“Out Of Iraq Now”
“Soldiers Are Not Renewable”

A woman is thrown out after standing up and yelling, ‘Out of Iraq now, Soldiers are not renewable’ as President Bush spoke at a conference on Renewable Energy Oct. 12, 2006 in St. Louis. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The South Turns Against The War:
“57% Of Southerners Believe The U.S. ‘Should Have Stayed Out Of Iraq’”
“30% Of Those Polled In Southern States Say The U.S. Should ‘Withdraw Completely’”

When asked to provide “an acceptable number of U.S. military deaths” in Iraq, 63% of respondents in Southern states and 68% in other regions said “zero.” When asked later in the survey how much more money the US should “spend in order to complete the mission in Iraq,” 50% of Southerners and 47% of respondents elsewhere said no additional dollars should be spent.

[Thanks to Ron R. and Pham Binh, The Military Project, who sent this in.]

October 2006 Southern Studies

DURHAM, N.C.: Despite strong early support for the Iraq war in the South, the region’s opposition to the war now matches national levels, and by some measures frustration is higher in the South than elsewhere in the country.

Those are the findings of a new public opinion poll run by the Institute for Southern Studies and the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University.

The national survey, which included a larger poll or “over-sample” in 13 Southern states, offers one of the first in-depth looks at Southern attitudes towards the Iraq war since the Bush Administration pressed for military action four years ago.

57% of Southerners believe the U.S. “should have stayed out of Iraq,” compared to 44% who think the U.S. “did the right thing” by taking military action. Nationally, 58% of the public believes the U.S. should have stayed out and 43% now agree with military action.

Southerners are skeptical about the goals of the Iraq mission. 29% of Southerners agree with the Bush Administration’s position that “Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism,” compared to 25% nationally.

But 30% in Southern states, the same as the national average, believe the main reason the U.S. is in Iraq is “to ensure access to oil.”

By at least one measure, Southerners are more frustrated with the war than their counterparts in other regions.

Asked if they were “proud” or “sad” about Iraq, a surprising 62% of respondents in the South said they were “very sad” about the course of the war, compared to only 56% in other regions of the country.

Only 10% of those surveyed in the South say they are “somewhat proud” or “very proud” of the Iraq mission, slightly less than those polled in other states.

30% of those polled in Southern states say the U.S. should “withdraw completely” from Iraq.

Those in non-Southern states were less likely to call for a total withdrawal of U.S. troops (26%), but more likely to think U.S. troop levels should be decreased “some” or “a lot” – 34% in non-Southern states, compared to 26% in the South. Put together, 56% of Southerners and 59% in other regions support a decrease or withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The results signal a shift in Southern attitudes towards Iraq. As recently as July 2005, a Pew Center poll found 53% of Southerners believed using military force against Iraq was “the right decision,” the highest level of support in the country.

Most polls since 2002 have shown support for the Iraq war in Southern states rating higher than, or even with, national attitudes.

“The depth and strength of anti-war sentiment in the South is eye-opening, given the region’s high level of military pride and early embrace of U.S. policy in Iraq,” says Chris Kromm, director of the non-partisan Institute based in Durham, NC.

“The current Washington leadership has counted on Southern states as a bastion of support on Iraq, but clearly that support is deteriorating.”

The poll also looked at the public’s willingness to accept the future human and material costs of the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq.

When asked to provide “an acceptable number of U.S. military deaths” in Iraq, 63% of respondents in Southern states and 68% in other regions said “zero.”

When asked later in the survey how much more money the US should “spend in order to complete the mission in Iraq,” 50% of Southerners and 47% of respondents elsewhere said no additional dollars should be spent.

“The evidence suggests a public consensus is developing, in the South and beyond: ‘no more money and no more lives for Iraq,’” said Elena Everett, a Program Associate at the Institute. “With the mid-term elections approaching, the question is, how will Washington respond?”

The poll was designed by the Institute for Southern Studies in collaboration with Assistant Professor Michael D. Cobb and Associate Professor William A. Boettcher III, both from the Department of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Task Force Lightning Soldier Killed,
Two Wounded In Kirkuk Province

12 October 2006 Multi-National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061012-02

TIKRIT, Iraq: A Task Force Lightning Soldier assigned to 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, was killed and two others were wounded Oct. 11 as a result of enemy action while conducting operations in Kirkuk Province.

Local Marine Dies From Injuries Suffered in Iraq

Oct 12, 2006 WOIO

Cleveland, OH: A local marine has paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

24-year-old Marine Sgt. Justin Walsh has died from injuries suffered in Iraq.

The 2001 graduate of Cuyahoga Falls was serving his third tour of duty in Iraq.

Walsh was injured on October 4th and passed away Wednesday at the National Navy Medical Center in Maryland.

Florida Mercenary Killed In Roadside Blast In Iraq

October 12. 2006 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.: A Florida man working for a company that disposes of munitions in Iraq died when an improvised bomb hit the vehicle in which he was riding, the Army said Thursday.

The military identified the victim as Gerald Lambert, 46, of Brooksville, Fla. He worked as a security specialist for Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Inc. of Minden, Nev. Lambert was killed Wednesday.

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

U.S. troops arrive at the site of a bomb blast in Baghdad’s Camp Sara Oct. 4, 2006 after a series of bomb blasts went off in rapid succession in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Soldier Dies In Fall From Helicopter In Afghanistan

October 12, 2006 KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters)

A soldier died after falling from a helicopter during a landing approach in southern Afghanistan, NATO said Thursday.

The soldier, who name was not released, was taken to a military hospital after falling from the UH-60 helicopter in Helmand province Wednesday, the alliance said. He died of his injuries in the Kandahar military hospital.

Resistance “Now Control Most Of Zabul Province”

October 11, 2006 Canadian Press

The regional-level commander, Mullah Nazir Ahmed Hamza, said the Taliban still has thousands of fighters, despite NATO reports of heavy losses in recent battles, that support for the hardline movement is increasing every day and U.S. and NATO forces will have a tough time beating the fighters without air support.

Hamza said the Taliban, who claim to control large areas of mountainous terrain in southern and eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, now control most of Zabul province, saying: “Even one kilometre from Qalat the government doesn’t have control,” referring to Zabul’s provincial capital.

“The Biggest Thing These Guys Have To Deal With Is They Can’t Trust Anyone Here”

October 8, 2006 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP)

The streak of bloody bad luck that often seems to target one Canadian military unit after another has caught the Royal Canadian Dragoons.

With the death Saturday of Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson in a roadside bomb explosion, the Dragoons reconnaissance team became the latest unit after Charles Company and the combat engineers to suffer more than its share of violence and casualties in a very brief time.

Wilson, a London, Ont., native and father of two, is the 40th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.

His surveillance squad, based in Petawawa, Ont., toiled in the shadows until last week when Sgt. Craig Gillam and Cpl. Robert Mitchell were killed in an ambush.

The Dragoons will spend the next day or two consoling one another before sending off their comrade in a ramp ceremony that has become a twice-weekly routine at Kandahar Airfield.

But the difficult days don’t end there. The Dragoons must now fill gaps in leadership, welcome replacement troops and try to regain balance in a mission to help the Afghan people and kill Afghan insurgents while trying not to get killed.

Few Canadians soldiers know more about recovery from trauma than the soldiers of Charles Company of the First Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment.

The armoured infantry unit was hit by an ambush Sept. 3 that killed four soldiers, including three senior non-commissioned officers, followed the next day by an accidental strafing by a U.S. warplane that killed one more.

The one-two punch wounded about 40 soldiers in one of the most devastating two days of casualties for the Canadian army since Korea.

The company’s comeback has been a slow painstaking process that isn’t over. A sombre realism hangs over the soldiers of Charles Company as they fend off ambushes and return to their dusty moonscape of a forward camp west of Kandahar.

“We’ve recovered as well as you can from such a tragic event and losing so much key leadership of the company,” Capt. Trevor Norton, a Toronto native, said in a recent interview.

“Some of our key leaders and biggest personalities were lost. But we’re pushing on.”

Norton was promoted to company second-in-command in the cascading string of promotions and shuffles that touched almost every soldier in the unit following the devastating events of early September.

Maj. Steve Brown, who was made company commander to replace wounded Maj. Matthew Sprague, said some Canadian idealism has been lost along the way.

“The biggest thing these guys have to deal with is they can’t trust anyone here,” Brown said.

“That’s hard. Canadians are very trusting. When you come to a society where you have to question everyone and everything whether you want to or not, it tears away at one’s soul after a length of time.”

Charles Company has welcomed 16 fresh-faced replacements in the last couple weeks. One of them, Cpl. Matt Jacquard, of Yarmouth, N.S., said it was actually a relief to be called up for duty in Afghanistan after hearing about the loss.

“It’s better to be out here with your buddies than sitting at home and wondering constantly,” Jacquard said. “It’s not because I’m crazy, I’m not in love with combat, but I wanted to be here with these guys.”

Precisely one month after the Sept. 3 ambush, bullets and shrapnel once again cracked off the side of the light armoured vehicles of Charles Company.

They turned their turrets and blasted away at the suspected source of the fire. This time the fates of war were on their side as the rockets fell around them, failing to score a direct hit as they raced up a riverbed.

Arriving safely at their camp a couple kilometres away, they peeled off their body armour, dropping it into the talc-like sand of the southern Afghan desert, and cracked soft drinks in quiet celebration.

“There is normalcy now in a lot of things that weren’t normal, that aren’t normal,” said Cpl. Trevor Holt from Cambridge, Ont. “Rockets and stuff really doesn’t faze me I guess.”

Holt quit smoking before coming to Afghanistan but he’s now up to two packs a day. His voice seems to lift and sink with his mood, reflecting the roller coaster ride the company has been on for a month.

“I haven’t even started to think about it all yet,” Holt said. “I won’t know if I’m going to get over it until I start to think about it. We’ll think about it when we get home.”

Assorted Resistance Action

October 12, 2006 Radio Liberty & (Reuters) & CBC

In Kandahar, police say two Taliban fighters on a motorcycle threw hand grenades into the compound of the Indian Consulate. No injuries were reported.

One grenade landed on the lawn of the compound and the second hit a police guardpost, a police officer said, adding the attackers were Taliban.

A bomber ran up to a vehicle with Afghan soldiers and detonated his explosives in the southeastern province of Khost. Two Afghan soldiers were wounded.

Separately, a car bomb targeted a U.S. patrol, wounding three civilians. Police say no U.S. troops were injured.

A separate Taliban ambush on a joint Afghan-NATO patrol in southern Uruzgan province killed an Afghan soldier.

Two policemen were killed in Mosul.

TROOP NEWS

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

The casket of Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Cosgrove III, Saint Vincent Martyr Church after funeral services in Madison, N.J., Oct. 11, 2006. Cosgrove, 23, was killed in a roadside bombing at a military checkpoint in Iraq Oct. 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

Money For 172nd Troops Refused By Scum In Command;
[They Can Get A Loan From The Army]
“The Stress That Everyone Has Been Under Has Been Horrible”

[Read the last paragraph very carefully. What these shitbags have approved for the 172nd is an advance on their cost of living allowance. We all know what an advance is, don’t we? That’s money you get now that you would have gotten later. And so, if you get it now, you don’t get it later. Duh.

[Here it is again. Same old story. Used up, thrown away, and the politicians couldn’t care less. To repeat for the 3,464th 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]

October 16, 2006 By Michelle Tan, Army Times Staff writer [Excerpts]

Soldiers can now be reimbursed for expenses that result from having their combat tours extended at the last minute.

A provision in the 2007 defense appropriations bill, signed into law Sept. 29 by President Bush, allows the Army to reimburse soldiers’ expenses if the cost is the result of good faith and reasonable preparation for their return to their home stations. Reimbursements are limited to expenses that have not been repaid and that are not reimbursable under any other provision of law. There’s no limit on how much a soldier or a soldier’s family could receive.

The provision, which applies only to the Army, stemmed from a Senate proposal to reimburse soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

The 172nd’s tour in Iraq was extended in July for up to four months. Almost 400 soldiers had already returned to Fort Wainwright, and others were waiting in Kuwait for flights home when the Army announced the extension July 27.

The brigade is now in Baghdad, and 301 of the soldiers who had already arrived in Alaska were sent back to Iraq.

Even though the initial proposal was designed just for the 172nd, the final version applies to all affected soldiers.

Carol Ernst’s nephew is an officer in the 172nd.

“I think it’s absolutely excellent,” Ernst said about the provision. “If it hadn’t been passed, I would’ve been very upset.”

Ernst and other 172nd family members rallied together in the days and weeks after the extension was announced to secure refunds for plane tickets and booked vacations. Online chat rooms lighted up as families traded tips and stories about their dealings with various airlines and travel companies.

“The stress that everyone has been under has been horrible,” Ernst said.

It’s too early for details on how soldiers would be reimbursed, said Sheldon Smith, an Army spokesman.

He also said it’s unlikely that soldiers from the 172nd will be affected by the provision, mainly because it has yet to be implemented.

Instead, the Army has taken money from other places to help the soldiers and their families, Smith said.

For example, the Army is seeking a joint federal travel regulation change to allow for a six-month advance of cost of living allowances so families can buy the items they need to get through an Alaskan winter.

Army officials expect the advance to be approved soon, Smith said.

Britain’s’ Top General Says British Troops In Iraq Should Be Withdrawn Soon;
Also Says Bush And Blair Full Of Shit

General Sir Richard Dannatt, Britain’s new army commander, said British troops in Iraq are making the situation worse and must leave the country soon, and called the prime minister’s policies “naïve.” (AP Photo/ Ministry of Defence HO)

10.12.06 By Deborah Haynes, Reuters

Britain’s top army commander said British troops in Iraq should be withdrawn soon because their presence was exacerbating security problems in the country, according to a British newspaper.

General Sir Richard Dannatt also told the Daily Mail in an interview published on Friday that Britain’s Iraq venture was aggravating the security threat elsewhere in the world.

In unusually blunt comments for a serving senior officer, Dannatt said the troops should “get … out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems.”

Britain, Washington’s main ally in Iraq, has around 7,000 soldiers deployed, mainly in the Shi’ite south.

Dannatt, who took over as Chief of the General Staff in August, suggested troops in Iraq had out-stayed their welcome.

“The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in. Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance. That is a fact. I don’t say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them.”

Dannatt appeared to be suggesting the presence of British and U.S. troops in Iraq was fanning Islamic militancy, something British Prime Minister Tony Blair has consistently denied.

Putting himself directly at odds with Blair and President Bush, the general criticised the post-invasion planning by the U.S.-led coalition.

“I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial successful war fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning.”

Another Disgusting Coverup By Assholes In Charge:
VA Takes 9 Months To Locate Data On Disability Claims By Veterans Of The Iraq And Afghanistan Wars;
They Claimed “That No Documents Existed”
Report Indicates That 1 In 4 Veterans Of Filing Disabilities Claims

Only after the Archive administratively appealed the VA’s “no documents” claims and advised the VA that it was prepared to file a lawsuit did the agency manage to locate the records.

October 10, 2006 National Security Archive [Excerpts]

One in four veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are filing disability claims, according to records released by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) under the Freedom of Information Act after nine months of denying their existence and posted today on the National Security Archive Web site.

The VA responded to the Archive’s original January 2006 FOIA request for documents about the number of disability benefits claims filed by veterans from the current war in Iraq by claiming that no documents existed, apparently because the reports concern the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) rather than being limited to the Iraq War.

Notably, one of the reports indicates that GWOT is the “military name for the current wars in and around Afghanistan and Iraq.” A similar report was released in December 2005 detailing Gulf War veterans’ benefit activity. An updated copy of this report was released in March 2006.

Only after the Archive administratively appealed the VA’s “no documents” claims and advised the VA that it was prepared to file a lawsuit did the agency manage to locate the records.

One is a January 30, 2006, document: “Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among 464,144 Veterans Deployed to the Global War on Terror.” It reports that more than 150,000 deployed Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) veterans, out of more than 560,000 veterans of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), filed disability compensation and pension benefits claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). The other is a July 20, 2006, document: “Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among Veterans of the Global War on Terrorism.”

If the current trend continues, then VA could receive as many as 400,000 disability claims from the 1.6 million deployed active duty and reserve service members in the Global War on Terrorism.

Jonathan Powers, Associate Director of Veterans for America and an Iraq War veteran, warned, “VA already has a backlog, and the claims process is only going to get worse unless VA takes action now.

“VA has no plan or funding to process and pay existing and future claims to ensure our veterans promptly receive the disability benefits and healthcare care they earned.”

In its most recent FOIA Annual Report, the VA purported to process 1.9 million FOIA requests during FY 2005, with a median processing time of 11 days.

Meredith Fuchs, the Archive’s General Counsel, expressed dismay at how the FOIA request was handled: “For the agency to take nine months to ‘find’ information that is of clear current public interest in the context of the ongoing Global War on Terrorism is astounding.

“It is one thing for VA to be reluctant to deliver bad news, but another thing entirely to deny the existence of the information.”

Navy Lawyer Who Defeated The Traitor Bush Passed Over

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

October 9, 2006 Chicago Sun Times

MIAMI: The Navy lawyer who led a successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration’s military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay has been passed over for promotion and will have to leave the military, the Miami Herald reported Sunday.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, 44, will retire under the military’s ‘’up or out’’ promotion system.

Swift said last week he was notified he would not be promoted to commander.

He said the notification came about two weeks after the Supreme Court sided with him and against the White House in the case involving Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was Osama bin Laden’s driver.

‘’All I ever wanted was to make a difference — and in that sense I think my career and personal satisfaction has been beyond my dreams,’’ Swift said.

Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said Swift was ‘’a no-brainer for promotion.’’

Computer With Personal Info On 2,400 Marines MIA

October 06, 2006 ASSOCIATED PRESS

A laptop computer loaded with personal information on 2,400 residents of the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base has been lost, authorities said Friday.

The computer was reported missing Tuesday by Lincoln B.P. Management Inc., which helps manage base housing. The company and Camp Pendleton are investigating. As of Friday, investigators had not found evidence that the data had been accessed, the base said in a statement.

Authorities would disclose what kind of information was on the computer.

Lincoln B.P. officials were notifying residents. “We take this matter very seriously and are working closely with Lincoln Properties to find out what happened and to safeguard the personal information of our Marines, sailors and their families,” said Col. James B. Seaton III, the base’s commanding officer.

Camp Pendleton is the Marine Corps’ largest West Coast expeditionary training facility, located north of San Diego.

“Army Of One” Slogan Gone:
“Army Strong” Arrives
[”How About, Army Fucked?”]

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. He writes: Army Strong? How about, Army Fucked?]

10 Oct 2006 MARGARET NEIGHBOUR, The Scotsman

THE US military is to drop its recruiting slogan “An Army of One”, which has been widely derided since its introduction six years ago.

A new phrase, “Army Strong”, was announced yesterday as the latest attempt to attract new soldiers.

“An Army of One” was introduced to combat what consultants said was a view among recruiting-age Americans that the army was dehumanising. But the slogan has been mocked by many as a glib fantasy.

“If you want to be an ‘Army of One’ you probably want to join the Hell’s Angels, not the US army,” said Loren Thompson, a defence analyst.

The new slogan, the fruit of an advertising agency contract worth $200 million a year, will be the centrepiece of a multi-media ad campaign.

Officials acknowledge that recruiting during wartime is difficult, particularly with US troops dying in Iraq almost every day.

“There’s no question that we want to have a marketing boost right now. It’s important to us,” said Lt-Gen Robert L Van Antwerp, who oversees the recruiting effort.

Officials said the switch did not mean the “Army of One” slogan was a loser, despite the criticism.

The new slogan, developed in tests with focus groups and interviews with soldiers, is meant to convey the idea that if you join the army you will gain physical and emotional strength, as well as strength of character and purpose.

This Is Not A Satire:
New 250 Pound Bombs Won’t Cause “Excess Destruction”

10.6.06 Northwest Florida Daily News

The new Small Diameter Bombs developed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., were loaded aboard U.S. warplanes on combat sorties for the first time, the U.S. Central Command said. The 250-pound-class munitions, the smallest guided bombs in the Air Force’s inventory, each carry only about 37 pounds of explosives.

Guided by an inertial navigation system that receives course corrections from satellites, SDBs are designed to hit precisely without causing excess destruction.

Ballplayers’ Host Cries Foul:
Army Panics Over Security Threat From Minor Leaguers

10.6.06 Washington Post

An Army logistician hosts a dozen minor league baseball players for the Potomac Nationals at her northern Virginia home each summer, says her generosity has placed her career in jeopardy.

Kim Gore, 51, a civilian employee at Fort Belvoir, said the Army has placed her “under review” over concerns that the foreign-born players are a threat to national security. Gore said she has had her workload altered, her security clearance reduced and her permission to work from home rescinded. The Army says it is reviewing Gore because she had access to a secure computer network while working at home with foreign nationals living with her.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action;
Jail Taken, Prisoners Set Free

Oct 12 AFP & DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer & VOI

On Wednesday in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, resistance fighters broke into the city’s Hamza police station, killing one policeman and freeing 10 prisoners.

A coordinated pair of bomb attacks in Baghdad has killed one police officer was killed and wounded three, suggesting that the blasts had targeted security forces loyal to Iraq’s US-backed government.

The attackers first triggered a car bomb then detonated a roadside booby trap in the immediate aftermath of the first blast, in a bid to maximise casualties, security officials said.

The blasts rattled windows a kilometre (half-a-mile) away and a plume of dust and smoke rose from the city skyline from Tayaran Square on Thursday.

In eastern Baghdad Thursday, two policemen were killed when a bomber on a motorcycle ran into a police patrol, police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

Welcome To Baghdad:
Have A Nice Day

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

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

What Do Vietnamese Children And Iraqi Children Have In Common?

From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: October 11, 2006
Subject: What do Vietnamese children and Iraqi children have in common?

What do Vietnamese children and Iraqi children have in common?

They were murdered by American tax dollars. One bomb at a time,
one disease at a time. Day in and day out, while the American people
walked and talked in a coma.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
October 10, 2006

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

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

HAVE A SIR! NO SIR! VETERANS DAY DVD AND BOOK SALE !!!

“In Iraq, we are fighting an immoral war, much the same as Vietnam was 40 years ago. Today’s soldiers, armed with the knowledge gained from watching Sir! No Sir! have the potential to rise up and stop another war that should have never started. Get this into the hands of our troops in Iraq and just wait for the movement to erupt.”
—Tim Goodrich, Co-Founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War

Ehren Watada, Katherine Jashinski, Agustin Aguayo, Mark Wilkerson: The past few months have seen a sharp rise in GI resistance, spearheaded by these and other courageous individuals who are publicly refusing deployment to Iraq and speaking out against the war.

In honor of the growing resistance in the military and as Veterans Day approaches, WE HAVE SLASHED THE PRICE OF THE LIMITED EDITION DVD of Sir! No Sir! from $19.95 to $14.95. If you haven’t yet bought the DVD, now is the time to do so.

Buy the film, show it to friends, and organize house and public screenings to support GI and veteran resisters from Vietnam to Iraq.

And let us be the first to announce that the Holidays are just around the corner! Pick up extras for friends and loved ones, especially those serving in the military today. Buy them now at www.sirnosir.com.

The GI Movement Trilogy

We are also now offering new books that are essential reading for those who want to support GI resisters–what we call the GI Movement Trilogy:

–Soldiers in Revolt by David Cortright
The first and most thorough portrayal of the Vietnam GI Movement.

–The Spitting Image by Jerry Lembcke
The book that exposes the myth of spat-upon Vietnam Vet.

—Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq by Peter Laufer
The first book describing the experiences of current military resisters.

These books are now available at www.sirnosir.com

We also want to take this opportunity to urge you to buy, watch and spread The Ground Truth, Patricia Folkroud’s incredible film that reveals the brutality of American military tactics in Iraq through the eyes of the soldiers themselves, and chronicles the burgeoning resistance among today’s “War on Terror” veterans. www.thegroundtruth.net

Act Now

Go to www.sirnosir.com to purchase these crucial materials, or go to one of our many affiliate sites.

Please help spread this exciting offer and announcement by forwarding it to your email lists.

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

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 or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

Before The Constitution Burns

From: Dennis Serdel
To: GI Special
Sent: October 12, 2006
Subject: Before The Constitution Burns

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

Before The Constitution Burns

Peacock generals with shiny and multi-colored trash
on their uniforms
giving our boys their little brass bullets to kill with.
And Woody Guthrie walking around singing
in the sand in the sweat soaked heat of the dust bowl called
Iraq is not our land, Iraq is their land.
We need to fight the fascists in our own land America.
Woody sang to hell with the rich 99% are evil.
Did you hear about the French
dragging their kings and queens out of their castles?
Think of a bunch of bushes hanging from a tree
for war crimes.
Tip a hat to the policeman and ask him to join us
instead of protecting the leeches.
Hug our National Guard boys
they all know how to protect us.
The “you will always have the poor” is just another lie.
See the elite willing
to let the killing go on for money
but they are not Americans.
And you don’t have to look too far
because this land is your land
this land is our land
not the people in the mansions.
Did you ever see congress and judges
in the trees?
Did you ever see soldiers giving back
generals their brass bullets
good bye now?

DONALD RUMSFELD:
POLITICAL GENIUS
The Secretary Of Defense Speaks

From: Don Bacon smedleybutlersociety@msn.com
To: GI Special
Sent: October 12, 2006

REPORTER: So my question is: Do you bear any responsibility for what has gone wrong in Iraq or is it all General Casey’s fault?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, this is a question that gets asked every time there’s a press conference. You know, give me all your sevens. Tell us what you’ve done wrong. Why do we have to keep going through this? Of course I bear responsibility; my Lord, I’m secretary of Defense. Write it down, quote it. You can bank it. Yes. (October 11, 2006, Defenselink)

OCCUPATION REPORT

Good News For The Iraqi Resistance!!
U.S. Occupation Commands’ Stupid Tactics Recruit Even More Fighters To Kill U.S. Troops

Foreign occupation troops from U.S. Alfa company 1-17 IN regiment of the 172nd brigade guard Iraqi citizens taken prisoner in their own home after weapons and propaganda material were found, in eastern Baghdad, Oct. 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

[The “propaganda material”? “Pictures on the floor of Shiite clerics Muqtada al- Sadr and late Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr” the AP writers says.

[The “weapons”? Every household in Iraq has weapons. Duh.

[By these standards, there are only about 3 million more Iraqis in Baghdad to arrest like these citizens have been.

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, butcher their families, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. What a bunch of silly people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

Pretty Theories Vs. Ugly Reality;
“‘Fucking Liars!’ The Marine Shouted, Then Walked Away”

October 12, 2006 By Julian E. Barnes, L.A. Times Staff Writer [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON — Three years after insurgents appeared as a potent force in Iraq, the U.S. military has begun to expand its counterinsurgency training by focusing more closely on younger service members and junior officers.

The new emphasis on training the lower ranks reflects the growing view among top commanders that the war cannot be won by military might alone and that U.S. troops at all levels must be taught how to win the allegiance of the local population.

Marine Capt. Mark Liston, a veteran of two tours in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, spoke in depth about the importance of having a lighter touch when conducting counterinsurgency operations.

“Destroy no more than the mission requires,” Liston said.

In an interview in Ramadi in July, Liston, who commands the Weapons Company of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines Regiment, said his unit will kick down a door if it has an intelligence tip that an insurgent is inside.

But in most random searches, the Marines are supposed to knock.

“We talk to our guys about putting themselves in the position of having an occupying power in their country,” he said. “Would they understand if someone kicks down their door?”

But on the streets of Ramadi, the Marines of Weapons Company interpret the rules differently.

During a routine patrol in July, a group of Marines stopped in front of a house to search it. Although the Marines did not believe there were insurgents inside, the house offered good sight lines for a potential triggerman hoping to set off an improvised explosive device.

After throwing smoke grenades to obscure their movements, the Marines entered the courtyard by kicking open a gate, then battered open the home’s front door.

In one room, two women huddled with several crying children.

“See Ali Baba?” one Marine asked, using the jargon for “bad guy.”

“No Ali Baba,” the frightened woman said.

A moment later, the Marine turned to another woman and asked, “Do you see IEDs?”

“No, no,” the woman replied, looking bewildered.

“Fucking liars!” the Marine shouted, then walked away.

Although the women did not understand English, the sentiment was clear.

Lance Cpl. Jose Torres, a member of the Weapons Company, said there is a simple reason the Marines do not knock on doors.

“The quicker we get in, the less likely we are to get shot,” Torres said after the search.”

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

Welcome To Liberated Iraq:
Another Reporter Thrown In Prison And Charged With Nothing At All

10/11/06 Reuters

A U.S.-based media watchdog on Wednesday demanded that Iraqi authorities release a female journalist for a London-based Arabic newspaper who has been held without charge for three weeks.

Kalshan al-Bayati, an Iraqi correspondent for Al-Hayat, was detained in Tikrit when she went to the security forces headquarters to retrieve a personal computer confiscated during a raid on her home, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

“It is outrageous that Iraqi forces feel free to lock up a journalist without explanation or due process for three weeks,” Joel Simon, the committee’s executive director, said in a statement.

“The authorities in Tikrit must release Kalshan al-Bayati immediately and cease harassing her,” he said, adding that al-Bayati was being held in a women’s prison in Tikrit, 112 miles north of Baghdad.

Al-Bayati’s sister said she had been working on an article for the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat about insurgents.

Al-Bayati had been jailed for three days in early September before being released and ordered to stay at home, the committee said.

It said Al-Hayat quoted its correspondent at the time as saying security forces had investigated her for possible ties to insurgents but found no link.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

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

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Attack Dogs Used Against Prisoners;
Worst Offenders Are State Prisons In Connecticut And Iowa

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

The commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction, Kathleen Dennehy, said that there are other ways to get an inmate to follow orders “than sending in an animal to rip his flesh.”

Oct 10, 2006 By: Human Rights Watch

Five state prison systems in the United States permit the use of aggressive, unmuzzled dogs to terrify and even attack prisoners in efforts to remove them from their cells, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report.

The 20-page report, “Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons,” publicly reveals this practice for the first time. It also shows that the practice is not only cruel, but wholly unnecessary as there are safer, more humane alternatives that corrections officers can use – and most across the country do use – to remove prisoners from their cells.

In Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota and Utah, if a prisoner will not voluntarily leave his cell when ordered to do so, officers may bring a trained attack dog to the cell front to terrify the prisoner into compliance.

If the prisoner still refuses, the dog is let into the cell to bite the prisoner.

While the prisoner tries to fend off the dog, correctional officers place restraints on him and then remove him from the cell.

“The entire world has seen the photo of an Abu Ghraib detainee crouched in terror before a snarling dog, but the use of attack dogs against prisoners here in the U.S. has been a well-kept secret,” said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch.

“Longtime corrections professionals were appalled when we told them that guards in some states use dogs on prisoners.”

The state prison systems in Connecticut and Iowa frequently use dogs for cell extractions. In Utah, they have been used extremely rarely. In Delaware and South Dakota, although state corrections policies permit the use of dogs for cell extractions, prison officials say they are not in fact used for this purpose.

Corrections officials in Connecticut and Iowa insist the use of attack dogs is justified because they deter prisoner misconduct and reduce staff injuries. But 45 other states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons reject their views.

The Arizona and Massachusetts prison systems formerly used dogs for cell extractions. In early 2006, both states ended the practice after a review of their use of force policies.

The commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction, Kathleen Dennehy, said that there are other ways to get an inmate to follow orders “than sending in an animal to rip his flesh.”

“We know of no other country in the world where officers use attack dogs to remove prisoners from their cells,” said Fellner.

“State prison officials in these five states should adopt the more humane methods that their colleagues across the country already use.”

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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