A story of the way soldiers are treated in Iraq...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

My friend from down the hall is standing here telling me stories of her boyfriend in Iraq. Listen to this shit:

1. He refused to run over a little boy of around 5 years old, and he got the hell beat out of him.

2. He nearly gets his thumb cut off, he gets it stitched up, and he's put in his room for 2 days, without food or antibiotics. He did however get Percocet.

3. His roommate's wife is giving birth in September, but they can't guarentee leave.

4. THe chow house is MILES away, and if they don't have a ride, they have to eat whatever their family sends them. If they don't have that, they don't eat.

5. They have no lights in their bunks.

6. Phone lines do not exist.

7. Hygene: No bathrooms--meaning they can't use toilet paper, they have to use baby wipes. IF they have any personal clothing, they have to wash it themselves.

8. His boots are so warn, he can't even tell what size boots he wears. His glasses are falling apart to the point where he can rarely see.
9. He has a breakdown every few days, and he's not the same boy he was when he left. It's just like when those boys came back from Viet Nam. And we don't expect them to be helped when they return either.

Your tax dollars at work, folks. Where are the billions and billions of dollars going? Obviously not to our troops. They're so "supportive" of our troops, but they can't even give them every day comforts like food. UGH.
Duckie

[qazplm]

1. as a soldier about to go to Iraq

let me say which one of these I find very hard to believe:

1. Highly highly doubtful.
2. ditto
3. very possible unfortunately
4. I doubt it is more than a few miles at most, I doubt he HAS to survive only on food sent him
5. sure ok, not a real big deal
6. a few do, but yes not many, again, not really seeing the deal
7. they have portapotties, the MRE's have toilet paper, he can have toilet paper sent to him (he is getting a minimum of 500 dollars a month extra in pay for being over there, plus whatever he is saving in taxes, I think he can afford a few rolls of toilet paper sent to him every month)
8. See above, you get issued two pairs of boots, a summer and a winter.
9. obviously very believable and my heart goes out to him!!!

I just have a hard time believing a lot of that. I DO think that conditions vary depending upon where you are stationed, but for example, once I arrive in Iraq, I will likely have a sleeping trailer, with a hookup for a sattellite believe it or not, they sell TV/s, DVD players, PS2's, snacks and comfort items including toiletries.

He may be unlucky enough to be stationed in a more spartan area but I suspect they do make supply runs for his unit.

There are plenty of real things that are terribly wrong (the fact we are there to begin with, the chances of being killed or maimed, etc) but what was listed above, most of it is a little difficult to take as gospel truth.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

3. Well, good luck in Iraq.

I just hope you're right. But I tend to believe these people about these things. Just let me say you're being a bit naive. this isn't the only stories I've heard like this.
Duckie

[qazplm]

10. I'm not naive

I am in contact daily with people over there, I have talked to people who have come back AFTER spending a year over there (and conditions are BETTER now then they were when they were there).

Quite simply, I have the information from a multitude of sources, but hey, do some research on the internet, there are several websites up now talking about solider's experiences over there...none sound anything like what you wrote.

[Hoping4Change]

2. OMG you need to send this to a newspaper and to someone

in the Senate's Armed Services Committe. This is disgusting.

[Cerridwen]

4. How many people here would send what they could?

How about posting information about where we can send:

toilet paper
toothbrushes/toothpaste
food/munchies
neosporin


stuff like that. A friend of mine whose daughter is in Iraq has been sending out emails with the soldiers' needs and requirements for us to ship them "care packages" from home. We could do that here.

Almost 50,000 on DU.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. She's going to ask him and his friends....

And then I'll let everyone know.
Duckie

[Cerridwen]

13. Too cool . . . Let's see about getting info on the front page of DU

Maybe others will have similar stories and info that can go on the front page.

[Spinzonner]

5. The Armed Services COmmittee

needs to start an investigation of the needs of the troops and whether the Pentagon is properly satifying them

This needs to be separate from Haliburton Investigations and everything else but will likely end up involving that quasi-criminal outfit.

Suggest to the news operations that this might be a worthy investigation and see if Stars and Stripes has anything on it.

Perhaps veterans organizations can be motivated to get involved. They will have credibility with both the troops, the government that the peace lobby wouldnt.

[2Design]

6. boyfriend may be looking for sympathy....what means of

communication is he using.....
snail mail
computer

the answer might tell you more..

[YellowRubberDuckie]

7. Um, he's on the computer, voice chat...

And she over hears conversations of the guys he lives with. I'm totally not even going to buy into your crap.
Duckie

[qazplm]

11. wait a minute

he's on computer voice chat??

And you are telling me all the rest of this stuff? come on man.

[ROC]

12. Sounds like a little sympathy

Things are not pleasant over there nad there are problems, but this sounds a lot worse than my son-in-law speaks of his assignment there. And he does have internet.

[TroubleMan]

8. This is terrible...it's like Nam without drugs and hookers!

no release at all.