My Weblog - article

Feb 05, 2007

I ask Mike's question again....

So where ARE the million and a half people who are full-time military? On today's front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, we find out that:

Soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division had so little time between deployments to Iraq they had to cram more than a year's worth of training into four months. And some soldiers were assigned to the brigade so late that they had no time to train in the United States at all. Instead of the yearlong training recommended prior to deployment, they prepared for war during the two weeks they spent in Kuwait, en route to Anbar, Iraq's deadliest province. Some had only a few days to learn how to fire their new rifles before they deployed to Iraq -- for the third time -- last month.

"It's happening just about to all the units now," said Lawrence Korb, who oversaw military manpower and logistics as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. "No unit is completely combat ready."

Whether you agree with the 'surge' or not, this smacks of criminal negligence at best. Why are we sending poorly or even untrained people into a war they know nothing about? They don't know the language or the culture that surrounds them,and no one, from the President on down. seems to think this is wrong. Do we also issue our troops a blindfold and a last cigarette?

here's the link to the entire article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/04/MNG9ONUKVT1.DTL&hw=anna+badkhen&sn=001&sc=1000

Comments:

MichaelAnn

February 6, 2007 06:35

I agree, it seems a crime to send these young, (for the most part) over-protected and definitely ill-prepared 20-something-year old children to battle. My step-son is wrapping up a whirlwind training extravaganza that somehow completely changed directions mid-term because the military found out they already had enough soldiers doing what he did. ETA in Iraq, less than a month. I imagine the reality of him being over there and wonder is he imagining the reality also? How many other parents have been in the same position with their own children, trying to imagine the reality of it all... and god, how many of those people had to deal with the reality of their child's return trip to the states all folded up nice and neat, tucked away inside a pine box? Worst of all, the most alarming aspect is HOW MANY reality-filled pine boxes might have been avoided if training had been more thorough. My heart aches when I think about it.

mike (Mike Macgirvin)

February 6, 2007 07:01

I've tried to get somebody to look into this. I started with my favorite local reporter - Dan Gillmore. His website is broken and he doesn't seem to be accepting comments. The Mercury News sent me an 'Out-of-office' reply on my letter to the editor ('Please investigate!'). Just minutes ago I sent a similar request to 60 Minutes. If any of you have media contacts, please bring this to their attention. I can find no accounting anywhere for about 1.25 million people. You would think this might be newsworthy...

Joe (Derek Joe Tennant)

February 6, 2007 15:33

First, MichaelAnn....I hope things work out for your stepson. Not all the casualties come back from Iraq in pine boxes.

Secondly though, watching the BBC World tonight, the segment on the neighborhood patrols that are springing up in Iraq got me to thinking. These aren't militias, in fact, they are springing up specifically to keep the peace FROM the militias, and to protect the children in or on the way to school every day. My thought went something like; there's much debate about whether Iraq is in a 'civil war' or not. I think they're beyond civil war, and the semantic debate should be about when they leave civil war and descend into ANARCHY.

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