Soldier and Author Colby Buzzell Returns to Active Duty

"My War by Colby Buzzell is nothing less than the soul of an extremely interesting human being at war on our behalf in Iraq."
- Kurt Vonnegut

Return to Sender - Iraq Veteran Gets the Call Again

After serving in Iraq, I elected to use my GI Bill to enroll in a photography course at San Francisco City College. I felt good, and I had a feeling that the days to come were all going to be good as well.

On way out of my building two weeks ago, I checked my mailbox and found a letter from the Department of the Army with "Important Document" printed in all caps on the middle. I immediately felt sick, so I went back to my room, locked the door, grabbed a beer from the fridge and stared out my window for a while. People outside were all wearing sunglasses and walking about enjoying the sun. I took a picture.

I got out of the Army three long years ago, and since then I've never really talked ill of the military, the people in it, or expressed any regrets at all about enlisting. If I had to do it all over again, I honestly would have. Granted, I got lucky and made it back with all my body parts intact. If I hadn't, my answer might be a little bit different than what it is now.

As terrible as this might sound, whenever someone asks me about enlisting, I'm tempted to encourage them. I figure that the more people who enlist, the slimmer the chances that I'll get called back up. But of course this is ridiculous: No one in their right mind would enlist now, whereas I've already signed the papers. I'm now going back to Iraq for a second time because people like me - existing service members - are the only people at the Army's disposal.

Looking back, would I have joined the military if I were doing something that I loved? Or had a job that paid $100,000 a year? Probably not. Those are the men and women I feel that we need to mail these letters to. Let's see what happens when they receive letters telling them to put on a uniform and ship out immediately to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many people believe that the draft ended the Vietnam War. I'm convinced that reinstating the draft would definitely end this war. Rich, connected people will always find a way to evade mandatory service, but what about the rest of America? The middle class - people with good jobs and nice lives - would perhaps riot if the government even suggested that it expected from them what the Army expects from veterans.

What if there were a war and none of the veterans who were called up showed up?

Every time when I hear about a soldier's death now - which is always reported very briefly - there always seems to be a short mention that it was the soldier's second or third deployment, and now my name might be among them.

I know I won't get any sympathy at all from the "you dumb ass you signed the contract!" crowd, which is fine, but I really was looking forward to applying my GI Bill to photography classes so I could learn how to take pictures. But now, thanks to not enough Americans volunteering for military service, I now have to worry about my picture appearing on the second or third page of my hometown paper with the words, "it was his second deployment" in my obituary.

No End In Sight For Stop Loss

File this under "duh..."

(AP) It will be more than a year before the Army can end the unpopular practice of forcing soldiers to stay in the service beyond their retirement or re-enlistment dates, a top official said Monday.

Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, deputy chief of staff for operations, said he hoped that wartime demand for troops will decline enough by around the fall of next year to end "stop-loss." He said there are more than 12,000 currently serving under the practice - an action that critics have called a "backdoor draft."

Thurman also said that as officials continue to increase the size of the Army, it could be possible by the fall of 2011 for troops to be home two years for every year they are deployed.

The two issues of stop-loss and long tours of duty have been among the Pentagon's most disliked practices among troops. Thousands have been forced to stay in the service beyond their contracts since the start of the global war on terrorism. And tours of duty were increased to 15 months from 12 months a year ago so the Army could come up with the extra forces President Bush ordered for the troop buildup in Iraq.

There's no shortage of Young Republicans who have NO deployments to Iraq. And that's really sad. There's no shortage of pro-war fuckheads who need to run off that extra forty pounds they added when "Mountain Dew" added that special line of energy drinks. So this "backdoor draft" isn't going to end any time soon, huh? Well, I guess we should think about ending the war then, right?

Standardized Stop-Loss

On January 29^th, Defense Secretary Robert Gates enjoyed a lot of favorable press when he announced that the military would no longer rely on stop-loss policies and extended deployments to keep troop numbers up. He instructed all of the heads of the branches of service to submit plans to him by 28 February detailing how they would cope with this new reality of having to honor that sacred date circled on kitchen calendars throughout the land.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. Secretary Gates held another press conference today. Now all tours are being extended. All - as in every last one - all. Every U.S. Army soldier who deploys to a combat zone in either Iraq or Afghanistan, or who is currently deployed, is there for 15 months. (It used to be 12.)

Now see, it isn’t that people who think like I do are defeatists. In fact, I'm getting real damned sick of having that charge leveled and my patriotism questioned. I have had no part in abrogating the Constitution, destroying the United States fighting forces or trashing civil liberties, so I'm not the one whose patriotism should be questioned.

No, me and the people like me are much worse than defeatists…We are realists. Realists are a hell of a lot harder to dismiss than defeatists. I’m not wringing my hands over here – I’m pointing to GAO reports, and the white papers from think-tanks, and to the reports from war-game exercises like Desert Crossings.

There is a reckoning on its way. I take no pleasure in that fact, but that I take no pleasure in it does not palliate reality. The load we are asking our military to bear is unsustainable. General Powell is right – the Army is damned near broken. If reality is not addressed immediately, the damage is going to be vast and devastating.

It took 30 years for men like my husband to rebuild the military in the wake of Vietnam. It took a long time to build a professional force and get rid of the unfit to serve. It wasn’t that hard to get in – but it wasn’t that easy to stay in, either. Up-or-Out. Now standards are being relaxed, to the point where fully 17% of all recruits are admitted on waivers.

Couple all of these hinky troops with a lack of leadership that is resulting from a depleted officer corps – the Army is missing 3500 officers throughout the ranks, and the Army Reserves are missing over 11,000 Lieutenants and Captains – and you have a force that is compromised to it’s very core.

If U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq today, we are looking at a 20-year rebuilding cycle, at the very least. If we stay another year, it might take 50 years to repair and restore. It is that serious, people. (Unfortunately, only about 2% of Americans actually *get* that.)

The Iraq war was half-assed from the outset. Because it was done on the cheap with less than half the troops that would have been needed, now it isn’t salvageable. Period.

And don’t blame me, just because I'm smart enough to read the writing on the wall. I have been right about absolutely everything from the get-go, and dismissed for having the audacity to be right. (How dare I?!?!?) I realize that is absolutely infuriating if you happen to disagree with me, but c’est la vie! Take it up with the geniuses who have failed miserably at absolutely every damned thing for the last six years. If you think I am going to apologize for being right, you're freakin' nuts.

Accept reality: Nobody is going to "follow us home." That is a lie. It is also a lie when the president says that the congress is not funding the troops – they certainly are – it is the president who stubbornly insists that he will not sign the bill because it has something in there about demanding accountability - something of which he has no concept.

To which I say "Tough shit, aWol. Deal."