Anger Rises for Families of US Troops in Iraq -- NY Times 7/4/03

[IrateCitizen]

July 4, 2003

Anger Rises for Families of Troops in Iraq
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN


ORT HOOD, Tex., July 3 — Luisa Leija was in bed the other morning, she recalled, when her 9-year-old daughter bounded in the room, saying, "Mommy, mommy, there's a man in uniform at the door."

Ms. Leija, the wife of a young artillery captain in Iraq, threw on a robe and took a deep breath. She dashed to the door, thinking: "This is not happening to me. This can't be happening to me."

A soldier in full camouflage was on the doorstep. It was a neighbor locked out of his house.

Ms. Leija is still upset. The panic has passed, but not the weariness. Or the anger. Anger that her husband, Capt. Frank Leija, has not come home yet, even though President Bush declared two months ago that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Anger that the end of that stage has not meant the beginning of peace, that the Army has assigned new duties for her husband and his men that have nothing to do with toppling Saddam Hussein.

And anger that the talk in Washington is not of taking troops out of Iraq, but of sending more in.

READ THE REST HERE

[searchingforlight]

1. They serve at the pleasure of the President

That is the fact. If they don't like it, they can refuse (which takes a person strong in his/her convictions). Put in their papers, get out.

During the Viet Nam War many young men believed what they were being told. They felt that they were the lone person protecting against the domino theory. Standing up for right --

Gradually some came to realize that they were being lied to. Some of those had the conviction that they could not do this any longer. I know of one pilot who refused a mission because he felt that the killing of innocents was not what he signed up to do.

IF these men are unhappy, they need to refuse to serve.

However, if they are unhappy because they are being asked to do what they signed up to do. If they are unhappy because they aren't at home collecting pay and benefits and pretending to be at war. Well-- too bad.

[Trajan]

2. Hmmmmmmm ? ....

This story is about FAMILY MEMBERS, who rue the fact that their loved ones are not coming home as planned: .. NOT about soldiers who do not wish to serve their country, or their pResident .... Soldiers and their families ARE human, after all, and subject to human feelings .......

Im not sure your negative comments are properly focused, since you seem to blame the soldiers and families and NOT the CIC himself for his defective policies ...

[searchingforlight]

3. I do blame the CIC for his defective policies

but I am also tired of hearing about the hardship that the military and their wives are experiencing.

What do they think the military is about? They signed up or they married someone who is in the military. Or they are in the reserves. Is the assumption that they will never be asked to do what they are trained to do? Is the assumption that their husbands or wives will not be asked to do what they signed up to do?

Their options are limited. Either do the time and stop complaining or quit.

[IrateCitizen]

4. I wonder what your military experience is based on this statement...

Either do the time and stop complaining or quit.

QUIT COMPLAINING? Don't you realize that complaining is an innate part of the military? It's when the troops STOP complaining that, as a senior officer, you start to get a little bit worried....

[mariema]

5. doing what they are trained to do....

For me, this appears to be the crux of the whole thing:

“I want my husband home,” Ms. Leija, a mother of three children, said. “I am so on edge. When they first left, I thought yeah, this will be bad, but war is what they trained for. But they are not fighting a war. They are not doing what they trained for. They have become police in a place they're not welcome."

These guys are artillery, not trained MPs or guards or police.

That is one of the worst things about being in the military, trying to do a job without proper training, equipment or support.

And as hard as these spouses try to stay upbeat, it is difficult when you know your soldier is suffering because of poor planning by the brass at DoD.

There were a few times when my husband wrote to me from Kuwait and asked me to send him something I could get to him quicker thru snail mail than he could get thru the military supply chain. That was during the first Gulf War. Most of these folks aren't even getting mail to and from each other on any kind of regular basis. That is really hard to take. It just adds to the frustration, fear and anger.

Most military spouses are not whiners, most don't complain, at least not to outsiders. (We complain plenty between ourselves, believe me!) For this group to go public like this is unusual. And for there to be a near riot at a meeting with a command group colonel ("800 seething spouses") really indicates that there is going to be trouble in the ranks. We are stretching troop strength too thin, especially in the Army. Reserve units are having deployment orders extended. I know of plenty of military folks who are saying they are going to get out as soon as possible. Enlistment numbers are NOT up. It doesn't look good.

[searchingforlight]

6. It is obvious that there was no training for this --

but this is a mission that has fallen to troops before. When WWII ended the troops were in the same situation in many areas.

I was born in the Marine Corp and raised in the Air Force. Married a career AF pilot who spent the major part of our first ten years in Viet Nam. After that there were other deployments, TDYs and week on week off alert. It's over and I am glad.

He and the other men he served with missed births, anniversaries, major life events, deaths (at home), illnesses, actually, just about everything.

The distaff side spent 24 hrs a day being mom, dad, and all the things that go along with it.

You are right, we did complain amongst ourselves, but not to the outside. We had no cameramen, no tv sob stories, we just carried on.

The WWII wives were the same.

It's what you do.

[mariema]

7. It is poor planning

As a military spouse, yes, it's what you do. You carry on. So, does that mean you can't feel anger, frustration, fear? You can't question the reasons for war, you should just shut up and wave the flag and sing patriotic songs?

I wonder that you can't empathize with the women in the article, you must have had you share of fear wracked nights if your spouse was combat arms. It is bad enough when you know your soldier is well trained in his/her specialty, you worry anyway. But this is different. You have to worry that your husband who is not trained to be a policeman must function as one. This is dangerous. Take the MP who is not trained to fire artillery and have a major assault depend on his expertise in artillery, how dangerous is that?

This all boils down to poor planning; in fact I am hard pressed to see that there is evidence of ANY planning for the aftermath. This whole situation is all wrong. Yes, other soldiers in other conflicts found themselves in similar situations, so why did we not learn from that? You would think that there was someone, somewhere in the whole DOD who had read a history book about the aftermath of WWII.

I am always confused when someone points to past problems and in effect says, "it was good enough for us back then, it should be good enough for them now" or "that's the way it has always been done." Shouldn't we expect there to be some kind of improvement and progress over the years?

The fact that you and I and other military spouses did/do not complain is not necessarily a good thing. Maybe if we had complained during Viet Nam, the public might not have been so apathetic during the early years, who knows?