IRAQ: "The largest reenlistment ceremony ever held"!

[Christians4LessGvt]

U.S. military in Iraq celebrates the 4th with reenlistments

Mc Clatchy Newspapers , by Mike Tharp

BAGHDAD: The U.S. military in Iraq celebrated the Fourth of July with what it billed as "the largest reenlistment ceremony ever held," and 1,215 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen raised their hands and re-pledged allegiance to America.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of all Coalition forces in Iraq, administered the oath in Saddam Hussein's former al Faw Palace. John Phillip Sousa's marches blended with roars of "Freedom," "hooah" and "oorah" from the men and women, many of them carrying their weapons, as they re-upped in their service branches.

Money was an incentive for many, but so was a belief in what they're doing more than five years into a war far away from their homes. Hundreds were in their second and third tours in the combat zone.

"There's no place I'd rather be to celebrate America's birthday than here in Iraq," said Petraeus, who described the troops as "America's new 'Greatest Generation." The troops' commitment and sacrifice, he added, have given the Iraqi people "the most precious gift...freedom."

The general compared the re-enlistees' raising of their right hands to the language on most award citations: "In keeping with the finest traditions of our military services." He said the combined total of their additional service amounted to 5,500 years.

"The millions of dollars" they receive was certainly one motive, he said, "but no bonus no matter the size can compare with the sacrifices you make in Iraq or the sacrifices your loved ones make back home."

Army reenlistment bonuses top out at $40,000, Navy at $75,000, Air Force at $60,000 and the Marines at $45,000. A bonus's size also depends on rank, military specialty, years of extension, years of service and other factors. Reenlistment bonuses signed up for in a combat zone become tax-free.

Two Army master sergeants, Christine Frauendorfer, a dining hall inspector with the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Balad, and Debra Bradshaw, who manages a dining hall in Baghdad's International Zone, re-upped for two and three years, respectively. Frauendorfer, in the Army for 23 years, and Bradshaw, for 28, mentioned both financial and patriotic motives for their decision.

Frauendorfer said she raised her right hand "so I could do my part_I feel they are making progress here." Added Bradshaw, on her second tour in Iraq, "The money ain't bad, but I'd rather deal with the situation over here than at home." She'll retire in 2011, and said when she gets older, "I want to have so many irons in the fire that I don't have to decide whether I can buy my medicine or pay my electric bill."

At least two husband-and-wife teams were sworn in at the ceremony. Sgt. Ryan Lowe, a military policeman from the 18th MP Brigade, and his wife, Sgt. Erika Lowe, also a military police officer, said they reenlisted to go to Brussels, Belgium, and both intend to make the Army a career. Ryan is in his 23rd straight month in Iraq and said he extended his tour to stay with his wife.

Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Jessica Wilson is the noncommissioned officer in charge of the New Orleans-based 215th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment's broadcast section where she produces videos for soldiers and their families. Her husband, Sgt. Kirk Wilson, is also an Army broadcast journalist, and they've been deployed together three times, to Bosnia, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq.

After the ceremony, in one of the late dictator's 99 palaces, this one used to entertain loyal members of his Baathist party, the newly committed troops ate pizza and chocolate cake and drank Gatorade.

McClatchy Newspapers 2008

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/43189.html




More than 1,200 members of the military took the oath of reenlistment
at a ceremony yesterday at the Al-Faw Palace in Iraq.

[Michael Tee]

<<Money was an incentive for many, but so was a belief in what they're doing . . . >>

[chuckles knowingly]

Suuuure, it was.  It couldn't possibly be for the money, since so many of the re-uppers were from the top 5%, socioeconomically, of the population.

[sirs]

Hmmm, article references $ as being a likely incentive for MANY, then Tee pipes in sarcastically as if the article claimed it wasn't.

Typical

[Christians4LessGvt]

yeah sure lol
they totally dont believe in the mission, but reenlist just for the money
they should be paid well for fighting the IslamoNazis over there so we dont have to fight them here
of course if they weren't reenlisting the left loons would be saying "see told ya".

[BT]

Nothing wrong for maximizing bonuses when renewing contracts. My understanding is there is a waiting list for temporary duty assignments (usually six months) in theater (Iraq, Afghanistan and i think Dubai.)

[Plane]

As a propaganda move it is inspired.


The Insurgents and especially the Al Quieda hang all of their hope for victory on American exaustion , if it really seemed to them that they couldn't exaust us they would quit.


I think we can be exausted , fortunately they can be exausted a lot sooner.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Over half the troops are not in combat roles, so naturally the monetary incentive is great for them. The military attracts people who like danger as well.

The problem is not the troops being exhausted. The problem is the huge amount of money it takes when half of it is going to private corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater. The US is borrowing money from the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others to fight this endless war.

Eventually the taxpayers will say "enough awreddy!"

[Plane]

Over half the troops are not in combat roles, so naturally the monetary incentive is great for them. The military attracts people who like danger as well.

The problem is not the troops being exhausted. The problem is the huge amount of money it takes when half of it is going to private corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater. The US is borrowing money from the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others to fight this endless war.

Eventually the taxpayers will say "enough awreddy!"

How huge is this money?

I detect distortion every time this is answered anywhere.

[Plane]

Eventually the taxpayers will say "enough awreddy!"

Have taxes been increased that much in the last seven years?

[sirs]

touche', Plane     

[Xavier_Onassis]

Have taxes been increased that much in the last seven years?
===================================================
The war is being paid for by borrowing from the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others.

The cost of the war is reflected in the fact that the dollar is worth about 30% less in Euros than when it started.

When you fill your tank with $4.25 per gallon gasoline, you are paying for the war.
There have been similar rises in the price of many things, notably food.

We will be paying interest on Juniorbush's loans for the next 50 years or so. Maybe longer.

[Plane]

Have taxes been increased that much in the last seven years?
===================================================
The war is being paid for by borrowing from the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others.

The cost of the war is reflected in the fact that the dollar is worth about 30% less in Euros than when it started.

When you fill your tank with $4.25 per gallon gasoline, you are paying for the war.
There have been similar rises in the price of many things, notably food.

We will be paying interest on Juniorbush's loans for the next 50 years or so. Maybe longer.

So the cost of Oil depends on the course of the war?

I don't think it is connected the way you seem to, the increase in price is mainly due to a greater demand and a customer base that is obvious (to every investor , speculator)that is expanding.

What was Clinton paying for when we were borrowing a lot from China during his administration?

[Michael Tee]

<<Have taxes been increased that much in the last seven years?>>

XO gave the answer to that question - - the war is not financed by taxes but by borrowing.  The future debt load in effect has devalued the dollar significantly, so that everything, oil included, that is imported will cost more.

The decision to finance this war by borrowing rather than paying directly through taxes was purely political and extremely short-sighted.  In effect, it was a colossal gamble that has clearly been lost by now.  Had the American public been asked to pay for this fiasco through taxes, the initial projected cost ($50 billion) would have been run through in the blink of an eye and successive tax increases would have followed in stunning, rapid succession.  The opposition to the war, when its real costs were measured in dollars yanked out of the earnings of middle-class and working-class Americans, would have dwarfed the opposition generated to date by the deaths of a few thousand expendable ignoramuses mourned by no one but their idiot families who never should have let them sign up in the first place.  So hiding the cost by borrowing seemed like a good idea.

It was a good idea, in the sense that the payroll clerk had a good idea when he figured he could "borrow" $20K from the company over the weekend and pay it all back with what he'd win with it at the track by the time Monday morning rolled around.  Had the Iraqi people been the pushover the U.S. had been led to expect, they'd be sitting on a gusher of  windfall oil profits funding the "repayments" that the Iraqis now "owed" to them for "reconstructing" the damage that they had themselves inflicted on the poor dumb bastards in the first place.  What would a mere $50 billion be when compared with the income to be generated from the world's second largest proven oil reserves?

Well, the plan did not work out.  Nothing worked out.  Well, wait, the "surge" worked out beautifully - - only, well, as beautifully as it all worked out, not a single American soldier can be withdrawn just now.  We have to wait until, uh, until . . .  according to sirs, till the American commanders on the ground AND the Iraqi politicians (no, not Muqtada al Sadr, real politicians, you know, politicians who really want the U.S. to stay in Iraq.  And stay, and stay and stay.  But trust us, the surge has worked.  Really.  Honest.  Anyway, as we can all see, we (the U.S. and Britain) do not really have their hands on an unending flow of cheap oil from their little misadventure, quite the contrary in fact, the U.S. is $3 trillion down with nothing to show for it, which as XO has pointed out, does not seem to work very well for the U.S. dollar or for the cost of your food and other imports like oil.

So, no, taxes did NOT go up due to the war.  Probably would have been a thousand per cent better for you if taxes HAD gone up, because then an outraged public would have insisted that the plug be pulled a long time ago.  Looks like what you got here was the worst of BOTH worlds.  Even though, as everyone says, the surge worked.

[Michael Tee]

<<So the cost of Oil depends on the course of the war?>>

The PRICE of oil, like the price of any import, depends on the value of the dollar in the
international money market.

Because you chose to finance a $3 trillion war by borrowing, at the same time as you were suffering a strongly negative balance of trade, the value of your dollar was caught in a squeeze between stable or declining reserves and exponentially increasing debts.  The money market has legitimate concerns regarding the worth of a U.S. dollar issued by a Treasury which since the start of the war has incurred and will incur a total liability presently estimated at $3 trillion and rising with every hour the war continues.  The dollar therefore continues to slide.  Oil priced in dollars will inevitably see rises in dollar price as confidence in the U.S. dollar continues to diminish.  Even if the pro-U.S. producers pricing their oil in dollars hold the line on price as a favour to their U.S. patrons (and there is no indication they would do so indefinitely) once the oil is sold and the dollar price is in the sellers' pockets, they themselves will tend to trade their dollars immediately for euros or other strong currencies to protect themselves against further declines in the value of the dollar which are almost certain to follow. 

In the meantime, due to the decline that has already occurred, some oil producing countries have already begun to denominate their sales in euros or yen depending on the purchaser, further weakening demand for dollars and therefore lowering further the value of the dollar in foreign exchange.

But of course it is not only the price of  oil that is affected by the declining value of the U.S. dollar - - all of your imports have to be similarly affected as well.

[_JS]

First of all, this is staged (which is obvious to everyone and Plane rightly called it "propaganda"). Secondly, you have to remember that a lot of these people have nothing else to go back and do. Despite the commercials - there aren't a lot of MOS's that translate directly to the private sector. Many of the ones that did are now KBR jobs (or some other private contractor). It is work being done by Indonesians, Indians, and some Americans for considerably more money than a soldier was paid to do the same work.

Also take into account that the standards are very low. There are soldiers with criminal records, terrible test scores, and other issues that would have precluded them from being in the American military at one point. This is the life they know and all in all it isn't a bad life. You get meals, room and board, most of the duties aren't too complicated for you. There's a structure to military life that some of these folks need and couldn't get in civilian life. Besides, it sure as hell beats working in a carpet factory in Dalton, GA or a telephone call center in Jackson, TN for $5.75/hour.

The patriotism "believe-in-the-mission" aspect is fluff. It is a job and a lifestyle.