Active-Duty Troops Demand Withdrawal from Iraq

[ProSense]

Active-Duty Troops Demand Withdrawal from Iraq

This was mentioned earlier this morning on cable and I've been trying to get a link ever since. Here it is, compliments of Peter Daou.

Active-Duty Troops Launch Campaign to Press Congress to End U.S. Occupation of Iraq

For the first time since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, active- duty members of the military are asking Members of Congress to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and bring American soldiers home.

Sixty-five active-duty members have sent Appeals for Redress to Members of Congress. Three of these people (including two who served in Iraq) and their attorney will speak about this on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 11 a.m. EDT.

Active-Duty Troops Demand Withdrawal from Iraq

This is the headline: 65 Members to Send "Appeals for Redress" Under the Military Whistle-blower Protection Act. It's huge, even unprecedented. It puts Bush and the Republicans up against it.

[tblue]

1. They're crying out for help. This is VERY serious. We have to do our part here

to bring them home. They're sitting ducks over there & that's psychological torture.

[nam78_two]

2. k&r/nt

[bananas]

3. Two threads from this morning

General Discussion
Breaking News: Active duty troops demand
72 recommendations : By malaise
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Latest Breaking News
Active-Duty Troops Launch Campaign to Press Congress to End U.S. Occupati
60 recommendations : By babylonsister
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[blm]

4. We'll need to draft LTTE in support of this action as soon they make their move.

.

[peace13]

5. Now this is what I want to be talking about

Bring these people home! For god's sake send them some help. Give them advice from people who have actually been to war. This topic has been on the back burner today while people talk about fences and Obama. Give me a break. I am not even a soldier but I could have told you that this would end in disaster. Kim

[ProSense]

6. Army may be getting rusty on war skills

Posted on Tue, Oct. 24, 2006

Army may be getting rusty on war skills

Pentagon officials suggest experience needed in Mideast may leave U.S. troops unprepared for standard warfare

By David Wood
BALTIMORE SUN

WASHINGTON - Pressed by the demands of fighting insurgents and terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has been unable to maintain its proficiency at the kind of high-intensity mechanized warfare that toppled Saddam Hussein and would be needed again were the Army called on to fight on the Korean peninsula or in other crises, senior Army officers acknowledge.

Soldiers once skilled at fighting from tanks and armored vehicles instead have three years of experience with street patrols, police duty and raids on suspected insurgent safe houses.

Officers who were experienced at maneuvering dozens of tanks and coordinating high-speed maneuvers with artillery, attack helicopters and strike fighters are now running human intelligence networks, negotiating with clan elders and overseeing Iraqi police training and neighborhood trash cleanup.

The Army's senior leaders say there is scant time to train on the high-intensity skills and practice large mechanized maneuvers when combat brigades return home.

more...

[ProSense]

7. Poll: 57% of American want U.S. to announce a withdrawal date

Poll: Most Americans say no one winning in Iraq

POSTED: 5:00 a.m. EDT, October 24, 2006

(CNN) -- One in five Americans believes the United States is winning the war in Iraq, according to a poll. The number has dropped by half since December.

About the same number -- 18 percent -- believe insurgents are winning. But the majority, 60 percent, say no one is winning in Iraq.

The poll of 1,013 adult Americans interviewed by telephone found two-thirds -- 64 percent -- of those polled oppose the war in Iraq.

A majority, 57 percent, want the United States to announce it will pull all troops by a certain date. The Bush administration argues against setting a timetable, saying it would embolden the enemy. But the onslaught of daily violence has apparently soured public support for the war.

Conducted over the past three days by Opinion Research Corp., the poll also found increased pessimism for the "war on terrorism." Sixty percent are dissatisfied with the way things are going for the United States in that effort, up from 53 percent in September.

more...

[OzarkDem]

8. Kick - this is important