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

“I’d Like To See It End,” He Said:
“Just Get Everybody Out Of There”

October 27, 2006 By Bill Nemitz, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.

TOPSHAM: The chartered bus inched its way backward into the parking lot Thursday, past the screaming families … past the smiling police officers … past the sea of American flags starched by the bone-chilling wind … past the handmade signs welcoming home Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines from its seven-month tour in Iraq.

At the edge of the pavement stood Cpl. Lucas Reardon of Falmouth, the sleeves of his military fatigues rolled up to his biceps. He could see the silhouettes peering out through the tinted windows, but he couldn’t yet see the faces.

“Get ‘em off the bus,” Reardon said, kicking at the ground with the toe of his desert combat boot. “Next thing you know, those windows are going to start to break.”

Anxious? You bet he was anxious. For Cpl. Reardon, you see, this was more than just a homecoming.

It was a reunion.

“The worst part has been being here and knowing these guys were still over there,” said the young Marine, who came home to Maine a month ago in the foggy aftermath of a roadside bomb attack. “It was so nice when I heard they were stateside.”

It happened on the night of Aug. 23 in Fallujah. Reardon was riding in the lead Humvee of a four-vehicle convoy when suddenly the front wheels hit an all-but-invisible trip wire stretched across the road.

He doesn’t remember the two howitzer shells exploding just a few feet outside his armored vehicle.

Nor does he remember falling out the back passenger door and frantically trying to open the front door and rescue fellow Cpl. Brian Smith of Blue Hill. A piece of shrapnel had sliced through Smith’s door and hit him just under his right arm, severing an artery.

“He almost didn’t live,” Reardon said of his close friend. “It was pretty close.”

As Navy medics tended to Smith that night, an officer at the scene noticed Reardon’s disorientation. Looking closer, he saw the blood trickling from Reardon’s ear.

A medic sat Reardon down, looked into his eyes and told him to repeat the words “red green blue.”

“I guess I couldn’t get past ‘red,’” Reardon said. “I remember sounds, the whoosh of the Blackhawk (helicopter) landing right near us, but that’s about it.”

The two injured Marines went first to a military hospital in Germany and then to the National Navy Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Reardon’s diagnosis: a severe concussion, three lesions and sporadic bleeding in his brain, and a ruptured eardrum.

Serious injuries, to be sure. But as he roamed the hospital ward and met other wounded Marines — one young man had no recollection, none, of his entire childhood — Reardon realized how lucky he was.

“I was just walking around there saying ‘Get me out of here. Get me out of this hospital,’” he said.

That finally happened on Sept. 22.

Back home in Falmouth, Reardon fought back the recurring headaches.

He couldn’t turn on the television without hearing about the mounting death toll in Iraq — along with the ever-escalating debate about how and when the United States should get out of this war.

His thoughts?

He paused for several moments, his lips pressed firmly together. He looked up at the blue sky, then down at the parking lot. Finally, he spoke.

“It seems like we’re fighting a losing battle,” he said. “You want to say you’ve done good things, but like today, we just lost three or four more Marines and one (Navy) corpsman.”

More silence.

“I’d like to see it end,” he said. “Just get everybody out of there.”

The 1st Battalion lost 11 Marines during this deployment, many in the final few months. But not one was from Topsham-based Alpha Company.

Thus a sense of relief — and good fortune — filled the brisk air Friday as the bus door finally opened and one Marine after another descended into the waves of tearful celebration.

Reardon, regarded by many as a company comedian, soon found himself shaking hands and hugging, shaking hands and hugging, shaking more hands and hugging.

And talking. Some Marines who were there that night helped to fill in the blank spaces further.

One told Reardon there was a chunk of shrapnel tucked away somewhere — his if he wanted it.

Another confirmed that yes, the lights were on but nobody was home as they loaded him onto the chopper.

Then, all the way from his home in Blue Hill, Cpl. Brian Smith suddenly appeared. Reardon had seen him last at the hospital in Bethesda.

The other Marines had seen him last near death, that night in Fallujah.

“I’m doing good,” said Smith, dressed in blue jeans and sneakers and shaking with his left hand. “I’m healing fast.”

Alpha Company is back home. Reardon and Smith are OK. On this day, for the first time in a long time, life was good.

“We all went, and we all came back,” Reardon said. “That’s the best part about it.”

Marine Cpl. Lucas Reardon of Falmouth greets a fellow Marine on Thursday after his company, returning from Iraq, arrived by bus at the Topsham Marine Annex. (Staff photo by John Patriquin)

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Texas Soldier Dies Of Wounds

Spc. Nathaniel A. Aguirre, 21, of Carrollton, Texas, died Oct. 22, 2006, in Baghdad of injuries he suffered when his patrol met enemy forces. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood. (AP Photo/Courtesy Nathaniel Aguirre Family)

Task Force Lightning Soldier Dies After Diyala Attack

27 October 2006 MULTINATIONAL DIVISION NORTH PAO RELEASE No. 20061027-06

TIKRIT, Iraq: A Task Force Lightning Soldier assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, was injured Thursday as a result of enemy action in Diyala province. The Soldier was transported to a coalition forces medical treatment facility and later died of wounds.

British Soldier Killed In Crash Near Shaibah, 3 More Injured

27/10/2006 By PA, Telegraph Group Limited

A British soldier has died in a road traffic accident in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said tonight.

The soldier, from 58 Battery 12 Regiment Royal Artillery was killed just outside Shaibah Logistics Base near Basrah, Iraq.

Three other soldiers were injured in the accident, the MoD said.

Simpson Lived Life To The Fullest, A Comrade Says:
“We Need To Go In There And Win It Or Get Out Because All Our Boys Are Getting Killed”

October 18, 2006 By Beth Wilson, Caller-Times

To his Marine buddies, Sgt. Jonathan J. Simpson was the bright navigator who couldn’t wait for combat. To residents of Rockport, where he lived with his father Frank in 2001, he’s a fallen hero.

Simpson, 25, died Saturday in Al Anbar, Iraq, during undisclosed combat operations.

“He was probably the most personable person,” said Cpl. Duane Brawford. “We immediately liked him.”

Brawford and Sgt. Graham Deniston met Simpson in San Antonio in 2002 as members of the same class for navigation school. They soon began calling him “Bart” in homage to the TV character Bart Simpson. Brawford and Deniston are now stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, gathering Tuesday night to remember their friend.

“He was a hard-charger,” Deniston said. “Several times in school he wanted to quit. He wanted to go out there and be a recon (reconnaissance) Marine, but we wanted him to stay. I felt like I was looking out for him, but recon battalion is what he really wanted.”

Simpson got his wish. After five years as a flight navigator, he extended his duty with a reconnaissance battalion. He left for Iraq on Sept. 27.

“He lived life to the fullest,” said Deniston. “He lived it like he wasn’t going to be around tomorrow. I was always talking about the future, telling him to think about what’s down the road but he knew he had to do what’s right and enjoy life. And he did.”

In Rockport, news of Simpson’s death spread across the community.

“He’s a part of Rockport, so even if you don’t know him, it’s like you know him,” said Jimmy Nevarez.

Peter Gonzales, a retired Air Force sergeant living in Rockport, said every death matters, no matter if they lived in Rockport or California.

“Regardless of where he’s from, we’re losing them,” he said of the American troops. “We need to go in there and win it or get out because all our boys are getting killed.”

Rockport-Fulton High School senior Gabby Diaz said her government teacher brought Simpson’s death up in class, and everyone talked about who he was. Diaz said she didn’t know Simpson.

A photo of Simpson from boot camp has watched over Wal-Mart shoppers for years, said employee Patty Chupe. His face, along with dozens of others, was part of a display of servicemen and women as a simple reminder that went up shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.

Simpson attended high school in Canada. His mother, Johanne Paquette, now lives in Chertsey, Quebec.

But Simpson regularly visited his father, Frank, in Rockport, and he wanted to return here, said Brawford, who was Simpson’s roommate when they were stationed in North Carolina in 2003.

“He always talked about recon,” Brawford said. “He said he wanted to do something, to be somebody. I told him he didn’t need to do that to prove himself, but it’s what he wanted.”

Brawford and Deniston said Simpson knew recon would be more dangerous than navigation.

News of his death hit hard, Brawford said.

“I kinda figured it would happen. I don’t know why I did,” he said. “I don’t think – or maybe he did – realize what he was getting into. Maybe now he feels like he did something.”

Frank Simpson said Tuesday that services for his son would likely be in Canada.

U.S. Military Positions In Ramadi Attacked;
Casualties Not Announced

Insurgent formation advancing down a road in Ramadi, Iraq, October 22, 2006. (Stringer/Reuters)

27 Oct 2006 Reuters

Guerrilla fighters attacked three U.S. military positions in the western city of Ramadi with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and machinegun fire, police said.

A Reuters reporter said U.S. helicopters flew over Ramadi and U.S. forces had sealed off entrances to the city. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a query on the reports.

Robeson Soldier Killed In Iraq

October 18, 2006 By Laura Arenschield, Staff writer, The Fayetteville (NC) Observer

Army First Lt. Joshua Deese of Robeson County was on his second deployment when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Sunday.

Deese died in Balad from injuries caused by the explosion, the Defense Department said Tuesday. Sgt. Jonathan E. Lootens, a 25-year-old from Lyons, N.Y., also died from the blast. Two other soldiers were injured.

Deese, who was 25, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, which is based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

Deese entered the Army in October 2003 and reported to Schofield Barracks in August 2004, according to a spokeswoman at the Army post.

Deese graduated from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2004 with a degree in American Studies, said his sister, Myra Deese.

She said Josh was the youngest of four children and their mother’s hands-down favorite.

“Josh talked to Mom every single day,” Myra Deese said. “Definitely, a mama’s boy.”

Myra Deese said her brother graduated from South Robeson High School in 1999. Their uncle, a career soldier, was his hero and because of him, Josh joined the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Program in high school and college.

“Josh always said he wanted to be a soldier,” Myra Deese said. “He wanted Ranger, Airborne … and that’s what he did.”

Myra Deese said the Army commissioned Josh after college, and he moved to Hawaii. He loved the beach, she said, and loved being on the island, but missed his family and hated being away from his son, Jacob Anderson, who is 2.

He returned from Afghanistan, his first deployment, in February and had been in Iraq since August, Myra Deese said. He had been talking about marrying his high school sweetheart — Jacob’s mother — when he returned.

When Josh came home to Rowland, Myra Deese said, she would cook him dinner — manicotti and lasagna were his favorites — and then the family would rent movies and lounge around together.

He went fishing with the men in his family every spring and loved to camp, she said. Still, the playful Josh in North Carolina was a serious officer when he returned to his soldiers.

Myra said she begged Josh to avoid the infantry and find a safer job in the Army.

“I kind of fussed at him,” she said. “He was an officer, and it was like, ‘You don’t need to do that, you’re in the most dangerous spot.’”

But her brother said he wanted to serve in a war zone, that was what he was trained for.

“He thought he would make a whole lot better officer if he was actually out there with the other troops,” Myra said. “That way he would know what it was they were going through and it would make him a better leader.”

Memorial plans are being handled by Richard Boles Funeral Service in Laurinburg.

Joshua Deese is survived by his son, Jacob, his parents, Rogena and Ronnie Deese, his sisters, Myra Deese and Ronnean Collins, and his brother Ronnie Dwayne Allen.

REALLY BAD PLACE TO BE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

A U.S. at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad October 21, 2006. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (IRAQ)

TROOP NEWS

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

The casket of Sgt. Brock A. Babb at the National Guard Armory in Evansville, Ind., Oct. 24, 2006. Babb was one of three Marines in a Humvee when it was struck by an improvised explosive device Oct. 15, during operations in Anbar province. (AP Photo/Evansville Courier & Press, Denny Simmons)

3,300 From Ft. Bliss Off To Bush’s Imperial Slaughterhouse

10/27/06 AP

FORT BLISS, Texas: With tears welling in their eyes, hundreds of soldiers and their family members said goodbye Friday as they prepared to leave for a yearlong deployment to train Iraqi troops.

Hours before the soldiers’ flight took off for Kuwait, children were running around an Army gymnasium seemingly unaware of the imminent departure, while wives tearfully clung to their husbands and mothers chatted with their camouflage-clad sons.

“It’s harder the second time because you know what they are going to,” said 28-year-old Shauna King, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew King, was scheduled to leave on a flight to Kuwait early Friday afternoon.

The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division’s deployment is the largest, about 3,300 soldiers over the next week, to leave the far West Texas post since the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They’ll be heading to Iraq during one of the deadliest months of the war.

The last major Fort Bliss deployment included the 507th Maintenance Company, which was ambushed after making a wrong turn into Nasiriyah. Eleven soldiers were killed in the attack and six others, including former Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were taken prisoner.

Friday, about 230 soldiers dropped off their duffel bags and sat with relatives in an Army gymnasium, soaking up the last few hours before boarding a plane.

For Shauna King, who looked on as her husband lined up with his comrades before heading to the gym, said the hardest part of the next year will be taking care of everyday tasks.

“I’ve got to go to work, I’ve got to go to school, I’ve got to move, and my husband won’t be there,” said King, who will rely on e-mails, phone calls and old-fashioned letters for updates because she gave up watching news reports on the war after a close family friend was killed.

While families were gathered Friday, some soldiers were saying goodbyes via telephone.

Second Lt. Richard Hutton of Fairfax, Va., spoke to his younger brother as his soldiers dropped off their gear and headed to the gym.

“Well, dude, take it easy,” he said with a soft smile as he hung up his cell phone.

The 23-year-old Army newcomer, he has only been an active duty soldier for about a year, said he visited his family a few weeks ago and assured them he would be a desk jockey for most of the tour in Iraq.

“I tell my family that because they worry,” he said.

Spc. Kim Choy, who clutched a teddy bear as she walked into the gym with an M-4 machine gun slung across her chest, also had to rely on a phone call with her family in Cincinnati.

The 22-year-old generator mechanic said she was ready to deploy even if her family would have preferred she be anywhere else. And though she’s hesitant to say so, she said she is scared.

“You can’t help but be scared, you’re going to a different country,” Choy said.

Iraq Veteran Against The War Speaks To Rally Of 150,000 In Italy

By Lou Plummer, Fall 2006 Veterans For Peace Newsletter

Since 2004 an English professor living and teaching in Naples, Italy has been trying to interest the Italian movement to do its best to emulate the American veterans and military families antiwar efforts.

Phil Rushton went so far as to publish a book, entitled “Bring Them Home Now” (in Italian) featuring the writings of American activists, soldiers and others, including Stan Goff, Dennis O’Neil arid myself.

With Rushton’s help, I traveled to Italy with Joseph Wood, a 24-year old art student living in New York City who is also a former 82nd Airborne Infantry paratrooper who spent time in Afghanistan and in Falluja. Iraq. Wood appeared in the documentary Occupation Dreamland which opened in Fayetteville. He recently joined IVAW.

The trip was sponsored by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (A Bridge To..) and partially financed by the province of Rome. The first event was a press conference that also featured Israeli refuseniks and a Palestinian Fatah member who are charter members of an Israeli/Palestinian group called Combatants for Peace.

Following the press conference, Wood and I were invited to march in the lead contingent along with Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist wounded by US troops after being freed from her kidnappers.

Wood addressed the crowd of over 150,000 from the stage at the end of the march.

Also present at the march was a group of nearly 200 calling itself “American Citizens for Peace Justice.” Many of the photographs of the event in the Italian media featured this group.

Escorted by well know Italian Activist Paola Gasparoli, a volunteer with Un Ponte Per, we traveled to the Italian military cities of Naples (home of an American and Italian naval base), Udine (near the US air base at Aviano) and La Spezia (home of a large Italian naval base).

In our party were a 21 year veteran of the Italian Navy (still on active duty) and his father.

The Italian sailor, a helicopter mechanic, has leukemia he believes to be brought on by depleted uranium. He did not speak, allowing his father to tell his story. The father also covered the environmental impact of NATO naval firing exercises on the island of Sardinia, his home.

Many of the Italians who hosted us were volunteers of Un Ponte Per and have spent time (months each) in Iraq.

They were hesitant to meet Wood, and dubious about the American movement as are many Europeans. Meeting Wood and seeing for themselves his relatively young age and his lack of guile and hubris changed their minds.

Listening to his story of awakening to the myriad evils of the American ruling class and the spreading discontent in the military, gave the Italians some hope for our eternally fucked-up country.

In Naples, a retired member of the Carabinerri (the Italian militarized national police force) came to the event and asked several questions and generally made anti-war noises. He willingly gave his contact to the local organizers and seemed genuinely interested in the idea of linking with other anti?war vets.

We also met with two young vets, one of them also a DU cancer victim. In Udine, a retired member of the Italian Army attended the meeting. He was already known and respected by the organizers there.

There were also several Italian activists who are leaders of the campaign against the storage of nuclear weapons at the American base at Aviano.

In La Spezia, an Italian military family met privately with the Italian vet and his father who were part of our party.

There is a constant pressure from the Italian left (not the center-left) to affect a complete withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq.

The center-left did not endorse the March 18 action. It reminds me of the way US Democrats strive to be perceived as anti-war and pro-security at the same time. Many, but not all, of the activists I met are members of the Rifondazione Comunista (Refounded Communist party).

This isn’t considered the far-left in Italy and seems to have little vestiges of the Stalinist Italian Communist Party, which still exists.

It was a positive experience and one that I hope will prove helpful to the Italians in developing a veteran’s and military families element.

www.ivaw.net

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

Troops In Danger From Pentagon Bullshit:
[As Usual]
“The Anthrax Vaccine Remains Unproven, Ineffective And Potentially Unsafe”

“The program is no better than it was before. DoD continues to manufacture justification for a program that is likely the worst medical program they have ever implemented. It is not proven to be effective. It is potentially unsafe. And it is not even the same originally licensed vaccine.”

October 30, 2006 By Gayle S. Putrich, Army Times Staff writer [Excerpts]

The military is about to resume mandatory anthrax shots, two years after a federal judge shut down the program because the vaccine was not properly approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The Pentagon believes it now has the law squarely on its side.

But critics who have long maintained that the vaccine was not safe when the program began say it still isn’t safe and plan to challenge the compulsory inoculations in court “as soon as needles go into arms,” as one attorney put it.

Defense officials continue to believe that the vaccine program “has been administered consistent with the law, and orders to military personnel to be vaccinated were lawful,” according to the public affairs guidance document. “No judicial judgment has declared such orders to have been unlawful.”

Opponents say that view is way off base, and that forcing service members to take the shots from 1998 to 2005 was, indeed, illegal.

“It is a sad state of affairs that DoD continues to live in denial that for years it unlawfully inoculated hundreds of thousands of innocent victims,” said Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys for the six anonymous plaintiffs who refused the vaccine and went to federal court in March 2003.

“The program was twice rendered illegal by a federal judge,” Zaid said.

“As the anthrax vaccine remains unproven, ineffective and potentially unsafe, we are confident a similar ruling will soon be applied to the current program.”

Legal maneuvering in the original lawsuit came to an end when the federal appeals court lifted Sullivan’s injunction earlier this year. But Zaid vowed that he is fully prepared to fight on.

“We are planning a legal challenge to the fundamentals of the entire program,” Zaid said.

“The program is no better than it was before. DoD continues to manufacture justification for a program that is likely the worst medical program they have ever implemented. It is not proven to be effective. It is potentially unsafe. And it is not even the same originally licensed vaccine.”

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

Know War

From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: October 23, 2006
Subject: Know War

Know War

When you know war, you scream no war.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran

Photo and caption 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)

The Betrayal

From: Dennis Serdel
To: GI Special
Sent: October 27, 2006
Subject: The Betrayal

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

The Betrayal

Pete would get drunk like you’re supposed to get drunk
when somethings bad happened to you, everybody understands,
it’s in the movies, it’s part of society, it’s acceptable, it’s
expected.
The only problem is that once you do the ritual, the alcoholic cure,
you’re supposed to stop and go on, feeling cleansed somehow,
an absolution, an end, a pick yourself off the floor and move on.
Everybody understands that, if they were in Pete’s shoes,
just back from Vietnam, they’d do the same.
He would slur “Why?” “Why what Pete ?” they would ask.
“Why war?” “There’s always going to be wars,
just be glad you came back OK and get on with life.”
“You’re not the only soldier to ever go to war,
why don’t you cut this crap and move on
like everybody in this bar has had to do many times in their life.”
He asked why but how would they know?
But now the nasty reality sets in and Pete stays drunk,
this isn’t right, they look at each other in some kind of assessment,
they shake their heads but how would they know?
They watched Pete throw his life away,
and get in the bottle and then to start a disturbance
shouting “Why motherfuckers, why are we in Vietnam?”
really started to grind on the people in the bar,
but how would they know? I mean, it’s really noble for Pete
to wreck his life a little after somethings bad happened,
but then you have to forget and go on,
but how would they know? Pete’s tirades and all this bullshit
about Vietnam really irritated the customers night after night
and when Pete got in fist fights, they threw him out of the bar
and told him never to come back. What family and friends
that supported Pete were now all used up and gone.
After so many drunk driving tickets, Pete now drank alone
with himself and the guys in Vietnam.
Most of the time he would be staring at visions
of dead soldiers in his kitchen, with empty beer cans
strewn behind him like dead bodies when they were over-run.
Nobody cared about him or the war anymore.

What’s Wrong With “Cut And Run”?

27 Oct 2006 by Greg Palast

Imagine this: You’re tied to a stake and savages are about to light the logs under your feet.

So, class, what do you do?

Cut and run!

How about this one? Evil-doers have tied you to the railroad tracks and the Teheran Express is bearing down on you. If you have any brains at all, whatcha gonna do?

Cut and run!

President George Bush has been accusing Democrats of having a reasonable, coherent Iraq policy: getting out alive. “Cut and run” for short.

Of course, most Democrats have denied having a “clear-cut” program on Iraq, preferring, “setting a firm date for phased withdrawal.”

We don’t know what that date is, but if it’s anything later than Thursday, the policy is a fudge.

Sorry, but “gnaw and wiggle” won’t do.

Cut and run gets the job done. Gets you the heck out of harm’s way.

When that runaway truck is careening down the jogging track, you don’t ‘Stay the Course.’

Try it yourself: Cut and run can be fun!

If pirates tie a boulder to your neck, what should you do, kids?

Cut and run!

Or, let’s say you’ve got the wires to Dick Cheney’s pacemaker in your hand. What should you do? (No, no, no! Be kind.)

Give Imperial Politicians The HMS Bounty Treatment

In a recent speech at a panel organized by the Canadian Peace Alliance, Francisco stated: “We are told that we must “stay the course” in some form of dubious nautical metaphor.

But I suggest that perhaps it is time to set the ship on a new course, and leave those leaders whom we see as irresponsible and disconnected from the national will in a small boat on their own”. Francisco Juarez, former member Canadian army, who refused to participate in the war on Afghanistan, quoted in Socialist Worker, Canada, 7 October 2006

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 REPORT

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

A Shi’ite mosque destroyed by U.S. forces in Baghdad October 20, 2006 in the Risala district in southern Baghdad, killing one person and taking two prisoner, police and witnesses said. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen (IRAQ)

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can attack and destroy churches, take prisoner or kill people in them, 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.”

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

One Person, One Vote, One State;
“The Cause Of Peace And Justice In Palestine Has Been Hamstrung By Reliance On The So-Called ‘Two State Solution’”

The danger here is that one can be left with the impression (and the author tacitly supports such conjecture at points) that Israeli influence dominates US foreign policy, even to the point of running counter to US interests. The tail wags the dog, as the conspiracy theorists are fond of saying. The trouble is that the conspiracy arguments are, at best muddle headed, and at worst genuine anti-Semitism.

7 October By Jonathon Hodge, Socialist Worker [Canada]

Book Review: The One State Solution, by Virginia Tillery

Virginia Tilley has done the people of Palestine a great service by writing this book.

For too long, the cause of peace and justice in Palestine has been hamstrung by reliance on the so-called “two state solution”, where it is argued that justice can be served by cutting up a piece of land the size of Prince Edward Island into two separate countries, one for Palestinian Arabs and one for Jews (with the Jewish state continuing to count on American military and financial support).

The manifest unfairness of such ‘solutions’ is conveniently ignored…

Tilley makes the argument that a single, democratic secular state is the only way forward the starting point of her analysis, and proceeds to show that, whatever the obstacles, it really is the only just solution.

She begins with a discussion of the facts on the ground, highlighting how they are barriers to any two-state agreement.

In particular, the author highlights the strategic location of settlement blocks in the West Bank, how they work to divide the region into smaller, isolated Palestinian areas, and how the settlements occupy or control hills and water courses throughout the region, thus barring access to the best land for Palestinians.

Most significantly, Tilley points out the political and capital cost that would come with any wide scale settlement abandonment (a pre?condition for a two state solution to have any chance of success). The compensation payments alone would run to the billions of dollars, and the political fallout would be immense in a country built on a myth of reclaiming the lost land of the Jewish people.

She rightly concludes that Zionist Israel will never let go of such a huge ideological and capital investment.

The author goes on to explore the existing tensions and barriers to peace in the region. Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, all major players are found wanting.

Although about a quarter of Palestinians indicate that they would prefer a one-state solution, they, too, would fear a transition.

Some elements in the present Palestinian Authority (especially those sustaining the legacy of Arafat) would certainly resist this solution, as it would promptly eliminate their atrophied (and lucrative) roles.

She rightly reserves the huge bulk of her critique for the Israeli government, as the force that enjoys near-hegemonic power in the region. Says the author, “I see the present configuration of Palestinian politics as stemming from the generative condition of the Zionist project to create a Jewish state, which has imposed on the Palestinians the distorting effects of a half century of forced relocation, four decades of occupation, and now Bantustanization.”

Tilley expertly dissects Zionism as an ideology and exposes how it has served as the justification for the mistreatment of the Palestinians, for the denial of their rights and for Israel’s racist domestic policies.

She points out that Zionism, seeking to incorporate all Jews in a national project, lays the basis for Israel’s apartheid structures.

Israeli law is at pains to define the state, not (as with all other modern nation states) as the state of all its citizens (for this would include the 20% of Israelis who are Arab), but as the state of ‘the Jewish people’.

This formulation of Jewish primacy and exclusivity has produced a host of discriminatory laws that, the author concludes, have been rightly compared to South African Apartheid.

The historically cozy relationship between Tel Aviv and Washington also comes under scrutiny. The author illustrates with great clarity the pernicious influence that pro-Israel lobbyists have on Congress and the White House.

Alarmingly, she points out that “…by the 1990s, no U.S. presidential candidate could gain a party’s endorsement in the first place without confirming ironclad support for Israel or could subsequently take action counter to the Israeli government’s interests in any substantive way without losing that party’s support.”

Her exposure of influence peddling in Washington is first rate.

There is however, one element lacking from her discussion. Her discussion largely stops at shining a bright light on the relationship and its inner dynamics. She does not delve deeper into why this situation obtains in the first place, into why it developed in the first place.

The danger here is that one can be left with the impression (and the author tacitly supports such conjecture at points) that Israeli influence dominates US foreign policy, even to the point of running counter to US interests. The tail wags the dog, as the conspiracy theorists are fond of saying.

The trouble is that the conspiracy arguments are, at best muddle headed, and at worst genuine anti-Semitism.

Progressives need to be clear.

The US and Israel have such a relationship because they share common interests.

While they may at times disagree over immediate priorities or tactics, the US has, for at least a generation, seen an overwhelmingly strong Israel as it’s best strategic asset in the Middle East, to force compliance on potentially recalcitrant Arab neighbours.

This mutuality of interests is at the heart of the special relationship.

Tilley avoids calling it was it is: imperialism; the building up of a local strongman to bully and threaten the neighbouring oil regimes into acquiescence, thus guaranteeing a stable US energy supply, while giving the US leverage of its allies and enemies.

By failing to be clear on this, the central fault line that runs through the politics of the entire region, the author leaves the door open for less constructive and potentially reactionary conclusions.

In spite of this theoretical oversight, Tilley finishes strongly, describing with palpable hope the voices for change that are emerging within Israel.

Her passion and commitment to justice are obvious and infectious.

This thoughtful work will inspire activists to struggle for peace, and leave the reader with hope for the future, in spite of the present darkness.

[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.]

“No One Should Expect The Democrats To Meet The Hopes Of People Who Want To See The Bush Agenda Stopped”

October 13, 2006 Editorial, Socialist Worker [Excerpts]

An election that once looked like a tossup could give the Democrats a majority in the House and maybe even the Senate; something that appeared unachievable just weeks ago.

What if the Democrats do win? What should all the people who want the Republican agenda derailed expect from a Democratic Congress? The sad answer: precious little.

Take Barack Obama, considered a star of traditional Democratic Party liberalism. In April, during the mass marches for immigrant rights, Obama wrote in a letter to an Illinois constituent that he planned to support the Kennedy-McCain proposal for “border security” along with a corporate-backed “guest-worker program.”

But, he said, he would never support the draconian enforcement-only bills proposed by House Republicans. “Like our nation’s religious and civil rights communities, I oppose enforcement-only approaches like Rep. Sensenbrenner’s bill, HR 4437,” wrote Obama. “I also oppose the construction of a fence or wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, because it would be too expensive, ineffective and hurt our relations with Mexico.”

Fast forward to last month, when Republicans decided to repackage Sensenbrenner as a series of smaller bills, including one authorizing the construction of 700 miles of new border wall.

Obama joined Hillary Clinton and 24 other Senate Democrats voting in favor. The 80-19 margin wasn’t even close.

On the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, on torture and civil liberties and more, the Democrats’ voting record is equally pathetic.

In early September, the Senate voted 98-0 to approve Bush’s request for $450 billion in Pentagon spending, including $70 billion for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twelve Democratic senators joined Republicans to pass the shameful torture legislation that suspends basic civil rights such as habeas corpus in the name of the “war on terror.”

Would a Democrat-controlled House or Senate launch tough hearings into Republican wrongdoing or begin impeachment proceedings against Bush, as liberals in the Progressive Democrats of America urge?

Not if possible new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has anything to say about it. “We don’t have time for that,” Pelosi told the New York Times, ruling out any possibility of impeachment hearings.

But it’s not as if the Democrats will be too busy repealing Bush’s tax cuts for the super-rich.

Any efforts by a Democratic Congress to reverse the tax breaks would be cautious and bipartisan, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) told the Times. “Members have to believe that if they’re going to support legislation that’s politically painful, they’re going to have to support it on a bipartisan basis, and not have one side pay for it at the polls,” said Rangel.

That’s what we should expect from a party that has been willing to attack Republicans about Foley, but stays silent on the countless other scandals perpetrated by the Bush administration.

The Democrats are determined not to appear “soft” on national security, on the “flood of illegals” (to use Obama’s phrase) or on corporate interests generally—and that Republican Lite election strategy will continue as the 2008 campaign for the White House gets underway.

Thus, with North Korea’s recent nuclear test joining the Foley scandal on the front pages, count on the Democrats to pursue their favored of strategy of trying to out-Bush the Bush White House.

“We had the opportunity to stop North Korea from increasing its nuclear power, but George Bush went to sleep at the switch while he pursued his narrow agenda in Iraq,” added Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat in a tough campaign in New Jersey.

The Foley scandal may spell the end of the era of sole Republican dominance in Washington, but no one should expect the Democrats to meet the hopes of people who want to see the Bush agenda stopped.

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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