Sunday, July 27, 2008

An email I just got:

IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR PRESENT THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT
RECRUITERS PROMISE

• “I can promise you won’t go to Iraq or Afghanistan because of your assigned Military Occupational Specialty/Duty Station/branch of service/reserve or guard status/because I say so.”
Recruiters can promise this, but their word means nothing to the people who will actually decide
what the military does with you. Personnel from the Navy and Air Force are being pulled as
“Individual Mobilization Augmentees” to run convoys in Iraq after a two-week crash course. The
Marine Corps has even sent band members to Iraq for combat missions.

• “You can choose active duty or reserves and an enlistment period of two years, four years, or more, depending on the commitment you want to make.”
Every contract is for a period of eight years including time in the inactive reserves. The contract you sign is unilateral, meaning it only binds you, not the military. You can choose what that contract says, but it does not stop the military from putting you on stop-loss or involuntarily extending you. At least 120,000 military personnel have been affected by these policies since 9/11.

• “If you’re enlisted in the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) you can’t get out of serving.”
Recruiters will tell you that you will go to jail if you don’t go, but that’s just another lie. For more
information, go to www.girights.org or call 1.800.394.9544.

• “If you don’t like it, you can get out at any time with a ‘failure to adapt’ discharge.”
There are a variety of unpleasant ways to get out of the military, but “not liking it” is not one of
them. If you refuse to train, the drill sergeants will use any means available to keep you in. If the
command finally decides that discharge is the only option, the process may take months to complete.

• “You will get plenty of money to get a college degree when you get out of the military, as well as
numerous chances to get ahead on your education while still on active duty.”
On average, the Montgomery GI Bill will only cover 1/2 the cost of a public college and 1/5 the cost of a private college. In order to get that money for college after you get off active duty, you have to contribute money to the fund from the day they start paying you. So many servicemen are disqualified from getting that money that the military makes money from the program.

• 28% of women report being raped while in the service. Many rapes go unreported.

• 5.6% of people who enter the GI Montgomery Bill use all the money available to them.

• 75% of Blacks and 67% of Latinos report experiencing racial prejudice in the service.

• Veterans aged 20 to 24 are unemployed at almost twice the rate of their peers who didn’t enlist.

• US war veterans are twice as likely to kill themselves as ordinary civilians.

• Only 12% males and 6% of females vets surveyed made any use of skill learned in the military.

• Vets are 3-5 times more likely to be homeless than non-veteran peers.
“Before you become a weapon of your democracy, ready to fight and kill and die in the
name of the United States of America, you need to have the utmost faith in that democracy.”
– Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War, USMC, Fallujah, Feb-Sep 2004

www.notyoursoldier.org www.warresisters.org www.afsc.org/youthmil

www.beforeyouenlist.org/

IVAW􀀁 PO Box 8296􀀁Philadelphia, PA 19101
Tel: 215.241.7123􀀁Fax: 215.241.7177

14 comments:

Randal Graves said...

Cannon fodder, that's all they are to pretty much every regime on the planet. BushCo has simply made it into an art form. Fuckers.

Speaking of email, sherlock412 at yahoo dot com for any of you guys interested in the fantasies of football.

DivaJood said...

and of course, the No Child Left Behind program puts their names into the hopper for military recruiting.

Thus Spake Ortner said...

Your "facts" are not only ridiculous, but self-disproving. Just to illustrate 2 obvious ones, if you serve 8 years (that part is correct) than you can't be a aged 20-24 veteran unless you were put out for some reason. Plus, as regards the homeless and unemployed numbers, those are self-identified as veterans. There is no check on those people, you might start by reading Stolen Valor and you'll see where those numbers actually come from.

Your suicide numbers are BS as well, as has been pointed out by numerous debunkings of the NYT hit piece, but lord knows you really don't care about the reality as long as it sounds good.

Kup said...

Dear Thus Spake,

Your stupidity is refreshing and I appreciate your participation. Knowing where the intellectual bottom lays is always very important when one is trying to measure the higher end of the continuum.

Notice, my email was titled: An Email I received"

I never referred to anything on there as a fact. I never implied anything or made any judgment. Your paranoid and deference mind went there unguided.

I do not expect you to reply to this, for you are probably hiding behind Rush's big fat ass.

Tell however is reading this for you (clearly you are not able to read) that I hope you have a nice day.

Thus Spake Ortner said...

*Tell however is reading this for you*

I'll put my JD against your illiteracy anyday. I assume you meant whoever, "however" is traditionally an aside which is offset with commas. Thanks for playing.

puddy said...

holy shit! JD apparently means "human spell check"... and that appears to be exactly the entirety of what TSO is good for. but obviously not so big on the grammar, eh? (better double check your original post... just sayin' "pot kettle black" and all that mate!)

Kup said...

Look, TSO is trying to think! How cute. Do it again! Do it again!

puddy said...

here's a nice review of TSO's source

Kup said...

Good work Krep. Notice how he just glossed over any of the content of what we wrote either, he just wiped out a fake JD.

dguzman said...

I'll believe Adam Kokesh, an actual veteran, before I'll believe some idiot who claims to have a JD and whose presumptuousness and willingness to troll you preclude him from actually reading the title of your post. What a moron.

Besides, I have plenty of friends in the military who tell me that recruiters lie all the time. Who's going to bust them?

Anonymous said...

Hey Sal, the IVAW is a great organization, it is a pity they got so little traction on the government mouthpiece aka Fox News. I was checking the news the other day and Fox in the month of June recieved on average 1.5 million viewers a day compared to CNN with 986K. CNN is not the most liberal station these days but I am sure you see my point that these facts need to be disseminated however the only people who are going to do it are people like you, me and other liberal bloggers.

Bradda said...

Hey dguzman,

Big Congrats on the marriage!

Unknown said...

Sal & Kreplech, ZOWIE! Way to blast the trolls. I should do as well. I must not be humiliating my troll enough because it keeps coming back. Damn fine work. "I have a JD!! I'm so smart!!" Ha ha ha ha ha!!

I worked w/attys for 18 years and some were complete and utter morons. He probably gradumacated from the same fake school as Monica Goodling. LOL!

Bradda said...

Regent Law School....go fightin Zombies!