They’re Extending Combat Tours in Iraq Again
by Ian Mosley
Memo to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney: If you’re going to start a war of imperial conquest to make the world safe for Israel, make sure you have enough troops BEFORE you invade. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force.”
Let’s see now. In order to raise the endless columns of cannon fodder necessary to fulfill the neocons’ ambitions, the Army and Marines have lowered enlistment aptitude and intelligence standards to the point where an orangutan could join. They have lowered moral and criminal standards until Al Capone could qualify as an officer candidate. They have lowered drug testing and drug-free requirements until our guys in Iraq might find themselves commanded by Sergeant Cheech and Lieutenant Chong. They have raised the enlistment age to 42. So a few middle-aged men who lost their jobs to down-sizing can now have an arm blown off while patrolling Fallujah. I can imagine these elderly recruits checking their pacemakers and taking their high blood pressure medicine before they charge the Iraqi insurgent machine guns. They have violated the Pentagon’s own guidelines by extending the standard combat tour in Iraq to fifteen months in country and (allegedly) twelve stateside…but now they’re fiddling with even that. (more…)