Hat tip to the writers at Mad TV. They get it. Now if the members of Congress will just catch on.
While working this past week on a terrorism exercise (location undisclosed) I had a chance to chat with several active duty military officers. One soldier, a Colonel, told me he had been on the Army planning staff and that the Army was “crisped”. Crisped means toasted, fried. It is the term firefighters use to refer to a body found in a burned out building–i.e., crispy critter. And it is all because of Iraq. Now this should not hit anyone as a newflash. Outgoing Chief of Staff of the Army said as much in Congressional testimony in February. The damage to the Army is deep and serious. We have lost our ability to respond to another international crisis. At present the Army units are either deployed in Iraq, coming back from Iraq (beat up and depleted) or training to go. There is no reserve.
The damage to the personnel goes beyond the physical wounds inflicted by improvised explosive devices and snipers. The damage it encompasses the thousands grappling with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). And the damage surpasses the tens of thousands grieving the death of their soldier, including children deprived forever of a parent. There are broken families, soaring divorce rates, homelessness among returning vets, and some suicides. David Cloud does a great job of detailing this mess.
The destruction of equipment is equally daunting. We will be paying for at least the next decade to replenish the Bradleys, the Humvees, and the transport aircraft that have been destroyed and worn out in this civil war. There is no cheap out.
So as Nancy Pelosi and the new democratic majority celebrate the hollow victory of finally setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces from the morass of Iraq, we must be sure to sit down and count the cost we must pay in the years to come to rebuild and restore the Army that has been wasted in the streets of Baghdad, Fallujah, and Ramadi. However, there is no congressional appropriation that can heal the broken hearts, mend the shattered bodies, resurrect dead parents, or restore destroyed families. There are some things we can never fix or make better.
The restoration of the Army and Marines will take a generation. If it happens at all.
yeah, but I got me one of them I-Raqs.
Hi Larry….your last two sentences sums up everything most heartbreakingly and bears repeating…over and over again and before anyone would ever think of sending troops off to some misbegotten and illegal war or even some so called legitimate war:
“…, there is no congressional appropriation that can heal the broken hearts, mend the shattered bodies, resurrect dead parents, or restore destroyed families. There are some things we can never fix or make better.”
I agree with everything in this post, but I also think we need to start looking at our military closely.
Tommy Franks called Feith the stupidest man in the world. What does it say about Franks that he was willing to send soldiers to their deaths for what he knew were lies? What does it say about Franks?
During his confirmation testimony General David Petraeus called into question the patriotism of war critics. What does that say about his understanding of the constitution and his willingness to protect it? And what does it say about Democrats that they all voted to confirm him?
Most of the officer ranks voted for Bush TWICE. What does that say about the officers who voted for Bush in 2004?
It is at least possible that there is a connection between sending soldiers to war for lies, not adequately supplying them with body armor and armored vehicles, sending wounded troops to substandard hospitals, failing to maintain discipline and turning a blind eye to female soldiers being raped, and the commission of war crimes at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere? Shouldn’t the Joint Chiefs of Staff be called to answer for this? Or, under the pretext of supporting the military, are we just going to give them a pass?
Bush didn’t do this all himself, he had help. Not just from PNAC, not just from a complicit press, but also from generals who do not seem to understand what it is they have sworn to protect.
Well said, Alice Marshall!
Thanks for this video, Larry. Agreed about your last sentences….the heart of the matter.
The USA is a third world country by 2008.
Perhaps then we won’t be able to do this to another country.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com
PSTD?, minor compared to that.
And what means word “country”?
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=20963
That one is from the C:my documentsdeath of America
directory.
We already are a Third World Country with our own ruling family of dictators the current version of which likes to dress up in military garb like Idi Amin, Khaddaffi, or Saddam Hussein. Our version had an aircraft carrier to preen on.
Need more evidence. We can’t take care of our own victims of natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina), we have a growing disparity between the uber-rich and the rest of us, and a growing number of citizens who are poverty-stricken. We use our military to do everything.
I’ve written here at Booman that the Bush family is our equivalent to the Borgias.