Active duty U.S. soldiers petition for withdrawl

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hundreds of US soldiers have signed a petition calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq and the document is to be formally presented to Congress in January, organizers said.

"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," the petition says.

"Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for US troops to come home," it says.

The campaign's website, www.appealforredress.org, says the petition is sponsored by active duty service members based in the Norfolk, Virginia area and by a sponsoring committee of veterans and military family members.

The committee includes Iraq Veterans against the War (IVAW), Veterans for Peace (VFP) and Military Families Speak Out.

DoD Directive 7050.6, otherwise known as the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, provides for the following rights:

4.1 Members of the Armed Forces shall be free to make a protected communication to:

4.1.1—A Member of Congress
Articles 4.2-4.4- Military members are protected against reprisals for such communication.

Isn't this technically mutiny?

If they are active duty, they should just shut the hell up. They can sign all the crap they want when they get out.

If they are active duty, they should just shut the hell up. They can sign all the crap they want when they get out.

According to John Kerry they are so stupid that they will have to sign with a "X"

I feel much better punching Dems too.

Well Kerry didn't actually say that, that's BB's 'interpretation'. It remains true that people with poor education are more likely to end up in the military. Which was Kerry's point.

mutiny is act of rebellion. the petition simply "urges" congress to consider an opinion and in no way says that the service men and women will disobey their orders or not perform their duties. so this seems to me well clear of being a punishable offense and is simply an expression of opinion by citzens (who happen to also be soldiers).

Truth be told, however, economics professors routinely instruct their students on the virtue of the all-volunteer army in language that comes dangerously close to Kerry's uncouth remark.

Here, for example, is how University of Rochester economics professor Steven E. Landsburg made the case for the volunteer army in his textbook ''Price Theory and Applications.''

Under a military draft, he writes, ''the Selective Service Board will draft young people who are potentially brilliant brain surgeons, inventors and economists -- young people with high opportunity costs of entering the service -- and will leave undrafted some young people with much lower opportunity costs. The social loss is avoided under a voluntary system, in which precisely those with the lowest costs will volunteer.''

Only slightly more crudely put, the central idea underlying this theorem of what economists call ''social welfare economics'' is that if a nation must use human bodies to stop bullets and shrapnel, it ought to use relatively ''low-cost'' bodies -- that is, predominantly those who would otherwise not have produced much gross domestic product, the main component of what economists call ''social opportunity costs."

On this rationale, economists certify the all-volunteer army as efficient and thus good.

Small wonder, then, that even college students who ardently supported the invasion of Iraq and just as ardently favor ''staying the course'' in Iraq argue smugly that, instead of serving their country in uniform, they can serve it so much better in law school or by trading bonds for Goldman Sachs.

That was not Kerry's point. Nice to see your cheap swipe at people in the military, by the way.

Kerry's joke, more or less, was that if you run the country and you're stupid, you end up getting involved in Iraq.

That was not Kerry's point. Nice to see your cheap swipe at people in the military, by the way.
Kerry's joke, more or less, was that if you run the country and you're stupid, you end up getting involved in Iraq.

What cheap swipe? It's a fact of life. Get over it. Your reaction is exactly why Kerry backtracked and claimed to have fluffed a joke about Bush instead.

“If you … do your homework, you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.� -John Kerry

Sorry, I just don`t get the "joke." Especially considering that fact that Kerry voted for the war (now he`s against it) and the fact that Bush`s university grades were better than his.

No, but it's typical leftist hypocrisy with regards to the military. Idiots when they're inconvenient, poor people being exploited by evil satan worshipping politicians when it is.

I guess that is why the military has recently reduced the minimum standards for joining.

Ah, see then the point is proven. Kerry went to fight in a war, Bush didn't...

It is being reported in The New Yorker and elsewhere that the U.S. Army provides free breast-enlargement surgery for soldiers and their dependents.

Tracking by the Pentagon shows that complaints about recruiting improprieties are on pace to approach record highs set in 2003 and 2004. The active Army and the Reserve missed recruiting targets last year, and reports of recruiting abuses continue from across the country.

A family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and the fact that records about his illness were readily available.

In Houston, a recruiter warned a potential enlistee that if he backed out of a meeting he would be arrested.

And in Colorado, a high school student working undercover told recruiters he had dropped out and had a drug problem. The recruiter told the boy to fake a diploma and buy a product to help him beat a drug test.

Sorry, I just don`t get the "joke." Especially considering that fact that Kerry voted for the war (now he`s against it) and the fact that Bush`s university grades were better than his.

Bush was a fighter pilot...pretty gutsy stuff.

Government jobs to the left...Repubs to the right. NOw stop wasting my tax dollars and get back to work while you can!!!

Even more surprising is the fact that you've left out that he was pilot in the National Guard i.e. he got himself nicely out of going to Vietnam.

Actually, Bush himself said he was an "average" student and Kerry over 4 years got an average of 76 and 81 in his senior year.

For someone who maintains that he was in the infantry, that is a very surprising statement. Even more surprising is the fact that you've left out that he was pilot in the National Guard i.e. he got himself nicely out of going to Vietnam. Very gutsy indeed.

A good infantryman knows to appreciate good air support. I know some very good people in the National Guard, so shut the hell up!