GI SPECIAL 4B20 21/2/06

THE UNIVERSAL CODE OF MILITARY INJUSTICE

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

“My Friends Are Dying And What The Hell Is Going On?”
Iraq Veteran Condemns The War At Champaign-Urbana Rally

His family is very supportive of his activism and his father, a marine veteran, told him that he is sorry he voted for George Bush, Adams said.

Adams described how the VA’s treatment was simply by doling out medications that didn’t address the problems, and it was his work with Iraq Veterans Against the War that helped him the most.

February 12, 2006 By Steve Bauer, The News-Gazette, Inc.

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS:

An Army veteran who served in Iraq has a challenge for the Bush administration.

Dave Adams, 25, a student at Southern Illinois University and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, told a group of more than 50 people at a rally Saturday at Illinois Disciples Foundation in Champaign that President George Bush challenged troops to find weapons of mass destruction and members of al-Qaida.

Adams, who served as a mechanic and chaplain’s assistant from 2000 to 2003, said his challenge to the president is to apologize to the American soldiers and public, to bring the troops home now and to properly care for veterans, as promised.

Later, in answer to a question from the audience, Adams added that Bush should also apologize to the people of Iraq and properly compensate them for the destruction caused by this war.

Mohammad Al-Heeti, owner of the World Harvest store in Champaign born and raised in Iraq, said soldiers and citizens of the U.S. have to understand that much of the violence directed at the troops is “just a reflection” of the violence they have suffered.

A pull-out of American troops “would not be worse than what’s happening now,” Al-Heeti said. “It doesn’t have to be all at once. It could be in phases. They need a good faith showing from the American government.”

Adams said a lot of soldiers he has known feel, as he does, that Iraq will be involved in some sort of civil war no matter what the U.S. does.

“We need to get the international community involved and let the Iraqi people deal with their own situation,” Adams said.

Adams said he grew up in a family with a strong traditions of military and Republican involvement. When Bush announced the war, he wanted to serve, he said.

Finally sent to Iraq in March 2003, Adams saw where people were living in the rubble and destruction from the first war. He also encountered a university president, who helped his unit by providing housing, but he was upset when that man was arrested because he was a member of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.

“It was, in my eyes, so self-defeating,” Adams said. “The one person that was there to help us was now in a military prison.”

Adams said he and his fellow soldiers were initially greeted warmly, but that good will has been lost by broken promises to rebuild schools, bridges and other infrastructure.

The hostility of Iraqi citizens “is not falling on George Bush,” he said. “It’s falling on the shoulders of soldiers and marines.”

Even though he wanted out of that environment, Adams said he continued to defend Bush and the war effort after he first returned home.

But as his friends continued to die in the war, his own symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder began to show, he said.

“This is the point I realized there were concerns,” Adams said. “My friends are dying and what the hell is going on?”

His family is very supportive of his activism and his father, a marine veteran, told him that he is sorry he voted for George Bush, Adams said.

Adams said he has a yellow ribbon on his door.

“It says, ‘Support the Troops. Bring them home now,’” Adams said.

MORE:

February 19, 2006: A summary of an event co-sponsored by Champaign-Urbana Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War via vvawnet@vvaw.org.] [Excerpts]

From: Jen Tayabji

On Saturday, February 11th, the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC) hosted IVAW member Dave Adams in an anti-war speaking event.

Over 50 people came out to hear Adams describe his experiences serving in Iraq and his adjustments back to civilian life.

Adams joined the military in December of 1999 and served from 2000 to 2003. He completed basic training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. Upon completion of basic training, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He served as a mechanic for the Military Police and was stop-lossed in early 2003 shortly before the start of the Iraq War.

He described how he was assigned to various positions and tasks that he was never trained for. He also discussed the lack of armor his unit had when they were in convoys and the extreme danger the convoys brought to both the troops and the civilians in the towns they traveled through.

Upon returning home, he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after began drinking heavily and acting unlike himself.

He then joined Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.net) and began speaking out.

Adams described how the VA’s treatment was simply by doling out medications that didn’t address the problems, and it was his work with IVAW that helped him the most.

Currently, Dave is an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale.

The Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative is a multi-issue multi-tactical activist organization located at the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana. The PRC has a long history of anti-war organizing including work around GI and veteran issues. For more information on the PRC, please visit www.prairienet.org/prc.

www.ivaw.net

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

SOLDIER KILLED IN IED ATTACK NEAR KARBALA

February 20, 2006 HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND NEWS RELEASE Number: 06-02-02CM

BAGHDAD, Iraq: A Coalition Forces Soldier was killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb while conducting a combat patrol southeast of Karbala, Iraq Feb. 20.

Georgia Soldiers Dies In Ar Rutbah

February 20, 2006 HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND NEWS RELEASE Number: No. 149-06

Sgt. 1st Class Amos C. Edwards, Jr., 41, of Savannah, Ga., died in Ar Rutbah, Iraq, on Feb. 17, from a non-combat related cause. Edwards was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, Savannah, Ga.

Remembering Nick Wilson

2/14/2006 News Channel 34

Nick Wilson was killed by an improvised bomb in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. NewsChannel 34's Peter Quinn was in Newark Valley today and talked with some of Nick’s former teachers.

Nick Wilson joined the Navy shortly after graduating from Newark Valley High School in 1998. He was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom by de-fusing bombs. People from Tioga County who knew Nick say there was just something special about him.

Williams says, “I remember on a church youth group trip he was the kid, he was a big junior or senior, and I still remember the one thing he did was helping this little 8th or 9th grade girl. A lot of guys, especially guys, they wouldn’t really care. Maybe it was because he had a younger sister. He went over, helped her with whatever the project was. It was no big deal to him.”

Keith Williams taught Nick social studies and also coached him on the track team in his senior year.

Williams says, “One of the nicest things about him. He always had this little grin on his face. He looked like he was up to something. He was the kind of kid who would speak to all the kids in the school. He was not a part of a click. He was like a friend to everyone, just a real nice kid.”

Warren Harrold is now the high school’s assistant principal.

Warren Harrold says, “The thing I remember most about Nick is his 12th grade social studies year, which is Participation in Government. We had a community service aspect to the course and he was very involved with that.”

Harrold just retired from the National Guard after 22 years, and had talked with Nick about the military.

Harrold says, “The one thing I remember is his smile. He was one of those kids, happy go lucky, a little ornery. I know he was into BMXing quite a bit. He was very interested in service and spoke with me on several occasions about the service.”

Over the past few years Newark Valley has had a number of graduates serving in Iraq. So, when a tragedy like this happens it’s felt by all.

Keith Williams, Social Studies Teacher and coach track says, “Super kid, always nice. I shared with the classes on Monday about his loss because it hits close to home. So, I talked with the kids how they are sitting in the same class, the same seats, that Nick and his classmates sat in. And, nobody anticipates this happening.”

Nick Wilson is survived by his wife, Linda who he met while in the Navy, his parents who still live in Newark Valley, two older brothers and a younger sister.

A funeral service will be held for Nick Wilson in San Diego, California where Nick was stationed. His wife also lives out there.

Captain Killed On Tikrit Base

Feb 20, 2006 The Associated Press

(FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.) A Fort Campbell soldier with the 101st Airborne Division died in Iraq last week, the Army said Monday.

Capt. Anthony R. Garcia, 48, of Fort Worth, Texas, died Friday as a result of a gunshot wound in Tikrit, Iraq, the Army said in a statement.

The shooting is under investigation because it happened on a military base, Fort Campbell spokeswoman Cathy Gramling said. No further details were available, she said.

Garcia was a physician assistant assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Aviation Brigade. He joined the Army in August 1989 and was assigned to Fort Campbell in June 2001.

Garcia is survived by a wife, Doris, a daughter, Kelly, and a son, Garrick, of Clarksville, Tenn.; and his parents, Monico and Josephine Garcia, of Hudson Oaks, Texas.

U.S. Soldier Wounded In Al Tobaji

Feb 20 (KUNA)

Three persons, including a US soldier, were injured Monday by a blast in Baghdad’s northern suburb.

Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), a police source said the three persons were injured by a roadside bomb that targeted a US army patrol in Baghdad’s Al-Tobaji area.

Two Mercenaries Wounded In Baghdad

20 Feb 2006 Reuters

Eleven people were wounded including two foreign contractors when two roadside bombs exploded in eastern Baghdad, police said.

The Occupation Besieged: Ramadi
“You Close Your Eyes And You Could Be Dead”’

U.S. Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment huddle between Humvees to avoid sniper fire while searching a vehicle in central Ramadi Feb. 6, 2006. Downtown Ramadi, which includes the Anbar provincial government headquarters, has been the site of numerous battles between U.S. troops and insurgents. (AP Photo/Antonio Castaneda)

February 19, 2006 RAMADI, Iraq (AP)

In a carpeted office filled with oversized gold embroidered chairs, the governor of troubled Anbar province talked about his region’s sagging infrastructure, over the rattle of machine-gun fire and the thud of grenade launchers reverberating from the roof.

Gov. Maamoun Sami Rashid al-Alwani seemed almost oblivious to the commotion as U.S. Marines in firing positions lined with sandbags and bulletproof glass blasted away at an insurgent trying to plant a roadside bomb nearby.

The government center is a favorite target in this city at the center of Iraq’s insurgency and dozens of Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment live in one wing to fend off the frequent attacks.

Marines posted on the roof have to stay sharp.

When their lieutenant approaches, they immediately pause and shout out five things: their name and rank, their gun’s lateral limits, the direction their gun is facing, guidelines to fire, and any nearby friendly units. The idea is to make sure they are alert at all times.

‘’Honestly, sir, it’s kind of a pleasure because it’s not something that everybody can say that they helped build a government,’’ Lance Cpl. Brandon Crusha of Yukon, Okla., told a reporter as he glanced away from a desolate street.

Marines said the pace of combat around the building has slowed since the beginning of their tour last summer, but it can flare up at any moment and wears on them.

‘’I’d be happy to go home and not shoot one more round. You can’t go home and talk to your buddies about shooting people. It’s not a subject that most people talk about,’’ said Lance Cpl. Jeff Barrient.

‘’To see people die, your friends get hurt over seven months, it can’t be explained unless you’ve been here,’’ Barrient, 21, of Salinas, Calif., added, speaking in a cold, tiled room filled with bunkbeds as the Muslim call to prayer echoed from mosques down the street. ‘’The actual price we’ve paid to help this country out: it’s unexplainable.’’

Barrient spoke just minutes after a Marine radioed that a man had managed to elude fire and sprint away after dropping off a black backpack. Later it was found to contain an anti-tank mine.

An hour later, another report came in about a man with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher who had jumped out and tried to fire at the government center.

‘’There’s a lot of foot traffic and civilians running around,’’ said Lance Cpl. Ruben Valles, 21, of San Jose, Calif., who periodically volunteers to work shifts on the roof. ‘’Sometimes they’ll try to be discreet and throw a box down and move it in place with an attached string.’’

The neighborhood around the government center in central Ramadi is testament to the combat between U.S. troops and insurgents.

Virtually every shop on the adjacent street is closed, alongside abandoned multistory buildings where insurgent snipers often lurk. Thousands of bullet holes pepper buildings, and several nearby structures have the walls of entire floors blown out, exposing support beams.

The nearby Rashid Hotel, once a favorite spot for gunmen, was recently destroyed by a U.S. airstrike.

A health complex to the south, another common post for insurgents, exhibits heavy damage.

Some aspects of life for townspeople continue near normal. Insurgents took note of a school to the west of the government center and rarely fire there.

A few blocks away, the narrow streets of the local market are busy with customers.

The adjacent streets have suffered. A nearby intersection, known as checkpoint 295, is a common spot where roadside bombs are laid. A police station abandoned last year by Iraqi officers amid a wave of insurgent attacks is now manned by Marines.

The U.S. military has started a program to clean up the neighborhood, but Iraqi workers who pick up rubble and trash work only in the gloom of night and still need U.S. guards. Gunmen fired on them recently but caused no injuries.

‘’We try to help the Iraqi people out as much as we can. We wish they’d help us out a little more,’’ Barrient said. [Sorry about that. They’re helping themselves: they have no interest in helping George Bush occupy their country and steal their oil for his buddies. How odd.]

Inside offices once used by municipal workers, Marines sleep on bunkbeds in dimly lit rooms. During a reporter’s afternoon visit, Marines cleaned their weapons in a murky hall while listening to Credence Clearwater Revival songs.

Marines manning rooftop posts stand shifts that last from four to 12 hours. Some said they have grown to know the Marines they share roof duty with so well that they can predict their movements and identify them by their silhouettes.

Other spoke of night shifts where they fought to stay awake.

“Getting complacent is the wrong thing to do up there: you close your eyes and you could be dead,” Barrient said.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE, SO HE WILL LOOK GOOD.
That is not a good enough reason.

A US soldier inspects what’s left of a car bomb that exploded in al-Riad area, west of the northern city of Kirkuk. (AFP/Marwan Ibrahim

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Pleasanton Soldier Is Killed By Road Bomb

02/16/2006 Vincent T. Davis, Express-News Staff Writer

A 26-year-old soldier from Atascosa County is one of the latest casualties to die in the Middle East.

Staff Sgt. Clint Newman was killed Monday in central Afghanistan when a bomb exploded next to his Humvee, according to the Associated Press. Three other troops also were killed in the attack.

His death is believed to be the first casualty of the war from Atascosa County.

The casualties bring the number of personnel killed in the Afghanistan region to 214 since the U.S. military began combat operations in 2001.

According to the Pleasanton Express, Newman was assigned to the 321st Civil Affairs Unit based at Fort Sam Houston.

He joined the Army after graduating from high school and was stationed in Bosnia and Germany.

Newman joined the reserves after almost four years of service, according to the paper. This was his second time being recalled to duty in the last four years. He was activated in June 2005 to serve in Afghanistan for the second time.

Newman graduated from Pleasanton High School in 1997. He was active in school activities, including the National Honor Society, Eagle Band, and playing on the varsity football team, the paper said.

He was due to come home in May.

Turlock Loses A Son:
“He Said Then It Was A Lot Harder Than They Expected”

A photograph of Chad Gonsalves early in his service career is decorated with a wooden trinket he made when he was 6 years old. His interest in the military began at a young age, his mother said.

02/15/06 By ROGER W. HOSKINS, MODESTO BEE STAFF WRITER

TURLOCK: Friends, family and old classmates brought everything but hope to the rural home of Larry and Marsha Gonsalves on Tuesday.

The Gonsalveses’ oldest son, Chad, died in Afghanistan on Monday.

He was among four U.S. soldiers killed when their armored vehicle was hit by a bomb in a volatile mountainous region, the deadliest loss for the military in the country in four months, according an account released by the Pentagon.

Gonsalves’ death was confirmed by family members.

The bombing raised the death toll of U.S. personnel in the Afghan conflict to 214 since the United States invaded the country in late 2001.

Gonsalves, a Green Beret sergeant first class, was 31 years old. The little rebel, as his father called him, never finished high school. “But he passed his (general education) test on the first attempt,” said Larry Gonsalves.

In the wake of unspeakable grief, Marsha Gonsalves sat in her dining room. Friends kept a vigil with the family in rooms nearby. Grandmother Irene Gonsalves, 81, sat next to Marsha Gonsalves.

“He was always military, from the time he was 7,” Marsha Gonsalves recalled. “First it was G.I. Joe, and then ‘Rambo’ scooped him up.”

While she may have been nervous about her son’s vocation, she never fought it. “How could I? It was what he wanted.”

The Gonsalves family last saw their son at Christmas. Chad Gonsalves, who lives in North Carolina near Fort Bragg, brought his twin sons with him to Turlock; Blake and Dylan will be 2 in May. Gonsalves’ wife, Julie, and oldest son, Cody, almost 4, spent Christmas with her parents in the East.

“We just had so much fun. He was such a good dad,” Marsha Gonsalves said. “He didn’t want to bring them and he complained about how hard they would be in an airport, but he brought them to make me happy.”

Shirley Stanley recalled her nephew’s “big heart. He loved and played with those boys. He would take one in each hand, grabbing their bib overalls, and lift them like weights.”

Gonsalves and his sons left Turlock on Dec. 28 and he was sent to Afghanistan in early January.

“He had been to Bosnia and South America, Colombia, but I don’t think he had a clue how hard this was going to be,” Marsha Gonsalves said. “We talked to him for the last time last Wednesday. He said then it was a lot harder than they expected.”

Irene Gonsalves let her tears go, too, for her “Punkin Boy,” the name she christened Chad Gonsalves with when he was an infant.

Gonsalves’ father took refuge in his workshop with three friends. Thinking about what he did most with his son, he laughed. “Mostly, we argued. But that got better the last few years. …

“What really gets to me is we used to always show each other what’s new,” he said, fighting through the tears. “I’d show him my latest project, a car or the roof or a radio. He’d show me he could bench 250 pounds or his latest karate moves.

“I’ll never show him anything new again,” he sobbed.

A friend from childhood, Jeff Jones, said simply, “Chad was a hero.”

Anthony Silva, who has been a teacher at Turlock High School for 34 years, had Gonsalves in his wildlife management course.

“He wasn’t crazy about school, but he was a really sharp kid,” Silva said. “He was beyond his years for a teenager.”

Silva said he also knew Gonsalves from his rural neighborhood in Turlock. Silva’s family lives about a quarter-mile from the Gonsalves home.

Silva remembers seeing young Gonsalves on the family ranch. “He was just a shadow to his grandfather.”

Funeral plans are still pending, but family members said they plan to bury Gonsalves in the area, and if possible, next to that grandfather, who fought under Gen. George Patton in World War II.

Even in the depths of her grief, Marsha Gonsalves harbored no hard feelings for the military. “Chad made me promise if something happened to him, not to be one of those bitter moms who blames the Army.

“Chad said, ‘Just be proud of me.’”

But his mom’s impossible dream drew one more harvest of tears.

“I just want to hold him again,” she said. “I want to tell him I love him. But he knew that. I want him to hold his boys again and raise them.”

And then she wept.

TROOP NEWS

AWOL At Ballad

February 4, 2006 By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer [Excerpts]

Balad Air Base is a unique creation, a small American town smack in the middle of the most hostile part of Iraq. While soldiers drive as fast as they can beyond its perimeter to avoid roadside bombs and ambushes, on base they must drive their Humvees at a stately 10 mph, the strictly enforced speed limit.

The 20,000 troops based at Balad, home to the major Air Force operation in Iraq and also the biggest Army logistical support center in the country, live in air-conditioned containers. Plans are being made to wire the metal boxes to bring the troops Internet, cable television and overseas telephone access.

The base boasts its own airline, “Catfish Air,” that shuttles soldiers among the U.S. bases in Iraq. It also has its own customs post, run by a relaxed but savvy group of Navy reservists.

Searching for drugs, pornography and souvenir weapons, they have learned the favorite places that departing Army troops use to hide contraband: Bibles, picture frames, soap dishes and the sleeves in body armor vests that hold the bulletproof plates.

Army engineers undergo especially close inspections because “they think they know where to hide everything,” sometimes building false bottoms in toolboxes and containers, said Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Honer.

Offenders simply suffer confiscation, but the base does have a genuine criminal element.

Recently an Army enlisted man returning from medical leave went AWOL, living with a cousin in the Air Force part of the base for two weeks before being apprehended and placed in the base’s small brig.

SSgt. Says:
“They Feel I Am Outspoken And They Need To Get Me Out Of Here Before This Conduct Rubs Off On Others”

February 20, 2006 By Matthew Cardinale, Editor, Atlanta Progressive News

ATLANTA—A US soldier stationed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) says he is being retaliated against for complaining when his superiors failed to fly the American Flag at half-mast in remembrance of civil rights leader Mrs. Coretta Scott King, ignoring a Presidential Executive Order, according to emails and testimony obtained exclusively by Atlanta Progressive News.

Staff Sergeant (SSgt.) John M. Estes, in The United States Air Force Reserves with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, claims he has received undue harsh treatment, including being yelled at, and has been forced to end his deployment sooner than planned, as a result of his complaint.

“SMSgt Hennis and MSgt Owens were using rank intimidation and thought I would not say anything,” Estes wrote in an email prepared for Atlanta Progressive News.

“I was (originally) told that I would be sent home on March 7, 2006, not the end of February 2006. Nothing should happen to me once I return to the USA.

“Yes, this is a part retaliation for speaking out about the American flag not being lowered in Honor Of Mrs. King. They did not like what I wrote in email to them.

“They feel I am outspoken and they need to get me out of here before this conduct rubs off on others. I had the courage to speak out on something that was right and most Americans would agree,” Estes wrote (grammar edited for clarity in all email citations).

SSgt. Estes has recently been stationed in the Middle East, but is originally from the Atlanta, Georgia, area, and says his family is a good friend of the King Family. US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s (D-GA) Office has been following the issue since being notified right away what was going on regarding their constituent.

SSgt Estes was troubled when he first noticed that his command post failed to fly the flag at half mast at the base of the 380th on the evening of February 7, 2006.

“The entire base fail to give honor and respect to Mrs. Coretta Scott King by placing the American flag at half staff. Two days later there is no one talking about the wrong that was given to… Mrs. Coretta Scott King at the 380th… It’s hard to hold back the tears trying not to believe in the year 2006 that things like this still going on… unequal treatment and disregard,” Estes wrote in an email to his unit on February 9, 2006.

“I was taught very earlier in my military career to give honor and respect to others and so was everyone else… How did the leadership allow this to happen? Mrs. Coretta Scott King was for the advancement of people and doing what was right for the entire human race. She deserves better treatment from the members of the 380th…” Estes wrote.

SSgt. Estes immediately went to his superior, TSgt Ulyssia A. Guerrier, Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Vehicle Operations Night Supervisor, on the night of the 7th.

Guerrier failed to take immediate action, instead referring him to file a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Office, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

Estes wrote Capt. Shoffstall of Equal Opportunity at 3am on February 8, 2006. “President Bush ordered on Tuesday February 7, 2006, all American flags every where to be lowered to half mast for the late Coretta Scott King and the flag at the 380th was not lowered. This is a big disappointment for all Americans serving in the 380th.”

An email reply from Shoffstall appeared not to address the issue, stating that the base would have had to have permission from the UAE to fly their flag at half-mast. However, Estes wasn’t talking about the UAE flag.

“SSgt Estes, this is the response I received from the MEO at Al Udeid regarding your question. Hope this helps… Permission must be obtained from a nation before its flag is flown at half-staff. Therefore, unless permission is granted in each case (for each flag that flies over your installation), it is recommended that flags of other nations not be flown when the flag of the United States is at half-staff. I would imagine that your installation commander would also have to get permission not to fly the other countries flag during the period of our half-staff honors. This sounds like a lot of red tape and probably could not be approved quick enough,” Shoffstall wrote at 2pm on the 8th.

Yet, Estes persevered. “Sir, did any in the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing communicate with the host nation to see if the flag could have been flown at half staff? Sir how can this situation be prevented in the future?” Estes replied to Shoffstall at 5am on Thursday the 9th.

In his next reply, Capt. Shoffstall of Equal Opportunity appears to have made headway on addressing the problem, after discussing it with a higher-up, Chief Morris.

“Chief Morris responded to my e-mail inquiring about this and here is his response: Sir: Thanks for providing me this info. I must apologize that we didn’t make this happen. But please rest assured the leadership in the wing was not made aware of this…had we been, without a doubt we would have complied with the President’s order. I honestly don’t believe this information was delivered to our wing through official channels. Again, it is my apology,” Shoffstall later wrote to Estes.

Estes says that Chief Morris is the highest ranked on base.

“MSgt Kevin E. Owens and SMSgt Tami L. Hennis chewed me out for not using my chain of command,” Estes replied to Shoffstall. Estes claims, however, that he was following the advice of his immediate supervisor on the night of the 7th, Mrs. Guerrier.

“(Equal Opportunity) is for any one with a complaint.

“It was my right to contact you about Mrs. Coretta Scott King or do we live in a society that we can’t do this?

“I will like to file a complaint against MSgt Kevin E. Owens and SMSgt Tami L. Hennis on their actions and treatment of me. Sir I need to bring this to your attention while I was being chewed up and down about emailing you (Captain Troy L. Shoffstall), MSgt Kevin E. Owens allowed me leave his office so I could get some supporting documents. I left his office and email him the documents and went and found my shift supervisor TSgt Ulyssia A. Guerrier and brought her up to the MSgt Kevin E. Owens where… Guerrier was told by… Hennis to leave, for what I don’t know. I’m upset that I brought this matter to your attention for all this back lash,” Estes wrote.

Estes also says that MSgt. Owens tried to deny there was an Executive Order to lower the flag in the first place, saying he didn’t see it on the WhiteHouse.gov website. That is, it’s not on the website and therefore it must not be true? Atlanta Progressive News has verified the Executive Order exists.

“SMSgt Hennis and MSgt Owens made me feel shallow and empty because of the way they expressed their concerns and also by their body language,” Estes told Atlanta Progressive News.

“SSgt Estes, we definitely need to meet to discuss this issue. I can tell you that Col Palmby is looking into how the guidance was not received by the 380th to lower the flag. He is genuinely concerned and so is Chief Morris. Let me know when you are available to meet,” Shoffstall replied to Estes.

Estes says he later met with Shoffstall at 6pm on the 11th. In this meeting, Shoffstall said he wanted Estes to give his superiors time to correct the problem. Estes met with his supervisors but was unsatisfied with his response and later said he wanted still to file a complaint.

Estes will return home to the US on February 29, 2006. He says a change in procedures may result from his complaint and he is glad he spoke up.

However, he feels uncomfortable in his current environment, is upset by the mistreatment by his superiors, and worries about an overall climate of repression.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Governor Of Karbala Cuts Off Contact With U.S. Occupation:
“We Are Going To Escalate Things Against Them”

2.20.06 By ROBERT F. WORTH and JOHN O’NEIL, New York Times Company

[T]oday, the governor of the province of Karbala in the Shiite south announced that he was suspending all dealings with American troops and barring them from government buildings for “behaving irresponsibly.”

The governor in Karbala, Dr. Akeel al-Khazali, cut off dealings with American forces after they had failed to “respect the security elements in the province,” and had brought police dogs into government buildings, a aide to the governor said today.

“We are going to escalate things against them” the aide said.

Assorted Resistance Action

US soldiers and Iraqi police inspect destruction of a restaurant filled with occupation police after a bomb exploded inside it in the city of Mosul. (AFP/Mujahed Mohammed)

February 20, 2006 (CNN) & By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer & By ROBERT F. WORTH and JOHN O’NEIL, New York Times Company & Reuters & RTƒ

Rebels killed five people and wounded four when they attacked trucks loaded with gravel near the Iraqi town of Dujail on Sunday, police said.

North of the capital in Taji, gunmen killed five truck drivers after ambushing a convoy carrying construction materials to an American military base, Interior Ministry officials said.

A group of 15 cars struck the convoy, which was delivering supplies to a US military base, at Nabai, about 50km north of Baghdad.

Not far away in Mahmudiya, a car bomb detonated on a police patrol, wounding two policemen.

Two bombs also exploded in the western city of Falluja, wounding three policemen and two civilians, witnesses and police officials said.

A car bombing targeted the mayor of the Jisir Diyala area just north of Baghdad, killing two of the mayor’s security guards, police said. Eleven other people were wounded in the attack and the mayor escaped unharmed.

Another homemade bomb attack Monday in central Baghdad struck an Iraqi police patrol and wounded two police.

Also in Baghdad, a car bomb killed two people and wounded five near a Shiite political office in the Jadiriya district, The Associated Press reported. One of the dead and three of the wounded were police officers.

In Kirkuk, Brig. Gen. Hathem Khalaf, director of operations for the Kirkuk Police, was killed when a homemade bomb hit his convoy Sunday. Two bodyguards traveling with him also were killed.

An Iraqi army soldier, a police officer and a police commando, none of whom was in uniform, were killed in separate shootings in Baghdad on Sunday afternoon, the official said.

Two civilians were killed and six people were wounded when a car bomb detonated near an entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone.

In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, an attacker blew himself up in a restaurant packed with policemen eating breakfast, killing at least five people and wounding 21, including 10 policemen, officials said.

The bombing in the Mosul restaurant today followed a pattern in which insurgents often attack locations at which police officers or recruits gather.

One of the injured, Muhammad Tharwat, said that more than 25 people had been crowded into the restaurant before the attack, including three police recruits at one table. Mr. Thurwar said he was with two of his cousins when the bomb went off.

“I could not hear anything and there was heavy smoke in the restaurant but I noticed a light from the main door and then I got out,” he said. “When I got out I thanked God that I had not got hurt, but I remembered my cousins.”

When he shouted for them, only one responded. The two of them searched and found the other cousin just as he was losing consciousness, and drove him to the hospital, Mr. Tharwat said.

A roadside bomb wounded a policeman as his patrol passed through the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, local police said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“No To Empire”
New York City Labor Against The War Statement

Unanimously Adopted January 17. 2006

1. No to Empire.
Immediate withdrawal of the U.S. and its allies from Iraq, Afghanistan. and the entire Middle East (including an end to all U.S. aid to Israel) and around the world.

Support for national self-determination, including the Palestinian right of return, and opposition to collaboration with occupation and empire (e.g.,
IFTU in Iraq).

2. Working Class Resistance.
Rather than tailing the pro-war Democratic Party, the antiwar movement must link the war abroad and at home, in order to mobilize the widespread antiwar sentiment amongst G.I.s, people of color, rank-and-file trade Unionists, immigrants, and unorganized workers.

3. Antiwar Movement.
The antiwar movement cannot afford sectarianism, turf, peaceocracy, self- promotion, or worship of politicians and celebrities. It requires honest, principled, democratic, united, bottom-up antiwar action.

Comments On:
Elitists In Action:
UFPJ Kicks Gays [And Veterans] To The Curb Again
[GI Special 4B19 2.20.06]

********************************************************************

“It’s Going To Take The Veterans Going To Ordinary Working People”

From: Tom S
To: GI Special
Sent: February 20, 2006
Subject: RE: GI Special 4B19: Elitists In Action

It’s going to take the veterans going to ordinary working people, building a new working class based anti-war organization, independent of the Democrats, to stop this war.

UFPJ is a middle class, bureaucratic “progressive” organization which is not going to do this, especially when 2008 rolls around and they want to shut the radicals up so “we” can get Hilary Clinton into the White house.

And Answer plays the same game, albeit more secretively and with more of a show of Leftist militancy.

MORE:

“Here We Go Again”

From: Max Watts
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 6:11 AM
Subject: Fw: GI Special 4B19: Elitists In Action

comment?

i have a strong feeling of “here we go again”

as we really had to fight to get rita’s [resisters in the armed forces] heard back when…

[For more on that history, see: LEFT FACE, Soldier Unions and Resistance Movements in Modern Armies, By DAVID CORTRIGHT AND MAX WATTS; Contributions in Military Studies, Number 107; GREENWOOD PRESS, New York • Westport, Connecticut • London]

MORE:

“The Troops Must Take Their Rightful Place During This Darkening Storm Because They Hold A Light To More Important Matters That Lie Ahead”

From: Alan Stolzer
To: GI Special
Sent: February 20, 2006
Subject: Thoughts

RESPECTABLE REBELS OF REBELLION

Leadership of the U.S. Left has long suffered marginalization and imbedded in-fighting that keeps it far from the masses it claims to embrace.

These political “chiefs,” or respectable rebels of rebellion, curiously hold camp away from fires it claims to have knowledge to stoke.

The acid test is a class conceit that includes, among other things, mistrust toward a main political artery, one which carries the blood of the nation itself and those who spill it at the behest of U.S. Imperialism: its troops.

Turning a collective back on troops doesn’t intensify progressive action; it weakens and denies it.

Looking inward to allies who share your views shrivels base and critical external work. This same neatly ribboned package nurtures elements of dismissal and snobbery that keeps the anti-war movement divided and weak.

Class-consciousness should not be class arrogance no matter how enlightened the particular dispenser(s) of wisdom may be.

Surely one side of a question reveals the other; seeing every action has a reaction, a dialectic long established.

Rejecting a vet back from Iraq, thereby holding her/his experience in contempt, is no step forward, except into the arms of lip smacking opposition thriving on self-defeating tactics.

Dialogue, as mass sensitivity, is long overdue.

Troops returned in one piece or not, mental or physical, must be included in national discourse by event sponsoring agencies or there is no relevant discussion about this war, pure and simple.

Class positioning is at the bottom of the dilemma.

Those who artificially place themselves in the “observation tower” are the bells of Judas’s Goat, but it’s time to let the flock graze.

The troops must take their rightful place during this darkening storm because they hold a light to more important matters that lie ahead.

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to thomasfbarton@earthlink.net. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

An interpreter working with U.S. Army troops gestures to a group of Iraqi citizens after U.S. soldiers stopped their vehicle at gunpoint near the northern Iraq town of Baiji February 20, 2006. The men were released after the car was searched and nothing suspicious was found. REUTERS/Bob Strong

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. What a bunch of silly people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Zionist Soldiers Opens Fire On Terrorist School Bus,
Shoot Terrorist Schoolboy In Head

HEBRON, February 14, 2006 (WAFA)

A schoolboy was wounded on Tuesday when Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened random fire on a school bus near al-Arroub refugee camp in Hebron City of the West Bank.

Medical sources told WAFA that the school boy Ala’a Jawabra 17, was critically wounded in the head.

Palestinian security sources stated that IOF opened fire at the bus, driving between al-Arroub camp and Ummar town of the city, wounding the schoolboy whom was transferred to hospital for treatment.

Medics affirmed that Jawabra was shot with a live bullet in the head when a number of Israeli soldiers stopped the bus and conducted a search campaign among the schoolboys.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by a foreign power, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The foreign army is Israeli; the occupied nation is Palestine.]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Dick Cheney Condemns Invasion Of Iraq At Getting “Bogged Down” In A “Quagmire”

February 20, 2006 Quotes from Laurence M. Vance, LewRockwell.com

Dick Cheney, Washington Institute for Near East Policy in April of 1991:

I think that the proposition of going to Baghdad is also fallacious.

I think if we were going to remove Saddam Hussein we would have had to go all the way to Baghdad, we would have to commit a lot of force because I do not believe he would wait in the Presidential Palace for us to arrive. I think we’d have had to hunt him down.

And once we’d done that and we’d gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we’d have had to put another government in its place.

What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi’i government or a Kurdish government or Ba’athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists?

How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place?

What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew?

How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable?

I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force.

And it’s my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq.

*******************************************************

Dick Cheney speech in Seattle at the Discovery Institute in 1992:

And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth?

And the answer is not very damned many.

So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we’d achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.

All of a sudden you’ve got a battle you’re fighting in a major built-up city, a lot of civilians are around, significant limitations on our ability to use our most effective technologies and techniques.

Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq.

Now what kind of government are you going to establish? Is it going to be a Kurdish government, or a Shi’ia government, or a Sunni government, or maybe a government based on the old Baathist Party, or some mixture thereof?

You will have, I think by that time, lost the support of the Arab coalition that was so crucial to our operations over there.

I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today, we’d be running the country.

We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home.

U.S. Government Demands $8 Billion To Get Troops Out Of Japan

[Thanks to JM, who sent this in.]

19 February 2006 Aljazeera.Net

Japan will propose lending money to the United States to speed up the planned relocation of 7000 marines out of the country.

Japan is keen for the troops to leave Okinawa to reduce simmering tensions with local residents, but the United States has said a plan to move the troops to Guam will take decades unless Tokyo picks up much of the approximately $8 billion price tag.

The United States wanted Japan to pay for a quick move outright, but the idea for a loan arrangement emerged in an attempt to gain public support, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported on Sunday, without citing sources.

Japanese officials are uncertain whether Washington would accept Japan’s loan proposal, the Nihon Keizai said.

Japan hosts 50,000 US troops, including 14,460 marines, the largest marine contingent based overseas.

Nearly all the marines there are located on Okinawa, where residents have expressed a desire for a rapid reduction in US forces because of long-standing concerns about crimes, safety and environmental problems posed by their presence.

American troops have been stationed in Japan since the end of the second world war in 1945.

CHENEY “STILL WAITING” FOR IRAQIS TO APOLOGIZE:
Calls Invasion Of Iraq ‘The Worst Day Of My Life’

February 19, 2006 The Borowitz Report

Vice President Dick Cheney said today that the March 2003 invasion of Iraq was “the worst day of my life” and that he was “still waiting” for the Iraqi people to apologize for it.

Speaking to Brit Hume of the Fox News Channel, Mr. Cheney said that when the U.S. invaded Iraq he expected the troops to be greeted as liberators, and that when that did not happen “it was extremely hurtful to me personally.”

“I would have thought that the Iraqi people would have made some sort of apology to me by now,” the vice president said. “I’m still waiting for that apology, but I guess you could say that I’m not holding my breath.”

Mr. Cheney added that he thought that Iraqi civilians who had been accidentally shot in the face owed him “a special apology.”

“Accidents will and do happen,” Mr. Cheney said. ”But it’s incumbent on the person who has been accidentally shot in the face to apologize for it.”

Mr. Cheney said he would encourage the President of Iraq to name March 1 as “a national day of apology” when all Iraqis would offer gestures of contrition to the vice president.

In his concluding remarks, the vice president said that the day it became clear that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction was “the second worst day of my life.”

“Saddam Hussein owes me an apology for not having WMD’s,” Mr. Cheney said. “It still hurts.”

Received:

Correction

From: Ron Jacobs
To: GI Special
Sent: February 20, 2006
Subject: minor detail; correction

Thanks for running my interview with Mike.

One thing, if you have the time, can you print a small correction that reads “Ron Jacobs interview with Mike Ferner incorrectly attributed the title of his article to Martin Luther King, Jr.

The title he was referring to was the original title of the piece, not the one that it eventually appeared under.”

Thanks,
Ron

[This refers to GI SPECIAL 4B19, 2.20.06, interview with Mike Ferner, “At Some Point We Have To Take Seriously The Idea Of Putting A Very Large Wrench Into The Gears Of This War Machine”]