A young man with a wife and 2 kids told me he was going to Iraq next week

[billbuckhead]

I wanted to tell him, please don't. I was so startled and horrified, I couldn't think what to tell him. In the past, I would praise service members in the war zone for their service but at this point I think we are letting our fellow Americans and fellow humans down by not telling them to not go. Now and then, I deal with Haliburton people, what's to think about those guys? No one can deny that at this point in history, this evil and failed war is tearing apart the very fabric of America. No longer do Americans know how to patriotically relate to each other.

[Breeze54]

1. I hear that....

:hug:

[bahrbearian]

2. Let alone, just relate.

Why do we have to tip toe around the 8oo lb gorilla

[Warpy]

3. "I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do for you while you're gone?

Do you want my number in case your wife needs a babysitter, lawn mower, furniture moved, help with shopping until you get home?"

The change in people here around the air base since they started doing tours in hell is intense. Helping these guys out by helping their families might be one of the things that eventually helps THEM.

[caligirl]

7. YES! you understand just what to say. Good answers all. When my husband

left for his third 6 month deployment years ago, my car quit out the main gate in Hawaii. I called a friend who knew what to do. It needed a new radiator.

[aquart]

10. That's exactly the right thing to say.

The stress can be overwhelming for the spouse at home. Not to mention that there isn't money to pay for those things you mention.

[TahitiNut]

12. Yep,

:thumbsup: There's sure as hell some guy willing to hit on her ... who knows how to say that, too.

[El Supremo]

4. Show him this:

FORT COLLINS (AP) - A Marine killed Saturday in Iraq was a father of two young sons, his family said.

Sgt. Nicholas Walsh, 26, was killed in enemy fire in Fallujah, his family said. Anbar province has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq.

Walsh's survivors include his wife, Julie; 4-year-old son, Triston; and 7-month-old son Tanner of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

His parents, two brothers and sister live in Fort Collins, along with his grandparents Taylor and Rosanne Hall.

"He was dedicated to what he was doing and believed he was fighting for the safety of the people of the United States," his father, Jerry Walsh, said in a written statement. "He was a gentleman, a gentle man."

"Our hearts are broken," said his mother, Maggie Walsh. "He was a wonderful son and grandson, a loving husband and the best daddy to his little boys."

[sanskritwarrior]

11. Why would you show a deploying soldier this article....

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Yeah, he should have shown that before he enlisted.

Now it's a fait accompli. It's not like he'll convince him to desert or anything. On the other hand, he could have an "accident" while cleaning his own gun...

I hear some people hand out "dissuading literature" near recruitment places. THAT is the right time and place.

[sanskritwarrior]

18. Why not just let people make up their on minds

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. And isn't presenting additional, truthful information just that? -nt

[sanskritwarrior]

21. Well I'm in the Army, so counter recruiters kind of

don't sit well with me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Well, suck it up, pal. First Amendment and all that.

[sanskritwarrior]

25. They are entitled to it, I am entitled to not like them

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. OOOH, wait a sec. Since you're here, answer me something I asked a long time ago:

Suppose the general election in 2008 is between McCain (a veteran) and Edwards or Clinton or Obama (non-veterans). Who do you vote for?

Don't dodge the question!

Edit: Added Obama.

[sanskritwarrior]

24. I might not vote

If no one involved has military service it would be hard for me to pull the lever, so I might just sit it out. I wouldn't vote for Mccain if that is what you are asking.

Edit: If clark or gore are on a ticket then definitely. I tend to vote for someone with military service and sit out an election if no one has been in uniform before. My personal opinion...........

edit2: As long as the ticket had a veteran I would vote for it, example Obama/Clark.......Clinton/Gore.......

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. Your worldview is amazingly narrow.

And reeks of an unwarranted feeling of superiority.

When a society focuses excessively on the military, Bad Things Happen.

[sanskritwarrior]

27. Said the guy named commie oinko dirtbag.........

Freudian slip I guess.........

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

28. Someone like you called me that. I started using that name to mock him. -nt

[sanskritwarrior]

33. Cool then we agree to mock each other

sounds great :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

36. What, are you going to create an account named "Gung Ho War Monger"?

That'd be kinda cool, I admit.

[uppityperson]

39. poster's name you are replying to is an oxymoron

"Holy war" sort of thing.
http://www.sanskrit.org/


oxymoron: a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.” (dictionary.com) Holy war. Sanskrit warrior. Military intelligence. Free gift.

Edited to add that I am appreciative of word play.

[sanskritwarrior]

41. Huh.......

I just chose it cause the two most important things to me are my Half Indian heritage and my service in the Army.......but hey I was clever without trying.....good for me. :D

[sanskritwarrior]

40. If only that were true

I might petition the mods to change my name Reluctant Warrior that loves the Army.......that would be closer to reality.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

43. You're SO not getting the joke. -nt

[sanskritwarrior]

51. Do I care?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

46. If you love the Army so much

you must really hate seeing it be misused like that, in a completely unnecessary, drawn-out war. Don't you?

[uppityperson]

47. Now that is a good question.

Friend whose kid just returned on tour 3 of Iraq hated how they were being used. Good question.

[sanskritwarrior]

48. Of course, but I still have a job to do

Good leaders or bad leaders, we have orders to follow. As of today those orders are legal ones.....In fact you might have heard Congress just gave us more money to let us keep fighting. So much for the fighting dems........

[JVS]

52. oinko?

[alarimer]

44. Well people certainly do not get the truth from recruiters, that's for sure

How many enlistees have been out and out lied to by recruiters? Probably all of them.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

45. Now, now. Sanskritwarrior needs his meat. I thought we liberals were supposed to be against hunger.

[sanskritwarrior]

50. YAY

mocking......it's not as good as some other people on DU's mocking, but I give you a B for effort. We can't all be talented at mocking our betters.......... :D

[Karenina]

53. So NOW you're an Übermensch, eh?

:eyes:

[sanskritwarrior]

55. Not at all it is sarcasm towards the one mocking me

.............But hey only say something to me. I like it........:eyes:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

60. Yep. Swims in money too. Look:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2852373#2854546

Frugality is communist, I guess.

[sanskritwarrior]

49. My recruiter back in 1993

told me straight what I was getting into......Of course my recruiter was my brother's best friend........

[uppityperson]

30. Counter recruiters are great. Give people more information, better able to decide

Giving people more information is a good thing. Having people giving out info showing what will happen, and how to not ever trust anything that is not written down, those are good things. Giving them options of other ways to serve their country is also a good thing. Giving this info to kids BEFORE they go to the recruitment office is also good.

Full disclosure, more information, all lead to better, more informed, decisions. I would be much happier if those going in the military had full disclosure, think the military would be a better place, people more content rather than discontented ones that had been deceived during the recruitment process.

[stillcool]

5. I wonder if anyone's heard from Squatch?...

I think about him often..and hope he's okay.

[RB TexLa]

6. Just wanting to check, the ones that do not raise children, their lives

are just as valuable to everyone, right?

[Breeze54]

8. They're all valuable to me.

I didn't think that he having a wife and kids was the issue.
But it does add more grief to think the children may not ever see their father again.

They may be left with a 'flat daddy' instead.




http://www.globalpulse.net/archives/iraq/surreal_flat_da_000388.php">Surreal "Flat Daddy" At Home, Real One At War

snip-->

The Main National Guard (look at their "Flat Soldier" sightings) has been giving "Flat Daddy" cutouts
to families that ask for one, though they are not the first to do so.

These figures go everywhere and do anything with the families. Some sleep in the same bed. They get
kissed by their loved ones. Others sit at the usual dinner table. (I have yet to find a "Flat Mommy.")

---

How sic is that?! :grr:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. Their deaths cause less damage. Do you disagree with that? -nt

[RB TexLa]

31. Yes I disagree with that.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. How?

You are a military commander and have to send one soldier in a suicide mission. You have two soldiers who are equally capable and equally willing, but one of them has two small kids and the other has none.

Do you really think it doesn't make a difference?

[RB TexLa]

35. sorry, this conversation is too disgusting

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

37. Well, it's you who started suggesting the person having kids did NOT make it worse. -nt

[RB TexLa]

38. It doesn't make it worse

that pesky equality of human beings concept.

[sanskritwarrior]

42. If they are equally capable they flip a coin and let fate decide

it's really not that hard.

[uppityperson]

32. Different damage

after all, that father may have come home to beat his kids, where the non-father might have solved world hunger.
That was sarcasm, but "different" is the word and I agree that having kids grow up with a parent killed in this occupation is a foul thing.

[aquart]

9. No memory of VietNam?

[billbuckhead]

13. I was thinking that these could be the last days of this family together

And for what?

[Madspirit]

14. k&r

I finally agree with you about something...<g>
Lee

[uppityperson]

15. A young man with a wife and 2 kids left for raq last week

I told him please don't. He doesn't believe in what is going on there, but felt he had to "go with his men" anyways. I am giving his mother money to send care boxes since they have to go regular mail, regular shipping, which we all know is a lot. I am giving his mother what support I can, listening to her, being there for her.

He doesn't believe what they are doing there is right. Mom doesn't believe what they are doing there is right. I don't believe what they are doing there is right. When will this insanity stop?

Edited to add, this is another young man I believe, on his 3rd tour in Iraq.

[krispos42]

20. I don't know why anybody joins anymore

I really don't. Every day we are there makes us less safe. Every day, our military is weaker, our credability is lessened, our international partners are colder, our enemies are more numerous, better-trained, and more motivated.

And our reasons for going to war are the ego of an idiot, the raw thrist for power by the neocons, and control of oil that we were not being denied in the first place.

I he had joined up before, say, 2002, then I can understand him being caught up in a web of lies about the whole thing. A patriotic American joining the military after the 9/11 attacks, or a career soldier who joined when America was at peace.

Do know when he joined?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. Desperation + false promises + can't find a job anywhere else...

I can understand why certain people would want to join. That's why counter-recruiting (as long as it's done without giving them the opportunity to nail you legally) is necessary.

[mainer]

54. They profiled a dead soldier in PEOPLE this week

There was a quote from some family member that "he LIVED for his wife and kid, he adored them, and his world revolved around them." It sounded like so much crap.

I just want to say, "If you really loved your kid and your wife, and you had the choice, you WOULDN'T GO OFF TO IRAQ!" These soldiers do it because they want to "be there for their buddies."

I guess wifey and kids take a backseat to those soldier buddies.

Yeah, it's nice that these soldiers want to serve their country. But if they have a choice, and they choose to head to Iraq instead of staying with their families, to watch their kids grow up, to support their wives through the many trials of raising children, then they can't really love their kids all that much. Can they?

[leetrisck]

56. Geez!

Pure drivel.

[sanskritwarrior]

57. Probably didn't want to go to jail

It's not that my wife takes a backseat or that guy's family takes a backseat, but we still have a job to do. Good leader or bad, we still have a job to do. And as of today that war is still legal, in fact I believe the Congress just gave it more money........Your analysis is flawed, soldiers never want to leave their families, but they have a job to do, an oath to uphold, and a duty to fulfill........

[leetrisck]

58. Thank you and others

for your service to our Country

[sanskritwarrior]

59. Thank you for being so kind

we never want to leave, but we have a job to do, and until such time as the Congress does their job and deauthorizes this war, we have to do that job, no matter how distasteful we find it........

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

61. See #54. -nt