'Big Red One' HQ will deploy to Iraq

[Keefer]

Source: Army Times

The 1st Infantry Division headquarters will deploy to Iraq in the coming weeks as the U.S. expands its war against the Islamic State, officials announced Thursday.

The Big Red One, of Fort Riley, Kansas, will be the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.

About 500 soldiers will deploy in late October to the Central Command area of operations, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Thursday in a briefing with reporters.

About 200 of those soldiers will be in Iraq as part of the 475-troop increase announced Sept. 10 by President Obama, Kirby said.

Read more: http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140925/NEWS/309250057/-Big-Red-One-HQ-will-deploy-Iraq

---

More at link.

[alfredo]

1. It begins, again?

[mahannah]

3. It never really ended.

[alfredo]

6. I have so many conflicting feelings about this.

[strawberries]

40. not sure

I can take much more

[alfredo]

47. Giving up serves their purposes.

[NYC_SKP]

2. I, for one, wish them safe travel and a swift and successful mission.

[warrant46]

8. Tell that to the next group of Gold Star Mothers

Cheney and the rest of the War Criminals are dancing in the streets at the prospect of renewed $$$$ for weapons

[NYC_SKP]

11. SHAME ON YOU! The Gold Star Moms stand with me and stand with THEM. Where do YOU stand?

I can't believe that you would use them to make a political point.

On this day, on Gold Star Moms Day?!

Shame on you. http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/gold-star-mothers-day

[candelista]

12. Stand with THEM?

The way to stand with them is to stop sending them out to be killed for Wall Street.

[warrant46]

14. As a Viet Nam veteran

I saw too many created and the new Cheney war admirers here have no conception of War other than their Keyboard

[candelista]

16. Flew a helicopter, did you?

Then you know.

[warrant46]

18. Yes Dust-Off

Read my Journal

[NYC_SKP]

17. OK, fine, don't wish them a safe return. Good for you. Rah.

[Feral Child]

36. It doesn't have to be your way

or no way.

Are you going to hold your breath till you turn blue?

Personally, I wish them a safe Never-Sent-There-To-Die-For-Corporate-Interests. Despite all the jingoistic bullshit by Little Drummer Boys, this nonsense is just more Blood-For-Oil.

[NYC_SKP]

15. I don't think you get it. That's OK. Maybe one day you will. You tried to shit on this comment:

My comment was simple:

I, for one, wish them safe travel and a swift and successful mission.

Shit on it all you want. Moms and dads and good citizens do NOT want them to come to harm and we want them to be home soon, if they go at all.

Look for a piece of your heart that doesn't have to make a political statement and just join me in wishing for their safe return.

Too much to ask?

[candelista]

19. Your filthy comment notwithstanding...

My wish is for them not to be sent back to Iraq where they have fought and died for big business and the banks and no one else for the past 10 years.

[NYC_SKP]

20. Well, the best among us can object to war and still support the troops.

There were many who spit in the faces of returning troops during Viet Nam.

I disassociate myself from that type of righteous indignation.

I, for one, wish them safe travel and a swift and successful mission.

You, if you care, would agree.

Or you might prefer to stick to your meme.

[candelista]

21. Congrats on being the best among us!

But the way to object to the war AND support the troops is to oppose sending them back to the Middle East to be shot at.

[warrant46]

22. He doesn't get your point

[candelista]

24. He sure doesn't. Which means I have hit bedrock.

So I give up.

[warrant46]

25. +1

[840high]

34. +2

[NYC_SKP]

26. No, that member chose to shit on my best wishes for the troops.

And that was out of line. They could have said nothing, or they could have agreed and added that they oppose the action.

I have too many years and friends and blood and treasure to let that crap go unaddressed.

To anyone who serves or has served, we owe a debt. We don't have to owe a debt to the military or oil companies to show caring and gratitude to those who server honorably.

I can't believe I have to explain this shit on this board.

All I wrote was:

[font size= "H3"]I, for one, wish them safe travel and a swift and successful mission.[/font]

All that I conclude from a snarky reply is that the member doesn't get it, and is somehow unsupportive of safe travel, swiftness, or success. Or maybe they just can't articulate what they feel and just want to shit on anyone who supports the troops.

Which is odd.

[warrant46]

27. Read My Journal

[reddread]

42. Support the Truth

not death for corporate benefit.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

30. I never witnessed any troops being spit on, in fact we told them we were sorry

they were sent there. I was in San Diego , so I was around a lot of them and the overwhelming number of them were really pissed off about being sent to Viet Nam.

The best way to support our troops is to not send them in the first place, I would think that's obvious.

BTW my grandmother was a Gold Star Mother, so I've seen the pain up close and personal that came with the death of her only son, my father, who I never met, he went down on the USS Langley in the 2nd month of world war II off Java.

Fuck war and fuck Bush and Cheney for opening this can of worms.

[candelista]

31. That's because it never happened. It's a myth.

In his exhaustive book entitled "The Spitting Image," Vietnam vet and Holy Cross professor Jerry Lembcke documents veterans who claim they were spat on by antiwar protestors, but he found no physical evidence (photographs, news reports, etc.) that these transgressions actually occurred. His findings are supported by surveys of his fellow Vietnam veterans as they came home.

For instance, Lembcke notes that "a U.S. Senate study, based on data collected in August 1971 by Harris Associates, found that 75 percent of Vietnam-era veterans polled disagreed with the statement, 'Those people at home who opposed the Vietnam war often blame veterans for our involvement there'" while "94 percent said their reception by people their own age who had not served in the armed forces was friendly." Meanwhile, the Veterans' World Project at Southern Illinois University found that many Vietnam vets supported the antiwar protest, with researchers finding almost no veterans "finish(ing) their service in Vietnam believing that what the United States has done there has served to forward our nation's purposes."

In the face of such data, why would the current president nonetheless repeat the apocryphal myth about spat-on Vietnam veterans? Because — facts be damned — it serves a purpose: to suppress protest and perpetuate the ideology of militarism.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-legend-of-the-spat-upon-veteran.html

[Feral Child]

37. Didn't happen.

That's more RW propaganda, set up to make Democrats look bad. The "Support the Troops" crap is all showmanship. Saying "Thanks For Your Service" is not support. Government has never supported troops upon their return.

Nobody literally spat on me after my return from Viet Nam; but the "Creators" might has well have. No jobs. Took me 12 months to get an entry-level position feeding can lids into a machine at a brewery.

Government offered 39 hour-a-week "interim" jobs at GS3 pay with no benefits.

Instead of giving them a Republican "Booyah!", let's let our rulers understand we've had enough of their fuck-upped adventures using our youth as cannon-fodder in their grasping for world domination and control of all resources.

Let's support our troops by NOT sending them off to endless War-For-Profit.

[reddread]

43. +1

cant trust anyone who spouts that garbage 40 years later.

[Feral Child]

45. Pushing GOP catch-phrases

is a bad sign.

[reddread]

46. working up a membership drive?

fuck that.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. It's called Mission Creep.

Here we go again. From what our Propaganda outlets are telling us,our so called Military Experts really F----ed up everything they touched in Syria and Iraq. Appears most of the Gangsters Reconstituted into a military force that the so called experts just plain blew of.

Looks like were headed for another clean up of a Neo-Con Shit fest, Just never changes.

[warrant46]

9. More $$$ for the War Machine

USA USA USA USA USA USA !!

[GeorgeGist]

5. They're called the First for a reason ...

The History of the 1st Infantry Division

The Division's history begins in 1917 when General John "Blackjack" Pershing arrived in France with the First American Expeditionary Force. The "Fighting First" led the way for American troops in World War I. Names like Cantigny, Soissons, St. Mihiel and the Argonne Forest tell the story of the gallantry of the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, now wearing the famous Big Red One" patch on their left shoulder.

During World War II, the 1st Infantry Division was the first to reach England, the first to fight the enemy in North Africa and Sicily, the first on the beaches of Normandy in D-Day and the first to capture a major German City — Aachen.

The D-Day landings on June 6, 1944 provided the supreme test. In five days, the division drove inland and cleared a beachhead for supplies and troops. Driving eastward across France against fanatical resistance, the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division spent nearly six months in continuous action with the enemy.

After capturing Aachen, the 1st Infantry Division still faced months of bitter fighting at places like the Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. When the War ended, the Big Red One had rolled through Germany and into Czechoslovakia.

The 1st Infantry Division remained in Germany until 1955, first as occupation troops, then as partners with the new Germany in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 1955, the Big Red One redeployed to Fort Riley Kansas.

In the summer of 1965, the Big Red One was the first division called to fight in Vietnam. For nearly five years, its soldiers battled the enemy while carrying out programs to aid the people of South Vietnam. In April 1970, the colors of the 1st Infantry Division returned to Fort Riley. Home again, the Big Red One became a dual based division with its 3rd Brigade in West Germany.http://www.riley.army.mil/AboutUs/History.aspx

[candelista]

10. So what?

Exactly what "reasons" does this add up to? Are you citing their "illustrious" history, ending with the not-so-illustrious Vietnam War? And is that why you think they were selected, rather than the 1st Cav or the 101st Airborne? Their "history" had nothing to do with it. Their experience in Iraq since 2003 had everything to do with it. And now they are back, for the umpteenth time, to shed some more blood for US business.

[morningfog]

39. I read that post as they are called the first of many.

[NYC_SKP]

13. Thank you for an honorable reply, well deserved for these courageous men and women.

I am sickened by the pointless comments made by some on the left in the bloggosphere that are disrespectful without offering alternatives.

Just as some on the left shit on all cops, they'll shit on all soldiers because they think they are somehow enlightened or superior, as if showing signs of respect or support is a RW talking point.

Thanks for the post.

[reddread]

44. right wing talking points never die

apparently they dont even fade away.

[quadrature]

7. 28 more months of this ...nt

[morningfog]

38. 10-20 more years.

[NYC_SKP]

23. Recommended. So young. I really hope their tour is brief and safe and pray for their swift return.

Young men and women, part of a war machine to be sure but they are not aggressors, they are victims.

I despise anyone who shits on them, who spits on them, or who can't rise to the occasion to at least wish them well.

[orpupilofnature57]

28. IKE 1961

[Peregrine]

29. If have to be one,

Be a Big Red One.

[reddread]

41. passed through that area a while back

not the most impressive aggregation at the gas station.
if that is what we use for fodder, I can imagine the upchain rationale.

[Brigid]

32. No boots on the ground, eh?

[Psephos]

35. They're deploying in bedroom slippers.

Thus preserving the promise.

[TwilightGardener]

33. Good luck, stay safe.