Pace Paw Print

Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: randy.house.gov American troops speaking with a member of congress, they are all now required to stay an extra three months in the country

Last week, Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, decided to drop another bombshell on the troops: he declared that the troops would be required to stay in Iraq for another three months. What I am trying very hard to understand is how just weeks after the purported strategy of a troop "surge," which would be the strategy to save the war, the troops are being forced to stay longer, even though many of them are already on their second tour of duty in Iraq.

The clear and present fact is that the military has been betrayed. The men and women of the armed forces were promised a job defending this country, and instead, the President has continually extended their duty in a country that is not justifiably a threat to the United States. It is astounding to see all of the concentration on Iraq, even thought there has yet to be a definitive and undisputable link between that country and the 9/11 attacks. The war in Afghanistan, which was at least just and prudent in the eyes of most of the rest of the world, served to increase the security of Americans. It can be argued that the war in Iraq has in fact caused more risk to the American people.

The President told the American public that the war in Iraq was necessary because of weapons of mass destruction that never materialized. The American people were also told that the war would be a "cake-walk," a thought process that was clearly mistaken since the war has now exceeded the length of the Second World War. The troops who expected to protect this country have now been deployed and re-deployed. A personal war in the Middle East is not what the American men and women in the armed forces signed up for. Even more insulting than the unjustified extended tours is that the military is systematically forcing homosexual people out of the military, and ironically, some of these people happen to have a high concentration of necessary skills such as mastery of the Arabic language or computer skills. The arguments presently employed in defense of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy are no better than arguments in favor of the segregation of the military in past wars.

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