Citizen-soldiers fed up

It's been well known since Gulf War I that reservists can and will be called up. We know a few people who actually ended up getting back into the Army full-time after their reserve duty was completed because they weren't able to keep a civilian private practice alive while they were gone. I felt a bit sorry for reservists then, but no one goes into it now with the expectation they'll never see real duty.

9/11 was not done by Iraq and Saddam Hussein...

The response to 9/11 included the toppling of two governments. The Teliban government in Afghanistan was an easy and logical choice. Iraq drew the short straw and became the other choice. It was a good choice because Saddam violated the agreements of Gulf War I and threw the inspectors out, etc.... Now, Iran is being squeezed on both sides and is having serious internal problems. And Libya is changing, as well. After another 9/11 in the US or the UK, another 2 or 3 axis governments will be toppled.

I think there's a legitimate issue here, though. These people have been mobilized once already, and now many of them are being told they're going back again. I'm sure many of them are wondering if there'll be a third or fourth time after THAT, with no end in sight.

That's not reserve, that's de facto active duty, without, as another poster pointed out, many of the benefits the regulars are entitled to.

It's certainly naive to expect not to be called. That said, nobody's obligated to make the military their entire career.

Way past time to enlarge the active component, in my view. And one of the legitimate criticisms of Rumsfeld is his blind spot on this issue.

A lot of reservists take pay cuts when they're on active duty, some handle it fine, others lives are disrupted immensely by a long mobilization. I've found that most often financial reasons are the primary de-motivator in reservists lives.

Precisely. I shorted my term in the reserves a bit, not because I didn't want to be there but because it was having a significant and adverse impact on my regular job. You can't let "one weekend a month" determine your entire career trajectory in the civilian world, otherwise you are no different than the Regular military other than by name.

IMNSHO, the Reserves should be treated more like the militia rather than the Regular Army. We'll maintain our skills in trade as well and as long as we can, but it is not our regular job. But if the shit hits the fan, we'll be there. The problem is that the military is currently a bit schizophrenic as to what the status of the Reserves actually is. The Reserves shouldn't be used every time the military needs a few extra soldiers, but only in times of dire emergency (think WW2). If they need people to live and act like Regulars, then they should grow the Regular military to accommodate that need.

The problem, ultimately, is that the Reserves are used as Regulars, to the ultimate detriment to the soldiers who chose to do this as an adjunct to their civilian life. Being a Reserve is doing what you can with the time you have. It doesn't even pay enough to cover the expenses of showing up in many cases, so the people who do it at all are showing up with the best of intentions despite their civilian lives. It is a bad precedent for the military to treat them otherwise.

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