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The Sushi Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 12:40 PM
Original message
US Army plagued by desertion and plunging morale
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1397131,00.html

on deep wells of fury to expand their ranks in Iraq, the US military is fighting desertion, recruitment shortfalls and legal challenges from its own troops.

The irritation among the rank and file became all too clear this week when a soldier stood up in a televised session with Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, to ask why the world’s richest army was having to hunt for scrap metal to protect its vehicles.

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,165712,00.jpg
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FloridaPat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 12:42 PM
Response to Original message
1. Support our troops - give them tickets to Canada.
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LeighAnn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. You can also do this
http://www.hereinreality.com/supportourtroops.html
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Coventina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 12:43 PM
Response to Original message
2. As Nelson Muntz would say
HA ha!!!
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Mari333 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 12:43 PM
Response to Original message
3. No surprise here.
Michael is madder then a hornet that he has to stay on 6 more months. Bush has literally destroyed the military single handedly. Our soldiers have every right to bitch, and then some.
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malachi Donating Member (653 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:17 PM
Response to Reply #3
15. Wilson one of the brain dead. Does not get any symapthy from me.
Wilson said Thomas Wilson joined the National Guard in June 2003. He had previously enlisted in the Air Force in 1994 and served about four years, she said.

“It’s all about duty, and he felt compelled to be over there,” Wilson said, adding that both she and her ex-husband voted for Bush in November and support him “100 percent.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6679801/
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indepat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 01:10 PM
Response to Original message
5. Rummy surely showed how much he supports the troops
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 01:20 PM
Response to Original message
6. I CANNOT IMAGINE WHY
nt
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saigon68 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
7. This has something to do with it (graphic)
Edited on Fri Dec-10-04 01:23 PM by saigon68
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grasswire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:08 PM
Response to Reply #7
12. oh my dear god
I see that the pic is from the New England Journal of Medicine. What a horrific, horrific injury. What a challenge for the Army surgeons. What hell.
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VegasWolf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 01:25 PM
Response to Original message
8. Armor won't protect you, Rummy says, as he gets into his armored car. n/t
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grasswire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:08 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. he didn't even go to Iraq, did he?
He met with the soldiers in Kuwait, I think.
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donkeyotay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 01:51 PM
Response to Original message
9. Corporate media, GOPer whores censored this where I live
<snip>
The same night, interviews with three soldiers who are seeking refugee status in Canada, where they have become minor celebrities, dominated prime time television. They are among more the than 5,000 troops that CBS’s 60 Minutes reported on Wednesday had deserted since the war began.
<end>
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 01:54 PM
Response to Original message
10. And if America is known for its military, we are soon to be toast. And
with * in power, nuclear armageddon is not out of the equation.
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Just Me Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:01 PM
Response to Original message
11. WTF is that picture? Yellow ribbons running down their backs,...
,...WTF is that?

Just wait and listen to all those right-wingers wail when the draft is shoved on them.

I'll be every bit as heartless and curt as they have been with both fellow Americans and our soldiers: "Shut-up, suck it up, do your patriotic duty, protect our liberty, go fight for freedom!!!"

Meanwhile, having fought the patriotic fight against this treasonous leadership, I will feel very comfortable protecting the life of my son by getting the hell out of dodge.
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Cocoa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:15 PM
Response to Original message
14. Tom Friedman needs to read this
Tom is closely monitoring the troops' mood...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/opinion/21friedman.html?ex=1102827600&en=c95f3b897caafae0&ei=5070&oref=login&oref=login

"Readers regularly ask me when I will throw the towel on Iraq. I will be guided by the US Army and Marine grunts on the ground. They see Iraq close up. Most of those you talk to are so uncynical--so convinced that we are doing good and doing right, even though they too are unsure it will work. When a majority of those grunts tell us that they are no longer willing to risk their lives to go out and fix the sewers in Sadr City or teach democracy at a local school, then you can stick a fork in this one. But so far, we ain't there yet. The troops are still pretty positive. So let's thank God for what's in our drinking water, hope that maybe some of it washes over Iraq and pay attention to the grunts. They'll tell us if it's time to go or stay."
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Just Me Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:22 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. ",...let's thank God for what's in our drinking water,..." bwahahahaha
Oh, brother.

Well, it's not in the water,...it's psy-ops on those airwaves.

:argh:
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Moderator DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-10-04 02:26 PM
Response to Original message
17. Duplicate topic
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1053389
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