[4Canada]

<strong>Written By:</strong> 4Canada
<strong>Date:</strong> 2007-02-10 16:03:23
<a href="/article/1203231-quotkidnappedquot-by-the-white-house">Article Link</a>

He will wake up on April 2 in Iraq, along with 2,600 other members of the Minnesota National Guard, men and women whose loved ones wait at home, calendars circled with their expected spring return now symbols of a cruel joke.

The spring reintegration into regular life will have to wait until late this summer – if then, because the Iraq deployment of this state's National Guard has become something of a voyage of the damned, as if they are the troops who went to Iraq and couldn't find a way back.

While America is flush with photos and stories of its troops deploying to Iraq again under the so-called "troop surge" plan announced by U.S. President George W. Bush last month, much less attention has been paid to those who can't come home.

As part of the Bush plan, these Guard soldiers, many of them farmers, small business owners, white-collar and blue-collar workers, were extended for at least another 125 days, leaving more birthdays and anniversaries missed, vacations deferred and heaping more burdens on the loved ones left behind where anger and frustration now rule.

When this unit of citizen soldiers finally returns home, they will have served about two years, the longest uninterrupted stint in this hot, deadly, stressful, often demoralizing war of any soldiers in the U.S.

"They've been kidnapped, kidnapped by their own government," says Linda Anderson, who has led much of the anger in this state as she waits for her husband, First Sgt. Randy Hatch, to return.

Many are calling this the most pronounced example of what is known in this country as a "backdoor draft," in which Washington keeps its volunteer soldiers in Iraq after their service should have ended.

There are worries in this state about the physical grind of a two-year deployment on its citizens but there are bigger concerns about the psychological toll, the mass reintegration of such a number of soldiers into everyday life, the youngsters who don't know their fathers, the returning men and women who have drifted from spouses, the returning soldiers who zoom down interstates at 150 km/h as if dodging explosive devices, the small businesses and farms that did not survive.

"Is this a raw deal? Of course!" wrote Maj.-Gen. Larry W. Shellito, the Adjutant-General of the Guard, using unusually blunt language by military standards in informing the families of the decision. "We have every right to be angry, but the reality is that the long-awaited homecoming will be pushed back."

In Washington, Republicans try to blunt debate on the troop surge. In the frigid Minnesota winter, there is talk of little else, a sense of outrage mixed with disgust at Republicans who filibuster and play backroom political games while exhausted single mothers juggle parental duties and work responsibilities, with husband and father absent.

<a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/article/180331">http://www.thestar.com/News/article/180331</a>







[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on February 12, 2007]

[rearguard]

"They've been kidnapped, kidnapped by their own government,"

What did they think they were signing up for when they agreed to become slaves?

[ouhite]

I wonder how many of them would still like to sit n have a beer with George now? Though I think at this point GB is befitting the image of an rowdy barfly.

[boflaade]

Even if these people joined the regular force, they most probably did to "defend their OWN country". Obviously it is naive for any American to think he or she would be in a position to protect their country as NO one has declared war on the USA. Members of the National Guard signed up on a "part time" basis. That was the understanding even though, probably not in print. One can assume there is a clause in the Guards contract that will keep them in a conflict, as long as deemed necessary. Most may have thought that even if the draft was invoked, they would have served time enough and not subject to return. They were wrong and in fact "drafted" beyond their normal term. It would also appear the Guard is not subject to the normal rotation routine.

Americans may at this point hesitate to sign anyything the recruiting officer presents them, when he cuts them off during their normal routines.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

[rearguard]

Well, these troops have a lot of guns and the training to use them, they most certainly can defend themselves against a criminal government if they choose to do so.

[boflaade]

Not in Iraq.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

[rearguard]

Yeah, maybe that's why they don't want them coming home.

[Roy_Whyte]

These are national guardsmen - let's cut them some slack here. They signed up as reserve soldiers to be called up for state emergencies or dire national ones. Iraq does not count as a dire national emergency except to the legacy of Bush the Idiot.

The ranker this is causing will only help seal the fate of the republican party - at least those leaning to the far-right. That is good for all of us, too bad it has to come on the back of men and women like these.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

[rearguard]

"They signed up as reserve soldiers to be called up for state emergencies or dire national ones."

Well perhaps that's what they thought they were signing up for, but I'm sure that's not what the fine print stated. None of these people had to go off to fight in illegal and amoral wars, not one of them. They could have had the courage to refuse and face the consequences of their grave mistake in signing up. A few have refused, we don't know how many, but not enough it seems to matter. It's hard for me to cut these unfortunates any slack, certainly not at this point after it has become more than cyrstal clear that Bush and his buddies are treasonous lying war criminals. Those who continue following along with this "terrorist" charade have become knowing accomplices in the crime.

[whelan costen]

I like 4Canada's suggestion. What would happen if everyone refused to fight? I
wonder how that would look on a global scale? Like the Christmas Eve in WWI (?)
when both sides agreed to a ceasefire...I know it didn't last, but what if it did?

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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere

[Ed Deak]

Catherine, have you ever read the story, or perhaps fable, of the "Spartan Women"?

One of the best solutions to end all wars !

Being in the animal raising business, we have known for many years that the females of, at least of most species, are far more intelligent than the ruling males. E.g. Sometimes the bull is scared to come out of his enclosed meadow in June, through a wide open gate, and we have to let the cows in to get him out.

I have seen bulls grazing on nothing to the line where once a single strand of electric fence once was stretched, for 3 weeks, nibbling to the edge of tall grass, but not touching any of it.

Never saw a cow hesitating. They even test fully charged electric fences, just in case there'e no juice, to get to the grass.

So, when are the females of the human race start using their inborn intelligence and put a stop to entrenched idiocies?

On the subject of the military, governments have always used the gullibility of their soldiers to sell them to fight for phoney clauses. I joined the Hungarian army, when the Russian tanks were already shooting into our subdivision NE of Budapest. The next thing we knew, we were in locked cattlecars, taken to Germany and I was wounded defending the
Breslau -Berlin autobahn bridge over the River Bobr. now in Poland, while our families were being raped and butchered by the conquerors.

When I was lying in the hospital for 3 months, I decided that no politician will ever send me to kill anybody, or die for some cause I have nothing to do with.

My wife and I have had one of the greatest love affairs going for 62 years. She has no high education, because of the war and years as a refugee, but a self educated and acknowledged genius in many, especially creative, fields and without her inborn insticts I would've been dead long ago. So when it comes to many major decisions, her word is the final one.

She could run circles around our biggest name political leaders, as do many women I've known, unless they succumb to the brainwash of ideologies and religions. Like Msssss. Thatcher, Rice, Clinton, etc.

Ed Deak.

[boflaade]

My wife and I have had one of the greatest love affairs going for 62 years,,

Happy Valentines, Ed.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.