GI SPECIAL 4E30

“ My Only Choice Now Is To Dissent And Resist”
“To Expose This Criminal Occupation With My Fellow Veterans”

To: GI Special
Sent: May 28, 2006
Subject: Warriors of Dissent (My Speech for Memorial Day)

By Garett Reppenhagen, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Sniper First Infantry Division

We shouldn’t need a memorial day to remember the soldiers who fought and sacrificed.

Regardless of the causes of our Nation’s conflict we rely on these men and women to be the weapons of our democracy if the majority chooses to go to war.

It is society’s responsibility to make wise decisions on how the soldiers are used. We need to investigate every solution, only using military action as a last resort in a necessary intervention.

To allow emotions of revenge and fear to dominate our better judgment is a betrayal to the service members who depend on us.

It is all to easy to forget about our soldiers when .4% of the population is serving in the military. The disconnect is painfully severe.

The VA data theft is an example of how little concern there is for the veterans. When the information of so many veterans can be casually cared for it becomes obvious that the soldier’s sacrifice means very little to a bulk of our citizens.

The fact that there is no accountability gives high level officials a GREEN light to fuck over our soldiers and veterans time and time again.

Because they realize they will never see any consequences for their neglect and abuse, they will take advantage of America’s apathy.

There is a shallow support for the troops that is a guilt tax for the pseudo patriot. A yellow ribbon magnet is as far as most people will go to show their level of responsibility.

The false sense of active support is an insult. because it is all just empty slogans and feel good exercises. I would rather be spit on openly than lied to and stabbed in the back.

Meanwhile the veterans fail to receive the benefits and care they deserve and the soldiers continue to be churned through multiple rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

25% of soldiers in Iraq are there for their 3rd tour, 50% are on their second and 25% are on their first.

Just as the administration was fraudulent and unprepared for the war in Iraq, they are not prepared for the mass of veterans who are coming home mentally and physically injured.

1.4 million soldiers have deployed to the Global War on Terror. 30% have a mental health injury.

The fact that many of these mental health issues have political and social cures is not being inspected by the institutions.

Soldiers are struggling with the idea that their sacrifice was meaningless, and that has a profound impact on a persons mental well being. Try losing a leg, or a friend, or your innocence for a lie.

Thomas Jefferson once said that “Dissent is the truest form of Patriotism.”

My only choice now is to dissent and resist. To expose this criminal occupation with my fellow veterans and military family members.

We have the credibility to denounce this war more than any other organization because we have experienced the war’s horrors intimately.

The Iraq Veterans Against the War is the only group of anti-war veterans returning from the conflicts in the Middle-East. In the last year we quadrupled our membership. If we can repeat that this year we will have thousands of veterans in the streets taking a stand against this unjust war.

Please don’t allow us to stand alone.

I urge you to go to IVAW.net and show your support. As we wore the uniform and represented this nation at war we will continue our service and represent you as an army for peace.

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

Two British Troops Killed By Roadside Bomb In Basra

May 29, 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Two British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq last night, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The men, members of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards, were on a routine patrol in the north-west of Basra when their armoured Land Rover was hit by the homemade device at 9.30pm local time (1830 BST).

Two other British troops were injured in the blast which is the latest in an upsurge of violence against British forces in the port city. Their deaths bring the number of British personnel killed in the area to nine this month, and 113 since the invasion of March 2003.

The incident took place in North West Basra City.

U.S. Convoy Attacked, Humvee Destroyed In Baghdad:
One U.S. Soldier Killed, 6 Wounded

A U.S. soldier runs past a destroyed Humvee at the scene of a car bomb in Baghdad’s Tahariyat Square which targeted an American convoy, setting the Humvee on fire May 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

5.29.06 By Alastair Macdonald, Reuters

Two British journalists working for U.S. television network CBS were among four people killed when a car bomb hit a U.S. military patrol in Baghdad on Monday.

An unnamed U.S. soldier was killed and six U.S. soldiers were also injured, CBS and the U.S. military said in separate statements.

American CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously wounded.

Dozier, 39 and a long-time reporter on Middle East affairs, was operated on in a Baghdad military hospital. Doctors were “cautiously optimistic,” CBS said.

The crew had been filming a report on a joint U.S. and Iraqi army patrol through the Iraqi capital in mid-morning.

“A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device struck the patrol in central Baghdad at approximately 10:30 a.m. (0630 GMT),” the U.S. military said.

It was one of the deadliest attacks on a U.S. patrol in central Baghdad for some time. Fellow journalists arrived quickly at the scene to see a Humvee armored patrol vehicle in flames and U.S. troops securing the immediate area.

A US soldier treats a wounded colleague at the site where of a car bomb exploded in Baghdad’s Tahariyat Square which targeted an American convoy in central Baghdad. (AFP/Ahmad Al Rubaye)

Ohio Soldier Killed

5.25.06 (AP) ELYRIA, OHIO

A soldier who grew up in Ohio was killed Sunday during combat operations in Iraq, the Defense Department said Thursday.

Master Sgt. Robert H. West, 37, of Elyria was conducting combat operations in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle, the Defense Department said. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 312th Regiment, Clinton, N.C.

West joined the Army in 1988 after graduating from high school and recently had been at posted at bases in Kentucky and West Virginia, The (Elyria) Chronicle Telegram reported.

He is survived by his wife, Jeannie West, and the couple’s 11-year-old daughter Shelby, who live in Arvada, Colo., the newspaper said.

FUTILE EXERCISE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

A U.S. Marine from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment’s Kilo Company aims his rifle down a war-battered road during a patrol in Ramadi April 17, 2006. (AP Photo/Todd Pitman)

Marine Dies From Injuries Suffered In Roadside Bomb Blast

May 24, 2006 By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes

A Marine highlighted in a May 8 Stars and Stripes article about the medical fight to treat his battlefield injuries has passed away.

Cpl. William Bradley Fulks, 23, of Culloden, W.Va., died Thursday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, military officials said.

Fulks suffered burns on more than 60 percent of his body and massive internal injuries as a result of a roadside bomb blast on May 1 near Fallujah, Iraq. He also had severe damage to his left lung in addition to kidney and liver injuries.

A five-member team of doctors and specialists from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center traveled to Baghdad to treat Fulks with specialized equipment during his movement out of Iraq.

While on the ground, the team had to perform emergency surgery to ensure Fulks was stable enough to be flown to Germany. Once at Landstuhl, Fulks was treated by a special burn unit team before being flown to Brooke.

Fulks was assigned to the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Great Moments In U.S. Military History:
Massacre In Kabul:
Panicked Troops Slaughter Unarmed Civilians, Again:
U.S. Command Caught Telling Stupid Lies, Again

Afghan protesters look at the body of a civilian killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)

A U.S. spokesman said American troops shot into the air, and AP Television News video showed a machine gun on a Humvee firing over the crowd as the vehicle sped away.

But a Kabul police chief said U.S. troops had fired into the crowd. Witnesses said that Afghan and U.S. troops opened fire to quell protesters. An AFP photographer saw U.S. troops open fire on the mob, leaving at the least four people dead.

[Thanks to JM, who sent this in.]

29 May 2006 AP & Aljazeera & AFP

US troops reportedly opened fire on Afghans demonstrating in Kabul after an accident involving a coalition military vehicle, and casualties have been reported.

The accident was followed by US soldiers shooting. At least eight people were killed and 107 injured, an official said.

A U.S. spokesman said American troops shot into the air, and AP Television News video showed a machine gun on a Humvee firing over the crowd as the vehicle sped away.

But a Kabul police chief said U.S. troops had fired into the crowd.

Witnesses said that Afghan and U.S. troops opened fire to quell protesters.

An AFP photographer saw U.S. troops open fire on the mob, leaving at the least four people dead.

Unrest started after three U.S. Humvee vehicles coming into the city from the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars, witnesses said.

Afghans often complain about what they call the aggressive driving tactics of the U.S. military. Convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speed and sometimes disregard road rules. The U.S. military says such tactics are necessary to protect the troops from attack.

“Today’s demonstration is because Americans killed innocent people. We will not stop until foreigners leave the city. We are looking for foreigners to kill,” one protester in his late 20s, Gulam Ghaus, said near where rioters burned a police post.

AP Television News video showed hundreds of angry young men hurling rocks at what appeared to be three U.S. military trucks and three dun-colored Humvees as they sped from the area after the crash, their windshields cracked by the stones.

The coalition said at least one person was killed and six injured in the crash, but police said at least three people were killed and 16 injured.

Sher Shah Usafi, a police chief in the city, said the convoy of US forces hit some civilian cars in a traffic jam near a busy market and bus station.

Protesters shouting “Down to America!” and “Death to America!” threw stones and burned cars, while police fired into the air but failed to disperse the crowd.

Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks were deployed around the city, as chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of aid group CARE International. Computers were set on fire and smoke billowed from the buildings, according to an Associated Press reporter.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Mohammed Hanif, accused U.S. troops of firing on people and said that showed that “Americans consider the whole Afghan nation as their enemies.”

Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, said that eight bodies were brought to hospitals in Kabul and 107 more Afghans were treated for injuries.

The riot was the worst in Kabul since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. It erupted in the city’s northern suburbs before spreading into the city center and then to other areas frequented by foreigners, including areas near U.S. and NATO bases.

The riot continued for hours into the afternoon.

AP reporters heard several 20-second bursts of heavy automatic gunfire coming from the direction of the U.S. Embassy. It subsided but gunfire was then heard sporadically.

Staff at the U.S. Embassy were moved to a secure location within the heavily fortified building, said Chris Harris, an embassy spokesman.

There were unconfirmed reports from protesters that rioters also smashed windows at the five-star Serena Hotel in the city center, popular with foreign visitors.

An AP Television News cameraman and an AP reporter were beaten by protesters but not hurt.

[Ishikawa and Kuroshima would understand: insert troops into a hell on earth and there’s no way to prevent atrocities. Yet the real fiends in their capital suites are never spattered with a single drop of blood. Solidarity, Z]

MORE:

“The Gunfire Has Become Intense, The Heaviest I Have Heard”

29 May 2006 By Stewart Nusbaumer, Truthout Perspective [Excerpts]

Kabul, Afghanistan:

Today in Kabul the veneer of national progress was ripped off, leaving several Afghanis dead and many more wounded and sending this capital city into a lockdown.

Four and a half years after the US-led military offensive successfully overthrew the Taliban government, which was protecting Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda, Kabul has erupted in gunfire, leaving citizens shattered and their confidence in the future shaken.

Sequestered behind the tall walls of the Le Monde Guesthouse in central Kabul, from early morning to middle afternoon – for more than five hours, I have been surrounded by the sound of gunfire, AK-47 rifles and hand guns, automatic weapons, and a few heavy explosions, probably rocket-propelled grenades.

And sequestered is where I must remain, since in Kabul today foreigners, especially Americans – are not free to walk the streets.

An Afghanistan television station was trashed, and is now off the air… It is now 2 p.m., and again I hear the screaming of protesters, not from the west but from the east.

The gunfire has become intense, the heaviest I have heard. Bullets fly overhead; it appears the shooting is now coming from all sides. The manager and I consider getting the rifles out of the storage room. One of the two maids is crying, and she is unable to stop.

Two helicopters sweep across Kabul. Their spinning blades drown out the small arms fire – but for only a few seconds. The sharp crack of gunfire grows even stronger – a heavy burst of weapons on the east side of the wall, which is in the direction of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. There are three heavy explosions, this to the south. Just over the wall, a pistol fires off several rounds…

Last week, a young man lectured me on how US troops cannot be trusted. He pointed to the recent US bombing in southern Afghanistan that he said left 16 civilians dead, including several small children. “The US military kill and don’t care,” he said.

Increasingly, there is the perception in Afghanistan that the US military is out of control. That it shoots first and cares little about the Afghani people.

A teenager who works in a copy store told me, “We want your help, we need your money and knowledge to remake Afghanistan, but we don’t want your military.”

An Afghani who just came back from the streets tells me that hundreds of protesters marched on the palace of US-backed President Hamid Karzai, shouting “Death to Karzai! Death to America!”

That reminds me that several weeks ago, one Afghani told me: “Karzai is not our president, he is your puppet.”

With Kabul in lockdown and sporadic gunfire still echoing through the city, the perception that the US military is the problem and not the solution will certainly grow.

Afghan people look at a burning police vehicle in Kabul May 29, 2006. Panicked U.S. troops killed many civilians and sparked a riot in the capital. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)

“They’re Coming After Us”

5.23.06 By Stewart Nusbaumer, CommonDreams [Excerpts] The writer served with the 3rd Marines in Vietnam.

Kabul is a nervous city, not sure if that has anything to do with the opium production.

It is a nervous city that planted under a large apple tree with a ton of rotting apples.

The rotting apples must drop because the Taliban is coming to Kabul and the Taliban likes to shake trees.

Ousted from power in 2001, the defeated Islamic fundamentals have used the intervening years to regroup and re-strategize their return to power. Presenting focusing on their stronghold in the south of Afghanistan, where four provinces are largely under their control, the Taliban will soon be striking in the capital. Destabilizing Kabul is an essential part of their plan to regain control of the country.

The strategy to prohibit the spiral of violence in Afghanistan is the same old ideas that have failed for more than a half century.

And the post-war analysis will blame the politicians, the media, and the public before it gets around to promising that next time the military will deploy this old strategy better. Sure.

There is going to be lots of applesauce on the roads of Kabul.

Listen to Le Monde’s esteemed Mexican economist, working on a reconstruction project here, although intoxicated he is still able to speak the truth:

“They’re coming after us,” Abelardo slurs as he struggles to rise from the dinner table. “I don’t want them to get my tennis racket.”

A few of us stumble from the dinning room to the living room, turning on the television to watch BBC, which is supposedly airing a report on the bombing. We are somewhat attentive because we know the report will be short. This is “the other war” and “other wars” merit only short media coverage.

That will change as more apples fall.

“Tomorrow will be OK,” Bruno reassures us. “But end of week, maybe Friday” — he does not finish his sentence.

There is no need.

“In Afghanistan As In Iraq, They Have Alienated A Population”

23 May 2006 Le Monde, Editorial [Excerpt]

The United States has committed mistakes in Afghanistan similar to the ones it has perpetrated in Iraq: a strategy almost entirely devoted to “the war against terrorism” rather than reconstruction; their army’s intolerable behavior: arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, humiliations, contempt, and ignorance of the local culture.

In Afghanistan as in Iraq, they have alienated a population that, shattered by decades of conflict and satisfied with the end of a tyrannical regime, wanted only to rally round.

TROOP NEWS

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

The casket bearing the remains of Army Pfc. Nicholas Cournoyer enters the cemetery on his pickup truck May 29, 2006 in Laconia, N.H. Cournoyer, 25, was killed May 18, 2006, in an explosion near Baghdad. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

“The Most Passionate Activism Against This War Is In The Households Of Primarily Blue-Collar Military Families”

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

May. 28, 2006 By Emily Yellin, The San Jose Mercury News Excerpts]

[Stacy] Bannerman is a career peace and human rights activist, whose husband, Lorin, a sergeant in the National Guard, was called up to serve in Iraq.

She uses the challenges the couple face in reconciling his war work with her peace work as a focal point of “When the War Came Home.’’

And she makes important points, such as showing that the most passionate activism against this war is not on college campuses but in the households of those with the most at stake, the primarily blue-collar military families.

The e-mails between the couple are especially touching. After an appearance by Bannerman on MSNBC’s “Hardball’’ aired at her husband’s base in Iraq, Lorin e-mails that some of his colleagues applauded her, others didn’t.

Bannerman replies, “If they want military wives to shut up, tell them to recognize us as the unpaid resource we are.’’

In another e-mail, Lorin assures her, “I thank you for having the courage to speak out. . . . I support you my wife and I know you will do the right thing.’’ And she ends one e-mail by thanking him for “being the answer to every prayer I have ever prayed for love.’’

Bannerman also effectively conveys the isolation and lack of government support particular to National Guard families who operate on the military’s second tier.

[Kristin] Henderson closely follows a woman named Beth Pratt, whose husband finally returns from Iraq and wants to get her a gun so she can protect herself when he is sent away again.

Beth objects, explaining that if she had had a gun the last time he was in Iraq, she surely would have used it to kill herself.

Suicidal depression is just one of her worries.

Her husband’s combat pay is so inadequate that she will qualify for welfare if she decides to stay home with the baby that she is expecting.

What comes through loud and clear in both books is the enormous, and underreported, toll this war has taken on military families at home. Unlike most other civilians, they must live through its impact every day.

Near the end of Henderson’s book, a seasoned Army wife who has survived her husband’s many deployments tries to comfort a group of angry younger wives. She says there would be something wrong with them if they weren’t mad at the uncertainty pervading every minute of their lives. Rejecting the traditional stoicism of military wives, she declares, “This `suck it up and don’t complain’ is for the birds.’’

As both these books demonstrate, so is our longstanding tendency to ignore the pressures under which these overburdened military families fight our wars.

WHILE THEY’RE AT WAR:
The True Story of American Families on the Homefront
By Kristin Henderson
Houghton Mifflin,
317 pp., $23

WHEN THE WAR CAME HOME:
The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind
By Stacy Bannerman
Continuum,
237 pp., $22.95

“The Woeful Performance Of The Senior Military Leaders Who Have Really Made A Hash Of The Iraq Insurgency”

23 May 2006 Andrew Bacevich interviewed by Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com. [Excerpts]

TD: What about the Iraq War at present?

Tomdispatch: In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, you said the revolt of the retired generals against Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld represented the beginning of a search for a scapegoat for the Iraq War. I wondered whether you also considered it a preemptive strike against the Bush administration’s future Iran policy.

Andrew Bacevich: The answer is yes. It’s both really. Certainly, it’s become incontrovertible that the Iraq War is not going to end happily.

So we are in the early stages of a long argument about who is to be blamed for the Iraq debacle.

I think, to some degree, the revolt of the generals reflects an effort on the part of senior military officers to weigh in, to lay out the military’s case. And the military’s case is: We’re not at fault. They are; and, more specifically, he is – with Rumsfeld being the stand-in for Robert McNamara.

Having said that, with all the speculation about Bush administration interest in expanding the Global War on Terror to include Iran, I suspect the officer corps, already seeing the military badly overstretched, doesn’t want to have any part of such a war. Going public with attacks on Rumsfeld is one way of trying to slow whatever momentum there is toward an Iran war.

I must say, I don’t really think we’re on a track to have a war with Iran any time soon – maybe I’m too optimistic here (he laughs) – but I suspect even the civilian hawks understand that the United States is already overcommitted, that to expand the war on terror to a new theater, the Iranian theater, would in all likelihood have the most dire consequences, globally and in Iraq.

My own sense is that this administration has largely exhausted its stock of intellectual resources; that, for the most part, they’re preoccupied with trying to manage Iraq. Beyond that, I’m hard-pressed to see a coherent strategy in the Middle East or elsewhere.

In that sense, Iraq is like Vietnam. It just sucks up all the oxygen.

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

Bacevich: There are a couple of important implications that we have yet to confront. The war has exposed the limited depth of American military power. I mean, since the end of the Cold War we Americans have been beating our chests about being the greatest military power the world has ever seen. Overshadowing the power of the Third Reich! Overshadowing the Roman Empire!

Wait a sec. This country of 290 million people has a force of about 130,000 soldiers committed in Iraq, fighting something on the order of 10-20,000 insurgents and

a) we’re in a war we can’t win,

b) we’re in the fourth year of a war we probably can’t sustain much longer.

If you’re like me and you’re quite skeptical about this imperial project, the stresses imposed on the military and the obvious limits of our power simply serve to emphasize the imperative of rethinking our role in the world so we can back away from this unsustainable notion of global hegemony.

Then, there’s the matter of competence.

I object to the generals saying that our problems in Iraq are all due to the micromanagement and incompetence of Mr. Rumsfeld; I do think he’s a micromanager and a failure and ought to have been fired long ago; because it distracts attention from the woeful performance of the senior military leaders who have really made a hash of the Iraq insurgency.

I remember General Swannack in particular blaming Rumsfeld for Abu Ghraib. I’ll saddle Rumsfeld with about ten percent of the blame for Abu Ghraib, the other ninety percent rests with the senior American military leaders in Baghdad…

TD: General Ricardo Sanchez signed off on it…

Bacevich: Sanchez being number one. So again, if one is an enthusiast for American military supremacy, we have some serious thinking to do about the quality of our senior leadership.

Are we picking the right people to be our two, three, and four-star commanders? Are we training them, educating them properly for the responsibilities that they face? The Iraq War has revealed some major weaknesses in that regard.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

“They Shot Down A Helicopter”
“It Was Real Resistance”

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

May 26 Aaron Glantz and Alaa Hassan (IPS) [Excerpts]

“They shot down a helicopter,” As’aad Kareem, president of the Iraqi oil workers union in Basra told IPS. “It was real resistance. They shot it down because the British were supporting the governor and shooting at the people in the demonstration. And the governor didn’t stop the British from bombing the demonstration, and so that’s his responsibility also.”

Fadil el-Sharaa, spokesman for Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, says British forces and the governor (who comes from the Shia group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq) want to blame the killings on sectarian conflict.

But that is not the case, he said. “What happened in Basra is that Ayatollah al-Sistani’s representative talked about the corruption created by the governor and his administration, which caused the governor to say that the religious offices were responsible for all the violence in Basra and that we are dividing people against themselves.”

El-Sharaa added: “They should be more responsible in their proclamations.. Now the problem has been solved by the Sadr office. We sent our representative to Basra, and we held a meeting of the two groups and tried to solve the problem peacefully.”

Assorted Resistance Action

A car bomb attack killed one policeman and wounded five in central Baghdad May 29, 2006. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

May 29, 2006. REUTERS & Agence France-Presse & The Associated Press

A car bomb attack killed one policeman and wounded five in central Baghdad.

Another group killed two police officers in Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad. One was killed when assailants crept into his house under the cover of night and stabbed him to death.

A parked car bomb exploded near Ibin al-Haitham college in Azamiyah, in northern Baghdad, wounded four Iraqi soldiers.

A bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad’s Tahariyat Square wounded
four police.

In other attacks, a roadside bomb killed two police officer and wounded three others in downtown Baghdad’s Karradah district,

Guerrillas killed two police officers when they attacked a convoy in western Baghdad.

Militants opened fire at an army checkpoint on Saturday, killing one soldier and wounding two others near the town of Dujail, 90 km north of Baghdad, the U.S/Iraqi Joint Coordination Centre said on Sunday.

A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded three soldiers in Mosul, police said.

A roadside bomb aimed at a convoy of local officials exploded on a road in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killing two policemen escorting them, police said.

A roadside bomb killed a policemen and wounded two soldiers near Falluja, police said.

Guerrillas shot at a police patrol in the Yarmouk district, west-central Baghdad, killing three policemen, a police source said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

The Cycle Of Death

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006

The Cycle of Death

U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq,
so that U.S. oil companies can
gouge U.S. citizens at the pump.
This eventually puts more poor
people on the streets. This poverty
causes more people to join the military.
U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq…

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
May 27, 2006

Photo from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)

Revolutionary Sailors In Action:
“Ordinary Seamen Sit About Making Laws For Managing The Ships, The Fleet And The Country”

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in.]

Albert Rhys Williams. Through the Russian Revolution. 1921. Part I, [Excerpts]

[This is about Russia, in 1917, when soldiers, sailors and workers rose up in revolution against the Russian Czar. Kornilov was a General who wanted to keep the Czar and the nobility in power, and become the military dictator who would really run the country. He tried to lead his “White” Army against Petrograd, the capital, but the sailors were determined to stop him. T]

WHEN the news of Kornilov’s advance on Petrograd was flashed to Kronstadt and the Baltic fleet, it aroused the sailors like a thunderbolt.

From their ships and island. citadel they came pouring out in tens of thousands and bivouacked on the Field of Mars. They stood guard at all the nerve centres of the city, the railways and the Winter Palace.

With the big sailor Dybenko leading, they drove headlong into the midst of Kornilov’s soldiers exhorting them not to advance. They put the fear of the Revolution into the hearts of the Whites and the fire and zest of the Revolution into the blood of their fellow Reds.

In July Trotzky had hailed them as “Pride and Flower of the Revolutionary Forces!” When they had been damned on all sides for some brash deeds at Kronstadt he had said: “Yes, but when a counterrevolutionary general tries to throw a noose around the neck of the Revolution, the Cadets will grease the rope with soap, while the sailors will come to fight and die with us together!”

So it proved in this adventure of Kornilov. And it was always so.

All over Russia I had met these blue-bloused men with the roll of the sea in their carriage and the tang of the salt winds in their blood. Everywhere they went expounding the doctrines of Socialism.

I had heard them in forum and marketplaces stirring the sluggish to action. I had seen them in remote villages starting the flow of food to the cities. Later when the Yunkers [rich landlords] rose against the workers’ councils I was to see these sailors heading the storming party that rushed the telephone-station and dug the Yunkers from their nests.

Always they were first to sense danger to the Revolution, always first to hurry to its rescue.

The Revolution was precious to the Russian sailor because it meant deliverance from the past.

That past was a nightmare.

The old Russian naval officers came exclusively from the privileged caste. The count against them was that they imposed, not a rigid discipline, but one that was arbitrary and personal. The weal of a sailor was at the mercy of the whims, jealousies and insane rage of petty officers whom he despised.

He was treated like a dog and humiliated by signs that read: “For Dogs and Sailors.”

Like the soldier’s, the sailor’s replies to his superior were limited to the three phrases: “Quite so” (tak tockno) “No indeed” (nekak niet) “Glad to try my best” (rad staratsa), with the salutation, “Your nobility.”

Any added remark might bring him a blow in the face.

The most trivial offense met with the most severe penalty. In four years 2527 men were executed, sent to the penitentiary or to hard labor. All done in the name of the Czar.

Now the Czars were gone; their very names were being blotted out. The ships were being re-christened with names fitting the new republican order.

By this ceremony the Emperor Paul the First became The Republic. The Emperor Alexander II emerged from its baptism of paint as the Dawn of Liberty. Here was revolution enough to make these ancient autocrats turn in their graves.

But it was even harder on the living Czar and his son. The Czarevitch was renamed the Citizen, while Nicholas II came forth as the good ship Comrade. Comrade! This ex-Czar, now living in exile in Tobolsk, knew that the meanest coalheaver was now a “Comrade.”

The new names appeared in gold on the jaunty ribboned caps of the sailors. And the sailors appeared everywhere as missionaries of Liberty, Comradeship and the Republic.

To make these changes in the names of the ships was very easy. Yet they were not mere surface changes, but symbolized a change in reality. They were the outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual fact: the democratization of a great fleet.

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

The Sailors Rule the Navy.

In September I had my first contact with the sailor at home. It was at Helsingfors where the Baltic fleet stood as a barricade on the water-road to Petrograd. Tied up to the dock was the Polar Star, the yacht of the former Czar. Our guide, an old ex-officer, pointed out a strip of yellow wood that ran around the ship.

“That moulding is of best mahogany,” he whispered to us. “It cost twenty-five thousand rubles, but these damned Bolsheviks are too lazy now to keep it polished, so they painted it yellow. In my day a sailor was a sailor; he knew that his job was to scrub and polish, and he tended to his job. If he didn’t we knocked him down, But the devil is loose among them now, Think of it!

“On this very yacht belonging to the Czar himself, ordinary seamen sit about making laws for managing the ships, the fleet and the country. And they don’t stop there. They talk about managing the world. Internationalism and democracy they call it, but I call it downright treason and insanity.”

There in brief was the issue between the old régime and the new.

In the old order, discipline and control were superimposed from above; in the new, they proceeded from the men themselves.

The old was a fleet of officers, the new a fleet of sailors. In the change a new set of values had been created. Now the polishing of the sailor’s wits upon democracy and internationalism had higher rating than polishing the brass and mahogany.

This Central Committee of the Baltic Sea, or, as it was familiarly known, the Centrobalt, sat in the great cabin de luxe. It was simply a Soviet [a council elected by the sailors] of the ships.

Each contingent of 1,000 sailors had a representative in the committee, which consisted of 65 members, 45 of whom were Bolsheviks. There were four general departments: Administrative, Political, War and Marine, transacting all the affairs of the fleet. The captain had one of the former princes’ suites, but from the great cabin he was debarred. Happily my credentials were an open sesame to the committee and the cabin.

The irony of history!

Here in these chairs a few months ago lolled a mediaeval autocrat with his ladies and his lackeys.

Now big bronzed seamen sat in them, hammering out problems of the most advanced Socialism.

The cabin had been cleared for action. The piano and many decorations had been placed in a museum. The tables and lounges were covered with brown canvas burlap. The grand salon was now a workshop.

Here hard at work were ordinary seamen suddenly turned legislators, directors and clerks.

They were a bit awkward in their new role, but they clung to it with desperate earnestness, sixteen hours a day.

Memorial Day 2006:
On This Memorial Day, Join With Iraq Veterans Against The War To Demand:
Bring All Troops Home NOW!

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

As a nation, many of us enjoy this day without questioning an administration that formulates a war plan based on lies, sends soldiers in harm’s way without proper equipment, fires military personnel who question ill-prepared plans, and castigates civilians who, by speaking out, use and honor the very freedom those service members swear to protect.

29 May 2006 Iraq Veterans Against The War, ivaw.net

Iraq Veterans Against the War will spend this Memorial Day in its true meaning of remembrance and not in decadent celebrations of the three-day weekend, barbeques, discount sales events, and flag-waving which has come to replace the image of fallen service members in the minds of most Americans.

We can not, will not, and must not forget those who have fallen from our ranks, and the ranks of previous generations, as we are they and they are we.

No matter what your political affiliation, views of the war or personal convictions, the sacrifice of all those who wear the uniform is undeniable. Instead of celebrating this weekend, let’s take this time to reflect on what personal sacrifice really means.

Those men and women (over 17,000 of them) who return home from war maimed, missing limbs, or sustaining other major injuries have had their lives permanently changed and will forever struggle to have a normal life.

As service members, we have lived with the constant anxiety of threats to our lives, have had our morals and consciences tested over and over, and have watched the lives of our friends and innocent Iraqis ripped apart. We will be scarred by those memories forever. The families who have been presented with a gold star know the depth of sacrifice that accompanies a lifetime of awakening without a dearest loved one.

We as Veterans are left with a mere reflection of our lost brothers and sisters in arms. Let us use this reflection to call ourselves to action this Memorial Day, and let us renew our vigor to continue our work to end this current war.

On this Memorial Day, join with IVAW to demand:

Bring all troops home NOW!

Take care of those troops when they get home!

Reparations for Iraq!

“Who Wants To Be The Last Person To Die For George Bush?”

May 29, 2006, Paul Rogat Loeb, Tompaine.com [Excerpt]

Counting back to Eisenhower, the United States fought in Vietnam for over 20 years.

We’ve now been in and out of Iraq for nearly 40, ever since the 1963 coup when the CIA first helped the Baath Party overthrow the founder of OPEC, and intervening in Iran since our 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh, who we replaced with the dictatorial Shah.

With Bush’s administration promising no immediate end in sight, we’re now told it will be up to “future presidents” even to consider withdrawing our troops.

Who wants to be the last person to die for George Bush?

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

“Sent To Iraq To Die For A Lie”

May 29, 2006 by Laurence M. Vance, LewRockwell.com [Excerpt]

How can we expect a Congress that continues to fund this war to hold the Bush administration accountable for its lies?

Every member of Congress that continues to vote to fund this war is complicit in these lies.

How many more dead American soldiers and billions of dollars will it take before Congress finally says enough is enough?

How many American soldiers not currently in Iraq who are enjoying this Memorial Day holiday will be sent to Iraq to die for a lie before the next observance of Memorial Day?

“Iraq Reminds The Intended Customer Base Of Little More Than The Unraked Sand Trap On The 15th Hole At Their Country Club”

May 23, 2006 by Mark G. Brennan, LewRockwell.com [Excerpts]

Maybe Saddam was in fact going to nuke me, my wife, our two cats, and the dry cleaners across the street. And maybe monkeys will fly out of my…

In either case, he is now behind bars while suicidal maniacs with I.E.D.’s strapped to their chests are killing Americans whose kids are not benefiting from the services of $500 per hour SAT tutors or figuring out how to redeem their American Express Platinum Membership Rewards Point so that they can attend the ESPN Golf School with a “focus on the importance of swing mechanics, club control, and body behavior.”

One can safely assume that ESPN has made no special provision for any military amputees in attendance who might need special instruction in “chipping with one arm” or “putting while blind” since Iraq reminds the intended customer base of little more than the unraked sand trap on the 15th hole at their country club.

At this point a complimentary invitation to even a handful of the 17,000+ wounded American soldiers would be a welcome statement of thanks as we approach Memorial Day, but in reality it remains just a wish.

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. Campaign To Recruit More Resistance Fighters Rolls On

5.29.06, Reuters

U.S.-led and Iraqi forces scuttled 32 boats to prevent insurgents from using them to move men and supplies across the River Tigris near the city of Dhuluiya, scene of recent clashes, the U.S. military said.

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

How Bad Is It?

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

May 24, 2006 By PATRICK COCKBURN, Counterpunch [Excerpt]

The US and British armies in Iraq have both failed, though they could argue that the root of the failure is political rather than military.

Three years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein they control extraordinarily little territory in the country.

Watching American forces in Baghdad since 2003 it always seemed to me that they floated above the Iraqi population like a film of oil on water.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

U.S., Iranian, And Cuban Regimes Agree!
[They Unite To Stamp Out Gay Rights]

4.12.06 By John Bell, Socialist Worker (Canada)

The United States joined with Iran and other countries to block gay rights organizations from participating in debates at the United Nations.

Two European groups, including the Brussels-based International Lesbian and Gay Association, were denied consultative status at upcoming meetings of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Some 3,000 non-governmental organizations have consultative status at the UN. In this case the applications were thrown out without even hearing presentations from the organizations.

The move marks a change of position for the US, which has abstained on such applications in the past.

The US showed its true colours, joining with countries with some of the world’s worst records on human rights, according to groups like Human Rights Watch: Cameroon, China, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Disgustingly, Cuba also voted with the US.

“This vote is an aggressive assault by the US government on the right of sexual minorities to be heard,” said Scott Long of Human Rights Watch.

The homophobic Bush administration does not speak for all Americans. The state of Washington has become the 16th state to enact legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. About half the US population now enjoys such legal protection.

As on so many issues, war, the environment and women’s rights, there are two Americas. Millions of people in the US support equality for lesbians, gays and transgendered people.

Received:

“Radicals Such As Ms. Sheehan”

From: NB
To: GI Special
Sent: May 29, 2006
Subject: Radicals such as Ms. Sheehan

With all due respect to Spc. Keith Powell, if it weren’t for ‘…radicals such as Ms. Sheehan’, many people all over the World would too readily equate America and every American with such atrocities as the Haditha massacre.

Sincerely,
NB
UK

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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