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

“The War On Terror Is, In Fact, The War On Freedom”
“I Served Two Years In Iraq”
“Have I Earned My Right To Speak Out Against This War … Your Damn Right I Have”
“And I Personally Don’t Give A Rats Ass If You Think I’m Unpatriotic”

June 25th, 2006 by Steve O, Teambio.org/2006/06/rtw-a-vet-speaks-out/

Normally I do not post, but this is for folks like Emmet.

I served two years in Iraq and it’s in total disarray contrary to what the Bush propaganda machine want you to believe.

To you armchair civilian chickenhawks who sit in your warm, secure, comfortable homes watching FOX News; if your so damn gung-ho get off your flag waving lame ass’s and prove how patriotic you really are by enlisting, let’s see the true color of your blood.

In Iraq you’ll come to your senses real quick when you smell the air permeated with the foul odor of death. The innocent Iraqi people are more than willing to share their daily suffering of losing a family member or friend. Having their homes reduced to rubble, living in constant fear day and night.

And who do they blame ?

They blame the people of America for allowing George Bush to destroy their country.

The men and women arriving home in caskets are no longer able to speak the truth. Now their loved one’s must endure and struggle with the pain of losing a son, daughter, husband, wife, father, mother a friend.

And what exactly were the reasons for dying ?

For George Bush’s noble cause of spreading democracy, finding WMD’s, freeing the Iraqi people from tyranny.

I don’t think so.

Yes, many of us truly did think going into Iraq was all about protecting America from terrorists.

It’s taken me a while, after many sleepless nights, to figure out what our governments real intentions and purposes were for engaging in this illegal war of aggression.

The Iraqi people are not terrorists nor was their government hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Have I earned my right to speak out against this war … your damn right I have and I live with the constant nightmare every day.

And I personally don’t give a rats ass if you think I’m unpatriotic for standing up for what believe to be a evil political cover up.

Bush supporters better start paying attention to who the real enemies are in this country.

This so-called “war on terror” is a fictional creation, designed to distract the American people from the real problems in this country while the war mongers in the White House steal more power and destroy the real America.

This current FUBAR of a government is systematically disassembling every system of citizen protection, due process and anything resembling the rule of law, it is simultaneously creating a monster, a system of tyranny that has no safety checks or counterbalances.

The War on Terror is, in fact, the War on Freedom.

They just didn’t name it correctly.

And people who support this war and this administration share philosophies with the Nazi party members who bolstered Hitler to power. Rah rah! Shoot more people! Bomb more nations! Wave more flags! We’re #1! Go USA!

Grab that oil! Imprison all the traitors! Censor the media to protect national security! Thin the herd out by getting rid of the liberals!

The list goes on …

And the cross-eyed Bush supporting morons, who have literally no understanding of history or the extreme dangers of unchecked war powers, are marching us right down the same corridor that led Nazi Germany to ruin.

Every transgression by the U.S. government against some particular group, the Bushies say, is justified as long as it doesn’t target flag waving, Bible thumping, war hollering white people.

In time, it will be turned against every citizen, including the Bush supporters, who will one day wake up to find their freedoms lost and say to themselves, “But I thought they were only going after the terrorists! I’m not a terrorist………”

To damn bad you stupid jack-ass’s!

You made the fool’s bargain by trading liberty for security.

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

Va. Beach Wife Mourns GI

June 25, 2006 BY FRED CARROLL, Daily Press

VIRGINIA BEACH: His widow prefers to remember the four joyful days that the new family spent together, rather than brood over the milestones that Staff Sgt. Mario J. Bievre will miss.

Bievre, a 34-year-old Army Ranger, won’t be there for daughter Adrianna’s first smile, first steps, first birthday.

“He wanted a little girl – somebody he could spoil,” said Angela Bievre, his wife of two years. “How proud he was.”

Bievre died Friday during combat operations near Baghdad, Iraq, when a bomb exploded near the Humvee he was riding in. The blast also killed 21-year-old Cpl. Paul A. Beyer of North Dakota.

Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Campbell, Ky., with the 101st Airborne Division.

More than 150 soldiers from Fort Campbell have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. The sprawling Army post straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

With her husband overseas, Angela moved in with family in Virginia Beach.

When his wife was due to give birth in late February, Bievre was given a two-week leave. He was at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth when Adrianna was born on a Tuesday. By the following Sunday morning, Bievre was flying back to Iraq.

“My little brother always knew he wanted to be a father,” Marsha Bievre Baker said. “She was his treasure. We’re glad he got to see her.”

Bievre was born in Chicago. He joined the Army in 1998 and was thinking about becoming a career soldier. “He enjoyed the challenge of the military lifestyle,” Baker said. “He thrived on the intensity of the military lifestyle.”

His sister described Bievre as caring and gentle. His wife described him as dedicated and loving. A good brother. A good husband.

His sister and wife both know that Bievre would have been a good father, too. “He couldn’t wait to get home to her,” Angela said. “Family was the most important thing to him.”

Two US Choppers Downed (?)

Jul 6 (Prensa Latina) [NOTE: THERE IS NO CONFIRMATION OF THIS. T]

Two Apache helicopters from the US Air Force were brought down in the town of Al Dur, northeast of the Iraqi capital on Thursday, according to local TV Al Sharqiya.

The US occupation forces’ high command had no comment on the event.

A video recording broadcast by TV Al Arabiya, based in the United Arab Emirates, shows the ground-air missile hitting a US helicopter.

According to the media, that footage, which was first posted on the Internet and later broadcast on television, belongs to an armed group known as Army of Mujaheddin, whose members claim to have brought down the chopper.

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

Marines from the Hawaii-based Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, prepare to clear the second storey of a house in Barwana, Iraq, June 16, 2006. (Sgt. Roe F. Seigle/U.S. Army/Handout/Reuters)

Notes From A Lost War:
“More And More U.S. Troops And Support Personnel Are Congregating In A Handful Of Mega-Bases”

July 5, 2006 Max Boot, Los Angeles Times

Most of our resources are not going to fight terrorists but to maintain a smattering of mini-Americas in the Middle East.

In Iraq, more and more U.S. troops and support personnel are congregating in a handful of mega-bases. Successful counterinsurgency operations require troops to go out among the people, gathering intelligence and building goodwill.

But few Iraqis are allowed on these bases, and few Americans are allowed out-and then only in forbidding armored convoys.

How to explain this seemingly counterproductive behavior? My theory is that any organization prefers to focus on what it does well. In the case of the Pentagon, that’s logistics, not fighting guerrillas.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

One Foreign Occupation Soldier Dead, One Wounded;
Nationalities Of Foreigners Not Announced

Jul 7 Reuters

U.S.-led troops were ambushed in southern Afghanistan and one coalition soldier was killed and one wounded, a spokesman for the force said on Friday.

“They were in a convoy and got ambushed. One was killed and one wounded,” the spokesman said of the Thursday night clash in the province of Helmand. He did not give the nationality of the soldier killed or wounded.

Assorted Resistance Action

July 07, 2006 Amir Shah, ASSOCIATED PRESS & (AFP)

Taleban rebels mounted another attack in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

The rebels stormed a police post in the troubled southern province overnight, sparking an hour-long exchange of fire, said provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullah Khail.

An Afghan soldier was killed Wednesday in Zabul province.

One Afghan soldier was killed and three wounded when they came under attack in Naubahar district.

“That Place Is Like Hell On Earth”
“Just Expect The Worst”
“Soldiers Are Greeted With Passers-By Who Run Their Fingers Across Their Throats In A Slitting Motion”

[Thanks to JM, who sent this in.]

“I tell you one thing,” one said. “We need to decide what our mission out here is – because we can’t do hearts and minds and this (fighting). It just won’t work.”

July 8, 2006 Declan Walsh in Camp Bastion, The Guardian

Locals call it the “desert of death” – a stark landscape of burned flats, furnace-like heat and choking dust storms that sprawls across Helmand province. But the wry nickname for the neighbourhood around Camp Bastion, Britain’s main military camp, has started to acquire a more sinister meaning.

At dawn on Thursday a Chinook helicopter returned to base carrying a mournful cargo – the remains of Private Damien Jackson, a cheery 19-year-old paratrooper who died in a Taliban firefight hours earlier. Commanders shut down the camp’s satellite internet system to prevent word of the fatality leaking out before his parents were informed.

Still, the bad news gusted across the camp as fast as the scorching desert wind. Six British deaths in three weeks – the previous fatalities just four days earlier – brought home the perilous reality of “peacekeeping”, Helmand style, to many British soldiers.

“This latest one has hit the lads quite hard,” said Corporal Kelly Buckley, 27. “They know it’s part of their job, what they signed up for. But nothing really prepares you for when it happens.”

The bloodshed also sealed the formidable reputation of Sangin, where full-blooded battles between Taliban and British forces involving rockets, mortars, machine guns and warplanes, erupt almost every day.

A battle-frazzled group flew out of the riverside town on Thursday. Many were exhausted after two weeks with little sleep and nightly gun battles, according to fellow soldiers.

“Yes, we are rough, tough soldiers, but this is one of our mates,” said media officer Captain Darryl Ochse.

Helmand is stubbornly refusing to follow the script imagined by British ministers and generals when they agreed to send more than 3,000 troops last January.

Plans to woo villagers with development projects have been frozen because outside the two largest towns, Lashkar Gah and Goreshk, much of the province is under Taliban control.

Paratroopers deployed to four northern corners – Sangin, Kajaki, Musa Qala and Naw Zad – to break the insurgents’ stranglehold have been welcomed with the rattle of gunfire. At one stage this week the Taliban simultaneously attacked three of the small bases. [Same shit the French tried in Vietnam. Same result, of course.]

But the hostility also appears to come from local villagers. Patrolling soldiers are greeted with sullen looks, spy vehicles that shadow their vehicles, and passers-by who run their fingers across their throats in a slitting motion.

The attacks have not reached Camp Bastion, safe behind a long razor wire fence that cuts through the forbidding desert. Here the biggest battle is against the heat, which hovers around 50C (122 F). Even with air conditioning, the tents are swelteringly hot.

The mood among the paratroopers is mixed. [No shit?]

After Iraq – where their battalion was posted to peaceful Maysan province – many were enthusiastic about coming to a theatre with the possibility of action. “The only casualties in Iraq were guys who injured themselves in the gym,” said Cpl Buckley.

But Afghanistan has offered a more potent challenge than many wished.

“That place is like hell on earth,” said one paratrooper, speaking to fellow soldiers about to leave for Sangin. “Just expect the worst. There’s no other way to describe it.”

Others were more phlegmatic about the possibility of casualties. “You can’t just go walking into the Taliban’s back garden and not expect to get a punch,” said Private Kyle Deerans, a 23-year-old South African sniper who recently fought a two-hour battle.

Afghan interpreters, one of whom was killed in a battle last weekend, are feeling the pressure. To avoid intimidation or murder, most disguise their faces in public. “I don’t like it but I have to do it for the money,” said Siddique, explaining that his $600 (£325) salary is 12 times greater than that of his civil servant brother.

Senior officers say they are delighted with the performance of their eight Apache attack helicopters. The Apaches, which cost £38m each and are seeing their first combat action in Afghanistan, have ended many Taliban offensives. “I’ve been really impressed,” said 3 Para’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Tootle. [Obviously this asshole needs to spend more time down in Sangin. Then we’ll see how fucking “delighted” he is.]

But on the ground many soldiers complain about their putative allies, the Afghan police.

Untrained and notoriously corrupt, the police flee in the face of battle, one officer said privately, and some are suspected of siding with the Taliban by night.

And some say they are confused about how to achieve their laudable mandate – winning hearts and minds – using deadly force.

“I tell you one thing,” one said. “We need to decide what our mission out here is – because we can’t do hearts and minds and this (fighting). It just won’t work.”

Resistance Kills Afghan Collaborators Working For U.S.

7.4.06 New York Times

Troops of the American-led coalition in Afghanistan are taking a hard look at their security procedures after the deaths of at least 10 Afghans working as interpreters for the coalition in the last month, a military spokesman said.

Some were killed while accompanying foreign troops during combat, but others seem to have been singled out by Taliban insurgents for working for the coalition, other interpreters said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

Bush’s Boy In Afghanistan Proves (Again) That He’s A Dimwit

July 07, 2006 Amir Shah, ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Hamid Karzai vowed that bombings targeting government and army officials in Kabul on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing one person and wounding about 60, won’t shake Afghans’ hopes for peace.

“The enemies of Afghanistan once again showed by attacking innocent civilians that they want to bring misery and destruction to Afghanistan, but the people of Afghanistan will never allow this to happen,” Karzai said in Tokyo, where he’s attending a conference.

“The big problem for the people here is, there is no security,” said Tamim Ansar, an 18-year-old student who lives near downtown Kabul. “Everyone is very worried.”

[With a dickhead that doesn’t know the difference between “government and army officials” and “innocent civilians” running your country on behalf of a foreign power losing a war of occupation, it’s not time to be worried, it’s time for total panic, unless of course you’re on the winning – resistance – side.]

TROOP NEWS

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

The coffin of Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon J. Webb, 20, of Swartz Creek, Mich. at Arlington National Cemetery, July 6, 2006. Webb, who enlisted in May 2005, was killed June 20 when a bomb detonated under his vehicle in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Japanese Troops Leave Iraq And Go Home Now, Alive:
Never To Return

Japanese soldiers board a British military helicopter from their camp at Samawah, Iraq, July 7, 2006, to complete their tour of duty. (AP Photo/Japan Defense Agency, HO)

The War Comes Home

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

Jul 7 By Robert Green, Reuters

A U.S. soldier recently returned from Iraq tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Tampa-bound Delta Air Lines jet and was subdued by other passengers, Tampa International Airport officials said on Friday.

The 24-year-old man was undergoing mental evaluation at a Tampa hospital and the FBI was investigating whether charges should be filed, airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said.

The man, Neftali Alexander Laimendez, was flying with his brother to see their mother in Tampa and to seek medical attention, Geoghagan said.

As the flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport approached Tampa on Thursday night, he ignored flight attendants’ instructions to sit down and fasten his seat belt, and ran up the aisle of the plane and into the first class cabin, Geoghagan said.

“As he is running, he is ramming the cockpit door, falling on the aisle, getting up and repeatedly doing this,” she said. “Three or four of the passengers restrained him and held him on the floor.”

Airport police arrested him after the McDonnell Douglas MD-88 landed. Laimendez was unarmed and wearing civilian clothes, according to investigators who said his intent was unclear.

He was taken to a hospital for evaluation under a law that allows people to be held involuntarily for 72 hours if they are considered a threat to themselves or others, Geoghagan said.

Laimendez is a U.S. soldier who had recently returned to the United States from Iraq, and his term of service was to end on July 12, Geoghagan said.

“When He Filed A Complaint With His Chain Of Command, Patrick ‘Was Told To Keep His Mouth Shut’”

Nadia McCaffrey learned that after her son was shot, a US truck arrived. It picked up Lt. Tyson, who was dead, but did not take her son who was still alive. The truck returned later and took him to the base, where he bled to death.

June 22, 2006 By MARJORIE COHN, CounterPunch. Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild.

Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey, Sr. and First Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson died on this day two years ago in Balad, Iraq. Back then, military officials reported that enemy insurgents ambushed them. The Army subsequently conducted an investigation and learned the men were targeted and killed by Iraqi troops they were training.

Although the Army completed its investigation on September 30, 2005, it failed to clarify the initial notification to the families for nine months. It took a May 22 letter from Senator Barbara Boxer’s office to force the Army to finally come clean.

A month before he died, Patrick told his father that Iraqi forces they were training had attacked his unit. When he filed a complaint with his chain of command, Patrick “was told to keep his mouth shut,” his mother said.

After Patrick died, his parents conducted their own investigations. The Army denied requests to see autopsy reports. The McCaffreys persisted. They talked to soldiers in their son’s unit and managed to learn what really happened.

Bob McCaffrey was informed by members of his son’s company that insurgents were offering Iraqi soldiers about $100 for each American they could kill.

“Iraqi troops are turning on their American counterparts,” Bob said. “That puts a knock in the spin that the White House is trying to put on this story — how the Iraqis are being well trained and are getting ready to take over.”

Nadia McCaffrey learned that after her son was shot, a US truck arrived. It picked up Lt. Tyson, who was dead, but did not take her son who was still alive. The truck returned later and took him to the base, where he bled to death.

Yesterday, Brig. Gen. Oscar Hilman and three other officers visited Patrick’s mother to deliver the official report. “It was overwhelming,” Nadia told me. I had to live through the whole thing again.”

The officers “tried to patronize me as a good Mom,” she added. “I said I won’t stand for that. I want the truth!”

When Nadia talked to Army officers yesterday she asked them, “How could you possibly let this happen”? They sat silent.

An Army official cited the “complexity” of the case as an excuse for the delay in telling the families how their sons really died, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“They never tell the family the truth,” said Ophelia Tyson, grandmother of Andre Tyson. “You know how politics is.”

“I really want this story to come out; I want people to know what happened to my son,” Nadia said. “There is no doubt to me that this is still happening to soldiers today, but our chain of command is awfully reckless; they don’t seem to give a damn about what’s happening to soldiers.”

The father of two children, Patrick joined the National Guard the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was the first combat death in the 58 year history of California’s 579 Engineer Battalion, based in Petaluma, Ca. Patrick was listed as “Casualty number 848.” That was 1652 deaths ago.

“He was killed by the Iraqis that he was training,” Nadia said. “People in this country need to know that.”

“It’s god-awful,” said Bob, himself an Army veteran. “It underlies the lie of this whole situation in Iraq. It’s all to me a pack of lies.”

Boxer noted, “You have to ask yourself, ‘What are we doing there with a blank check and a blind eye, when our soldiers are risking their lives for the Iraqi people and the Iraqis are turning around and killing our soldiers?’ We need an exit strategy.”

“Even If Our Presence Or Message Angered The Marine, This Does Not Give Him The Right To Assault Unarmed Citizens”

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

July 05, 2006 National Campus Action Network

Two peaceful anti-war protesters were assaulted by a baseball-bat wielding Marine at the Orange St. recruiting station in New Haven, CT on Wed. June 28th. They were attending a non-violent demonstration in support of war resisters Lt. Ehren Watada and Suzanne Swift.

Thanks to all of you who have called in to make complaints against the New Haven Police Department and the Marine Corps.

Momentum is building here in New Haven and nationwide to stand up and defend free speech!

Many of you have sent us reports of your phone calls to the police and although the police initially were taken off guard by the outpouring of support, they have since developed their own version of the events of June 28th.

People have reported that police now claim that protesters were blocking the doors, that they were never assaulted and that the phone “fell” out of the protester’s hand and was not taken.

THE FACTS

1. The protesters never blocked the entrances to the recruiting station.

2. The marine absolutely did assault several protesters with a baseball bat.

3. The cell phone was taken by the marine and returned by the police a full 45 minutes later without the photos.

4. Even if our presence or message angered the marine, this does not give him the right to assault unarmed citizens.

This situation represents a severe infringement of free speech rights in the city of New Haven and just another example of many instances of repression around the country.

While activists consult a lawyer as to their legal options, the political implications are clear. This is a stunning example of the use of violence and intimidation to silence opposition to an unjust and unpopular war in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have perished as well as over 2500 US soldiers.

We must organize to defend our right to dissent and challenge the lies of military recruiters.

We look to the brave heroes who have resisted deployment to Iraq to inspire our struggle. What does it say about a system in which soldiers and citizens who dissent are punished and those who silence dissent are protected?

BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

TAKE ACTION!

1. Sign the Online Petition! Demand Free Speech!
www.petitiononline.com/nhctspks/petition.html

2. Participate in the National Call-In Action!

Call the New Haven Mayor’s Office
Mayor John DeStefano Jr.
Office of the Mayor – 203-946-7672 or 203-947-7673
DeStefano for Governor – 203-752-0545
DeStefano’s Home Number – 203-389-9431

Call the US Marine Corps Recruiting Command
Orange St, New Haven, CT – 203-789-4484
Regional Office, Springfield, MA – 413-594-4623 or 2033
Major Lawrence Coleman, Sergeant Major Cevet Adams

Call the New Haven Police Department
Chief Francisco Ortiz – 203-946-6333
General – 203-946-6316 or 6120
“Internal Values and Ethics” – 203-946-6249 or 6250
Officers Ratti (#463), Hartnett (#4), Knickerbocker (#80)

U.S. Missile Defense System Useless

July 3, 2006 Wall St. Journal

Philip E. Coyle, a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, was an assistant secretary of defense and director of the Defense Department’s testing and evaluation from 1994 to 2001.

Q. How effective is the missile-defense system?

A. Is it 50 percent effective, is it 10 percent effective? All the Missile Defense Agency will say is either words like “residual,” “incremental,” “marginal,” or they will say “it’s better than zero.”

But of course, “better than zero” could be 0.000001 percent, so we don’t know how good it is, which is why I say that the system has no demonstrated capability to defend the U.S. under realistic operational conditions.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

July 5, 2006 (CBS/AP

A struck a police patrol in Mosul and killed a police officer and a civilian and wounded a policeman and three civilians, Capt. Ahmed Khalil said.

A roadside bomb also struck a car carrying members of a private security company in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three others. Firefighters arriving at the site to help also were hit by a roadside bomb, which wounded two of them, Col. Nashat Shawish said.

An intelligence captain in the Interior Ministry was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car in the Dora neighborhood, according to Lt. Maithem Abdul-Razzaq.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

U.S. Soldier
Vietnam

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: July 03, 2006

“In the land of the sick, emotions reign supreme;
fear is a thought away.”

Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
July 3, 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)

U.S. Army Official Voice Mail Message

To: July 07, 2006 Joe Balshone, Firebase-Humor [Excerpts]

Thank you for calling the United States Army. I’m sorry, but all of our units are out at the moment, or are otherwise engaged.

Please leave a message with your country, name of organization, the region, the specific crisis, and a number at which we can call you.

As soon as we have sorted out the Balkans, Iraq, marching up and down the streets of Washington, D.C., and compulsory “Consideration Of Others” training, we will return your call. Please speak after the tone, or if you require more options, please listen to the following numbers:

If your crisis is small, press 1 for the United States Marine Corps.

If your concern is distant, with a temperate climate and good hotels, and can be solved by one or two low risk, high altitude bombing runs, please press 2 for the United States Air Force.

Please note this service is not available after 1630 hours, or on weekends. Special consideration will be given to customers requiring satellite or stealth technology who can provide additional research and development funding.

If your inquiry concerns a situation which can be resolved by a bit of grey funnel, bunting, flags and a really good marching band, please write, well in advance, to the United States Navy.

Please note that Tomahawk missile service is extremely limited and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

If your inquiry is not urgent, please press 3 for the Rapid Deployment Force.

If you are in real hot trouble, please press 4, and your call will be routed to the United States Army Special Operations Command. Please note that a compulsory credit check will be required to ensure you can afford the inherent TDY costs. Also be aware that USASOC may bill your account at any time and is not required to tell you why, as it will be classified.

If you are interested in joining the Army and wish to be shouted at, paid little, have premature arthritis, put your wife and family in a condemned hut miles from civilization, are prepared to work your butt off daily, risking your life, in all weather and terrain, both day and night, and while watching Congress erode your original benefits package, then please stay on the line.

Your call will shortly be connected to a bitter passed-over Army Recruiter in an old strip mall down by the Post Office.

Have a pleasant day, and thank you again for trying to contact the United States Army.

Vietnam:
The Movement Of U.S. Soldiers And Veterans To End The War;
“Somebody Smuggle This Thing To Iraq”

By SUSAN G. COLE JUNE 29 – JULY 5, 2006, NOW TORONTO [Excerpts]

Nearly 35 years after the fact, we still don’t know everything about American resistance to the war in Vietnam.

Credit David Zeiger for filling us in with this absorbing and emotionally powerful doc on the movement of U.S. soldiers and veterans to end the war.

We learn from these activists how they organized – mostly through newspapers published close to army bases all over the United States – so that by the end of the war fully 500,000 soldiers had deserted.

Along with army personnel who were jailed for organizing or for refusing to obey orders on the front lines, Jane Fonda describes her anti-war shows undertaken with, among others, Donald Sutherland , to entertain the troops.

The talking heads are fascinating, especially when they explain why Veterans Against the War supported Lieutenant Calley, who was held responsible for the infamous My Lai Massacre. Why, they asked, should Calley be punished for doing exactly what the army had trained him to do?

Other real triumphs of Sir! No Sir! are its archival footage and a kick-ass electric-guitar-drenched psychedelic original score by Buddy Judge that take you right back to that time.

Somebody smuggle this thing to Iraq.

Sir! No Sir!:
At A Theatre Near You!
To find it: www.sirnosir.com/

Radio First Termer Lives On!

[Thanks to C, The Military Project, who sent this in.]

July 06, 2006

Dave Rabbit / Radio First Termer
Friday, July 14th, 6pm – 7pm
On Aircheck;
WFMU 91.1 Or A Station Near You

Radio First Termer was a pirate station that operated for 21 days in 1971, offering a somewhat irreverent alternative to regular broadcasts to G.I.’s during the Vietnam War.

How irreverent?

Well, for starters, it broadcast out of a Saigon brothel.

July 14 we’ll be presenting an hour of what can be considered airable from the tapes that have surfaced from these three weeks, showcasing DJ Dave Rabbit.

Not aware of his cult status until just months ago, Dave recently told his story for the DVD release of “Sir! No Sir!,” a David Zieger film about the G.I. Anti-Vietnam War movement and Vietnam Counterculture.

In Praise Of Rebellion;
By Thomas Jefferson

From Etext.virginia.edu. [Thanks to Ed Pearl, for posting.]

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.” —Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 1787.

“I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms are in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is medicine necessary for the sound health of government.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:65

“Who will govern the governors?” There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government. Thomas Jefferson

“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.” Thomas Jefferson

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

Enough Of That Lame “Support The Troops” Bullshit #1

July 4, 2006 PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS, CounterPunch [Excerpt]

Whoever put out that propagandistic slogan, “support the troops,” and the ribbon decals was a master propagandist. “Support the troops” means to deny the reality of the war and the behavior of the troops.

There is no more reason for U.S. troops to be shooting up Iraq than to be shooting up Canada, Scotland, Holland, Spain, Taiwan, Florida, Virginia, or California. We are killing Iraqis for no other reason than that they resist our invasion and occupation of their country.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

MORE:

Enough Of That Lame “Support The Troops” Bullshit #2

July 06 2006 Mickey Z., infoshop.org [Excerpts]

For some Americans, the phrase “support our troops” is little more than a euphemism for: “support the policies that put our troops in harm’s way.”

For Americans of the liberal persuasion-ever cautious not to offend those mythical fence sitters-the phrase “support our troops” is a safe way to avoid taking a principled stand against this war (and all war).

Either usage of the phrase “support our troops” does nothing to challenge the latest mission in particular or the concept of military intervention in general.

MORE:

Enough Of That Lame “Support The Troops” Bullshit #3;
Do You “Support” These Troops?

[Thanks to Phil G, Jason Y. Mark Shapiro, JM & PB, who sent this in.]

Racist Extremists Active In U.S. Military

July 7, 2006 Southern Poverty Law Center release & by David Holthouse, Southern Poverty Law Center & JOHN KIFNER, The New York Times Company

Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists.

Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.

An article in the National Alliance magazine Resistance urged skinheads to join the Army and insist on being assigned to light infantry units.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified the author as Steven Barry, who it said was a former Special Forces officer who was the alliance’s “military unit coordinator.”

“Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman’s war,” he wrote. “It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and ‘cleansed.’ “

He concluded: “As a professional soldier, my goal is to fill the ranks of the United States Army with skinheads. As street brawlers, you will be useless in the coming race war. As trained infantrymen, you will join the ranks of the Aryan warrior brotherhood.”

Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity. “We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,” said one investigator. “That’s a problem.”

Military extremists present an elevated threat both to their fellow soldiers and the general public. Today’s white supremacists become tomorrow’s domestic terrorists.

“Neo-Nazi groups and other extremists are joining the military in large numbers so they can get the best training in the world on weapons, combat tactics and explosives,” said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The large tattoo on the right arm of Air Force airman Robert Lee West depicts a menacing wizard with a scythe. His recruiter probably saw no problem there, but the photo of himself West has up on his EveryonesSpace web page should wave a red flag.

In it, West, with his head shaved, is standing in front of a swastika and Iron Eagle banner, holding twin AR-15 assault rifles. West, 23, who’s stationed at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, lists his general interests as “switchblades and smeared blood.”

In his “About Me” section, he writes: “I train most days for marksmanship, combat, demolition, politics, economics, religion, military tactics, oratory, and propaganda. I will give my life for a cause greater than my own. My mind and spirit shall ensure life for my people, and death for yours. I shall fight until I have achieved victory. Just remember when you speak to me that I don’t play by ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government) rules and I will not hesitate to sever your subclavian artery.”

Special Agent Will Manuel of Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations at Warner Robins said he’s “well aware” of West’s neo-Nazi identity. “We’ve seen all his pictures, we’ve read his website, and we know what’s he doing.”

Before the U.S. military made Matt Buschbacher a Navy SEAL, he made himself a soldier of the Fourth Reich.

Before Forrest Fogarty attended Military Police counter-insurgency training school, he attended Nazi skinhead festivals as lead singer for the hate rock band Attack.

And before Army engineer Jon Fain joined the invasion of Iraq to fight the War on Terror, the neo-Nazi National Alliance member fantasized about fighting a war on Jews.

When Jon Fain, the Army engineer, was interviewed in 2004 for a Resistance article titled, “On the Front Lines for the Jews,” he advised neo-Nazis considering a military career to “(n)ever allow yourself to be brainwashed into the ‘everybody’s green’ lie.”

“Join only for the training, and to better defend yourself, our people, and our culture,” Fain said. “We must have people to open doors from the inside when the time comes.”

In the Stormfront discussion on joining the military, neo-Nazi “Ulfur Engil” wrote that he was stationed with the Army in Europe and offered this guidance: “Nothing will change what you are. If you join, you are still the same enlightened white man (or woman) you always have been.”

Hundreds of neo-Nazis online identify themselves as active duty soldiers.

Shawn Stuart, the Montana state leader of the National Socialist Movement, another neo-Nazi group, served two combat tours in Iraq as a U.S. Marine before he was discharged in 2005.

MORE:

Enough Of That Lame “Support The Troops” Bullshit #4:
Now, For A Blinding Flash Of The Obvious:

You can’t have it both ways. Either you “support the troops,” including the scum above, or you don’t. If you don’t, then you support some troops, but you do not support other troops. T

MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY PROJECT

Do not “support the troops” in the abstract.

We focus on support for Armed Forces resistance, giving aid and comfort to those who are against the war.

Those “Gunmen”

July 6, 2006 William Bowles, www.williambowles.info [Excerpt]

The BBC continues to ignore the legitimate nature of the Palestinian struggle for its rights. So today we read on the BBC Website that

“Cpl Gilad Shalit was taken by gunmen in a cross-border raid on 25 June.”

“Gunmen”?

The Palestinians conducted a legitimate military attack on Israeli occupation forces and took a single IDF soldier prisoner, an action entirely in accord with international law that recognises the rights of an occupied people to defend themselves and take the steps necessary to expel the invader.

So whilst pretty much the rest of the world recognises the barbaric policies of the Israeli government, the BBC continues to unreservedly support the genocidal actions of the Zionists.

[And some of the resistance fighters in Palestine and Iraq (where reporters also obsess about “gunmen”) are women. So what’s an idiot reporter to do? “Gunmen or gunwomen in a cross border raid”? Nope, too awkward. How about “gunpersons in a cross border raid”? No, that just sounds stupid. Maybe because the term “gunmen” is stupid. T]

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

A Soldier

A soldier,

A soldier has been taken prisoner.

A soldier has been taken prisoner, wearing his uniform.

A soldier has been taken prisoner wearing his uniform while he was on duty.

A soldier has been taken prisoner wearing his uniform while he was on duty and out of his own Military base.

A soldier has been taken prisoner wearing his uniform while he was on duty and out of his own Military base, belonging to an occupying army.

A soldier has been taken prisoner wearing his uniform while he was on duty and out of his own Military base, belonging to an occupying army, during a period of no-peace.

A soldier has been taken prisoner wearing his uniform while he was on duty and out of his own Military base, belonging to an occupying army, during a period of no-peace, when his abductors are his own victims.

A soldier has been taken prisoner wearing his uniform while he was on duty and out of his own Military base, belonging to an occupying army, during a period of no-peace, when his abductors are his own victims, whom he was imprisoning, shelling and starving, the previous days.

And then, they call his own and his direct victims:
“The Terrorists”…

Raja Chemayel
a soldierfor the Truth, without a uniform…
July 5th. 2006

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

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

Lawyers For Guantanamo Inmates Say Bush Trying To Ignore Supreme Court

7.4.06 Miami Herald

Attorneys representing hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees urged a federal appeals court to reject a Bush administration request for more legal filings in light of last week’s Supreme Court ruling in the case of Osama bin Laden’s driver.

The lawyers said a three-judge panel already has had three rounds of legal filings and does not need more briefing to decide the fate of lawsuits that challenge the legality of the prisoners’ detentions.

CIA Quits Hunting For Bin Laden

7.4.06 New York Times

The CIA has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed.

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Average CEO Gets $11 Million A Year

Jun 21, 2006 (Reuters)

Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in the 40 years for which there is data, a nonprofit think-tank said on Wednesday.

In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

The typical worker’s compensation averaged just under $42,000 for the year, while the average CEO brought home almost $11 million, EPI said.

Capitalism At Work:
Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don’t Farm

02 July 2006 By Dan Morgan, Gilbert M. Gaul and Sarah Cohen, The Washington Post [Excerpt]

Nationwide, the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post.

Some of them collect hundreds of thousands of dollars without planting a seed. Mary Anna Hudson, 87, from the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston, has received $191,000 over the past decade. For Houston surgeon Jimmy Frank Howell, the total was $490,709.

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

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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