A Conversation we need to have, but won't
Check out the above link, to Thomas Ricks' blog. It's a lengthy, well-thought-out piece by a combat veteran who was a very good student of mine a long time ago. He makes a compelling case for mandatory military service. (I have half-seriously promoted this idea, too, usually when somebody complains about being "yelled at" - sometimes by me, sometimes by others. I think everyone should have the experience of really being yelled at, preferably by a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant and preferably for no good reason.)
This posting, however, gives a dead-serious, angry, articulate and persuasive case.
posted by Anonymous at
10:08 AM
1 Comments:
You and Adam love that idea! Actually I support it too. I think if anything it can push people to realize they can do a lot of things they didn't think they could. I know I wish I had done it. Reading that I can hear a lot of Adam in it. I mean his second deployment to Ramadii they took an artillery unit turned it into a Infantry one and hardly gave them any training. They took other NCO's from another unit that just got home and sent them to this unit because they needed more men with experience. They had the infamous 2LT who loved to go into the field for fun with his shiny new pins on and almost got Adam killed a few times. Now I am not sure about the statistics on the draft thing, I mean one thing to be said is our casualty rates were MUCH higher in previous wars which might say something about the quality of draft. However there is a lot more to take into consideration then just the casualty rate, you would need to look at enlistment rates, survival, and equipment before I could make a comfortable conclusion on that. The other thing I hated was when people got French citizenship's to avoid a draft. Yes I know them! And yes I was pissed! Seriously, my family has been here for 200+ years I am not leaving because a draft in a country I love. A draft could create a sense of loyalty to the nation, one we desperately need now. I do like his idea on coming home to people who know your story. I often wondered about that with WWII vets. But I also feel PTSD is a normal response to a not normal situation. We need to get Vets to understand that having emotional issues with what you saw, is healthy. You just need to deal with it in a healthy manner. That is the hard part. So many vets think PTSD means they are weak. It is the exact opposite. It means you had a set of values before the war and that you still have them and want them. Coming home from IED's, Fires, Guns and dead bodies with no issues is more of a concern.
Enough on that rant. If you want to see some cool videos however on Marines deployed in Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wukdy4N3KU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=068k3Yvpv6A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsuyHlFwgo8&feature=related
All of these Adam was in. I hope to one day write a paper on the April 2, attack. It was one of the larger more important ones where they almost lost the prison. They were almost out of ammo by the end of it (this from Adam) and at least according to Wikki (which can be wrong) they sent out an order for bayonets to be used. This was the only one CNN reported on because the terrorists sent in a video to them of them preparing for it, but there had been a few more big ones working up to this one. If you get to the 2:20 second mark it gets interesting. There is another video that is really good on this fight but it might be a bit to graphic.
1:12 PM
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