Enlist for 15 months? Contradictory, isn't it?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/REPOSITORY/505170338/1029/OPINION03

I found Allison Steele's article "Recruiters offer shortest-ever active-duty tours" (Monitor, May 14) telling as to just how bankrupt the Bush warmongering policies have become. A he or she can now sign up for a 15-month period, which could include combat in wars in any number of places.

At the beginning of 2003, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld remarked that in past wars draftees were of "no value, no advantage, really, to the United States Armed Forces over any sustained period of time."

After furious outrage from veterans, families of draftees who were killed or wounded in battle and several national veterans' organizations, Rumsfeld gulped hard and issued a Rumspin-type apology. His point, he claimed, was that tours of duty should be lengthened to assure that highly trained servicemen and women could actively serve in their specific assignments for extended periods, not just a couple of years.

The new 15-month option seems to lay bare a contradiction!

more

[unblock]

1. no contradiction at all, just a lie

the "15-month options" will be stop-lossed into the "extended periods" rummy wants....

[RobertSeattle]

2. It is amazing

I suppose this is basically 3 months of boot camp + MOS training, 12 months in Iraq, and then out. You move in and out of the Army so fast you might cause a DRAFT...

:evilgrin:

[Nordmadr]

3. It seems contradictory due to the fact

that as soons as the ink is dry on the 15 month enlistment, it will be extended about 20 years or so as part of the stop loss. You'd have to be an idiot to think you are going to sign that 15 month contract and get out in 15 months.

Olaf

[bullimiami]

4. anyone who is stupid enough to sign their name even for a promise

of 15 seconds should be straight jacketed.

once your name is on the line you are theirs for LIFE. period. whenever they want you.

[tabasco]

8. That's a fact !

Sign on the line and your ass is in the grass. Anyone who signs up for the short tour can bet that they will go direct to the shit. Then when/if they get to their reserve unit, they face a good possibility of another combat tour. Of course, stop-loss is another option to keep their ass in uniform even longer.

I normally believe in the benefits of military service to the individual and the Nation. But with a gang of corporate gangsters in charge of the US, I advise all young people to RUN, NOT WALK away from military service.

The chickenshits that voted for Bush are showing exactly what they are made of - - the same stuff as their chickenhAwk leaders. Support wars that other people have to fight. DESPICABLE !

[tabasco]

5. The military is in emergency mode.

Line units desperately need replacements.

But the right-wing assholes that voted for Bush and war are too cowardly to join the service and help fight the war. They like to watch war on tv. It makes them feel superior to watch the US bomb a third world country. But now we see they are just a bunch of chickenshits like most of their leaders. Too chicken to go fight the war they support.

[Justin54B20L]

6. Thats pretty funny considering...

if they join into an MOS that is currently "stop-lossed" then the 15-month period don't mean shit. They'll be on indefinite active status.

This is aside from sending the new recruits directly from basic/AIT to a deployment zone, no extended unit training and no repertoire with fellow soldiers. I think it would do more harm than good, considering the poor quality they'll be sending into the battlefield.

But then again, why would that worry this administration? They have no qualms about sending young men and women to their deaths for more power and money.

[Solly Mack]

7. the 15 month contract adds up to more than a basic enlistment

of 8 years.

15 months active, 2 years active reserve, and up to 7 years IRR....that's a possible 10 + years right there....then factor in stop-loss...

and really, depending on MOS, AIT could add a year..so that's 11 plus years...and according to an article I read, the original 15 DOES NOT include basic and AIT....so add on basic training time...those "15 months" keep getting longer and longer...

[global1]

9. Read The Small Print.....

caveat emptor!!!!!!1

[Jacobin]

12. oh, you mean that little "stop loss" thingy?

Pay no attention to that!!

YOu're going to see the WORLD

[leftofthedial]

10. once they get you in, stop-loss will keep you in

no matter what they promised

it's a bait and switch scam

[NNN0LHI]

11. Ask yourself. What could a person be trained for in 15 months?

Bullet catcher is about it.

Don

[dogday]

13. They never get tired of finding ways to screw us....

[NNN0LHI]

14. kick