Salon.com: WH trying to spin extended tours as a kindness to troops and families

[BurtWorm]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/05/08/kindness/index.html?source=rss


Killing them with kindness

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last month that he was extending the tours of duty for all U.S. Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan, he tried to spin it as some kind of favor for the troops.

Gates explained: "This goes a long way toward making sure that we will have the proper amount of time to train them, that they will have time with their families, that they will have a predictable life, that they can sit there around the dinner table and know that on calendar month so and so, Daddy's going to leave, and on calendar month so and so Mommy's going to come home, and those kinds of things which add to quality of life."

Now the Pentagon is informing more than 35,000 soldiers that they need to be ready to deploy to Iraq this fall. And you know what? It turns out that this is a favor for the troops, too.

Asked today whether the deployment notices had anything to do with extending the "surge" in Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow said: "No, it actually has -- no, it has nothing to do with the surge, actually ... This is designed merely to give people the kind of predictability they need in terms of when the deployments are going to take place and also when they're going to be rotated out."

[wtmusic]

1. Extending their tour relates to predictability just...how again?

:crazy:

[BurtWorm]

3. Like clockwork

you can count on it being extended again?

:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

2. As the wife of a serviceman, I can attest that there is nothing worse

than waiting for weeks or months on end for your husband to deploy--it hangs over the family like a cloud and puts a bittersweet taste into even happy moments. This is no gift, just more of the same old shit. If the Iraq War were over, most of these guys would be home, having dinner with their families every night, and attending their sons' baseball games, and sleeping in with their wives on Saturday mornings. I feel for these newly alerted guys--I know what it's like, and our turn is surely coming around again.

[Supersedeas]

4. Just like in Kansas--don't blame us...they have everything that they need.

[Nickster]

5. Hey as long as they know exactly when they are coming and going, those 5 tours shouldn't really

be that big of a deal. /sarcasm