I can’t believe some of the answers for this question. What is with the, "the get to go to interesting places" I’m sorry but I don’t think that 3rd world countries are interesting places. For the jail comment, I have meet ONE person only that this applied to. "Secret police" are you serious. As for "easy" I love riding in the back of a Bradley with 5 other guys crammed in their, with 80lbs of **** on in 100F weather or unloading a trailer in the same weather. Oh did I say that being away from home for 24 months out the past 32 months was easy on me or my wife. Oh yeah and soldiers pay federal taxes too so we help fund ourselves. As for being AWOL what is this, a whole 1 out of every 10,000 soldiers. For the "War never solved anything" I bet over a crap load people in Europe would have to disagree with you on this one around the 1940's. I am proud of what I do. the only thing that most of the soldiers ask for is support for what we do. We are soldiers we have one main objective. Why not make it easier on us. Most of these answers just piss me off and if we didn't volunteer to fight for you then who the hell would.
2006-12-15 12:33:41
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answer #1
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answered by Comnec1 2
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Yes, Rebecca, it is an all volunteer Army. Your premise, however, is out of kilter. They enlist & from then on they either follow orders & go where they are told to go or face charges.They say enlistments are up. OK. They could not get any worse than 3 years ago when this war first started. And they took anyone who could pass a GED, a drug test, & were able to have a criminal record buried. Meeting quotas? The quotas are set low to make the figures look better to us dummy civilians, and also to be reachable. Only part of the recruiting offices meet their quotas. More than half don't. Re-enlistment in most cases is from those protecting a pension, as my son did when ordered to be a recruiter. He volunteered for Iraq partly to get away from that desk (He is non combat, by the way.) Those re enlistments far outnumber 1st time reenlistments.
The Military is far below its allocated manpower level (of course that info is classified) & has been for the entire war.. Proof of this is the Natl Guard units there who have been deployed beyond legal time limits. (Part of the contract a recruit signs is a time limit of continuous active duty) Another proof is the deployment of some units for the 3rd time in 3 years. Bush is the Commander in Chief & he sent them there. Once enlisted, they have no choice but to do as they are told. As the Superior Officer, he is the most responsible.
When I talk about this war, I focus on the unethical & illegal ways Bush got us in. We all know he lied, to us & to the troops. What makes it a crime is he knew he was lying, & evidence strongly indicates he still is.
2006-12-15 12:50:56
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answer #2
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answered by bob h 5
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Rebecca, I agree with everything you said, however we are keeping war weary troops in harms way way to long to make any sense. At no time in modern history have we required warriors to spend as much time in a battle zone without rotation. Granted, these people are given regular leave time, but then it's right back to the crap, at least those who don't go AWOL.
I'm sure by now, many of our troops are wondering why no one is stepping up to relieve them. I see a fallacy in the way this whole thing is being reported. I also see no glory in an all volunteer army. The US has 300 million citizens to pick from. There must be a few thousand out there who aren't doing much with their lives who could jump in and give a little relief to those who have been carrying the torch.
Please don't overuse the euphemism volunteer. There are a hell of a lot of people in the war zone who want out. They would like to see new boots on the ground, for a change.
Granted, the Pentagon has announced that it has achieved quoto, but that's not always the case. One has to wonder how this all happened, suddenly. There's an old saying, "figures dont' lie, but liars figure".
2006-12-15 12:23:23
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answer #3
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answered by briang731/ bvincent 6
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Frankly, the fact that it is a volunteer army is irrelevant. The war has not been prosecuted in a wise manner. As a taxpayer, army vet, and voter, I have every right to complain about how my soldiers are used.
As for the tired old "the media is lieing, it's not that bad over there" argument, then explain to me why reporters (Fox, CNN, whoever) can't safetly walk the streets of any major Iraqi city outside of Kurdistan without a military escourt? If it isn't that bad, at least a few reporters would be trying to ge the scoop.
As for the vets who say it isn't that bad, I know three. One says the media exaggerated, the others said it's worse over there than the media reports. So even among our soldiers opinions differ.
2006-12-15 16:01:16
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answer #4
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answered by Chance20_m 5
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I suppose because:
1. The military has great benefits.
2. You can go to interesting places.
3. Many people can choose joining the Army over jail--I'm sorry I messed up before (I didn't proofread) this is now an option for people who will have to go to jail.
4. Recruiters will lie to the men/women who join to make it seem great.
5. They don't have a job and the military is easy.
My husband is in the Air Force. Honestly, he didn't join to "support the war in Iraq" but because he needed a job. There are great benefits to the military.
I agree with you though--the military is volunteer based. It's not like these servicemen and woman don't know what's going on.
EDIT TO ADD: (TO: Comnec1--your email was unavailable and cannot be found)
You accused most of my answer to be wrong. Let me tell you something buddy--my entire family is military; my husband, my father, my grandfather, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, and my grandfather-in-law. These are the reasons (along with many others) for why they joined the military. If I were to join the military those would be my top priority as well.
I know soldiers pay federal taxes as I said before my husband is one. I'm not dumb. I wouldn't answer a question I have no clue about. I'm not opposed to the war--I'm opposed to the fact that we went in but now I don't know what else we can do but stay in.
Why did you join the military? To kill Iraqis? I don't think so. The woman who wrote this questions (in my opinion) was implying this. I'm sorry if you did because I feel that is sick.
Either way don't criticize another person's answers. All of the men in my family have been in wars. My husband missed my son's birth and will miss his next birthday as he's returning in January. I know there are bad sides but that is not what the question was about.
2006-12-15 11:57:45
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answer #5
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answered by .vato. 6
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how can you call it voluntary if you can't quit.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I see the same thing on fox news all the time. "oh, It's a all volunteer military"
untrue, You can join voluntarily but getting out is another thing all together. It's obvious by your question that you've never served.
I'm sick of Neo-Cons using the troops as a political weapon. You can support the troops without supporting the war
If you really believe in the cause. Enlist you chicken hawk
2006-12-15 13:10:15
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answer #6
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answered by Dustin C 2
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do not question me to describe THE JACKASS social gathering attitude.....almost continuously they're taking section in politics mixed with some short sighted peacenicks. they oftentimes are anti protection force in peace & warfare. only look at San Fran & this is elimination of JROTC or the present anti Blue Angels comments with techniques from a city reliable. they opt for a protection force to strive against, yet then tell them to close the academic variety in Puerto Rico for the army. weird and wonderful......
2016-11-30 20:08:45
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answer #7
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answered by ? 4
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the people that oppose the war are the first ones to complain about their freedoms being infringed on. Like good old cindy shehand the model piece of trash she thinks we should educate feed and cloth her son but god forbid that he has to employ the skills learned while in the military and he upped for a second tour on his own something you will never hear that **** say. the people killing our soldiers are the bleeding hearts that won't let us win they are too worried about having some iraqi citizen soon to be a terrorist hurt
2006-12-15 12:01:22
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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Yes, there are just a lot of stupid liberals who want to blame everything on the republicans. Liberals don't seem to understand that when people inlist in the military, they don't do it for the money, or for the job title, they know that they might have to go into battle and maybe even lose their lives. But somepeople just don't understand that!
2006-12-15 11:57:20
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answer #9
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answered by mr_sizzelin 2
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I am not sure why. It is like becoming a police man. They get shot, and the whole community suffers. Hello, that is the kind of job where you get killed on the job!? You know that when you apply for the job.
My day was Viet Nam. We were drafted. And the death toll was a lot higher than will ever be in Iraq. At LEAST in THAT war no one said that we were over there "fighting for our freedom."
Iraq is no threat to us. We are there for the OIL, only.
2006-12-15 11:57:02
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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