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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War / Talking To Bush Didn’t Work

Talking To Bush Didn’t Work

by Tim F|  April 5, 20082:10 pm| 32 Comments

This post is in: War

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…so now military leaders are talking to the press.

Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond.

Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.

Some days I imagine a world where Serious People on my TV realize that staying in Iraq is (1) unsustainable and (2) as damaging as any of these terrible hypothetical consequences of leaving that I keep hearing about. Then I’m swimming from a shipwreck, and suddenly I’m flying around in gold underwear and fighting bears. I have pretty weird dreams.

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32Comments

  1. 1.

    Seanly

    April 5, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    I think you’ve been playing too much WoW. Just because they are daily quests doesn’t mean that you actually have to do them every day.

  2. 2.

    jake

    April 5, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    Brown Squirt:

    Waaaaah! How dare those anti-American traitors leading the … er … U.S. Army … Error! Error!

    [Head explodes]

    /Brown Squirt

  3. 3.

    Tim F.

    April 5, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    You’re thinking of John. I don’t use my computer for games.

  4. 4.

    dbrown

    April 5, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    These guys see three or four tours in Iraqi?!!!! With fuckers shooting at them, snipers, and IED’s day in and day out, and only one in four soldiers have a problem? God! Only 1 in four! 99.9% of most people would be going crazy by then! Damn! Those guys are tough fuckers!

  5. 5.

    LiberalTarian

    April 5, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    My brother tried to talk my son into joining the Marines the other day. Usually we just respectfully disagree, but it was the worst fight we’ve had since we were kids. My brother still believes the military is a reasonable alternative to college.

    People really do believe just what they want to believe. My brother just thinks I’m a liberal, so I just hate GW Bush because that is the liberal position. What’s a person to do, Tim??? Especially with the media in the tank. I just dunno.

  6. 6.

    Svensker

    April 5, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    Gold underwear and bears isn’t weird. Serious people on TV talking seriously about Iraq? Time for a shrink.

  7. 7.

    DougL

    April 5, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    LiberalTarian, i don’t suppose your brother has any kids of his own? WTF business does he have trying to talk your son into joining the Marines. Maybe, just barely, I could see if your brother served in the Marines and felt he got a good deal out of it (in peacetime?).

  8. 8.

    Roket

    April 5, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    “The mental health study conducted by the Army was carried out in Iraq last October and November, and does not represent a purely scientific sampling of deployed troops…”

    We won’t know the extent of the damage until after this administration is long gone.

  9. 9.

    Dennis - SGMM

    April 5, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    No one could have anticipated that sending troops on multiple year-long deployments to a combat zone with no rear areas, no safe places and no respite from imminent death would hurt their mental health.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    April 5, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.

    Translation: The Pentagon is fudging the numbers again.

    I’d put money on at least 3 in 4.

  11. 11.

    Stoic

    April 5, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    I’ve taken to calling Bush a Malicious Imbecile. He’s not only stupid, he’s maliciously stupid.

  12. 12.

    Fulcanelli

    April 5, 2008 at 4:07 pm

    I suspect in the future we’ll hear rumors about how certain high-ranking members of the military had privately discussed with the ghost of Marine Gen. Smedley Butler a coup ‘d etat or maybe an “unfortunate accident” taking Bush, Cheney and maybe Rumsfeld out of the picture but nixed the idea because there was no one in that harem full of corporate eunichs and harlots known as the US Congress with enough brains AND balls to fill the chaotic power vacuum in such circumstances, and they’d be correct in that assumption.

    Wait ’til the troops do come home.

    It’s gonna be ugly in about a thousand different ways.

    I know most did volunteer, but I still feel bad for them and their families. Is it bad form to talk about war crimes charges yet?

    O.J. got off on the charges, but the civil suit was successful… Class Action lawsuit? Any lawyers here?

  13. 13.

    RSA

    April 5, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    I’ve taken to calling Bush a Malicious Imbecile.

    I thought that was implicit in “Fratboy-in-Chief”.

  14. 14.

    Dug Jay

    April 5, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    Characterizing this as the military finally leaking to the press is pure drivel. As recently reported by the AP: “Soldiers heading to war this summer are likely to see their tours shortened from 15 months to 12 months, even if troop cuts in Iraq are suspended in July as expected, the Army’s top general said Tuesday.”

    The story in the NYT is not some expressed concern about the mental health of the troops; it’s merely another story in a long line of them designed with the full intent to undercut the troops AND their mission. They have dressed this one up to suggest that they really give a rat’s ass about American soldiers.

  15. 15.

    Tim F.

    April 5, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    it’s merely another story in a long line of them designed with the full intent to undercut the troops AND their mission.

    Indeed, it’s almost as if the New York Times was trying to stab our brave troops in the back. The government really ought to do something about parasites like them.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    April 5, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    Indeed, it’s almost as if the New York Times was trying to stab our brave troops in the back.

    …by saying that soldiers in Iraq tend to have “mental health problems”. How dare they pick on our brave, crazy troops? Actually, what I honestly find shocking is this:

    The survey found that the proportion of soldiers serving in Iraq who had encountered mental health problems was about the same as found in previous studies — about 18 percent of deployed soldiers.

    Almost one out of five? Consistently? Wow.

  17. 17.

    jnfr

    April 5, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    I agree with Dug Jay. Pie is excellent!

  18. 18.

    Dennis - SGMM

    April 5, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    As a vet, I am honored to see this blog graced with the opinions of one whose full-throated support of the war can only mean that he has served in Iraq through multiple tours. It must be the modesty of the true hero that keeps him from recounting his service. One can only imagine the grievous wounds that it took to keep this patriot from returning again and again to Iraq to fight on as an expression of his personal commitment both to the war and to the administration that is conducting it.

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    April 5, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    “Soldiers heading to war this summer are likely to see their tours shortened from 15 months to 12 months, even if troop cuts in Iraq are suspended in July as expected, the Army’s top general said Tuesday.”

    Translation:

    We are reducing military deployment from Mindwrecking to merely Unsustainable

  20. 20.

    Dug Jay

    April 5, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    Come on, Dennis, sarcasm from a dimwitted slacker such as yourself is a bit much. As a vet also, I can assume that your service was most likely on behalf of the side American soldiers were fighting.

  21. 21.

    Dennis - SGMM

    April 5, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    As a vet also, I can assume that your service was most likely on behalf of the side American soldiers were fighting.

    I have a Bronze Star, Combat Action Ribbon and a Meritorious Unit Citation that say that, once again, you’re full of shit.

    Sorry boy, you go back to the pie factory.

  22. 22.

    tballou

    April 5, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    But how are conservatives going to support the troops if they are not fighting in Iraq? Reducing the length and frequency of their tours will result in surrendering to the terrorists, cutting and running, not supporting the troops, and not standing down as the Iraqis stand up.

  23. 23.

    Dug Jay

    April 5, 2008 at 6:41 pm

    Sure you do….

  24. 24.

    Dennis - SGMM

    April 5, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    Sure you do….

    CTF-116, NSAD, Binh Thuy, RVN. Google it, or any part of it, you tired little person.

  25. 25.

    Darkness

    April 5, 2008 at 7:18 pm

    LiberalTarian, Yikes. I can’t imagine. Talk him into Navy, they tend to fare better in modern warfare.

    On that theme though, I think it is ridiculous that the burden of fighting this war has fallen on a handful of families while the rest were told to go shopping.

    We need an amendment to the constitution that requires a draft with any declaration of war. Let congress make a war authorization with full knowledge that everyone gets to go to war. We wouldn’t be in a Iraq now if that had been in place at the time. We would go to war only when it really mattered and no options were left, rather than the lying rhetoric to that effect the congress fell for this time.

  26. 26.

    biscuits

    April 5, 2008 at 8:39 pm

    Oh Darkness, if only. I believe there has been no declaration of war since WWII. I may be wrong (I’m too lazy to look it up). I otherwise agree. No doubt, people would pay much more attention to the choice/actions of our elected officials if they had some skin in the game. Maybe even Dug Jay would get a clue…then again, probably not.

  27. 27.

    Dug Jay

    April 5, 2008 at 9:47 pm

    Dennis, you really need to seek help so that you can come to grips with the reality of what a total loser you have been most of your life.

  28. 28.

    Silver Owl

    April 5, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    When the civilian leadership and submissive military leadership realize that neither can magically shit nor piss human beings for military training things just might change. Since that is indeed a fairytale, it requires the American people to get involved. That too is mostly just a fucking fairytale. Because as we all know the American people think military people are retrieved from toy stores, want to fucking die and be fucked up for life and are not real people until icky numbers of wounded and dead become tummy upsetting.

    We can have all the amendments we want, but when the American people are slow, ignorant and waiting for the numbers to make them ill and/or shock them into action the military is fucked because their shield against a fucked up civilian leadership is too busy napping, watching sports games, doing their hair or whatever.

    The American people are suppose to do their duty and keep the government in check and accountable. The American people fail until it reaches crisis levels and we have not choice but to deal. Things have to be totally fucked up and outrageous before the American people do anything. That has 10-20 year turnaround time.

    Me personally, I think the American military deserve a hell of lot more than what the American people has to offer. We want their blood, lives and everything they live for, but we as a nation don’t do shit for them until it’s too late and we are shamed into it. The last thing we want to know about is something wrong after we’ve used, abused them and can not deny the consequences which takes years and years.

    Regardless of how bad Iraq has become, the American people still have not had the military’s back by pushing hard and public against an out of control and rejected government. Rather than take to the streets we wait for “elections”. So tell me just how serious are the american people? Not very.

  29. 29.

    Mike G

    April 5, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    But Iraq is all about Murka’s national ego for the Very Serious People. Questioning any limit to the capacity and capabilities of Murka’s military is terrist-loving thoughtcrime.

    And as Dick Cheney snarled, “They volunteered”, so in neocon parlance military personnel are suckers to be abused and exploited without limit like corporate assets.

    All you military-oriented Southerners who voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004 — you got exactly what you voted for. I hope you and your loved ones survive this administration without permanent injury or loss, and that you’re not such led-around-by-Rethug-Xtian-jingoist-propaganda gullible tools next time you step in a voting booth.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    April 5, 2008 at 10:59 pm

    you really need to seek help so that you can come to grips with the reality of what a total loser you have been most of your life.

    Dug Jay, Irony of the Day.

  31. 31.

    TenguPhule

    April 5, 2008 at 11:02 pm

    Dug Jay As a vet also of the 101st Cheesy Poof Brigade, I can assume that your service was most likely on behalf of the side American soldiers Brave keyboard commandos who risked papercuts from twinkie wrappers were fighting using the glorious power of the tubes to check what kind of countertops you had.

    Corrected for accuracy.

    Because we all know Dug Jay has never lifted anything more strenuous then an ice cream scoop.

  32. 32.

    Tropical Fats

    April 6, 2008 at 10:20 am

    But Tim, if we left Iraq… Why, something bad might happen!

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