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

“Ordinary Soldiers Believed This War Was Bullshit”
“If I Lived Here, I’d Want To Kill Us, Too”

[These excerpts from a longer letter were held back to minimize risk to the writer of harassment by any part of the chain of command.]

From: A
To: GI Special
Sent: July 09, 2006

I was at FOB Summerall, the former Iraqi Air Force base “K2,” near Baiji.

My unit was tasked with base defense, and I [xxxx] the guys and gals in the towers for most of our 9-10 months there.

I was able, therefore, to talk with many of the troops, both active and Guard, at length over the months.

Most knew my politics; as the days wore on, more and more of the enlisteds, E-5 & below, spoke with me about their growing misgivings about the war.

Some were openly angry and contemptuous of the officers, generals, and civilian leadership that sent us there.

A few (including one “good-ol’-boy from Oklahoma, an active duty sergeant with 18 years in) commented on how “if I lived here, I’d want to kill us, too.”

Of course, the leadership, especially the officers, all spouted the party line, but it was obvious to me that a solid number, perhaps even a majority, of the ordinary soldiers believed this war was bullshit.

The internet access we had at Summerall was not closely supervised.

We were warned against looking at porn, or passing on information that might be picked up by “the enemy,” (I suppose the insurgents were intercepting our satellite signals), but I visited GI Special at least weekly, as well as other sites that better explained what I knew to be going on around me.

I didn’t have the ability to print anything, so mostly I just shared stories I read with other soldiers in the contexts of our talks.

I wished I could have circulated printed copies; oh, well.

[GI Special will be mailed to anybody that wants some, no charge to personnel serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. You can order by email or by letter to: GI Special, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657. T]

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.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Bush Pushes Escalation Of War On Iraq:
145,000 U.S. Troops Now,
Highest # Since 2005

[Remember all that silly babbling earlier this year about how troop cuts were on the way?]

September 07, 2006 Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq rose to 145,000 this week, the highest since December and 15,000 more than a month ago.

The number stood at about 130,000 in the final days of July.

Task Force Band Of Brothers Soldier Killed Near Hawija

Sept. 7, 2006 MULTINATIONAL DIVISION – RELEASE No. 20060907-01

TIKRIT, Iraq – A Task Force Band of Brothers’ Soldier from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division was shot and killed Wednesday, while executing a mission near Hawija.

Soldier Killed In Al Anbar Province

Sept. 7, 2006 MULTINATIONAL DIVISION – RELEASE No. 20060907-02

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – One Soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died Wednesday due to injuries sustained from enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province.

Marine Killed In Al Anbar Province

Sept. 7, 2006 MULTINATIONAL DIVISION – RELEASE No. 20060907-03

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – One Marine assigned to 1st Marine Logistics Group died today due to wounds sustained from enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province September 6.

Nebraska Guard Soldier Killed In Balad

9.7.06 U.S. Department of Defense News Release No. 873-06

Sgt. Germaine L. Debro, 33, of Omaha, Neb., died on Sept. 4 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Debro was assigned to the Army National Guard 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry Regiment, Fremont, Neb.

Culpeper Soldier Dies In Baghdad

Pfc. Edwin Anthony Andino Jr. was killed Sunday while responding to a mortar attack against a U.S. Army camp in Baghdad. The 23-year-old had only been in Iraq for 30 days. (Contributed Photo)

September 6, 2006 Liz Mitchell Staff Writer, Gateway VA Network

One year ago today Pfc. Edwin Anthony Andino Jr. had just joined the U.S. Army and was headed for basic training in Fort Knox, Ky.

On Sunday, the 23-year-old Culpeper resident, known as E.J., died while responding to a mortar attack against a U.S. Army camp in Baghdad.

Andino is the second wartime fatality from Culpeper County since the Vietnam War. Second Lt. Leonard Cowherd, 23, was fatally shot in Karbala, Iraq, May 16, 2004.

A 2001 graduate of Madison County High School, Andino was the only son of Cathy Jean Andino, of Reva, and Edwin Anthony Andino, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Department of Defense has not yet released the specifics of Andino’s death. However, according to family spokesman and Andino’s uncle, Dean Settle, the U.S. Army indicated that Andino and several other soldiers were killed around 6:30 a.m. Baghdad time when their Humvee hit an enemy-planted improvised explosive device.

Settle said it is unclear if Andino volunteered for the mission or was part of a team ordered to take part in stopping the attack.

“He died doing what he wanted to do,” Settle said, adding that Andino, of the 1st Battalion 77th Armored Division, had just been promoted to “Private First Class” after excelling in his training weeks before. He had been in Iraq only 30 days.

“He was being groomed to be a leader in his platoon,” Settle said.

Prior to his promotion, Andino was awarded the Army Achievement Medal. He received a posthumous Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for valor.

“He believed in what he was doing and we supported him that way,” Settle said. “We’re very proud of him.”

Chad Robison, Andino’s best friend, said he considered Andino a hero because he volunteered for 18 months of combat service in Iraq. While he had been stationed in Germany, Robison said Andino knew he would be headed for Iraq, but he could select his length of service there from between four and 18 months.

Robison, 29, said Andino joined the Army to make his mom and granddad proud. He was working construction at the time and wanted some options in life. He felt the military would open those doors for him, Robison said.

“He made this decision and everybody was proud of him,” Robison said. “We just thought we would see him again. He believed in why we were there. Even though me and some of my other friends would disagree, he still believed in the reason why he was going. That’s what made him a hero to me. He really thought he was doing good and had a real reason to be there.”

The two became friends the night Andino auditioned for Robison’s heavy metal band, “Flatline.” Andino was an avid guitar player and especially enjoyed heavy metal music.

“We were a package and that was said over and over again,” Robison said. “We were a package deal because we were so tight with each other. We were such good friends and we fit so good musically that if a band wanted me to drum for them, he was coming with me.”

Robison and Andino later worked together for a development company while they still played in another full-time band. Robison said Andino was a hard worker but he also made everything fun. He was most impressed with Andino’s loyal friendship and his dedication to his family.

“He was really close with his mom,” Robison said. “He would always tell me how proud he was of his mom and how good of a job she did raising him because his dad lived in New York all his life, so his mom raised him on her own. He was a momma’s boy. He always talked about his mom.”

Robison said he’ll miss everything about Andino, even the way he would get mad.

“Sometimes you meet people in life that you felt like you’ve known forever,” Robison said. “You feel almost related to them, but of course you’re not. He was one of those guys.”

Jennifer Driggers said her life will also be forever changed by Andino’s death.

Driggers, 23, was Andino’s girlfriend for three years and said they had had private discussions about a possible engagement in the future.

“He was my life,” she said. “He was my soul.”

Andino and Driggers met at Ruby Tuesday about three and half years ago. However, they also were in the same third grade class 15 years ago.

“He was the little kid that would chase me with the erasers or pinch me in the butt in the lunch line,” Driggers said.

But for Driggers, their relationship was far more than child’s play. On their first date they ate pizza and watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre – his choice. When the relationship became more serious, they moved into his mother’s house and then an apartment in Friendship Heights for about two years before he joined the military.

Driggers said she’ll miss the everyday events of their lives. She used to wake up with him daily at 4 a.m. to make his coffee, and sometimes his lunch, before he went to work construction.

Monday through Wednesday she was allowed to choose what they would watch on television and Thursday through Saturday, Andino would choose. Sundays they compromised or watched a movie together. When he told her he wanted to join the Army, she helped him study every night before he took his test.

“I would not let him leave until he got all the questions right,” Driggers said. “I drilled it into his head. I think I got on his nerves, but I wouldn’t let him give up. He said if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have passed the test because I sat up with him every night making sure he studied.”

Driggers was willing to follow Andino anywhere. “I told him I would be there and stand by him through everything,” she said.

Driggers said she admired Andino’s devotion to his country, his blatant honesty and how he always protected and took care of her.

She’ll miss him, but she knows Andino died doing what he wanted most.

“Everybody who knew E.J., everybody who saw him when he came home could just see how much he had grown as a person; how much of a man he had become and how he definitely took pride in what he was doing,” Driggers said of when Andino came home on leave. “He wanted to make sure he got the opportunity to go over to Iraq. That is all he wanted to do.”

Va. Beach Soldier, Hurt In Iraq In April, Dies

September 7, 2006 BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ AND JIM HODGES, WAVY-TV 10

For months Shannon Squires lay in a San Antonio hospital, swaddled in bandages, sedated, virtually comatose, unable to speak or to recognize people by his bedside.

And then, in mid-August, he awakened to talk with his mother, Velma.

But on Aug. 28, Squires, a 25-year-old Army corporal from Virginia Beach, died at the Brooke Army Medical Center burn unit. He had suffered burns over 52 percent of his body when a roadside bomb blew up near his convoy on April 21 while it was on a supply run between Kuwait and Baghdad.

Squires was buried in a Virginia Beach cemetery Tuesday, the same day the Defense Department released information about his death.

“He spent more than three months (at Brooke) in a struggle to recover from burns,” Maj. Gen. Richard Rowe told the funeral assembly. “His mother was at his side the whole time.

“About a month ago, with his mother seeing her son coming out of his coma and being able to talk with him, there were days of great hope. She was happy to have those moments.”

Said Marie Squires, Shannon’s grandmother: “We really thought he was getting better.”

Squires was a 1999 graduate of Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach. He worked at various jobs before enlisting in the Army in 2002.

“He was into cars and computers,” said Ralph Squires, who spent a month with his son in the hospital at San Antonio. “He could really do things with computers.”

Ralph Squires said his son “was outgoing, but shy. And he really grew up in the Army.”

Dale Gagliano of Williamsburg was familiar with her nephew’s interest in cars. “He helped his father restore an old MG in high school,” she said.

Ralph Squires said his son was to get out of the Army in 2007.

Shannon Squires was in his second deployment to Iraq, this one dating back to October. He was assigned to the Army’s Fort Bragg, N.C.-based 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 18th Field Artillery Brigade.

Marine Helicopter Makes Hard Landing In Al Anbar

Sept. 7, 2006 MULTINATIONAL DIVISION – RELEASE No. 20060907-04

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – A CH-53 helicopter executed a hard landing in Al Anbar Province today due to reduced visibility caused by dust. There were no injuries caused by this event.

The hard landing was not a result of enemy action. The helicopter belongs to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force.

The Marines completed their mission and all personnel were recovered safely.

Supply Routes Continue Under Constant Attack:
67% Of IEDs Are Successfully Detonated By Resistance

[Despite the glaring stupidities in this report, read between the fluffy non-reporting. The ugly truth is there. T]

September 07, 2006 By Rebecca Santana, Associated Press [Excerpts]

CAMP ADDER, Iraq: The soldiers call themselves the Four Horsemen as they barrel down roads with nicknames like “The Widowmaker,” staying alert through the night on a mix of Mountain Dew, Red Bull and adrenaline, hoping to find roadside bombs before the bombs find them.

“There’s always some out there. There’s a threat every night,” said Sgt. Brian Parker, 36, of Mankato, Minn., part of a four-Humvee convoy escort team based at Camp Adder, about 200 miles southwest of Baghdad.

Guarding convoys remains one of the most dangerous assignments in Iraq despite billions of dollars spent armoring Humvees and developing equipment to detect and evade bombs. Insurgents constantly use new ways to hit the troops on their long supply routes, and the soldiers struggle to keep pace with the changing threat.

On any given night, the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, which includes the Four Horsemen, has more than a dozen convoys on the road. By the time they leave Iraq, the brigade will have logged 2 million miles and encountered an untold number of bombs.

So far, the brigade has lost five soldiers from roadside bombs while guarding convoys.

The U.S. military has aggressively pursued ways to minimize the use of road convoys. It flies in supplies whenever possible. Some bases have begun purifying their own water so it doesn’t have to be delivered. But the sheer amount of supplies needed, especially weighty items such as fuel, mean convoys are still needed and remain a primary target of the insurgents.

“Much of the insurgent activity in the country is aimed at trying to impede the flow of supplies to U.S. forces, and there are no easy solutions to the tactics they employ,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute.

To improve their odds against the roadside bombs, often called by the military “improvised explosive devices,” or IEDs, the Minnesota unit has bulldozed brush and debris away from roadsides where the insurgency is strong.

They also have spent millions of dollars in development projects in areas near the convoy routes. The idea is that if people feel they’re benefiting from the troops, they won’t work for the insurgents and they’ll be more likely to turn in people who are.

The Four Horsemen also constantly share information with other units who’ve been out on the road, to compare IED experiences and learn what new tactics are being used.

“While war has always been a cat and mouse game of action-counteraction, the IED fight epitomizes it,” said Col. David Elicerio, commander of the 1/34 Brigade Combat Team.

“They rapidly develop new techniques. If proven successful, they spread that knowledge as far and as fast as possible,” he said. “We do the same.”

The unit doesn’t make public the numbers of IEDs it has found before detonation or the number that exploded, but says the trend shows success. The brigade says that since it arrived in Iraq in April, the number of IEDs spiked in May and June, but then fell in July and again in August.

They’ve also increased the percentage of IEDs discovered before detonation from 10 percent in May to 37 percent in August. [Meaning 63% are detonated, and despite the silly bullshit from this “reporter,” that’s been the failure rate for detection for years now. The 10% number came from where? When, exactly, was the resistance detonation rate supposed to have been 90%? With this lame writer, who the fuck knows?]

But the troops remind themselves every day that the danger can’t be eliminated.

One of the soldiers killed, Brent William Koch, 22, from Monton, Minn., who died June 16, was from the same platoon as the Four Horsemen. Although he rode with another team, Koch was in their platoon and trained with them for six months before deploying to Iraq.

On the backs of each of their four Humvees, the Horsemen painted a picture of a motorcycle — after Koch’s love of bikes — that incorporates his initials.

“It’s a sign that Brent is always covering our six, even from above,” said Day, using the military jargon for watching out for danger from behind.

Road obstacles aren’t limited to bombs, or always dangerous.

They begin with the humorous interruption of stubborn camels crossing the road, and then climb up an ever-more-dangerous scale that includes spikes on the road, kids throwing rocks, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

The explosions, such as the one that flattened a tire on one of the fuel trucks they were protecting during a recent mission, don’t shock the soldiers any more. [Oh, please.]

“I actually had a fuel tanker blow up right in front of us. An IED on the side of the road, it hit the truck, and we had to drive through a wall of fire to get to the other side,” said Sgt. Jason Slinden, 23, of Hugo, Minn. “Nothing else has been quite as big as that.”

Since taking over the convoy mission in May, almost every member of the team has earned a combat action badge, testifying that they’ve come under enemy fire or been in the vicinity of a bomb going off.

Preparation for each mission includes good-natured teasing and joke-telling. Many said they think about what can happen during a mission, but once the drive begins they put it out of their minds.

“Do I think about death? Do I think about Koch?” said the team’s leader, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Hjelmstad, 37, of Battle Lake, Minn., while rolling through the desert of southern Iraq. “Yeah. But you got to get yourself back out there.”

MORE:

Tips On IEDs From Iraqis Vanish
[Enough Silly Bullshit From Deluded Inbedded Reporter: Now Here’s Some Truth]

09/07/06 KOLD

PENTAGON: Roadside bombs are the number one killer of American soldiers in Iraq.

But the Pentagon says it’s having a hard time countering the bombers — in large part because tipsters aren’t helping as much.

The retired general tapped to try and solve the bombing problem says intelligence is the key to defeating insurgents. But the help is drying up.

The nearly six-thousand tips Iraqis gave on bombs and other issues plummeted to just 37-hundred in July.

Beyond tips, the military is looking to technology and other methods of beating the bombers.

MORE:

IED Attacks Keep Rising

9/7/2006 By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON: Iraqi insurgents continue to increase their homemade-bomb attacks on U.S. and other coalition troops, despite a $3.5 billion Pentagon effort to stop them, a Pentagon official said Thursday.

Retired Army general Montgomery Meigs said Iraqi insurgents attacked troops of the U.S.-led coalition 1,200 times in August with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), compared with 1,100 attacks in July.

August’s figure is four times as many IED attacks as were reported in January 2004.

The top killers of U.S. troops in Iraq, IEDs have claimed the lives of more than 1,000 servicemembers and have wounded more than 10,000.

“Ever been to Radio Shack? All the ways in Radio Shack you have of throwing a switch are potential ways of initiating or arming a bomb, or both,” said Meigs, a former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe and NATO’s peacekeeping force in Bosnia.

Of troops wounded in IED attacks, about 75% return to duty, Meigs said. Meaning 2,500 were too fucked up to return to duty, a fact not exactly widely publicized, is it?]

“There’s lots of ways of making that thing go ‘boom’ under the vehicle,” Meigs said. “Once you’re under the vehicle, that’s the sweet spot if you’re attacking.”

MORE:

Pentagon Wants To Replace Deadly Fuel Convoys With Wind Power
[But Will Members Of Congress Volunteer To Go?]
“Continued Casualty Accumulation Exhibits Potential To Jeopardize Mission Success”
[No Shit?]

9.7.06 By Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor

Calling for more energy in the middle of oil-rich Iraq might sound odd to some. But not to Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, whose deputies on July 25 sent the Pentagon a “Priority 1" request for “a self-sustainable energy solution” including “solar panels and wind turbines.”

The Army will seek proposals to build and ship to Iraq 183 frontline renewable-energy power stations that would use a mix of solar and wind power to augment JP-8 fuel-powered generators at U.S. outposts.

With convoys still vulnerable to ambush, the fewer missions needed to resupply outposts with JP-8 to run power generators-among the Army’s biggest fuel guzzlers-the better, according to a Pentagon memo.

The memo may be the first time a frontline commander has called for renewable-energy backup in battle. Indeed, it underscores the urgency:

Without renewable power, US forces “will remain unnecessarily exposed” and will “continue to accrue preventable … serious and grave casualties,” the memo says.

Despite desert temperatures, the hot “thermal signature” of a diesel generator can call enemy attention to US outposts, experts say.

With convoys still vulnerable to ambush, the fewer missions needed to resupply outposts with JP-8 fuel to run power generators – among the Army’s biggest fuel guzzlers – the better, the memo says.

“By reducing the need for (petroleum) at our outlying bases, we can decrease the frequency of logistics convoys on the road, thereby reducing the danger to our marines, soldiers, and sailors,” reads the unclassified memo posted on the website InsideDefense.com, a defense industry publication that first reported its existence last month.

More than 50 percent of fuel used by the Army on the battlefield is consumed by combat support units, not frontline troops.

“Without this solution, personnel loss rates are likely to continue at their current rate,” the memo says. “Continued casualty accumulation exhibits potential to jeopardize mission success.”

REALLY BAD PLACE TO BE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

8.06 US Marines at the scene where a car bomber blew himself up in Kirkuk. (AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

One British Soldier Killed, 6 Wounded In Helmand Province

6 Sep 06 Ministry Of Defense, UK

In Northern Helmand Province on Wednesday 6 September 2006 UK forces were involved in a contact with insurgent forces starting at approximately 0800 local time. Sadly, one UK soldier died as a result of this action, while one soldier was seriously injured and another three received minor wounds.

In the other contact, which was earlier today at a separate location, one UK soldier was very seriously wounded and one other received serious injuries.

All of the injured will be treated at the military medical facility at Camp Bastion.

Occupation General Yells For Help:
Utters The Famous Last Words
“This Is Not A Desperate Move” As Resistance Retakes Garmser District

09.07.2006 By PAUL AMES, Associated Press & (AFP)

NATO’s top commander, Gen. James L. Jones, on Thursday called for allied nations to send reinforcements to southern Afghanistan, saying the coming weeks could be decisive in the fight against the Taliban.

Jones acknowledged that NATO had been surprised by the “level of intensity” of Taliban attacks since the alliance moved into the southern region in July and by the fact the insurgents were prepared to stand and fight rather than deploy their usual hit-and-run tactics.

“This is not a desperate move, it is more of an insurance package.”

Although Jones said he was confident allies would respond to his appeal at the Warsaw meeting, he did acknowledge that nations have been reluctant to commit troops to the NATO force, which has sustained increasing casualties in the last weeks.

Since January, 21 NATO troops have died and there have been an equal number of accidental deaths, Jones said.

The casualty rate has shot up since NATO forces took control of southern Afghanistan in August, replacing a much smaller U.S. military operation in the region and placing large numbers of international troops in the Taliban’s heartland.

“I do not think that … they have an unlimited amount of people,” he said. “They are not going to take casualties at this rate for a long period of time.” [Saigon, Feb. 25, 1968. General William Westmoreland denied today that the Tet Offensive was a setback for U.S. forces in South Vietnam. Pointing to the large number of casualties sustained by the enemy, he said “I do not think that … they have an unlimited amount of people. They are not going to take casualties at this rate for a long period of time.”]

Taleban militants have seized control of a volatile district in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a senior police official said on Thursday.

The Taleban had taken control of Garmser district after police left the area in a “tactical” withdrawal, said provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullah Khail.

“We have made a tactical (retreat). We will take control of the district again,” he told AFP.

Officers fled for a second time in two months, police said.

Earlier a purported Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed in a telephone call from an unknown location that Taleban fighters took Garmser district late Wednesday and were still holding it.

The militants held Garmser in July for up to 48 hours, before being driven out by coalition and Afghan troops.

TROOP NEWS

U.S. Soldier In Germany Won’t Go Back To Iraq:
Escapes From MPs And Goes AWOL

Army Specialist Agustn Aguayo

Army Specialist Agustín Aguayo, 35, is a medic with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. He applied for Conscientious Objector status after deploying to Iraq for one year in 2004. After refusing to re-deploy, Agustín turned himself in to MPs and agreed to accept a court martial. Instead, MPs ordered him to pick up his gear and were about to force him to Iraq. Aguayo escaped and is currently Absent without Leave (AWOL) in Germany.

September 07, 2006, From Meike Schubert

First publicly known case of a soldier refusing to deploy from Germany joins a growing group of U.S. soldiers refusing to deploy to Iraq.

Army Specialist Agustn Aguayo, 35, refused orders to deploy to Iraq for a second time after a two-and-a-half-year struggle in which he diligently pursued all available legal avenues to obtain conscientious objector status and an honorable discharge from the Army. All of his efforts, both within the Military and in the civil courts in the U.S., have so far failed.

Agustn turned himself in to the Military Police on the base in Schweinfurt saying that he would not deploy to Iraq and would accept a court martial after several Article 15s (non-judicial punishment) for refusing to pick up his weapon.

Instead, MPs followed him to his home to get his gear and prepare to deploy.

Aguayo escaped and is currently Absent without Leave (AWOL) in Germany. He is originally from Los Angeles, where his family still lives.

His attorneys write: “Mr. Aguayo faces irreparable harm…either from being forced to perform military duties which violate his most deeply held beliefs, or from being court-martialed and facing imprisonment for disobeying orders which require him to violate those beliefs.”

Aguayo applied for Conscientious Objector status before deploying to Iraq for one year in 2004. Based at the U.S. Army base in Schweinfurt in Bavaria, Aguayo is a medic with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division.

Agustn Aguayo is the first publicly known case of a soldier refusing to deploy from Germany.

Approximately 67,000 U.S. soldiers and 80,000 dependents are stationed on 73 bases in Germany, a key logistical hub for the U.S. military effort in the Middle East.

Three preeminent U.S. civilian attorneys specializing in military law mounted a legal battle on behalf of Aguayo in the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, DC. On August 5, 2005, they filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus with the Washington, DC, U.S. District Court asking the court to order Aguayos honorable discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector.

On August 24, 2006 District Judge Royce Lamberth denied Agauyos request to be released from the Army as a CO. Aguayo immediately filed an appeal of that order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. (The Washington, D.C., federal courts have jurisdiction over cases brought by U.S. military personnel stationed overseas.) On August 25 Agauyos counsel moved for an emergency order “barring the Army during the pendency of this case (the appeal) from deploying him to Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, or any other place where he would be required to provide support for combat operations.”

Press Contact:

Germany:
Connection eV. Rudi Friedrich, office@ConnectioneV.de 49 (0)69-823 755 34

Counselor: Michael Sharp, Military Counseling Network (MCN), 49 (0) 6223 47 506; cell 49 (0)1635 724-956, mcn@dmfk.de

USA:
Elsa Rassbach, American Voices Abroad (AVA) Military Project 1 646 400 9206
goava@tiscali.de and Elsa_Rassbach@compuserve.com

Attorneys: (U.S.) Office of Peter Goldberger – Attorney Jim Feldman 1 610 649 8200
(Germany) Christian Rieker 49 (0) 69 4058 630; cell 49 (0)178 292 3277 c.rieker@netburn.de

MORE:

Agustín Aguayo’s Statement:
“It Makes No Sense That To Better The Lives Of These Civilians They Must First Endure Great Human Loss”

Submitted to the United States Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., Agustin-aguayo.blogspot.com/ [Excerpts]

I also oppose war because I have seen first-hand the direct result of deployments to war zones.

As a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom II, I have seen many veterans whose lives have been shattered. Many men came back with missing parts, and countless physical and emotional scars, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I have personally seen my comrades come back to commit suicide, drink themselves to death, and develop a strong addiction to drugs. It is obvious to me that these men’s lives were destroyed by war.

In my last deployment, I witnessed how soldiers dehumanize the Iraqi people with words and actions. I saw countless innocent lives which were shortened due to the war.

I still struggle with the senselessness of it all: Iraqi civilians losing their lives because they drove too close to a convoy or a check point, soldiers’ being shot by mistake by their own buddies, misunderstandings (due to the language barrier) leading to death. This is not acceptable to me.

It makes no sense that to better the lives of these civilians they must first endure great human loss.

How can I be a perpetrator, culprit, and/or enabler of these operations? I cannot and will not. I would much rather suffer the consequences of missing a movement – prosecution by court-martial – than be part of any war activity.

I have made my choice for peace, for humanity, and for a better tomorrow. Even though I understand that one of the consequences of refusing to deploy may possibly be a trial by court-martial and even my imprisonment, I cannot and will not deploy.

MORE:

Background Information:
“Agustín Did Not Report For Duty As Ordered”

Agustin-aguayo.blogspot.com/ [Excerpts]

Prior to Going AWOL on September 30, 2006 Army Specialist Agustín Aguayo, 35, was to report for duty at the U.S. Army base in Schweinfurt Bavaria at 7:30 pm German time (1:30 pm EST) to begin a second year-long deployment to Iraq

A medic with the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division to Iraq, Agustín is originally from Los Angeles, where his family still lives.

Agustín did not report for duty as ordered. According to his wife, Helga Aguayo, and his counselor, Michael Sharp of the Military Counseling Network in Bammantal, Germany, Agustín plans to turn himself in to the Military Police on the base in Schweinfurt soon.

He anticipates that he might receive a court martial followed by up to two years in military prison, loss of all benefits, and perhaps a less than honorable discharge. For him and his family it will bring a long separation and definite economic hardship for years to come. But he sees no other way.

If he must face court martial, Aguayo will be represented at trial in the U.S. military court in Germany by a German attorney, Christian Rieker of Frankfurt. Aguayo will in addition be represented by appointed U.S. Army counsel.

In a joint project of the Military Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, the GI Rights Hotline, and a German attorney organization, the Republikanischer Anwaeltinnen und Anwaltsverein (RAV) which was coordinated by Elsa Rassbach of American Voices Abroad (AVA) Military Project, several English-speaking German attorneys were trained this past January in U.S. military law to represent U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany.

Helga and Agustín were both raised in extended, close-knit Hispanic-American families in and around Los Angeles. They have been married over 15 years. They are U.S. citizens; he is of Mexican descent, she of Guatemalan.

August 15, 2003 he was informed he would deploy sometime in the near future. His wife Helga rushed to be with him in Germany before he was deployed.

Not only had the Army and the civilian court system denied Agustín’s CO claim: he had also recently learned that the Army has “stop-lossed” him, increasing the length of time he must serve in active duty.

During a war, the U.S. government allows the Department of Defense the discretionary right to “stop” the “loss” of needed personnel by extending their active duty contracts until up to six months after the end of the war. Under the contract Agustín signed with the Army in November, 2002, he was due to be released from active duty in January, 13, 2007, four years after commencement of active duty military service in 2003. By the “stop-loss” order, the Army is now requiring him to remain in active duty service with his unit in Iraq until at least September, 2007.

German attorney Christian Rieker finds this somewhat remarkable. “The ‘stop-loss’ (or the use of ‘stop-loss’) means that the contract is an illicit one,” says Reiker, “and therefore cannot be executed by force, Anyway, the possibility of ‘stop-loss’ – in a so called voluntary system – would in Germany be a violation of German ‘ordre public’”

Meanwhile, Helga awaits word that Agustín has turned himself in to the Military Police in Schweinfurt.

“Agustín is sad but resolved to get this over,” says Helga. “He wants to confront the situation and end this once and for all. This is the hardest situation we have ever been through. I personally feel terrified. We’ve been fighting this for over two and one half years, and at this point it seems almost impossible to walk away unscathed.”

Marine Staged Disappearance To Resist Return To Duty

09/07/2006 By Kirk Mitchell, Denver Post

The buddy of a Marine whose dramatic story compelled more than 300 people to search for the missing Marine on steep, treacherous terrain has been arrested for allegedly making up the whole story.

Steve Powers, 20, admitted that he lied to authorities so that his friend Lance Hering, 21, could avoid returning to duty, said Cmdr. Phil West of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department.

Powers was arrested late Wednesday for investigation of misdemeanor false reporting and he was taken to the Boulder County Jail, West said.

Hering, who is classified as “unauthorized absent” by the U.S. Marines, has still not been found. If he does not return to Camp Pendleton, Calif. by Monday he could face much more serious charges, West said. He also faces local charges, he said.

Powers gave sheriff’s investigators some clues about where Hering may be hiding. The Marines are searching for him as well, West said.

Powers told authorities that his friend disappeared after he injured his head while hiking in Eldorado Canyon at night on Aug. 29.

His story sparked a massive search involving helicopters, fellow Marines, his girlfriend, parents and volunteers. When the search was called off after several days, the Marines and his family continued the search.

But Wednesday night, investigators brought Powell in to the sheriff’s office for another interview and confronted him about numerous inconsistencies in his story, West said.

Powell had said his friend was broke, but he actually had $2,000, West said. The timeline he described was improbable and left many

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

Sept 7 (KUNA) & Reuters & By REBECCA SANTANA (AP) & by Dave Clark, AFP

Militants have captured nephew of speaker of parliament in a district in the north of the Iraqi capital, police said on Thursday. The police said Mahmoud Almash-Hadani, the nephew of Ahmad Almash-Hadani was snatched in the neighborhood of Al-Hurrieh in the north of the city on Wednesday.

In Eastern Baghdad a car bomb exploded at the entrance of a petrol station allocated for police vehicles killing at least 12 policemen, said interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf, and wounding three policemen.

A bomber ploughed his explosives-laden car into a police fuel depot in the town centre, killing at least 12 policemen, said interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf.

Earlier, a bomb hidden under a parked car near al-Nidaa Mosque in northern Baghdad exploded as a police patrol passed by. The wounded included several members of the Iraqi security forces, said Zakariyah Hassan of the Azamiyah police.

Another car bomb in Taiyran Square in the center of the city killed two civilians and two police special forces members,

A car bomber detonated his explosives at an Iraqi police commando checkpoint in western Baghdad’s Yarmouk district, wounding seven police commandos, an Interior Ministry source said.

Guerrillas killed two policemen crossing a southern Baghdad bridge, police said.

A policemen was shot dead by guerrillas in the southern town of Hay, about 50 km south of Kut.

A roadside bomb exploded on Wednesday near a police patrol in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, wounding four policemen, including an officer, police said.

Guerrillas killed two Iraqi guards charged with protecting oil infrastructure and wounded two others on Wednesday night while they were travelling in a car north of Tikrit.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“The Soldier-Led Anti-War Movement In The USA During The Viet Nam War”
“Enlisted Men And Women Who Saw The War From The Inside, Realized It Was A Crime And Put Their Freedom On The Line To Protest”

Everybody knows that Americans protested against the war, but not many know how many actual US uniformed military personnel worked from within to end the mistake that was Viet Nam.

From 1964 to 1967 military personnel were the only persons who knew the truth: the war was unwinnable and had already been reduced to a contest of mutual murder. Likewise the government and the media conspired to keep the truth of internal military dissention about the war from the general public.

Apr 17, 2006 By Ronald Wilkinson, Monstersandcritics.com/

A film that threatens the war movement with every showing, the Bush administration should outlaw it from all theatres within fifty miles of an armed forces recruiting station.

One of the most powerful anti-war films released this year, “Sir! No Sir!” is a review of the soldier-led anti-war movement in the USA during the Viet Nam war.

The film chronicles the experiences of general enlisted men and women who saw the war from the inside, realized it was a crime and put their freedom on the line to protest. And they did all this while in uniform.

Many were imprisoned and all were threatened with years of the hardest prison time there is, prison time in a military stockade. But they saw the war end before their message could be suppressed.

Between the years of 1954 and 1975 the USA fought an increasingly desperate battle to keep South Viet Nam from falling to the communist National Liberation Front. The war started when the French withdrew from the country in 1954 and the US began covert operations to prop up a series of failing pro-US governments.

In November 1963 the Kennedy administration apparently approved a general’s coup that overthrew unsuccessful president Diem. Three weeks later Diem was dead, and so was President Kennedy.

As prophesied by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower (”Why We Fight”-released last month) new president Lyndon Johnson bowed to the military-industrial complex. He gave them their war.

From this beginning came the most resounding civil discord ever to accompany a US war, and possibly the most potent fomenting of anti-war sentiment in modern history.

Americans, flush with memories of the great victory of WW II and the acceptable victory of Korea, enlisted to fight between 1964 and 1967. When these first veterans returned we began to learn the truth about Viet Nam.

The truth was that even our Vietnamese allies were so cynical about the morass of corruption that formed their government that they were more interested in immigrating to the US than in saving their own country.

The returning soldiers told stories of US military incompetence and the complete lack of understanding exhibited by American leaders.

War is a contest to take and hold land and critical resources, but the war in Viet Nam was not that.

There was neither the opportunity nor the attempt to take and hold land. There were only the body counts. And men, women and children all counted the same.

Everybody knows that Americans protested against the war, but not many know how many actual US uniformed military personnel worked from within to end the mistake that was Viet Nam.

From 1964 to 1967 military personnel were the only persons who knew the truth: the war was unwinnable and had already been reduced to a contest of mutual murder. Likewise the government and the media conspired to keep the truth of internal military dissention about the war from the general public.

In making this film, Zeiger put a call out for stories and ended up hearing from people nobody had ever heard from before. All of these people were, and are, under threat of federal prosecution for going public about Viet Nam.

Even now, after 35 years, they don’t know what the government will do to them.

The stories include the Oleo Strut coffee house in Texas, where from 1968 to 1972 Army enlisted men met those considering service in Viet Nam and counseled them against it.

The Oleo’s original purpose was to help returning GIs to readjust, but shell-shock turned into anger, and that anger into action. The GIs turned the coffeehouse into an anti-war headquarters and director/writer David Zeiger was one of the civilians who ran the effort.

Zeiger started making films in the early ‘90s and was certainly an expert on anti-war politics. But he was prompted to make this film only after the September 11 attacks and the “War on Terror’s” segue into the war in Iraq.

People like Zeiger knew the difference between the Great War and the Viet Nam war. They told the real life stories of killing civilians because they might be aiding the Viet Cong.

When meeting places like the Strut were declared off limits, the soldiers continued to operate secretly, dissuading thousands that the war in Viet Nam was a fraud that should not be supported.

The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Many of these latter-day heroes were eventually brought up on charges and court marshaled, some for treason, a crime punishable by death.

The severe nature of the penalty is testimony to why this film is so potentially harmful to the current occupation of Iraq; it threatens to enable soldiers to fight the war from within.

This story of the rebellion of thousands of American soldiers against the war in Viet Nam remained lost for years in the annals of the FBI. The secrecy was not for lack of evidence, but because of the mass of it.

By the Pentagon’s own figures, 503,926 “incidents of desertion” occurred between 1966 and 1971 and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle. This is dangerous stuff and the US government and puppet media made sure the public never heard about it.

The public demonstrations were hard to ignore, but the soldier’s desertions and outright refusals to serve were news too sensitive to let out. It was largely covered up.

Eventually some 100 underground newspapers published by soldiers and antiwar GI organizations spread the truth as Federal stockades filled with soldiers opposing the war.

A film of enablement, “Sir! No Sir!” shows that persons in the military still have a responsibility to the truth. The creation of a system in which some citizens can only escape poverty through military service has allowed the “volunteer” armed forces to survive.

Maybe a film like this is required to show the down-side of serving the Commander in Chief.

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

The Sir! No Sir! DVD is on sale now, 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.”

If You Can’t Look At A Dead American Soldier, You Don’t Deserve To Live In This Country

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: August 30, 2006
Subject: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Operation Iraqi Freedom

While the White House Goons ride around in this
phallic symbol, American soldiers are being blown
to shit, quite literally, in their Humvees.

You got to give these Limousine Warriors credit, they know a
good rig when they see one.

There is not one person
in our government who would step into a Humvee,
and go on patrol for his or her country.

You know why? ---because they don’t want to die!!!

But, when it comes to your kid, that’s another fucking story.

I wish I could bring a dead American soldier who has
been shot in the head, and place them at the dinner
table of every politician in Washington, D fucking C.

Now do you get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you can’t send your own kind, don’t send my kid.

If you can’t look at a dead
American soldier, you don’t deserve to live in this country.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
August 30, 2006

“Send guys to war, they
come home talking dirty.”
Tim O’Brien
Vietnam Veteran
The Things They Carried

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)

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.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Says
“Start Collecting More Taxes From Americans Who Can Best Afford It”

Letters To The Editor
Army Times
9.4.06

Several letters in the July 17 issue point out the discouraging fact that the only Americans sacrificing in Iraq and Afghanistan are our military and their families.

Members of the administration and Congress – those who got us into the fighting and dying – and the bulk of the American people are not sacrificing at all.

This undeclared war on terrorists is not taken seriously by our government or people as one with no end in sight.

Most Americans are unaffected by the dying and wounding of thousands of our troops. Putting a politically correct “Support the troops” ribbon on a car or an American flag on a lapel is not the same as really supporting our fighting forces.

Instead of paying income taxes at a top rate of 93 percent to support the World War II effort, this time the wealthiest Americans have received huge tax cuts and the war is financed by an increasing debt on our children and grandchildren.

Soldiers should write their congressmen and tell them to stop shortchanging the military budget and start collecting more taxes from Americans who can best afford it.

Give the wealthiest a chance to prove their patriotism in real terms.

Lt. Col. Richard H. Sugg Sr. (ret.)
Golden, Colo.

OCCUPATION REPORT

Stupidest Bullshit Of 2006 So Far:
Occupation Command Launches Huge Propaganda Campaign Pretending Iraqis In Control Of Collaborator Armed Forces:
[But, Oops, It “Still Leaves Nearly All The Country’s Troops Under American Control”]

September 07, 2006 By Rebecca Santana, Associated Press [Excerpt]

BAGHDAD: Coalition forces handed over control Thursday of Iraq’s armed forces command to the government, a move described by U.S. officials as a crucial step but which still leaves nearly all the country’s troops under American control.

[Typical reporter, blind and stupid: it certainly does not leave the resistance armed forces under American control, now does it? But, for this idiot, evidently those tens of thousands of warriors don’t even exist. Duh.]

“From today forward, the Iraqi military responsibilities will be increasingly conceived and led by Iraqis,” [Gen. George] Casey said at a ceremony with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to mark the event.

But in practical terms al-Maliki will only immediately have direct control over the country’s small navy and air force which has about 2,500 troops, as well as the 8th Iraqi Army Division.

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

An Israeli recently arrives at London’s Heathrow airport. As he fills out a form, the customs officer asks him: “Occupation?” The Israeli promptly replies: “No, just visiting!” Yamin Zakaria Via Liz Burbank, 9.7.06

[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

The Traitor Bush Says He Remains Dangerous

“Five years after our nation was attacked, the terrorist danger remains.” Rick Maze, 9.5. 2006, army Times

PIECE OF SHIT

(AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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

All GI Special issues achieved at website
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www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm
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