For the record, I'm actually on leave from Iraq. But if you think I'm going to post this from an internet room at my base's MWR, you're freakin' nuts. I've worried about Bush tapping those lines long before we found out he was tapping phones without a warrant in the good old US of A.
This subject has been touched on by other vets who post on here, but I don't think it's been made into a whole diary until now.
We need to get out because our military cannot take much more of this. We are stretched too thin and it's about to get worse.
Currently our troop strength is bleak. Most of the "old Army" is gone now. Almost all of the Soldiers that I knew who had 15+ years in have since retired and left the military. They leave because they are tired of deploying and being away from their families. Now it's the rookies that are left fighting.
It may have been Clinton's Army that toppled Saddam, but it's Bush's Army that is left with the insurgents.
When I first left for Iraq, we had that problem. Most of our leadership had left after our first stint in OEF. To fix the gaping hole in our leadership, the brass decided to do 2 things:
- Slap some extra rank on Soldiers and give them a leadership position they weren't ready for.
- Take Soldiers who did have the rank and leadership position and put them in a job they weren't trained for (example: Artillery being put in charge of MPs).
As a result we have leadership that is too inexperienced and overwhelmed to do their job. But wait! It gets worse!
Soldiers are frustrated. Every soldier I have talked to says that they are getting out of the military when they get home. Every. One. Of. Them. Regardless of rank, experience, or time in, they all want out. There has not been a single Soldier I've talked to that says they want to stay in. This include officers, NCOs, and rookies who are on their first tour of duty.
We need to get out of Iraq because Iraq is the reason why the military is shrinking. We, like Cindy Sheehan, are curious as to what "noble cause" we are fighting for. We can't seem to find one.
This is weakening America. At the rate we are going, we are going to have a military that can't fight because it has old and broken down equipment, and no troops to fight a war with.
If you could imagine the US Armed Forces being a fraction of what it once was, with old and broken down equipment, and with none of its divisions ready to go to war and provide for the national defense, you can imagine the nightmare that the US Military is becoming. We simply can't stay in Iraq and have a strong military at the same time.
We beat the commie bastards without Vietnam and we can beat the terrorists without Iraq. But right now we need to get out of Iraq, regroup, and come up with a new plan to beat them. This "stay the course" bullshit has got to go.
UPDATE: It was asked what I think about the 85% who say attacking Saddam was retaliation for 9/11. Like I said below, I wonder how the question was posed. I said in the comments below (I'm posting it here in case some of you asking missed it) "I could see 85% of us saying Iraq happened because of 9/11 (it would've been a hard sell without if it didn't happen), and there is also those who still think "we fight them here so we don't fight them at home", but I don't know anyone who actually thinks Saddam cause 9/11." Of course this is just my experience and there is always the possibility that the remaining 15% are all in my company and I just haven't seen the other 85%. I'd ask other vets about this, though, as this stat is suprising.