7.17.06: DEARBORN, MICHIGAN DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ISRAELI TERRORISM. (REUTERS]

“Estoy En Contra De La Guerra Y Me Duelemucho Lo Que Paso A Mi Hijo”
“I Am Against The War, And I Feel Very Hurt By What Happened To My Son”

July 16, 2006 By JORGE MARISCAL, North Jersey Media Group Inc. Jorge Mariscal, a Vietnam veteran, teaches at the University of California, San Diego.

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

Another Mexican-American hero brought home under the Stars and Stripes /… Long gone the need to prove his red-blooded American genealogy.”

THE IRAQ WAR has taken a toll on Mexican-American families. Take Kristian Menchaca. He was born in Houston but grew up in Brownsville, Texas. The son of immigrants, he often visited his many cousins on the Mexican side.

Menchaca dropped out of high school and obtained a GED. He loved to play basketball, rooted for the Houston Rockets, and worked at a gas station and at a Wendy’s before enlisting. But hamburgers were not his favorite food. According to friends, he preferred taquitos detrompo con cilantro y cebolla (pork tacos with cilantro and onions).

On June 16, insurgents in Iraq abducted Pfc. Menchaca, 23, and fellow soldier Tommy Tucker, 25, at a checkpoint somewhere along the Euphrates River, 10 miles south of Baghdad. Their bodies were found a few days later.

After she heard the dreadful news, Menchaca’s mother, Maria Guadalupe Vasquez, issued a statement in Spanish: “Estoy en contra de la guerra y me duelemucho lo que paso a mi hijo” (”I am against the war, and I feel very hurt by what happened to my son”).

Vasquez and Julio Cesar, Menchaca’s brother and an Iraq veteran, did not agree with her son’s decision to join the military.

In a mixture of bravado and clarity, Julio Cesar told a local Spanish-language newspaper: “Kristian was never afraid to go to war even though this war in Iraq is not a war worth dying for.”

Last month, Menchaca was laid to rest in Brownsville. Family members from both sides of the border gathered to pay their respects.

Menchaca’s death, and each one of the other Mexican-Americans to fall in President Bush’s war, recalls the words of poet Maria Herrera Sobek, who wrote about the U.S. war in Southeast Asia:

“Another Mexican-American hero brought home under the Stars and Stripes
Long gone the need to prove his manhood
Long gone the need to prove his red-blooded American genealogy.”

While senators and House members in Washington play politics with the issues of immigration and the war, President Bush’s folly drags on.

For Mexican-Americans, who are so scorned in Washington today, it is a tragedy and an irony that their sons are spilling their red blood in Iraq.

History will hold all of us responsible.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Huge Increase In Resistance Attacks On U.S. Occupation Troops

Jul. 19, 2006 By Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers

While the number of American troops killed by hostile fire has declined, the average daily number of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and police nationwide increased by 44 percent last month versus June 2005, to 88 from 61.

Other months have shown similar increases: April was up 59 percent, to 86 this year from 54 last year, and May was up 44 percent, to 91 from 63, according to figures supplied by the U.S. military in Baghdad.

Statistics compiled by the Brookings Institution in Washington indicate that daily attacks by insurgents have risen consistently during the past three years.

Fitchburg Marine Killed

Jul 19, 2006 (CBS4)

A Marine from Fitchburg has died in Iraq. 21-year-old Lance Corporal Geoffrey Cayer is the first Marine from Fitchburg to be killed in the war.

Cayer is survived by his parents, two brothers, and sister.

British Soldier Killed, Five Others Wounded By Basra Resistance Attack In Force;
They Pay The Price For Command Stupidity

[Last week, the silly man in charge of the British occupation in Basra decided to arrest the Basra head of the Mahdi Army. Too bad he didn’t die instead of his troops. They’re paying the price. In Vietnam, his troops would have removed him from command by now, one way or another.]

July 19 (KUNA)

A British soldier was killed and five others were injured on Wednesday during armed confrontations with insurgents in Basra, said the spokesman for British forces.

In a press release, he added that British structures and military bases in Basra were bombarded with missiles and rockets on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Armed groups bombarded the British consulate and military bases with over 100 rockets and projectiles, he said.

British Soldier Wounded In Basra

7/18/2006 AFP News

A British soldier was wounded Tuesday when he came under attack by militamen during a routine patrol in the main southern city of Basra, a British spokesman said, adding that the injuries were not life threatening.

Salvadoran Soldier Killed, Another Wounded Near Kut

Jul 19 By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

One Salvadoran soldier died Wednesday and another was wounded in a bombing near Kut, southwest of Baghdad, his country’s defense minister said. It was the third fatality among Salvadoran troops since the Central American nation sent forces in 2003.

Hazelton Soldier Injured

July 19, 2006 By JOSH NELSON, Courier Staff Writer

HAZLETON: A member of the Iowa Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry was wounded Sunday after a roadside bomb detonated near his convoy in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.

Sgt. Justin Abernathy, 24, of Hazleton, was hospitalized at a U.S. medical facility following the detonation, spokesman Lt. Col. Gregory Hapgood said.

Dawn Abernathy-Fassbinder, the soldier’s mother, said her son left for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany Monday night. ‘We know in Germany they’ve got great doctors and a great facility,” she added.

Abernathy received burns and a compound fracture to his arm, Abernathy-Fassbinder said. Doctors believe he will need surgery on his arm to deal with an infection, she added. He will also have a plate and pins inserted in his arm.

The news of his injuries first hit the family Sunday after Abernathy’s wife, Amber, received a call from a member of the military, Abernathy-Fassbinder said.

“I was upset and concerned that he was OK,” she said. “Then I was worried, is anybody else hurt?”

Abernathy arrived in Iraq in April with the National Guard’s 133rd Infantry Company B, which is headquartered in Oelwein, Hapgood said. Abernathy’s company left for Camp Shelby, Miss., in late October for training before going overseas.

Abernathy enlisted in the guard when he was 17 just before graduating from high school, his mother said. He signed up again for a six-year stint shortly after his first year in the guard.

He and Amber married in 2003 and have one child, Sebastian, who is 2 years old. Abernathy-Fassbinder said Amber is handling the news as best she can.

“She’s doing OK,” Abernathy-Fassbinder said. “The thing is, we know he’s safe and he’s doing OK. She’s pretty powerful.” Whether Abernathy will come home after he’s released from the hospital is not clear.

Abernathy is the second member of the 1-133rd wounded in Iraq since deployment. Spc. Joshua Reece, 25, of Eldora, was injured in a similar blast from a roadside bomb near Ramadi. He was not seriously hurt and was expected to return to active duty.

The 1-133rd, based out of Waterloo, traces its origins to the Civil War. Its nickname, the Ironman Battalion, was earned for the unit’s consecutive days of combat in World War II. The battalion has units in Waterloo, Oelwein, Charles City, Iowa Falls and Dubuque.

FUTILE EXERCISE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

7.3.06: A US soldier where a car bomb exploded in Mosul. (AFP/Mujahed Mohammed)

Qaim Bomber Hits Checkpoint:
U.S. Casualties Reported

7.19.06 Reuters

A bomber detonated an explosive vest at a U.S. checkpoint in the town of Qaim, western Baghdad, causing a number of U.S. casualties, police said.

The U.S. military said it was unaware of the incident.

Danish And Lithuanian Soldiers Wounded

Jul 19, 2006 By DPA, Copenhagen

Two soldiers, a Dane and a Lithuanian, were injured in two separate incidents while on patrol in southern Iraq, the Danish military said Wednesday.

Both soldiers were hit in the right shoulder by bullets while on patrol near Basra on Tuesday.

The Danish military command in Copenhagen said both soldiers were not seriously wounded, but that it would investigate the incidents.

The Lithuanian soldier was hit while on patrol in Hartha, north of Basra, and was flown by helicopter to a field hospital.

The Danish soldier was hit near a police station in Qurnah, and was also transported to a field hospital.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

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

Welcome To Bush’s Afghan Slaughterhouse:
A Defeated Occupation Sacrifices Troops In Vain, For No Apparent Reason:
Soldiers “Do Not Understand Why Anyone Would Fight Over Such A Desolate Country For So Many Years”

July 14, 2006 Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune [Excerpts]

MUSA QALA BASE, Afghanistan:

Nobody waves at the soldiers here. Children do not crowd around the Humvees, asking for pens and candy, as they do in the rest of Afghanistan.

Even the girls throw rocks at passing U.S. military helicopters.

U.S. troops set up this base in southwestern Helmand province in mid-June to fight insurgents, part of the largest military operation since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. This area, virtually abandoned by the government for years, is probably the most hostile place for foreign troops in all of Afghanistan.

The only Afghan visitors to the new base have either tried to attack it or complained about it.

Some soldiers refer to the nearest large village, Musa Qala, as Taliban Town. Many are resentful of locals who pretend the Taliban does not exist, who refuse to help.

‘’They just want, want, want,’’ Spec. Jason Ide, 22, said while in his Humvee scouting a route for an upcoming mission. ‘’They don’t want to help us any.’’ [Sounds like a British soldier talking about those ungrateful, selfish Americans in 1776. Imagine that, not wanting to help George Bush set up a military dictatorship in their country, and not wanting to help the Army he sent to occupy them! And they treated the Russian invasion and occupation the same way! What’s wrong with these people? They should just happily kiss the ass of any foreign Imperial tyrant who wants to grab their country, shouldn’t they?]

To see how violent the war in Afghanistan has turned, look no further than the soldiers at this base. They have been attacked every few days.

On the morning of June 28, a medic known for always carrying a picture of his wife and newborn son was killed when an old land mine exploded.

That night, insurgents attacked a convoy carrying supplies to the base.

The next night, insurgents ambushed U.S. soldiers operating out of a satellite base about 60 miles to the north. Two weeks ago, a gunner at the satellite base was shot dead when his convoy was ambushed.

Life on the new base is bleak, a constant struggle in a windy desert where temperatures soar higher than 120 degrees and nightly blasts from 105 mm howitzers remind the Taliban that the soldiers still are there.

The camp is protected by barbed wire and a ring of ‘’Hescos,’’ which are large bags that are filled with sand to serve as barriers. Sentries on a hill above the camp and on guard towers can spot anyone approaching. [The French tried that kind of static defense in Vietnam. Some lived long enough to get back to France.]

Everyone lives in long tents that sleep about 50 people. At night the wind picks up, whipping through the tents and covering everything and everyone in sand the consistency of talcum powder. If left alone, the sand would bury this place in a month.

Showers are iffy. Air conditioners sit unused, with no generator to power them.

The Taliban destroyed the base’s new large refrigerator unit while it was being driven up through Musa Qala, along with the Red Bull, Gatorade and many soldiers’ personal belongings. Soldiers call the base Camp Hell or worse.

‘’And I thought Iraq was bad,’’ said Staff Sgt. Robert Masher, 29, of Pittson, Pa.

Soldiers here lament that this is a forgotten war, overshadowed by the violence in Iraq, as many soldiers in Afghanistan have long felt.

But increasingly, this is a forgotten deadly war.

Just look at Ide’s unit, the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division: In the past two months, seven soldiers have been killed, “in fighting and in helicopter accidents.

On June 24, 1st Lt. Joe Lang, 23, of Maui, Hawaii, wrote a letter to his family, talking about the soldiers who have died, the good men they were, like the fair and even-handed battalion commander who never had seen his new baby daughter. Or the friend shot dead while rescuing an injured man. Or that same injured man and the medic, who both died when the cable on the rescue helicopter snapped. Lang said his heart was broken. He felt strange about his lack of remorse when a key Taliban rebel was killed.

‘’I still feel alone,’’ Lang told his family. ‘’Realize that no one could understand what I’ve been through unless they have lived it.’’

For the soldiers, life at this base has been a series of attacks.

They were first ambushed outside of Kandahar on June 12 while driving to set up the base, in an isolated spot in the middle of a desert, miles from the nearest village. Three days after troops arrived, a man rode up on a motorcycle. As an Afghan army truck drove toward the man, he pulled out a Kalashnikov and began to fire. An Afghan soldier shot him dead. Two days later, the company north of the Musa Qala base was attacked.

And two days after that, on June 20, a medical convoy tried to give free medical help to the village of Sarbesa.

Elders said the U.S. soldiers scared the women and children and asked the medics to hold their clinic outside the village. Only 30 people came. In other parts of Afghanistan, such clinics typically draw about 250 people.

‘’We would have been mobbed anywhere else,’’ said Capt. Bill Adams, 36, who has a stash of candy and pens that no Afghans want to take. ‘’The people here are very guarded. It takes patience.’’

On the way back to the base, the medical convoy was ambushed.

Reinforcements had to be sent in, and one U.S. soldier was shot in the head; his helmet protected him from the bullet.

Days later, 50 elders from Sarbesa came to the U.S. base and asked that the soldiers not return. The soldiers have not tried to go back.

On June 28 the Soviet-era land mine exploded, killing the medic, who never complained about the harsh conditions at the base. That night the supply convoy was attacked, and despite reinforcements, insurgents attacked again the next morning.

‘’People are more scared of the Taliban,’’ Capt. Scott Horrigan, operations officer at Musa Qala, said of the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. ‘’They know they can lie to us, and nothing’s going to happen to them.’’

Some soldiers hate this place and these people and they are not shy about saying so.

They willingly volunteer these feelings, that they hate Afghans, hate Afghanistan and that they do not understand why anyone would fight over such a desolate country for so many years.

Foreign Occupation Soldier Killed, Two Wounded In Uruzgan;
Nationality Not Announced

07/19/06 Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan: A coalition soldier has been killed and two others hurt in fighting in southern Afghanistan.

The casualties were announced by the U-S military but no word on their nationalities.

The military said in a statement that the soldier was killed yesterday in Uruzgan province, which is a hotbed of Taliban activity.

Game Over:
“Do You Really Think That If The Taleban Came, I Would Stay And Fight?”
“No,” He Said, “I Would Take Off My Uniform And Join Them”

15 July 2006 By Paul Vickers. BBC News, Kabul [Excerpts]

This was a typical social event, tailor-made for the elite in Kabul; aid workers, journalists, diplomats, military top brass and the odd rough diamond – the Northwest Frontier’s new Raj – all eagerly swapping business cards and networking with the same people they had met before at the last, equally lavish cocktail and canape melee.

In fact, the same faces and the same frocks turn up over and over again at this embassy or that – at the British Council perhaps.

There is even a magazine here called Kabul Scene Magazine that carries a people section with Tatler-style photos.

If you fancy a change there is L’Atmosphere, Kabul’s premier French restaurant, where by day you can lounge by the pool, or play petanque and by night you can dine under the stars, eating steak frites, ending the evening with a brandy, or one of the best mojitos in town.

Outside L’Atmosphere, I chatted to one of the guards, a friendly old chap whose name I will withhold.

He was cradling his AK-47 and smiled at me, with his set of yellow and broken teeth. I had got to know him a little, stopping at the guard hut for a chat when I had time.

“I earn $47 a month,” he said, “and I work every hour I can for my three sons and my wife.”

He gestured towards the entrance to L’Atmosphere: “Do you really think that if the Taleban came, I would stay and fight?”

Not for $47, I said. “No,” he said, “I would take off my uniform and join them.”

TROOP NEWS

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

An honor guard unit stands beside the casket of Army Sgt. Bryan Christian Luckey at West Gate Baptist Church on Tuesday, July 11, 2006, in Tampa Fla. Luckey was killed in Mosul, Iraq, on June 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Brian Cassella, Pool)

800,000 Have Done The “Cake-Walk,”
So Far

More than 800,000 American troops have rotated through Iraq in three and a half years of a war that the cheerleaders said would be a “slam-dunk” and “a cake-walk.” Joe Galloway, July 13, 2006, Military.com

Sgt. In Israel Refuses To Deploy For
“Unnecessary War That Is Based On Deceptive Considerations”

19 Jul 2006 By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent

The Lebanon 2006 war has produced its first conscientious objector: Staff Sergeant Itzik Shabbat, a 28-year-old TV producer. He refused to comply with an emergency order (Tsav 8) to report Tuesday for reserve duty in the territories in order to free forces in the standing army for the war in Lebanon.

Shabbat, a resident of Sderot, had not yet decided Tuesday night whether he would go to his reserve unit Wednesday and announce there that he was refusing to do reserve duty or whether he would not report at all and be considered absent.

“I know people will attack me and ask how could I not take part in this war when Qassams are falling on my hometown and Katyushas on the towns in the north,” he told Haaretz.

“In my opinion, only this type of opposition that I’ve chosen will put an end to the madness that is going on now and will shatter the false feeling that the entire home front supports this unnecessary war that is based on deceptive considerations.”

He added: “Someone has to be the first to break the silence and it will be me. It is a shame that my order was signed by another Sderot resident, Defense Minister Amir Peretz.”

Shabbat says he has already informed his commander and other officers in the unit of his intentions and he is prepared to pay the price.

In the past Shabbat, considered an outstanding commander, also refused to serve in the territories and sat in prison for 28 days. He was one of the signatories to the petition of the refusal movement, Courage to Refuse. However he says that his present decision is not connected with the need to relieve a unit in the territories but rather with his opposition to the war in Lebanon.

The larger Yesh Gvul movement started by opposing the 1982 Lebanon war and only later the territories, too.

Puritan Assholes In Command Force U.S. Troops To Become Military Criminals To Have A Drink;
Troops From Other Nations Spared Such Idiotic, Petty, Stupid Bullshit

July 17, 2006 By Michelle Tan and Gordon Trowbridge, Army Times staff writers [Excerpts] & July 14, 2006, By Michelle Tan, Army Times staff writer [Excerpts]

The rules banning alcohol are in place to maintain good order and discipline and ensure optimum readiness, according to language in the general orders.

But it’s a poorly kept secret that alcohol is available to those who really want it in the war zone. Sometimes it is smuggled in by troops themselves, bought from locals, bartered for with coalition troops who are allowed a certain amount of alcohol possession and consumption, or through contractors, who are not.

U.S. military personnel and civilians who are “serving with, employed by, or accompanying the Armed Forces of the United States,” such as Defense Department contractors, have to abide by the no-alcohol rule as outlined in U.S. Central Command’s General Order No. 1.

The order likely doesn’t apply in the same way to coalition forces from other countries, said Coast Guard Ensign Joe Vermette, a CentCom spokesman.

“We have bilateral agreements with each one of the nations,” he said. The rule about alcohol is most likely different for each nation and can also depend on where that country’s troops are serving, he said.

The Army relies on unit commanders and noncommissioned officers to enforce the no-alcohol order, [Maj. Joseph Todd] Breasseale said.

Units conduct regular checks to make sure troops aren’t drinking, Breasseale wrote. Defense Department civilians and contractors also undergo checks, normally through a contracting officer.

Military police officers investigate any allegations of alcohol possession, consumption and distribution, he said.

The maximum punishment at trial by general court-martial is reduction to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, two years’ confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A first-time offender who only consumes alcohol typically receives nonjudicial punishment at the unit level, Breasseale said. [All that for a fucking beer? Makes perfect sense. You can die, or come home without legs or arms, but not have a drink.]

An Army Times analysis of Army court-martial data showed that alcohol-related incidents are among the most common prosecutions in Iraq. [Time to prosecute the silly assholes who decided to come up with this piece of world class stupidity.]

Guard And Reservists Fucked Over On Educational Benefits:
[What Else Is New?]

7.9.06 Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Since 2001, more than 500,000 military reservists and National Guard troops have been deployed for homeland security duties or sent to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet when they return home, they do not receive the same educational benefits as active-duty service members, and they lose them altogether when they leave the military.

Vets Wait Years And Years For Disability Appeal Decisions:
“Irving Said It Seems Like The VA Is Waiting For Him To Give Up Or Die”

July 13, 2006 By Dennis Camire, Gannett News Service [Excerpts]

Veterans appealing disability claims and other issues may soon be waiting much longer for decisions.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims’ case backlog has more than doubled in the past two years to 5,800.

If the trend continues, veterans could be waiting more than three years for a decision from the court, said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Currently, it takes a year, on average, for a case to go through the court.

“With thousands of wounded service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, we must ensure that our veterans will receive timely decisions on their claims,” Craig said at a committee hearing on the issue.

For Irving M. Levin, 83, a World War II veteran appealing a disability claim decision by the Veterans Affairs Department to the court for the third time, time is running out.

Levin, a former U.S. Army Air Forces flight engineer who lives in Stuart, Fla., was hit by a flying chunk of metal when his B-29 bomber crash-landed on Iwo Jima in April 1945. Levin, who originally filed his disability claim in 1988, said his injury led to a spinal problem requiring three back surgeries.

“I’ve had nothing but grief from this thing (VA disability claim process),” said Levin, who uses a walker and a wheelchair to get around. “It’s got to the point that it is running my life.”

Each time Levin’s case has come to the appeals court, it has been sent back to the VA for more development, medical opinions and clarifications. Each step has required months or years.

Irving said it seems like the VA is waiting for him to give up or die. But, he said, “I’m not a quitter.”

Worthless Piece Of Shit Lands In Iceland With Engine Trouble

7.11.06 Dallas Morning News

One of two Marine Corps V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft on their way to Britain for two international air shows landed in Iceland instead after an engine compressor stalled. The incident was an unwelcome start to a trip the Marine Corps views as a demonstration of the helicopter-airplane hybrid’s ability to “self-deploy” overseas by refueling in midair and a chance to prove to an international audience that the Osprey’s problems are behind it.

Pentagon Procurement Sewer Out Of Control

7.11.06 New York Times

Congress has promised to clamp down on inefficiencies and wasteful practices at the Pentagon, which critics and government oversight agencies say have only grown worse with the flood of new money into military spending.

Cost overruns have long been a Pentagon staple. But what has alarmed government oversight agencies and Pentagon observers, and spurred Congress to act, is the magnitude of the spending increases.

Projects are running as much as 50 percent over budget and up to four years late in delivery.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

7.19.06 By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press Writer & Reuters & AFP News & By Borzou Daragahi, The Los Angeles Times

An Iraqi was killed and another wounded when two mortar bombs struck the fortified Green Zone government compound in Baghdad, security sources said.

One policeman was wounded when guerrillas ambushed a police patrol in central Mosul, police said.

The head of the interior ministry’s justice office, Major General Fakhr Abdel Hussein, was shot dead outside his home in the capital’s upscale Mansur district.

A car bomb exploded as a police patrol drove by the technology university in the central Rusafa district, wounding three policemen.

Four policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in the Al-Baladiyat neighbourhood of southeast Baghdad.

A roadside bomb in western Baghdad killed four policemen and wounded two, police said.

A car bomb killed three policemen and one civilian and wounded five people in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Five Iraqi police officers were killed by a roadside bomb near Hawija, a Sunni Arab city near the ethnically contested city of Kirkuk.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“He Said Most Military People Knew That Vietnam Was A Case Of Soldiers Opting Not To Fight”
“It’s Obviously Not In The U.S. Government’s Interest To Remember A Time When Its Soldiers Said No”

July 5, 2006 By JIM SLOTEK, Sun Media (Toronto)

I had a close encounter of sorts watching Sir! No Sir!, David Zeiger’s film about the mass anti-Vietnam War movement inside the U.S. military.

I watched an advance DVD copy on my laptop on a flight to Los Angeles.

Beside me was an amiable guy who looked like a young Brian Dennehy and who turned out to be ex-Special Forces. He watched the movie over my shoulder and later seemed to have absorbed most of it without benefit of audio.

I thought he might be offended by the movie’s theme, but he turned out to be from a military family and had uncles who’d been in ‘Nam.

And despite the government-sanctioned myths today about brave fighting men being betrayed back home by Jane Fonda and hippie traitors, he said most military people knew that Vietnam was a case of soldiers opting not to fight.

Sir! No Sir! is a movie about righting this re-write of history, wrapped around the debunking of a single powerful myth; that hippie protesters spat on American soldiers at San Francisco airport as they returned from Indochina.

There are practical reasons why it didn’t happen; the biggest being that soldiers would not have returned home to a public airport, but would have been received on base and processed.

The Pentagon’s own figures show more than a half-million “incidents of desertion” during the war, and Sir! No Sir! is loaded with footage of civilian protesters and military men marching arm-in-arm.

But at a time when there’s another war approaching quagmire status, it’s obviously not in the U.S. government’s interest to remember a time when its soldiers said no.

Sir! No Sir! offers a wide spectrum of disillusioned ex-military men who between them were part of a movement that published more than 200 underground anti-war newspapers at military locations.

They include ex-Green Beret Donald Duncan; Louis Font, a West Point honours grad who became the first West Pointer to refuse to fight a war, and Billy Dean Smith, a young black soldier who was charged with a “fragging” murder in clear retribution for his anti-war activities. (Fragging refers to assassination of an officer by his own troops, usually by a grenade.)

Interestingly, the film avoids the most obvious tale of anti-war soldiers, that of John Kerry, whose political lynching in the ‘04 presidential race said everything you need to know about the desire to pretend soldiers never said no.

Coolly told without histrionics, Sir! No Sir! is a solid, valuable piece of filmmaking, and proof that documentarians can and should swim against the political tide of the moment.

More than a look back at the ‘60s,” Sir! No Sir! is an object lesson in how a government can foster myths to rewrite uncomfortable history.

With footage of U.S. soldiers and civilian protesters arm in arm, and a debunking of the myth of “hippies spitting on soldiers” at the San Francisco airport, we get a valuable picture of how the Vietnam war quagmire really imploded.

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.”

Vietnam: They Stopped An Imperial War

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.

Untouchable Truth

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: July 17, 2006

You do not bring the enemy to the peace table by just killing
military combatants. You ultimately bring the enemy to the
peace table by killing innocent civilians. They are military
targets. The primary goal of the aggressor nation is to break
the spirit of the people, and its ability to defend its homeland.

This strategy is as old as warfare itself.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
July 17, 2006

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

OCCUPATION REPORT

Deputy Prime Minister Condemns U.S. Occupation Troops:
“All The Problems We Have Today Are Because Of Them”

Jul 19 By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

On Tuesday, the United Nations said nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country.

[D]eputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie blamed U.S. and other coalition forces for much of the violence, saying their troops were responsible for about half the deaths due to “raids, shootings and clashes with insurgents.”

“They came to protect the people and democracy and all the problems we have today are because of them. It is a loss for Iraq,” al-Zubaie said.

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Zionist Rabbis Support Killing Of Palestinian And Lebanese Children

18/07/2006 Jerusalem; Ma’an

The Committee of West Bank and Gaza Strip Settlement Rabbis issued a Jewish religious edict permitting the killing of innocent women and children, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth.

According to the newspaper’s electronic website, the religious edict was issued against the backdrop of Israeli aggression against Lebanon. The rabbis claimed that the edict was based on the Torah.

According to the edict, “those who have mercy on the children in Gaza and Lebanon are tough with the children of Israel.’’

[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.”]

“Thank You” UN, USA, Europe, France And The “Arab World”!

[From Israeltolebanon.info]

Hey Israel, You Missed One!
[From Israeltolebanon.info]

“And Only We’re Allowed To Bomb Civilian Population Centers”

July 18, 2006 Gideon Levy, Palestine Chronicle [Excerpts]

Every neighborhood has one, a loudmouth bully who shouldn’t be provoked into anger.

He’s insulted? He’ll pull out a knife. Spat in the face? He’ll draw a gun. Hit? He’ll pull out a machine gun.

Regrettably, the Israel Defense Forces once again looks like the neighborhood bully.

A soldier was abducted in Gaza? All of Gaza will pay.

Eight soldiers are killed and two abducted to Lebanon? All of Lebanon will pay.

One and only one language is spoken by Israel, the language of force.

In Gaza, a soldier is abducted from the army of a state that frequently abducts civilians from their homes and locks them up for years with or without a trial – but only we’re allowed to do that.

And only we’re allowed to bomb civilian population centers.

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.

Heroic Zionist Forces Blow Up Dairy Farm And Tissue Paper Factory

July 19, 2006 By Lysandra Ohrstrom, Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure.

The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors – including the country’s largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant – have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.

“I think the picture will be much worse than we can possible imagine when the whole thing ends, but the direct damage from yesterday’s attacks to the industrial sector alone will take years to recover from,” said Wajid al-Bisri, the vice-president of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists (LAI).

“So many of these factories were barely functioning before,” he added, “because of local obstacles to production like high energy costs and labor.”

Due to broken lines of communication to the affected areas, the full extent of the material and human damage was still unknown when The Daily Star went to press. However, up to 15 factories have been hit, according to some estimates.

Bisri confirmed that a plastics factory in Tyre, a tissue paper factory in Sidon, a paper mill and a medical supply company in Beirut’s southern suburbs and Liban Lait in the Bekaa were all almost completely destroyed. Bisri declined to give the companies’ names. Former LAI president Jacques Sarraf said he was aware of two plastics factories in the South and one in the Bekaa that had suffered extensive damage.

“There is nothing strategic about these targets, we need the industrial sector to rebuild this country,” he said.

“But Israel is the enemy and they are doing everything they can to destroy the country, economically, socially, politically.”

Heroic Zionist Forces Blow Up Vegetables And Neutral Lebanese Soldiers

17 July 2006 Zena el-Khalil, ElectronicIntifada.net [Excerpt]

I don’t want to write about the tears that fell when I heard about how the Israeli army bombed food storages today. They bombed wheat silos and vegetable storages.

Now they want to starve us to death?

About how they are now targeting Lebanese army outposts.

Lebanese army who are not even fighting them.

Evacuees Angry At Lebanon Air Strikes:
“As An American, I’m Embarrassed And Ashamed”

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

Jul 18, 2006 By Michael Winfrey (Reuters)

LARNACA, Cyprus: Americans airlifted from Lebanon to escape Israeli air strikes expressed confusion and anger on Tuesday at the fury of the bombing.

American evacuees said they were relieved to have left the bunker-like atmosphere of Beirut and most denounced Israel for what they said was an unjustifiably brutal response.

“It’s a travesty. There’s a million homeless in Lebanon and the intense amount of bombing has brought an entire country to its knees,” said Andrew Muha, a 34-year-old consultant who was in southern Lebanon when the bombing started.

June Rugh, still visibly shaken from blasts just blocks away from where she was staying in Beirut, said the air strikes had cut off power, water and other services, which could quickly lead to a humanitarian crisis.

“As an American, I’m embarrassed and ashamed,” the Seattle-based freelance writer said. “My administration is letting it happen (by giving) tacit permission for Israel to destroy a country.”

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Vote Democrat In November;
And Get More Imperial Wars

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

July 6, 2006 Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy In Focus [Excerpts]

The U.S. Congress failed in recent weeks to take even symbolic steps to encourage a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, even though the majority of Americans support an end to the war.

Many anti-war advocates are hoping that the mid-term U.S. elections in November will push Congress into Democratic hands and thereby increase the chances of ending the war. Don’t hold your breath.

The Democratic leadership of both the House and Senate supports continued funding of the Iraq war and has been reluctant to force the Bush administration to set even a tentative deadline for the withdrawal of American troops.

Just as a solid majority of Congress members blindly supported the Bush administration’s lies about WMDs, they now blindly support the Bush administration’s argument that the United States must continue prosecuting a counter-insurgency war that has taken the lives of more than 2,500 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis, primarily civilians.

Not only might a Democrat-controlled Senate fail to end the war in Iraq, it may well authorize President Bush to launch yet another tragic war.

Already, leading Democratic senators and presidential hopefuls like Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh have attacked the Bush administration for being too eager to pursue diplomatic means in the Iran crisis. They have been more willing to entertain the exercise of military force to end the current impasse over that country’s nuclear program.

On other national security issues, these hard-line Democrats have defended the already-existing nuclear weapons arsenals of U.S. allies Pakistan, Israel, and India.

And last month, an overwhelming majority of Democrats in the House voted in support of a resolution criticizing President Bush for not sufficiently punishing Palestinians who suffer under Israeli military occupation.

In short, a Democratic majority in Congress will not necessarily mean a more enlightened foreign policy.

Americans who oppose the war are already the majority.

Whether we can actually stop the war will depend not so much on the composition of Congress but on how many Americans will be willing this September to put their bodies on the line in the cause of peace.

State Department Computers Hacked

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in.]

Jul 11 By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer

The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned.

Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking.

The break-ins and the State Department’s emergency response severely limited Internet access at many locations, including some headquarters offices in Washington, these officials said.

Internet connections have been restored across nearly all the department since the break-ins were recognized in mid-June.

“The department did detect anomalies in network traffic, and we thought it prudent to ensure out system’s integrity,” department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said.

Asked what information was stolen by the hackers, Cooper said, “Because the investigation is continuing, I don’t think we even know.”

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Another Stupid Bush Regime Liar Caught:
Says Workers Wages Going Up, But Facts Show They’re Going Down

13 July 2006 By Dean Baker, Beat The Press

Economists are supposed to be good at math. It is a great honor for an economist to be appointed as head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. For these reasons, it should be big news that the person currently holding this position apparently has problems with simple arithmetic.

According to an article carried by Dow Jones Newswire, Ed Lazear, the current chief of the Council of Economic Advisors, claimed that wage growth “seems to be taking off right now.” The article reports Mr. Lazear’s view that workers now seem poised to get substantial real wage gains.

If the article presented Mr. Lazear’s comments accurately, then it missed the real news. Nominal wages are at best just keeping pace with inflation, leaving no room for real wage growth. From June 2005 to June 2006, the average hourly wage increased by 3.9 percent in nominal terms.

From May 2005 to May 2006 (the June data is not yet available) the consumer price index increased by 4.1 percent.

This means that the real wage fell by roughly 0.2 percent over the last year.

If wages have slightly trailed inflation over the last year and are just now roughly breaking even, how can President Bush’s chief economist say that wage growth “seems to be taking off?”

Mr. Lazear either does not know arithmetic or is not being honest.

The fact that he is making a claim so completely at odds with reality should have been big news.

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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