[luvtolean]

You can read this if you want, but it's not necessary for the discussion. Personally, I have no sympathy for this woman. She was paid good money to be in the reserves, and she shouldn't complain if called up. I know there are also bonuses available for some who join the reserves as well, and if she got one, I bet she wasn't giving it back if she didn't goto war.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raq_reservists

However, I think this is a bad sign for different reasons. My GF's sister is a "West Pointer". She already did a tour in Iraq, and returned about a month ago. She is due to go back in a month or 2. This is very bad for morale. The army blames low enlistment for all their problems, but why would you enlist when you see you'll do an unknown number of tours in a war zone, then even 10 years later, might be pulled out of whatever civilian life you've built (they're calling up non-active reservists as well) and sent to a war zone?

I hesitate to use this analogy (as I don't think it is fair to compare this situation to Vietnam. Yet), but it is recent, and I think applicable. If you do any reading about the post Vietnam army, it basically was horrible. The majority of people going in had "no place else" to go. (I've never been in the military, and of course, I'm sure there were some great people in at that time) A friend's brother enlisted in 1980 because it was that or jail, and from what I've read (from people like Gen Chuck Horner in his and Tom Clancy's book among others), that was a common theme back then. By 1990, we had a large, extremely professional army that was well trained and had great morale. People weren't just there as a "lifeboat". My same friend who's brother went in in lieu of jail, went in by choice in the late 80's, went to Saudi the first time, and said him and his brother tell of very different experiences in the army.

I truly fear, we are headed back to the doldrums.

What do you all think?

[figment]

What do you all think?

I think they should raise the age of acceptance by 20 years.

[BDA116]

A good friend of mine has spent the last ~2 1/2 years in Afghanistan, Iraq, then back to Afghanistan. He's been home now for a few months, and is happy, but may have to go again.
I asked him about this general thing a few weeks ago, and he said that yeah, there is some low morale, but that the general feeling of the troops out there is a good overall morale. Of course, he said that being home waiting and wondering when the next call up is not a good thing.
He was really kind of vague about it, but what I got from him is that the overall morale of the troops while deployed is good - not great, but good. But the morale of the troops at home is kinda low because of the "what if" waiting game.

I think we should pull all of our troops out of the third world countries that don't want us there protecting them anyway to help the situation.
If we brought our troops back out of South Korea, Germany and France alone that would help immensely.

[bwhip]

I agree with BDA. I've also heard of many young grunts in the military that don't really like the idea of going back to Iraq or Afghanistan, but like the increased pay that they get for being there. To most of us it would seem like there's no way that would make it worthwhile, but many of them don't think that way.

My son is due to return to Iraq next month, unfortunately. He isn't crazy about going, but knows that comes with the job, and feels that at least this time they won't be sleeping in trenches in the desert, worrying about chemical or biological attacks with their MOPP suits on.

[rocket]

Originally Posted by luvtolean

What do you all think?

Some of my friends are over there and the worst thing for them is the fact that we have to stand down when we're making headway. When you secure an area and then are told to cease fire and that area goes back into enemy hands it has a tendency to make you lose hope. If you let the professionals do what they were trained to do this would be almost over. Need to utilize snipers more over there. Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of an enemy like Scout/Snipers IMHO.

The reservist that do not want to be there are a cancer in the dugout. Better off to let them go home before they effect the team.

[bwhip]

Inside One Day's Fierce Battles in Iraq

[nomad]

I can't really speak for how the US is looking after their army, but some general thoughts... what is the draw to the military? For me, I guess it was the one job where I was proud to represent my country. Putting that into perspective of today's world, would the avg. US citizen want to represent the US in Iraq? That's a difficult question... some would say yes, others would say no; it is very difficult to join a war that you don't stand behid. I know that I wouldn't join the US military (if I were in the US) because I don't have faith in your political leaders. I would rejoin the Canadian military because I think we are involved in the 'right' spaces... not enough of the righ spaces but that is another discussion. I suspect that your military doesn't pay as well as the civilian life but perhaps pay is not the driver for your low number of enlisted... I propose a theory that people don't like to join a military that is being driven by political agendas.

Another theory might be that traditional armies are becoming less important in today's landscape. There are few major conflicts that require army-on-army fighting... I refer you to a few events in history;
1. War of independence... the US fought with new techiniques that were very guerrilla-esque.
2. Vietnam war... the US was not dominant against guerrilla techniques.
3. The Iraq war II... the US dominated the dilapidated Iraqi army, however, they have not been able to successfully break the guerrilla techniques of in-city fighting.
Perhaps the US military (and ours too...) needs a re-branding to appeal to today's generations. Not so much, "Lets hide in the jungles and shoot things" but more technology, prevention, policing and intelligence... uh... I guess this last point isn't very clear; I'm trying to say that the military 'brand' of a soldier marching away just doesn't resonate with the younger generations - no GI Joe cartoons.

[nomad]

disclaimer: my above comments are just projections... assertions thrown out there for debate and discussion. I haven't set my opinion yet.