Iraq war tests resolve of a patriotic U.S. soldier ("I'd like to get out")

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31360035.htm

Iraq war tests resolve of a patriotic U.S. soldier

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Sergeant James Connolly volunteered for the U.S. army on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001. He served a year in Iraq and took part in the operation that killed Saddam Hussein's sons in July 2003.

Now, facing a second lengthy deployment by the end of the year, Connolly wants out. He says he will do his duty to the best of his ability, but he feels he has fulfilled his commitment to the military and the nation and he does not believe the Iraq operation is worth dying for.

"I feel terrible. I'd like to get out. I'm done with the army. I want to move on. My commitment was up last December but they extended the whole division until Jan. 31, 2007," Connolly said in a telephone interview.

...

"If Bush feels it's such a noble cause, maybe he should talk to his own daughters about making a commitment," said Connolly's mother, Deborah.
"We don't feel the war was a blunder, but how does he achieve his goal? Does it involve sending the same people over and over again? I don't want my son to go a second time. He's already been," she said.

[gratuitous]

1. Uh oh, more cases of Sheehan-itis?

Don't these people know that the Mighty Republican Wurlitzer has deemed their discontent to be unpatriotic? Don't they know they're supposed to just suck it up and keep going and not worry their little heads about the offspring of the elite?

Looks like quite an epidemic Operation Yellow Elephant will soon have on its hands.

[wtmusic]

2. They don't feel the war is a blunder...yet

If only those damn Iraqis wouldn't fight back.

[VegasWolf]

28. Wonder exactly what she considers a "blunder?" nt

[Teaser]

3. Permanent Latrine Duty

for this guy

[meganmonkey]

4. One more added to the ranks

Thank you soldier. I am so sorry you are being used like this. I hope you and all the others come home soon and safe!

:patriot:

[saigon68]

5. And yet the fools still enlist.today and then complain

After watching the Immoral Illegal war on TV for 2 1/2 years and images like this every night .



These Rustics continue to line up at recruiting offices like sheep ready for the slaughter.

I have given up feeling sorry for these idiots long ago. And today they are still enlisting.

And a sizable contingent here continues to enable this behavior.

[tabasco]

6. The kid enlisted on 9-11.

Your comment is inappropriate.

[saigon68]

8. Sorry about that------------------- I wasn't referring to him

If you bothered to read the post carefully . You could see

I was referring to the Rustics who continue to sign up today ie 8-31-2005

[tabasco]

I don't care who you were referring to.

You are free to have such a callous attitude, and I am free to condemn you for it.

I don't presume to know the circumstances or motivations of those who volunteer these days.

I do know one young man who lost his single parent at a young age, was raised by his uncle, and recently joined the Guard, primarily to get college money and not be a burden on his uncle.

[saigon68]

20. And I'm free to point out

How stoopid the behavior is and how mainstream DINOS (Like Limpmann) want to keep the war going for the corporate thugs and hoodlums.

Who fund their campaign coffers and keep then pictures of coffins in sight, to encourage other Rustics to get even with the Islamic Terrorist Towel Heads etc etc.

[babylonsister]

9. Thanks, tabasco, for pointing that out. nt

[saigon68]

10. I see you failed

To read the post carefully too

[babylonsister]

12. No, you failed to convey what you meant. nt

[saigon68]

17. I edited it so you could

get it

[0007]

13. I've run out of compassion for those that should have enough

sense to figure this thing out by now! My feelings are turning into contempt for stupidity.

[Tempest]

18. If people are lining up at the recruiting offices...

Why is recruitment levels not being met?

The Army is down 27% in its recruitment goals.


And since you seemed to have missed it, this one soldier who is the subject of the article, has fulfilled his contract with the military and is now being told he can't leave.

[saigon68]

21. I certainly can empathize with him

Enlisting for a lie

I told a lot of people here years ago. the whole ugly CRUSADE was a rich man's war that the poor were fighting.

this photo says it all

[atreides1]

22. Contract isn't fulfilled yet

The young man should have read the fine print, any one who enlists agrees to serve for a total term of eight years. It can be 8 on active duty, reserve duty, IRR, or a combination thereof.

And there is the fine print that states a person can be retained for as long as required by the NEEDS OF THE MILITARY.

He enlisted after 9/11, which means that the Army has him by the short hairs until at least 2009.

His time is only half over. It's a bitch, but maybe the reason that recruiting is down is because of what is happening now.

[saigon68]

23. Its down because there are a lot of us

Like you and me that point out how fucked up a lot of the military is

And how totally SCREWED the leadership of the military is -- In that they are perfumed princes, ass kisser lifers and guys waiting to join the board of Halliburton, Exxon, Bechtel Boeing and make a real financial killing.

[gratuitous]

24. I tend to agree with you, except for one thing

The images of wounded, bleeding and dying soldiers are nowhere that I've seen them on the teevee. But I can tell you all about Natalee Holloway's hair, complexion and teeth.

Perhaps if we had a little more of the former and a little less of the latter, we could have some discussion about our national mythic religion of redemptive violence as the solution to all our problems.

[driver8]

7. "They extended the whole division until Jan. 31, 2007"???

OMG. When I was in the Navy, if someone had extended my EAOS by two years I think I would have lost it. How do these guys handle that?

That is unbelievable to me that they can do that. That doesn't sound like a "volunteer" Army to me.

[mmonk]

15. "volunteer" is only applied

to the beginning. Once you have volunteered, those now setting policy determine your length of stay. Call it volunteer servitude. All you were told in the beginning no longer applies.

[stanwyck]

11. Interesting idea from a CSPAN caller today

calling in to The Washington Journal about the war in Iraq. He suggested, since many callers were making the assumption that the troops unilaterally support the invasion of Iraq and President Bush, that the Pentagon tell all soldiers serving in Iraq that if they support the invasion and this administration, they will stay. But, if they don't support the invasion and feel that the administration lied to them and gained their support through false information, then they are free to leave Iraq with no consequences.
What do you think would happen?

[Tempest]

19. What would happen?

There wouldn't be enough U.S. planes available to carry them all out of Iraq.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

14. Wonder if this will be reported on CNN or any other MSM outlet?

When common sense statements like this start to be presented to broad public exposure the Iraq nightmare will soon be ending. MSM enabled the idiot to start the war and they are helping it to continue by suppressing this type of content.

[Gregorian]

16. It takes a steam roller to convince some of these people.

I am amazed how they suck up propaganda, but take bullets and Bradleys to believe the truth.

I would wager half the troops would stay, even if they were free to leave, like the previous poster advocates.

[NNN0LHI]

25. kick

[Hekate]

26. We'd like for him to get out, too. Bush is abusing...

... well-intentioned troops.

Please do note, those of you in this thread jumping on Jim Connolly's being a "volunteer," that he joined up on 9-11. Didn't we ALL, on some level, think about it? I phoned my county supervisor's office and asked if we had a civil defense plan. I went to the Blood Bank and left a deposit. When the anthrax letters went out, my veterinarian put together antibiotic packets for some of his client-friends.

A person would have had to have had a heart of stone NOT to think of how they could defend our country, their family, from the source of that vast reeking hole in the ground in NYC.

I really do wonder if those who slam the troops even hear what they are saying. I know I'm repeating myself, but it could have been my own two kids, my son and daughter -- they really considered enlisting, they even had dreams at night about defending our country in September 2001. It was a noble impulse, but they decided to "wait and see."

That's the reason it isn't my own kids over there, and when I look at the ages of the dead and maimed, I know that in some profound sense those are my kids too.

Let me remind you that it was only after some months went by that some Americans saw that Bush was turning this heinous attack on the US into a profit-making venture for his pals -- but Bushco's crimes do NOT take away from the noble impulse of others to serve and defend our nation. Those who wear the uniform deserve our support, that is they need us to speak out for them because they cannot speak out for themselves. They do not deserve our scorn.

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#

[deadparrot]

27. Dissent in the ranks. Literally. nt

[Cocoa]

29. doesn't that soldier care about the oil?

does that soldier want the oil to fall into terrorist hands?