[Thanks to Niko L, who sent this in.]

“You Have More Allies In There Than You Realize”
Outreach To The Troops:
Report # 3 For GI Special

7.16.06 By Ron Ruiz, The Military Project Organizing Committee, Veterans For Peace

On July 14th members of the Military Project and Veterans For Peace launched another day of outreach action with soldiers of an Army National Guard unit in New York City, which includes many veterans of combat in Iraq.

We were successful once again in distributing large amounts of the Traveling Soldier newsletter (www.traveling-soldier.org/), a new GI Special reprint and a “Fight Back, Join The GI Anti War Movement” brochure created by Iraq Veterans Against The War.

In the 90 minutes we spent talking to soldiers and distributing the different materials we found the environment around us to be as friendly and welcoming as ever. Our presence there is no longer just recognized by the soldiers. It is acknowledged. And it is clear that most have no love for George Bush or his Iraq War.

Many of the soldiers we spoke to were pleased and eager to receive the latest issue of the Traveling Soldier newsletter. It’s clear that we have established a solid base of readers of the newsletter inside the Armory.

Another highlight of the day was a conversation with one soldier, a Lieutenant, who told us “You have more allies in there than you realize.”

And as we were leaving a worker from the armory told us “come back next month” while a group of soldiers next to him nodded in agreement; a clear sign of how far we have come with our work and the success we’ve had in building a good relationship with the soldiers.

This is all due to seven months of hard work and dedication given by everyone involved in the outreach organizing work.

MORE:

THE MILITARY PROJECT
Contact@militaryproject.org

MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY PROJECT

1. 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.

1. Are for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all occupation troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

1. Believe that oppressed peoples and nations have the right to self-determination and the right to resist Imperial invasion and occupation.

1. Do not require others to be in complete agreement to work together with them towards common objectives.

1. Reject the idea that organizations working together on a common project must not debate differences about the best way forward for the movement. On the contrary, we encourage debate and discussion as the most useful method to arrive at the best course of action.

1. May choose to support candidates for elective office who are for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but do not support candidates opposed to bringing our troops home now.

1. Are committed to organizational democracy. This means control of our organization by the membership, through freely elected delegates to any coordinating bodies that may be formed, whether at local, regional, or national levels. Any member in good standing may run for any position, with or without a slate. Coordinating bodies must report their actions, decisions and votes to the membership who elected them for approval or rejection.

1. Are committed to putting in time taking action in an organized way to reach out to members of the armed forces, including local community Reserve and National Guard units.

1. Are not present or former commissioned officers in the armed forces, members of the military police, or any law enforcement agency.

I understand and am in agreement with the above statement, and pledge to defend my brothers and sisters against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

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

U.S. Soldier Killed By Southern Baghdad IED

07/16/06 Reuters

A U.S. soldier was killed after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

An Island Son Is Laid To Rest

July 15, 2006 By PETER N. SPENCER, STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

Standing a short distance from his son’s flower-covered coffin, Geoffrey Mason Sr. took a moment to take it all in: The scores of mourners walking slowly back to their cars, or gathering in small clusters around the grave, sobbing, hugging and remembering Army Spc. Collin Tyree Mason.

“I feel my son’s spirit here,” he said. “I feel my son’s spirit in all of these people.”

For the elder Mason, the large crowd gathered at Ocean View Cemetery in Oakwood yesterday and the outpouring of emotion, paid tribute to the soldier’s spirit — a spirit which, while short-lived, lived fully and touched many.

Mason, a 20-year-old South Beach native, was killed July 2 after he was hit by mortar fire at a checkpoint outside Fort Taji in Baghdad.

A member of the Army’s 166th Armored Battalion based in Fort Hood, Texas, he is the sixth Staten Islander or former Islander to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“He became our brother as much as much as he is your brother, your friend, your son. … He was and always will be in our hearts,” [Sgt.] Egipaccio said.

After he read the statements, Caslen presented Mason’s widow, Cynthia Martinez Mason, and his mother, Cynthia Boone-Mason, with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart — both of which were awarded to Mason posthumously.

Before the funeral, Mrs. Boone-Mason spoke about all the love and support she has received in the two weeks since her son’s death.

“I’ve had so many people just come up to me and hug me,” she said. “It has been overwhelming.”

After the services at the funeral home, Mrs. Boone-Mason waited outside with other family members as seven uniformed soldiers carried her son’s flag-draped casket into the street. Passersby stood silently on the sidewalks, and drivers stopped in traffic on New Dorp Lane and got out of their cars to watch the soldiers lift the coffin into a waiting hearse.

The procession — dozens of cars long — passed through the South Beach neighborhood where Mason once lived before entering the Amboy Road cemetery.

There, five soldiers fired a three-shot salute and a bugler played “Taps” as the weeping crowd gathered around Mason’s grave. The soldiers meticulously folded the flag on Mason’s coffin and handed it to his widow. Three similar flags were handed to Mason’s mother, father and 15-year-old brother, Wesley Mason.

Mrs. Mason, a black veil covering her face, clutched the flag as she carefully placed a single red rose atop her husband’s coffin.

British Basra Bases Under Heavy Attack

7.16.06 AP

Residents heard several dozen explosions from apparent mortar attacks on British bases around the Shi’ite southern city of Basra. A British military spokesman confirmed at least one raid had taken place.

Residents said it was one of the heaviest such attacks they could recall in recent times.

Conneaut Soldier Wounded

TRAVIS DRAPER SUBMITTED PHOTO / The Star Beacon

July 07, 2006 By MARK TODD, Star Beacon Staff Writer

CONNEAUT: Hospital officials in Iraq assured Lucinda and Randy Draper their soldier son was OK, but the anxious parents needed to hear it from his lips to be absolutely sure.

Army Spc. Travis Draper, 25, suffered a leg wound when a roadside explosive detonated as his military vehicle traveled past a few days ago. The family was notified on Monday, and a short time later was able to speak with Draper, Lucinda Draper said.

“It was a scary, very scary feeling,” Draper said Thursday. “My first words to him were Did you lose your leg?”

Fortunately, the answer was no.

“He suffered a puncture wound and a fracture to his left leg,” she said. “There’s going to be a lot of bruising. He’s going to be sore for awhile.”

Draper, a combat engineer serving with the 168th Engineer Brigade, Echo Co., was behind the wheel of a Humvee when the explosion occurred, his family was told.

“He saw dust fly and the windshield became cracked,” she said. “Then he felt the pain.”

The blast pushed the drivers side door of the vehicle into his leg, and shrapnel did more damage, Lucinda Draper said.

Her son was wearing full body armor, which may have prevented more serious injuries, his mother said. “It definitely made a difference,” she said. “He was very, very lucky.”

Drapers attitude was upbeat during their conversation, she said. “He’s got a very positive attitude,” Lucinda Draper said. “He’s doing well.”

A city native and graduate of Conneaut High Schools class of 2000, Draper joined the Army shortly after graduation and is in his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was home for a two-week visit earlier this summer.

“He was in the first 13 months of the war,” his mother said. “He’s seen a lot.”

As an engineer, Drapers primary duty is to defuse explosives, but he also serves as a gunner when needed, Lucinda Draper said.

Drapers family and friends are hoping for his rapid recovery. “He’s done very well,” his mother said. “We’re very proud of him.”

Farragut Marine Injured By Roadside Bomb

Marine Lance Cpl. Austin Davis of Farragut was hit by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Karmah, Iraq, near Fallujah.

July 8, 2006 By MATT LAKIN, Knoxville News Sentinel

A local Marine could be on his way home early after being wounded this week in Iraq.

Lance Cpl. Austin Lee Davis of Farragut was scheduled to have surgery Friday at a military hospital in Germany, two days after being hit by a roadside bomb, said his mother, Janet Davis.

“He’s fortunate to be alive,” she said. “And he’s expected to fully recover. I think he’ll be home within the next few weeks.”

Davis, 22, graduated from Christian Academy of Knoxville in 2002 and attended Pellissippi State Technical Community College. His father, Dr. Doug Davis, works as an internist for the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

He joined the Marine Corps last spring and arrived in January in Iraq with the 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division, his mother said.

“He said he wanted the discipline,” she said. “I guess he got it.”

Davis was on patrol Wednesday outside Karmah near Fallujah, Iraq, when the bomb exploded a few yards away.

“There were four of them returning to the base,” his mother said. “They were walking back. He was the only person who got hit. He thought it was because he had the radio.”

Janet Davis learned about the explosion that night. Marine officials told her the blast broke her son’s left arm and sprayed it, his left leg and stomach with shrapnel.

The Marine called his family Thursday night from his hospital bed in Landstuhl, Germany. “He sounded pretty good,” said his twin brother, Adam. “He wasn’t complaining or anything.” He even managed to make a few jokes.

“He’s in a lot of pain right now,” his mother said. “But he was very articulate. It seems like for them that’s just another day at the office. They just want to get well and go back to work.”

Now she’s waiting to see her son again. She expects him to return to Camp Pendleton, Calif., by next week. Doctors could decide after that whether he stays there for treatment or returns home to Tennessee.

It’ll be an early return for the Marine, whose unit was scheduled to come home next month.

“He’ll get back before they do,” his mother said. “I just can’t wait to see him with my own eyes.”

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

This Is Supposed To Be The Good News?
It Will Take 3 Years To Train Half As Many Local Troops As Occupation Needs

July 14, 2006 By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press

It will take at least three more years to finish training Afghanistan’s planned 70,000-man army, the U.S. general in charge of the effort said Thursday.

He did not challenge an Afghan assertion that the number may be less than half what’s needed.

Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin, who heads the operation to train Afghan soldiers and police, told a Pentagon press conference that about 30,000 soldiers are fully trained and equipped and that the force is growing by about 1,000 a month.

“So if you do the math you could figure out about how many months it would take us to get to the 70,000,” Durbin said, meaning that 40 months would be needed to train the 40,000 more programmed by the U.S.-led coalition.

Asked why it would take so long to raise an army that small, he said: “Based on how we have put the program together, we feel that the 1,000 a month is appropriate to retain the quality.”

Durbin did not challenge the statement a day earlier by Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak that the country really needs two or three times the planned 70,000.

Wardak said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview in Kabul that the “minimum number we can survive on within this complex, strategic environment” is 150,000 to 200,000.

TROOP NEWS

Endless Billions For Bush’s War Profiteer Buddies;
But Military Families Have To Take Handouts To Visit Wounded Soldiers Or Let Them Suffer Alone

[Here it is again, the same kind of news report that’s been coming up over and over again since this evil war began.

[There is no enemy in Iraq; there never was any enemy in Iraq. The common deadly enemy of U.S. troops and Iraqis, and the only enemy worth fighting, are the lying traitor politicians happily running the Imperial government in Washington DC for the benefit of nobody at all other than their upper class campaign contributors, and not hesitating to stuff their own pockets while they’re at it.

[They don’t give a shit for the troops, living, wounded, or dead, except as tools to use to get what they want for themselves. Enough of that bullshit. Payback is long, long overdue. T]

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

Donation Lets Parents Visit Wounded Son

July 5, 2006 By Boston Globe Newspaper Company

SALEM, N.H.

Thanks to a stranger, the parents of an injured soldier in Iraq can visit him in a hospital in Germany.

The anonymous donation, worth thousands of dollars, came from a man the family has never met, said Sandy Bohne, mother of Army Specialist Joseph Bohne. She said the donation makes the situation a lot easier for her family, and she hopes to talk to the donor in person someday.

“We’re very stressed, not sleeping very much,” she said. “I feel a lot better now that I’ll be able to actually see him.”

Bohne, 22, is recovering from the June 27 explosion that killed Sergeant First Class Terry Wallace, 33, of Winnsboro, La. They were on patrol in Taji, north of Baghdad, when a roadside bomb went off near their vehicle.

Sandy and Joseph Bohne plan to fly out to see their son on Sunday and spend a few weeks with him.

Bohne suffered injuries to his lower body in the explosion. He has undergone surgery and may have to have more, Sandy Bohne said. “He’s determined to get better,” she said.

Bohne, a 2001 Salem High School graduate, was serving his second tour of Iraq.

Army Chief Of Staff Explains Why The War In Iraq Is Lost:
[Facts Are Stubborn Things]

July 14, 2006 By Gina Cavallaro, Army Times Staff writer

The rate of consumption and the cost reset of equipment being used in Iraq and Afghanistan is draining the Army’s coffers, delaying the modernization of battle platforms, the Army chief of staff said Friday.

“In the last seven years, we have retrenched in the Army to pay our bills and terminated $86 billion worth of modernization.”

[Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter] Schoomaker pointed out that the Army’s five major depots are operating at about 50 percent of capacity and that right now, there are 1,000 Humvees and 500 tanks rare being held back from reset for lack of funds.

Roughly 30 percent of troops on the ground in Iraq are combat forces and more than 45 percent provide logistics. [Meaning the idiots are trying to occupy a nation of 22 million with 39,000 combat troops. Assuming they work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with no letup at all, that means only 19,500 on duty at any given moment. Game over. Time to come home.]

The remainder are trainers and advisors working with the Iraqi security forces, according to Schoomaker.

The logistics and combat equipment, he said, is being consumed at about four times the normal rate and as that equipment gets repaired and reset over and over again, the Army is reaching a point of diminishing returns which will soon make it cheaper to buy new equipment.

Two years ago, he said, it was costing about $4 billion a year to reset the equipment, now it’s costing about $12 billion to $13 billion a year to replace the equipment or reset it.

Bush Wanted Some “Positive” News About The War:

July 4, 2006 MSNBC.com

BOISE, Idaho: The nearly 19,000 American soldiers wounded in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003, including more than 500 amputees, are expected to help lead future U.S. Paralympic teams.

A Soldier Writes From Iraq:
“With So Many Of Our Freedoms Being Put Under The Microscope Lately, We Need To Push Our Leaders To Fight To Protect Them, Not To Throw Them Away”

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

Letters To The Editor
Stars and Stripes
July 3, 2006

The constitutional amendment to outlaw flag-burning failed to pass recently by a very narrow margin. I’m not going to be very popular after this, but thank God for that.

As a soldier in the U.S. Army who would gladly give my life for my country, I cannot express how wrong it would be to pass a law banning this practice.

It would be a blatant failure of our government to protect our freedom of speech and expression.

As a soldier and a patriot, that someone would burn the single greatest symbol of freedom enrages me to no end, but it is the freedom that the Stars and Stripes represents, and that so many soldiers have died for, that would be burned if such a law were to pass.

That Americans have the freedom to burn our nation’s flag in protest is one of the reasons why we live in the greatest country in the world. We should look at the reasons behind why someone would want to burn Old Glory, and not that they do it. The Stars and Stripes now stands, and should always stand, as a beacon of freedom.

Our country is by no means perfect, and probably never will be, but what makes us great is that we have the blueprints and the will to always work toward that goal.

This legislation would be a step in the wrong direction.

With so many of our freedoms being put under the microscope lately, we need to push our leaders to fight to protect them, not to throw them away.

Sgt. David Kerr
Forward Operating Base O’Ryan,
Iraq

The Traitor Rumsfeld Punishes Honorable Soldier Who Reported War Crime Of Hostage Torture;
Now SecDefRat Tries To Hide His Filthy Doings From Congress

July 17, 2006 By Gordon Lubold, Army Times staff writer

When some lawmakers wanted more information about a military whistleblower, the Pentagon just wouldn’t return their calls, they say.

So a House panel had to get tough with defense officials, issuing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a subpoena June 30 requesting documents on Spc. Samuel J. Provance, whose testimony to Congress had been key to its investigation of the 2004 detainee abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

“The concerns we have is that there were activities … that he would like to have reported on, that he may not have reported on because of concerns about his job,” said Keith Ausbrook, chief counsel for the House Government Reform Committee.

Provance, then a member of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion, 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, based in Wiesbaden, Germany, said he tried to report to his superiors his concerns regarding the treatment of prisoners at the now-infamous prison where he was assigned.

At one point in May 2004, he agreed to be interviewed by ABC News, despite his command’s request that he decline, congressional officials said.

Provance said he was later “administratively flagged” and lost his security clearance.

At a hearing in February, he told members of Congress that he was effectively in military limbo.

“I still haven’t received my clearance back, or any official word as far as where it stands,” Provance told Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., according to a transcript of a Feb. 14 hearing of the House Government Reform national security subcommittee, which Shays chairs.

“The only thing I’ve been doing since being demoted is picking up trash and guard duty and things of that nature,” Provance said.

He said he was demoted from sergeant in July 2005 after receiving an Article 15 for “disobeying a direct order” not to speak out on what he saw at Abu Ghraib.

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said July 5 that it is not Army policy to punish soldiers for speaking up. “Typically, a soldier’s records are flagged for personnel reasons, not for being a whistleblower,” he said. [Another one of Rumsfeld’s lying, ass kissing rats surfaces. Let’s start keeping a list.]

Lawmakers had been seeking more details on Provance’s personnel records but were not getting the response they wanted, members said. By June 29, they got angry, and the next day, a subpoena was issued.

If a department “won’t even return a call after three months and begin that dialogue, we really have no choice but to subpoena the material and compel their attention to our request,” Shays said in a prepared statement.

The documents are critical to the committee’s aim to “fully understand how this soldier was treated” and what he had tried to tell his superiors, Davis said.

Ausbrook said the committee is particularly interested in what Provance may have to say about the alleged use of detainees’ family members during interrogations.

Provance “apparently tried to raise concerns about these (practices) and was apparently told … he would be disciplined” if he did not keep quiet, Ausbrook said.

[So, if he reports a criminal violation of the Law Of Land Warfare, the holding of hostages, this honorable soldier is the one to get punished. Smoke these criminals out and hunt them down.]

He said that once the committee reviews the pertinent documents and records, it will likely hold another hearing on the issue.

KNOW THE FACE OF THE ENEMY:

Rumsfeld and the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey July 12, 2006. REUTERS/Jacob

Gen Peter Schoomaker, USA Chief of Staff:
“There Is A Limit To How Much Deception That Even A Yes Man Will Put Up With”

From: David Honish, Veterans For Peace
To: GI Special
Sent: July 16, 2006

When tasked with planning a war in Iraq, Army Chief of Gen Eric Shinseki honored his oath to The Constitution and gave his best professional military assessment. He told the Whitehouse that an invasion of Iraq would violate international law, require hundreds of thousands of troops, and take several years to complete. He was asked to retire for his honesty.

The next six guys in line for Army Chief of Staff turned the job down, citing agreement with Gen Shinseki.

The Whitehouse had to pull a guy out of retirement in order to find a yes man that would do as he was told and keep his mouth shut. Apparently there is a limit to how much deception that even a yes man will put up with, as evidenced by a news conference last week?

(pause) “Ah, the question is, are we winning in Iraq? (longer pause) “The answer is that we are not losing.” Gen Peter Schoomaker USA Chief of Staff 14 JUL 06

Pentagon Cases Against Guantanamo Prisoners Found To Be Full Of Shit

7.14.06 Boston Globe

The U.S. military’s accusations against detainees at Guantanamo Bay contain factual errors and some easily disproved assertions, according to declassified records, raising questions about whether the Pentagon has thoroughly investigated its cases against the roughly 400 inmates.

GAO Slams Pentagon Trying To Keep Public Information Secret

7.14.06 Washington Post

The Government Accountability Office has criticized the Defense Department for sloppy management of its security classification system, including marking as “confidential” or “secret” material that Pentagon officials acknowledged was unclassified information.

We’re Generals, We Do What We Please;
We Go To DC Demonstrations In Full Dress Uniform

7.14.06 National Journal’s CongressDailyAM

Two lawmakers who bore the brunt of an intense lobbying campaign to boost the National Guard’s influence at the Pentagon are complaining to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about his apparent failure to dress down several Guard generals who dressed up.

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner and ranking Democrat Carl Levin wrote Rumsfeld to remind him that a department rule prohibits the wearing of military uniforms at political events.

They cited a May 10 event outside the Russell Senate Office Building during which, the senators said, about 25 general officers of the Army and Air National Guard, most of them in uniform, rallied in support of legislation that would elevate the National Guard Bureau chief to four-star rank and membership in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

[OK, maybe now it’s time for the tens of thousands of troop against the war in Iraq to follow their example, and assemble in DC.]

Good News For Resistance Movements Everywhere:
Pentagon Plans To Adopt Corporation Business Management Model

7.14.06 Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The Army has begun training a group of senior leaders in lean/six sigma business practices and plans to begin applying the principles across its various processes to improve efficiency, according to Army Secretary Francis Harvey.

AWOL News:
Two Tries,
One Strikeout, One [On The] Run

#1

July 17, 2006 Army Times

An Oregon soldier and his wife are accused of fabricating a family emergency in an effort to get him discharged from the military.

David Rayl, 23, was arrested July 2 under suspicion of misdemeanor official misconduct and initiating a false report, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. His wife, Erica Rayl, 26, was arrested under suspicion of conspiracy and initiating a false report, the authorities said.

David Rayl told a deputy in June that his wife had abandoned him and had placed their 7-month-old child in the care of his mother, who is disabled and couldn’t adequately care for the child.

Investigators learned that Rayl was absent without leave from the Army and his wife had not left him, police said.

An Army spokesman said July 6 that Rayl is still listed as AWOL.

#2

A Port Charlotte, Fla., man in search of a job was pleased to get a call from the county jail asking him to return for a second interview for an opening as a corrections officer.

But Pvt. Brian R. Shearer, 24, had omitted crucial details of his military service during his first interview. A background check found he was a fugitive, accused by the Army of desertion.

His wife, Shawnie, told the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press that Shearer went AWOL because she wanted him home, in part because she was enduring a complicated pregnancy.

In a second interview with the local NBC affiliate, she said, “Every time he would call me, I was stressed out and crying. It was really hard.”

Shearer became a part of the law-enforcement system, but not in the way he expected. He was arrested, booked into the Port Charlotte County jail and released on his own recognizance to travel to Fort Knox, Ky., where he will face desertion charges.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

7.16.06 AP & AFP

Guerrillas captured a senior Iraqi Oil Ministry official Sunday.

Attackers stopped Adel Kazzaz, director of the North Oil Co., shortly after he left the ministry, beat his bodyguards and whisked him away, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said.

The North Oil Co. runs Iraq’s oil fields around the northern city of Kirkuk. The other major fields are in the south and are run by a separate company. Both are government-owned.

Kazzaz was in Baghdad to attend a meeting with ministry officials, Jihad said.

A car bomb exploded under Al Ghadir Bridge near the Zayuna neighborhood in Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding two Interior Ministry commandos, a ministry official said. The bomber attacked a passing commando convoy.

Two truck drivers have also been killed and a third has been captured in an ambush on a convoy on the road between Kirkuk and the central city of Tikrit.

South of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier has been killed while attempting to remove a bomb placed in a cafe in the town of Iskandiriyah.

Militants opened fire on a vehicle carrying three guards of the Baghdad mobile telephone company, killing one, according to police.

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.

In Kirkuk in northern Iraq guerrillas ambushed an army major in his car, wounding him.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“PTSD, Troop Shortages, Logistics Snafus, Poor Leadership, And Lies”
“It Would Seem That Only The Technology Has Changed Since ‘The War To End All Wars?’”

From: David Honish, Veterans For Peace
To: GI Special
Sent: July 16, 2006

Last week I watched CBS news superficially cover GI’s at Ft Carson going untreated for PTSD. Same old story; the Army denies that there is a problem, and individuals are left to find their own treatment. Maybe at least some good literature will come out of it?

Literature like that of Pvt Elton E. Mackin, who also did not get treatmentfor PTSD.

After years of appeals, he did finally get a small VA disability pension for “shell shock.” There were no effective medications or therapy in his day. He sort of healed himself through the writing process. In the early 1970's he spoke with his son about his war on audio tape. Nineteen years after his death, the writings and tapes were combined to make the book, Suddenly We Didn’t Want To Die – Memoirs of a World War I Marine.

Elton Mackin had a way with words that reminded me of Mark Twain, or perhaps how Twain might have wrote if he had covered such a dark subject matter? There is a single photo in the book showing Pvt Mackin in uniform in 1919. When the 2nd Infantry Division was formed in FEB 1918, the Army lacked the troops to staff it. Two Marine rifle regiments and a Marine machinegun battalion were brigaded together to form half of this combined Army-Marine division. For this reason we do not know whether the medal worn by Pvt Mackin in the photo was a DSC awarded by the Army, or a Navy Cross awarded by the Marines?

The 1918 logistics system could not replace worn out forest green Marine uniforms with anything except khaki Army uniforms. Having to pin Marine insignia on Army uniforms was a minor inconvenience compared to Browning Automatic Rifles being witheld from the troops for security reasons until the final three weeks of WWI.

Prior to that, US troops were forced to borrow French Chauchat automatic rifles, probably the worst infantry weapon ever made. Pvt Mackin describes an abundance of bibles as a poor substitute for adequate weapons. We all had testaments. A loving people back in God’s country had issued them to us with many blessings, and then had sent us out to fight the Germans. They had not cared to see that we had tools of war. We borrowed most of those. Christians are such charming people.

Decades before “The Wall” or Arlington West, Pvt Mackin commented on such monuments only hinting at the full story. Little crosses stood above the dead. They do not tell of how men died; they hide the bitter human stories of the war. They seldom stand alone, but flock in little groups where men have passed, as though for company. All of the dead soldiers on the Soissons battlefield share common epitaphs: “Killed in action.” They seldom stand alone. Men see to that.

It was cynically said of WWI that it took about 15,000 men KIA to train a major general. Pvt Mackin expressed this more personally. The battalion had come back from Blanc-Mont ridge. No, the battalion was still up there. A hundred and thirty-four of us had come back from Blanc-Mont ridge. We had gone up a full strength battalion, a thousand strong. Maxims can make such a mess of charging men.

Pvt Mackin’s battalion was not impressed with the pep talk by V Corps Commander Major General Charles Summeral prior to their next offensive after the Blanc-Mont ridge slaughter. “You’ll bypass Landres-et-Saint-Georges. Keep away from it because we’re going to smother it with gas. Before you there are three low ridges. Behind the third, the German artillery is parked almost hub to hub. Go and get them! Don’t let them take away a single gun!”

We pictured other places, remembered that the enemy artillery was always good. It often blocked the way. We thought of point-blank battery fire across the wheat fields at Soissons, remembered German men who stayed to fire and fire and fire across that stubbled field at Blanc-Mont, serving their guns ‘til bullets cut them out.

“----now on those ridges all of your officers may be down, but you keep going! I want to sit back in my headquarters and hear that you carried all of your objectives on time.”

We remembered officers like that – had watched them fall going up before us. They had a code to live and die by; to never send a fellow where they wouldn’t go themselves. It was good to have soldiered with their kind.

“---and I repeat, on those first ridges go forward while you can still crawl! ---and now I say, and you remember this, on those three ridges, take no prisoners, nor should you stop to bandage your best friend.”

For awhile there was total silence. “Bastard!” a scarred buck sergeant said, talking half to himself. “Bastard, and he’s gonna sit and watch our progress on a map, eh? Him and his three ridges. The bastard!”

In Iraq the troops were betrayed with Whitehouse lies about “mushroom clouds” from nonexistent WMD’s.

In WWI the lies were about nonexistent rest camps for the frontline troops.

In the words of Pvt Mackin, And you wryly smile at the memory of some old time pal who, like you, had once believed the story about rest camps and a liberty in Paris. You knew the rest camps now. It was a standing joke among the columns. They dotted fields and forests and farmsteads here and there with rows and rows of little wooden crosses.

PTSD, troop shortages, logistics snafus, poor leadership, and lies.

It would seem that only the technology has changed since “the war to end all wars?”

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.

“They Put Us In Superhuman Situations And Still Expect Us To Act Normal”

July 17, 2006 By Kelly Kennedy, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

Had it been a lone soldier accused of raping and murdering an innocent local woman, the mind might more easily be able to accept the shock: a criminally deranged individual who acted on opportunity.

But that up to four soldiers are suspected of taking part in the allegedly premeditated attack March 12 in a small farming town outside Baghdad, and that no one acted to stop it, amplifies the horror of such an evil act.

To those who study the psychology of troops in the war zone, and those who have been there, such incidents are rare but not beyond explanation: Combat stress, long separations from loved ones and the deaths of comrades can erode moral judgment, they say.

Documents filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Kentucky on June 30 charge former Pfc. Steven D. Green, 21, with the rape and murder of an Iraqi woman, as well as the murder of three members of her family, including a 5-year-old girl. He had been released from the Army because of an unspecified “personality disorder” before he was identified as a suspect in the attack.

As many as four other soldiers from the same platoon in 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, may have participated; three in the Iraqis’ house and one left behind at the checkpoint according to the documents. Those documents portray Green as the leader in the alleged crimes.

Robert Jay Lifton, an editor of the book “Crimes of War: Iraq,” which came out in March, said he would not be surprised if it turns out that the private was indeed able to lead others in the attack.

After serving as an Air Force psychiatrist in the 1950s, Lifton was a founder of the Wellfleet Psychohistory Group in the 1960s, which looked at psychological motivations for war, terrorism and genocide. He is a visiting professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

“It isn’t just (Green) influencing them alone,” Lifton said. “It’s them being vulnerable to that kind of behavior. Almost all atrocities reflect some kind of group behavior.

“This example of rape and murder is extreme, but surely it was affected by the overall psychological climate for American soldiers in Iraq,” he said. “In terms of killing civilians, (troops) suffer the angry grief of losing buddies. That angry grief contributes to killing women or old people or even children of the enemy.”

“Unfortunately, it’s going to happen if people are at war,” former 502nd soldier Christopher McEnroe said. “They put us in superhuman situations and still expect us to act normal.”

McEnroe, who served with the 502nd during the unit’s first tour in 2003, said the Mahmoudiya case left him feeling “revolted, especially that it was guys in my unit.” But he could see how it could happen. McEnroe attends nursing school in Columbus, Ohio, after leaving the Army as a sergeant.

His tour in Iraq “was a little hairy here and there,” McEnroe said. “People would have to calm each other down.”

One of his worst days came when Spc. Brandon J. Rowe, 20, died in Ayyub on March 31, 2003.

“He was my soldier at the time,” McEnroe said. “We had been at a firefight alongside the river the day he was killed.

When he was in Iraq, McEnroe said, the leadership used out-of-control situations for briefings.

“You have to sit them down and say, ‘This is happening, guys,’” he said. “‘If you lose control, this is what can happen.’ But it’s hard to get time to talk to everyone because they’re always busy.”

Lifton, who interviewed soldiers involved in the My Lai massacre of at least 350 villagers during the Vietnam War, as well as Vietnam vets struggling with the psychological aftermath of war, said talking isn’t always enough.

The soldiers, he said, are surrounded by death; they are asked to kill as part of their jobs; and they don’t know whether they’re helping someone who killed a friend the week before.

“One would like to think we would do the right thing,” Lifton said. “But one doesn’t know. You become socialized to it. It becomes your environment.”

MORE:

“The Massacre Of Al-Haditha More Indicative Of Policy Gone Dreadfully Wrong Than A Bout Of Madness That Struck A Group Of Soldiers”

July 13, 2006 Hassan Nafaa, Al-Ahram [Cairo] [Excerpts].

The massacre of Al-Haditha is another glaring incident that is more indicative of policy gone dreadfully wrong than a bout of madness that struck a group of soldiers in the course of combat.

When members of an occupation force unit saw one of their colleagues blown to bits by a mine planted by resistance groups, they unleashed their guns in all directions, reaping a toll of 24 dead, most of whom were women, children or old men.

This and other types of crimes of war are certain to continue until the US removes itself from the quagmire into which it has sunk in Iraq.

Sadly, those who think that the US will end its occupation voluntarily are fooling themselves.

The only hope left is that the screams of Hoda in Palestine and of Abeer in Iraq help expose the masks of US, Israeli and Arab policies.

It is patently obvious that behind these masks all these parties are colluding in the rape of two nations with only popular resistance left to defend their honour.

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

A Message From The Lebanese Resistance:
“Not Only We Will Be Paying A Price. Not Only Our Houses Will Be Destroyed. Not Only Our Children Will Be Killed. Not Only Our People Will Be Displaced”
“Those Days Are Past”
“Those Times Have Come To An End”

The address of the General Secretary of Hizballah, His Excellency Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, to the Nation [Lebanon], www.uruknet.info [Excerpts]

July 15, 2006 Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr

In this first address that I give in these days following Operation True Promise, I would like to say a few words – a word to the Lebanese people, a word to the resistance fighters, a word to the Zionists, and a word to the Arab rulers.

I will not offer words to the international community because I have never for one day believed that there is any such thing as an international community, just as many in our nation feel.

First, I say to the Lebanese people: dear people – who embraced the resistance, by whom the resistance was victorious, and for whom the resistance won its victory on 25 May 2000 – this people who were the makers of the first victory in the history of the Arab struggle with the Israeli enemy, despite the basic inequality in forces, and in spite of the fact that the majority of our Arab brothers and the majority of our Muslim brothers abandoned us and despite the silence of the whole world, this Lebanese people made the miracle of the victory that stunned the world and humiliated the Zionists. [This refers to the war against Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which forced Israel to get out in May 2000.]

What is taking place today is not a response to a capture of their soldiers; it is a squaring of accounts with the people, resistance, state, army, political forces, regions, villages, and families that inflicted that historic defeat on that aggressive usurper entity that has never accepted its defeat.

Today, therefore, this is a total war that Zionism is waging to clear its whole account with Lebanon, the Lebanese people, the Lebanese state, the Lebanese army, and the Lebanese resistance, in revenge and reprisal for the victory they won on 25 May 2000.

I say to you that in this battle we are faced with two choices – not “we” as in Hizballah, or as in the resistance, the Hizballah resistance – but Lebanon as a state, a people, an army, a resistance, and a political power – we are faced with two choices: either to submit today to the conditions that the Zionist enemy wants to dictate to us all, using the pressure, support, and backing it has from America, from around the world, and, I’m sorry to say, from Arabs.

Either we submit completely to its conditions, which means taking Lebanon into an Israeli age under Israeli domination – in total frankness this is the extent of the matter – or we stand steadfast. That is the other choice: that we persevere, that we persevere and confront.

Now, as for my words for the resistance fighters, for my dear and beloved brothers: upon them rest the hopes of every Lebanese, every Palestinian, every Arab, every Muslim, every free and decent person in this world, every oppressed, tortured victim of injustice, every lover of steadfastness, courage, dignity, values, and nobility – the characteristics they embody by their presence on the field of battle and in their fight with this enemy, the fight of valiant heroes.

To the Zionists, to the people of the Zionist entity at this hour I say to them: you will soon discover how foolish and stupid are your new rulers, your new leaders.

They do not know how to assess reality. They have no experience in this area.

You Zionists say in opinion polls that you believe me more than you believe your officials. So now I call on you to listen well and believe me.

The equation has now changed.

I will not say today that if you strike Beirut, we will strike Haifa. I will not tell you that if you hit the south Beirut suburbs, we will hit Haifa. You wanted to get rid of that equation, so now we and you have got rid of it in actuality.

You wanted open warfare, and we are going into open warfare.

We are ready for it, a war on every level. To Haifa, and, believe me, to beyond Haifa, and to beyond beyond Haifa.

Not only we will be paying a price. Not only our houses will be destroyed. Not only our children will be killed. Not only our people will be displaced. Those days are past.

Those times have come to an end.

I promise you those times have passed. Therefore you must also bear the responsibility for what your government has done, for what that government has undertaken. From now on, you wanted open warfare, so it will be open warfare. You wanted it. Your government wanted to change the rules of the game, so let the rules then be changed.

And you have chosen open warfare with a people who take pride in their history, their civilization, and their culture, and who also possess material power, ability, expertise, knowledge, calm, imagination, determination, steadfastness, and courage. In the coming days it will be between us and you, God willing.

As to the Arab rulers, I don’t want to ask you about your history. I just want to say a few words.

We are adventurers. We in Hizballah are adventurers, yes. But we have been adventurers since 1982. And we have brought to our country only victory, freedom, liberation, dignity, honor, and pride. This is our history. This is our experience. This is our adventure.

In the year 1982 you said and the world said that we were crazy. But we proved that we were the rational ones, so who then was crazy?

This is something else and I don’t want to get into an argument with anyone. So I tell them simply: go bet on your reason and we will bet on our adventure, with God as our Supporter and Benefactor.

We have never for one day counted on you. We have trusted in God, our people, our hearts, our hands, and our children. Today we do the same, and God willing, victory will follow.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of God!

OCCUPATION REPORT

Confirmed:
Another Stupid Lie;
Occupation Troops Keep On Occupying Muthanna

[First, the silly lie.

7.14.06 New York Times

Parading troops, rifle-carrying tribesmen and an enthusiastic karate demonstration were the main attractions at a ceremony returning control over Muthanna province to the local Iraqi government and security forces.

For the first time since coalition armies invaded Iraq in 2003, the people of Muthanna, a spare southern desert province that borders Saudi Arabia, were fully in control of their lives, affairs and future.

[Now, how it really is.]

July 14, 2006 Daily Star

Iraq took full control of a province from foreign troops for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion on Thursday.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the handover of southern Muthanna province from British-led troops to Iraqis, Iraq’s prime minister warned that insurgents would try to stage attacks to mar a day “written with golden letters in Iraq’s history.”

Coalition forces will, however, remain in the province but will be pulled out of urban areas and largely assume a supporting and advisory role.

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Terrorist Hypocrisy; Zionist Species

July 16, 2006 from Z in Beirut via John Spritzler, Anti-Allawi group

Israel has told people to evacuate from the south because they are going to annihilate the south of Lebanon. However, the people can not leave because all the roads have been destroyed/blocked.

And yesterday when people did try and leave, the Israelis opened fire on them!

A massacre is happening!

Palestinians Force Open Border Crossing From Egypt

Jul 14 By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer

Militants forced open a border gate between Egypt and Gaza on Friday, wounding an Egyptian officer and letting hundreds of Palestinians who had been trapped on the Egyptian side of the border to get into Gaza.

Armed militants stood by as people carrying suitcases crossed into Gaza. Some walked through on crutches while others walked or ran through the gate.

Egyptian police Capt. Mohammed Abdel Hadi said masked Palestinian militants firing guns broke into the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, clearing the way for the trapped Gazans.

The crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world, has largely been closed since June 25, when Palestinian militants carried out a raid on a military outpost, killing two Israeli soldiers and capturing one.

Hundreds of people have been stranded on the Egyptian side, unable to get to their homes in Gaza.

Rafah’s closure left hundreds of Palestinians who work and study in Egypt stranded, while preventing hundreds of others from leaving the coastal area to receive medical treatment abroad.

Last week, a 26-year-old Palestinian woman suffering from cancer died at the border while waiting to be allowed into Gaza.

[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

Democrat Leaders Show Cowardice In The Face Of The Enemy
[As Usual]

[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in. He writes: Must be some sort of unwritten law against politicians telling the truth?]

July 15, 2006 Associated Press

ROCK HILL, S.C.: Democrats pulled an Internet ad that showed flag-draped coffins Friday after Republicans and at least two Democrats demanded it be taken down on grounds the image was insensitive and not fit for a political commercial.

The campaign committee replaced the ad with a radio commercial that targets Rep. John Hostetler, R-Ind., for opposing an increase in the minimum wage.

Democrats had featured the video ad for nearly two weeks on the DCCC Web site where it had gone largely unnoticed until Republicans began objecting to it this week.

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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