{"id":2558,"date":"2004-09-17T12:40:04","date_gmt":"2004-09-17T17:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2558.html"},"modified":"2004-09-17T12:40:04","modified_gmt":"2004-09-17T17:40:04","slug":"re-enlistor-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/re-enlistor-else\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-enlist&#8230;or else"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First the Bush administration implemented a &#8220;stop-loss&#8221; program that forced military personnel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.suntimes.com\/output\/elect\/cst-nws-kerry041.html\">from leaving active duty<\/a>, even after they&#8217;ve fulfilled their obligations to the military. The back-door draft continued shortly thereafter when the administration recalled troops who have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2004\/06\/30\/politics\/30RESE.html\">already retired<\/a> and received honorable discharges, putting these men and women back into service, primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, <i>involuntarily<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Now we hear that troops are effectively being threatened to re-enlist after their requirements to the military have been met or face being <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockymountainnews.com\/drmn\/state\/article\/0,1299,DRMN_21_3185596,00.html\">shipped off to Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit say they have been issued an ultimatum &#8212; re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq. <\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were presented with that message and a re-enlistment form in a series of assemblies last Thursday, said two soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Troops were told that they should sign a form and re-enlist through the end of 2007. Those who refused were told that they would be transferred out of the 3rd Brigade and into a division that will serve in Iraq.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;They said if you refuse to re-enlist with the 3rd Brigade, we&#8217;ll send you down to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can stay with them, or we&#8217;ll send you to Korea, or to Fort Riley (in Kansas) where they&#8217;re going to Iraq,&#8221; said one of the soldiers, a sergeant. <\/p>\n<p>The second soldier, an enlisted man who was interviewed separately, essentially echoed that view. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They told us if we don&#8217;t re-enlist, then we&#8217;d have to be reassigned. And where we&#8217;re most needed is in units that are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you&#8217;re getting out, you&#8217;re not,&#8221; he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How our government feels justified in threatening and intimidating our troops is beyond my understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First the Bush administration implemented a &#8220;stop-loss&#8221; program that forced military personnel from leaving active duty, even after they&#8217;ve fulfilled their obligations to the military. The back-door draft continued shortly thereafter when the administration recalled troops who have already retired and received honorable discharges, putting these men and women back into service, primarily in Iraq [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}