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Extending Tours, Stressing Troops

Despite a growing body of medical research, the Pentagon is extending tours of duty to their longest levels since World War II, precipitating the first time in history that active-duty soldiers will spend more time in combat than at home

By Sarah Olson

Justin Thompson, 23, proposed to Erin underneath the Eiffel Tower last February. The photos of the two on her MySpace page have the hallmarks of a young couple in love. Thompson can’t wait to get back to Lacey, Wash., to get married, and go to college. There’s one problem: Thompson is in Baghdad, serving his second deployment as a sergeant… return to article

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    There is no question that our troops have been stressed to the limit. Not only are they serving extended tours, they are doing it to attempt an impossible goal — reuniting a nation which has never truly been united nor a nation.

    We need to enlist the aid of other nations in the defense against radical Islamic terror and intimidation. Not just in Iraq, but wherever they surface.

    We just did not have the troops for pacification of 23 million people who live to hate each other. We need to admit it and seek additional international cooperation.

    Next time an administration proposes to cut the military just to make the economy look better, let’s remember the effect of the G.H.W. Bush and W.J. Clinton actions which took us down more than 30 percent.
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    The total commitment of George Jr. will no doubt cause him to reenlist as a pilot as soon as his current extended tour is completed.

    United States Posted by whattheheck on Sep 2, 2007 at 11:22 AM

    This is the sort of thing that feeds reincarnations of Tim McVeigh. PTSD isn’t the only psychological issue to be concerned with. I also have concerns about the mental states of those soldiers and marines who come back alienated, disillusioned, bearing feelings of betrayal, perhaps looking for paybacks. Not those who go to hospital and get ill-served by the VA or whomever, but those who never even seek treatment though they may need it.

    It will be only a few at most, but the small size of the conspiracy to blast the Murrah Fed Building in OK City didn’t affect the destruction a bit. It only needs a few guys in whom ordinary restraint has been scorched out.

    I imagine the litany in a young man’s mind, “why the fuck am i here and why won’t they let me leave”. A bit like being imprisoned, and we all know how doing a stretch can change some men, and not for the better. Serving in Iraq isn’t jail, but arbitrary dangers, hyper-vigilance for prolonged periods, punishing circumstances that can’t be escaped or avoided… learned helplessness takes a lot of forms, and also can bring a number of coping responses, including learned detachment. Take that mindset some way further, and you have one ugly potential.

    International help, yes, definitely needed (this unilateral bit is a losing game) but the problem is that almost no one else will go near the place, wouldn’t touch it with a 10-timezone pole. Can anyone blame them?

    Philippines Posted by Kuya on Sep 5, 2007 at 2:34 AM
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  • Extending Tours, Stressing Troops
    Despite a growing body of medical research, the Pentagon is extending tours of duty to their longest levels since World War II, precipitating the first time in history that active-duty soldiers will spend more time in combat than at home
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