50,000 soldiers have been evacuated from Iraq so far. They are either
killed or severely injured. I believe 50,000 is a reasonable figure. If
the UK, that has its troops in relatively calm areas, has evacuated
3000 out of 8000, 38% of total troops. The US must have evacuated much
more from the triangle of death. The figure does not include
mercenaries of course. Mercenaries are either dumped in Iraqi rivers or
deserts.
Definition: a severely injured soldier is the one who cannot go back to
duty. The one who has become a living corpse or handicapped.
..
Uncle Sam Wants Your Kids - Now!
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=95&rnd=3.5426705716827267
By David H. Hackworth
We'll soon have 150,000 U.S. troops stuck in the ever-expanding Iraqi
quagmire, a number that will probably grow even larger before Iraq
holds elections presently scheduled for the end of January '05.
Maintaining such a force is a logistical and personnel nightmare for
every grunt in Iraq. And according to several Pentagon number
crunchers, it's also driving the top brass bonkers.
Meanwhile the insurgents continue cutting our supply lines and whacking
our fighting platoons and supporters, who attrit daily as soldiers and
Marines fall to enemy shots, sickness or accidents. Empty platoons lose
fights, so these casualties have to be replaced ASAP.
Since this tragic war kicked off in March 2003, the United States has
evacuated an estimated 50,000 KIA, WIA and non-battle casualties from
Iraq back to the States - leaving 50,000 slots that have had to be
filled.
The job of finding fresh bodies to keep our units topped off falls
mainly to the Army Recruiting Command. But the "making-quota" jazz
put out by the Recruiting Command and the Pentagon to hype their
billion-dollar recruiting effort, with its huge TV expenditure and big
expansion of recruiters during the past year, is pure unadulterated
spin. Not that this is anything new. The Command has a sorry reputation
for using smoke and mirrors to cover up poor performance.
"Hack, here's a snapshot of how little of our 1st Quarter mission
has been achieved," says an Army recruiter. "Look at it from a
perspective of a business releasing quarterly earnings information. To
keep unit manning levels up out in the field, especially in Iraq,
there's no question our recruiting mission is in serious trouble."
"These are totals for the 41 USAREC (Recruiting Command) Battalions,
so these stats represent the USAREC mission accomplishment:
Regular Army Volume (all RA contracts):
Mission: 25,322
Achieved: 12,703 (50.17 percent)
Army Reserve Volume:
Mission: 7,373
Achieved: 3,206 (43.48 percent)."
The Army National Guard is faring no better. A Guard retention NCO
says: "The word is out on the streets of Washington, D.C. 'Do not
join the Guard.' I see these words echoing right across the U.S.A."
By the end of this recruiting year, the Regular Army, Reserves and
Guard could fall short more than 50 percent of its projected
requirement, or about 60,000 new soldiers. And according to many
recruiters, quality recruits are giving way to mental midgets who have
a hard time telling their left foot from their right.
Shades of our last years in Vietnam.
"The bottom line is that Recruiting Command is in trouble," says
another recruiter with almost 30 years of service. "The Army has
re-instituted 'stop loss,' which is basically a backdoor draft.
They're stopping people from retiring or completing their enlistment
and leaving the Army. They do this fairly often, mostly in August and
September, depending upon how far behind they believe they'll be at
the end of September.
"I believe the Army will have to drastically change what they offer
to enlistees to overcome what's happening in Iraq. The war is ugly,
and not many kids want to enlist to be blown up."
Moms and dads are outraged about desperate Army recruiters on a
relentless campaign to sign up their teenagers. High-school kids are
actually running away from recruiters like they were George Romero's
living dead.
"Recruiters have called my son a minimum of 20 times in the two years
since he finished high school," a dad reports. "The phone calls
usually come in clusters. I answered five calls in a two- or three-week
span. Each time a recruiter calls, he receives the same polite,
respectful response from me or my son ... no interest, and please take
the name off the list. When asked why the name hasn't been removed,
excuses are made. While recruiters are brief with me, when my son is on
the phone, the sales tactics are clever, prolonged and very
high-pressure."
"I took the latest recruiting call. This time I also called the
supervisor at the local Army recruiting office, who's promised to
take his name off the list. She made excuses for the repeated calls
despite the fact that five calls were on her watch."
Unless a miracle happens and the new Iraqi security force decides to
stop running and start fighting, we'll be in Iraq for a long time.
Most likely with a draftee force.
-- Eilhys England contributed to this column.
..
Please help...
http://img30.exs.cx/img30/5844/1101605556.jpg
http://img64.exs.cx/img64/7022/83-1101605557.jpg
..
.
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| User: "Omega" |
|
| Title: Re: Urgent: Uncle Sam Wants Your Kids - Now! |
10 Dec 2004 09:07:46 PM |
|
|
In your dogmatic heat to make points, you over look several things.
The military is much smaller than it was during Vietnam. Back then one out
of three males served, now it is less than one out of a hundred. Due to the
smaller size of the military, standards have been increased. Thus fewer
individuals can now pass the entrance requirements.
Society is no longer as fit as it was in the 1960s (less farm boys and more
couch potatoes). Kids go to school longer but learn less than they did in
the '60s. Family break up and single parent moms have resulted in fewer
kids having self discipline or character.
And, so far, every aspect of the military has met recruitment quotas (except
for the National Guard but the Guard is really messed up and should be
disbanded).
"Daylight" <daylight80231@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1102614772.770764.171720@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
: 50,000 soldiers have been evacuated from Iraq so far. They are either
: killed or severely injured. I believe 50,000 is a reasonable figure. If
: the UK, that has its troops in relatively calm areas, has evacuated
: 3000 out of 8000, 38% of total troops. The US must have evacuated much
: more from the triangle of death. The figure does not include
: mercenaries of course. Mercenaries are either dumped in Iraqi rivers or
: deserts.
:
: Definition: a severely injured soldier is the one who cannot go back to
: duty. The one who has become a living corpse or handicapped.
:
: .
:
: Uncle Sam Wants Your Kids - Now!
:
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=95&rnd=3.5426705716827267
: By David H. Hackworth
:
: We'll soon have 150,000 U.S. troops stuck in the ever-expanding Iraqi
: quagmire, a number that will probably grow even larger before Iraq
: holds elections presently scheduled for the end of January '05.
:
: Maintaining such a force is a logistical and personnel nightmare for
: every grunt in Iraq. And according to several Pentagon number
: crunchers, it's also driving the top brass bonkers.
:
: Meanwhile the insurgents continue cutting our supply lines and whacking
: our fighting platoons and supporters, who attrit daily as soldiers and
: Marines fall to enemy shots, sickness or accidents. Empty platoons lose
: fights, so these casualties have to be replaced ASAP.
:
: Since this tragic war kicked off in March 2003, the United States has
: evacuated an estimated 50,000 KIA, WIA and non-battle casualties from
: Iraq back to the States - leaving 50,000 slots that have had to be
: filled.
:
: The job of finding fresh bodies to keep our units topped off falls
: mainly to the Army Recruiting Command. But the "making-quota" jazz
: put out by the Recruiting Command and the Pentagon to hype their
: billion-dollar recruiting effort, with its huge TV expenditure and big
: expansion of recruiters during the past year, is pure unadulterated
: spin. Not that this is anything new. The Command has a sorry reputation
: for using smoke and mirrors to cover up poor performance.
:
: "Hack, here's a snapshot of how little of our 1st Quarter mission
: has been achieved," says an Army recruiter. "Look at it from a
: perspective of a business releasing quarterly earnings information. To
: keep unit manning levels up out in the field, especially in Iraq,
: there's no question our recruiting mission is in serious trouble."
:
: "These are totals for the 41 USAREC (Recruiting Command) Battalions,
: so these stats represent the USAREC mission accomplishment:
:
: Regular Army Volume (all RA contracts):
:
: Mission: 25,322
:
: Achieved: 12,703 (50.17 percent)
:
: Army Reserve Volume:
:
: Mission: 7,373
:
: Achieved: 3,206 (43.48 percent)."
:
: The Army National Guard is faring no better. A Guard retention NCO
: says: "The word is out on the streets of Washington, D.C. 'Do not
: join the Guard.' I see these words echoing right across the U.S.A."
:
: By the end of this recruiting year, the Regular Army, Reserves and
: Guard could fall short more than 50 percent of its projected
: requirement, or about 60,000 new soldiers. And according to many
: recruiters, quality recruits are giving way to mental midgets who have
: a hard time telling their left foot from their right.
:
: Shades of our last years in Vietnam.
:
: "The bottom line is that Recruiting Command is in trouble," says
: another recruiter with almost 30 years of service. "The Army has
: re-instituted 'stop loss,' which is basically a backdoor draft.
: They're stopping people from retiring or completing their enlistment
: and leaving the Army. They do this fairly often, mostly in August and
: September, depending upon how far behind they believe they'll be at
: the end of September.
:
: "I believe the Army will have to drastically change what they offer
: to enlistees to overcome what's happening in Iraq. The war is ugly,
: and not many kids want to enlist to be blown up."
:
: Moms and dads are outraged about desperate Army recruiters on a
: relentless campaign to sign up their teenagers. High-school kids are
: actually running away from recruiters like they were George Romero's
: living dead.
:
: "Recruiters have called my son a minimum of 20 times in the two years
: since he finished high school," a dad reports. "The phone calls
: usually come in clusters. I answered five calls in a two- or three-week
: span. Each time a recruiter calls, he receives the same polite,
: respectful response from me or my son ... no interest, and please take
: the name off the list. When asked why the name hasn't been removed,
: excuses are made. While recruiters are brief with me, when my son is on
: the phone, the sales tactics are clever, prolonged and very
: high-pressure."
:
: "I took the latest recruiting call. This time I also called the
: supervisor at the local Army recruiting office, who's promised to
: take his name off the list. She made excuses for the repeated calls
: despite the fact that five calls were on her watch."
:
: Unless a miracle happens and the new Iraqi security force decides to
: stop running and start fighting, we'll be in Iraq for a long time.
: Most likely with a draftee force.
:
: -- Eilhys England contributed to this column.
:
: .
:
: Please help...
: http://img30.exs.cx/img30/5844/1101605556.jpg
: http://img64.exs.cx/img64/7022/83-1101605557.jpg
:
: .
:
.
|
|
|
| User: "jonque_publick" |
|
| Title: Re: Urgent: Uncle Sam Wants Your Kids - Now! |
11 Dec 2004 12:50:53 PM |
|
|
"Omega" <2121(d)@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:tutud.171551$5K2.116952@attbi_s03...
In your dogmatic heat to make points, you over look several things.
The military is much smaller than it was during Vietnam. Back then one
out of three males served, now it is less than one out of a hundred. Due
to the smaller size of the military, standards have been increased. Thus
fewer individuals can now pass the entrance requirements.
Society is no longer as fit as it was in the 1960s (less farm boys and
more couch potatoes). Kids go to school longer but learn less than they
did in the '60s. Family break up and single parent moms have resulted in
fewer kids having self discipline or character.
And, so far, every aspect of the military has met recruitment quotas
(except for the National Guard but the Guard is really messed up and
should be disbanded).
Just wait until they bring the draft back and force a shitload of cybergeeks
into uniform. Like kids with their fingers in the *****, the brass will need
more arms than a Hindu god to stop the hemorrhage of TRUTH from the front.
"(O)ne thing no one can control is the Net. Today there's a laptop in almost
every bunker, manned by grunts who are a whole lot smarter and faster than
their watchdogs. Which means that despite a hogtied press corps, we're
getting the unspun word from Iraq - and the news ain't good. The brass are
going nuts trying to stop this electronic tsunami of truth that's washing
over the land courtesy of a generation of sharp kids who've been armed with
computers since age 4. Kids who glory in staying three irrepressible steps
ahead of their minders via blogs, dummy ISP addresses and cute tricks like
sending e-mails to cutouts for forwarding to guys like me."
And when things finally get bad enough, it wouldn't surprise me at all if
Col. Hackworth just "disappeared" for "the duration", having been put under
house arrest in an undisclosed location in a vain attempt to shut him up
(Don't scoff. Interning "subversives" en masse was SOP during both World
Wars).
==================================================
Muzzling Soldiers Is Nothing New
By David H. Hackworth
Politicians and military commanders were lying about how wars were
progressing long before the sword and the shield first clashed. And the long
distances and delayed communications made censoring what was reported to
citizens no big stretch.
After all, from the Greek Wars to Gettysburg, it took months for letters and
casualty lists to travel by runner, boat, pony and finally, rail. By the
time the bad news arrived from the front, the dead were buried and the
battle long over.
But as war morphed from cannonballs to aircraft to missiles, communications
also zoomed along - from printing press, telegraph, radio, TV and satellites
to the Net.
Even so, the Thought Police headquartered in space-age offices in
Washington, D.C., are still trying to bend any and all information about
military campaigns. Our leaders know that in democratic America, they must
have popular support for their wars, and they won't keep it if folks start
to think we're losing and being lied to.
The propagandists' mantra seems to be the ancient Greek proverb, "In the
land of the blind, the one-eyed Cyclops rules the land." It's become
standard drill to keep the truth for the leaders' eyes only. Especially when
the real story is a downer.
During the Vietnam War, the Eddie Adams's, Kevin Buckleys, Joe Galloways and
hundreds of other daring young reporters brought us a blow-by-blow about
what was going on.
But after dealing with the fallout, Washington vowed that never again would
the press have so much access and freedom. And from Grenada to Panama to
Kuwait to the reporters embedded last year in Iraq, the Pentagon has been
into keeping the American people in the dark. For example, caskets are no
longer allowed to be photographed, the number of evacuees from war zones and
the causes behind any evacuations are now covered up, and reporters in
general are ever more carefully controlled.
But one thing no one can control is the Net. Today there's a laptop in
almost every bunker, manned by grunts who are a whole lot smarter and faster
than their watchdogs. Which means that despite a hogtied press corps, we're
getting the unspun word from Iraq - and the news ain't good.
The brass are going nuts trying to stop this electronic tsunami of truth
that's washing over the land courtesy of a generation of sharp kids who've
been armed with computers since age 4. Kids who glory in staying three
irrepressible steps ahead of their minders via blogs, dummy ISP addresses
and cute tricks like sending e-mails to cutouts for forwarding to guys like
me.
So the brass have reverted to the weapon they've used to silence warriors
since long before Caesar was running Rome: intimidation. The troops are
being warned: Shut up; and if you don't button it, you'll be drummed out of
the service.
Sgt. Al Lorentz wrote a piece from Iraq (See "A Sergeant Speaks the Hard
Truth," Special Reports, Sept. 30, 2004, SFTT.org). He now faces
disciplinary action for "disloyalty" and "insubordination." He could end up
with 20 years in the slammer if found guilty.
An officer in Iraq who has asked to remain anonymous says: "The
establishment here wants to present the picture that everything is A-OK when
it's too often not the case. Soldiers shouldn't be punished or made to feel
like they're disloyal, not part of the team, troublemakers, whiners,
dissenters, malcontents, etc., etc., just because they give somebody a true
sitrep on certain things going on over here. But sadly this is the case."
Then there's the personal attack on anyone with a point of view that's
different from the party line: You're un-American; or you're supporting the
enemy or not supporting the troops. The latest tactic is to say you're
sending out mixed messages that hurt troop morale.
But according to our soldiers in Iraq, this is just not true. They say their
morale is in the toilet because of how badly the war's been handled, not
because of what's being reported or debated by politicians.
"I resent the fascist-style approach that tries to paint any objection of
current policy as traitorous," says Ken Druhut. "I am a proud vet and
gratefully enjoy the freedoms that our military has provided. But this
Gestapo stuff has to stop."
Amen.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=87&rnd=106.0697020552272
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