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| GIs in Iraq going to the dogs |
| 2004-02-20 |
| Edited for brevity. Across Iraq and Kuwait, U.S. troops are rescuing beaten, starving and homeless dogs, lavishing them with TLC and crediting the mutts with making their long months at war bearable, even joyful at times. A common refrain from soldiers is that the dogs are the best things that happened to them at war, providing as they do an incalculable morale boost for entire units. When a mongrel puppy wandered into his tent last fall, one Army sergeant said the effect was immediate and jarring. "When I saw him, I smiled. ... I smiled so big and I realized that I haven’t smiled in 5 months," the sergeant wrote on a Web posting from Iraq. At least two-dozen soldiers have become so attached to their canine comrades that they have wangled a way to bring them back to America, aided by a remarkable civilian volunteer effort in the United States, Europe and the Middle East that helps with logistics and costs. But the military forbids transporting pets from Iraq, and soldiers now report the brass is cracking down, calling for the enforcement of "General Order One," a long-standing military prohibition against even feeding or caring for animals, much less adopting them. Concern for the safety and health of the troops is the rationale. On top of that, the primary route for spiriting the U.S.-bound animals out of Iraq _ 10 hours by road across the western Iraqi desert to Jordan_ is now shut. Worried about health risks, the Jordanian government is refusing to allow any more dogs in, even though the animals are there only temporarily, remain confined and have clean bills of health. These developments are triggering panicky, middle-of-the-night calls for help to U.S. animal advocates from heartbroken GIs, who say they are being told to either find Iraqi homes for their furry sidekicks or turn them loose to the miserable conditions from which they were rescued. Or have the dogs destroyed. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #6 nice post ex mil wife - but I don't sympathise one bit. How hard is it to look the other way when a soldier in your unit brings a dog you are already very familiar with onto the plane. It should just be a command decision of good idea or bad. The only reason the CO's don't do it is because some jerk somewhere is making sure that if the CO does it, he gets in trouble. Don't want any of that positve PR coming back to your local community - the friendly GI's who befriend puppies. If I were to guess - that's the underlying bitterness that motivates the real people who prevent this from happening. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-21 9:31:55 AM |
| #5 This is a hard one. I know just how much a dog can mean to people under stress ... I don't breed often, maybe 1 litter of 4-5 puppies a year or year and a half, mainly for my own show / hunting / agility program and a few that go to other show homes, a few to pet homes, but my own life would be a lot emptier without the beasts that take up the couch and the chair and the best places in front of the fireplace. When you're 18 or 20 or 25 and in a strange and sometimes dangerous place, 4 furry feet and a cold nose can mean a lot. OTOH, I sympathize with the brass who have enough on their hands with the massive turnover of units. |
| Posted by: breeder/fancier ex mil wife 2004-2-20 8:10:39 PM |
| #4 Mebbe it's because the dogs have the innate good sense and judgement to bite anyone over the rank of Major... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-20 7:11:49 PM |
| #3 I have forwarded this to my Congressman asking him for help on the part of our military. He's a lefty, but it may help. Maybe enough letters to Congress might help these guys out. Lord knows we owe them enough. |
| Posted by: Michael 2004-2-20 5:25:09 PM |
| #2 Yes indeed,.... it's always enforced. Don't feed the kids either, don't look at the women, no smiling, no dancing, no drinking it just ain't right. |
| Posted by: Cpl. Fife 2004-2-20 5:17:28 PM |
| #1 you can just see some little pasty faced bureaucrat saying no because it requires 10 extra minutes of his time to fill out a form. They act like they are talking about thousands of dogs. What a crock. Just give the dogs to smugglers - it would be far simpler than attempting to deal with bitter, lazy, bureaucrats. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-20 3:49:30 PM |