Oh, it's THAT DIRECTION, is it?
"Army captains grill new Joint Chiefs chairman on Iraq; Raise questions about recruiting, long deployments" by Lolita C. Baldor/Associated Press October 24, 2007
FORT SILL, Okla. - Army captains pelted the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with blunt questions yesterday about the strain of long Iraq deployments.
They also asked about recruiting pressures that could leave them supervising more soldiers with discipline problems.
At times technical and other times very personal, the officers' queries reflected the worries of a military struggling to fight two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without exhausting troops, alienating their families, or driving soldiers away.
Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, four weeks into the new job, didn't have all the answers - or the ones they were hoping for, during a 90-minute forum. But in his first trip to get to know the Army better, Mullen collected e-mail addresses and promised fuller responses later.
The long and repeated battlefield deployments were a prime topic.
[I'm smelling a DRAFT!]
One year at war and one year back at home "is not good enough," one officer flatly told Mullen, setting the tone early for the discussion.
Mullen acknowledged those goals are years down the road, after explaining that the Pentagon is hoping to stretch the time at home to 15 months for every year deployed, then go to two years at home and then three:
"I got it - that it's not good enough. I take your point, that one-to-one is not good enough."
[So WHAT you gonna do about it? REIN IN the WARS -- and OPPOSE Bush?]
Asked whether overall time in combat should be capped, Mullen cautiously replied that battlefield experience is crucial and "there are limits beyond which you will not stay."
Mullen, a career naval officer, has said he is concerned about the effects of the wars on the Army. He's visiting three Army bases in Oklahoma and Kansas this week and meeting recruiters at a conference in Denver.
Soldiers in Oklahoma spoke at length about the pressures on their families and how those can push them out of the service.
[DRAFT!]
Officials at Fort Sill allowed journalists to listen to the discussion but asked that the names of the soldiers not be used on the grounds that could inhibit them from speaking openly.
One captain told Mullen that he wants a stable assignment so his wife can go to school:
"When it becomes a burden to my family, it becomes repulsive, [but I was told] family considerations don't play a role [in such planning decisions]."
Mullen grimaced as the officer said he was preparing to leave the Army because of the problems:
"We can't not take family considerations into account. That is just not the case in 2007. It can't be the case if we're going to have a healthy force."
[DRAFT!]
But Mullen also told soldiers that while he would like to be able to predict deployments, or what the state-of-the-world conflicts will be, he can't.
Echoing Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, Mullen said the United States will probably be involved in persistent conflicts for some years to come."
[DRAFT!]
"Feedback for the Chairman of Joint Chiefs" by THOM SHANKER
FORT SILL, Okla., Oct. 23 — Adm. Mike Mullen invited candor from the Army on Tuesday, and he got it: questions from young captains frustrated by what they described as disciplinary problems in the ranks, shoddy health care for their spouses and children, and depots emptied of combat gear needed for training.
[But Bush is SUPPORTING the TROOPS? WTF?]
With the conflict in Iraq now nearly a year longer than American involvement in World War II, Admiral Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also asked whether senior officers had considered putting a limit on how long any one soldier could be deployed in combat.
[And we are TIRED OF IT!!!!!
And TIRED of the LIES keeping it GOING!]
One captain asked: “Is there a point where we can say, sir, ‘Enough’?”
[Nope! Not as long as Bush is around!]
Admiral Mullen, adding that the current American military had acquired the most combat experience in the nation’s history:
“I recognize the sacrifice, and I don’t want to lose that [through a lack of re-enlistments]."
[So it's a GOOD THING? Lord help us all!]
He said the service chiefs had made it a priority to balance combat deployments with time at home.
The visit to the Army’s artillery center here on the red clay flatlands of southwest Oklahoma was Admiral Mullen’s first stop on a tour of three Army installations to meet with troops and underscore his attention to the effect of combat deployments on soldiers and marines.
In a 90-minute session filled with give-and-take, he spoke with more than 100 officers, most of them captains attending a course to help prepare them for higher command. In response to some questions, he asked for e-mail addresses so he could follow up with more complete answers, a pledge that surprised, and pleased, his listeners.
Admiral Mullen told them his priorities were to “reconstitute, reset, revitalize” a military strained by long deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the officers told him repeatedly that their morale remained high.
[I stand corrected then!
Go on ahead and eat your war dead, Amurka!
They want to stay, I guess?]
But they made clear that their families wanted some relief. And the captains themselves wanted assurances that they would have first-class troops to lead and enough quality equipment to train for success.
[DRAFT!
And we don't have enough equipment?
Where the fuck did the BILLIONS GO?]
As part of an effort to expand the ground forces and fulfill deployments, the Army has lowered the bar on some of its standards for new soldiers, and the officers at Fort Sill told Admiral Mullen that the move had caused a new set of problems.
[And not enough troops?
But they are ALL GOOD BOYS!
DRAFT!]
One Iraq veteran said he had witnessed increased disciplinary problems among troops, which he attributed to the enlistment of recruits with lower academic credentials as well as some who have been granted “moral waivers,” a step that allows those with minor criminal records to join up.
[DRAFT!]
This captain, whose name was withheld under ground rules for reporters observing the session, spoke of training all day and then having to spend much of the night on disciplinary action. Of the roughly 100 soldiers in his unit, about a dozen had been caught selling drugs or going absent without leave.
Admiral Mullen, who vowed to review statistics on discipline so he could gauge any impact of the current recruiting standards:
“Making sure we do not break our military is a huge priority for me.”
[DRAFT!]
Most of the officers wore a combat patch representing a past deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. At the rank of captain, they are rapidly approaching a five-year mark that allows them to end their active-duty service, and the decision forces them to weigh continued commitment to the military against commitments to marriage and family.
[But Bush SUPPORTS the TROOPS and their FAMILIES, right?
Your beef is with HIM, not ME, readers!]
One, who expressed readiness to return to Iraq so long as he and his wife had assurance that they could settle at a single military post and not be transferred to a new unit when he returned from combat:
“All I want to do is start a family, buy a house, have stability.”
[Who doesn't?
And who do these guys think they are?
Issuing demands like colonials to the crown?]
Another officer, an Iraq veteran, said his wife, now pregnant with their second child,
complained that the pediatric care she sought from their local military hospital was substandard. As a result, he said, he is now planning to separate from the Army within the year.
[Better hope hubby wasn't poisoned by Depleted Uranium!
SUPPORT the TROOPS!
DRAFT!]
The admiral called caring for families of deploying military personnel a “vital issue.” But he also noted that military doctors and nurses sent from bases like Fort Sill to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan were themselves “working overtime.”
[Yeah, it's your fault, troop, you are pushing yourself too hard!
Trying to catch up with the BILLS, huh?
And WTF? Not enough DOCTORS, either?
Good Christ!!!]
One captain told the admiral that because of the focus on Iraq, combat equipment at home for training was “either broken, outdated or improperly maintained.”
[Where have all those BILLIONS gone?]
Admiral Mullen said he was pressing for money to repair or replace combat gear:
“It’s going to take some time to solve that.”
[Yeah, SUPPORTING the TROOPS takes TIME!
Time they are NOT WORRIED ABOUT when the WAR PROFITEERS are RIPPING US OFF!!
To the tune of $2.5 TRILLION now!]
Before continuing on his tour, with stops later Tuesday at Fort Leavenworth and on Wednesday at Fort Riley, both in Kansas, the admiral assured the young officers that he had heard them.
[Yeah, but WERE YOU LISTENING?
There IS a difference!]
“I don’t offer instantaneous solutions, but I know what’s on your mind."
[DRAFT!]
