GI SPECIAL 4C11

PUKING ON THE HOMELAND:
BUSH VOMITS AS TRAITORS GATHER IN DC TO SIGN RENEWED POLICE STATE ACT

REUTERS/Jim Young

The traitor Bush prepares to sign the renewal of the U.S.A. Patriot Act at the White House March 9, 2006. Bush is joined by fellow traitors Rep. King (R-NY), and Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI).

Seconds after this photo was taken, Bush vomited copiously on the table. Presidential staff told reporters Bush had just learned that 72% of U.S. troops in Iraq want to withdraw before the end of 2006, 29% are for immediate withdrawal, and there are rumors that an as yet undetermined number find his photo useful on firing ranges.

Gold Star Mother Tells Congress “We Must Withdraw Immediately”

“Please Do Everything In Your Power To Stop This Insanity And Bring The Troops Home Now”

David knew I opposed this war from the start: he said go for it, and told me to light a candle for him.

2006-03-01 Statement of Tia Steele, Gold Star Families Speak Out

Testimony provided to: House Appropriations Sub-Committee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs

March 1, 2006 Via David Swanson, Downing Street.com

Lance Corporal David Michael Branning was killed in action in Fallujah, Iraq on November 12, 2004. He was killed when he and his buddy, Lance Corporal Brian Medina, were ordered to kick in the door of a private home in that city.

I imagine that in the last minutes of their lives, they must have known that there might be people in that dwelling: people who were defending their home.

These defenders fired on David and Brian. David was shot in the throat and the bullet exited his head; he died virtually instantly. Brian bled to death within minutes. David was 21 years old; Brian was 20.

David was my stepson; he lost his mother to breast cancer when he was 11. David’s father has lost his only son and David’s sister has lost her only sibling; I have lost one of the most important people I have ever loved.

Our lives are changed forever; nothing will ever be the same. At some point after receiving the word of his death, in the haze of grief, I remembered the day his father and I said goodbye to David as he left for boot camp.

David’s Marine recruiter, with a big smile on his face, stuck his hand out to shake mine, and said, “You’ll never have to worry about him again.”

The world would be a much better place if everyone had a chance to be loved by someone like David, and to love him back. David was bright, inquisitive, determined, and impulsive at times; he was a sketch artist and a sculptor. He read philosophy books; he carried “War and Peace” with him in Iraq. He didn’t enjoy school and he was a dedicated, dependable employee. He was based in Hawaii and had learned to surf, sky dive, and rock climb. He loved working out, and he was consistently challenging himself. He was the one in the family who made everyone else laugh.

I am a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out (GSFSO), an organization of family members of United States military killed in this war. We are a chapter within Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), a 3,000 member organization of military families opposed to the occupation of Iraq. Every single person involved in these groups has a compelling and powerful story to tell and we are there to support each other. Speaking out against this immoral invasion and uniting with other GSFSO and MFSO members has been a blessing for me. I am grateful that we are available to each other and continuing to give voice to the majority of Americans who want the United States out of Iraq.

Through the support of these organizations, I have learned that our family is, in a peculiar way, one of the “lucky” families. We are fortunate in two ways:

1) We were able to view David’s body in the funeral home when he came back to the States. We were able to stroke his hair, and touch him, and hug him, and talk to him, and take photographs of him; his sister and I were able to take clippings of his hair to keep with our treasures of him.

2) We are “lucky” because we learned from first hand accounts just what happened to David. Ten days after the event, we heard a National Public Radio report from the field; the journalist mentioned David and Brian by name and described what happened to them. Then, as soon as they could after leaving the battlefield, David’s buddies phoned us and told us everything we wanted to know about the incident in which he was killed. They were with him when he died. They know exactly where he died and how he died.

I say we were “lucky” because I know how other families have fared.

I have met too many families who weren’t as fortunate because 1) they were not allowed to view their loved one’s body, or its remaining parts, if there were any, and 2) they cannot get complete and truthful answers about how their loved one died.

Some of these families have communicated repeatedly with the military seeking answers to their questions. Some have received revised versions of their loved one’s death, weeks and months after the fact.

In one particular instance, a family was told that their son committed suicide in Iraq – something they found impossible to believe. Almost two years later they were notified that in fact he had not committed suicide, but was killed by a fellow soldier. The horror of such experiences is exceeded only by the singular experience of losing a loved one in a war based on lies and perpetuated by greed.

I ask you to imagine this: think of the person you love most in this world.

Imagine that person is taken away from you forever, destroyed because of lies and betrayal. Imagine that they had their whole life ahead of them, and that that life is now gone forever.

David knew I opposed this war from the start: he said go for it, and told me to light a candle for him.

David was too young to comprehend his own mortality; that is why young people die in wars, thanks to old people who send them there.

My mission since David’s death is to do all that I can to stop the madness that is sending more innocents to their unnecessary deaths.

We have no acceptable reasons for staying the course in Iraq. We must withdraw immediately.

We owe it to our military people, to the people of Iraq and the United States, and to our severely damaged reputation in the world.

Please do everything in your power to stop this insanity and bring the troops home now.

The soul of this country is being eaten away: do the honorable thing, and stop the unnecessary slaughter and deception.

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

Marine Killed In Fallujah Car Bombing

March 10, 2006 Associated Press, BAGHDAD, Iraq & Reuters

A truck bomb ripped through a line of cars at a checkpoint in Fallujah.

A Marine, three members of one Iraqi family and an Iraqi soldier were killed, the American military said. Five policemen were killed

The bomb exploded in Fallujah as large numbers of cars were waiting to pass through the security checkpoint going into the city.

The death of the Marine raised to at least 2,306 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Three Wisconsin Soldiers Wounded

March 10, 2006 The Associated Press

Three soldiers from a Wisconsin Army National Guard unit are injured in an explosives attack in Iraq.

The National Guard said the three soldiers were assigned to the Second Battalion, 127th Infantry. They were hurt Thursday during a convoy security mission.

Lt. Col. Tim Donovan said the family members of the soldiers have been notified.

He said the soldiers’ injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

The 127th Infantry includes soldiers from the Merrill and Antigo National Guard armories and from other parts of the state.

The unit arrived in the Middle East in late summer and provides armed escorts to military and civilian convoys moving supplies in Iraq.

“The Rate Of Insurgent Attacks Against Coalition And Iraqi Forces Generally Has Grown Each Month”
“Only” 25% Are Effective [!]

March 06, 2006, By Gordon Lubold, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

Insurgent attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq are rising, not falling, according to Pentagon data recently declassified for a congressional hearing.

The data show how insurgent activity ebbs and flows as the enemy conducts attacks, falls back for a time and then regroups to battle coalition forces anew.

All this points to an insurgency that is growing rather than waning, said Joseph Christoff, director of international affairs and trade for the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The rate of insurgent attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces generally has grown each month, according to a rough calculation based on the chart in Christoff’s written testimony.

For example, the average of about 1,200 attacks per month in 2004 grew to about 1,600 attacks in 2005, including a record of about 2,300 attacks in October, according to the data, provided by Multi-National Corps-Iraq and Multi-National Forces-Iraq.

The highest number of attacks occurs in or around Baghdad, with five or more reported daily, according to a graphic provided by Multi-National Forces-Iraq.

Only about 25 percent of the attacks are defined as effective, measured by whether they caused significant damage to property, or injury or death to a U.S. service member or member of the coalition forces, he said. [That’s not an “only,” that’s a very high rate of effective attacks. What the fuck is this “only” shit?]

REAL BAD PLACE TO BE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A U.S. soldier at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad March 9, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Jasim

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME;
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The casket containing Army Spc. Thomas J. Wilwerth is carried at Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, N.Y., Tuesday, March 7, 2006. Wilwerth died in Iraq last month when an improvised bomb exploded near a Bradley armored vehicle he was riding. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)

Students Write To Wounded Brazoswood Grad

March 4, 2006 By Jen Sansbury, The Facts, RICHWOOD

Navy Petty Officer Brandon Crocker, a 2002 graduate of Brazoswood High School, is being treated for war wounds in a Maryland hospital this week.

He’s also being treated as a hero by students at Gladys Polk Elementary School in Richwood, where his younger brother, Steven, attends school. Students throughout the school have made get-well cards to cheer up Crocker while he recovers.

“Im happy yore still alive,” wrote Espy Acevedo, who is in Steven’s second-grade class.

The 21-year-old medic, who was attached to a Marine unit, was injured Feb. 25 in a battle in Iraq.

His father, Scott Crocker of Richwood, said his son was pulled out of the line of fire by another member of his platoon.

“Both of them were trying to repair damaged soldiers while being shot at, and with bullet holes in them,” he said. “He was shot and he still went through the canal, got my son and drug him out of fire.”

Crocker said he learned of Brandon’s injury Monday morning when a family member who had heard from a chain of relatives called him. He said he already had an inkling something had happened.

“When I saw the news the night before about five getting killed and three wounded, usually I can look at it and go, ‘It’s not my son,’ but this time I got one of those parental feelings that something wasn’t right and I was up until 4 a.m.,” Crocker said. “I finally decided it must not be him because I hadn’t gotten a phone call. Then six hours later, I did.”

Brandon was taken to Germany, where he was stabilized before being taken to the Naval hospital in Bethesda, Md. Scott Crocker and his wife, Greta, flew up there Tuesday.

“When I came in Tuesday night to see him, he could hardly reach his arm around me and today he’s walking around,” Crocker said. “He’s doing better and getting stronger every day.”

Brandon was shot from behind in the upper left shoulder and the bullet apparently tumbled and pierced his lung, his father said. Another bullet hit his body armor, leaving fragments in his back, Crocker said. He said doctors are still determining whether to remove them.

“He did have surgery and they took a portion of one of his lungs because they couldn’t repair it,” he said.

Brandon knew in high school that he wanted to go into the medical field to help people, say those who know him.

“He was into anything that was medical,” his father said. “He just never thought he was going to be on the receiving end of it.”

Brandon participated in a program that allowed him to spend time with Lake Jackson EMS, said Polk physical education coach Marjorie Berry, a Lake Jackson firefighter and former member of the EMS.

“He did not have the training yet, but he went to meetings and we helped him to learn basic things that they’re … allowed to do as long as they’re riding with another crew that has everything that’s required by the state,” she said. “I know he was very eager and very, very helpful with anything we asked him to assist us with.”

Once Brandon is released from the Bethesda hospital, he initially will go to Tampa, Fla., with his mother and stepfather to continue his recovery, because he can be closer to a military hospital there, Scott Crocker said. After that, Brandon will come home to Texas for awhile.

Scott Crocker, a volunteer firefighter in Richwood, and his wife own Cleaning Plus. The family has three children in Brazosport ISD schools.

Eight-year-old Steven said he loves to play video games with his big brother, especially a military game about Vietnam. Steven said he tends to win.

“He doesn’t really have any practice,” he said of Brandon.

The two also used to jog together to a church near their house, he said.

Steven said he thinks Brandon will like the cards made by Polk students.

Fellow second-grader Alex Martinez, 9, said he was sad when he heard about what happened to Brandon. The card he made Friday featured a drawing of the two brothers together.

The cards are being sent to Maryland in waves by their grandmother, Sue Wheeler of Lake Jackson, a regular volunteer at Polk.

“Anything for ‘Grandma Sue,’” said Kathy Reed, Steven’s teacher.

Wheeler said she was shocked when she first heard Brandon had been shot and has prayed for him intently.

“We feel like we have been blessed that he’s in good shape,” she said. “He’s a survivor, he really is. He’s a great kid.”

“Those Troops That Are Over There Don’t Have Any Need To Go, Suffer So Far Away”
“Activists Here Call Ramos ‘The Cindy Sheehan Of El Salvador’”

[Thanks to Phil G, who sent this in.]

March 10, 2006 By HŽctor Tobar and Alex Renderos, Special to The L.A. Times

GUAYAMANGO, El Salvador

The only thing Herminia Ramos wanted from the army was her son’s pension, exactly $200 a month. She figured she deserved the money now, seeing how he gave his life wearing an army uniform, fighting in a war halfway around the world in Iraq.

The Salvadoran army said no.

Ramos said she felt abandoned. Left with her thoughts in her sparse cinderblock home, and five other children to support, she quickly came to a conclusion: No other parent should have to feel this way.

She signed her name to a letter demanding that El Salvador remove its troops from Iraq. Then she personally delivered it to the national legislature and the offices of conservative President Tony Saca. In the process, the quiet peasant has become the most potent symbol of this country’s small antiwar movement.

“There are other mothers who have their children there, and I didn’t want them to suffer the pain I did,” Ramos said, and began to weep. “Those troops that are over there don’t have any need to go, suffer so far away.”

El Salvador is the only Latin American country with troops still in Iraq. About 380 soldiers from the country’s elite Cuscatlan Battalion have been stationed there since 2003.

Two Salvadoran soldiers have died in Iraq. Ramos’ 19-year-old son, Natividad Mendez Ramos, was the first, falling in the southern city Najaf on April 4, 2004, when supporters of the anti-U.S. [translation: anti U.S. occupation] cleric Muqtada Sadr attacked Salvadoran and Spanish troops at a barracks there.

Natividad had joined the army when he was 15, having somehow gotten around the minimum age requirement of 16. Pictures in Ramos’ home show a young man with coffee colored skin who looks older than the teenager he was.

Ramos remembers the last time she saw Natividad, when he came home on leave, just before leaving for Iraq, and the pain of one of their last conversations together:

“He told me, ‘Mama, I think this is the last time we’re going to see each other.’ And I answered him: ‘No, no, son. You don’t have to go. You’re not going to go. I don’t want you to go!’ My son was disconsolate. He told me, ‘You’re going to be left all alone.’ “

Polls here show a majority of Salvadorans oppose the presence of their country’s troops in Iraq, but antiwar protests are almost nonexistent.

“Herminia’s actions have reopened the debate about our troops in Iraq, an issue that had almost been forgotten,” said Maria Silvia Guillen, who runs a legal rights center in San Salvador.

Activists here call Ramos “the Cindy Sheehan of El Salvador.”

When Ramos contacted a local minister about her concerns over the war, peace activists drafted a letter of protest in her name.

“I consider her to be one of our Salvadoran heroines,” said Bishop Medardo Gomez of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador. “She is a poor woman of few words whose pain led her to speak out. She’s dared to stand up to the powerful, to our government and, above all, to the military.”

The Salvadoran government, the protest letter said, has become “an accomplice to a military occupation that violates the fundamental laws of this country and a co-participant in widely denounced human rights violations.”

Shortly after Ramos delivered her letter last month, Saca was asked by reporters whether he had any response, as a new contingent of Salvadoran troops was about to be deployed to Iraq.

“One of the risks is that a person can die, which we regret deeply,” the president said. “We’ve supported Mrs. Ramos, we respect her opinion. But the battalion is going to Iraq.”

After his death, Natividad was declared a “national hero” by then-President Francisco Flores. The army paid out a $7,000 life insurance policy. Natividad’s body arrived in Guayamango by helicopter for burial in a solemn ceremony covered by national television.

Soldiers also came and built the cinderblock house, which is the envy of many in a rural community where most of the houses are built from adobe mud bricks. But the life insurance money ran out a long time ago ; as a single mother of five children, it’s hard for Ramos to make ends meet.

Military officials told Ramos, 47, that she would not be able to receive her son’s pension until she turned 55.

“In eight years, a lot of things can happen,” she said. “I have needs now.”

After she delivered her protest letter to the president, a group of army officials showed up at her home.

“They told me, ‘Send as many letters as you want, but the troops are still leaving.’ I answered them, ‘I don’t want those troops to go.’ “

Many countries that were once part of what President Bush called “the coalition of the willing” have since withdrawn their troops from Iraq, including Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Napoleon Campos, a political analyst in San Salvador, says he thinks Salvadoran troops will remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future.

“The troops in Iraq have become a kind of straitjacket that El Salvador can’t take off,” Campos said. “Everything indicates that we’ll be with the United States until they leave from there, either victorious or defeated.”

Wounded Iraq Troops Fucked Over As Usual By Lying VA Scum:
Not Usual:
This Time, The Liars Got Caught

In Atlanta, one veteran who the VA said got an appointment within a week actually waited nearly a year. Another veteran in Boston who reported seeing a VA doctor within hours actually waited 472 days.

Getting to the nearest Veterans Administration hospital that can best treat his paralysis means a three-hour roundtrip, and the VA isn’t paying for therapists closer to home. So he does without.

March 9, 2006 ABC News’ Erin Hayes filed this report for “World News Tonight” [Excerpts]

DONNA, Texas

Eugene Simpson doesn’t like to complain. Paralyzed in a bomb attack in Iraq, his initial care was excellent, but ever since then he has felt adrift.

“There are thousands of soldiers in worse condition than I am, and they’re OK,” he said. “They’re making it.”

Getting to the nearest Veterans Administration hospital that can best treat his paralysis means a three-hour roundtrip, and the VA isn’t paying for therapists closer to home. So he does without.

“I want to excel and advance and get stronger,” said Simpson. “But at the same time, I don’t want to pull a muscle or do the wrong exercise that can hurt a certain part of my body, because then I’ll be helpless.”

In Texas, a group of veterans staged a protest march covering the distance to the nearest VA hospital: 250 miles.

“(It takes) four-and-a-half to five hours .. one way,” said Vietnam War vet Polo Uriesti.

“Last year, 97 percent of veterans who came to us for a primary care appointment got that appointment within 30 days, and 95 percent of those who came for an acute care appointment got it within 30 days,” said R. James Nicholson, secretary of Veterans Affairs.

But an inspector general’s audit found real problems with the way the VA has come up with those numbers.

The audit found that some VA staff, feeling “pressured,” actually fudged [translation: deliberately lied about] the numbers, and error rates translation: rates of lying to government inspectors] were as high as 61 percent.

In Atlanta, one veteran who the VA said got an appointment within a week actually waited nearly a year.

Another veteran in Boston who reported seeing a VA doctor within hours actually waited 472 days.

[OK, got it by now? It’s only been 3 years. There is no enemy in Iraq. Iraqis and U.S. troops have a common enemy, the Imperial politicians in Washington DC. The conclusion: obvious. Fight the enemy, together. T]

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT THE NEW TRAVELING SOLDIER
Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)

“Press Conferences With Donny Rum Are Wonderfully Reminiscent Of The Five O’Clock Follies”

08 March 2006 By Molly Ivins, Truthdig.com

But, Brother Rumsfeld warns us, “We do know that their goal is to try to break the will; that they consider the center of gravity of this; not to be in Iraq, because they know they can’t win a battle out there; they consider it to be in Washington, D.C., and in London and in the capitals of the Western world.”

I’m sorry, I know we are not allowed to use the V-word in relation to Iraq, because so many brilliant neocons have assured us this war is nothing like Vietnam (Vietnam, lotsa jungle; Iraq lotsa sand; big difference).

But you must admit that press conferences with Donny Rum are wonderfully reminiscent of the Five O’Clock Follies, those wacky but endearing daily press briefings on Southeast Asia by military officers who made Baghdad Bob sound like a pessimist.

Rumsfeld’s performance was so reminiscent of all the times the military in Vietnam blamed the media for reporting “bad news’” when there was nothing else to report.

A briefing officer once memorably asked the press, “Who’s side are you on?”

You could rely on other sources.

For example, the Pentagon is still investigating itself to find out why it is paying American soldiers to make up good news about the war, which it then passes on to a Republican public relations firm, which in turn pays people in the Iraqi media to print the stuff; thus fooling the Iraqis or somebody.

When last heard from, the general in charge of investigating this federally funded Baghdad Bobism said he hadn’t found anything about it to be illegal yet, so it apparently continues.

How Bad Is It?

3.8.06 By David Rogers, Wall St. Journal

For Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, an early ally of Mr. Bush, the result is a total defense budget that in real dollars surpasses those of the Vietnam War era and defense buildup under Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

A damaged police vehicle after a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad March 8, 2006. Two policemen were killed in the attack, police said. REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud

March 10, 2006 AEDT & WorldNow & By BUSHRA JUHI (AP) & Reuters

A roadside bomb exploded as a police patrol was driving through west Baghdad, killing two officers and wounding four, police said.

A policeman in Tikrit died disarming a roadside bomb when a second explosive device detonated, also wounding four others.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

Got That Right

March 10, 2006 American Progress Report

Two years after his promise to shut down Abu Ghraib prison, Bush will finally do so.

One Iraqi shopkeeper noted, “Closing Abu Ghraib will never improve the image of the Americans in Iraq. I believe the Americans will close one Abu Ghraib and open a hundred new ones somewhere else.”

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

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“IEDs Remain Top Killer of Troops in Iraq”
[Headline From Associated Press Mar 10]

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in. He writes: WRONG – GEORGE W. BUSH, THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF, REMAINS THE TOP KILLER OF TROOPS IN IRAQ. TOP KILLER OF IRAQIS TOO.]

Veteran Writes:
“We Now Have Become An Agressor Country”

March 10, 2006 firebase-chat [Excerpts]

Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: Hit with another Claymore at SEARS

[Letter #1:]

From: BP
Date: 2 Mar 2006
Subject: Hit with another Claymore at SEARS

This might not be how some Vietnam Veterans feel, but as far as I am concerned, it is another kick in the ass for all of us.

Today I went to SEARS (Kingsport Tennessee) to buy some shirts to be embodied for our Reunion in July and I picked out two that I thought were ok. When I got home, I looked at the tag inside and it said “MADE IN VIETNAM”!!!

They went back as fast as I could get it there. The Lady at the register asked me what was wrong with them and I said I am a Vietnam Combat Veteran and it is another slap in the face to the Guy’s that fought over there as far as I was concerned. She was very nice and said She understood exactly what I was saying and that She does not blame me for returning them.

I will never buy any thing from SEARS again. Please pass this on so another Viet Vet does not make the same mistake and drive home and be Ambushed again here in the States

What the Tag should of said, is “MADE IN AMERICA”! What is happening to this Country of ours?

BP
1st Bn 5th Infantry Reg. 25th ID Class of 1966
Squad Leader, Tunnel Rat & Pointman

[Letter #2:]

From: S

My Brothers and Sisters,

As much as I can see your point about buying anything from a country you fought in at best can be hard to do much less look upon someone from that country.

But it is like those of us who fought or presently fighting in the Gulf not to buy gas or oil.

I think our battle is not with a country we fought in, now, but with those who are in office to who allow our country to be so easily invaded by these and other countries.

My Father like many fought in Germany, Korea, My brother in Vietnam, my uncles against Japan and I fought in the Gulf War.

But everyday I see BMW’s, Honda and every other type of suckies and this is not to include jobs lost because of being move over there.

As a Veterans Employment Representative, I see veterans like you and everyone else who hurt from false leaders who claim to represent us “We the People.”

These false leader continually fail to do their jobs, because in my opinion lobbyists swaying the vote.

Oh, I stand corrected, except during an election year when their jobs are on the line.

When I see laws change to protect big business and go against us, We the people,” it really chaps my backside.

So the battle I see we have is with those who are blind and fail to act on our behalf but act against us,” We the People” who voted their a_ _ into office.

Don’t miss understand me, I am not blaming one party. Oh hell no, I am blaming every damn last one who will not stand up and say NO MORE.

I Blame every last one who will not reach down and grab a pair, if they can, and say we represent the people of this country, not the lobbyist and not big business.

There use to be a joke about 50,000 lawyers, well it should be about politicians.

Our laws need to be changed to end lobbyist and anyone/thing that will sway the vote against us, once and for all.

If politicians want to be bought off by big business give them jail time and take Everything away from them house, bank accounts and everything else. They would not have got it unless they were in office so take it all, just like the legal system would do under the Rico act against the Mafia.

So, I guess if this is not the battle and you still want to fight against sears, then you should include Walmart, Kmart and every other store in this country.

Hell want a better one; the berets our soldiers are wearing, take a guess where they are made. I will give you a hint, Its not the Good Old US.

[Letter #3:]

From: CW

S, i agree with you!

4 yrs in nam, and feel its not the people of viet nam that we should be attacking! but our leaders for outsourcing the jobs in the first place!

in world war 2 our leaders allowed the Japanese to attack our country!

viet nam, iraq nor afghanistan attacked us!!!!

we now have become an agressor country, no better than germany nor japan!!

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.

“Promoting Officers To Elevated Ranks Who Evince A Cowardly Lack Of Integrity And Accountability”

March 10, 2006 by Gregory D. Foster, International Herald Tribune (Paris) [Excerpts]

Having taught for two decades at the National Defense University in Washington, I have grown mind numbingly accustomed to hearing the future generals and admirals who are our students disparage what they are convinced is the decadence of American society.

I also have listened time and again to their complaints about having to unnecessarily endure ethics and leadership instruction at their advanced level of experience and achievement.

They consider themselves ethically pure, gifted even, yet they see no contradiction in the gross ethical failings of their superiors, whom they venerate and are about to emulate.

Ironically, they cluelessly mistake their own pronounced moral arrogance for the true moral superiority expected of them.

The U.S. military deserves blame as an institution for sustaining a culture that condones, if not encourages, undisciplined, dehumanizing, sadistic, even murderous behavior by at least some of its troops.

It deserves even more blame for rewarding and promoting officers to elevated ranks who evince a cowardly lack of integrity and accountability, as well as a disgusting penchant for finger pointing they would decry in their political overlords, that is, if they themselves hadn’t been completely politicized.

When was the last time we witnessed a senior military officer willingly accept blame for a catastrophe that occurred on his watch (Beirut, Khobar Towers, the U.S.S. Cole, Abu Ghraib), or one who resigned on principle?

The answer lies in the deafening silence we hear.

“Obstruct The Administration Of The Bush Government”

March 10, 2006 Cindy Sheehan, BuzzFlash [Excerpts]

When the four of us. Missy Beattie, Rev. Patricia Ackerman, Medea Benjamin, and I, were arrested the other day, I was singled out for federal police brutality. The other three ladies were picked up, not gingerly, though, and I was dragged across the pavement and treated very, very roughly, having both arms wrenched out from beneath me.

I looked to my doctor as if I had been beaten.

My daughter, Janey, asked if I had been resisting arrest, I told her if one considers going into a fetal position and saying, “Please don’t hurt me anymore!” resisting, then I guess I was.

A book could be written about the felonies of the Bush Crime Family and their mafia-style buddies, but I am running out of space.

George Bush has committed crimes against humanity and high crimes and misdemeanors in his tenure as (P)resident of the White House.

Has he been held accountable for any of this? No, he spends his nights and days comfortable and content in the fact that he is a lame duck, already rich, and knowing that Congress is spineless and he won’t be impeached for his transgressions that have caused the deaths of so many thousands of people worldwide.

When we were in the cockroach and feces decorated jail system in NYC the other night, we met some other women who felt they had to resort to crime to try to survive in BushWorld.

We met intelligent young women who felt their last resort was to resort to victimless crimes. Now for their petty thefts, they will have to spend months in institutions where they are stripped of any human dignity or comfort.

All of the women we met knew they broke the law and were resigned to their punishment but where is the justice in our system where all people are supposedly equal?

However, we four white, middle-class women were the lucky ones.

We only had to spend one night in jail and we knew our lawyers would be there in the morning to spring us.

When we were heading for court, we walked by our sisters in the holding cell and our hearts sank, because we know what it is like to spend even one night in jail.

Our souls also connected with our sisters and brothers all over the world who are imprisoned in far worse conditions by the policies of BushCo and are being inhumanely tortured by these same medieval and draconian policies.

Even if John Bolton, L. Paul Bremer, George Bush, Halliburton execs, etc. ad nauseum are ever punished, we all know the conditions won’t be (but should be) as harsh as those of the other people who live in subhuman conditions because of them.

These people operate on the standard of having all the money and all the power and they don’t care for anyone who they victimize on their way to obtaining their obscene and ill-gotten gains.

One of our so-called crimes in front of USUN was “Obstructing Governmental Administration.”

I say “Hell, yes! Anyone with a conscience or any moral courage should be doing everything in his/her power to obstruct the administration of the Bush government.

OCCUPATION REPORT

Silly Occupation Commanders Fake Handing Over Sadr City To Collaborator Forces:
“The Police Forces In The Neighborhood Are Symbolic And Have No Courage”
“The Army Does Not Enter Sadr City”

While U.S. officers insist Iraqis are now taking the lead in securing Sadr City, both sides concede American soldiers will likely be there for some time to come. “I expect there will be an American presence until the government and military command recognize these units to be fully capable to operate on their own, which is the exit strategy that everyone is talking about,” said Maj. Charles St. Clair, part of the U.S. team that will continue to advise the Iraqi battalion after the handover.

March 10, 2006 By Alexandra Zavis, Associated Press, BAGHDAD, Iraq

On a sandy field shrouded in a dust storm, the red flag of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraq Army Division passed from American to Iraqi hands, and with it, control of one of Baghdad’s most restive districts. [Except, as noted below, this is all a fantasy.]

“Iraqis know Iraqis,” Col. Hussain Muhsein, commander of the 3rd Battalion, said. “We can handle the security inside Sadr City.”

Residents, however, are far less certain about the abilities of their new army and police force.

Saadoun al-Sahl, a furniture shop owner, said he counted on private militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to shield him from a recent surge of sectarian killing that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

“They protect us better than any security agency,” he said. “If I or anyone has a problem, we go to the Mahdi Army to solve it.”

“The police forces in the neighborhood are symbolic and have no courage,” said al-Sahl, the furniture shop owner.

“The army does not enter Sadr City. Sometimes we see checkpoints outside the (district), but not all the time.”

Muhsen’s main concern was the shortage of armored vehicles to protect his soldiers in a city that suffers near-daily bombings, mortar fire and other attacks.

Four new, U.S.-provided, upgraded armored Humvees complete with air conditioning and an Iraqi flag painted on the side were proudly displayed at Thursday’s ceremony. But most of the battalion still patrol the streets in pickup trucks mounted with heavy guns.

Security was tight for the event, which took place just days after the division commander was slain by gunmen [translation: resistance troops].

Journalists were brought in an armored bus, escorted by Bradley fighting vehicles. Iraqi police kept the route clear, backing up traffic for miles.

While U.S. officers insist Iraqis are now taking the lead in securing Sadr City, both sides concede American soldiers will likely be there for some time to come.

“I expect there will be an American presence until the government and military command recognize these units to be fully capable to operate on their own, which is the exit strategy that everyone is talking about,” said Maj. Charles St. Clair, part of the U.S. team that will continue to advise the Iraqi battalion after the handover. [In his dreams maybe. The troops will decide how long they wish to stay, and may make their wishes known in ways St. Clair will find most unpleasant.]

[As for now, you can’t hand over what you ain’t got.]

OCCUPATION HAITI

“It’s No Secret That The Real Power Calling The Shots In Haiti Is Not In Port-Au-Prince”
“It’s In Washington”

March 3, 2006 Stephen Lendman, Uruknet.info [Excerpts]

On February 7, 2006 (and with due homage to the great Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano) the people of Haiti were not to be denied. Few people anywhere have endured more oppression and human misery or for a longer period of time (with all too few periods of relief).

In spite of an election process orchestrated, controlled and shamelessly rigged by an interim puppet government (the IGH) and an oppressive occupying force (UN Blue Helmets supposedly there to maintain order and protect them), they overcame overwhelming obstacles and elected Rene Preval for the second time as their President (his first time in office was from 1996-2000).

It’s no secret that the real power calling the shots in Haiti is not in Port-au-Prince. It’s in Washington making policy, giving orders and letting its approved proxies do its bidding, which has been bloody and brutal since US Marines in the dead of night kidnapped and deposed democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide at gunpoint in February, 2004.

From behind the scenes, the Washington Chimeres, led by the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP), that is umbilically linked to the US State Department, and its former member and now acting US ambassador Timothy Carney are already sharpening their long knives and beginning their demonization and destabilization campaign to undermine the Preval administration even before it begins.

They hope to render it stillborn or at least so falsely tarnished and weakened by a torrent of propaganda it will be unable to function effectively. And if doesn’t, they’ll blame it on him.

And the US corporate media is playing its business as usual part to help guarantee it won’t.

It’s unleashed a storm of anti-Preval propaganda, disinformation and demonization in the aftermath of the February 7 election. It began by playing the old game of “blame the victim.”

Although the US and its obedient proxies shamelessly controlled and rigged the election and still failed to have it come out their way, they’re blaming Preval for the flawed process and electoral fraud.

Neither he, any Lavalas remnants or ordinary poor Haitians had anything to do with burning ballots, hiding them, destroying tally sheets or stuffing ballot boxes with blank ballots. Nor did they decide to reduce the number of polling stations from 12,000 in 2000 to about 800 or less this year. And the ones they eliminated were where the majority of poor Haitians lived in rural areas as well as urban Lavalas/Aristide/Preval strongholds like Cite Soleil where they had NONE AT ALL.

Governing Haiti under the best of conditions would be a task to challenge the patience of Job, require the wisdom of Solomon and have the luck of a “riverboat gambler” on his best day. But the way things are now as Rene Preval prepares to do it, he may be lucky just to stay alive and keep his sanity and blood pressure under control.

On day one in office he’ll be virtually alone trying to govern a country still run by criminals under the aegis and with full support of the US. The Haitian peoples’ leaders and advocates are in exile, prison or are dead, the country is in desperate need of development, and at least 80% of the people are in an even more desperate state but hoping Rene will be their savior. Those people need everything including food for their next meal.

The knowledgeable, thoughtful and keen observer of events in Haiti for many years, John Maxwell, wrote just before the 2004 coup how abused this small country (3 times the size of Los Angeles) and its people have been for so many years. Referring only to the 20th century (he might have included 4 others) he wrote: “The…story of Haiti is one of economic and social strip-mining, of rapacious exploitation on a scale that is almost incomprehensible (the crime of genocide in slow motion)…Haiti is an international crime scene…For decades Haitians have been driven abroad for some sort of dignity, livelihood and an end to suffering.

“The brightest, including journalists, have been murdered or are in voluntary or involuntary exile…Haiti is a war zone, where the rich (from the US and Haiti mainly) have scorched the earth so thoroughly…”

Powerful words, all true and all ignored by the corporate media.

The world community of nations has stood by and watched it all, unmoved, uncaring and eager when possible to join in the plundering.

The US and Haitian power elite are still there and in control and have no intention of ending their rapacious policies and trying to help the Haitian people as Aristide and Preval both did during their previous tenures.

Also, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune is still in jail where at times during his incarceration he’s been close to death from a hunger strike. This writer has no information on his current condition or any possible change in his status. Rene Preval’s first order of business, on his first day in office, should be to free him and all the other political prisoners.

The IMF and World Bank are always at the head of the queue in demanding developing states adhere to their neoliberal structural adjustment policies of privatizations, debt servicing and cuts in vital and desperately needed social services.

Rene Preval knows the message but is no doubt hearing it again even more forcefully as he prepares to assume office.

It remains to be seen how he’ll respond, but it’s easy to know what will happen if he doesn’t. Haiti is in critical need of funding for programs to help its 80% or more desperately poor, but it won’t get it from either of these international lending agencies or all the others the US controls.

What he’ll do and how he’ll cope will likely decide his fate. The US and IMF and World Bank they control don’t take “no” for an answer. But what’s the worse choice, going along with them and allowing the extreme suffering and deprivation of Haiti’s poor to get even worse or rejecting them and facing the likelihood of another coup which is certainly already planned if Preval won’t play ball.

Under these conditions, who would trade places with this man who now has the most challenging and unenviable job I know: to govern his people as President surrounded by the most powerful and hostile forces out to do him in unless he surrenders to their will.

I doubt very many are that courageous if they intended to serve their people and defy the dictates of a ruthless “Godfather” that never tolerates disobedience.

The long knives are razor sharpened, poised and at the ready in Washington and Haiti and Rene has few if any allies to turn to.

But about 7 million desperately poor Haitians are armed with hope and faith in this man to deliver them out of the maws and bowels of hell just like the Book of Exodus tells us Moses tried to lead the Jews to the promised land.

Moses never made it there. Will Rene Preval have better luck? We should all hope he will.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Whitehouse.org]

“The Vague Concept Of “Working In Support” Could Open Almost Any Political Critic Of The Bush Administration To Surveillance”

March 10, 2006 By Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com [Excerpt]

Despite a dip in his opinion polls, George W. Bush’s transformation of the United States into an authoritarian society continues apace, with new “compromises” with Congress actually consolidating his claims to virtually unlimited executive power.

Bush’s latest success came as part of a supposed “concession” to Congress that would grant two new Republican-controlled seven-member subcommittees narrow oversight of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

While “moderate” Republican senators; Mike DeWine of Ohio, Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; hailed the plan as a retreat by the White House, the deal actually blesses Bush’s authority to bypass the courts in spying on Americans and imposes on him only a toothless congressional review process.

Indeed, the congressional plan may make matters worse, broadening the permissible scope of Bush’s wiretaps to include Americans deemed to be “working in support of a terrorist group or organization.”

Given Bush’s record of stretching words to his advantage, and his claim that anyone who isn’t “with us” is with the terrorists, the vague concept of “working in support” could open almost any political critic of the Bush administration to surveillance.

Lest We Forget:
Scumbag Speaks With Forked Tongue

March 10, 2006 Jonathan Mark, Flyby News Notes

“Free nations don’t attack.
“Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.”

George W. Bush

(Both above quotes, prior to the US unprovoked invasion of Iraq)

“Democrats Stumbling Around In Search Of A ‘Message’”

March 10, 2006 Rosa Brooks, LA Times, Op-Ed [Excerpt]

‘TOGETHER, America can do better.” When you hear that, do you feel inspired?

I didn’t think so.

The Democratic Party’s current slogan seems to be leaving most people cold.

It apparently went down well in focus groups, but that’s only because the focus groups probably consisted of the recently embalmed and the alternative slogan was “Together, America can achieve mediocrity.”

Watching the Democrats stumbling around in search of a “message” is the only thing more agonizing than watching the Republicans destroy this country.

Received:

“No Money, No War”
“It Really Is That Simple”.

From: JF
To: GI Special
Sent: March 10, 2006 9:39 PM
Subject: It’s Really Nice To Know Someone’s Over Here Trying To Bring You Home.

Dear GI Special,

Thanks for the story on Occupation Dreamland and IVAW from Mother Jones. It’s great to read about the numbers of Iraq War veterans organizing against the war!

And thanks for the heads up on Jim Smith, candidate for U.S. Congress, 36th District.

It’s great to read about an American individual running for Congress against the Republicrat/Demoplican Axis.

If we took the House Of Representatives back from the Axis we could end all funding of war in the Middle East.

No money, no war. It really is that simple.

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

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

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