More strain, more stress for US forces

[RamboLiberal]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK05Ak01.html

"Give 'til it hurts." It is a common expression used in the United States, usually by charitable organizations seeking donations. But nowadays it applies equally as well to the status of the US armed forces, which are being exhausted by their military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

<snip>

PDA estimates that the 120-plus-day overseas deployment rate (averaged for 2003 and 2004) has been 46% during the Iraq war years, with most of it being 365-day deployments. This rate is likely to decline only marginally in 2004. And, many of the soldiers deployed in 2005 will be on their second 365-day deployment in three years. PDA anticipates that accumulated stresses by late 2005 will exceed any since the Vietnam War period.

Another way of looking at it is that the actual percentage of US active-component military who are overseas, in terms of deployment for military operations, is greater than in 1990-91, during Operation Desert Storm. Back then it was 1.7%. Now it is 14%.

<snip>

Meanwhile, several National Guard and Reserve units have been mobilized without reasonable notice, kept on active duty for longer than anticipated and sent overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan without effective training. Members of the Michigan National Guard, for example, were sent to Iraq with only 48 hours notice. The Maryland National Guard's 115th Military Police Battalion, meanwhile, has been mobilized three times in the past two years, and by the end of its last tour will have remained on active duty for 18 months. This is all despite the fact that a reserve soldier should be given at least 30 days of notice before being mobilized and should not be kept on duty for more than nine to 12 months in a five-to-six-year time frame.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Blame the evangelicals.

[movonne]

4. I think this is a good phrase to use...I think that is will be effective

to shame them. Put the blame where it belongs...

[teryang]

2. mo money for contractors, screw manpower

it's just another repuke system of exploitation of labor.

[Malva Zebrina]

3. I find it hard to feel sorry

anymore given the stats I have read about the support of Bush from our military fighting forces.

I feel sorry for the upheaval to families of the fallen warriors and for their loss, and for the fact that they will never be the same again and for the fact that parents do not expect they will outlive their children and should not have to.

But--people voted in George Bush, a known war criminal who uses the troops as merely little pawns to grab what he wants--power and greed and money and absolute power--over the whole world if necessary.

If they think they are performing a duty to preserve our "freedoms" in all it's mythological, but untrue, glory, then I cannot feel sorry for their naivete.

I feel equally as sorry for the enormous upheaval to the families of the conquored innocents from DAY ONE . From the initial shock and awe bombardmnet that killed so many of them who did NOTHING to us at all. They had no army to speak of,no weapons, no air force, no navy and nothing at all that could be construed by any figment of the imagination,to be an ability to defend themself and we have a stupid, bombastic idiot, recently elected by a majority of people, who actually lied to do his dirty murderous deed, and they still support him? For what?

And we continue to kill them --as many as we can, in their homes.

And they still support him?

[girl gone mad]

5. Democratic soldiers should..

refuse to re-enlist.