Tears As Ga. Guard Deploys (4,300) To Iraq (Most since WWII)

[UpInArms]

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/4489734/detail.html

FORT STEWART -- Family members gave a tearful send-off Saturday to 4,300 citizen soldiers who start leaving for Iraq on Sunday in the biggest wartime deployment of the Georgia National Guard since World War II.

"Today's ceremony is not about saying goodbye," Gov. Sonny Perdue told the soldiers and their loved ones at Fort Stewart. "It's about celebrating the courage and the heart that each of you display and remembering the sacrifice that each of you endure."

Karmen Callaway of McDonough in Henry County said goodbye to two sons in the 48th Infantry Brigade. They and their fellow soldiers are due to spend at least a year in Iraq.

"They're good kids, and they've got the Lord," Callaway said. "We're going to all be praying for them and we're all ready for them to get back."

...more...

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Hmm...

How many other deployments of Georgia NG troops have there been?

I am wondering if there has been some "insulation" of that area from some of the harsher realities.

[onehandle]

2. What draft dodging Sonny was thinking:

"So long, suckers."

[SodoffBush]

3. They've got the lord on their side, so they should be just fine

unlike the 1,622 dead and 12,000 or so injured (it's got to be a lot higher than that, btw).

:eyes:

[Roland99]

6. Maybe they can drink some Jesus Juice to keep them safe, too.

I just don't understand how people think that even if a deity exists, he/she/it would concern itself with the piddly matters of a piss-ant planet in a joe-average galaxy out of billions of galaxies.


Anyway, here's to bringing all 4,300 of them home safe...and soon!

[LiberallyInclined]

11. but all of those galaxies were created just for US!

so that we'd have nice pretty skies to look at at night.

i mean...it's as obvious as the intelligently-designed nose on your face.

[Erika]

4. Did Iraq ever present a danger to us?

So why are our kids there? See www.icasulaties.org.

[warrens]

5. Voted for the wrong guy

Don't start whining now. You knew this would happen if he got reelected.

[LynnTheDem]

7. Sacrifice for the LIES of a politician and the OIL of Iraq.

Sacrifice for LIES and OIL.

[Toots]

8. Let's just hope Georgia has no hurricanes or floods to deal with

If they do they are on their own I guess.

[Divernan]

9. Traditions of draft-dodging Sen. Chambliss vs. hero Max Clelland

There are two opposing military traditions in Georgia - on the side of the angels you have former Senator Max Clelland, who could have stayed stateside as an adjutant to a major general, but actually talked his superior officer into letting Clelland volunteer for deployment to Vietnam, and once in Nam, volunteered to change regiments so he could fight in Operation Pegasus (a joint Army-Marine operation) to relieve the seige of Khe Sahn (spelling?), where he had both legs and an arm blown off by a grenade accidentally dropped by a green army private.
Clelland then overcame this incredibly painful handicap to put in some 20 years of public service as a state and federal elected official.

Then we have that chicken-hearted GA Senator Saxby Chambliss who got out of the Vietnam draft by claiming bad knees (although he JOGS) and then defeated Clelland by calling him a coward.

I guess there's a third Georgia tradition - stupidity in the polling place - to have elected Chambliss at all.

[donsu]

10. and 4,300 people will bring home DU poison

what will their lord do about that?

[leesa]

12. It's what most of Georgia wanted, isn't it?

No sympathy for anyone who supports the murderer Bush having to have loved ones go to these foolish wars.

[Barkley]

13. 4,300!?!?!?! How big is Georgia's National Guard?

4,300 seems too large; this must be a typo!

Its also interesting to note that the folks in GA are '... praying for them to get back' rather than for them to defeat the 'terrorists' or 'defend democracy'.

This indicates that people fundamentally know that this war is not about the official rhetoric coming out of the White House.

[unhappycamper]

14. how many

[PurityOfEssence]

15. Ya feel like votin' red, ya might just wind up dead

At least they have god with them.

[CatWoman]

16. so long, suckers!!!

[IndianaGreen]

17. "They're good kids, and they've got the Lord,"

That's the same mantra the insurgents say about their fighters in Iraq. Let the Holy Wars rage on until sanity prevails, or there is no one left alive to talk about it.

[bpilgrim]

18. GOTT MIT UNS

God Is With Us

"They're good kids, and they've got the Lord," Callaway said. "We're going to all be praying for them and we're all ready for them to get back."

psst... pass the word
peace