I don't know if anyone's seen the movie 'Stop Loss', but I'd be interested in hearing their opinions.

There was a 'down sized' active duty military and 12 month tours for active, National Guard and Reserves that turned into 'indefinite'. These guys can't function forever with no sign of success or reason to believe there ever will be.

When I was still in, hardly anyone went AWOL and I'd never heard of a desertion in modern times. Everyone had necessary equipment when deployed and when they came back, they were taken care of. Their families were as well. Support has been pushed far, far past the breaking point, and that the military folks haven't broken says volumes about their strength of will. Raising taxes to pay for all of this is a no-no for Republicans, so either the money will come out of somebody's butt or things will continue to fall apart.

Having been witness to what happened after the first Gulf War and known one of the first investigators of what is commonly referred to as 'Gulf War Syndrome', I'm going to make a prediction: you ain't seen nuthin' yet. The syndrome, whatever it's named this time, that arises out of these wars of occupations is going to be of a magnitude never seen before, and the Hell will only begin when the all the guys are home. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I hope I am, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be.