WAR VETERANS BEGIN ANTI-BUSH DEMONSTRATION IN WASHINGTON

Iraq and Vietnam Veterans begin setting up “Camp Democracy,” a protest against the war in Iraq by US veterans’ organizations and military families. [See report below under heading Troop News.] (AFP Photo)

GI Killed In Iraq Called War ‘Lost Cause’
“He Doesn’t Know Why He Went”
“They’re Feeding This To Them: ‘It’s Almost Over, It’s Almost Over’”

Army Spc. Edgardo Zayas, 29.

August 30, 2006 By Marie Szaniszlo, Boston Herald

The family of a decorated soldier and father of two who was killed last weekend while serving in Iraq lashed out at the war yesterday, calling his death “unnecessary.”

Army Spc. Edgardo Zayas, 29, of Dorchester was killed in Baghdad Saturday when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol, officials said.

“When I went in ’91, we knew who we were fighting against; now, we don’t,” said his cousin, Norberto Martinez, who served in the military from 1991 to 1994.

“He fought for his country, and it came to this point, which is completely unnecessary.”

Yesterday, Martinez sat in the small, neatly kept apartment where his cousin grew up, not far from Zayas’ alma mater, Dorchester High School, and the nursing home where he once worked and eventually met his wife.

It was one of a series of jobs Zayas worked after high school. But college was his goal, and the military, he decided, was going to get him there, Martinez said.

Enticed by its promise of tuition aid, Zaya joined the Army in 2004, against the wishes of his parents, his mother, Gloria, said yesterday.

In the two years since, he began to question the purpose of the war, according to Martinez.

“He found it a lost cause,” Martinez said. “He doesn’t know why he went. . . . I always told him, ‘Keep your head high and watch your back.’ “

And Zayas did, winning two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in the process.

Last week, when he phoned his cousin, he seemed in good spirits.

“He was actually happy. He thought this was almost over,” Martinez said. “They’re (military officials are) feeding this to them: ‘It’s almost over, it’s almost over.’”

For Zayas, that prediction proved all too true and came with a finality his parents had feared.

Yesterday, his mother sat in her living room, cradling a photo of her son, and wept.

Today, Zayas’ wife, now the widowed mother of a boy and girl, ages 7 and 5, is scheduled to arrive from Kentucky, where he was stationed before he left for Iraq.

“The only thing keeping us motivated,” Martinez said, “is he fought for his country, and he died a hero.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Rumsfeld Notches His First Kill From The 172nd Stryker Brigade

September 06, 2006 Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army brigade whose yearlong tour of duty in Iraq was extended by the Pentagon last month just as the Soldiers were beginning to return home has suffered its first death since taking on the extra duty.

The Defense Department announced on Tuesday the death of Staff Sgt. Eugene H.E. Alex, 32, from Michigan. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade, from Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

He was not among the 301 members of the brigade who had already returned to Alaska, only to be ordered back to Iraq.

He was among the approximately 3,700 Soldiers of the 172nd who were transferred to the Baghdad area from their original mission area in northern Iraq as part of an effort to quell sectarian violence in the capital.

The Pentagon said Alex died Saturday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he had been taken after being shot by hostile fire in Baghdad last Wednesday.

LIAR
TRAITOR
SOLDIER-KILLER
DOMESTIC ENEMY
UNFIT FOR COMMAND

(AFP/Karen Bleier)

Overland Park Native Killed

September 5, 2006 KSHB

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — An Overland Park native is killed in Iraq. Christopher Walsh was in the Navy, assigned to a Marine detachment, when he was killed in hostile action on Monday.

He lived in St. Louis and worked there as an EMT for the Fire Department since 2001.

Walsh had been in Iraq since January 3rd.

British Army Vehicle Blown Up By Roadside Bomb

A British Army vehicle blown up by roadside bomb in Ad Dayr, Iraq, Sept 4, 2006. Two British soldiers were killed and a third was seriously wounded. (AP Photo/AP Television News)

Ada Marine Injured In Deadly Attack

Marine Lance Corporal Cody W. Hill

Sep 6, 2006 World Now

Marine Lance Corporal Cody W. Hill of Ada was injured by a roadside bomb.

Officials say the 23-year-old Hill was hit by shrapnel and suffered burns over about 50 percent of his body from the explosion.

Hill will fly from Germany tonight and arrive tomorrow at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he will be hospitalized.

Fergus Falls Soldier Wounded

September 06, 2006 Associated Press

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. A soldier from Fergus Falls has been injured in Iraq.

Twenty-two-year-old Kristopher Clark recently was injured while on patrol.

Clark’s father, Bruce Clark, says his son was hurt when the Humvee he was traveling in drove over either a landmine or an improvised explosive device.

Bruce Clark says the explosion sent shrapnel through the floor of the Humvee and struck his son in the foot.

Kristopher Clark is on his way back to the U.S. to be treated at the Bethesda hospital in Maryland. His father says it appears Clark won’t lose his foot from the injury.

Marine From Harrison Injured

September 2, 2006 By LIZ ANDERSON, THE JOURNAL NEWS

A Marine who grew up in Harrison has been seriously injured in Iraq, his family and a friend said yesterday.

Cpl. Jeffrey Combs Jr., 22, a 2002 Harrison High School graduate, was injured Thursday. He was on his second tour of duty and had been due to come home in about two weeks, said his father, Jeffrey Combs Sr. of New Milford, Conn.

Combs, a diesel mechanic who worked on tanks, was based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was stationed in the Baghdad area, his father said.

His family has been told he has been stabilized and was to be transferred first to Germany and then to the Washington area for treatment, said his grandmother, Betty Combs of Westerly, R.I.

The Marine Corps has offered to fly Combs’ mother, Marie Sniffen of Harrison, to his bedside, but Sniffen was awaiting word on where that would be, Betty Combs said.

“The Marines are being very good to us, and to her,” she said. Beyond that, “there’s not much we can share,” she said.

Betty Combs said the family had been given few details as of yesterday afternoon about what had happened.

Jeffrey Combs Jr. grew up in the Silver Lake section of Harrison. His father said his son had wanted to become a Marine “since he was 8 years old” and had entered boot camp straight out of high school.

Albert Conte, a photo specialist for The Journal News and the Marine’s godfather, said the young man hoped to become a social studies teacher after his service.

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

U.S. soldiers inspect the scene of a car bomb attack outside the office of occupation controlled newspaper in Baghdad August 27, 2006. (Ali Jasim/Reuters)

British Soldier Wounded North Of Basra

BASRA, Sept 6 (KUNA)

Guerrillas attacked a military patrol of the British forces in the region of Al-Qurna north of the southern city of Basra wounding a soldier, a British military spokesman said on Wednesday.

The spokesman said the British soldier was hospitalized after the attack that occurred on Tuesday.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Land Mine Kills Foreign Occupation Soldier In Southern Afghanistan, Wounds 7 Others;
Nationality Not Announced

9.6.06 AP & BBC

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A NATO soldier was killed and seven others wounded after their patrol strayed into an unmarked minefield in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the alliance said. The soldiers were evacuated to a NATO medical facility after they were taken from the minefield in volatile Helmand province, a NATO statement said.

A seventh soldier received minor injuries in the incident in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.

It said the nationality of the dead soldier would be released later, and gave no details about the conditions of the wounded.

Most of the NATO-led forces in Helmand are British.

British Soldier Killed In Helmand

Sep 6, 2006 LONDON (Reuters)

A British soldier was killed in another clash in Helmand province.

British Soldier Dies Of Wounds

Sep 6, 2006 LONDON (Reuters)

A British Soldier who had been wounded in a previous clash last Friday and later died of his injuries.

Five Canadian Soldiers Wounded In Mortar Attack

September 06, 2006 Donald Mcarthur, The Windsor Star

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canadian troops, bloodied but unbowed after suffering dozens of casualties in the opening days of Operation Medusa, pressed ahead yesterday with the offensive to drive insurgents from a stronghold west of Kandahar as the bodies of five of their fallen comrades began the long journey home.

Several suspected militants were captured by Afghan security forces and an attempt by insurgents to break out of their bombarded positions and through the Canadian lines to the south was thwarted by ground troops and attack helicopters.

Five Canadian soldiers on patrol suffered non-serious injuries in a mortar attack about 6:30 p.m., a military spokesman said. They were airlifted to the base hospital where three remain and two were released.

Doubled American Casualty Rates Countrywide, Roadside Bomb Attacks Up 30 Percent

September 5, 2006, New York Times

Since the initial victory over the Taliban, Afghanistan has evolved into one of the most troubled fronts in the fight against terrorism. The south’s Helmand province, once the site of America’s largest Cold War development project in Afghanistan’s history, today is the epicenter of a Taliban resurgence and an explosion in drug cultivation that has claimed the lives of 106 American and NATO soldiers this year and doubled American casualty rates countrywide.

Across Afghanistan, roadside bomb attacks are up by 30 percent; suicide bombings have doubled.

“U.S. Soldiers Complain Openly About The Weak Provincial Governor”

September 4, 2006 Chicago Tribune

Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, whose capital is only a two-hour drive from Kabul, has turned into a symbol of the resurgent Taliban, which is waging its most successful offensive against international troops and the U.S.-backed government since being driven out almost five years ago.

Over the last six months, security in Ghazni has deteriorated to the point that U.S. soldiers complain openly about the weak provincial governor, and Afghan police acknowledge they are running scared.

Pissing In The Wind:
Silly Command Thinks Firing 12 Shells A Day 18 Miles Will Stop The Resistance

September 05, 2006 By Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press

NANGALAM, Afghanistan: The thunderous sound of an artillery gun roars through this deep river valley in eastern Afghanistan, as American troops lob shells, one after another, high into the rocky mountains.

As NATO-led troops try to quash a raging insurgency in the south of the country, the U.S. troops in the eastern provinces keep hammering against Taliban, al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists hiding in the forbidding peaks they’ve long used as sanctuaries.

U.S. troops from the New York-based 10th Mountain Division deployed here in March, among a community of 19,000 Afghans in Data Pech district of Kunar province.

The base nestles into the face of a mountain, and at its foot lie two artillery pieces that are used daily to support troops operating deeper in the mountains.

“This is a busy, restless valley,” said base commander Capt. Joe Hansen, 35, from Spokane, Washington. “We have up there foreign fighters, Pakistanis and some local folks,” he said pointing to the barren mountain tops.

While getting there on foot appears to be a torturous journey for troops, Hansen’s two big howitzer guns dominate the valley and can hit any point within eyeshot — and beyond — in a few seconds.

They have fired over 3,000 rounds since March, which fly around 18 miles toward their intended targets — called in by troops in the field. At least a dozen shells were fired Monday. [Shit, might as well bring Cheney over with his shotgun.]

TROOP NEWS

WAR VETERANS BEGIN ANTI-BUSH DEMONSTRATION IN WASHINGTON

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in. He writes: IVAW SHOULD HAVE ITS OWN SEPARATE CONTINGENT AND BE THE FOCUS HERE.]

“This administration does not want to have a discussion, especially with those of use who have lived the nightmare of what this war is really about,” said Charlie Anderson, who fought in Iraq in 2003.

Sep 5 WASHINGTON (AFP)

Former soldiers and parents of Americans fighting in Iraq opened anti-war, anti-Bush “Camp Democracy” in the heart of Washington, a demonstration planned to last several weeks.

After spending early August near President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, and the end of the month at his family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, the protesters set up camp in the US capital between the Congress building and the White House.

Five tents will be open until at least September 21 for panels, protests and press conferences.

“We’re told all the time we’re out there fighting for democracy. No one knows more than we do that this war has nothing to do with democracy,” Michael McPhearson, a member of Veterans for Peace, told reporters. McPhearson fought in Iraq in 1991 and has a son who has just returned from there.

“This administration does not want to have a discussion, especially with those of use who have lived the nightmare of what this war is really about,” said Charlie Anderson, who fought in Iraq in 2003.

www.ivaw.net

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special 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.

Completely Insane Bullshit:
Marine Battalion Heads To Iraq For Fourth Time;
“A Lot Of The Marines Do Question The War And The Reasons For It”

September 3, 2006 John Koopman, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer [Excerpts]

Sometimes, there are just no words.

In a parking lot baked by the desert sun, a young Marine stands in line waiting to get on a bus. A young woman walks with him. They hold hands. They stare intently into each other’s eyes, trying to communicate something that cannot be said. Her hand grips his arm, her knuckles white. Finally, they reach the door. He gives her one last kiss.

It’s a long kiss, but the men behind him say nothing. They are not in a hurry. The bus, painted white with no markings, will take the young lover and his buddies to an Air Force base. They will board a passenger jet and make their way to Kuwait. And then, Iraq.

It’s a scene played out regularly at the world’s largest Marine base, on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert. The war in Iraq has been going on for less than four years, but this is the fourth time these Marines — members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment — will be deployed there.

“This is the second time we’ve gone through this,” said Jaime Pater, 28, the wife of a Marine warrant officer. “It doesn’t get any easier.”

Pater is pregnant with the couple’s second child, due in October. Her husband, Frank, will miss the birth.

“I just can’t imagine him not being here when the baby is born,” she said, holding her tummy with both hands. “When our first son, Matthew, was born, Frank left a week later. But at least he was there for the birth.”

Kelli Coehlo is also pregnant. She’s 19. She’s saying goodbye to her husband, Joseph Coehlo, a 22-year-old lance corporal on his way to Iraq for the first time. The baby is their first, a girl to be named Kaylee.

“This is hard, really hard,” she said, her face stained with tears. “It’s harder than I thought.”

As the war in Iraq winds through its fourth year, more and more soldiers and Marines are cycling in and out of that country. It’s difficult to find a Marine at Twentynine Palms who has not been there at least once. Many have been there twice or more.

The battalion, known by its numeric designator “Three-Four,” is among the first to go back for a fourth tour. During its first three tours, it lost 11 men.

Three-Four was with the 1st Marine Division when the United States launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The unit saw a lot of action, first at Basra, then Diwaniya, Kut and later in Baghdad. T he battalion led the fight for a key bridge over the Dyala Canal, a waterway along the southeast area of Baghdad, which was key to allowing the rest of the division to cross into the city. On the way, it lost four men — one to an accident and three to hostile fire.

This was the Marine battalion that helped pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein, effectively marking the end of the fight for Baghdad.

After the fall of Baghdad, two more Marines from Three-Four lost their lives. One was killed by an Iraqi and another by a Marine sniper in a “friendly fire” accident.

The battalion left Iraq in June 2003 and returned again at the beginning of 2004. The Marines fought in Fallujah when that city erupted in violence in April 2004, following the horrific assassinations of four American security contractors. Three-Four lost four Marines there.

Three-Four returned again in 2005 with a different commanding officer. On that tour, the battalion provided security and stability operations in and around Fallujah, and helped with the Iraqi elections late that year. They lost one man.

This fourth tour in Iraq comes at a time when the war is increasingly controversial among Americans and support for President Bush’s policies is rapidly slipping.

“The war is something these guys definitely talk about,” said Capt. Patrick Faye, the 30-year-old commander of Lima Company, who grew up in San Francisco. “These guys aren’t stupid or uninformed. They read the papers. In the chow hall, the TVs are always tuned to Fox news and CNN. So they know what’s going on.”

They just usually don’t take their comments or criticisms public, he said.

A lot of the Marines do question the war and the reasons for it. But their reasons for going in spite of other options are as individual as the men who make up the battalion.

Many consider themselves professional Marines, and so they do what they are ordered to do.

Others do it for the excitement and adventure.

Most go because they have a sense of brotherhood, and they want to be there for their buddies.

“I extended my enlistment so I could go,” said Cpl. Anthony Powers, a 22-year-old sniper from Sebastopol who got married last weekend. “I want to be with my guys and help lead them. I know these guys better than I know my own family.”

His buddy, Cpl. Dave Knaub, 21, of Phoenix, said he just wants to get the tour over with so he can get out of the Marines and study at Arizona State University. That, he said, is where the girls are.

Sgt. Charles Whitehead, 22, of Warrensburg, Mo., is on his way to Iraq for the third time in his three years in the Corps.

“I didn’t expect this,” he said. “I mean, I knew what was going on and all, but I wouldn’t have thought I’d be there three times.”

Whitehead could have opted out of this tour, but he said he chose to go again.

“I love my Marines,” he said. “They’re going, so I want to go with them, to protect them and to make sure they all come back alive. I’ve got a little experience, so I know what to expect. But some of these guys are going for the first time. You can’t really prepare for that if you haven’t been.”

160 From Minnesota Guard Off To Bush’s Imperial Slaughterhouse

9.6.06 KARE-11

Another group of about 160 Minnesota National Guard troops have been ordered to active duty in preparation for deployment in Iraq, the guard announced Wednesday.

The troops are with Company B, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor, based in East St. Paul and headquartered in Brainerd. The company includes soldiers from the Twin Cities, Brainerd, Duluth, Little Falls and Moorhead areas.

A deployment ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Little Falls High School.

The soldiers will travel to Fort Dix in New Jersey for up to three months of training before going to Iraq, where they will provide security patrols for up to one year.

1,200 From 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division Off To Bush’s Imperial Slaughterhouse

September 06, 2006 Army Times

About 1,200 soldiers from 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, are on their way to Iraq, according to an Army press release.

In January, the brigade’s second Iraq deployment was halted. The unit is now in charge of training military transition teams at Fort Riley, Kan. Altogether it has 3,500 soldiers.

On Wednesday, Fort Riley held a deployment ceremony for the brigade’s B and C companies, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry; B and C companies, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor; D Troop, 4th Cavalry; and B and D batteries, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery.

Have Some Ugly Reality:
This Is What The Major Media Don’t Report;
“Five Of The Original 13 In His Squad Were Either Killed Or Wounded”

September 3, 2006 By WILLIAM K. ALCORN, VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER [Excerpt]

AUSTINTOWN: Lance Cpl. Jeremiah Hill’s first thoughts when he regained consciousness after his humvee was blown up in Iraq on July 14 were about his fellow Marines, his mother and his twin brother, Jedediah.

Fortunately, he did not lose any limbs or suffer serious shrapnel wounds when the powerful improvised explosive device exploded about 11/2 feet from the driver’s side door.

Hill said five of the original 13 in his squad were either killed or wounded so severely that they had to be sent back to the states.

Miss. Marine Wounded In Iraq Returning To US:
“There’s So Many Who Don’t Make It Back”

September 4, 2006 The Clarion-Ledger

GLOSTER: A Marine, who is native of Gloster in Amite County, was expected to return to the United States on Sunday after being wounded in a bomb blast in Iraq.

Sgt. Brantley Ravencraft, 25, received shrapnel wounds to the left thigh, back and arm and sustained a ruptured ear drum in a blast that occurred more than a week ago, his mother, Charlotte Ravencraft of Gloster told the McComb Enterprise-Journal.

She said her son was wounded on a foot patrol. He was about 100 yards ahead of the other men in his reconnaissance unit when the incident occurred.

He spotted the device when he was five feet from it.

“He turned to run. He turned his left side to it and that’s the side he got most the shrapnel in,” she said. “It (blew) him across a whole road. It was a pretty big blast.”

His comrades could not find him at first. Brantley Ravencraft told his mother he was knocked unconscious, but quickly awoke, stood up, and walked towards his fellow marines.

Charlotte Ravencraft said the family found out about the bomb blast on Aug. 25, when her son called to tell them he’d just gotten out of nine hours of surgery.

She does not know if her son suffered any permanent injuries.

He still cannot hear out of one ear.

Brantley Ravencraft has been in a military hospital in Germany and was expected to be flown to the Washington area. From there he will go to Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

This was his third tour in Iraq, and he had about 50 days left. He had also served in Afghanistan, his mother said.

“He’s excited about coming back to the States. He’s just very lucky. Everybody’s been so nice and caring. Everybody’s praying. What brought him through this is God,” she said Sunday.

Ravencraft is an Amite School Center graduate. His father, Keith Ravencraft of Liberty, said his son played baseball and football in high school.

“When he got out of high school, he just wanted to be in the Marines,” he said. “We stood behind him.”

His wife, Amy, is a member of the Air Force Reserve and is stationed on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Many members of his family were scheduled to fly to North Carolina today to meet Brantley Ravencraft when he arrived at Camp Lejeune.

Said Charlotte Ravencraft: “I’m just grateful he’s alive. There’s so many who don’t make it back.”

Army “Officials” Defy Rumsfeld;
Ignore His Deadline For $;
“The Army Has Had It With The Way They’ve Been Treated”

September 05, 2006 By Greg Grant, Army Times Staff writer [Excerpts]

[I]n a rare flouting of the Pentagon’s budget-building schedule, the Army skipped the mid-August deadline to submit the 2008 program objective memorandum (POM), a kind of budgetary rough draft.

Service officials say they balked at Rumsfeld’s funding constraints and refused to submit a spending plan that would short many Army needs.

“Since Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff] came out of retirement to take the job, he’s played along for the first couple of years, but now he’s had it because he realizes the equipment is wearing down and personnel costs are going through the roof,” Korb said. “He’s got a year to go. He’s already retired once. He has nothing to lose.”

“This administration at this point is in a difficult position right now, as they don’t have a lot of credibility on this issue,” he said.

“The Army is playing hardball, and the administration is not in a position to push back.”

“This has been building for a long time,” said Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official in the Clinton administration. “The Army has had it with the way they’ve been treated.”

Korb noted that the friction has been growing since Rumsfeld arrived in his job six years ago, loudly trumpeting plans to slash Army force structure. Nor has the service forgiven the secretary for undermining Gen. Eric Shinseki after the then-Army chief warned that Iraq operations would require far more troops than Rumsfeld planned to send.

WAR IS GOOD BUSINESS:
[Invest Your Son Or Daughter]

Defense industry index since the start of the war in 2003:

[Thanks to Dennis Serdel, Vietnam Veterans, who sent this in.]

9.5.06 Bullnotbull.com/ [Excerpts]

Democrats are no better than Republicans when it comes to their record on war.

As history shows, war is a profitable game to the powers that be, and neither party expresses the will of the people. Common people around the world – whether in Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon or the United States – do not want war.

There is no separation between business and government anywhere in the world, and WAR IS GOOD BUSINESS.

In fact, it is one of the most profitable businesses around. If you don’t think so, just check the defense industry index since the start of the war in 2003:

You could have made 3X your money, if your conscience allowed it.

Harsh Eligibility Rules Cut Most Guard And Reserve Members Out Of Financial Help

August 21, 2006 By Gordon Lubold, Army Times Staff writer, August 14, 2006 [Excerpts]

Some reservists called up for lengthy or repeated mobilizations could get extra pay under a new Defense Department program that kicks in this month.

But the eligibility rules are narrowly written and the program is not retroactive.

Under those constraints, defense officials estimate the program will apply to only about 2,000 people in its current configuration.

Eligibility for the reserve income replacement program is complicated. To qualify, Guard and reserve members must be on involuntary active duty and must have:

• Completed at least 18 months of continuous involuntary active service.
• Completed 24 cumulative months of involuntary active duty during any 60-month period since Aug. 1, 2001.
• Been involuntarily mobilized for 180 days or more within six months of a previous involuntary period of active duty of 180 days or more.

Officials stress the program does not kick in automatically; troops must apply for the income replacement by completing the new form DD Form 2919 and submitting it to their servicing personnel office.

“Nobody Seems To Notice These Idiotic Actions By The Army”

Letters To The Editor
Army Times
9.4.06

It’s hard to believe that the Army is adjusting its body fat standards while suggesting that the service “has to be open to changes as society changes.” (”Fat chance,” Dec. 26).

Putting aside the detrimental effect this mentality will ultimately have on combat readiness, let’s expose the glaring hypocrisy in the Army’s actions: On one hand, Army officials moan about out-of-shape soldiers, while on the other, they’e installed a Burger King on every post in America, and overseas!

They even have a couple of BKs over in Iraq.

There’s also a Cinnabon, Popeye’s, pizza joints and a wide variety of junk food available at the PX. Nobody seems to notice these idiotic actions by the Army in the face of fatness among the troops.

Are we more concerned with upsetting some congressionally authorized corporate set-aside for “Big Grease” than we are about getting Joe and Jane in shape?

I think we are, and the installation of these counterproductive fat factories is hurting the mission.

Joe and Jane may be able to buy fast (fat) food off post anyway, but that doesn’t mean Uncle Sam has to subsidize, or at least allow, the problem.

A few years back, officials took away the low prices of tobacco products at the PX, then they took away the dirty magazines. If they can do that, why not restrict or eliminate government-sponsored fast food, too?

Put your money where your Whopper is, Mother Army.

Staff Sgt. Fred Thompson
Manchester, N.H.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

Sep 6 By QAIS AL-BASHIR AP & AFP & (Xinhua) & Reuters

A car bomb went off near a police patrol in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh on Wednesday, killing six policemen and wounding six others, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

“A car parked on a road in the town of Sinjar, some 120 km west of the provincial capital of Mosul, detonated near a passing police patrol,” the source said on condition of anonymity. The blast damaged a police truck, killing six policemen and wounding six others aboard, the source said.

Two bombs exploded within minutes of each other in north Baghdad Wednesday. Three of the dead and eight of the wounded were Iraqi soldiers, police said.

An employee in the Diyala police and army coordination office was shot to death as she left her house in Baqoub’s Tahrir neighborhood.

A car bomb killed six members of Iraq’s border police and wounded six others in the northern town of Sinjar, close to the Syrian border, police said.

An officer in the oil protection force and his two bodyguards were kidnapped between Tikrit and Kirkuk, police said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

Bringing Democracy to Vietnam

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: August 30, 2006
Subject: Bringing Democracy to Vietnam

Bringing Democracy to Vietnam

It is always the same; the people were
poor when we got there, and the people
were dead when we left.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
August 30, 2006

Catholic Churches

From: Dennis Serdel
To: GI Special
Sent: September 06, 2006
Subject: Catholic Churches by Dennis

Written by Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree, in Perry, Michigan

Catholic Churches

“Lot’s of men had missing arms and legs
in WWII, nobody thought anything of it,”
comforted the priest.
“When’s the last time you attended mass?”
Father asked.
He bowed his head.
“Will you attend this Sunday?”
he asked.
He shook his head and then remembered
the bombed out Catholic churches
in Vietnam,
broken mural painted
colored pieces of Christ
on part of a wall still standing,
shards of stained glass
and Buddha screaming,
“We do not want your religion either.”
They were told not to go
into the churches because
they may be booby-trapped.
He knew he had killing and blood
on his soul
and he couldn’t find a woman
who wanted a man with one leg.
He prayed in a bar so alone
drinking
another give up war wreck
the hell with it
slow suicide.

War Profiteers Are Rumsfeld’s Priority;
Saving Soldiers Lives Comes Last
[As Usual]

From: David Honish, Veteran
To: GI Special
Sent: September 06, 2006

Editor:

Anyone else see NBC news on Tuesday the 5th?

The Israeli’s have a radar/weapon system that defeats over 90% of inbound RPG’s fired at a vehicle equipped with the system.

The pentagon has memos on it saying we need to buy it to save lives of troops, but then an overriding memo from the army saying we won’t get the system.

The army doesn’t want it because Raytheon has a contract to build our own system by fiscal year 2011.

US troops just need to wait another 5 years. Remember what Rumsfeld said, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.”

I just e-mailed Feingold, Kohl and Petri on it… Reminds me of D-Day when the Brits used flails on the tanks to detonate mines, but we didn’t want to use their “gimmicks” and took much higher losses.

The above was an excerpt from an email from my brother, who has already contacted his Congressional delegation.

Perhaps if we all rant to Congress about this, the lives of the troops might become more important than the 2011 time table of Congressional campaign contributors?

You have my consent to publish this in your letters column.

David Honish
Denton, TX, 76201-6027

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

OCCUPATION REPORT

This Guy Was A Collaborating Reporter:
And Look How He Got Treated

September 6, 2006 By ALI FADHIL, New York Times [Excerpts]

By 2005, if an Iraqi journalist aimed a camera at a United States Army convoy, the soldiers’ rules of engagement allowed them to shoot.

American soldiers have been responsible for the deaths of about 14 journalists in Iraq, the majority of them Iraqis.

Finally, last Jan. 8, my house was raided by American forces, who blew out the doors with explosives and shot several bullets into the bedroom where my wife, 3-year-old daughter, 6-month-old son and I were sleeping.

They destroyed our furniture, and I was hand-flexed, hooded and taken to an unknown place. It turned out that the raid was connected to the kidnapping of Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor reporter who had been abducted in my neighborhood the day before. The Americans apologized and gave me $500 for the time I spent with them and $1,000 for the damage to the house. I was released the next morning.

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

Zionist Genocide In Gaza

Relatives of Salameh Abu Edwan mourn during his funeral in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 29 August 2006. (MaanImages/Hatem Omar)

[Thanks to J, who sent this in. She writes: Have you read anything by Ilan Pappe yet? He an Israeli Jew – A university professor, and author, who has been at the forefront of the push for academic sanctions against Israel. In this recent article he accuses his country of genocide.]

2 September 2006 Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada [Excerpts]

Ilan Pappe is senior lecturer in the University of Haifa Department of political Science and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa. His books include among others The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (London and New York 1992), The Israel/Palestine Question (London and New York 1999), A History of Modern Palestine (Cambridge 2003), The Modern Middle East (London and New York 2005) and forthcoming, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006)

A genocide is taking place in Gaza. This morning, 2 September, another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole family wounded in Beit Hanoun. This is the morning reap, before the end of day many more will be massacred. An average of eight Palestinian die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed.

The Israeli leadership is at lost of what to do with the Gaza Strip. It has vague ideas about the West Bank. The current government assumes that the West Bank, unlike the Strip, is an open space, at least on its eastern side. Hence if Israel, under the ingathering program of the government, annexes the parts it covets – half of the West Bank – and cleanses it of its native population, the other half would naturally lean towards Jordan, at least for a while and would not concern Israel. This is a fallacy, but nonetheless it won the enthusiastic vote of most of the Jews in the country.

Such an arrangement can not work in the Gaza enclave – Egypt unlike Jordan has succeeded in persuading the Israelis, already in 1948, that the Gaza Strip for them is a liability and will never form part of Egypt. So a million and half Palestinians are stuck inside Israel – although geographically the Strip is located on the margins of the state, psychologically it lies in its midst.

The inhuman living conditions in the most dense area in the world, and one of the poorest human spaces in the northern hemisphere, disables the people who live it to reconcile with the imprisonment Israel had imposed on them ever since 1967.

Some access to the outside world was allowed as long as there were Jewish settlers in the Strip, but once they were removed the Strip was hermetically closed.

The conventional Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing employed successfully in 1948 against half of Palestine’s population, and against hundred of thousand of Palestinians in the West Bank are not useful here. You can slowly transfer Palestinians out of the West Bank, and particular out of the Greater Jerusalem area, but you can not do it in the Gaza Strip – once you sealed it as a maximum-security prison camp.

As with the ethnic cleansing operations, the genocidal policy is not formulated in a vacuum.

Ever since 1948, the Israeli army and government needed a pretext to commence such policies. The takeover of Palestine in 1948 produced the inevitable local resistance that in turn allowed the implementation of an ethnic cleansing policy, preplanned already in the 1930s.

Twenty years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank produced eventually some sort of Palestinian resistance. This belated anti-occupation struggle unleashed a new cleansing policy that still is implemented today in the West Bank.

The Gaza imprisonment in the summer of 2005, which was paraded as an Israeli generous withdrawal, produced the Hamas and Islamic Jiahd missile attack and one abduction case.

Even before the abduction of Giald Shalit, the Israeli army bombarded indiscriminately the Strip. Ever since the abduction, the massive killing increased and became systematic. A daily business of slaying Palestinians, mainly children is now reported in the internal pages of the local press, quite often in microscopic fonts.

The chief culprits are the Israeli pilots who have a field day now that one of them is the General Chief of Staff. In the 1982 Lebanon war, the Israeli airforce issued orders to its pilots to abort mission if within 500 square meters of their target they spotted innocent civilians. Not that these orders were kept, but the pretense for internal moral consumption was there. It is called in the Israeli airforce, the ‘Lebanon Procedure’ (Nohal Levanon). When the pilots asked a year ago if the ‘Lebanon procedure’ is in tact for Gaza, the answer was no. The same answer was given to the pilots in the second Lebanon war.

The Lebanon war provided the fog for a while, covering the war crimes in the Gaza Strip. But the policies rage on even after the conclusion of the cease-fire up in the north. It seems that the frustrated and defeated Israeli army is even more determined to enlarge the killing fields in the Gaza Strip.

A daily killing of up to 10 civilians is going to leave few thousands dead each year. This is of course different from genociding a million people in one campaign – the only inhibition Israel is willing to undertake in the name of the Holocaust memory.

But if you double the killing you raise the number to horrific proportions and more importantly you may force a mass eviction in the end of the day outside the Strip – either in the name of human aid, international intervention or the people’s own desire to escape the inferno.

But if the Palestinian steadfastness is going to be the response, and there is no reason to doubt that this will the Gazan reaction then the massive killing would continue and increase.

Much depends on the international reaction. When Israel was absolved from any responsibility or accountably for the ethnic cleansing in 1948, it turned this policy into a legitimate tool for its national security agenda. If the present escalation and adaptation of genocidal policies would be tolerated by the world, it would expand and used even more drastically.

Nothing apart from pressure in the from of sanctions, boycott and divestment will stop the murdering of innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip.

There is nothing we here in Israel can do against it. Brave pilots refused to partake in the operations, two journalists – out of 150 – do not cease to write about it, but this is it. In the name of the holocaust memory let us hope the world would not allow the genocide of Gaza to continue.

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

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Bush Says Bush Is Best Source Of Information On Terrorist Plots

“The most important source of information on where the terrorists are hiding and what they are planning is the terrorists themselves,” Bush said Wednesday. Nedra Pickler, AP. 9.6.06
LIAR
TRAITOR
SOLDIER-KILLER
DOMESTIC ENEMY
UNFIT FOR COMMAND

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Received:

Women Iraq War Veterans Needed For Interviews Focusing On Womens’ Issues

From: Simone Delgado
To: GI Special
Sent: September 06, 2006

My name is Simone Delgado. I am a freelance journalist (Netherlands Radio- Brazilian News Department) and a media graduate student at Hunter College.

Last year you and Garret [from Iraq Veterans Against The War] gave me a beautiful and strong interview that was aired in some Brazilian media outlets and it was also shown in a crit panel at Hunter. Thanks again.

Now, I’ve been working on some other stories about the Iraq war and I need to interview a few female GIs who have got back from the war.

My intention is to portray their experiences and difficulties to adjust their lives.

I believe there has been a lack of media coverage, meaning mainstream coverage, about women’s experiences in the war. The war in Iraq has created what experts believe may be the nation’s first group of female combat amputees. We have to put this out!!

Please, let me know if you could help me with some contacts.

Thank you

Best,

Simone Delgado
917 623 1659
718 609 1411
skype: simdelgado
sdelgado4@nyc.rr.com

Received:

Even The Korean ‘War’

From: Joe Nix
To: GI Special
Sent: September 06, 2006
Subject: even the Korean ‘war’

in feb 1953 I took a leave of absence from my studies at Harvard College. I was a sophomore and not enjoying it all as about a dozen of guys I grew up with were or had been serving in Korea in the Marines.

I visited one close friend in the Framingham Mass Veterans Hospital. He was returned from Korea, a paraplegic, a former four star athlete and such a natural leader the Marines had made him a Sgt and held him in the states for training, then again in Japan.

He was cheerful, philosophic and glad to see me. I got talking about my efforts to enlist in air units, Navy and Air Force and that I was about to go enlist in the Marines.

He sat up and said not too, went on to explain, ‘something wrong over there, Charlie always knew what we were going to do’. Poor Jim had lost one of his first patrols and was shot in the back while dragging a wounded Marine back into our lines.

I tried to explain that ‘no, you guys went over there while I hid with a deferment, etc, etc’ He said he had a pistol under his pillow he did not want to threaten me with and directed me to take the bible from his nightstand and swear I would not join the Marines.

He got a driver’s license and while I was waiting for my swearing in date for the Army Security Agency we went around to visit old friends where they gathered, drug stores, some bars, etc. He was hilarious, telling tales and laughing at people who shied away from him seeing their old friend in a wheel chair.

In the center of town a group of girls we knew approached on the sidewalk, when they saw me pushing Jimmy most of them went into the street to avoid him. He said that was typical. I recall the two girls who greeted him. He lived into his early forties, was very active, ran a gift shop with his sister, married at least one ‘floozie’ who was only after his pensions. He wheeled himself into the courtroom and told the judge what a no good bitch she was. He had a lawyer who didn’t have to say anything. Judge not only threw out the bitch’s cause he asked to be investigated or booked for fraud or something I’ve forgotten now. I have never found Jimmy James D. O’Connor, Cambridge Mass on any casualty listings and I don’t know why, other than he was airlifted out and partially recovered.

He told me a priest convinced him to ‘fight it’ and not give up when he was on a stretcher on the flight to Japan. He sure did.

I served three years in the Army Security Agency, two of them at a ‘listening’ post in Asmara Eritrea (and returned to Harvard where even administration noted I ‘didn’t fit’, which I sure am proud of to this day.)

I was working on the Apollo program during the Nam debacle, along with many retired and ex military. They were almost sick to their stomachs over the news. I heard a lot of tales from them, mainly Air Force pilots. Over the years I have heard many tales about Nam, none of them even close to ‘good’.

I knew ‘right off’ this Iraq debacle was the work of the wacko, ‘armchair’ video ‘war games’ types who figure their New World Order will win and they will be handsomely rewarded.

The mission in my opinion has been accomplished in Iraq, chaos, discord, destruction, billions ripped off, a nation weakened and of course this fall the oil ‘agreements’ will be signed by the puppet government so ‘big oil’ will get their reward.

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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