Now, look. I’m not afraid to go back. I’ve been there twice already. But I have it easy. I’m not on the ground facing the day in-day out strain and stress of fighting an insurgency. I’m also in school, so I don’t have to look my boss in the eye and tell him/her that I have to go away for another year. In that respect I am fortunate.
But this, not only is it breaking the implied contract that the Reserves/Guard has always had (we are Reserves, not Active Duty), it is actually breaking the law, depending upon how you interpret it.
This war has been devastating to our country, to over 3,000 of our citizens, and to me personally in many respects. It has threatened to rip apart the social fabric of our country. It has threatened to destroy all that we stand for. And now we are going to use an ambiguity in the law to break the contract we have with our soldiers.
You know, when this started I never imagined that it would come to this. One thing that I am sure of, though, is that something has to give. I believe that we, the military, have given quite enough. Some have given even more than that. What I want to know is this: when will my government stop taking?
Despite everything that’s been said over the last few years about supporting the troops, I think nobody cares less about them than the leadership of this country. They’re being used, and it’s shameful. Even considering all the dishonesty we’ve seen in this war, this is pretty despicable.
When Bush and his friends are out of power. These are the same people who back during Vietnam had no problem at all sending other people to die for their lost cause.
Something that excerpt made me think of. A story told to me by a specialist in “cross-cultural training” (and she was very good).
My experience with Americans is that they have more of a tendence to be “now” people than other cultures. “Action men” are highly valued, often without regard to the quality of the action; all that matters is that they act fast. There are situations when this is good, but when faced with an oponent whose idea of “recent events” is 500 years… not good at all.
By Reed’s analysis, the way people in Iraq are working (and they have to work like this or revolt) is “letting the urgent distract you from the important”.
I know nothing of the reserve. What do you consider the terms of the “implied contract”? I cannot imagine signing up for military service based on anything implied.
As I said, I know nothing about the reserves or applicable law, and haven’t researched it. But as someone who practices federal administrative law, if the statute says 24 consecutive months, then that should control over most - if not all - “statements of departmental policy.” Policy may have been to cap it at 24 months total - which might be less than authorized by statute. But the Department should be free to amend their internal policy so long as it remains consistent with the statute.
It seems to me that if someone signs up to serve in the reserves, they should be crystal clear as to the most that could be demanded of them. I think the past couple of decades created the impression that the reserves were less demanding duty than they actually can be if an administration wishes to really fuck things up.
In response to Mellivora capensis, I reference an interview with a statesman of some stripe that I heard yesterday on the radio. He rather candidly admitted that the thought of mutiny is one of the (many) reasons the word ‘draft’ doesn’t come up. An all-volunteer army has a higher esprit-de-corps, and a much lower risk of ‘accidentally’ shooting an officer in the back.
Yikes, I haven’t thought about mutiny. Despite how piss-poor this war’s aftermath was planned, I never thought that our soldiers would do that, and I still don’t. That it’s even mentioned is a failure of sorts. It should never even come close to that. That’s not who we are.
Anyway, this Administration has really sewn some bad seeds. This goes beyond ideology. I have never seen the talking and the walking so disparate.
My heart goes out to the reservists and guardsmen. They and their families are suffering because of Bush’s quagmire. To paraphrase John Kerry, exactly what do you say to the family of the last person to die for a mistake? These poor souls are going over to risk their lives for a cause that everybody but Bush knows is lost.
No one could have been more certain than I that GW would make a horrible mess, but I admit to being taken aback at how really good at it he has proven to be.
I wonder what would happen if the Governors of states like Oregon, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, etc. would just refuse to allow their National Guards to be deployed. It would set up a great constitutional crisis.
I agree that it’s a dispicable state of affairs. The Reserve should be just that – an emergency reserve to be drawn upon in times of crisis. And the National Guard should also be just that – a national militia that can be called up for natural disasters or internal unrest.
But here we are, almost four years into this mess, and the President is running the war like it started with a surprise attack three weeks ago! All of the funding for the war is done through emergency appropriations, not as part of the real budget. And the Reserve and the National Guard are being treated as through they’re part of the regular army.