Related: Deploying For the Decider
I'm tired of calling for an end to these wars when Americans are willing to serve lies, folks. I know it sounds cold and cruel-hearted, but go die for the empire then.
The wars and occupations are not ending and are only going to get worse; I'm tired of beating my typing into a wall.
Enjoy your tours, 'murkns!!!
"Call and response; As the military ramps up for the Afghan surge, a young soldier thrills at the chance while a veteran worries about Obama’s plan" by Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff | December 12, 2009
At a farewell ceremony in Milford, N.H., Private Steven Chick stood among 140 soldiers ready to put American muscle behind President Obama’s surge in Afghanistan. The school gymnasium buzzed with chatter, congratulations, and concern from the families of the New Hampshire National Guard, as Chick, 22, embraced the call to service of his commander in chief.
It is almost as if George Bush were still president, huh?
“I’m glad to serve my country,’’ said Chick, of Center Ossipee, whose wife is expecting their first child in February. “I’ve dreamed of it.’’
Oh, no!!
Related:
AmeriKa's Afghanistan Abortion
His Final Journey Home
I hope your kid gets to know you, Mr. Gung-Ho Go!!!
Thoughts of military service in Afghanistan also permeate a small fifth-floor office in the Massachusetts State House, where Ken Isaksen, 28, a veterans advocate, has a different perspective, one shaped through trial by deadly fire. Isaksen, who patrolled Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, knows firsthand the effect of war on a young soldier. And, even as he works in Boston to support veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is concerned about the road ahead for the young men and women who will be sent.
Then DON'T GO!! REFUSE the ORDER!!
They CAN'T COURT MARTIAL and LOCK EVERYONE UP!!
Related: MSM Covering Up Military Munity at Fort Hood
You may find more support than you know, soldier!
Although Isaksen and Chick, the veteran and the neophyte, are linked by this war, they are separated by a chasm of experience. What makes the difference even more stark is that today’s conflict is vastly different than the war’s early years, when Isaksen was deployed and American forces held the upper hand. For Chick’s deployment, Afghanistan’s future hangs precariously in the balance, and the prospects for victory on the battlefield, to many, seem uncertain....
Afghanistan’s stark and mountainous landscape, and its balkanized tribal allegiances, have made the fight there confusing and complicated....
Isaksen also had to contend with cultural shock in a country with profoundly different ways than his own. He recalled his revulsion at the way Afghan women were treated, how education was dismissed in a largely illiterate country, and how religion infused nearly every aspect of everyday life.
Don't you love the racism permeating throughout the attitude of the AmeriKan?
Of course, he has no problem with the Zionist-immersed society of which he is a part. And seeing as we lead the world in rapes, no comment. Seeing as our kids are stoo-pid, no comment.
“The combat is almost muscle memory. You’ve prepared for it, mentally and physically,’’ Isaksen said of the fight in Afghanistan. “But the cultural differences . . . ’’
Isaksen’s rapid-response unit hopscotched around the country to hunt insurgents. “We were looking to pick a fight, really, for anyone who was willing,’’ he said.
Yeah, THAT'S HOW you CREATE "INSURGENCIES" and KEEP a WAR GOING!!!
Related: Taliban I Told You So
Oh, KILLING INNOCENTS who are JUST DEFENDING THEIR HOMES as YOU WOULD, 'murkn?
Isaksen watched Obama’s recent announcement of the troop surge and had the same questions many others have raised: Will 30,000 more troops be enough? Is the plan to begin withdrawals in 18 months too ambitious? And what will be done about Pakistan, where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have long established safe havens?
ARE WE EVER COMING HOME?
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Isaksen left active duty as a corporal in 2007, and is now part of the Marine Reserve; what happens in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the region remains a concern. He has been there. His buddies have been there. The war also is woven into his job as managing director of OIF/OEF Veterans of Massachusetts, a nonprofit group that advocates for service members who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows what fresh-faced soldiers like Chick will be facing. But if Chick harbors any of those questions, he is not sharing them publicly. “I just do what I’m told,’’ said Chick. “Whatever President Obama wants us to do, that’s what I’ll do. He’s the commander in chief.’’
Chick has seen a slide show about Afghanistan, but the rest of his introduction to that impoverished, imperiled place has come through self-directed trolling on the Internet.
“You’ve got to figure it out yourself,’’ said Chick, who worked in landscaping and is an avid year-round sportsman - soccer, hockey, track, fishing, snow sports. He has traveled outside the United States only once. He is one of 12 siblings, nearly all of them adopted, and has no memories of his early years in an orphanage north of Moscow.
“I’m an American,’’ Chick said, his voice clear of any traces of a Russian accent. To him, the irony that his adoptive country is fighting a protracted war in the same nation where the Soviet Union met defeat is irrelevant.
Yeah, think of the "IRONY" when you are LOWERING the CASKET into the ground, American!!!!
The foundation of his first deployment will be unquestioning commitment. “I think we’re doing just fine. I don’t go left or right,’’ he said, and analyze the mission from a political perspective. Presidential policy is also out of bounds. “That’s outside my lane,’’ Chick said. “I’m at company level. If they say we’re shipping you, that means I’m going.’’
You know, like a GOOD NAZI!!!
Life for Chick is a straight-ahead journey of duty to country, love of family, and following orders. What happens in Afghanistan over the long view is out of his control. His education will come overseas.
Related: Some Things Are More Important Than School
Yeah, who would want to waste time at school?
And KEEP YOUR BUTT DOWN!
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"350 Guard troops headed for Afghanistan
Another group of Vermont National Guard soldiers is shipping out.
Related: Americans Heading to Afghanistan
Who knew you guys signed up for active duty, huh?
Hundreds of family members turned out yesterday to say goodbye to about 350 Afghanistan-bound soldiers at a farewell ceremony in Burlington. Members of the First of the 172d Cavalry Squadron from armories in St. Albans, Swanton, Enosburg, Newport, Lyndonville, and Bennington are headed to Camp Atterbury, Ind. They are part of a 1,500-strong contingent of Vermont National Guard members headed to Afghanistan. They will return to Vermont for the holidays before going back to Indiana to complete training and head overseas (AP)."
"Authors King aid troop homecoming
Authors Stephen and Tabitha King are donating money so 150 Maine Army National Guard soldiers can come home for the holidays. The Kings, who live in Bangor, are paying $13,000 toward the cost of two bus trips so that members from the Third Battalion, 172d Infantry Unit can travel from Camp Atterbury, Ind., to Maine for Christmas. The soldiers left Maine last week for training at Camp Atterbury, and are scheduled to depart for Afghanistan in January. Julie Eugley, one of Stephen King's personal assistants, told the Bangor Daily News that the Kings were approached about giving $13,000, but Stephen King thought the number 13 was unlucky; so the couple pitched in $12,999 instead. Eugley chipped in $1 to make it an even $13,000 (Boston Globe December 14 2009)."
Oh, and don't forget your shots!"Soldiers receiving H1N1 inoculations" by Associated Press | December 12, 2009
FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Thousands of Army recruits in training must line up at least once more before heading home for the holidays, this time for mass inoculations by the hundreds against swine flu.
The Army’s largest training camp, outside Columbia, S.C., and other posts are hurrying to finish the shots before the year-end break. More than 40,000 soldiers in advanced and basic training across the country head home over the next two weeks in a massive troop movement known as “block leave,’’ Army officials said. “We have been very aggressive in trying to assure the safety of our soldiers,’’ said Major Soo Hee Kim-Delio, the Army physician in charge of the inoculations at Fort Jackson. “Our basic training population is at particularly high risk.’’
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The soldiers are also vulnerable because of the physical stress of basic training and from living at close quarters with hundreds of other recruits, Kim-Delio said. When they return home, they may rub shoulders with a host of relatives or be around children fresh from exposure at school. Fort Jackson recorded the Army’s first death from complications of swine flu when Specialist Christopher Hogg of Deltona, Fla., died Sept. 10 from pneumonia due to H1N1 influenza, authorities said. Fort Jackson started the shots about two weeks ago and expects to vaccinate as many as 9,000 soldiers by the end of this week and another 2,000 by the middle of next week.
So they can spread it around over the holidays, huh?
The trainers who remain on post, the Army’s medical workforce, family members, pregnant women, and those with medical conditions such as asthma also will get the shots for a total of about 15,000 doses, Kim-Delio said. The Department of Defense purchased 2.7 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which it is trying to deliver to soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines around the globe before the end of the year.
Related: A $7 Billion Dollar Shot in the Arm
Now roll up that sleeve.
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