From The Guardian…
The US marine corps has been forced to call up its reserves for compulsory service in Iraq and Afghanistan because it has not been able to find enough volunteers – a reflection of the strain the two wars are putting on America’s armed forces.
The marines’ involuntary call-up, seen as a “back-door draft” by Pentagon critics, is the first since the start of the Iraq war, and will begin in a few months when a first batch of up to 2,500 reservists will be summoned back to active service for a year or more. The army has already sent 2,200 reservists back to the front, of which only about 350 went voluntarily.
Although I do indeed love the illustration (where oh where did you find that?) this piece of news weighs in heavy on my already breaking heart.
I am willing to bet the only reason they are doing this call up, is things are so fucked up, that the commanders in the field are ready to quit.
As usual, the politics of the situation is determining the Battle Area, which as we have seen too many times is not the way to play war.
Once the decision is made, you have to give the troops guns, ammo and and support, and get the hell out of the way.
The whole point of war is to get the other guy to stop shooting, either by killing them all, or make it so terrible that they surrender.
As we can see, terrible is not working, so we will have to kill them all, which of course will only demonstrate once again, that we do not understand where the edges of the swamp are, let alone worrying about the alligators.
War is never a job to be managed in velvet coated halls.
History repeats itself, the bush administration is trying to run the war McNamara style, and we know how well that worked out.
Frank, I know where you’re headed with this. All I can do is repeat what I’ve said before: terror, terror, terror, evil, terror, terror, new caliphate of evil and terror, freedom, terror, etc. . . I trust the strength of this argument remains self-evident.
a second front in the war on terriers
Sure, they look cute and harmless when they’re young, but they grow, Frank, and they develop . . . appetites.
“I pledge allegiance to the flap, which covereth my ass almost…”
When I heard this on radio late yesterday I thought to myself, “Self… we are so fortunate to have such a warm and loving Prez who is so committed to protecting us from the terriers.” But then I thought again… What a rotten thing to do to those who have already been forced to give at the office… To this administration, we are all expendable…
Nice BVDs…
Love this Guardian photo! We all know who’s pulling the string on this back flap.
“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck” — only in this case it’s a draft anyway you want to look at it.
I am sickened for this country, especially our younger generations. I believe I heard the upper age limit for call-up from the Marine Reserves is now 41 yrs of age. How high are we going?
The photo was hotlinked from http://www.vintageskivvies.com/art/archives/glossary/a-i/dropseat.jpg
It took me a long time to find it. I was looking for a red union suit with a drop seat and this was the best I could do. Hot linking is a reprehensible technique for getting an image in a post quickly. If I had more traffic, I would have to end the practice.
Hullo! Great accompanying image! Best, rama
I commend to your attention the latest Foreign Affairs (Sept-Oct)Journal which leads with an article titled “Is there still a terrorist threat? The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy”.
The author notes that the total number of people killed since 9/11 by al Qaeda or al Qaeda-like operatives outside Afghanistan and Iraq is not much higher than the number who drown in bathtubs in the US in a single year.
Those poor Military families have shouldered such a burden in this war… The news yesterday said there are now also a full quarter of million Iraqies who are now living as refugees in their own country. Heavy sigh. What’s to be done?
For those of you that are so nieve to believe that this is a new effort. It is not. The Army, National Guard and all of the other services have had their reserves in action ever since we first became involved in this so called WAR. The Corps is just now getting their feet wet.
The so called back door Draft has spread the National Guard so thin that some of them have been called back as many as three times. Remember what the National Guard is for? To be used by the State they live in as a deterent in the case of civil unrest as appointed by the Governor of that State. Other wise, only in the case of a National Emergengy are the Guard to be pulled out of the state for that emergency. That is what the service reserves are for. They are a stop gap measure in the case of undermanning of the services.
This is a created National Emergency by an individual who was irrate because some tyrant threatened his Daddy.
Get-em out. Bring-em home