Individual Ready Reserves: Slow to Report

[Northgate]

Listen up Republicans, GOP operatives and Ditto-heads, someone needs to make a comprehensive list of all these "deserters" so that if any of them dare to run for public office (as a Democrat) they can be destroyed, without mercy, with one swift stroke!

They're sending a collective "fuck you" (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&e=2&u=/usatoday/20040928/ts_usatoday/formersoldiersslowtoreport) to the Pentagon:

Fewer than two-thirds of the former soldiers being reactivated for duty in Iraq and elsewhere have reported on time, prompting the Army to threaten some with punishment for desertion.

The former soldiers, part of what is known as the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), are being recalled to fill shortages in skills needed for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of the 1,662 ready reservists ordered to report to Fort Jackson, S.C., by Sept. 22, only 1,038 had done so, the Army said Monday. About 500 of those who failed to report have requested exemptions on health or personal grounds.

"The numbers did not look good," said Lt. Col. Burton Masters, a spokesman for the Army's Human Resources Command. "We are tightening the system, reaching the people and bringing them in."

Masters said most of the requests for exemptions are likely to be denied: "To get an exemption, it has to be a very compelling case, such as a severe medical condition."

The figures are the first on the IRR call-up. They reflect the challenges the Pentagon faces in trying to find enough troops for ongoing operations and show resistance among some service members who returned to civilian life.

Let the Army drag some of these ex-soldiers into jail.

Remember, there won't be a draft under a Kerry administration.

Post taken from the infatigable DailyKOS (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/28/12400/9023)

[bunge]

Last to report = go to jail.

How about if you're 3+ months late?

[Towel]

One of the posters at Kos pointed out that impressment is back in style.

The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~6439~2407475,00.html) reported that the Army is trying to coerce soldiers nearing the end of the enlistments to re-enlist. If they don't? They'll get re-assigned for the remainder of their term to a unit that's about to deploy to Iraq. Where they will then stay, since stop-loss will prevent them from leaving when their term actually ends. Congresswoman DeGette of CO is requesting (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/co01_degette/040927.html) an official investigation.

Nice tactic. If you do re-enlist, you'll stay with your unit, which will deploy to Iraq again next year. If you don't re-elist, we'll ship you to Iraq now, and you'll have to stay there until rotated back, anyway. Fucked now or fucked later? Your call.

[Northgate]

Originally posted by Towel
One of the posters at Kos pointed out that impressment is back in style.

The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~6439~2407475,00.html) reported that the Army is trying to coerce soldiers nearing the end of the enlistments to re-enlist. If they don't? They'll get re-assigned for the remainder of their term to a unit that's about to deploy to Iraq. Where they will then stay, since stop-loss will prevent them from leaving when their term actually ends. Congresswoman DeGette of CO is requesting (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/co01_degette/040927.html) an official investigation.

Nice tactic. If you do re-enlist, you'll stay with your unit, which will deploy to Iraq again next year. If you don't re-elist, we'll ship you to Iraq now, and you'll have to stay there until rotated back, anyway. Fucked now or fucked later? Your call.

:wow:

[Northgate]

Bush screws national guardsmen

Mark Goldberg has the scoop (http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=8678):

All full-time military personnel are eligible for the military's TRICARE health plan, as are reservists called up for active duty. After After reservists are deactivated, however, they generally lose their TRICARE coverage following a short, transitional grace period. Having the option to buy into the military's the military's TRICARE coverage would be attractive to many reservists and their families. as it offers comprehensive policies at very low cost.

In 2002, a General Accounting Office report found that as many as one-fifth of the nation's 1.2 million part-time soldiers lacked health insurance. This startled many lawmakers into action, and, in May 2003, Senators Tom Daschle and Lindsay Graham successfully pushed for an amendment to the Senate's version of the fiscal year 2004 Defense Authorization bill that would protect reservists from going uninsured by allowing them to buy into TRICARE when not on active duty.

Though the "Graham-Daschle amendment" had overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate, the administration sought to scuttle the proposal as it moved to the House. That June, in a letter to Representative Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called the Senate's efforts to expand TRICARE a "troubling provision" because the ammendment amounted to an unfunded entitlement that would drain resources from other, presumably more important Department of Defense activities.

Our National Guardsmen are being asked to sacrifice their lives, jobs and families for Bush's War, yet allowing them to buy into the military's health insurance system is a "troubling provision".

May those assholes rot in hell.

DailyKOS (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/28/192916/314)