Why I am getting out of the Marines...

An open letter from a Marine Corps Officer...

http://tadpole.defendingthetruth.com...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

holy shit. that dude has had it.
sick, sad, and frustrating.

The cost in lives of this war are a lot more than a statistic on some chart on CNN. My heart breaks each time I see another name or picture of someone who should have their whole life ahead of them, someone who has a life waiting for them here, at home. I wish all of them could come home safe and sound, but I know that's not what happens in war.
I read figures in the news about how much this war is costing the country, yet we send America's young men and women into a foreign land without the equipment they need, some things as simple as t-shirts or an extra pair of boots since they wear out so quick.
I don't get it. What is the purpose of that? Our young men and women deserve better than that. They are serving this country, this country should be giving them everything they can to ensure success and their survival.

I wish more of the country thought like you. Sadly it seems most people really don't care about us, and seem to think that we are 'getting what we deserve' for joining the military. It's very disheartening.

It is hard not to think that way when our government is so obviously corrupt and immoral. I find it disheartening that anyone would want to sign up to defend such a thing with their lives on the line.

We are not here to defend the government. We are here to defend the country, and to support and defend the constitution. What could be more noble? What could be more worthy? Our misuse, is not our fault. And if we failed to continue to serve, just because we disagreed with our administration, what kind of people would that make us? I am here in defense of an ideal, a principle, not to serve Bush.

Because of this site and people like you I understand this now. But this is certainly not the perception the majority of the country has in my opinion.

I agree

The following is from the New London Day from the Editorial and Commentary Pages on January 10th 2006. No author is credited.

Allowing soldiers to die

Lack of adequate equipment a national disgrace.

It is a disgrace that the Pentagon failed for three years to provide extra body armor to troops in Iraq, a protection that a secret Pentagon study said probably would have saved 80 percent of the Marines who died. That is to say, more than 400 of the 526 Marines killed in Iraq could likely have survived. This is an unconscionable policy and a terrible performance by the Pentagon and senior officials, enlisted and private.

The Pentagon knew troops were vulnerable to shrapnel and other material hitting their shoulders, sides and other parts of their torsos. Just enlarging the plastic armor would have helped, but the Pentagon did not do that.

In fact, the Marine Corps did not start buying additional plates to cover other exposed parts of the body until September 2005.

The decision ostensibly had to do with high-ranking officers and officials'
concerns that the extra armor might slow up the troops. In a scenario in which many troops are dying because their vehicles are fired upon by snipers or areas near them are blown up, why did the Pentagon stress speed rather than maximum protection?

The fact is, adequate protection for the soldiers has been woefully lacking from the beginning, as Congressman Rob Simmons pointed out in calling for a better armor for vehicles carrying troops.

Indeed, even after Rep. Simmons and others called for better protection on vehicles, the new trucks were slow in coming. That is because the Pentagon awarded the contract to a small South Carolina firm not accustomed to mass-producing vehicles, and there were delays.

There were shortages of plates used to protect the soldiers' bodies from the beginning. Even more troubling is the Marine Corps' explanation that the study did not start until December 2004 and no information about the protective gear came to the Corps until June 2005.

Sending American forces into combat in any situation is a time for concern. Asking Americans to risk their lives without adequate equipment to protect them is repulsive. How could the Pentagon treat American soldiers with such callousness?

I'm all for you getting out Tadpole,if they are going to use you for bullshit missions than Iw ould agree to get the hell out of there. I have a friend heading off to Israel in a few weeks, I hope that he is going to be okay.