It may simply be that those soldiers in Iraq know about other soldiers, myself included, who came 'home' to America and got out only to have everything, their career, their house and their hopes for a normal family life, absolutely and irrevocably stripped away from them.

Or at least they know about others like my 'battle buddy' from basic training who came home from Iraq and stayed in only to end up in a military prison for a tragic occurrence which was certainly influenced by the trauma of service in a war zone.

In comparison to those fates getting mortared in Iraq is a state of bliss. At least everyone is at equal risk of losing life or limb and all live together under the same (not ideal) conditions and eat the same (so so) food at the same dining facilities.

The illusion that 'things can only get better from here on' is also quite compelling while living under such conditions.

The powers that be are expert at retaining soldiers by making certain that the alternative, getting out and losing absolutely everything, is just too ugly to face. Stay in and you will be overseas again before you know what hit you.

As I told 'them' when 'they' attempted to dissuade me from leaving, "I do not respond well to threats", my exact words. ('They' and 'them' in the previous sentence refers to career soldiers who had it 10 times better than me and who did not go to Iraq at all.) I am also now not responding well to the poverty which is all that I have left.

You are certainly now mumbling to yourself, 'but you volunteered and you knew what you were getting into'. I actually knew better than you could ever know. I am not stupid, nor crazy but simply disenfranchised.

What I did not know, however, was that when I was told before going to Iraq that I would be promoted to Staff Sergeant soon after arriving there (in a written official counseling statement) that they were just 'blowing smoke up my orifice'.

A few 'poster children' they can buy with bonuses (I never got one in 10 years) and gratuitous promotions but the rest of us they simply coerce. I just am not 'poster child' material.

It would help to remember that Mr.Kaplan has employed rose colored glasses throughout his reportage in Iraq. One neo-con's viewpoint should not obscure the realities of those soldiers who do not find Iraq "home."

A different explanation might be the lack of being back in the US in a normal period of time, (12months) can lead to disassociation. Former military members explained to me that the services were concerned that too much time away from the US can contribute to a feeling of not belonging once returned to the US.

Why not state the obvious? Iraq is not home to the troops,

and anyone who makes noises that sound like the troops are not anxious to come home is serving an agenda.

wmccomninel, thank you for your honesty and for providing a much-needed counterpoint to Lawrence Kaplan's Propaganda piece. I feel terribly for you, and this country has let you down, led into a foolish war by the George Bushes and the Lawrence Kaplans of the world.

Kaplan is clearly trying to set up a "stabbed in the back" narrative because he refuses to admit that Iraq is a failure, and that it should never have been undertaken in the first place. Poor Lawrence Kaplan, whose Neo-Con fantasies are in tatters-

How about the soldiers' lives that are in tatters because of PTSD, physical injuries or just a total lack of support system for re-entering civilian life? The Iraqi lives that are in tatters? The soldiers' families who either miss their loved ones for years on end or never get to see them again?

The arrogance on display STILL, after five years of war, is astounding.

DHBerger:

...How about the soldiers' lives that are in tatters because of PTSD, physical injuries or just a total lack of support system for re-entering civilian life? The Iraqi lives that are in tatters? The soldiers' families who either miss their loved ones for years on end or never get to see them again?

The arrogance on display STILL, after five years of war, is astounding.

Emphasis is mine. Everyone is aware of the problems which physically injured veterans and those who must cope with PTSD face in order to receive adequate medical attention. Fortunately I have not had those troubles.

The transition from the military to a civilian job is yet another story. When I went through the process it was a comedy with a cast of veterans who came in to the mandatory briefing and gave us their testimonials about how great they all had it in their own transitioning to becoming the blowhard functionaries for their respective agencies today. Not one had any jobs to offer us.

The sole exception was one representative from one publicly traded company (to remain nameless) which is in the oil exploration business. They were looking for people with experience handling explosives and they were very short on the details except for the fact that if you were interested you had about 15 minutes to get upstairs to a different room to sign on before the offer went away for good. Just one guy went.

Then we all signed the paper saying that we had an excellent job assistance experience so that we could get home without being recycled again through the ordeal and possibly being subjected to further surprises involving more unpleasant details.

I have 2 years worth of additional stories like this which I will spare you.

wmccomninel, the best advice I got came too late in my AF career to do me much good. A Col. told me "The AF cares about it's people but it doesn't care about you."

Too true. I can vouch for what you say and the AF is, let's face it, the less strenuous branch. What you're told, and what looks good on some officer's performance report are two entirely different things. In the end you will be told that it was your responsibility to know you were going to get screwed. Sad state of affairs.

The military gives such a feeling of botherhood without really caring about you. You are just another commodity.

Adrasteia:

wmccomninel, the best advice I got came too late in my AF career to do me much good. A Col. told me "The AF cares about it's people but it doesn't care about you."

Too true. I can vouch for what you say and the AF is, let's face it, the less strenuous branch. What you're told, and what looks good on some officer's performance report are two entirely different things. In the end you will be told that it was your responsibility to know you were going to get screwed. Sad state of affairs.

The military gives such a feeling of botherhood without really caring about you. You are just another commodity.

At the risk of belaboring my point, there is nothing uniform in how the uniformed services treat a given individual. I was once told by my supervisor that, "There are no individuals in the military". That is only true when it comes time for the military to meet its own obligations. There are only individuals when it comes time to receive punishment whether deserved or not.

Your officer's reports have two tails just like every other bell-shaped curve. There are those who are placed in the fast track, painless 1st quintile tail, there are those in the 'go along to get along' middle three quintiles and then there are those in the lowest 'shit rolls downhill' 5th quintile tail. My 'battle buddy' from basic who now is in a military prison is undeniably in that last undesirable group. Less obvious but equally true is that I have been there right next to him all along despite all outward appearances to the contrary.

The WWII conscription based services gave us the 'Greatest Generation' and the Nuremberg Trials and it's GI Bill gave America trained professionals like my father who became a lawyer with his benefits.

The present all volunteer based services have given us seriously overburdened service members taken from an ignorably small percentage of the total population who are given an impossible task along with Abu Ghraib and a 'don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out' finish.

The exception is the 1st quintile 'elites' who get out and make big money at a defense contractor or who ride the escalator of the fast track if they stay in. A true reflection of an America where the gap between the richest and the poorest grows daily. When you swear to defend the Constitution they gloss over that part.

Fuck that neocon propagandist Lawrence Kaplan - Slate should have YOU writing their Iraq/military affairs posts, wmccomninel. Because unlike that assclown Kaplan, you seem to actually know what you're talking about.

go to college. I know you have to live, and that living poor is no fun, but if you can put up with it for the few years necessary to get a degree it will be worth it.

I know what i went through is in no way comperable to a combat experience, but that is what i did after 6 years of submarine service and i am doing ok these days.

i think only people who have been in the military can apprieciate the humor of "be all that you can be", or "army of one" type propaganda campaigns. In the end you will "be all they want you to be", and an "army of one more guy who does as he is told or pays the price".

And bonus', yeah, they told me i would get one after boot camp. Got it like 1.5 years after and about half what i was told. Recruiters are salesmen and should be approached as such. Too bad most kids joining only find this out after it is too late...

exsquid:

go to college. I know you have to live, and that living poor is no fun, but if you can put up with it for the few years necessary to get a degree it will be worth it...

exsquid, education is a 'Sine Qua Non' which can't hurt but it may not help either. I had a BA when at 38 I went back to basic training again in 1999. My brother is a tenured assistant professor with a PhD so results may vary as they say. See the above description of breakdown by quintiles.

My high school physics lab partner was a submariner too. Best wishes.

. . . if it DID actually care for its people as individuals?

One disgruntled poster that is ex-military and he is now bestowed the honor of truth-teller non-bullshitter extraordinaire? If the military actually did care for it's people as individuals? Some individuals aren't worth keeping. It's a shame that I spend 90% of my time on the 10% of individuals that aren't worth keeping. I don't know wmcominel's story, but he's very eloquent....and wasn't satisfied with the military's treatment of him. He's not the first guy to sign up in ignorance believing all his recruiter had to say, sadly, he won't be the last. I agree, it's not right...but then, do we really have all the story or just what he wishes to disclose? He's now too educated to be successful in poverty.... What can I say? Poor people shouldn't have to give up internet access to keep food in their bellies? Or, is this how he spends his time looking for a job, posting on the Slate? Something doesn't seem right in his comments....but he's your seer, well-steeped in truth.

I won't say he's a truth teller extraordinaire. I won't say YOU'RE a truth teller extraordinaire either; I just don't know.

I've heard other stories along the similar lines, though. And neither of your stories would paint the military as unique in the country in its methods of dealing with its personnel-- you hear some of the same complaints coming out of private corporations, too.

Ultimately, you have a very large organisation with a huge difficulty in acquiring and keeping quality people. Some of those difficulties are felt by you and other commanders who have to deal with not-so-quality people who make it through the existing filters, some are felt by people like the above posters who- quality or not- ran into problems dealing with the organisation as a whole. To the extent those problems weren't their fault, it would be interesting to see the effects of a concerted effort by the military to keep them from happening again in the future.

Thank you for reading my mind. It can be tough getting out, but just about everyone who goes in, comes out in some form or fashion. You get out with a plan, not because you don't make Staff and you feel you aren't treated "properly". I'm second generation military. My father served multiple tours in Vietnam and he came home convinced that us going there was a mistake. Nevertheless he got out, got his education and a job, and didn't wallow in pity. He's now retired twice over, and says every day he wakes up is gravy. I urge that ol' naysayer to take a look in the mirror and have a talk with the main reason he's not happy. Life can hand you a lemon sometimes. The bigger it is, the more lemonade you can make from it. Get some help if you need it, talk to others who've been there, but quit wallowing in "woe is me" and start the next chapter in your life. That's advice from one ol' NCO to another.

Rubma:

...Some individuals aren't worth keeping. It's a shame that I spend 90% of my time on the 10% of individuals that aren't worth keeping...

No one is perfect. By Army standards I was pretty close though. Honor Graduate, 2nd in class in Imagery Analysis, never AWOL, never missed movement, hell never even late, always in the right place at the right time in the right uniform ready to do whatever (I was combat arms before intel), very high PT scores and never went to sick call or missed a day of work. Stayed out of trouble and did not make trouble for others. The shame was that the Army always promoted less qualified people over me. They also tried very hard to keep me in.

I'm not a seer, just a very experienced and reliable person. I was an intelligence analyst so I know that even if I could tell the future no one would listen to me anyway.