The Myth Of Our "All-Volunteer" Army
by Ward Reilly
We have an "all-volunteer" Army, right? Wrong! Anything but...over 50% of our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan had no plan to be in the military full-time, much less serving multiple-tours in the Middle East. That's hardly a "volunteer Army."
Having been a part of the anti-war movement since before the "war" with Iraq started, I can attest to the fact that what was sorely missing before this year was the "youth of America." Our meetings and marches were dominated by Viet Nam era citizens, and some of the students that did come to our early meetings quickly got bored with hanging around with an older generation, understandably, especially after Bush said "bombs away" on March 19, 2003.
Meetings are tedious. As much as we encouraged and recruited, we had very little luck in drawing the youth of our nation into the movement in large numbers.
In an effort to figure out and fix this problem, I had been asking the students I encountered, including my own two sons, why they weren't more "concerned and involved" with our invasion of (innocent) Iraq and Afghanistan. The most common answer to my query was usually "it's an all-volunteer army, and nobody forced them to go." Wrong again.
In general, there was a lack of knowledge at all about the realities of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld All-Volunteer Army.
In 2002, 2003, and 2004, not a single student I asked had heard of "stop loss" (the practice of not letting a military member separate or retire from active duty) or the "IRR" (individual ready reserves--military members who have been discharged from active duty); nor did any of them seem to realize that National Guardsmen and Reservists had, in desire and design, signed contracts to serve this nation actively for just thirty-eight days a year (one weekend a month, and two weeks in the summer). No one had signed up for 365 days a year.
In return for these 38 days, they would receive college and medical benefits, which are the main reasons many/most had joined.
Since WWII ended in 1945, the Guard and Reserve had been a safe havenfor those who did not want to be full-time soldiers, or to serve in war as active-duty military personnel. That included the entire Viet Nam War period, during which the "NGs and Reservists" were sort of harassed in boot camp and AIT... but they got the "last laugh," as they all went home after AIT, and the rest of us were stuck for X amount of years, usually two or three, and we were usually sent overseas, as I was.
Most, if not all, of the men and women who sign up for the Guard or Reserve know that there could be a remote possibility that they might, at some point, be activated, but they had the recent-past history of the Guard and Reserve to assure them that this would not happen, as during Viet Nam, when those types of service were a constant safe haven.
Just ask "Dubya" Bush, who was admitted into the Texas Air National Guard, after waiting only a couple of days to be accepted, even though it took about two years, if you were an "average Joe" lucky enough to even get on the list, to join the Texas Air National Guard (TANG). He knew he wasn't going to war.
What do most GI knows about legal contracts and the "fine print" that might be on them? Very little, that's what. If they were lawyers, they wouldn't be in the Guard.
And so it was; NGs and Reservists, for the most part, were kept from war... until the Bush family came into power and formulated their plan to "use" the NG and Reserve in their war plans. The beginning of the end of an all-volunteer Army was put into place...and here we are today, with about half of our 160,000-strong army forced to be in Iraq--a group of women and men who had no intention of being full-time soldiers, much less serving repeated tours-of-duty in the heat and sand-hell in the Middle East, 365 days a year, in an unjust "war."
These heroic men and women have been screwed, and they are starting to speak out angrily against the "war" and their treatment, because NGs and Reservists do not get the same benefits that regular-army soldiers get after they come home, and they didn't sign up to be full-time soldiers to begin with.
Just ask the members of "Iraq Veterans Against the War"(IVAW), Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America(IAVA), or "Military Families Speak Out" (MFSO), for example. Those are just three of the national groups that have organized against the war(s), organizations consisting of military Veterans who were in the Middle East.
On topof the full-time activation of our National Guard and Reserve forces, the military has added two more groups of victims, and their mastery of military misuse and abuse, via "stop loss" and the "IRR," continues today.
"Stop Loss," another CIC-Bush program, this time effective September 13, 2003, was first used by Bush I during "Desert Storm," but that "war" lasted about three days, as far as ground troops were concerned, and therefore did not have the same effect or breadth it has today in Iraq and Afghanistan. It essentially allows the military to force you to stay in the military past the day you signed on to serve through.
Forced military duty is what it is. Forced, not volunteer. Forced servitude in our "all-volunteer" Army.
Very few, if any, active duty personnel were told about the "stop loss" provisions in their contracts by military recruiters. Imagine how awful it must be to survive a tour in a war, and expect to go safely home, and then be forced to stay longer. All Volunteers? Hardly.
Then there is the "IRR." Again, this is a vast pool of citizen-soldiers who signed on to not be full-time soldiers, but rather to do a minimal military duty, in return for benefits, such as school-money, PX privileges and health care. Today many thousands of our IRR "volunteers" are now sitting in the desert as full-time soldiers, in war-time. Most of these troops thought their military commitment was finished, but they were re-called into active duty.
Many of these troops are now losing their homes, jobs, and even families, besides their (chosen) civilian life, because they did not dream of being on active duty at all, much less for years at a time, and they simply did not think they would be activated to full time status.
The other main reason that it took a while for the youth of the U.S. to become involved in stopping the war(s) is that there is no draft, and therefore no threat to be forced into "war." That, combined with the fact that the economy is so bad, leaves few students with the time it takes to be activists. Most students have one or two jobs just to survive, besides the time school takes, because of the ever-rising cost of rent, tuition, books, utilities, and insurance.
Who has time to fight for our "Bill Of Rights" when they are barely surviving in the real world?Who has time to do all of that and organize against the well-planned assault on our Guard and Reserve in the form of "wars" with Iraq and Afghanistan? Who has time to fight for our "Bill Of Rights" when they are barely surviving in the real world
The USA PATRIOT Act completely negates eight of the amendments in the Bill Of Rights, according to the ACLU, and the neocons like things just the way they have made them. We are living in a police state, plain and simple. The White House is living "above the law," just as the Nixon Administration was. It is time for them to face their crimes against all of us, and to be punished.
Wake up, America, or we won't have a country sooner than you can imagine.
The "all volunteer" Army is simply another lie told by the neocons. Half of the troops serving in the Middle East did not want to be full-time soldiers. The "all-volunteer" Army is just a myth, with no basis in truth at all. We now have a "slave army" in the Middle East, nothing more, nothing less. And they have to face the people that we have poisoned and maimed until we bring them home.
If we can re-build the nation of Iraq, a nation we have wrecked, then we can also re-build New Orleans with the same troops and money. Our NG and Reserve troops will gladly serve us here. Ward Reilly is a volunteer Infantry Vet (71-74), serves as the Southeast National Contact for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and is a member of Veterans For Peace. He served for 32 months overseas in Germany. He resides in south-Louisiana.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpeace01jan01,0,3823189.story
Seniors hit the streets in war protest
Deerfield group gathering weekly
By Macollvie Jean-François
Staff Writer
Deerfield Beach · Hoping 2006 will bring both peace and the troops home, seniors at Century Village awaited the New Year with the blast of car horns from drivers passing by their anti-war demonstration Saturday.
Scores of drivers passing through Hillsboro Boulevard and Military Trail honked, threw up fists, stuck their thumbs outside the windows and yelled "Bush sucks" in support of about 40 demonstrators at the intersection. Those who could stand up held banners and urged motorists to honk in support with such handmade signs as: "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention," and the familiar "No blood for Oil."
"The country has collapsed. It's a fascist state in embryo," said Molly Fried, 84, an arthritic who sat on a lawn chair during the hourlong demonstration, holding a "Recruiters Lie" sign. "I hope I live long enough to see this war over and George Bush out of office."
Touting their maturity, past war experience and obligation to protect the youth, Century Village's recently formed Seniors for Peace plans to hold the anti-war protest every Saturday, indefinitely. Veteran World War II Army medic Howard Fine, 82, said about 25 residents joined the first demonstration on Dec. 24.
"Christ was a man of peace and hope," said Fine, whose great-nephew is currently in boot camp. "We hope the new year brings peace."
Thousands of seniors across the nation have been part of the anti-war movement since the conflict became imminent in early 2003, often participating in large demonstrations.
"If enough people protest this war, ultimately they'll feel the pressure," Albert Socolov, 84, said.
Socolov said he and many others served in World War II with pride to rid the world of Hitler. Today's soldiers, he said, are facing the horrors of war over oil.
"This is not a real war," said Socolov, who stood with the help of a cane. "It's a military adventure for George Bush and his ego."
First Lieutenant Tawny Dotson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, said Saturday that plans to scale down the 154,000 troops stationed in Iraq for the December elections are under way. The number has returned to the pre-election level of 138,000 soldiers and is expected to decrease further as Iraqi control of territories increases, she said.
While many drivers and passers-by sympathized and caused a ruckus with their horns, others did not.
"It's pointless," said Pat Maloney, 21, a visitor from Philadelphia. "Their opinions won't influence mine."
No comments:
Post a Comment