IRAQ WAR REPORTS

[Seven More Gone]

2 Baghdad Soldiers Killed By Small-Arms Fire

22 October 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061022-07

BAGHDAD: Two Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers died at approximately 11:25 a.m. Oct. 22 after terrorists attacked their patrol with small-arms fire west of Baghdad.

Another Baghdad Soldier Killed By Small-Arms Fire

22 October 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory

Baghdad: A Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldier died at approximately 1:30 p.m. Sunday when terrorists attacked his patrol with small-arms fire southwest of Baghdad.

One Soldier Killed, Three Wounded In Salah Ad Din

22 October 2006 MULTINATIONAL DIVISION NORTH PAO RELEASE No. 20061022-02

TIKRIT, Iraq: A Task Force Lightning Soldier assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was killed and three were wounded Oct. 21 as a result of enemy action while conducting operations in Salah ad Din Province.

Marine Killed In Al Anbar Province

22 October 2006 MULTINATIONAL FORCE – WEST PAO RELEASE No. 20061022-01

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq: One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died Oct. 21, of injuries sustained from enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province.

Baghdad Soldier Killed By IED

22 October 2006 Multi-National Division Baghdad PAO RELEASE No. 20061022-05

BAGHDAD: A Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldier died at approximately Oct. 22 when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive devise in western Baghdad.

Another Baghdad Soldier Killed By IED

22 October 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061022-06

BAGHDAD: A Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldier died at approximately 1 p.m. Oct. 22 after his patrol struck a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad.

Improvised Bomb Kills Marine From Shreveport

Lance Cpl. John Edward Hale

October 10, 2006 By John Andrew Prime, The Times

A Shreveport Marine, a 2005 graduate of Huntington High School and former co-captain of its Raiders football team, has died in Iraq.

Lance Cpl. John Edward Hale, a Marine for barely one year and in Iraq for three months, died Friday Shreveport time when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol in Anbar Province, his family says.

“John was so many things, it’s hard to put into words,” said his sister Paula Moreno, a Shreveport police detective. “He was in Junior ROTC all his time in high school, and he was in the hiking club. He had friends everywhere, and was active in his church.”

As with many people, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the East Coast galvanized Hale, his sister said. “He was very moved when 9-11 happened, and that was when he made up his mind to join the Marines.”

Hale’s uncle Kevin Powers said the desire to serve actually began much earlier, when Hale was a youth. “He always wanted to be a Marine,” Powers said. “He followed his dreams. He never let go of it.”

Hale’s father, Phillip Gregory Hale, served more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy. And John Edward Hale was born in the Philippines. His mom is Carol Martin Hale. His other siblings are Sonia Langford, Justin Martin and Phillip Davenport.

Hale was with the 2/8th Marines of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Military funeral arrangements are pending the return of his remains to this country, which could take two weeks. He will be buried in Forest Park West Cemetery, his father said.

That interval will be felt by the people who may have known him best outside his family, those who knew him at Huntington High.

“John was the all-American kid,” Huntington High principal Jerry Davis said. “He was an excellent student in the classroom as well as a leader on the football field. He exhibited leadership qualities long before his senior year. He was a young man that any dad would be proud to have as a son.”

Danita Bryant, school secretary and bowling/soccer coach, remembers Hale having a perpetual smile on his face and a thirst to serve. He came to the school once in full dress uniform to recruit, “but he never wanted to recruit. … He wanted to be where the action was.”

His bearing showed, even at school.

“John had a very structured military background,” says CWO Anthony Kveder, Hale’s Junior Army ROTC instructor. “He was the example of structure. He was never trite in the things he would say.”

Josh Bato played with Hale on the Raiders football team. Bato was a guard, Hale the center.

“He was the best kind of guy, the kind that would give you the shirt off his back,” said Bato, Hale’s best friend. “The Marines, that’s all he wanted to do ever since he was a freshman. And he said the reason he was going was for his family and his friends, the people that he loved.”

Football coach Mike Green said Hale stood out. “He was a cut above the rest. Totally different.” Hale wasn’t a big player, but he had energy and the right kind of attitude, said former football coach Alton Hortman, who now coaches soccer. “He was diminutive in stature, but his heart was as big as all outdoors.”

Julia Adkins, who taught Hale in American history and advanced-placement art history, said his pursuit of knowledge and excellence went way beyond the confines of the school and Shreveport.

“He was just curious about everything,” said Adkins, who remembers hiking with Hale and other members of the Bayou Chapter of Ozark Society. She said he used the long treks along Ouachita Trail to prepare himself for service overseas.

“John joined the Bayou Chapter during his senior year. And at that time, the chapter was section hiking the Ozark Trail in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas,” Adkins said. “John’s purpose was to get in shape for boot camp. And he would carry a much heavier pack than anybody else for a 12-mile hike.”

She said his spirits were buoyant. “He loved hiking. We would get to a beautiful scenic overlook and he would grin and say ‘Man, this is the life.’ That’s what he would always say, ‘Man, this is the life.’”

The tenor of his phone calls grew more serious as he joined the service and progressed through training, Adkins said. “The last time I talked to John was Easter, and he was in the Carolinas. He called me about the new Marine Corps-issue sleeping bag. He said it would be perfect for the Ouachita Trail.

“He also told me he was leaving the Carolinas and was going to California for pre-Iraq training and shipping out. He was excited to go.”

Adkins said Hale was a man ahead of his peers. “John was always a lot more mature than the other students his age. Another teacher told me ‘When John was a sophomore, he was about 30 years old.’ That was his maturity level.”

Soldier Was His Mother’s Pride And Joy

October 11, 2006 By MIKE BARBER, P-I REPORTER

A Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade soldier who died in Mosul, Iraq, on Saturday has been identified as Cpl. Carl W. Johnson II, 21, of Philadelphia.

Army officials said Tuesday that Johnson, a member of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, was killed when a roadside bomb destroyed the vehicle in which he was riding, but did not elaborate further.

Johnson is the 138th member of the armed forces with ties to Washington to die in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Johnson’s aunt, Patricia Williams, told the Philadelphia Daily News that her nephew’s father died before he was born. He was the only son of Peggy Johnson Crocker and is also survived by three sisters, she said.

“He (Carl) became her pride and joy,” Williams told the newspaper. Johnson’s mother believed that the military shouldn’t send an only son to a war zone, she said.

Crocker and her son last communicated Friday by e-mail, Williams said.

“He (Carl) was just saying he was getting ready to go on a mission,” Williams said. Johnson, who joined the service after graduating from Simon Gratz High School, was to return next year, she said.

He told his mother to “start looking for a motorcycle for when he comes home,” Williams said. “He wanted to serve. He wanted to be a soldier to drive the tanks.”

“He was looking forward to going back to school, to college,” she said.

Johnson had played defensive end on his high school football team. Johnson’s aunt said he was “pretty much a really funny guy. He liked to laugh and liked to joke. … He liked to be happy,” the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

REALLY BAD PLACE TO BE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

US soldiers drive their Humvee past a pool of blood at the site of two car bombs, Baghdad, 11 October 2006. (AFP/File/Ali Al-Saadi)

Ukrainian Mercenary Killed

22 Oct 2006 Reuters

Interfax-Ukraine said a blast killed a Ukrainian and wounded another on Friday, 45 km (30 miles) west of Kut in southern Iraq. They were working as contractors for a British firm. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was unavailable to confirm the report.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Hawthorne Soldier Dies After Patrol Is Attacked

Oct 9, 2006 Andrea Sudano DAILY BREEZE (CA)

Spc. Fernando Daniel Robinson of Hawthorne told his friends and family he was proud to be a soldier, despite the loneliness, terror and fear.

Nearly a week after his death in Afghanistan, Robinson’s missive was particularly haunting, as friends and family used the virtual forum to share memories and mourn the young soldier.

Stationed in Fort Drum, N.Y., Robinson graduated from Lawndale’s Leuzinger High School in 2003. On his Web page, he described himself as married.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Iraqis 15 To 29 Want All U.S. Troops To Get Out Now:
“Nine Out Of 10 Young Iraqi Arabs Said They See The U.S. And Allied Forces In Iraq As An Occupying Force”

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. He writes: SOMETHING TELLS ME THEIR OPINIONS WON’T CHANGE WITH AGE.]

10.22.06 By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

Majorities of Iraqi youth in Arab regions of the country believe security would improve and violence decrease if the U.S. led forces left immediately, according to a State Department poll that provides a window into the grim warnings provided to policymakers.

The survey, unclassified, but marked “For Official U.S. Government Use Only,” also finds that Iraqi leaders may face particular difficulty recruiting young Sunni Arabs to join the stumbling security forces.

Strong majorities of 15- to 29-year-olds in two Arab Sunni areas, Mosul and Tikrit-Baquba, would oppose joining the Iraqi army or police. The private polling firm hired by the State Department also was not able to interview residents of al-Anbar, a Sunni-dominated province and an insurgent stronghold.

“Even recruitment in Arab Shia areas could present challenges as sizable numbers of local youth express support” for local militias, “thus clouding the issue of loyalty to national forces.”

In this poll, nine out of 10 young Iraqi Arabs said they see the U.S. and allied forces in Iraq as an occupying force. The majority of Iraqi youth in Arab regions, half in Baghdad and Kirkuk, also believe the security situation and the violence levels would improve if the U.S. and its allies left immediately.

Assorted Resistance Action

October 22, 2006 BBC & JOHN F. BURNS, NY Times

At least 13 police recruits have been killed in an attack on two buses near the northern Iraqi city of Baquba.

The buses, transporting 80 volunteers, came under attack from insurgents near the town of Muradiya, Diyala province.

A roadside bomb killed one recruit and 12 died in small-arms fire. About 24 were injured and a number captured.

A police source told the BBC Baghdad bureau that US troops investigating the scene found the bodies had been booby-trapped.

The volunteers had joined the police from the Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, the source said.

They were evacuating their base in Diyala after sustaining repeated mortar and rocket attacks.

The Iraqi government and U.S. forces see the training of an independent, effective police force as crucial to the future of the country. As a result insurgents have often targeted recruits.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, the police said a policeman had been killed when gunmen attacked his vehicle, and said a similar attack had taken place at Hawija, 40 miles south of Kirkuk, killing two Iraqi soldiers.

In Mosul, a roadside bomb wounded two police officers and a woman in a market, police officials there said.

The remains of a police station destroyed in fighting on Friday in Amarah Oct. 21, 2006. Mahdi Army forces, opposed to the U.S. occupation, seized control a day earlier in a bold attack. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Frederick Douglas, 1852

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004

“The Acts Of Rebellion Of Thousands Of American Soldiers Against The War”

5. 20.2006 By Chuck, Chutry.wordherders.net

It is impossible to watch David Zeiger’s documentary about the GI antiwar movement during Vietnam, Sir! No Sir! (IMDB), in 2006 without thinking about the war in Iraq, and the producers of the film have worked with groups such as Iraq Veterans Against the War to campaign against the war in Iraq by providing free DVDs of Sir! No Sir! to active duty and deployed soliders.

More crucially, the activist, agit-prop spirit of the film inspires action through its focus on the Vietnam soldiers’ acts of resistance.

But what I found most compelling about the film, and what will make Sir! No Sir! an important document long after the Iraq War, was its use of archival materials to remind audiences of a history of protest that has been lost, if not entirely, rewritten in the years since the Vietnam War.

Specifically the film features extensive TV coverage of the acts of rebellion of thousands of American soldiers against the war, as well as lesser known documents such as Newsreel films about the soldiers’ acts of resistance.

The film also featured an extended discussion of the underground newspapers produced by the soldiers, primarily using typewriters and mimeograph machines as their “press” (the film’s website provides links to several libraries with extensive holdings of these GI newspapers), and as a media historian, I’m fascinated by this do-it-yourself use of media.

In addition, the film documents the coffeehouse culture that grew up around many of the military bases where soldiers were preparing to go to war, giving some sense of the culture of resistance as well as the documents associated with it, and what fascinated me about the courage of soldiers who saw what was happening in Vietnam and joined the anti-war movement. In Bruce Patterson’s review of the film, he describes in some detail his experiences in the anti-war movement.

Among other activities, he contributed to the Bragg Briefs, a GI paper distributed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Sir! No Sir! also explores how the protests against Vietnam have been rewritten, particularly the urban myth that soldiers were routinely spat upon in airports by hippies.

The film features Jerry Lembcke, who has challenged the credibility of this myth in his book, The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam. The film demonstrates in some detail how films such as Rambo have managed to rewrite these protest narratives.

While the film spends less time thinking about how and why history gets rewritten, its true value is in offering compelling images of the very significant GI anti-war movement during the Vietnam War.

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

The Sir! No Sir! DVD is on sale now, exclusively at www.sirnosir.com.

Also available will be a Soundtrack CD (which includes the entire song from the FTA Show, “Soldier We Love You”), theatrical posters, tee shirts, and the DVD of “A Night of Ferocious Joy,” a film about the first hip-hop antiwar concert against the “War on Terror.”

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

Revolution Against An Empire Honored

Freedom fighters sit on top of a tank with a revolutionary flag in Budapest at the time of the uprising against the Russian controlled Hungarian regime in 1956. Hungary will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising on October 23. The picture was taken in the period between October 23 and November 4, 1956. (Laszlo Almasi/Reuters)

A Quick And Easy Test To Determine Where You Stand On The Iraq War:
“If I Shoot This Army Private Dead, There’s A Chance America Will Be Victorious And Democracy Will Bring Peace To Iraq”
“Do You Want Me To Do It?”

[Thanks to JF, who sent this in.]

10/17/2006 by Rude One, Rudepundit.blogspot.com

Let’s say we line up, oh, hell, a couple hundred thousand American soldiers, fine men and women in combat uniform, officers, non-coms, grunts, and we put them on TV.

Then George W. Bush walks in with a loaded glock.

Now let’s say that the President puts the gun to the temple of the first soldier and says, “If I shoot this Army private dead, there’s a chance America will be victorious and democracy will bring peace to Iraq. Do you want me to do it?”

There’s no guarantees, though; just the chance. What would you say?

For the sake of argument here, let’s say that you answer, “Yes, it’s worth a soldier for the chance for peace in Iraq.” So George W. Bush shoots the soldier in the temple and turns to his advisors, who check reports and, no, still no peace.

Then the President says, “If I cut off one limb or the genitals of the next ten soldiers, there’s a chance America will be victorious and democracy will bring peace to Iraq. Do you want me to do it?” What would you say?

For the sake of argument here, let’s say that you answer, “Yes, it’s worth ten wounded soldiers for the chance at peace in Iraq.” So George W. Bush cuts off arms, legs, testicles, and turns to his advisors, who check reports and, no, still no peace.

Then the President says, “If I beat the next ten soldiers in the head with a hammer so that their brains are damaged, there’s a chance America will be victorious and democracy will bring peace to Iraq. Do you want me to do it?” What would you say?

For the sake of argument here, let’s say that you answer, “Yes, it’s worth ten brain-damaged soldiers for the chance at peace in Iraq.” So George W. Bush uses a hammer to crack the skulls of the next ten soldiers and turns to his advisors, who check reports and, no, still no peace.

Then the President starts the cycle all over again. He places the gun to the temple of the next soldier.

How many soldiers would you let George W. Bush shoot dead? One? 3000? More? How many would you let him injure? 10? 20,000? More?

If you think the test is biased, unfair, and overly emotional, then you haven’t been paying attention. For, really, and come on, is the current U.S. policy in Iraq any more wishful than a lottery of death and mutilation.

Feel free to play with friends.

For big fun, substitute Iraqis and multiply by a couple hundred.

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

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

OCCUPATION REPORT

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

An Iraqi citizen tries cleans up the wrecked offices of Ansar al-Zahra mosque in Baghdad Oct. 20, 2006, after an overnight raid by U.S. troops, who arrested two guards and took away computers and money without a search warrant, according to witnesses. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can break into churches, destroy their offices, take their money, 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.”

The Great Iraqi Collaborator “Government” Fiasco Rolls On

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

Oct 21, 2006 By Sami Moubayed, Asia Times [Excerpts]

DAMASCUS: This Friday marks exactly the 150th day of Nuri al-Maliki’s tenure as prime minister of Iraq. Usually in democracies, the performance of a prime minister and his government is measured by the first 100 days in office.

Even with the extra 50 days, Maliki has failed completely to bring security to Iraq.

He has failed to disarm the militias. And he has failed to bring about economic reforms, in addition to being unable to combat unemployment or prevent the immigration of Iraqi youth.

The Ministry of Interior under Maliki is swarming with armed Shi’ite militias, just as it was under his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Under Maliki, the death toll has risen to over 3,000 Iraqis killed per month.

On the anniversary of his 150th day in power, 50 people were killed in Mosul, Kirkuk and Baquba, and another 100 were wounded, while 33 unidentified bodies – all shot in the head, were found in Baghdad. Earlier in the week, 60 beheaded bodies were found.

Under Maliki, according to a report in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Iraqi men are carving tattoos on their bodies, with their home address and telephone number. This is so that if they are killed, mutilated or beheaded, police would be able to identify their bodies and send them back to their families for burial.

Despite the horrendous state of the country, US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been full of praise for Maliki.

For his part, Maliki has been busy lately, making a high-profile visit to Najaf on Wednesday and meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

It also gives credibility to the prime minister among hardline Shi’ites to have his picture taken with Muqtada, a man viewed as a Shi’ite nationalist and anti-American to the bone.

Such publicity stunts greatly legitimize Muqtada as well, portraying him as a protege of the Iraqi government.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said that that the US hoped Muqtada would cooperate with the Maliki government and play a constructive role in Iraq.

This was shocking for Iraqi observers, because of Muqtada’s anti-American history.

Asked whether Muqtada was an enemy or ally of the US, or something else, Snow replied, from aboard Air Force One with President George W Bush, that Muqtada was “a factor in Iraq. He is somebody who obviously has adherents, and the most important thing, I think, if Muqtada al-Sadr wants to play a constructive role, is to make sure to cooperate with Prime Minister Maliki in dealing with militias.”

Al-Hayat added that Maliki had “began steps towards ridding himself from the militias”.

If this proves to be correct, then Maliki is taking steps that are too little, too late.

Abdul Jalil Khalaf, an officer in Rasafa, explains to al-Hayat that the Iraqi Army is facing “great embarrassment” while carrying out its duties in Baghdad because it is being confronted by the police, who work for the Ministry of the Interior and are infiltrated by the Badr Organization, an Iran-backed militia headed by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and the SCIRI.

Khalaf adds that “residents in some districts complain that the police are requesting the assistance of the militias when exposed to attack”.

Welcome To Ramadi:
Have A Nice Day

Insurgents patrol a road in Ramadi October 22, 2006. (Stringer/Reuters)

Reality

October 22, 2006 By Liz Sly, Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent [Excerpt]

An opinion poll in June conducted by the International Republican Institute found that 78 percent of Iraqis, including a majority of Shiites, opposed the segregation of Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines.

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

Zionist Terror Regime Threatens To Kill U.N. Troops:
“Israel’s Security Is The Most Important Objective”

[Thanks to JM, who sent this in.]

22 October 2006 Aljazeera + Agencies

Sources in the Israeli military say that Israel would bomb Unifil sites in southern Lebanon if Israeli warplanes are intercepted.

An Israeli newspaper, Maarif, reported on Sunday that the statements came after several European countries which have been putting pressure on Israel to stop its violation of Lebanese air space.

Israel claims it has to carry on monitoring Lebanon from the air to prevent possible arms-smuggling to Hezbollah.

Israel has continued to carry out flights over Lebanese territory despite a UN-brokered ceasefire since August 14.

The flights have been increasingly criticised, with France, which currently heads the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, speaking out last Friday against the violations.

Michele Alliot-Marie, the French defence minister, told reporters at United Nations headquarters at the time: “These violations are extremely dangerous because they may be felt as hostile by forces of the coalition that could be brought to retaliate in case of self-defence and it would be a very serious incident.”

[Zionist Prime Minister] Peretz said on Sunday that the purpose of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), was to act against Hezbollah and not Israel.

“Unifil is meant to act against Hezbollah and not against Israel,” he said. “Israel’s security is the most important objective.”

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

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

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

Fuck The Troops:
What’s Important?
The Elections!

22 October 2006 Editorial, The New York Times [Excerpt]

The generals who told President Bush before the war that Donald Rumsfeld’s shock-and-awe fantasy would not work were not enough to persuade him to change his strategy in Iraq.

The rise of the insurgency did not do the trick.

Nor did month after month of mounting military and civilian casualties on all sides, the emergence of a near civil war, the collapse of reconstruction efforts or the seeming inability of either Iraqi or American forces to secure contested parts of Iraq, including Baghdad, for any significant period.

So what finally, after all this time, caused Mr. Bush to very publicly consult with his generals to consider a change in tactics in Iraq? The president, who says he never reads political polls, is worried that his party could lose some of its iron grip on power in the Congressional elections next month.

Shitbags-‘R-Us

Oct 21: The traitor Bush meets with his loyal shitbags in the White House: Left to Right: National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Deputy National Security Advisor J.D. Crouch, Cheney (on screen from an undisclosed location), Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State on Iraq David Satterfield, Rumsfeld, Army General John Abizaid and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace. (AFP/White House-HO)

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

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

Received:

“This War Is Really Going To Be Stopped, By Regular People Organizing Inside And Outside Of The Military”

From: Joshua Karpoff
To: GI Special
Sent: October 22, 2006
Subject: GI Coffee House in Watertown, NY (Fort Drum)

I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but an antiwar GI Coffeehouse is opening in Watertown, NY , next to Fort Drum, which is home to the 10th Mountain Division (my uncle’s old unit). www.differentdrummercafe.org/

I think that this is a step in the right direction and I think it shows how this war is really going to be stopped, by regular people organizing inside and outside of the military, not giant umbrella organizations, with members in name only, that are run by professional liberals.

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

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers.  www.traveling-soldier.org/  And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

All GI Special issues achieved at website
www.militaryproject.org/
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gi-special.iraq-news.de
www.notinourname.net/gi-special/
www.williambowles.info/gispecial
www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/
www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm
www.uruknet.info/

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