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2007-01-04 Home Front: Culture Wars

MARINES IN IRAQ SURPASS REENLISTMENT GOAL

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Posted by Glenmore 2007-01-04 12:23|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 "Re-enlist or have lunch with John F'n Kerry".

Posted by Brett 2007-01-04 13:07|| 2007-01-04 13:07|| Front Page Top

#2 This will be in every newspaper that reported the recruiting shortfall (on page one divided by zero).

Posted by Zarquon Pebbles in Blairistan 2007-01-04 13:36|| 2007-01-04 13:36|| Front Page Top

#3 This has long concerned me. The numbers are too high. Compare it with Alan Greenspan's "irrational exuberance"; or, as we used to say in the Army, "Remember, it's not an adventure, it's just a job."

Soldiers who have this high a morale maintained for this long are going to have problems adjusting back to what amounts to the blase normality of civilian life. There is no way civilian life is going to have anything close to the value of what they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But psychologically, what the hell is going to happen to them when it is all over?

And this is what concerns me. We can pretty well guess that it won't be like what happened to soldiers after past wars, with a few exceptions.

But how can you make up for a time when you were really, truly needed, and everything you did really, truly, life-or-death mattered to people in desperate need?

How can you match that?

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-01-04 15:00|| 2007-01-04 15:00|| Front Page Top

#4 Stay in the Marines?

Posted by Shipman 2007-01-04 17:36|| 2007-01-04 17:36|| Front Page Top

#5 jebus moose not again! piss on the parde why don't ya.

Posted by RD 2007-01-04 17:45|| 2007-01-04 17:45|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm very proud of our Marines over there, I hope they got a respectable re-enlistment bonus.
There always has been a hard re-adjustment period for these guys returning to civilian life from what I've read.
(Rambo springs to mind, man I loved Rambo heh.)
It would be good to know if there has been any measures taken to improve this re-adjustment and training.
My son has a few more years before he re-enlists again, and I'm kind of hoping that he gets out and has a family this next time, it's a mom thing. Right now he's married to the service.
But I do worry about the adjustment period for him. Moose has some good points here.

Posted by Jan 2007-01-04 18:20|| 2007-01-04 18:20|| Front Page Top

#7 RD: I know that it sounds down, but the worst problem is its novelty. After war, many soldiers are perfectly normal. Some have combat fatigue, depression or delayed stress. A few become adrenaline junkies.

But never have this many soldiers felt they had such a purpose before. And their problem is less being over there than coming back here.

When the place settles down, a lot of soldiers are going to want to live in Iraq. They will have developed a deep attraction to the place, associating it with the feelings they got from truly being needed and useful.

But there is so much we just don't know.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-01-04 18:48|| 2007-01-04 18:48|| Front Page Top

#8 Significant numbers of US Armed Forces retirees settling in Iraq afterward? Now that would be an interesting experiment in radical cultural change -- for the Iraqi host culture, I mean. And certainly would have a curious effect on the interactions of the other groups and nations in the region...

Posted by trailing wife 2007-01-04 20:37|| 2007-01-04 20:37|| Front Page Top

15:15 wxjames
23:46 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
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23:23 SteveS
23:22 Verlaine
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23:00 Frank G
22:54 USN, ret.
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