okay, so i'm new. yay right?
anyhow thats not the point,
My boyfriend just enlisted in the Army and left yesterday morning. he won't be comming home for the next 18 weeks.
The thing i'm worried most about is him being shipped over-seas. I never cared about the war befor, i just figured it's an oil war, bring the troops home. But now that i've been forced to think about it, how will they bring the troops home if the war ends? If they pull out now all of a sudden, won't that cause more damage than good?

Yes, it would cause more damage than good, yes your boyfriend will most likely ship somewhere if he enlisted in the Army active duty, and troops will likely always be in Iraq the same way we have had troops in Korea, Japan, Germany, etc for decades. Who's elected in November will not make any difference either. It'll make a difference in what is said, it won't make much difference in what is done.

The broader war on Inslamic fascisists will not be over anytime soon either being its somewhat a borderless war that involves much more than firepower.

I think in the current situation there is a very high chance he will get shipped somewhere yes. Whether that is a direct combat zone (mainly Iraq and Afghanistan currently) is hard to say. While what Rasczak says that US troops will "likely always be in Iraq the same way we have had troops in Korea, Japan, Germany, etc for decades" is very probably right, it's also true that the chances of any one soldier being shipped into combat are much lower when there aren't major wars being waged.

... oh and welcome to the forum

A good reason for maintaining a presence there.

Hi Schultz..

Welcome!
Is this a career move for your man or do you know yet? some men choose to stay in the service till the full term is up. Which in itself is an excellent career move. Some choose to fall out with-in the 4 to 8 year term, my stepbrother was signed up for 8 years and it did him a wealth of good.

Sherri

Only if you are ready to take the leap of faith that maintaining a presence there prevents wars. I'm not so sure that connection is very reliable. Surely there was a significant US presence in the middle east before the war in Iraq was started - just for the most contemporary example.

He's signed on and is going to stay the whole 5 years. they gave him $40,000 for signing up, and set up a 401k for him. after 5 years he's going to choose to leave or sign another term.

Hi Schultz
Sounds like a plan, I hope the best for the both of you. Like I said its an excellent career move and will bring about all kinds of interesting explorations with his travels. Good luck with it all.

Sherri

And like Germany, Japan, and Korea we haven't gone to war with Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc. And those countries have not been invaded.

Is there supposed to be some logical connection there demonstrating that the US presence has prevented wars that otherwise would have happened in those countries? If there is, I'm not seeing it