Wives of 1st Armored Division Troopers are Pissed at * and Rummy

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=21574

I’d like to extend a hearty thank you to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the pending 120-day extension of our troops in Iraq. After all, what’s 120 days, really? For our family, it’s four birthdays (again), Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (again), our wedding anniversary (again), and the Fourth of July, which is what service is all about for a lot of military families.

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The next thank you should come from President Bush this November, when John Kerry is elected president because of the lies Secretary Rumsfeld told. The final thanks will be from whoever has to rebuild our Army’s strength when my husband and many others refuse to re-enlist.

Jessica Moretz
Giessen, Germany

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As a family member, an American, and a spouse of a currently deployed soldier with the 1st Armored Division, I have never supported this mission. I have always supported our troops. I have always supported the Afghanistan mission, which seems to have taken a distant backseat at the moment. The Iraq mission was a farce from the beginning, created by a right wing, egocentric group called the Bush administration.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney have been dreaming for decades of a pre-emptive strike. That’s their philosophy. The problem I see with taking pre-emptive measures is that if your intelligence isn’t rock solid, you run the risk of striking the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, America “elected” the perfect puppet for them to carry out their dream. They abused Americans’ renewed trust in our government by using the backdrop of the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedies.

Paula Gaskell
Hanau, Germany

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After a year of nervous waiting and living without my husband, we’ve been looking forward to April 2004 with great anticipation. He left for Iraq on April 29, 2003. We were told he could be gone for 365 days. The welcome home parties have all been planned, and some of the troops from the unit are already back in Germany. I am four months pregnant, a gift my husband left for us when he was on rest and recuperation leave in December. Now I’ve been told at the last minute that the day I’ve been looking forward to for a year was just a tease.

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Publicity is the only thing that politicians listen to. We can’t sit and be quiet and take this laying down. The promises have to stop being broken. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have to start living up to their word. They said our troops would be home in a year. Now they’ve changed that to 16 months. When is this going to end?

Hollie Mitchell
Hanau, German

I hope her husband makes back to her safe and sound