Over At ‘Vet Voice’ – DocuDharma
Over At ‘Vet Voice’
Colby Buzzell, author of My War: Killing Time in Iraq one of the best Iraq memoirs out there–has been called up from the IRR and will be returning to Iraq. For reasons that I’ve specified in the past, this is utter horseshit. Our country is in sad shape when cowards like Matthew Continetti and Jason Mattera are allowed to refuse to serve–instead choosing to cheer from the bench–while people like Colby Buzzell are forced to go involuntarily again and again.
This is nothing less than a backdoor draft. And it’s wrong. We need to either have a draft or not have a draft. But one way or the other, these IRR mobilizations need to stop.
Here’s part of Buzzell’s take on his own situation (though you should go read the whole thing in the San Francisco Chronicle:
As far back as I could remember, I wanted to be in the Army. I don’t know where it came from (my dad was a Navy veteran, after all), but I was enthralled by military history. I couldn’t get enough of it. But it wasn’t enough to simply read about the military. I wanted to be a part of it as soon as I could.
…I really was looking forward to applying my GI Bill to photography classes so I could learn how to take pictures. But now, thanks to not enough Americans volunteering for military service, I now have to worry about my picture appearing on the second or third page of my hometown paper with the words, “it was his second deployment” in my obituary.
That’s at the very end of the article that deserves to be read in full by every single breathing American citizen. Buzzell expresses a sentiment felt by nearly every veteran I know: Americans have not only failed to pick up the slack of a two front war, but they’ve dumped all the hardship, responsibility, guilt, heartbreak and exhaustion onto less than %1 of the population – service members and their families. There’s a word for that: serfdom.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates calls it “insensitive,” I call it something else:
The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops’ remains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.
Daughters do look for the ‘daddy feature’, come from a ‘chickenhawk’ marry a ‘chickenhawk’!!
Afghanistan, Colby Buzzell, Draft, Stop Loss, Vet Voice
jimstaro on May 10, 2008 at 1:26 pm
A ‘Gold Star Mom’, for ‘Mothers Day’
I write to you this Mother’s Day as the mother of Lt. Ken Ballard, who was killed in Najaf, Iraq four years ago, fighting in a war that you have criticized but continue to fund.
I hope that this Mother’s Day you are lucky enough to be surrounded by your children and grandchildren, to share thanks and hugs. But I also hope that you will think about the thousands of mothers of U.S. troops who will never see their children again — and the tens of thousands of mothers of troops now serving in Iraq who live in fear every day of the phone call or the knock on the door telling them their child has been injured or killed.
jimstaro on May 10, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Vet’s Mom Shows that Mother’s Day is About More than Flowers and Cards
jimstaro on May 10, 2008 at 4:39 pm
U.S. Army’s ‘stop-loss’ orders up dramatically over last year
tigerdog on May 10, 2008 at 5:22 pm
It’s all so very depressing.
Donating to a veterans’ cause in lieu of flowers on Mothers Day is a good idea. My own mother passed away long ago, but I’ll donate to the Fisher House or the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund in her memory anyway. I think she would approve.
If anyone would like to do the same but isn’t familiar with the work done at Fisher House and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, I encourage you to take a look at http://www.fisherhouse.org/con… and http://www.fallenheroesfund.or… (respectively)
If you can see your way clear, show them some love.
MomFromHlwdFl on May 11, 2008 at 1:37 am
Mary Tilman:
“soldiers loose their voice when they enlist. my son knew this, before they enlist that this would be a reality..and..THE PUBLIC IS THEIR VOICE…and if the public is not vigilant in paying attention on what the government is doing, it’s very dangerous.”
Over At ‘Vet Voice’ – DocuDharma
Over At ‘Vet Voice’
Colby Buzzell, author of My War: Killing Time in Iraq one of the best Iraq memoirs out there–has been called up from the IRR and will be returning to Iraq. For reasons that I’ve specified in the past, this is utter horseshit. Our country is in sad shape when cowards like Matthew Continetti and Jason Mattera are allowed to refuse to serve–instead choosing to cheer from the bench–while people like Colby Buzzell are forced to go involuntarily again and again.
This is nothing less than a backdoor draft. And it’s wrong. We need to either have a draft or not have a draft. But one way or the other, these IRR mobilizations need to stop.
Here’s part of Buzzell’s take on his own situation (though you should go read the whole thing in the San Francisco Chronicle:
As far back as I could remember, I wanted to be in the Army. I don’t know where it came from (my dad was a Navy veteran, after all), but I was enthralled by military history. I couldn’t get enough of it. But it wasn’t enough to simply read about the military. I wanted to be a part of it as soon as I could.
…I really was looking forward to applying my GI Bill to photography classes so I could learn how to take pictures. But now, thanks to not enough Americans volunteering for military service, I now have to worry about my picture appearing on the second or third page of my hometown paper with the words, “it was his second deployment” in my obituary.
That’s at the very end of the article that deserves to be read in full by every single breathing American citizen. Buzzell expresses a sentiment felt by nearly every veteran I know: Americans have not only failed to pick up the slack of a two front war, but they’ve dumped all the hardship, responsibility, guilt, heartbreak and exhaustion onto less than %1 of the population – service members and their families. There’s a word for that: serfdom.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates calls it “insensitive,” I call it something else:
The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops’ re
mains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.
Daughters do look for the ‘daddy feature’, come from a ‘chickenhawk’ marry a ‘chickenhawk’!!
Afghanistan, Colby Buzzell, Draft, Stop Loss, Vet Voice
jimstaro on May 10, 2008 at 1:26 pm
A ‘Gold Star Mom’, for ‘Mothers Day’
I write to you this Mother’s Day as the mother of Lt. Ken Ballard, who was killed in Najaf, Iraq four years ago, fighting in a war that you have criticized but continue to fund.
I hope that this Mother’s Day you are lucky enough to be surrounded by your children and grandchildren, to share thanks and hugs. But I also hope that you will think about the thousands of mothers of U.S. troops who will never see their children again — and the tens of thousands of mothers of troops now serving in Iraq who live in fear every day of the phone call or the knock on the door telling them their child has been injured or killed.
jimstaro on May 10, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Vet’s Mom Shows that Mother’s Day is About More than Flowers and Cards
jimstaro on May 10, 2008 at 4:39 pm
U.S. Army’s ‘stop-loss’ orders up dramatically over last year
tigerdog on May 10, 2008 at 5:22 pm
It’s all so very depressing.
Donating to a veterans’ cause in lieu of flowers on Mothers Day is a good idea. My own mother passed away long ago, but I’ll donate to the Fisher House or the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund in her memory anyway. I think she would approve.
If anyone would like to do the same but isn’t familiar with the work done at Fisher House and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, I encourage you to take a look at http://www.fisherhouse.org/con… and http://www.fallenheroesfund.or… (respectively)
If you can see your way clear, show them some love.
MomFromHlwdFl on May 11, 2008 at 1:37 am
Mary Tilman:
“soldiers loose their voice when they enlist. my son knew this, before they enlist that this would be a reality..and..THE PUBLIC IS THEIR VOICE…and if the public is not vigilant in paying attention on what the government is doing, it’s very dangerous.”