"I signed up the first time because I thought I was helping a good cause"

[Atman]

"But I'd never do it again."

These were the words of a friend of mine, a "kid" I played league volleyball with over four years ago. Since that time, he's been sent to Iraq four times. At 18, just out of high school, he lived in a run-down New England mill town with little prospects. So, with supposedly no wars anywhere, he enlisted for the career and money. He did his basic, he got stationed in San Diego...then all hell broke lose, of course. Now, after four tours, he said he'd never go back.

One of the guys in the conversation asked the rather bizarre question of him, "was it cool?" "Fuck no!" he said. "I did my time. When I first went over, I thought we were fighting for something real. I wanted to go. My second tour sucked. I had to wear 200 lbs of body armor everywhere, you couldn't drive a mile down the road with having to stop and check for IED on the side of the road, and when you didn't find any, the next spot up the road would blow up anyway. It got worse each time I went back.

"It's a fucking joke. We're not doing anything there now they told us we were being sent for. We're not helping them. I't totally fucked up. I'd never go back."




He came home with a huge "UNBROKEN" tatooed across his stomach, because he survived his tours without any bullet holes.

[bushisanidiot]

1. I have a feeling we're going to have a hell of a lot of soldiers on our

side in the next presidential election.

these guys are willing to put their lives on the line to "defend our freedom", they don't want to be sent all over the world to START WARS. That's not "defending" us, it's "attacking" whoever has what we want.

AWOL Bush is turning them into a pirate military.

[Wetzelbill]

2. I have three friends that I know of over there right now

I haven't seen any of them in years, but still, it's nerve wracking.