SO MUCH FOR THAT BULLSHIT ABOUT HOW IT’S AN ARMED FORCE FROM SMALL TOWN AMERICA

[From the outstanding web site icasualties.org/: Send a donation; they need it. T]

IMPORTANT:
Appeal For Redress Letter

From: Appeal for Redress
To: GI Special
Sent: September 19, 2006
Subject: IMPORTANT: Appeal for Redress Letter

I am writing to engage you on the Active Duty military project, a movement that will help end the occupation in Iraq and bring our love ones home.

The Active Duty military project is an initiative led by active duty service members and supported by veteran peace organizations including Military Families Speak Out (MSO).

Department of Defense regulation 7050.6, the Military Whistleblower Act, gives all of our service members the right to send a protected communication to a member of Congress.

This project is geared towards mobilizing appeals for redress from our service members in the United States and deployed/stationed throughout the world.

Our immediate goal is the mobilization of five to ten-thousand appeals for redress from active-duty military to be sent to members of Congress who support our cause. Our project will culminate with a formal appeal to our government during the national celebration of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

We are asking you to share this project with your love one and ask them to file an appeal. The appeal is private and will not be shared publicly. We can put you in touch with the active duty organizers on the ground in Norfolk, VA to share more details with you.

Go to www.appealforredress.org to learn more about the project and to file an appeal. If you wish for your loved one to file a hard copy appeal, contact Opio Sokoni at osokoni@yahoo.com or call him at (360) 241-1414.

In solidarity

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

from the War in Iraq

Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their member of Congress to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The Appeal will reach thousands of service members who seek redress from the war. The Appeal messages will be delivered to members of Congress on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007.

The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and simple. It is patriotic and respectful in tone:

“As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.”

The Appeal lists these grievances:

• The fabricated justification for war (nonexistent weapons of mass destruction)

• The failure to provide troops adequate protection and preparation for combat

• The human cost in thousands of deaths and severe injuries among American service members

• The cost to American taxpayers and diversion of resources from other priorities (inadequate response to Katrina, etc.)

Several organizations have come together to form a support committee to assist active duty service members. The organizations include Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Military Families Speak Out. The committee serves at the discretion of active duty service members.

The Appeal for Redress will circulate initially among active duty service members in communities near military bases, beginning in Norfolk and Quantico. The Appeal will also circulate on the Internet through a web site with sign-on function to facilitate service member participation. An Internet message with the Appeal will be sent to thousands of individual service members, who will be encouraged to forward the message to others, in the hope that it goes viral.

Attorneys and counselors experienced in military law have been contacted to provide assistance for any service members who encounter interference with their right to communicate with members of Congress. Participating service members will receive a fact sheet describing the rights and restrictions that apply to the exercise of First Amendment rights in the military.

Members of Congress are being asked to encourage and support the Appeal through a statement that reads:

“We respect and welcome this initiative from our brave men and women in uniform. We look forward to receiving the Appeals and sharing your important perspectives with colleagues in the Congress.”

Professional public relations assistance will be available to expose any interference with service member rights that occurs and to ensure that the Appeal for Redress attracts press attention at the time of delivery.

September 2006

Appeal for Redress, P.O. Box 53052, Washington, DC 20009-3052
Phone: 360-241-1414 • info@appealforredress.org

www.appealforredress.org

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

from the War in Iraq

As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

Name _____________________ Date _______/________/____________
Nonmilitary Email _____________________________@______________________
Duty station _______________________ Home zip code _______________________
Duty status:
Active Duty _____ Active Reserve or Guard _____ Inactive Reserve or Guard _____
Have you served in the Iraq theater?
Yes _______ No _______
Service Branch:
Navy _____ Army _____ Marines ______ Air Force _____ Coast Guard _____
Rank: __________ Signature _______________________________________

Nature of Grievance:

• The fabricated justification for war (nonexistent weapons of mass destruction)
• The failure to provide troops adequate protection and preparation for combat
• The human cost in thousands of deaths and severe injuries among American service members
• The economic cost to American taxpayers and diversion of resources from other priorities (inadequate response to Katrina, etc.)

The information submitted will be sent to members of Congress and the Senate. The information you supply to Appeal for Redress will not be released to any other person or organization.

Complete and sign form and return to: Appeal for Redress, P.O. Box 53052, Washington, DC 20009-3052

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

MND-B Soldier Killed By Roadside Bomb

23 September 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20060923-01

BAGHDAD – A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died at approximately noon today after the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by an improvised-explosive device in northern Baghdad.

Two Task Force Lightning Soldiers Killed Near Hawija, Three Wounded

23 September 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20060923-02

BAGHDAD: Two Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed and three others were wounded when an improvised explosive device exploded near their patrol outside the Kirkuk city of Hawija today.

Pa. Soldier, 21, Killed In Bombing In Baghdad;
“She Feared Getting Blown Up In Iraq”

Sep. 23, 2006 Associated Press

NEW RINGGOLD, Pa.: An Army soldier from Schuylkill County who wrote in an online profile that she feared “getting blown up in Iraq” was among three people killed in a suicide bombing in Baghdad, the military and her father said.

Jennifer Marie Hartman, 21, was in her barracks at a west Baghdad electrical substation that her unit was guarding when the Sept. 14 car bombing occurred, the Department of Defense said Friday. Two other soldiers were killed and another 30 were wounded.

Hartman’s parents, David and Bernice Hartman, were notified several days ago that their daughter might have been killed in the attack, but a positive identification could not be made immediately. Her father said the Army confirmed her identity through records of a previous foot injury.

The Tamaqua High School graduate entered the Army in July 2003 and was sent to Iraq in December 2005.

Hartman did not discuss with her family what she was doing in Iraq, her father said Friday. Instead, he said, the Army sergeant would change the subject to her passion: all-terrain vehicles.

“She was into her four-wheeler – that’s what she lived for,” said David Hartman. “I think she would rather have died on her four-wheeler than over there.”

The soldier’s profile on MySpace.com listed “going really fast (on a) car, bike, quad, JetSki” as the way she would want to die. In the section for listing her fears, she wrote, “Getting blown up in Iraq.”

Hartman was a cook assigned to the 4th Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas. Her company was attached to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Division, at the time of her death.

“The IED (improvised explosive device) detonated next to the sleeping building of the soldiers’ operating base,” said Capt. Warren Litherland, rear detachment commander for the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Division. “She was inside the patrol base at the time of the explosion. She was not working at the time of the incident.”

The soldier’s remains were flown back to the United States earlier this week. Her father said that funeral services are tentatively scheduled for Sept. 30.

Danish Soldier Killed By Basra IED;
8 Wounded

23 Sep 2006 Reuters & AFP

COPENHAGEN: A Danish soldier was killed in southern Iraq on Saturday after his patrol vehicle hit a bomb by the side of the road south of the city of Basra, the Danish central army command said.

“I can confirm that one Danish soldier was killed by a roadside bomb south of Basra when his vehicle, one of three travelling together, was hit,” a Danish army spokesman told Reuters, adding that one other soldier was seriously injured in the incident and seven others suffered slight injuries.

The patrol which came under attack was part of a Danish air force protection mission which protects visiting personnel from the foreign ministry in Copenhagen.

Denmark has about 500 troops serving in Iraq under British command. Four Danish soldiers have died in action in the country since the start of the U.S.-led occupation in 2003.

State Department Mercenary Killed In Basra

September 23 Reuters & AP

Authorities say a US contractor working for the State Deparment in Iraq’s second biggest city, Basra, has been killed by a rocket that struck the city’s main British compound overnight.

The missile struck the Basra Palace compound, former ruler Saddam Hussein’s riverside marble palace, which is guarded by Britain and houses some of its troops, as well as diplomatic missions for Britain, the US and their allies.

The palace is regularly targeted with rockets and mortars but this is the first fatality reported inside the heavily fortified compound.

British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge says the three bases in the city are usually struck “two nights in three” by volleys of rockets or mortars, but the strikes rarely cause damage.

Marines Dying In Vain:
Commanding General Says Too Few Troops To Win Anbar

9.23.06 AP

He [Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command] said the main focus of military effort in Iraq now is to secure Baghdad, leaving the Marine-run sector of western Iraq’s Anbar province with fewer troops than would be needed to crush the insurgency there as well.

“Anbar is a huge area … and it has a lot of very small population centers that, if you concentrated your campaign efforts there, would soak up a lot of troops from the decisive areas where they are needed more,” Abizaid said.

Stryker Soldiers Dying In Vain:
They Know It’s Hopeless:
“We Have A Brigade Here, But Baghdad Is A Big Place”

The Iraqi soldiers later appeared, but allowed much of the traffic to pass without a search. Some Iraqi police officers even helped move the barriers that Americans had put in place.

September 19, 2006 By Antonio Castaneda, AP [Excerpts]

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Soldiers trying to win back Baghdad’s streets say they have been surprised by the power and popularity of Shiite militias, whose presence they view as a major obstacle to curbing violence in the city. [Another one of these asshole reporters who insists on putting command propaganda in the mouths of soldiers, who are not stupid and don’t babble this bullshit. Some reality comes out below anyhow.]

Some soldiers, interviewed during operations in recent days in eastern Baghdad, said they believe the militias outnumber and outgun Iraqi forces.

Even more troubling, the soldiers suspect that militia leaders, most notably radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, enjoy greater support among the Shiite residents of the capital than do Iraqi security forces.

“If the Iraqi police and Iraqi army had a guy like (al-Sadr); someone people believe in maybe they’d be a little stronger,” said Capt. Dwayne Waits, 30.

“You see posters of him all over the place, but you don’t see posters of the Iraqi police chief or an Iraqi army colonel.”

In the first days of the offensive, the 172nd Strykers moved through some Sunni and religiously mixed neighborhoods west of the Tigris River, which flows through the center of Baghdad.

Now they are focusing on the Shiite neighborhoods of eastern Baghdad such as Shaab and Ur, where support for al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia is strong.

When U.S. troops first entered Shaab and Ur, children threw rocks at them, sometimes in full view of Iraqi forces.

The soldiers found posters of al-Sadr prominently displayed, along with several flowing banners warning “Death to the Infidels.”

U.S. officials consider the Mahdi Army and other armed groups a threat to the authority of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government of national unity.

“Everyone’s drawn to militias, which give immediate results, which is what they want,” said Staff Sgt. Justin Nelson, 26. “It goes back to popular support for the militias.”

Iraqi forces recognize the threat and power of the militias, adding to problems in the ranks.

Recently, Iraqi troops assigned to build checkpoints to block outgoing traffic didn’t show up for work on time, leaving U.S. soldiers scrambling to build makeshift barriers.

“That’s just the way they work,” said Waits, assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment. The Iraqi soldiers later appeared, but allowed much of the traffic to pass without a search. Some Iraqi police officers even helped move the barriers that Americans had put in place. [Three guesses which side they’re on.]

Waits said he feared the U.S. and Iraqis don’t have enough forces to control Baghdad, a city of about 6 million people.

“We have a brigade here, but Baghdad is a big place,” Waits said.

“This is a peacekeeping operation between people who don’t want peace,” said one officer who asked not to be named so he could speak freely.

“What’s going to happen here is going to happen.”

FUTILE EXERCISE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

U.S. soldiers drive past the site of a car bomb explosion in Baghdad Sept. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Another Marvelous Occupation Victory:
After Canadian Offensive, Kids Are Starving

September 23, 2006 Renata D’Aliesio, Calgary Herald

The tally on damage caused by the Canadian-led Operation Medusa is still in the works. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of residents in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts.

Makeshift camps of residents have sprung up in the south, according to Senlis, and in these camps, youngsters are starving.

Occupation Troops Shoot More Civilians:
“They Didn’t Obey The Rules”

“This is not the way to operate, my boy has done nothing,” Ifaq said as he waited for his son to wake up following surgery.

September 16, 2006 By LES PERREAUX

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP): Two Afghan bystanders were wounded Saturday after a Canadian soldier fired a warning shot toward a vehicle approaching an army convoy.

A man suffered minor cuts from flying debris and a teenaged boy had surgery Saturday to remove a piece of bullet from his leg. Neither of their injuries were considered life-threatening.

The boy’s angry father, Faeed Ifaq, wondered why Canadians hurt Afghan civilians in their efforts to stay safe from suicide and roadside bombs.

“This is not the way to operate, my boy has done nothing,” Ifaq said as he waited for his son to wake up following surgery.

Ifaq pulled a bullet from his pocket that he said struck his son while he was riding a bicycle.

“These do happen from time-to-time, but I’m not sure it would be fair to say there has been an increased amount of them,” said navy Lt. Sue Stefko, a spokeswoman for the Canadian mission in Afghanistan.

“It just happens that some people do not obey the rules that we ask them to.”

Afghans have complained about the tactics after being run off the road by Canadian convoys.

Officials would not say what warnings were delivered before the shot was fired Saturday.

Ifaq said he does not have the money for an extended hospital stay or other medications or treatment his son might need.

A cook in an installation for Afghan security forces, Ifaq says he relies on his son for help.

“I need my son back, soon,” he said.

TROOP NEWS

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

Despicable Shitbags Who Run Congress Planning A Pay Cut For Active Duty Troops

[Here it is again. Same old story. Used up, thrown away, and the politicians couldn’t care less. To repeat for the 3,461st time, there is no enemy in Iraq. Iraqis and U.S. troops have a common enemy. That common enemy owns and operates the Imperial government in Washington DC for their own profit. That common enemy started this war of conquest on a platform of lies, because they couldn’t tell the truth: this war was about making money for them, and nothing else. Payback is overdue. T]

Bottom line: In real, inflation-adjusted dollars, many soldiers will earn less next year than they are earning now.

September 25, 2006 Editorial, Army Times

It now appears certain that most service members will receive a 2.2 percent raise in 2007, the lowest in 13 years.

That will match wage growth in the private sector, but it will not match inflation, which is up 3.4 percent so far this year. [When inflation goes up faster than your pay, that is called a pay cut. Duh.]

Warrant officers and midgrade NCOs will likely get targeted raises April 1, in addition to the 2.2 percent all-ranks increase Jan. 1.

Bottom line: In real, inflation-adjusted dollars, many soldiers will earn less next year than they are earning now.

At a time when U.S. troops are bearing a tremendous burden in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots, that is a heck of a message to send.

Further, the federal civilian work force is likely to get a 2.7 percent raise.

At one time, it looked like that would happen for the military, as well.

Although the Bush administration recommended just a 2.2 percent raise in its budget proposal, and the Senate went along, the House approved a slightly higher 2.7 percent increase in its version of the defense authorization bill, which sets policy.

But neither the House nor Senate provided money for the higher raise in their versions of the defense appropriations bill, which provides the money to carry out policy.

Now, as negotiators work out differences in the two versions of the authorization bill, the only way service members could get the higher 2.7 percent raise is if lawmakers authorized the extra half-percentage point raise without providing the money to pay for it. That would leave it up to the individual services to come up with the money, and they are already strapped.

With so many budget needs going unmet, everyone knows priorities must be set.

But a pay raise that at least matched inflation should have been a priority for our service members and the nation.

Despicable Shitbag Pretending To Be A Top Doctor At The VA Says Don’t Worry:
PTSD Is Normal

Sep 23, 2006 By LOLITA C. BALDOR, The Associated Press [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON: More than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Health Administration report symptoms of stress or other mental disorders – a tenfold increase in the last 18 months, according to an agency study.

The dramatic jump in cases – coming as more troops face multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan – has triggered concern among some veterans groups that the agency may not be able to meet the demand.

They say veterans have had to deal with long waits for doctor appointments, staffing shortages and lack of equipment at medical centers run by the Veterans Affairs Department.

Contributing to the higher levels of stress are the long and often repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, troops also face unpredictable daily attacks and roadside bombings as they battle the stubborn insurgency.

“We’re not aware that people are having trouble getting services from us in any consistent way or pattern around the country,” said Dr. Michael Kussman, acting undersecretary for health and top doctor at the VA. [Check how this weasel dodges and twists: “consistent way or pattern.” He’s not saying the troops aren’t getting fucked over, he’s just saying he, personally, hasn’t found some “pattern.” Now check what this piece of shit says next:]

Kussman said the numbers of people reporting symptoms of stress probably represent a “gross overestimation” of those actually suffering from a mental health disorder.

Most of the troops who return from Iraq have “normal reactions to abnormal situations,” such as flashbacks or trouble sleeping, Kussman said.

[So, this quack fake lying shit-eating rat is saying that PTSD is normal, so don’t worry, be happy, and don’t expect us here at the VA to give a shit. Stake him out in downtown Ramadi for a couple weeks. If he survives, which would be deeply regrettable, see how happy he is about his “normal reactions.”

[If some vet tormented by flashbacks and nightmares blows this asshole away, would that be a “normal reaction” too? What would a jury think? It would be a supremely bad mistake: vets are needed to organize against Bush and the Imperial politicians in DC, not out of action locked up in jail or a mental hospital, but it could happen.]

While veterans groups don’t have data on the number of veterans encountering problems with the VA, they said veterans are reporting long delays for appointments at the agency’s medical centers.

Nearly 64,000 of the more than 184,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought VA health care were diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders as of the end of June, according to the latest report by the Veterans Health Administration.

Of those, close to 30,000 had possible post-traumatic stress disorder, said the report.

The Government Accountability Office reported in February 2005 that just 6,400 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had been treated for stress disorders. The office is an investigative agency of Congress.

MORE:

Not Convinced Yet Who The Enemy Is?
You Want More?
Here It Is:
Expect More Cuts In Family Support Programs, Army Warns

9.22.06 European Stars and Stripes

Army officials told base commanders to prepare for even deeper cuts in family support programs and other non-war-related expenses next year. [You see what they are? You’re off in Iraq or Afghanistan, and they call family support a “non-war-related expense.”]

Families Of KIA Lead Huge Demonstration Against Blair And War

Saturday Sept. 23, 2006: Anti-war demonstrators marched through the northern English city of Manchester on Saturday, protesting the presence of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on the eve of the governing Labour Party’s annual gathering. (AP Photo/Simon Pendrigh)

A group of military families whose relatives have died in Iraq set up a peace camp in Manchester earlier this week and they were at the head of the march.

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

September 23, 2006 Press Association

Thousands of anti-war protesters staged a mass “die-in” around the venue of Labour’s annual conference to call on Tony Blair to bring back troops from Iraq – and then resign.

Organisers of the demonstration in Manchester said up to 60,000 people from across the country joined the event, which passed off peacefully.

Police put the estimated numbers at up to 20,000 and praised the behaviour of the crowds during four hours of speeches and marching.

The most dramatic moment of the protest came when the demonstrators lay down in roads around the conference centre to symbolise the number of people killed in the conflict in Iraq.

A group of activists splattered themselves with fake blood and held up a coffin containing a “grim reaper” wearing a Tony Blair mask to start the sit down protest.

Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop The War Coalition, which helped to organise the protest, said the number of people on the march had exceeded expectations and showed increasing anger at the government’s foreign policies.

Labour MP Michael Meacher told the rally that the most important date to emerge from Labour’s conference this week should be the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

He warned that the presence of troops from Britain and the United States was now making things worse in Iraq and said tensions will only reduce once they leave.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union said Mr Blair’s conduct in recent months, especially over the conflict in the Lebanon had been an “absolute disgrace”.

A group of military families whose relatives have died in Iraq set up a peace camp in Manchester earlier this week and they were at the head of the march.

A protestor holds a poster of George W Bush in Manchester, on the eve of the governing Labour Party’s annual conference.(AFP/Paul Ellis)

“Do You Want To Have Any Vehicle Or Gear Malfunction In A Real Time Of Need?”
“Or Would You Rather Look Good When The Enemy Puts A Bullet In You?”

Letters To The Editor
Army Times
September 25, 2006

I agree in keeping and maintaining all military wear [”Polishing not about shine,” Letters, Sept. 4].

The letter writer did not mention vehicles.

I spent seven years as a 63C, 63T and 63B, schools at Fort Jackson, S.C.; Fort Knox, Ky.; and Fort Carson, Colo.

I worked an average of 10-18 hours a day — plus weekends and holidays — just to maintain a mobile Army, not to mention having to spit-shine boots, living quarters, change of quarters and pulling guard duty — with no time off after guard or CQ.

Do you want to have any vehicle or gear malfunction in a real time of need?

Or would you rather look good when the enemy puts a bullet in you?

Mechanics, cooks and military police have the most thankless jobs in the military.

Former Spec. 4 John G. Legner Jr.
Fairborn, Ohio

Recruiters Hide From Gay Woman Who Wants To Enlist

9.21.06 Arizona Republic

Meg Sneed, who is openly gay, said that a Coast Guard recruitment office was closed because officials knew she was going to try and enlist.

Officials don’t hold out much hope for her enlisting. Like other military branches, the Coast Guard follows the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule laid down by Congress.

Terrorist Squirrels Desecrate The Flag

9.25.06 Army Times

The city of Eau Claire, Wis., had a mystery on its hands: some dastardly thieves were stealing American flags from veterans’ graves. “We thought kids were coming out at night and taking them,” said Dave Ender, a groundskeeper at Forest Hill Cemetery.

The mystery has finally been solved, and the culprits are not your typical two-legged variety of thief. These criminals are small, four-legged, bushy-tailed rodents.

Squirrels, to be precise.

The Associated Press reports that Ender uncovered the plot while mowing some of the cemetery’s many acres of grass, when something in a distant tree caught his eye. He drove his riding mower over to it, and there were the flags: shredded and serving as the foundation of a giant squirrel nest.

Now cemetery officials are trying to figure out the why and when of the mystery, as no one has ever spotted squirrels bearing flags.

It also is unclear exactly why the rodents have suddenly decided that the Stars and Stripes makes fine nesting material. “Those little rascals, they’re just amazing,” Ender said.

Two Fucked Up Teens In Stolen Car Crack Security At MacDill

September 21, 2006 Associated Press

TAMPA, Florida: The military was reviewing security procedures Wednesday after two teens in a stolen car managed to drive through a security checkpoint and onto the MacDill Air Force Base that houses key command centers in the U.S. military.

Air Force spokesman Lt. Larry van der Oord declined to say how the local teens managed to get through the base’s security checkpoint, which is manned by armed guards.

“There will be an investigation and they will look at everything,” van der Oord said.

MacDill houses both the U.S. Central Command, which oversees forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. Special Operations Command, the coordination center for elite military units such as the Green Berets and Navy SEALS.

Tampa police first tried to stop the white Chrysler about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. The car sped away and police said they did not pursue it, but notified other officers to watch for it. Several officers reported the car moving at high speed across town until it ran through one of the gates at MacDill.

Military police allowed Tampa officers onto the base. MacDill’s security forces were also alerted. The pursuit ended when the teens, driving with their lights off on the base’s main road, slammed into a Tampa police cruiser.

The stolen car was on the road near sensitive military command centers, van der Oord said.

Police arrested Davaraye Mungin, 16, and Damia Bowie, 16, on a host of felony charges, including battery on a law enforcement officer and grand theft auto. Police said federal charges were also possible.

The teens suffered minor injuries in the crash.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action;
Collaborator Cops Lose Their Heads

0.23.06 Reuters

Nine severed heads of policemen were found in the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

Two boxes containing the heads were tossed out of a speeding car in the centre of Tikrit, the capital of Salaheddin province, a police officer said Saturday.

Guerrillas shot dead Fadhil Abu Seybi, the head of a local tribe and a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a prominent Shi’ite [pro-occupation] party. Police said Abu Seybi was killed outside his home in Najaf.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“The Efforts Of Enlisted Men And Women Who Became A Part Of The Antiwar Movement”

Film Review by Dave White.Movies.go.com [Excerpts]

The Basics: Thought hippies and burnouts and privileged college kids did all the protesting during the Vietnam War? Think again.

This eye-opening and sadly relevant documentary details the efforts of enlisted men and women who became a part of the antiwar movement.

What’s the Deal? You thought maybe you’d heard all the stories and seen all the movies about Vietnam there were to see?

None of them (except Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July) has ever mentioned the veterans’ movement, much less what was going on inside the military at the time.

What Happened: Enlisted soldiers went AWOL, they refused to cooperate, they protested and resisted arrest for their disobedience, they were tried and imprisoned for as long as a decade.

Chilling Director’s Statement from the Press Notes:

“In the decades that followed those vivid years, I and the thousands of veterans who had joined that movement watched as their reality was rewritten, distorted and ultimately buried under the myth of the loyal veterans returning home to an antiwar movement that spat on them and called them baby killers.

“The irony of that charge never fails to strike me, since whenever atrocities are exposed that are a direct outgrowth of U.S. government policy — from My Lai to Abu Ghraib — it is the government, not those opposed to these wars, that lays the blame on the soldiers who carried out their orders.”

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 about the first hip-hop antiwar concert against the “War on Terror.”

Zionism

From: L
To: GI Special
Sent: September 23, 2006
Subject: US vs THEM

Dear GI Special,

As you know I don’t like to read about “Zionist scum”. I think it is dangerously close to the sort of demonization that the US engages in, for instance, when it indoctrinates our troops with hatred, using words like “sand niggers”, “towel heads”, “islamofascists”, and so forth.

These words purport to describe “essential” characteristics of the enemy. To define them in a way that will create and maintain an unbridgeable gap between “us” and “them”. And of course enable “us” to murder “them”… and “their” wives, and “their” children, and “their” babies… and still to stay on the right side of “our” god and “our” morality.

I think that it cannot be stressed enough that “we” humans are all the same. That it is our acts that are good or evil.

So I was happy to read ‘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.”’ in GI Special, for it characterizes people by their actions rather than by some mysterious essential characteristic that “separates” “them” form “us”.

Please keep up the good work.

REPLY: The question has to do with politics and class. Thanks for writing, and offering this opportunity to restate the following: from GI Special 4H14: 8.14.06. T

Zionism

Zionism is not a religion.

Zionism has nothing to do with religion.

Zionism is a racist political tendency, combining the most vicious expansionist nationalism with force of arms.

Neo-Nazis would like the world to think that all Jews are Zionist.

That is a despicable lie.

Zionists would like the world to think that all Jews are Zionists.

That is another despicable lie.

There have always been, and are to this day, political tendencies among Jews all over the world that have fought Zionism implacably, and still fight Zionism for the evil it is: nothing but a reactionary, odious, bloodthirsty politics that says a bunch of people can walk into Palestine, slaughter the people living there, reduce the survivors to objects of scorn and abuse, and stuff them in huge open air concentration camps, where they may be killed more conveniently.

Zionism, like fascism, or any other form of expansionist militarized nationalism, has nothing whatever progressive or redeeming about it.

It is no more possible to defend the politics of Zionism that to defend the slaveholders in the United States who formed a regime founded on similar principles of structured inequality: The Confederate States Of America.

As finally occurred in South Africa, where a regime founded on similar murderous racist tyranny eventually was destroyed by mass resistance, it may be hoped that one day, the area comprised now by every inch of Israel, including every inch of the occupied territories, will form one political entity, with one person, one vote, and where all, regardless of their background, have equal rights, including the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes.

In order for that to happen, the Zionist regime must be destroyed, and Zionism cease to be embodied in a government that proclaims that those who are not Zionists are inferiors, just as for change to come to South Africa, the racist regime that ruled there had to be destroyed. Nothing less will end the bloodshed, just as nothing less could end the bloodshed in South Africa generated by a regime openly proclaiming that the Master Race should rule, and all other bow down before it.

This is not about species. This is about politics.

Yes, the Bush regime is composed of filth who have the same bloodthirsty nationalism at the heart of their politics as do the Zionists. The slaughter of Iraqis is merely a current instance. Yes, that bloodthirsty nationalism has a long history. Not only Vietnam and Hiroshima, but long before that.

So do many other expansionist predatory Imperial or wanna be Imperial states. And the people who use their power and wealth to control governments and order their armed forces to butcher others in order to expand their wealth are filth, and nothing but filth, and that is a mild term for their status.

How fortunate that hundreds of millions of our species all over the world are resisting them for what they are: the enemies of the vast majority of us who have no interest whatever in Imperial conquest, large, as with the U.S., or smaller, as with Israel.

As for the USA being a democracy? That depends on how much money you have. Political campaigns are for those who have the money; they choose who is offered to the electorate, and fund the campaigns. “We” have nothing to say about that.

For decades most Americans have been in favor of universal health care. But those who rule in America are not. Therefore, there is no universal health care. That is merely one illustration. This is the form of democracy where money votes. Some have it. Others do not. Those who do not must act in the streets. That’s how we vote and produce change for the better.

Change for the better has come and will come when people below have had enough, and organize to fight back against the torment and death inflicted by the predators who use their money to control the power in the society, and decide who lives and who dies.

The essential difference is not one between different peoples. The essential difference is class.

Yes, agreed, we are indeed responsible for taking action to fight back.

And in fighting back, it is impossible to be too hard not merely on the temporary Bush regime, but the whole Imperial class that sustains the U.S. Empires’ bloody wars of conquest, as much Democrat as Republican let us not forget, just as it is impossible to be too hard on the Zionist movement, which is the political expression of a virulent, murderous nationalism no less intent on the slaughter and domination of those it chooses to plunder.

They are brothers in blood.

Agreed, we must be sisters and brothers to everyone in the resistance, everywhere in the world. That’s what solidarity is.

T

MORE:

“A Jew to Zionist Fighters, 1988"
Do You Really Want To Be The New Gestapo?
The New Wehrmacht?
The New SA And SS?

[Thanks to JM, who sent this in. She writes:]

Something very different: a poem.

Have you heard of Erich Fried who is often referred to as the greatest modern, Jewish, poet?

He was born in Vienna in 1921 and escaped to England, with his mother, after his father was tortured to death by the Gestapo, in 1938.

Because of his experiences with racism and Fascism he became involved in the Palestinian cause.

He was a leader in the fight against both Fascism and Zionism.

I’m sending a copy of his best poem, in my opinion. It was first published in 1988 just before he died.

Please take the time to read it. I think it’s wonderful.

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

A Jew to Zionist Fighters, 1988

What do you actually want?
Do you really want to outdo
those who trod you down
a generation ago
into your own blood
and into your own excrement
Do you want to pass on the old torture
to others now
in all its bloody and dirty detail
with all the brutal delight of torturers
as suffered by your fathers?
Do you really want to be the new Gestapo
the new Wehrmacht
the new SA and SS
and turn the Palestinians
into the new Jews?
Well then I too want,
having fifty years ago
myself been tormented for being a Jewboy
by your tormentors,
to be a new Jew with these new Jews
you are making of the Palestinians
And I want to help lead them as a free people
into their own land of Palestine
from whence you have driven them or in which you plague them
you apprentices of the Swastika
you fools and changelings of history
whose Star of David on your flags
turns ever quicker
into that damned symbol with its four feet
that you just do not want to see
but whose path you are following today

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

It’s Official!
Officer Says Iraqi Collaborator Army Can Do Nothing

September 22, 2006 By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press

Maj. Gen. Bashar Mahmood Ayoub, commander of the 9th Iraqi army, said the situation has deteriorated in recent months.

“These days, the violence is worse and the politicians are not supporting us,” Ayoub told the AP.

He said it was up to political leaders to resolve the security situation, adding that the army could do nothing further for now.

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

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

Pimps For The Empire Knee Deep In Blood:
Lamont And Murtha Lead The Rat Pack:
“Just Because Lamont Is A Democrat, He Shouldn’t Be Permitted To Play Games With The Lives Of Iraqis And U.S. Soldiers”

[Twist, squirm, bullshit, lie and throw up all the smoke screens available; nothing can hide reality: Lamont, Murtha, Kucinich & Co., Inc. are opposed to getting out of Iraq now. They are also committed to maintaining the U.S. Empire and killing more U.S. troops to do it; they just have problems with this particular slaughter. And those who promote them as leaders we should follow have chosen sides, whatever whining excuses are offered: the side of the politicians in DC who walk on the bodies of U.S. troops and Iraqis to maintain the Empire. Lamont, Murtha, Kucinich & Co., Inc. are knee deep in blood. Rip off their masks. T]

The PDA politicians put their loyalty to the Democratic Party above the interests of the movement. They aren’t part of the process of building an antiwar movement that puts ending the war as its primary goal, but are an obstacle to it.

September 22, 2006 By Todd Chretien, Socialist Worker [Excerpts] TODD CHRETIEN, the Green Party’s U.S. Senate candidate in California against Diane Feinstein and a member of the International Socialist Organization, looks at the Democrats’ dismal record—and the variations of “lesser evilism” among the party’s supporters.

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

SOME SELF-described progressive forces, whose main aim is to become players in the Democratic Party, claim to reject …… pure-and-simple “lesser evilism.”

Instead, they argue that the Democrats can only win if they are “pushed” to the left by grassroots pressure.

While accepting the idea that the Democrats winning is the most important thing, they highlight so-called “progressive” candidates as part of a plan to “take back” the Democratic Party.

MoveOn.org exemplifies this trend, and its current poster boy is Ned Lamont, who beat conservative Democrat Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Senate primary election.

But if you scratch the surface, you find that Ned Lamont is not so much antiwar as he is anti-Lieberman.

This is what Lamont’s Web site said after Israel invaded Lebanon and murdered 1,000 civilians: “At this critical time in the Middle East, I believe that when Israel’s security is threatened, the United States must unambiguously stand with our ally to be sure that it is safe and secure. On this principle, Americans are united.”

On Iraq, Lamont says, “I salute the patriotism and wisdom of Congressman John Murtha and others who emphasize that ‘stay the course’ is not a winning strategy for Iraq or America. While we will continue to provide logistical and training support as long as we are asked, our frontline military troops should begin to be redeployed, and our troops should start heading home.”

While this sounds vaguely “antiwar,” the devil is in the details. “Redeployment” is Murtha’s codeword for pushing the Iraqi puppet-army forward and relying more on American air power in Iraq.

Moreover, Lamont says only that “frontline troops” (what about special forces? the CIA?), should “begin” to “start heading home.”

Last December, after the election in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that American troops could “begin” to “start heading home.” A year later, nothing has changed.

Just because Lamont is a Democrat, he shouldn’t be permitted to play the same verbal games with the lives of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers.

FINALLY, THERE are people who genuinely want to end the war, but continue to cling to the hope that a reformed Democratic Party will lead the fight, or at least believe that supporting “antiwar” Democrats must be a central component of a successful antiwar strategy.

The Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the leadership of the United for Peace and Justice antiwar coalition represent these ideas.

One of the PDA’s main activities this fall is Camp Democracy, a two-week-long event in Washington, D.C., which was billed as a protest of the war featuring prominent liberal Democrats.

Yet while PDA politicians such as Reps. Lynne Woolsey, Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee can sound very antiwar sometimes, when push came to shove, all either voted for or abstained on the House resolution cheering on Israel’s assault on Lebanon.

Moreover, they agree with the more conservative Democrats that one of the big problems with the war in Iraq is that it is an “ineffective way” to fight the “war on terror.”

As Woolsey put it at Camp Democracy’s opening day, the war in Iraq has made “the world a more dangerous place and increase(d) the terrorist threat… (It has) created more jihadists and inspire(d) more hatred of America among Muslim extremists…”

Emphasizing the “terrorist threat” and “Muslim extremists” is not exactly a principled basis on which to organize an antiwar movement.

This only goes to show how little difference there is between the so-called “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party and the corporate powerbrokers who run it.

In 2004, Dennis Kucinich campaigned in the presidential primary for months denouncing John Kerry’s support for the invasion of Iraq.

Then, at the Democrats’ convention, he disciplined his supporters to shut up and get in line behind John “I’ll send more troops to Iraq” Kerry.

The PDA politicians put their loyalty to the Democratic Party above the interests of the movement.

They aren’t part of the process of building an antiwar movement that puts ending the war as its primary goal, but are an obstacle to it.

The longer it takes our movement to reject all versions of lesser evilism, the longer it will take to build a movement powerful enough to win peace and social justice.

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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