28. "come on now" In response to In response to 0 Mon Aug-22-05 08:27 AM by LexM
those ppl have families and things like that...
no one wants to get court martialed.
more importantly, sometimes folks other than the soldiers themselves have to live off those benefits.
i mean, on one level i do agree with you: it's sad that the 80-90% of those guys/girls who went in only did it to (a) travel, (b) go to school, (c) have a job, or (d) some combination of the 3.
i hate this thing as much as i'm sure you do, and my idea of "supporting" the troops is getting them the hell out of there before any more young lives/spirits are damaged.
but i blame the bullshit administration who got us into this mess FAR more than i blame them. recruiters lie. and who expected us to go into anything resembling a war??!??
i might have a little to say to the parents who encouraged and/or allowed the military to be a clearly viable option. but a lot of these folks dying--at least from what i've seen so far--are college-aged. the same age that a lot of the suicide bombers are when they start thinking about "martyrdom". that says a great deal.
you also have to understand where a lot of those kids come from, too. what else were they going to do with their lives?
there's a lot more to it than where the "blame" falls.