announced that two Army units will soon return to Iraq without even a year at home, compared with the two years units have traditionally enjoyed. One is headed back after 47 days short of a year, the other 81. "This is the first time we've had a voluntary Army on an extended deployment," says Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who advises his old service. "A lot of canaries are dropping dead in the mine."
The main consequences of a tightly stretched Army is that men and women are being sent into combat with less training, shorter breaks and disintegrating equipment.
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bubba2
April 5, 2007, 3:34 p.m.Our country has never been in MORE jeopardy than it is now, because our military is SO stretched to the limit that it cannot react if a major disaster occurs.
The Bush administration has, in reality, made America even MORE vulnerable to terrorist attacks then we have EVER been.
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earthlover
April 5, 2007, 5:13 p.m.the solution is quite simple if the usa military is in such a bad state, first stop invading everybodies countries for no reason, secondly, simply close all the us bases in everybodies countries, i would be happy to see my country free of them and i am sure most of the rest of the world would be as well....
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NelsonR
April 5, 2007, 5:37 p.m.Now here's a happy thought. America taking care of our own and not attempting to meddle in other nations. This is called, ISOLATIONISM.
Now what would we gain by staying out of other countries business's,
Modernized military with the added benefit of nuclear deterent capabilities.
Diaster relief for the U.S. with our military always on alert for prompt response.
Border patrol assistance by our military in time of need.
Always ready, always alert, always on guard for attack.
But oh no, our present leaders want to dominate the worlds nations with our glorified and correct idiom upon all. Quite insane and ludicrous. The only benefactors for this corrupt policy is the elitist within America who put the almighty dollar above patriotism and security for America.
Bush is a puppet for these elitist within America, Cheney is a jerk who espouses wars yet refused to serve like Bush. Can America continue on this path with our present Representatives? I think not.
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BravoSierra
April 5, 2007, 6:10 p.m.lol...yes, "except for the troop situation."...lol.
Mission accomplishment and troop welfare.
That's it. There is no more.
Someone keeps getting confused: "Fancy toys, Big bucks for contractors."
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MonkeyBiz
April 5, 2007, 7:18 p.m.Blackbeard, The other branches felt like they couldn't trust you guys with anything complicated (just funnin' ya!) Welcome home!
I have nieces and nephews over in Iraq and a grandson in Ranger School (idjit!). I have heard none of them complain, but they are not happy with the stop-loss and extended tours either.
What we thought was pretty sophisticated stuff in Vietnam are like rocks and spears to today's army. I don't know about the Marines, they might still be using the same weapons you had in RVN.
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earthlover
April 5, 2007, 6:15 p.m.if america closed its bases outside america and recalled all its troops it would be better for usa as well as for the rest of the world....it would mean that america could defend its own borders and spend money where it is needed in the public sector....and europe would benefit as it would no longer be seen as a threat....winners all round
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Lisburn
April 5, 2007, 8:27 p.m.In a recent New York Times Magazine, hate Bush story, the Female soldier raped in Iraq was never in Iraq.
Was this guy killed in Iraq ?
Did this guy even exist ?
Prove it !!!
If the media told me the sun was never coming up again, I'd invest heavily in Coppertone.
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truthiness
April 5, 2007, 8:45 p.m.In December, for the first time, more troops surveyed disapproved of the President's handling of the war (42%) than approved of it (35%). Over the past two years, the number of troops surveyed who think victory is likely has fallen from 83% to 50%. Army suicides, an admittedly rough barometer of morale, show a steady increase, rising from 51 confirmed in 2001 to 91 (plus seven possible suicides still under investigation) last year. Desertions are climbing.
-Army Times
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truthiness
April 5, 2007, 8:48 p.m.At first I thought this was one of Ind06 's satires, then I hoped it was, then I accepted that it was real and became incredibly angry...the very people claiming setting an end date is bailing on our troops are the ones failing to fund the VA and now it turns out, failing to train and equip the troops properly for battle.
self serving, greedy, traitors. All the presidents men.
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almos_vagyok
April 5, 2007, 8:55 p.m.Have a look at http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTra...
The military spending by the USA is nearly half of the
total military spending in the world. So it is not that
the military is not financially supported in the US,
but it must be that the enormous support that the
country is willing to give to the military is used
for purposes other than the best defense of the country.
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JohnQPublicComment has been removed: User banned.
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royal-m
April 5, 2007, 10:23 p.m.I keep hearing from the pro-war crowd that anti Iraq war people are naive,...that somehow we want out of Iraq because it would makes us feel clean...We want to concentrate on Afghanistan because of emotional reasons...not the obvious logic that entails
one idiot columnist said that....Iraq he reasons is the logical way to bring peace to the region because we can show them how to live....We have to teach them our way ..blah blah blah....
It seems to me they are the naive ones...the ones with no logic on their side....They speak like Iraq was some kind of football game...they talk about winning and losing like they are at a pep rally and hey they are going to change the world by putting up MacDonalds....and baseball diamonds...build it and they won't bomb...yay
They want us to hold hands and sing the battle hymn of the republic while they continue to make illogical and immoral decisions and call all who oppose them cowardly..please
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