Here We Go Again - With a Twist!

Dan's in Afghanistan.  That's where none of us want him to be but it's necessary.  This is a recon mission because part of his battalion well be deploying this summer and will stay for 9 months.  Right now Dan and a few of his guys are looking over the area to get a feel for the process and the mission. This is not new.  He's been deployed many times before and we've been in this position before.

Prior to his leaving, his wonderful wife took this picture of him.  She's so sweet and said she took it for me.  She knows that I'll scarcely let anyone out of my sight without taking a picture before they depart.

 

And now here's the twist.  The guys are going to Afghanistan.  Again it's not something new but it's still dangerous and it's still necessary.   The difference is that this time, there's no funding for the training that is typically part of the deployment.  That's right.  Two scheduled rotations to the National Training Center for this battalion have been cancelled due to lack of funding.

The changes in our nation are wonderful - health insurance, extended unemployment, taking care of the have nots.  It's all good.  Except the money has to come from somewhere and part of that money is coming from the safety of the troops that we all support and that we're all so proud of  and that we all are grateful to for allowing us the freedom to live in a country like The United States.

And it gets worse.  Right now our military is the finest trained fighting force in the world with the latest technology to make their mission more effective and safer.  When the funding goes back to where it's headed now, we'll be vulnerable.  Every nation that respects us will be rattling its swords at us to see what they can get away with.  And then, if, God forbid, there is an unavoidable conflict we could see defeats and loss of lives like we saw in Korea and Vietnam.  Look what North Korea is doing right now.  Believe me folk, they're not playing.  And when we can't do the job with a smaller, better trained, sharply honed force like we have now, they might start talking about a draft.  Now take a look at your sons and daughters and grandchildren and see how you feel about that.

Cutting military funding like they're doing now could be sounding the death knell for a lot of peace of mind that we've all learned to take for granted.