Using them up and throwing them out

The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment (3/4) based at Twentynine Palms, California, reportedly became the first Marine Corps unit to be deployed to Iraq a record five times.

There's been much ado about how, even though these repeated deployments are taking their toll on units and families, there is a bright side. Repeated deployments are also helping to develop the most combat-experienced force in decades. But, interestingly, the 3/4's deployment suggests that, while that may be true within the higher echelons of the officer corps, it does not necessarily hold true at the grunt level. In an interview featured on the front page of Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle, Col. William Vistead, the 3/4's commanding officer, estimates that 60 percent of his men will be going to Iraq for the first time. In other words, grunts are serving their four years and getting out. The same is happening within the junior and mid-level officer ranks. And there's no bright side to that.

And:

But it is something of a milestone that the Marines are now sending a unit for a fifth time, as the war nears its five-year anniversary, on March 19. Marines typically send units over for seven-month tours, while Army units go for 12 or 15 months.

The endless cycle of deployments has taken a toll on the troops and their families. When units are not in Iraq, they are training to go there. And the experience level of the Marines does not necessarily grow. An average amount of time for an enlisted man on active duty is four years, and then they get out.

Vistead estimated that 60 percent of his men will be going to Iraq for the first time.

And who knows what they will experience, whether they will survive, and what condition they will been in when they come home.

Here is the personal storyof this woman trying to get the system to help her husband whom she is losing to PTSD:

This man has given 15 years to the army, three tours overseas in war zones and not once has ever been in trouble, not even ever threatened with a article 15...and for all of that and the fact that he laid his mind and body down for this country, literally, he was medically retired as a air traffic controller for the army because after coming back from Iraq he has PTSD so bad that he couldnt do his job, his devastating injury to his back and knees, oh, thanks for going over there and giving it your all, now we are going to as unceromoniously as possible evict you from the army, take away more than 2000.00 of your pay,wait three months before we even ackowledge you were in the army and then all we are going to give you is a army accomodation medal, which is kind of like getting the yearly, " hey we appreciate you and your work" you'd get for being at any job come Christmas...no bonus just ...hey thanks...Oh but the good news is you now qualify for food stamps!
So far we have gotten three appointments for his VA intake and three cancelations. Social Security sends us a letter that says, we got your information but we have a huge influx of requests for benefits, we will get to you eventually!

The Bush administration demands much of the military but cuts benefits and services at every turn. Supporting the troops means forcing them to wait for equipment made by warmongering defense contractors, making them wear inferior body armor, ignoring their actual needs if someone is not making money off of it. There are many Walter Reed stories reflected all over the country when and if our soldiers do come home. Then they try to drown them in a maze of paperwork, denials, and misplaced files.

This is Bush's glorious war on a noun: full of idiocy, incompetence and greed.