Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today that, from this point on, all Army deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan would be extended from 12 to 15 months. And despite what George W. Bush may have expected, reaction from within the Army wasn’t terribly positive. In the New York Times, one deployed Army officer was quoted as saying: "We’re just laughing. It’s so unbelievable, it’s humorous". He wasn’t alone. Another active duty Army officer, one who recently completed a 13-month tour in Iraq, emailed me his thoughts on the subject this evening. See if you can detect the pattern here:
This is an utter outrage. SECDEF is considering making all tours 15 months now. This is [an] abomination, this is disgusting. How much more are they going to ask of our troops? . . . .this is simply unconscionable.
The same Army officer went on to elaborate:
How can units continue to function in that manner? It's simply not possible. You could sense a pall over all of Schofield Barracks today. The only way to keep recruiting up is to keep giving money away--$1 billion in the last year. How much closer is that to having mercenaries if we pay people to stay in? This war is going to destroy the Army. In the last five years, I've seen a significant decrease in the quality of our soldiers.
He continued:
August? The army won't make it to June this way. The average civilian. . .has absolutely no idea the despair that a soldier feels when he is extended for so long. . .All most soldiers want to do is make it through each day without getting killed. How fair is it to ask them to stay 90-120 days more? It's not, considering 99% of this country's population has never seen what we see.
Needless to say, this officer has chosen to leave the Army as soon as his term is up. And it’s no wonder the Army is hemorrhaging officers—as reported in the Boston Globe yesterday. According to the Globe, West Point commissioned 903 officers in May 2001, less than four months before 9/11. At this point, nearly half of those officers are no longer in the Army—most, assumedly, because they believe Mr. Bush’s "War of Terror" is a crock of shit. And these aren’t unpatriotic, pacifist, slackers either. These are American soldiers who dedicated nine years of their lives to the United States Military Academy and the U.S. Army. They’re just tired of watching the Bush administration implement its slow bleed on their organization.
While not a West Pointer, I must confess that I too am part of this Army officer exodus. After two tours—one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq—I could see the writing on the wall. That’s why I left in 2004. It just wasn’t worth it anymore—even though I loved the Army, and still do to this day. This stupid war in Iraq just isn’t worth dying for.
And if I’m reading this situation correctly, the Army has just about had it with the Boy King, as well.
This state of affairs has placed the top leadership of the Army in a serious bind. They’re faced with trying to please a belligerent boy-king as their Commander-in-Chief, while at the same time attempting to keep the Army from rotting away beneath them. Unfortunately, they can’t do both. If they simply follow orders, the Army will die. No, I take that back. The Army will not die—but it will be so grievously injured that it will take decades to rebuild. On the other hand, if they stand up for their soldiers, that will entail one of two things: Either they will disobey orders, refusing to implement Mr. Bush’s wide array of ignorant plans, or they will resign in protest. Such a position is not one I would envy being in.
I don’t expect anyone to disobey orders. That’s not what soldiers do. But I do believe that those occupying senior leadership positions in the Army should begin tendering their resignations to Secretary Gates, effective immediately. Because resigning is not dishonorable. It is a sign of protest. It is a sign of solidarity between the leaders and those with whom they serve—the privates, the specialists, the sergeants, and the young lieutenants; the grunts, the truck drivers, and the translators. I would argue that when the Commander-in-Chief is so careless with the Constitution, then a general’s loyalty shifts to his or her men. And when all other methods of protecting your soldiers have failed, this is all you have left—your ability to make a statement that would be heard around the world. The Boy King can take away your family, he can get your soldiers killed, and he can degrade your Army to the point that it’s something your barely even recognize. But he can’t take away your ability to lead.
I never became a field grade or a general officer. So I don’t know all the pressures they face—the pressures that come with having given 30 years of your life to this profession. But I do know the difference between right and wrong. And I know that this deployment extension is wrong.
So I will say this to those who lead the Army: I implore you to stand up to this man. He is ruining the Army. He is abusing its soldiers and he is making a mockery of us to the whole world.
And you know it.
Please.
Lead, goddammit.