Peter Thonen wrote.. "On that same note, any weekend warrior who complains about being activated has no sympathy from me. Take the devils coin, be prepared to do his work also." Well, what if the Devil stole that $ from you in the first place? What level of subversion is appropriate in order to re-appropriate those $$$? This case is clearly different from the true blue career war criminal, ehr I mean career soldier. Here, these people have likely been paying taxes for a while! So I don't mind too much if they're trying to dodge their commitment in this context. -TD

From: "Thoenen, Peter CIV Sprint" To: Harmon Seaver CC: cypherpunks@minder.net Subject: Re: US soldiers in Iraq held against their will Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 16:52:25 +0200

Harmon Seaver wrote:

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On Sun, Aug 17, 2003 at 10:37:15PM -0700, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

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At 02:33 PM 8/17/03 -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:

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Just heard about this local guy who reluctantly went to Iraq because

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he was in the reserves, now his contract is up (as of 7/31) and they won't let him out.

Did he reluctantly take the $$$ to be in the reserves, too?

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my enlistment contract ended and the I have been involuntarily extended.

SOP. Happened during the Yugo thang too.

On a semi related side note, how long has this guy been in (total length of service)? All personnel when they join the US Military are quite clearly informed they have an 8-year commitment, regardless of how long their initial enlistment is. If your initial commitment is less than 8 years, you are moved into the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) for the remainder of the 8 years. (E.g. you enlist for 4 years active or ready reserve (weekend warriors); you will also spend 4 years in IRR).

While in the IRR you have no requirements other than to keep the government informed of your current contact information. You have no drills and receive no benefits. The US Government though reserves the right to call you up at whim any time during this period. I am curious if this person is still within his 8-year commitment even though he completed his initial commitment. If he is still within this 8 year window, he doesnt have a leg to stand on nor my sympathy.

On that same note, any weekend warrior who complains about being activated has no sympathy from me. Take the devils coin, be prepared to do his work also. The few folk that have my sympathy are those IRR folk that have be activated. I have a couple IRR buddies who haven't so much as thought about the military in years all of a sudden get activated for Iraq, now thats something to complain about. 4 years active, 3 years smoking dope in college, then a call from the good old us army ordering you to report to your IRR unit within 48 hours and go to Iraq. Those are the folk I feel sorry for. They did their time, got out, and didn't continue to take the devils coin ever 4th weekend.

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It hasn't, it only requires males to register. So far.

How is that for some equally rights. Women continue to whine and cry that they are being discriminated against in the military as the military refused to open up certain all male MOS's (18 and 11 series to name a couple) yet I don't see them hounding congress for the equal right to be drafted. Nothing like having your cake and getting to eat it to.

** OFFTOPIC: Anybody remember the exact saying (and who coined it) about if you take the Devil's coin, don't complain about doing the Devil's work. I can not seem to find the exact text **

-Peter

DISCLAIMER: Like always, this email is the personal opinion of Peter Thoenen and not condoned by Sprint or the US Army.

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