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Running through the news in LBN I see two postings...the first is asking to extend the combat tours of 15,000 troops in Iraq, in 5 combat brigades for 120 days...then a second post rubs to tumescence some horseshit about conditions improving in Al Anbar. Tour dates, or in the old parlance DEROS dates are the single most precious thing a soldier in combat owns-it says "survive until this date and you win, you live....". If you're on a tour day 365 is the same as 364, but day 366 is the Holy Grail and the Promised Land-day 366 once was Freedom Birds and the Land of the Round Eyes and is what we promised this time.Put your ass on the line 365 days and use all your skill and luck to survive them, then the three sevens will line up and you win.And today for almost 10% of the troops we asked to change the rules-since for a REMF 485 is not very different than 365....and remember, they're ALL volunteers. But some of them WILL die.They'll be owed a Freedom Bird and a trip home, but will instead spend the rest of their lives in the sands of the mid-east.Each of these patriots will be bitter and each of their families distraught and RIGHTLY so. Their additional (and ultimate) sacrifice will change nothing.These sorry sacrificed souls will have in the end been killed in the longest continued combat tours ever faced by an American soldier.And every politician or officer who endorses this plan deserves far worse.
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