Family Gets Soldier's Christmas Card Hours Before Death News

:-(

These soldiers are just statistics to the corporate cabal.

Rumsfeld is on the reocrd calling soldiers "fungible."

The super-rich are making billions in Iraq.

We The People are doing the bleeding and must be the ones that stop this war.

The war is like a goose that lays golden eggs for Bush, Cheney, and the corporate cabal.

They will not give up their prize easily.

RIP Sergeant Taylor and condolences to your family.

sharing with the men that make the ultimate sacrifice, do you?

That brotherhood talk is just a bunch of worthless talk the wealthy hands out.

How do they get away with it?

He had to have done it or re-enlisted DURING this iraq war.

and wrong, too. I'm pretty sure the military still has the stop-loss order in place so people can't get out even if their enlistments are up.

So are you really blaming the victim here? "Ah, he was asking for it. Look at how he was dressed! Of course he got blown up. That's what happens when you dress like a soldier!"

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blame the troops. In Viet Nam they were baby killers, today they are stupid.
People enlist in the military, and yes you realize that your death may be an outcome....but you don't consider yourself in imminent danger. Many of these guys are post 9/11, and went in believing in a lie and are trapped by stop loss policies.
Our military are a valuable asset to this country because they ARE willing to lay down their lives. That is not a common thing. Because they are so valuable, they should be protected, used sparingly, and NEVER, EVER put into a positions where that commitment could result in a needless death. Poor planing causes needless deaths.
Our military is in serious danger....they have lost trust. This causes a recruitment problem now and more so in the future.

Let me demonstrate with a few examples:

A good friend of mine in the navy enlisted for a four-year term in July 2002. That was before the start of the Iraq War. He was set to be deployed for a six-month tour of duty to the Sunni Triangle, but narrowly escaped it following a last-minute psych eval. His enlistment runs out this coming July.

A friend of the family was in college fall 1999- summer 2003 (four years) and financed it with RotC. Thus, he "owed" the army four years upon his graduation, which he had signed off on in 1998 -- clearly before the war. He is currently deployed as a sniper in Fallujah.

One of my mother's colleagues has a son who joined college RotC in fall 2000 ... before the war. In the fall of 2003 he was "called up" by the army, as is the army's reserved right with senior RotC members, and served in Iraq for six months. When the army taps you for active duty, you don't have a choice -- you go.

Many of New York City's firefighters, police officers, and other civil servants are reserve army officers and have been for many years. A very large number have been "called up" for active duty during the last two and a half years and have served tours of duty in Iraq. There was an article run in the NYT a while ago about how there was a civil servant shortage because of the large numbers of called reservists.


And yes, when a person joins the armed services, he expects some sort of danger. However, he also enters into a contractual agreement with the government: his job is to protect and serve the people of his country. In this case, the government has broken that agreement with its servants, and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.

It is exactly like in Vietnam. Many people make careers in the military, some do it just for a short-term job. But no matter what the case, they expect to protect and serve. And they expect that their lives will be treated with respect. In Vietnam, they were treated like crap. In Iraq, they are being treated like crap. And once they enlist, whether it's before or after the start of the war, they don't have a choice in the matter. They are legally the property of the US govt.

I guess you only answer selectively. Additional data n/a?

Anyway, if you're friends joined AN ARMY (again my caps) and that includes all branches of AN ARMY. I suppose he should have read the fine print - they can bring you back/extend you. And he may have noticed that the army typically requires you to carry a gun, learn weapons ect. to go fight. Odd people join who don't want to do that, join. In other words, sounds like they're getting that they signed up for.

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top of this thread.

That guy didn't want to die, and I'll bet he didn't want to kill anyone either. Believe it or not most of the people in the military don't want to do either, die or kill. And it's heart wrenching for his family to each have to bear the loss of that soldier for the rest of their lives.

It's ironic that I get the same line of reasoning from some of the wingnuts I work with when I talk about the how each death is a tragedy in this horrible, immoral war. The wingnuts I talk with say the same thing you say, "Oh well, he knew the risk when he went in."

I wish you would save your ire for those who deserve it: Bush and his cronies. Not the victims.

giving me. They have a gun and kill mentality.

Me being against the war and against soldiers joining to fight it, makes them literally tell me liberals like me should be lined up and shot.

Odd you're now calling me a wingnut adhominum.

So you're against the war, odd, coudln't tell.

If he didn't want to die and he doesn't want to kill people, he really should have joined the peace corps. Still dangerous but easier to sympathize with his death. Too bad he joined the army, boy, bet he was surpised in boot camp when they handed him a gun. Poor guy. Didn't know what he was getting in to...

I merely noted that the end result of your opposing the war and people who support the war is the same: Zero sympathy for schmuck who is now dead. Feeling sad that one more person has died does not make me a supporter of the war.

You should listen to "The Revolution Starts Now!" by Steve Earle. It's smart, funny, sad, and it rocks to. He has a couple of songs that talk about how people end up in all kinds of awful, violent situations.

It really warms the heart, doesn't it?

:sarcasm:

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because I'm against people walking around in fatigues with machine guns.

Sure. Anti-war people like me need help.

left and right.

They keep announcing so and so just joined and just found out he/she is going to iraq. it's been this way for 3 years. And we're all supposed to go Ah and suddenly get sad and pray for the kid. We do. I pray for their parents and for them not to kill anyone.

Too bad you aren't there to go all soft for them...

Are you a gun owner? I wouldn't own a gun. Anyone toting a machine gun and fatigues just doesn't get too much sympathy for me when they get shot... It makes praying for the poor kid who"can't help his situation", dang hard.

Amazing how many people can't distinguish between that and a republican...I of course call it projection.

:cry:

will be in my prayers. So tragic.

Chimpy-- are you paying attention?

<sound of crickets>

No, I didn't think so.

I cry for Sgt. Taylor and I cry for his family. :cry: