Newsweek: Families Ask Why-Relatives of GIs in Iraq are speaking out

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/944662.asp

The women—wives of officers with the Third Infantry Division on duty in Baghdad—listened impatiently to the speeches at a “redeployment meeting” at the base. They all had the same question—when is my husband coming home?—but the Army had other messages.

HERE’S SOME OF the advice they received:
Don’t have too much beer in the fridge; he’s in no shape to get drunk.
Put away the sexy negligee; he probably won’t be in the mood.
Don’t have a list of chores waiting; he will be physically and emotionally spent.

“I found it a little galling,” says Jennifer Veale, married to a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. “They micromanage our husbands’ lives; why do they have to micromanage ours as well?”

--snip--

It didn’t work. The Pentagon’s public- relations effort, which had been masterful during the actual fighting, was beset last week by a ragtag insurgency of frustrated wives, anxious parents—and hot, thirsty, bored and disgruntled troops. In and out of uniform, military family members are speaking up—about the mounting casualties, the hardships of the occupation and, above all, the ever-lengthening deployments. History may record the killing of Saddam’s two sons as a turning point in the campaign, but it barely came up in dozens of conversations NEWSWEEK reporters had last week with military families. Neither did Jessica Lynch’s triumphant homecoming. For the relatives of service members in Iraq, the big news was that three soldiers from the 101st Airborne were killed Thursday in an ambush. On Saturday, three soldiers from the Fourth Infantry and a fourth from the Third Infantry were killed, bringing to at least 47 the number of combat deaths since May 1.

--snip--
...President George W. Bush’s bellicose challenge to “bring them on” played badly with military families, even gung-ho ones like Charles Hoffman, a former Army staff sergeant and Vietnam veteran. “If he were sitting in a Humvee getting his butt shot at,” says Hoffman, whose son Justin serves with the Fourth ID, “I don’t think he’d be saying something like that.”

[realFedUp]

1. love to see an original of what "advice" the Army is e-mailing out...

anyone have a copy?

[Cronus Protagonist]

6. Perhaps it's The Good Wife's Guide?

http://cronus.com/housewife


http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13 - cute little buttons
http://cronus.com - enlightening and educational liberal fun

[Voltaire99]

2. More free advice to military wives: prepare for domestic abuse

If the historical evidence is anything to go by, these homecomings will be marked by a spike in the already-high rates of military domestic violence as well as homicides and suicides.

Of course, as warlords such as George Bush or Joseph Lieberman might say, peace has a price...

www.joseph2004.org

[Forkboy]

3. Not just in Newsweak

The headline of our local paper (in Fitchburg,Ma pop. about 45,000) says,"Should US Troops Come Home?".

The families are getting restless,as well they should.

[Runesong]

7. Fitchburg?

Cool, I used to live there :)

[SpiralHawk]

10. Hey, I lived just north of the border

In New Ipswich, NH for 20 years. Helped install sprinkler fire protection system in Fitchburg City Hall -- but then that was maybe 30 years ago. Sheesh. This thread is making me feel old.

[Cha]

13. We're just older and wiser! Not "old" as in used up!

:toast: :kick:

[Forkboy]

15. I love NH

New Ipswich is a pretty place,as almost all of NH is...and you sell beer cheaper!! :)

[Forkboy]

14. It's actually nicer than it used to be in some ways

the downtown area is pretty much the same,but the outlying areas seem nicer,like people actually care about their property again.The job market,sadly,is as bad as always :-(

[ClintonTyree]

4. Wait until...................

they find out that they'll only be home for a short time and then be redeployed. If they think that they're coming home for good, they're sorely mistaken. The U.S. will have a military presence there for a minimum of 5 years, and given Bush's hesitance to involve the U.N. it will settle squarely on the shoulders of U.S. servicepeople. I imagine you'll see a mass quantity of soldiers not re-enlisting after this, and who the hell is going to want to join with this going on? Can you say "reinstate the draft"? I really feel for the husbands and wives of our servicepeople, Bush has lied and manipulated intelligence to get us into this war, now there is no exit strategy.

[aquart]

5. There wasn't supposed to be any exit.

We take Iraq by deposing the bad guy, everybody cheers, we use it as a staging area for acquisition of every oil power in the Mid East. Because with all those happy Arabs on our side, we hardly need any troops we'll bring peace and happiness and puppet democracies to first the Mid East, then the world.

If this isn't three-martini thinking, I don't know what is.

[Jim Sagle]

8. They don't call him "Rummy" for nothing.

[BeHereNow]

19. ONLY 3 Martinis?

I was thinking far more than three...

I can't stand this anymore.
BHN

[BlueMole]

9. Draft Reinstated

only if * gets elected in 2004

[Rose Siding]

11. Is this true?

"...even supporters of the Iraq invasion recognize (increasingly) that it was a fight we picked."

Is it only my mom who says that if you pick a fight, you deserve what you get?

And this:

"Going to an all-volunteer military was supposed to defuse antiwar sentiment."

Is that true? A democracy is supposed to be motivated to live peacefully with its neighbors because its young would be the fighters. Did they change to all volunteer to have a more professional force, as I've heard, or to tamp down the characteristic aversion to aggression?

Was the knowledge of right and wrong supposed to melt away? Were we supposed to have become a nation filled only with an audience of cheerleading fans of war?

Is this writer expressing a personal opinion or fact?

[Cha]

12. I am so thankful and appreciative that these "families" are

speaking out! What if they chose to remain silent like the killer bushsquad would wish them to?

As it is they have had threats of retaliation to their careers for piping up and tellin' America how it is! :kick:


edit; spelling

[kainah]

16. Hinting at the truth here

the big news was that three soldiers from the 101st Airborne were killed Thursday in an ambush. On Saturday, three soldiers from the Fourth Infantry and a fourth from the Third Infantry were killed, bringing to at least 47 the number of combat deaths since May 1.

At least, is right! They are now deliberately playing with numbers which is obvious to me because I keep a poster of the names of the dead American soldiers. Quite frequently, now, I have as many names as the numbers they are giving -- and you KNOW some of them are still working through the notification process. They are NOT telling the truth about the casualties!

[Rex]

17. I found the embedded Karl Rove line of the week!

"History may record the killing of Saddam’s two sons as a turning point in the campaign..."

WhatdoIwin?

[lastliberalintexas]

18. I'll be supportive of them if they start to do something

Other than just speak out that is. I can forgive and forget the fact that I and others opposed to this invasion were called unpatriotic, anti-American, etc. And that these criticisms sometimes even came from the families of some of the very people we were hoping to protect by preventing the invasion- the military personnel. I can forgive and forget their past political support of Shrub and the likely vote he received from them in 2000. I can forgive and forget the comments from many of these people that WE were the ones hurting the troops' morale.

I can forgive and forget all of this, IF they start to do something about the SOB now. They need to get out and campaign against him. I'm not even asking that they campaign for a Dem. Heck, I don't care if they start a draft Chafee campaign.

Until then, it's hard for me to sympathize. I still do- I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME I read a new account of a dead soldier. I cringe when I hear that these people don't know when they'll be coming home. I hate it that their benefits are being slashed when they are in such grave danger.

But I need to see something positive from these people. I know not all military personnel are repubs- but they do support repubs by overwhelming majorities. And I need to see that changing. I need to see that their eyes are truly opened, and that they don't want ANYONE to have to go through what their loved ones are facing. I need to see that this is not just some selfish reaction because, for now, it is happening to THEIR family.

I hope and pray that this will end as soon as feasible. I hope that we can forget about pride and profit and ask the UN and NATO to send in peacekeeping forces so that our people aren't the sitting ducks that they are now. I don't want another soldier to get killed or wounded in this quagmire that we are facing.

But then again, I never did.