I guess there is nothing like a good car bombing or IED attack to calm your frayed nerves these days. When I think of a stress reliever, it's gotta be found in the hellish hole of Iraq. Well, at least according to Gerry Gilmore at the Pentagon. This bastard had the audacity to say that serving a longer tour of duty over there helps families find stability and predictability in their lives. If you don't believe me, just check out the Pentagon's website.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 – Extended overseas deployments affecting soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other locales overseen by U.S. Central Command should help to alleviate the stress on the Army, a senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today.“I’m absolutely confident that that’s going to work and that’ll manage the pressure and the stress on the force,” Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, said during a satellite-carried news conference.
All active U.S. Army units already operating within U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, or en route there “will deploy for not more than 15 months and return home for not less than 12 months,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced April 11 at a Pentagon news conference.
This is just a cheap trick to keep our soldiers in Iraq for longer amounts of time with a shaky promise to bring them home for a year at a time. The Pentagon is notorious for lying to our soldiers when it comes to pay, bonuses and the time they need to serve in the increasingly hostile country of Iraq. How one can say that this helps the stability of the families is beyond me. Every day their loved ones are at risk of being shot at or blown up is a terrifying reality, and for some that risk becomes a tragic loss of a husband, father, mother, wife, son or daughter. Instead of deploying them longer, we need to get the hell out.
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