I've been looking forward to a fishing trip Labor Day weekend with my best friend who is a Marine Corporal in Iraq. We have been planning this trip since he left because the Marines had always been pretty consistent in their troop rotations and we both assumed he'd go, complete his tour, and come home to his life. We had talked of what he was going to do when he got back, now that his tenure with the marines was going to be over. He wanted to work in telecommunications (his training in the marines) or he was going to work as a police officer. Unfortunately, things change.
All, Cancel any fucking plans that I made earlier for my early fucking return. It's all over. MEF just came across and said that all mother fucking individual augments are going to stay for 9 mother fucking months. This applies to my worthless ass. I am on a fucking permanent working party with the fucking Army. Imagine what it is like to work with the most unorganized fucking group of people on the earth. They have no fucking discipline and I have to work 4 more months with these nasty mother fuckers. I am not important at all. I do not see any fucking need to keep me and a sergeant here. I can assure you one thing. You may never see me again cause if I have to work with these nasty fuckers for another 4 months it is a guarantee that I will shoot some of those mother fuckers. Army guys that is. I am done trying to fucking plan shit for when I get home. It is not for sure but it is very probable that I won't get there. Fuck Me.
I got this message a few minutes ago and still haven't stopped shaking with anger over this. He was supposed to be over there working to make Iraq livable for the Iraqi's and not being assigned to do anything off base (which is very frustrating for him), he is working with the army bureaucracy. My friend was pumped to be going and helping a repressed people gain freedom, now he is stuck in a foreign country, not allowed to come home and he is driving himself crazy because the assignment he was given is being extended due to a lack of a plan.
I work in the suburbs of Minneapolis with a bunch of SUV driving, support the troops magnet bearers that proudly send me all of the latest liberals are terrorist supporters e-mails, so I forwarded them his message, saying thanks for helping to cancel my plans with my friends.
This is what I got as a response: Well looks like your buddy is in the wrong division of the army. My buddy is making it home but he also re-enlisted to support and protect his country and those that live there. Special opps!!
With the following forwarded message from a friend of hers that is there:
Some of my guys got hit today. Tomarow we are gong hunting. I don't care if he is a holy man, a farmer or a terrorist. We are not comeing back with out blood. No one was hurt to bad, but that isn't stopping us.
I am really getting the idea that the troops are as polarized about the war as the general population is. Some are very gung ho, as my friend was when he was first told he was deploying. I thought that ok, he is smart enough to know that this is really shitty, but he has no choice but to go, so this is what he is convincing himself of. He has since become very hostile to the very idea of being there and was so excited to come home that he had me looking for jobs for him. As you read above, he's not real excited anymore.
But what about this other guy? I've seen first hand the indoctrination that going through military training can lead too, but this blood thirsty attitude is extremely scary. How is killing farmers and holy men furthering our success in the war on terror? This has been expressed here, the opinion that this war is Osama's wet dream, but I just got a real slap in the face from the contrast of the two sides of the story this morning. Finally, an e-mail from my republican boss, after the "thank you" note that I sent him:
I don't recall hearing about a draft.
How is this war in Iraq protecting "his country and those that live there" when the actions he described to her can be seen in no other light than that they will breed more people who will hate America because of what we are doing there? And how is not allowing the soldiers who have completed their tours to come home and start their lives, not in and of itself a draft?