“I Feel Like We're In A Nightmare

“I Feel Like We're In A Nightmare, And That Our Country Is Turning Into The Very Thing We Created It Against. I Feel Like Soon We Should Be Taking Up Arms Against It”

Bring Home Stryker 172nd

Submitted Thu 03 August , 1:15 AM CST
I got off of the phone today with my husband in the 172nd Stryker Brigade.
He says all of the soldiers he sees walking around are dazed and detached.
He himself is more depressed and listless than I have ever heard him be before.
It's not the extension, it's that our government led us all to believe they were coming home without a doubt. They got them ready, even sat them on their planes and then "whoops! We were shortsighted, you guys gotta pay for that now. Let's go to Baghdad!"
Our guys are in serious danger because they were literally traumatized, ALL of us were, and still are.
How can our military in this day and age, seriously reflect their lack of respect for our soldiers so blatantly?
You see it daily when you work for them, but this was just unbelievable and the last straw.
These men and women were moments from home. In fact, it was just a couple of days before the vast majority of them were to be home, when this news was sprung on all of us.
Our hearts were stomped on, their morale was sucked out like a black hole, and now, they question everything their government wants them to do.
Instead of being home with the people they love, the people they worked their butts off to come home to for roughly 365 days, they have to think, "Now I have another chance to die for Iraq, a country I want nothing more to do with."
This move was so careless, so thoughtless, and so painful.
I want to kill someone myself when I hear how sad and just overall beaten my husband sounds. It is my damn turn to take care of him! To make up for the neglect he and all of them have received!
The military was shortsighted and should not have turned to these guys, especially not for Iraq.
Iraq will never take care of itself until we tell it we're moving on.
I hear in the news George "desk jockey" Casey Jr. telling the media, not us, empty promises regarding our brigade. It's all a media show.
I also hear, and sadly it has manipulated some people, that our guys are just so good and that's why they are being punished. Is this brigade going to be called on every time something needs to be done? Yeah, they're good, but they are now DONE mentally and physically.
I just can't believe the awful life they have catapulted our guys into, when they thought they were finally free of it.
No, not only are we not free of it, but they have made it 100% worse by sending our precious guys to Baghdad of all places.
I have lost all faith in this government. I feel it is tyrannical, and it hides itself from our voices when it messes up.
Nothing could make up for the feeling they have put us through except for allowing our guys to come home.
The government better get that rotation going fast.
My husband says he can't even imagine putting his armor back on and going out there for missions again, for Iraq. But he has to.
I only hope the media helps us, instead of trying to make him feel guilty when he gets down there with all the havoc they are expected to wreak.
If he could be home, he would.
Damn our government, and damn our "desk jockey" military. They have no idea and I will not stop harassing them until my sweetheart is home.
Iraq is not worth anymore of us.
The biggest point of this outrage is, they were coming home the week they found out about this horrific plan.
They were packed, stored away important items that now they can't get to, they sold most of their equipment, they signed over their strykers (my husband still
hasn't gotten replacement strykers), they made plans with those of us that actually CARE for their well being.
We all finally started to relax, not suspecting AT ALL that the military would say "hang tight, you're going to Baghdad".
How sick and unhealthy this move is.
I only pray that the government gets heat for this move until they decide to expedite our soldier's returns.
All of my husband's superiors are also mad.
They need to put on happy faces for their jobs, but when there isn't a big whig to answer to, they are listless like the others.
My husband's platoon Sgt. said to them "make no mistake about it, this whole move is to save money".
While that sounds crazy given all the things they need to send back up, it shows the conspiracy theories about why something so ridiculous would happen. Meaning, yes, it is ridiculous. And they all feel that way.
I used to support this administration completely, now I just can't believe it.
Ever since my husband was first deployed, I would listen to Bush talk about caring for our soldiers and just laugh, a very sad laugh. I knew then and I, without a doubt, know now, that if he knew the pain and suffering he has caused for his agenda, he wouldn't be smiling. If he knew how irreplaceable each soldier he "owns" is to someone else in this world, he would not smile.
I feel like we're in a nightmare, and that our country is turning into the very thing we created it against. I feel like soon we should be taking up arms against it.
I feel betrayed and my husband is abused. All he and I want out of life is to be alive and together, everything else is cake.
Now he has been ripped away for nearly another deployment, to the most dangerous place in Iraq, to be the main assault against it, and to still have no commitment from the government of when he might come home. The military has made sure to leave every statement open ended so that they don't have to commit.
All of this, for Iraq. Not America anymore, but Iraq.
It is not our job to police their streets.
I'm ashamed of our government. No one is telling us what's going on, it's silent where my husband and I am.
The calm before the storm. The storm that they don't have much left to give to. I am scared for them. They are not ready, they are distraught and tired.
How careless our government was, and that is why we are outraged.
Bring them home if you have moral bones in your bodies! These are your SOLDIERS!