April 07, 2004
Who Can Forget?
I will never forget the first time I saw these images flash across the screen. I was horrified, scared, and wondering what these soldiers must have been going through. These soldiers were going against a dictator who invaded a small country that most of them had probably never heard of before...I know I had never heard of Kuwait before Saddam's invasion. Can you imagine what these POW's went through?? Can you put a price on that??
The US government makes good arguments against the former POW's claims to this money, at the present time, but how do you deny them?? And at the same time, ...the same administration will turn to tell our troops that are currently overseas that they will not be going home as they have been expecting. Instead, they will be told that they will remain until they can repel the recent explosion of hostilities that are now occuring in Iraq?
This seems to be a cruel and calculated escalation of hostilities timed at just the precise moment that would be the most damaging to our troops morale. Refusing to compensate the POW's must be making the news wires over in Iraq too. If I were them, I would certainly be getting the word out about this.
I cannot imagine what these POW's went through during their capture but, and I mean absolutely no disrespect whatsoever to our Desert Storm heroes, ... did we pay our Vietnam POW's 60 million dollars for what they went through? I am not going to say that what they went through is worth 60 million or even 10 times that, but if we pay it to the POW's from Desert Storm then do we not owe it to our Vietnam POW's?? Does the political aspect, or righteousness, of the war in question rest squarely on the shoulders of the soldier?
It scared the shit out of me when I first saw the photo. I thought Tiger Woods had been abducted from the Masters and was being held in Tikrit.
Does the political aspect, or righteousness, of the war in question rest squarely on the shoulders of the soldier?
An interesting question and not one that I am sure that I understand. When it comes to anything concerning a war the soldier is the least common denominator. They make no decisions. They have no say in policy. Early in their training they are taught that there are three major things that are expected from them:
1) do as you are told
2) do as you are told
3) do as you are told
That is one reason they are known as "grunts".
The only thing that rests squarely on the shoulder of the soldier is the butt of a rifle or a back pack.
I would have assumed that it is written in the contract the payment compensation for POW's. All soldiers signed the contract.
My guess is that most signed up to see the world. The pension after 20 years is a pretty good deal. The trick is to stay alive for 20 years. While there have been times when it was statistically safer to be a soldier than it was to be a night manager at a convenience store those numbers can rapidly change.
The bottom line is that once you sign on the dotted line you belong to Uncle Sugar, heart, mind, body and soul. He will do to you and with you what he wants, when he wants and where he wants. If you volunteer for 4 years the fine print states that he can keep you as long as he wants to.
You need to know that going in.
If you want to see the world Delta is ready when you are.
If you want to legally kill people and break things mercenaries make more money but I am not sure of their benefit package.
Agreed.
Desert Storm was a more popular war with the American public than was the Vietnam conflict yet it seems that only during these last couple of years our Vietnam vets are finally getting the appreciation that they deserve and not being called "baby killers" for merely doing what they had sworn an oath to do.
I know the current morale of our troops must be at an all time low....I really hope that they can snuff this Iraqi problem out really quick and return home to their families.
Posted by: jadarm at April 8, 2004 01:41 PM