"Go Smoke Pot And Then Go Get A Drug Test At Your Family Doctor"

[orleans]

randi rhodes yelling at a caller who said the reserves are trying to get him.

(so i googled a few words--smoke pot army drafted--and found this)
"In November 1970, CBS News broadcast a report from Fire Base Aires in Vietnam where members of the First Air Cavalry Division gathered for a marijuana “smoke-in.” The image of soldiers using the barrel of a shotgun to smoke pot was shocking enough, but it suggested a larger problem that was to plague the military for the remainder of the war. The strict discipline and respect for the chain of command that distinguished military from the civilian life was crumbling."

from a book entitled:
Soldiers in Revolt.
GI Resistance During the Vietnam War
by David Cortright

http://www.citizen-soldier.org/cortright.html

if congress can't stop this, if the senate won't stop this then maybe it's time....where we need to be sure that "everything old is new again"

[lies and propaganda]

1. i joined in 98 having admitted to

smoking pot ( i believed when they said they would check my hair and know for sure, ha!)
and while I was in, i very shittily got 'caught' with someone of my own gender.

Neither thing did they give a fuck about. they wanted numbers, bodies, places to fill in the gaps. Thats how it was before shitface stole the presidency and I know it just got worse and worse to the eventual boiling point we are at now..

[orleans]

3. damn. that's not encouraging. now what do we do? n/t

[Lasher]

5. Uh, don't join?

The Reserves can't 'get you' (meaning, call you to active duty) unless you join. At this time, joining is still optional. If you did join the Reserves or National Guard and you get tagged to go to Iraq, you should be aware that you personally had something to do with it.

[orleans]

7. right. but what about these people who joined to put themselves

through college by serving "one weekend a month and two weeks a year" line of bullshit--the kids who thought the national guard would be there to watch out for disasters in their state such as floods, fires, etc.

if smoking dope can't help them get out of dodge then what will do it?

[Lasher]

9. You've got a good point there, orleans.

Those who joined the Reserves or National Guard in 1970 or so could have reasonably expected to have avoided active military service in Vietnam. Actually this was a good way to avoid the draft as Junior famously demonstrated. For this reason you usually couldn't get in back then unless you knew someone.

But more lately, and certainly after 2003, anyone who has joined the Reserves or National Guard should have known that there was a distinct possibility that they would get activated for one or more tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. Getting more to the point, none of the ones who have enlisted in the National Guard or Reserves has done so with a legal gurantee that they would only have to serve within their own state. Quite the contrary, every one specifically agreed when they joined that they would obey the Commander in Chief when he called them to active duty.

For decades I have believed that some, and perhaps many, military recruiters should have been jailed for the fraud they have perpetrated against naive young people. And I want to make it clear that I am in favor of free education in this country from K through a bachelor's degree. But I'm getting tired of hearing about those who have voluntarily joined the Reserves and National Guard and now pretend to be surprised to find that they could have been called to active duty.

For what it's worth, orleans, I hope you don't consider this rant to be impolite.

[orleans]

10. lasher, not only do i not consider your post impolite, but i didn't even

view it as a "rant"

no problem.

but, you know how young people are--they all think they are infallible, that nothing bad will ever happen to them--it's a lack of maturity which makes us all superheroes when we're younger. and even though they take the chance/the risk i believe the majority of them, while knowing they might have to go into iraq, believe they will be okay. also--it's the idea that our country would never put them in harms way unless it was absolutely necessary. it's not only a lack of maturity, but it is compounded with this patriotic thrust/trust/belief that they have.

i watched the documentary "why we fight" and was blown away (the one from eugene jarecki in 2005) and wish everyone who is considering enlisting in any type of military service would see. these kids/young adults are not making informed decissions. and that is criminal.

[Lasher]

14. The indiscretions of youth.

I have a great deal of respect for those who volunteer for military service. When you raise your hand and swear the oath, that is a solemn act of consequence. Those who later regret having joined need to keep their promise all the same and serve until their commitment is over if they are able to do so.

Recruiting fraud and youthful indiscretion notwithstanding, they all had a choice. I didn't, I was drafted in 1969 and it was a bad experience. If these folks think they're getting the short end of the stick now, they should consider what that would be like. But I'm utterly opposed to restarting the draft. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I am only a subvet who did just 2 years and saw no combat. But when I came home from South Korea in 1970 the resentment in some places such as airports hung so heavy that you could have cut it with a knife. Let's make sure we don't project our resentment of the war in Iraq onto our soldiers. It's something that would be easy to slip into and it doesn't feel good when you're on the receiving end.

Here, raise a glass with me. To the troops! :toast:

[murielm99]

2. I remember that broadcast.

I watched it in the TV room in my dorm. It got lots of laughs.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Legal drugs have their own set of problems as well.....

http://add.about.com/cs/workplaceissues/a/adhdmilitary.htm
Ritalin is not welcome in the Armed Services

During World War II, Japanese, Russian and German armies used Ritalin as a means of combating battle fatigue. They discovered that soldiers using Ritalin followed directions more easily and focused better on their tasks. Although we may not agree with the intent of these armies, we can certainly agree with the positive effects of Ritalin on those soldiers. Today, the US Armed Forces faces another enemy and the entire military service is gearing up for a long war. Ritalin, however, has no place in the military.

[orleans]

6. i thought i heard we're sending troops back to iraq who are on

anti-depressants.

[Rosemary2205]

8. we are sending amputees back too.

supposedly it's the amputee's choice to go back.

http://www.usmedicine.com/article.cfm?articleID=1239&issueID=83

"Aside from the physical needs of their patients, Dr. Pasquina said that there are many psychological needs of amputee patients. "They are young, they are trying to adjust to their limb loss, they are trying to adjust to the separation of their families, which they haven't seen often for months or years. Now they are separating from their unit. There may be associated guilt with their survival and the loss of their colleague beside them," he said."

snip

"We take rehab step-by-step. They start standing, then walking short distances and progress to walking up and down steps. They accomplish those goals and then they move into more advanced activities, whether it be running, jumping or manipulating obstacles and those sorts of things. If they progress through that, then we look at taking a physical fitness test, which all military soldiers are required to do, passing a fitness test as well as a chance to go back to their unit and work with their unit for a period of time to have their command and colleagues challenge them in a safe environment to see whether or not it's still what they want to do or able to do. It's multiple steps, it's not that they are being discharged from our inpatient ward to go back to Iraq," he said.

For patients who would like to return to active duty or practice skills that they would use in civilian life, Dr. Pasquina said that WRAMC has equipment to help them do that, such as a fire simulation center.

"Those that go back to firing weapons, we have a fire simulation center at Walter Reed where they are in a controlled environment and they learn how to fire weapons with their prosthesis to ensure that they can do that safely and efficiently. For some those skills are used because they want to go back to active duty, for some its because they enjoy hunting," he said. "

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. We are destroying our own country while trying to "save"

another. The damage done to these poor boys and girls is severe. The ptsd is for LIFE. The suicides, murders and general psychological breakdowns are W's present to a country that was never threatened by the one he illegally, illicitly, and immorally invaded.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. It's funny that smoking a joint out of a shotgun barrel is considered "shocking".

Really, I think the original intended purpose of a shotgun barrel is far more obscene and upsetting.

[Katherine Brengle]

13. How true - just goes to show how f*ed in the head many have become..

:(