Broken promises betray soldiers longing for trip home

http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-ref10.html

President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have broken their promise to our troops in Iraq. Although they assured them that they would serve only one year in the war zone, Rumsfeld recently announced that 20,000 of them will have to stay for another three months. Some of them were on the way to the airport when they were told that they would have to stay. This extension of time is disastrous to the morale of the troops and their families and reduces their effectiveness.

Vietnam was our last extended war. In Vietnam, Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara made the same promise to troops -- and kept it. I arrived in Vietnam on Oct. 4, 1968, and I knew that I would be on a plane home on Oct. 4, 1969. Knowing that there was a date when we would board the ''freedom bird'' and fly back to ''the world'' was tremendously important to us. It was the light at the end of our tunnel. We fixated on it. The families at home also knew that when that day finally came, their soldiers would be safe.

The date was always in our thoughts. It affected our behavior and even our language. Every soldier, including officers, knew exactly how many days he had left in Vietnam. Some calculated the hours and even the minutes. A soldier nearing the end of his year was a "short-timer,'' or simply ''short.'' Some made ''short-timer sticks'' that they would use to carve a notch for each passing day. The idea of being ''short'' led to banter such as: ''I'm so short, I could walk under the belly of a snake.''

Promising the date and then snatching it away from our troops is a terrible blow to their morale and to their anxious families. They have made plans to return to jobs, to get married, to meet newborn children and simply to enjoy being home. Weddings can be rescheduled and employers can be informed, but the damage to morale and effectiveness will be harder to repair. It is especially hard on the National Guard and reserve troops who planned to return to civilian life.

"Bush promises to betray soldiers longing for a trip home."

FNORD!

This has gotten very sad.

he's alive, I know that for sure, but I wonder about him at times. Good counselor. I bet he's got his hands full, if they're even using his expertise.....

I have a friend that got back from Baghdad a few weeks ago. His National Guard unit had been extended several times. When they got back, they were not give any kind of counseling or put in programs that would reimmerse them back into civilian society. All that was provided was a mass screening of the "horse whisper." Even at that, there was no follow up or contextualizing of the movie. They were shown the film and then dismissed back to their units. Some therapy.