“I Blame The President For Everything”
“He’s Letting Young Kids Go Over There For Nothing”
“If I Could Talk To Him, I Would Say To Him, ‘Why?’”

Pfc. Collin Mason was a proud son of both U.S. and Dominican Republic.

July 7, 2006 BY MAUREEN SEABERG, DAILY NEWS WRITER

Red, white and blue votive candles burn at the entrance of the South Beach Houses on Staten Island in memory of a young son of both the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Heartbroken friends and family members have put up a poster board so passersby can leave messages of grief and love. A Dominican flag hangs proudly beneath the posters. A big yellow ribbon with an ominous black sash across it is on the door.

Army Pfc. Collin Mason, 20, who grew up there and delighted his neighbors with his bright smile and good manners, was killed in Iraq on Sunday. He died in Taji when he encountered indirect fire while manning a checkpoint.

His mother, Cynthia Boone Mason, 49, is resigned to the fact that he died doing something he loved.

“He was doing his job. It was his dream to be a soldier,” she said.

“I feel like I’m not really sure how I feel about it yet,” his sister Cheshire Boone Milkens, 27, told the Daily News, still numb from her loss. “But I’m proud of my brother.”

Mason, who was of Dominican heritage but born in the U.S., attended Curtis High School on Staten Island. He met his future wife, Cynthia Martinez, there, and the couple married in November, weeks before Mason shipped out to Iraq.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Tex.

In the apartment to the right of where Mason’s family has lived for 25 years, Julie Finocchio, 63, is fighting mad that Mason is gone forever.

In fact, the grandmother, who remembers Mason playing with G.I. Joes and plastic soldiers in the hall outside her doorway from the age of 10, issued a challenge: “I’d like to box President George W. Bush in a match. I used to be a boxer in high school, and I think I could take him. If I win, he stops this stupid war.”

“I blame the President for everything because he’s letting young kids go over there for nothing. There were no weapons of mass destruction. If I could talk to him, I would say to him, ‘Why?’ “

Finocchio noted, however, that her family is full of people who have served their nation – including her father, her grandfather and several nephews.

Neighbor Shanee Lewis, 18, said of Mason, “Everybody knew him. He was always around, and he was a great guy. I’m going into the Army. I’m scared now, too.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

British Soldier Killed Near Basra

16 July 2006 BBC NEWS

A British soldier has died following a clash north of the city of Basra, Iraq, on Saturday.

The soldier was one of two wounded during a firefight between British troops and “suspected terrorists”, said a military spokesman.

Two suspects were held during the operation, which took place in the Garmat Ali tribal area, north of Basra.

The BBC’s correspondent in Baghdad Jonny Dymond said the troops had been sent out to apprehend suspects intelligence sources had identified were involved in the insurgency.

They met resistance, which is when the two soldiers sustained gunshot wounds. They were evacuated to a military hospital where one later died of his injuries, the Ministry of Defence said.

Three U.S. Soldiers Wounded In Kirkuk

July 16 (KUNA)

In Kirkuk, a security source requesting anonymity said three US soldiers were wounded in confrontations with militants, as well as two Iraqi officers.

Kentucky Marine Injured “Taking Over A Bank In Ar Ramadi”

July 10, 2006 The Associated Press

MANITOU, Ky

A Kentucky Marine is in an Army hospital in Iraq after being injured by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Lance Corporal Kenneth Ward of Manitou was injured when his unit was taking over a bank in Ar Ramadi.

Ward’s mother says her son has injuries to his left arm and leg and his left torso. He was also hit by shrapnel in the back of the head and is suffering some short-term memory loss.

The 20-year-old Ward joined the Marines after high school. His mother, Faith Corbett, says he wanted to join the Marines after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Beloit National Guard Soldier Hurt

July 6, 2006 WISN

A Wisconsin National Guard soldier from Beloit is hospitalized in Germany after he was injured near Baghdad on Tuesday.

Raymond Hubbard’s mother said that her son’s unit is based in Whitewater, and he has been overseas since October, WISC-TV reported.

She said that Hubbard, 28, was hurt by indirect fire and a mortar blast.

He apparently has a neck injury, a gash on his right leg and his left leg has been amputated below the knee, WISC-TV reported.

Hubbard is married and has two sons, his mother said.

Two British Soldiers Wounded In Zubair

In the background, British armored vehicles hit by a roadside bomb attack targeting their patrol July 16, 2006. Two British soldiers were wounded.

7.16.06 Reuters

Two British soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Zubair, a town south of Basra, British military spokesman said.

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

U.S. soldiers take positions at the scene of a car bomb attack in Mosul July 3, 2006. REUTERS/Khaleed al-Mousily (IRAQ)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Foreign Occupation Soldier Killed:
Nationality Not Announced

07/16/06 (AFP)

A soldier with the US-led coalition died Sunday after being wounded in a firefight with rebels in Zabul, the coalition said.

Dutch Helicopter Hit

14 July 2006 Expatica News

AMSTERDAM

A Dutch Apache helicopter made a precautionary landing in Afghanistan on Sunday after it was damaged by ground fire, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

The helicopter was fired on with a small calibre weapon and suffered damage to its hydraulic system and tail section. The two-man crew returned safely to the Dutch base at Tarin Kowt.

Dutch F-16 jets were called in on Wednesday to support troops who were attacked by suspected Taliban fighters at Musah Qa’leh in Helmand Province. The planes did not open fire but their presence helped end the confrontation, a ministry spokesperson said.

Canadian Soldiers Feel Like “Bullet Magnets” After Taliban Ambush
[From This Account, More Like Playing A Losing Game Of Whack-A-Mole]

July 16, 2006 Ethan Baron, CanWest News Service

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan

A Canadian reconnaissance platoon ran into an ambush Saturday, coming under attack by rockets and small arms.

The first indication of trouble came when soldiers spotted several people running behind mud-walled compounds as a platoon reconnoitered a bridge in a pastoral area of trees, fields, camels and goats.

Moving 700 metres to the south in armoured vehicles, the soldiers came under fire while stopped and strung out along rolling desert hills overlooking a series of compounds. Two minutes later a rocket whooshed from a compound and soldiers shouted “RPG” which stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade and opened up with shoulder-fired rockets, a heavy machine gun, a rapid-fire canon and small arms.

Insurgents fired three more RPG rockets, one of them exploding five metres from the Canadians, who were shooting from outside and on top of a lightly armoured Mercedes G-wagon.

What had started as a mission to avoid engagement with Taliban and Taliban supporters turned into a 10-minute firefight. As per orders, the platoon pulled back soon after the insurgents fire stopped.

For this infantry platoon it was the third firefight in as many days and the sixth in 11 days.

“We’re bullet-magnets,” said Corp. Brad Kauffeldt.

Directly after the battle the platoon drove north through the desert for 15 kilometres to support Canadian infantry under fire from a mountain cave.

Coalition Apache attack helicopters rocketed the cave while the Canadian soldiers cheered from beside their parked vehicles on a high point six kilometres to the south.

Thirty minutes later a radio call came in saying their base was under attack and they sped back.

As night fell, troops were seeking insurgents who had rocketed their base.

Canadian Base Under Attack

July 15, 2006 Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: The military base Canadian soldiers call home in Afghanistan has come under another rocket attack.

Two rockets were fired on the Kandahar Airfield late Saturday evening, local time. No one was injured by the blasts.

It’s the second time in a week that the base has come under fire, and the fifth attack since June 30 when two Canadians were injured by rockets.

Saturday’s attack came as most of Canada’s combat soldiers were outside the base, taking part in a massive assault operation about 150 kilometres west of Kandahar.

The airfield is home to about 1,900 Canadian soldiers, along with thousands more from other countries.

Occupation Officer Says Troops Will Stay In Afghanistan Another 500 Years Minimum

July 16, 2006 AP

Coalition forces will remain in Sangin until the Taliban threat has been wiped out and Afghan authorities can reach out to impoverished residents to promote reconstruction efforts, [Maj. Scott] Lundy said.

Assorted Resistance Action;
Burka Work

16/07/2006 Evening Echo & (AFP)

Militants dressed as women killed two Afghan men and wounded another in a drive-by shooting yesterday, the US military said Sunday.

The militants were wearing burkas, the all-covering veil traditionally worn by Afghan women, when they attacked a car in the Zambar district of the southeastern Khost province, a military statement said.

The motive for the attack was unclear but the victims were believed to be acquaintances of the local police chief.

Taliban militants have been targeting Afghans with links to local security and government forces in a bid to derail the country’s US-backed reconstruction.

Also Sunday, six Afghan soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle in the western province of Herat.

TROOP NEWS

The Traitor Rumsfeld Trying To Hide Hostage Taking And Torture Of Iraqi Child Hostages To Make Suspects Confess:
Honorable Troops Reported
Criminal Violation Of U.S. Law Of Land Warfare

2006/07/14 By Mark Benjamin, Salon.com [Excerpts]

Congress demands that the Pentagon release documents that could show U.S. forces kidnapped family members of terror suspects.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has until 5 p.m. Friday to hand over a raft of documents to Congress that might shed new light on detainee abuse in Iraq.

The documents could substantiate little-known allegations that U.S. forces have tried to break terror suspects by kidnapping and mistreating their family members.

It now appears that kidnapping, scarcely covered by the media, and absent in the major military investigations of detainee abuse, may have been systematically employed by U.S. troops.

Salon has obtained Army documents that show several cases where U.S. forces abducted terror suspects’ families. After he was thrown in prison, Cpl. Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader at Abu Ghraib, told investigators the military routinely kidnapped family members to force suspects to turn themselves in.

A House subcommittee led by Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays took the unusual step last month of issuing Rumsfeld a subpoena for the documents after months of stonewalling by the Pentagon.

Shays had requested the documents in a March 7 letter. “There was no response” to the letter, a frustrated Shays told Salon. “We are not going to back off this.”

The subpoena demands that the Pentagon turn over documents about apparent retribution by the military against Army Spc. Samuel Provance, a whistle-blower, who sought to expose abuse at the infamous prison by talking to military investigators and the press. Following his revelations, the Army demoted Provance from sergeant and revoked his security clearance.

The subpoena also includes a separate demand, at the behest of Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., for any documents that might show that U.S. forces were systematically detaining family members of suspects at Abu Ghraib, and mistreating them to force suspects to talk.

In a hearing before Shays’ Government Reform subcommittee last February, Provance testified that the Army had retaliated against him.

Provance also made the disturbing allegation that interrogators broke an Iraqi general, Hamid Zabar, by imprisoning and abusing his frail 16-year-old son. Waxman was shocked. “Do you think this practice was repeated with other children?” he asked Provance. “I don’t see why it would not have been, sir,” Provance replied.

Zabar’s son had been apprehended with his father and held at Abu Ghraib, though the boy hadn’t done anything wrong. “He was useless,” Provance said about the boy in a phone interview with Salon from Heidelberg, Germany, where he is still in the Army. “He was of no intelligence value.”

But, Provance said, interrogators grew frustrated when the boy’s father, Zabar, wouldn’t talk, despite a 14-hour interrogation.

So they stripped Zabar’s son naked and doused him with mud and water. They put him in the open back of a truck and drove around in the frigid January night air until the boy began to freeze. Zabar was then made to look at his suffering son.

“During the interrogation, they could not get him to talk,” Provance recalled. “They said, ‘OK, we are going to let you see your son.’ They allow him to see his son in this shivering, freezing, naked state,” Provance said. “That just totally broke his heart and that is when he said, ‘I’ll tell you what you want to know.’”

Provance said the boy was timid and afraid. “He was so skinny and so frail, and he was scared out of his mind,” Provance remembered. “He was so skinny the handcuffs would not fit securely on his wrist. I had to put this green sandbag on his head. I just felt like a horrible person doing this.”

Provance was not an interrogator; at that time, he worked on a security detail at Abu Ghraib. He said he did not see firsthand the boy being abused in the truck, although an interrogator working on the general’s case later explained the abuse to Provance in detail.

Provance’s account does not appear to be an isolated allegation.

It echoes similar accusations at Abu Ghraib and across Iraq. In an interview with military investigators conducted after he was imprisoned, Graner called kidnapping, in addition to detainee abuse, “the other big Geneva Convention violation” going on at the prison.

“They were picking up, you know, Joe Snuffy’s wife to get Joe Snuffy,” Graner explained to military investigators. “So, more or less, we’re holding this female with no charges, which happened a lot.”

Similar allegations have shown that kidnapping may have been a systematic practice. Special Operations troops, working with an elite unit called Task Force 6-26, allegedly abducted the 28-year-old wife of a suspected Iraqi terrorist during a raid on a house in Tarmiya, Iraq, in May 2004, the month after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.

That is according to a memorandum buried in thousands of pages of documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act. The memorandum, a formal complaint titled “Report of Violations of the Geneva Conventions,” was filed in June 2004 by a 14-year veteran intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency. The Department of Defense blacked out the officer’s name.

In the memorandum, the intelligence officer said the kidnapping was planned. “During the pre-operation brief it was recommended by TF (Task Force) personnel that if the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to leverage the primary target’s surrender,” the officer recalled, stressing that he objected to the tactic.

Later, the wife was indeed present when the raid took place. “I determined that she could provide no actionable intelligence leading to the arrest of her husband,” the officer recalled. “Despite my protest, a raid team leader detained her anyway.” She was held for two days.

In 2003, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush died in U.S. custody in northern Iraq after suffering beatings and interrogations. He died when he was stuffed into a sleeping bag and straddled by Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr.

In January 2006, Welshofer was reprimanded for Mowhoush’s death.

His son, Mohammed, told the Washington Post that month that U.S. forces first kidnapped him and his three brothers from their home. Mohammed was 15 at that time and claimed he was not an insurgent. “They said if my father does not come [turn himself in] you will never see your family back,” Mohammad told the Post. The article stated that classified documents show the general “later surrendered in an attempt to free his sons.”

Congressional staff said the Department of Defense so far has not adequately responded to the subpoena for documents about Provance or kidnapping at Abu Ghraib. The Pentagon claimed that Shays’ subcommittee already had everything it needed about detainee abuse.

But staff from both parties on the House Government Reform Committee said that won’t do.

LIAR
TRAITOR
SOLDIER-KILLER
MASS MURDERER
DOMESTIC ENEMY
WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT

Photo: Reuters/Tim Chong

MORE:

The Task Force 6-26 And Other Hostage Takers Reported Above Are Cowards And Criminals;
They Disgrace The Uniforms They Wear:
Hunt Them Down

Law of Land Warfare

Instruction on the Law of Land Warfare is required in all Army’s Initial Entry Training, including Basic Combat Training and the Officer Basic Course.

The warfare guide is the basis for the one-hour class new soldiers receive in Basic Combat Training. Drill sergeants must cover humane treatment of POWs, detainees and civilians on the battlefield, as well as how to deal with criminal or unlawful orders, said Lt. Col. Ralph Tremaglio, deputy Staff Judge Advocate General for Fort Benning, Ga.

The training guide stresses that “certain acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever.” These include:

B “Violation to the life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment torture.”

“Taking of hostages.”

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

4th Geneva Convention

“To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; (b) taking of hostages; (c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; (d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”

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

International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages

In 1979, the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages was agreed to, with the US as a signatory. It isn’t very long, with the section relevant for us right at the start:

ARTICLE 1

1. Any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure or to continue to detain another person (hereinafter referred to as the “hostage”) in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offence of taking of hostages (”hostage-taking”) within the meaning of this Convention.

2. Any person who:

a. attempts to commit an act of hostage-taking, or

b. participates as an accomplice of anyone who commits or attempts to commit an act of hostage-taking likewise commits an offence for the purposes of this Convention.

This definition is applicable under US law.

It is specifically recognized in a variety of US statues, and in court cases such as the 2003 case Simpson vs. Libya as the standard applicable in military and international cases.

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

The casket of Army Spc. Christopher D. Rose is carried into St. Augustine Church in South San Francisco, Calif., July 11, 2006. The 21-year-old soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Hundreds Of Michigan Citizens Defy Police Piece Of Shit Who Bullied Anti-Bush Protester

July 11, 2006 By Christy Strawser, Daily Tribune Staff Writer

FERNDALE: If police hoped to quiet Monday afternoons at Nine Mile and Woodward by arresting war protester Victor Kittila last week and charging him with disorderly conduct — they failed.

Several hundred people clustered there Monday and filled every side of the intersection holding signs and banners protesting George W. Bush and the Iraq War.

Before the arrest, 20-30 protesters usually showed up.

“We’re in support of fighting that arrest,” said Phyllis Livermore of Birmingham. “It was outrageous.”

Many said it was their first time at the anti-war event, which started four years ago and happens around 4:45-5:45 p.m. every Monday.

“In a way, this was a good thing,” Livermore said. “This many people are never here.”

Last Monday Kittila, 55, was arrested in front of his wife and their 13-year-old daughter and threatened with a Taser if he resisted. Police Chief Michael Kitchen said he was arrested for holding a sign that inspired drivers to honk their horns. [Piece of shit Michael Kitchen, who badly needs a one way ticket to Ramadi, is nothing but a liar and a coward, unfit to associate with any decent people anywhere. See below for what the sign said, and it’s not what he says it said. He’s also too stupid to be doing more than scraping dog shit off the sidewalk, because everybody already knew what the sign said when he lied about it.]

Ferndale city code says it’s illegal to “incite people to sound their horn when not reasonably necessary.”

Police said they had warned protesters about the signs several weeks ago because it disturbed other drivers on the busy thoroughfare. Nine Mile and Woodward is the hub of downtown Ferndale, an area with no homes, but many restaurants, bars and retail shops.

“They were warned a couple of weeks ago, they decided to test it, evidently,” Kitchen said last week. [Scumbag Kitchen just never knows when to keep his mouth shut, probably because he spends every waking moment with his head us his ass.]

Protesters took a different view.

“I had to ask ‘Is this America?’” said Mary Johnston of Farmington Hills.

Kittila said he had changed his sign to say ‘Ferndale police say don’t honk if you want Bush out’” after the warning, but people still responded by honking. Kittitas’s wife had to pay $500 bail to get him out of jail after his arrest; a court date has not been set. [There it is, isn’t it? “Don’t honk.” No, Kitchen is just a petty piss pot wannabe big man, with no brains, no honor, and who’s unfit to wear any uniform of any kind at all, except an orange prison jump suit.]

But his arrest failed to deter a group of teens from Grosse Pointe who held up signs urging drivers to honk against the war. “I’m not afraid,” said Michael Fenton, 18, of Grosse Pointe. “No one told me specifically I could not hold this sign.” [Translation: Kitchen can eat shit and die.]

Kittila walked through the crowd, accepting pats on the back and meeting old friends, and he said that he was afraid for the people thumbing their noses at the law.

“I’m happy and surprised that this many people are here,” he said while holding a sign that said ‘no blood for oil’. “But we don’t want to cause trouble. I think Ferndale supports us, they know what we’re doing out here.” [Oh please. Kitchen caused the trouble, everybody knows it, and nobody is going to kiss his fat ass any more.]

His words were born out by the number of thumbs-up signs, peace signs — and honks — drivers bestowed on protesters.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

7.16.06 Reuters & Aljazeera & (KUNA)

Guerrillas attacked the medical detention department in Baquba main hospital and freed at least 13 prisoners and killed four policemen, police said. Three mortar rounds landed around the hospital before the attack, police added.

Confrontations between an Iraqi Army patrol unit and militants took place in which one militant was killed and another arrested, while an officer and a soldier were wounded. The gun battle erupted after the armed fighters ambushed an army major in his car, wounding him, police said.

The same source said three Iraqi soldier were wounded when an explosive device blew up as their patrol vehicle passed by the Kirkuk-Riyadh road.

The body of a police officer was found in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. He was one of four policeman captured on Saturday, police added.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“The Resistance Within The Military Of Soldiers Who Became Convinced That The Course Of Action Taken By The United States In Vietnam Was Morally Wrong”

6-26-06 By Ron Briley, History News Network [Excerpts]

A 2005 documentary film still seeking wider theatrical release demonstrates the continuing relevance of how we remember the Vietnam War.

Sir! Nor Sir! by filmmaker David Zeiger chronicles the resistance within the military of soldiers who became convinced that the course of action taken by the United States in Vietnam was morally wrong.

These soldiers of conscience published underground newspapers, frequented coffee shops where the military was subject to criticism and satire, questioned their superior officers, and in more extreme cases refused to obey orders, preferring time in the stockade to serving in Vietnam.

Admittedly there are many differences between the Vietnam era and the contemporary conflict in Iraq.

Some might also argue that Vietnam never attacked America. But, of course, neither did Saddam Hussein. Only the U. S. invasion made Iraq a battlefield in the war on terror.

In addition, many of those serving in Vietnam were reluctant draftees. A return to conscription would likely return us to the days of resistance and mass protest in the street.

Still one wonders how long the National Guard and their families, struggling to survive financially, will be able to bear the burden of the Iraq War.

The brutality of the Iraqi conflict for both the Iraqis and American troops is evident in the allegations regarding massacre in Hadetha which raises the specter of My Lai and Vietnam.

These are memories and connections which many supporters of the Iraq War want to remain dormant.

Public opinion polls indicate that the American public has lost faith in the administration’s cause for the war, and not even the celebrated killing of Abu Musab a-Zarqawi can restore the nation’s support for the war effort.

Yet, democracy be damned appears to be the response of the Washington political establishment.

The Bush administration continues to argue that we must stay the course in Iraq and it would be premature to discuss timetables for withdrawal. A timid Congress debates the war for a few days before endorsing the conflict. The Congressional refrain is that disengagement from the war in Iraq would constitute a failure to support the troops and those who sacrificed their lives would have died in vain.

This perspective draws its lifeblood from the mythology that the Vietnam War was lost on the home front by an antiwar movement which failed the soldiers.

In this national mythology the war was lost through the treason of individuals such as Jane Fonda and hippies who spat upon the brave returning warriors.

The right-wing political message is that to question the Iraq War is equivalent to the dissent of the Vietnam era which undermined our troops. Accordingly, to engage in the constitutional right of dissent becomes tantamount to treason.

But as David Zeiger reminds us in Sir! No Sir!, this reading of the Vietnam War ignores the reality of protest during the 1960s.

Rather than the antiwar movement standing in opposition to soldiers, many Vietnam veterans were active in questioning the war and American foreign policy.

This memory was, of course, resurrected by the presidential candidacy of John Kerry, who was decorated for his service in Vietnam. Kerry also played an important role in the formation of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War as well as the Winter Soldier testimony which documented how the Vietnam War led to atrocities committed against the Vietnamese people and contributed to the degradation of American soldiers.

The image of war protesters spitting upon returning soldiers is also employed to discredit critics of the Iraq War. The message is that this time we must not fail the troops.

In his book The Spitting Image, professor Jerry Lembecke argues that the spat-upon returning soldier is essentially an urban myth perpetuated by American popular culture. Lembecke was unable to document any such incidents to support this conventional wisdom surrounding how returning Vietnam veterans were received. The spitting image, however, is enunciated in such influential Hollywood films as the Rambo series featuring Sylvester Stallone.

Sir! No Sir! also forces viewers to reconsider one of the political right’s favorite images of the Vietnam War: Jane Fonda as “Hanoi Jane” fraternizing with the enemy and betraying the troops.

On the other hand, Fonda’s antiwar spoof of the Bob Hope U.S.O. shows, entitled Free the Army in its most benign nomenclature and featuring such Hollywood celebrities as Donald Sutherland and Peter Boyle, drew thousands of soldiers to concerts at off-base venues during the Vietnam War.

This image of Jane Fonda has been virtually erased from public memory in an orchestrated effort to drive a wedge between the troops and antiwar movement.

In fact, Fonda got much closer to the front lines and military during the Vietnam War than such architects of the Iraq War as Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and even George W. Bush.

Rather than discussing the contested image of Fonda, perhaps the real memory from the Vietnam era we should be focusing upon is how these men avoided service.

Thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese perished in the Vietnam War, yet today Donald Rumsfeld visits Vietnam and proposes military cooperation to counter Chinese expansionism.

In the 1980s, Rumsfeld visited Iraq and embraced Saddam Hussein who was then an American ally against Iranian expansionism.

Sometimes it seems the enemy in Orwellian fashion shift from Eurasia to Eastasia.

George Orwell was right, the one who controls the present controls the past.

The memory of the Vietnam War is manipulated to limit dissent and foster support for another questionable war—this time in Iraq.

David Zeiger’s Sir! No Sir! is a useful antidote to our selective memory and deserves a wider audience.

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

The Sir! No Sir! DVD goes on sale July 15, exclusively at www.sirnosir.com.

Also available will be a Soundtrack CD (which includes the entire song from the FTA Show, “Soldier We Love You”), theatrical posters, tee shirts, and the DVD of “A Night of Ferocious Joy,” a film by me about the first hip-hop antiwar concert against the “War on Terror.”

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.

Guilty

July 14, 2006, Richard Marsden, The Business of Emotions [Excerpts]

The U.S. military is now trying to protect its reputation by blaming this gang rape-murder on a “bad apple”, Steven G. Green, who was discharged in May, we are told, because of an “anti-social personality disorder”. He and four other soldiers have been charged with one count of rape and four counts of murder.

If the five soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are guilty of this crime, so too is the entire chain of command, all the way up to Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice and Bush.

This situation can go on without end. Women cannot afford to wait for an end to occupation. When there is no law, women are entitled to take it into their own hands.

In these circumstances, the best tactic women could adopt to prevent rapes, abductions and murders is to establish consequences by defending themselves violently.

They should arm themselves and kill those, American or Iraqi, who attempt to harm them, or their children, brothers and sisters.

When the risk involved in attacking women is greater, there will be fewer attacks on them.

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 REPORT

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

Foreign fighters from the U.S. armed forces occupying an Iraqi citizens home in Ramadi, July 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

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

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

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

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

The Great Iraqi Troop Training Fiasco Rolls On;
A 1st Lt.’s Silly Fantasy

July 15, 2006 RAMADI, Iraq (AP)

Their televised graduation was supposed to be a moment of national celebration: A class of 1,000 Sunni Arab soldiers emerging from basic training would show Iraqis that the country’s worsening religious divide was not afflicting the national army.

Two months later, only about 300 of them have reported for duty, U.S. officials say.

The 1,000 graduates were part of a program to recruit 6,500 Sunnis from restive Anbar province.

But with two classes of enlistees trained, only 530 soldiers have been added to the ranks, said Lt. Col. Mike Negard, a spokesman for the U.S. training command.

Iraq’s 1st and 7th army divisions in Anbar should have a total of about 20,000 soldiers, but U.S. officers acknowledge the units have only half that.

They haven’t given up on the Sunni class of 1,000, however.

“We’ve put out the message to get them back. We’ve asked city leaders to help get the message out,” Marine 1st Lt. David Meadows said.

“It doesn’t mean they’re lost.” [Right. They joined the resistance army to fight Bush’s occupation of their country. Not lost at all.]

MORE:

Iraqi soldiers, [Capt. Peter] Dahl said, have been known to turn the other way when they recognize an insurgent to whom they are either loyal or related. They have also been known to pack up and leave in the middle of the night, adding to the burden of the training regimen. Richard Rainey, 7/16/2006 The Day Publishing Co.

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

NEXT TIME YOU HEAR SOMEBODY WHINING ABOUT RESISTANCE BOMBERS AND MISSILES ATTACKING PUBLIC PLACES IN ISRAEL, CRAM THIS PHOTO UP THEIR ASS WITH A SHARP STICK

Bodies of civilians are seen in and around the wreckage of their vehicles on the main road near the village of Ter Harfa, Lebanon, July 15, 2006. At least 12 Lebanese villagers, including women and children, were killed in a Zionist air attack on a convoy of vehicles evacuating civilians from a village in southern Lebanon. The convoy was leaving the village of Marwaheen, when it was attacked. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Israel’s Raids On Gaza And Lebanon;
Echoes Of The Wehrmacht:
“The So-Called ‘Strongest Army In The Middle East’ Is Fighting A Desperate War It Can Never Win, Neither Tactically Nor Morally”

[Thanks to David Silver for circulating to the Veterans For Peace discussion group.]

By GILAD ATZMON. Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military.

He is the author of two novels: A Guide to the Perplexed and the recently released My One and Only Love.

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

Two weeks ago it was Palestinians militants who abducted a legitimate military target, an Israeli soldier.

Yesterday it was a similar overwhelmingly orchestrated heroic attack by Hezbollah guerrilla fighters.

Both attacks are there to send a message of resistance: Israel will never succeed in imposing its sickening unilateral notion of ‘peace’. Indeed, the unilateral disengagement may have had a magical effect on the Israeli voters as well as some Zionised western leaders such as Bush, Blair and Merkel.

Yet, the inhabitants of Gaza and the villagers of Southern Lebanon are slightly less impressed with the Israeli inclination towards peace. In Gaza and in Southern Lebanon it is rather clear that Arab resistance forces will oppose the Israeli unilateral agenda ‘til the end of time. They all know that as much as it takes two to tango, peace will never prevail unless the Palestinian cause is properly addressed.

In short, the different forms of Israeli unilateral disengagements from Lebanon, Gaza or even the West Bank (to come) are not going to provide Israel with peace.

Quite the opposite; Arabs are no fools, they know very well that Israel escaped Lebanon after being militarily humiliated for two decades.

They know as well that Sharon ran away from Gaza not exactly because he was searching for peace.

Palestinians also know that it is just a question of time before that happens in the West Bank.

If to be precise, since 1973 Israel’s power of deterrence is shrinking.

Since 1973 Israel hasn’t managed to defeat any of its enemies. On the contrary, time after time it is the enemies of Israel who are able to dictate Israeli political and tactical manoeuvres.

In the last two weeks it has been two relatively small paramilitary organisations who use guerrilla techniques who managed to bring Israel to unleash its full military might against innocent civilians both in Gaza and Lebanon.

Yet, the Israeli reaction to attacks by Palestinians militants and Hezbollah is rather bizarre.

Although, both Palestinian militants and Hezbollah were originally targeting legitimate military targets, Israeli retaliation was clearly aiming against civilian targets, civil infrastructures and mass killing directed against an innocent population.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that this is not really the way to win a war or confront that particular sort of combat known as guerrilla warfare.

I would argue that once again the Israeli government serves us with a fascinating glimpse into the mindset of the Israeli collective psyche. I will try to elaborate on this issue.

Due to some clear historical circumstances, the Israeli army was originally formed to combat Arab armies. It was designed to win conventional war in the battlefield. It was set as well to exhaust Israel’s neighbours’ will to fight while exercising some overwhelming air superiority and nuclear threatening policies. Since the end of the cold war, things changed. Israel isn’t threatened anymore by its neighbouring states.

Moreover, in the most recent years it has become clear that it is actually the Palestinian people who will eventually shatter the dream of a Jewish national state.

Strangely enough, Israel has never adopted or revised its military doctrine to fit into the new emerging conditions. Indeed it retrained large parts of its fighting units as policing forces, it transformed some of its tanks into policing vehicles. Yet, it has never gone through a vast military doctrine shift.

Very much like the Wehrmacht at the time of WWII, the IDF is still a classic follower of the offensive military doctrine.

Hitherto, rather than winning in the battlefield, the IDF is now hopelessly exhausting itself in two fronts fighting relatively small paramilitary organisations.

But the situation can get worse; it is rather possible that Palestinian heroic enthusiasm will spread to the West Bank.

When this happens, the IDF will find itself engaged in a total war just a few kilometres from Israel’s most densely populated centres. Seemingly the so-called ‘strongest army in the Middle East’ is fighting a desperate war it can never win, neither tactically nor morally.

Tactically, we have enough historic references to conclude that no colonial army has ever won against guerrilla warfare. The reason is simple, the more destruction a colonial army spreads, the more popular the guerrilla fighters become amongst their surrounding supportive population.

This is absolutely the case in Gaza and in Beirut today. The more carnage there is in Gaza, the stronger the Hamas becomes. The more bombs dropped over Beirut’s Airport, the more will young men be willing to join the Hezbollah.

But it goes further, both the Palestinian militants and the Hezbollah were very clever in picking pure military targets.

While in the past, Hamas was associated with suicidal attacks against Israeli civilians, this time it was Israeli soldiers and pure military posts that were targeted. In other words, it is rather impossible to dismiss the fact that Palestinian militants and the Hezbollah were actually operating as legitimate resistance paramilitary groups fighting a colonial army and occupation forces.

However, reading the news from the Middle East, it is rather obvious that the Israeli government has no clear agenda to counter the current daring military operations against its army and if this isn’t enough, the IDF has no means to counter such guerrilla assaults.

Today’s merciless collateral damage in Beirut as well as in Gaza proves that at least militarily, Israel is in total despair.

It has neither the political nor the military answer to counter Arab resistance.

But here comes the catch; Israel doesn’t need an answer as such, it doesn’t even look for one.

Israel is a racially orientated democracy. Its leaders are engaged in one thing only, i.e. maintenance of the their political power.

As far as the Israeli political game is concerned, the rule is very simple, the more Arab blood you have on your hands the more you are suited to get on with your governing job.

This rule obviously was in favour of Rabin, Sharon, Barak and Netanyahu. Olmert and Peretz are still quite far behind. Both the prime minister and his defence minister lack some real experience in military and security matters. Hence they have a lot of catching up to do.

In other words, Peretz and Olmert have to provide the Israeli people with a glorious spectacle of merciless retaliation. They have to prove to their keen voters that they have internalised the real biblical meaning of ‘an eye for an eye’.

Looking at the carnage in Beirut today it somehow seems as if they even try to give the old Hebraic say a new meaning.

As devastating as it may sound, this is exactly what the Israelis want them to do.

Within democratic Israel the biblical call “pour out your fury upon the goyim” is translated into a Jewish secular pragmatic political practice.

This isn’t sad. This is a real tragedy. And I wonder whether there is anyone out there who is still overwhelmed with the Israeli unilateral peace agenda?

[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

Bush Tells Putin He Hopes Russia Will Be Ruined:
[Says He Wishes They Have Freedom “Like Iraq”]

July 15, 2006 Think Progress

During a press conference today at the G8 summit in Russia, President Bush told President Vladimir Putin that Americans want Russia to develop a free press and free religion “like Iraq.”

To laughter and applause, Putin responded: “We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.”

CNN’s Ed Henry called it a “tough jab.” The exchange underscores how the war in Iraq has damaged the standing of the United States, to the point where even modest encouragement for democratic reform is met with ridicule.

Full transcript:

BUSH: I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq, where there’s a free press and free religion. And I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia will do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy.

PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.

BUSH: Just wait.

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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