The other night I saw on some news program an interview with a few guys who deserted from the Army. The story had to do with Moveon.org.

This idiot explained he joined the Army to get out of his hometown and see the world. When his unit was in Germany about to deploy to Iraq, that's when he bailed. My question, was he confusing the recruiting office with a travel agency? I think the other joined for medical coverage but I can't remember.

Last night, my son called and I finally heard the details of why he was bumped from an upcoming trip to Iraq for the Marine Corps. It would have been a 1-2 month repair mission, not a regular patrol mission.

He found out that a Cpl who is due to get out in six months and has never been to Iraq pulled rank on him and took his spot, my son is a LCpl. Rather than being relieved, my son is upset as he wanted to go but looks at it as RHIP.

Quite a contrast, one goofball runs off in Germany while others are fighting over who gets to go.

As far as someone deserting after having been in Iraq or Afghanistan for a number of previous deployments, while I don't agree with it, I can understand someone who has seen the gore and just can't do it anymore. But some coward who has never been there and bails on his brothers in his unit....I am sickened by. Sure, he'll take the benefits of the military but when it's time to serve in combat, he bailed.

End of rant.....

Don

The U.S. military used to go after deserters with a vengeance, like through paying bounties to local police departments and sheriff offices for finding them and turning them over. Chances are these days that any found deserter will simply be given a discharge with no jail-time served. These days the military will simply write up a report about a desertion and then let fate do the rest.

It wasn't that long ago that deserters would have been given some serious jail time in places like Leavenworth or a Marine Corps prison for deserting.

So no more brig? No more real punishment? What did the person think when they joined the military? College education? Benefits? Desertion is the wrong thing to do.

Well it depends on the reason. Only a buttpuppet would stay and die for any reason whatsover...like serving as a Haliburton Security Guard. Who really joins for that?

I can see putting guys up against a wall and fattin em' up with lead with justification...like the enemy is at the gate, or our very survival hinges on their presence...Yeah go ahead and gibe them a battlefield court martial and hang them, but I cant see such a dire and important cause these days.

We really have no enemies beyond anything akin to a mosquito biting your arm. The expenditure of the US military is double that of the rest of the world combined.

Terrorists? WTF are they? Tons of dope and Illegals pour across the border on a daily basis akin to cockroaches hatching from eggs in the wall....where are the Arab Jihadis with cash sneaking into Mexico and coming across in hit groups?

Why is the NSA, CIA, ect 100% effective in stoppping domestic terrorist attacks and the Coast Guard, DEA, ect. is continually lacking?

Do you really belive that those other organisations are so squared away?

Hardly?

Feel that on your back? It's called piss, not rain.

Yet when it is a matter of recruiting poor people to go out and kill other poor people on the other side of the world to support a killing machine for certain parties to profit from there is obvious exception.

Lets invoke patriotism and the need to die for "freedom".

100% horsecrap.

Just because someone leans toward a bit of "whats in it for me" does not mean they lack any stance towards wanting to actually serve.

It won't be long before all of your diatribe of above is made pointlessly moot, because the showdown that is coming is actually right around the corner. It took a mere six years between the election of Hitler as Germany's leader and Germany's invasion of Poland to occur, and that was back when horses, and not horsepower, transported the troops to battle. And time flies much faster now, things happen so much quicker in this digital-age that has inherited all of us.

Iran will soon have the bomb (if they don't already have it), with the technology it's getting the bomb with coming to them courtesy of a country, Russia, that's had the bomb for nearly sixty years. And Iran's oft-repeated officially-stated goal is to wipe Israel off of the map and to destroy "The Great Satan", which is what Iran's theocrats call the United States. Syria is trying to get the bomb too, and quite possibly might have some nuclear devices courtesy of the black market in the form of former USSR warheads. Pakistan certainly already has the bomb, and now al Qaida wants Pakistan. Libya almost had the bomb before they stopped seeking to add it to their arsenal (my guess is that the U.S. made them an offer that they couldn't refuse). It's a mad world out there, anonymouslurker. Albeit I did appreciate many of your points in your diatribe of above, they aren't points that will hold up to the test of time, it pains me to believe, because the enemy, the real enemy, really does have its eyes on our gates. And the genie is certainly now well out of the bottle.

I can see it now. "Grandpa, what was it like when you deserted?" "Well, Billy, it wasn't like it is now. Now they shoot you the moment they find you. But back when I deserted, all they did to me was mail me a piece of paper that said I couldn't use the V.A., and that I should go and have a nice life."

quote:

The expenditure of the US military is double that of the rest of the world combined.

Really? Would you care to try to back that statement up or did you just pull it out of your butt, for shock value? We spend 50% of the worlds total military spending. But lets not let the facts get in the way of your rant. Let me help you out... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_fede...ilitary_expenditures

You made some good points. Yes, something needs to be done about the nukes of Pakistan and certainly Iran as well. Still, Id think ti be best to just be honest about it and issue ultimatums and work with the Pakis and Indians.

Sadly. it is a matter of time before something goes wrong in those regards. Could be 2 years or a 100. In any case something must be done to get that Genie back in the Bottle.

quote:

Really? Would you care to try to back that statement up or did you just pull it out of your butt, for shock value? We spend 50% of the worlds total military spending. But lets not let the facts get in the way of your rant. Let me help you out... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_fede...ilitary_expenditures

Sorry I stand corrected. I did really mean to say as much as the word combined, granted thats not as double, but its still a huge gap with the next in line on the list...the point being that there is no other Nation that even approaches our power and resources. Even on a question of manpower, our technological superiority is not lacking and easily makes up for the difference.

quote:

Even on a question of manpower, our technological superiority is not lacking and easily makes up for the difference.

Hopefully we will never have to test that theory against about 1 billion Chinese....

The really scary thought, is that for Iran or any other agresser to begin to move on Israel in any really meaningful way, (total war) They have to hurt us bad enough so we can not support israel and before israel can use their nukes. The Israelli's do have nukes don't forget and told Hussein in no uncertain terms when he threatened Israel in 2002 that any attack on Israel by weapons of mass destruction whether they be chemical or biological would be in their words....."Our response will be nuclear."

I was floored when I heard that because it confirmed what had been the big guessing game since 1970, It was announced on the floor of the U.N. by the Israelli Ambassador to the U.N. the lamestream media acted like they never even heard it!!

Tom Clancy's book "the sum of all fears" was predicated on a scenario of Israelli planes being armed with nukes and one of them taking off before being rearmed and shot down in a combat mission.Several years After the book came out, he tells of being asked by the intelligence service of an unamed country where he got his info.....It seems during the Yom Kippur war they did arm five aircraft but none of them left the ground, that's how close it was fellas.

I for one do Not want to fight them here, or after they perfect their plan whatever it is.

Take care....Tawodi...out