WP: Battle-Weary Marine Unit Awaits 'Taste Of Freedom'

[kskiska]

Many Feel Pull of Home 2 Years After Hussein Fell

Sunday, April 10, 2005; Page A01

FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 9 -- Two years ago, Cpl. Justin Soule rushed across the Tigris River bridge into Baghdad with the Marines who first entered the city and toppled a statue of President Saddam Hussein. During a bloody uprising that swept Iraq last April, he and his battalion fought their way into insurgent-held Fallujah before commanders ordered a halt.

Today, the infantry squad leader from Itasca, Tex., is back for a third tour in Iraq, living in a bombed-out soda factory, surviving on packaged meals and junk food and admitting that he thinks more about his own liberation than Iraq's.

"I don't really care for the desert, the flies, the dust storms, the trash on the side of the road with kids playing in it," he said as he sat on his bunk this week in the dank, 25-foot-wide room he shares with 13 other Marines. "I'm ready to get out. I'll have a taste of the freedom I've been fighting for."

Soule proudly counts himself among the "Darkside" -- the battle-weary 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines -- the first U.S. military unit to serve three rotations in Iraq. About two-thirds of the battalion's 800 men are on their third tour, having spent more time in Iraq over the past two years than at home.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40494-2005Apr9.html

[LevelB]

1. They are burning these guys out

They are being asked to do too much. I hope they come back soon, for their sake and Iraq's.

B.

[LynnTheDem]

2. And going by what's already happening here, God help us all when they do

come home.

[saigon68]

4. They will KILL and Murder their spouses

And Rob Liquor stores and 7-11 s I have seen it before.

They might also pistol Whip a few night clerks.

A few of the "white ones" will become cops and abuse black men.

[lyonn]

3. I'd classify this as inhuman treatment

3 tours - how much can one body and brain deal with? Too bad bushco cut dollars for soldiers heathcare after they return. Vets get cuts too. They have given their all and bushco have given the least. I have no words appropriate for how I feel about this situation. No public burials, no mention of the seriously wounded. It is so sick. For sure the taxes will not be raised to pay for what is needed for equip., etc. Must not burden the rich with this problem.

[UncleSepp]

5. Meet the future Freikorps

If the dollar goes in the dumper, these guys will become the Freikorps who become the SA. Bush is no Hitler and this isn't WW2 - we're fighting the mad Kaiser's war at the moment, and we ain't seen nothin yet.