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“When you arrive in the war zone, that uniform stands for destruction and chaos and death and so to come back and take that symbol,
that piece, to destroy it, to create something new out of it and make a positive thing from that uniform, it’s got that feeling that you’re moving on from that and stepping onto a new path.”
- Eli Wright, Medic, 10th Mtn. Div., Ft. Drum
US Army’s “Stop-Loss” Orders Up Dramatically Over Last Year
The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military’s controversial “stop-loss” program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year, officials said Thursday.
DoD: 43,000 unfit troops sent to war - Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times
More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2008
4:24 PM
CONTACT: Military Families Speak Out (MFSO)
Sean Donahue, 617-983-0710, press@mfso.org
Nancy Lessin, 617-320-5301, mfso@mfso.org
WASHINGTON, DC - May 7 - With the House of Representatives preparing to take up legislation that would fund the continuation of the war in Iraq well into 2009, Military Families Speak Out issued the following statement calling on Members of Congress to reject the House Leadership’s strategy supporting the continuation of the war in Iraq.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prepares to implement a strategy that will fund the Iraq war through 2008 and into the first term of the next president, Military Families Speak Out members across the country and on military bases around the world are outraged at this massive betrayal of our loved ones, all of our troops, our families, this nation and the people of . This strategy is designed to allow Congress to avoid a potentially embarrassing vote in the weeks and months leading up to the election in November, and to prevent a new president from having to ask for war funding in his/her first months in office. It is a cruel maneuver being done on the backs, bodies, and spirits of our troops.
The pain that continuing the war will cause military families, our loved ones, and the people of is incalculable. Military and Gold Star families know the real cost of this war. We know that more than 4,000 U.S. troops and over one million Iraqi children, women, and men have already died in a war that should never have happened — and every day this war continues, more will be killed and more will sustain devastating, life-long physical and psychological injuries. We know that many of our troops are on their third, fourth, fifth and now sixth deployments; and that being sent into combat again and again takes a severe toll on their bodies and their minds. As a result, suicide rates among troops returning from are sky-rocketing — with the Director of the National Institute for Mental Health recently suggesting that suicide may be claiming the lives of more troops serving in and returning from than enemy fire. The lives at stake and the lives that have already been sacrificed are the lives of our sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives. They are our hearts.
We are angered at this betrayal by Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues who took control of Congress on a promise to end the war in . We are sick and tired of Congress members who tell us how much they hate this war and then turn around and continue to fund it.
Speaker Pelosi and other Congressional leaders want to sweeten this deadly pill of the war funding by adding money to help more Veterans go to college and toothless provisions calling for a timetable for troop withdrawals that they know President Bush will veto or use signing statements to ignore. None of that changes the fact that a vote for this bill is a vote to continue funding an illegal, immoral, unjust and unjustifiable war.
Military Families Speak Out calls on Members of Congress to reject the House Leadership’s strategy, oppose any bill that provides funding to continue the war in Iraq, and to support full funding for the safe and swift return of U.S. troops to their home duty stations, and for the care they need when they get home. We remind all in Congress that funding this war is not “funding our troops” – it is killing our troops. Members of Military Families Speak Out are available for interview — including families with loved ones currently serving in Iraq, families whose loved ones have died as a result of this war, families of troops who have suffered physical and psychological injuries, and families of those awaiting deployment or re-deployment.
Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is a national organization of almost 4,000 families who are opposed to the war in and have loved ones who serve or have served in the military since the fall of 2002. Gold Star Families Speak Out is a national chapter of MFSO with families whose loved ones died as a result of the war.
For more information about Military Families Speak Out, please visit www.mfso.org ; for more information about the chapter Gold Star Families Speak Out see www.gsfso.org
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.’s - New York Times
In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
13 Stoploss
this totally righteous dude named Jason joined the Army. His logic: “Over the span of a lifetime, four years of ’service’ for college money is a miniscule price to pay.” So, he shoots the guns that go bang, yells “YES, DRILL SAR-GENTT!” to every command, and learns how to be a thoughtless, selfless, killing machine. Over time, the regurgitated mess of indoctrination had settled, and Jason learned to be inquisitive. 13 Stoploss is the 5 year narrative of a High School dropout whose goal was simply to get back into school, chronicling the struggles he faced through two Active Duty deployments to Iraq, and a bitter battle with the Stoploss.
Union’s War Protest Shuts Down West Coast Ports
West Coast ports were shut down on Thursday as thousands of longshoremen failed to report for work, part of what their union leaders said was a one-day, one-shift protest against the war in Iraq.
Cranes and forklifts stood still from Seattle to San Diego, and ships were stalled at sea as workers held rallies up and down the coast to blame the war for distracting public attention and money from domestic needs like health care and education.
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 04/23/2008 | Senator: VA lying about number of veteran suicides
The Veterans Administration has lied about the number of veterans who’ve attempted suicide, a senator charged Wednesday, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year when the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800.
U.S. veterans struggle with war stress - Los Angeles Times
The latest and most comprehensive study of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has concluded that nearly 1 in every 5 veterans is suffering from depression or stress disorders and that many are not getting adequate care.
The study shows that mental disorders are more prevalent and lasting than previously known, surfacing belatedly and lingering after troops have been discharged.
Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.
Body of War is Tomas’ coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and features two original songs by Eddie Vedder. Body of War is a naked and honest portrayal of what it’s like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man.
Kathy Kelly | Weary of War? Don’t Collaborate
An April 14 Associated Press article by Anne Flaherty reported that US senators and representatives are finding common ground in asking that Iraqis begin picking up the tab for the cost of war. The lawmakers are troubled that Iraqis might experience windfall surpluses of revenue generated by rising oil prices, while Americans bear the burden of paying for the Iraq war. “In hearings last week,” Flaherty writes, “Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates whether Baghdad should start paying some US combat costs, and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) raised the possibility that an anticipated Iraqi budget surplus this year could be used to help Afghanistan, whose $700 million in annual revenue represents a small fraction of Iraq’s $46.8 billion budget.”
Interview With Tomas Young of Film “Body of War”
Documentary spotlights the human cost of Iraq conflict.
Tomas Young was 22 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Two days later, after watching President Bush speak to the country from the ruins of the Twin Towers, he decided to enlist in the Army.
He expected to go Afghanistan. He went to Iraq instead. On April 4, 2004 - five days after arriving - he was on a mission in an overcrowded, unprotected truck when he was shot by a sniper. His spine was severed and he was left paralyzed from the chest down.
“For the Iraqis on the top of the roof, it just looked like … ducks in a barrel,” says Young in “Body of War,” a documentary by former talk-show host Phil Donahue and documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro.
“They didn’t have to aim.”
Petraeus, Crocker Testify Before Impatient Lawmakers - washingtonpost.com
In a reprise of their testimony last September, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker came to Capitol Hill today to tell lawmakers that security has improved in Iraq and that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has taken steps toward political reconciliation and economic stability.
But unlike in September, when that news was fresh and the administration said a corner had been turned, even some of the war’s strongest supporters in Congress have grown impatient and frustrated. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Crocker are facing many lawmakers today and tomorrow who had expected more by now and who are wondering whether any real change will occur before the clock runs out on the Bush administration.
Groups show disapproval of war in Iraq - Jackson Cit Pat - MLive.com
They’ve fought for their country in previous wars, but now they’re part of the anti-war movement.
People such as Arnold Stieber of Grass Lake are involved in two Jackson-area groups that have protested the Iraq war.
Probably something like this:
“What would Dr. King say about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq?
“God didn’t call America to do what she’s doing in the world now. God didn’t
call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And
we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than
any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t
stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.”Martin Luther King, Jr., 04FEB1968
IVAW team participates in the “frozen moment” at Grand Central Station in D.C. where hundreds of activists showed up to “freeze” all over the station, providing a mind jarring display for all passers by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27HeF51Gpmk
Geoff Millard, IVAW chapter President for D.C. explains the “freeze” action to FOX reporter in an interview that was unlikely to have been aired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oydQbn3e9T0
Just prior to March 19th step off towards the Justice Department and the White House, Bill Perry describes how we are trying to reach the American Public, and let them know that the reasons for our impending economic collapse are due to greed and corruption from within our own business and political leaders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flcfct00cjA
Bill Perry calls cadence on march to the Very White House on March 19th, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X801E7gqXJU
Overseas reporter gets the story as about 200 Veterans march towards White House to demand the arrest of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Though some domestic news reporters and camera teams were present, not a single mention of this event went out via main stream media. There was a total media black out of this event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEFvWj15las
IVAW members seize National Archives Building in front of hundreds of surprised museum visitors. Response from visitors including teachers, students, vacationers was highly positive though there were a few horrified faces in the crowd. IVAW read the terms of our Citizens Arrest Warrant and stood their ground for 90 minutes. They were allowed to leave without being arrested in one of the most spectacular CD events I’ve ever witnessed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxGX4QdURCo
Squadron13’s “Citizens Arrest Warrant for Bush and Cheney” is read for the first time in D.C. in front of a very enthusiastic crowd of museum visitors at the National Archives Museum on March 19, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTjyxI79rwc
“No Justice at the Justice Department”, as Veterans in front of the Justice Department in D.C. demand that Bush and Cheney be arrested and ask Homeland Security for their assistance on March 19th, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6mDpeXbjq0
“March of the Dead” in D.C. on March 19, 2008. These folks cast a spell where ever they went. Imagine this procession in a Mall. GREAT action - LOUSY video! Do this with your own local activists at home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaw44MnkSok
One of the many CD actions that took place around D.C. on March 19 was this, here showing the remains of “blood” splattered all over the street front of Bechtel offices, as workers clean it up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39S7YEMV9Vw
“Lost Again!” With all our D.C. actions completed, the Squadron13 team starts to head home and finds itself lost again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt6vtWeW_z8
My name is Adam Nelson. I am a board member of The Mehadi Foundation. We are offering scholarships to United States Armed Forces veterans who served in the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict and who have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction but are now at least six months sober. The award is good for tuition at any college or trade school nationwide (international schools will also be considered.) More information about The Mehadi Foundation and scholarship applications can be downloaded at www.mehadifoundation.org. 1 award of $1000 USD and 2 awards of $250 will be given for Fall 2008 Semester/Quarter. The deadline to apply is June 15th, 2008.
Due to funding constraints, we are doing little promotion of this award through scholarship databases. We don’t predict a huge number of applicants. Therefore, the odds of being selected are rather decent. If you know any candidates, please encourage them to apply. Also, please forward this to anyone you feel appropriate.
Please contact me with comments or questions.
Thank you,
Adam Nelson
Board of Directors
The Mehadi Foundation
adam@mehadifoundation.org
323.573.2146
Hundreds of veterans of war gathered at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan - Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations to hear and give testimony about these wars. The hearings - largely ignored by mainstream media - were held from March 13-16, 2008 at the National Labor College, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Videos of testimonies may be viewed at the website of Iraq Veterans Against the War - http://www.ivaw.org - which also has related materials.
Thank you to Holly Near for giving permission to use her song - “I Am Willing” - as the musical background for this video. “I Am Willing” by Holly Near is © 2003 Hereford Music (ASCAP). It was used by permission; all rights reserved. http://www.hollynear.com
I offer my personal thanks to the veterans and others who testified at Winter Soldier. It took courage to give testimony on first hand accounts of these wars. And, I thank IVAW for giving me media credentials to cover this historic event.
I dedicate this video to the victims of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and do so in memory of the over a million who have been killed in these wars.
This video was recorded and edited by Charles Jenks and is © 2008 Charles Jenks; all rights reserved.
http://www.peacejournal.org
Are Air Force ads recruiting, or lobbying? - Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Troubling images flash across the screen, showing black-clad terrorists, tsunami-flooded villages and the Chinese army.
“Only the United States Air Force has the speed, power and vision to defend our nation for the century ahead,” the announcer intones as an F-22 fighter jet flies over a snowy mountaintop. “U.S. Air Force, above all.”
There is nothing unusual about seeing military recruiting ads right now. But in Congress and the Pentagon, many believe that the new Air Force ads are less about recruiting and more about lobbying for extra money.
Tracking a Marine Lost at Home - New York Times
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — A week after Eric W. Hall disappeared into the woods of Southwest Florida, his mother stood in a parking lot overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. She had asked for volunteers. Would they come?
The Broken Soldier » Full Story
Jimison Taylor Hutchinson is a member of the Michigan Army National Guard. An Air-Force veteran, Jimison joined the National Guard last year after completing his degree at the University of Michigan, deciding to postpone pursuing professional education to serve his country as an Officer.
This begins a blog by Jimison that chronicles his efforts to receive medical care….
Six of the Fallen, in Words They Sent Home - New York Times
By the time Specialist Jerry Ryen King decided to write about his experiences in Iraq, the teen-age paratrooper had more to share than most other soldiers.
by Justin Cliburn
Oklahoma Army National Guard
South Central Regional Coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War
The news of the 4,000th US death in Iraq did not come to me in any dramatic fashion like the news of 9/11, the capture of Saddam Hussein, or the date of my first deployment to Iraq had. Instead, I simply logged into my e-mail and saw it staring at me in the subject line of my most recent unread message. I was not surprised. I was not shocked. I was simply saddened to see the toll hit yet another milestone while our elected leaders in Congress await a new administration to bounce their withdrawal plans off of and the general public continues their tradition of apathy. I was saddened that it took a clean-cut, round number like 4,000 for the United States to snap out of its daze and pay attention once again to the human toll this war has wrought. Was the 4,000th death really any more tragic than the 3,999th? If 3,999 represents an arbitrary figure but 4,000 represents a milestone worthy of front-page mention, what does that say about America’s attention span?
4,000 seems so far away from the short, virtually costless war that we were promised by our Commander-in Chief five long years ago, but, even then, 4,000 doesn’t truly tell the story of what has transpired since March 19th, 2003. Numbers will never do justice to the damage this occupation has wrought upon the United States, let alone the world, but let me tell you what the number 4,000 means to me.
There are 4,000 fewer Americans alive today than five years ago due to this occupation. 4,000 families have been destroyed as sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers have been lost. Death does not discriminate: from the E-7 husband and father to the 20 year old E-3, their lives, however fulfilled or just beginning, were taken. 4,000 funerals for the fallen have been conducted, not one with the presence of the Commander-in-Chief. . . 4,000 performances of “Taps” . . . 4,000 Honor Guards . . . 4,000 dates that will forever live on in the minds of the families of the taken.
To those who have served and to those who are proud to call their family members veterans, 4,000 will never be a sufficient barometer of what our nation has lost. Each notch on the casualty list represents a name, a family, and a life. I know a few of those names, as do so many of my brothers and sisters in Iraq Veterans Against the War; it is for them that we continue our oath of service today by standing up against this illegal and unethical war to prevent a 5,000th name from being added to this list. It is in that same spirit of honor and duty to each other as soldiers, sailors, and Marines that IVAW today demands full benefits for our returning veterans, including mental health counseling, so that no more names are silently lost in the bureaucracy of government-approved casualty lists. Make no mistake: those who return home and take their own lives as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are the ultimate casualties of war.
The number 4,000 says nothing about the toll this folly has had on the Iraqi people. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, have died. Millions have become refugees, either in their own country or in neighboring countries. Families have been ripped apart. Neighborhoods have been destroyed. National monuments and cultural landmarks have been disgraced. An entire generation of Iraqis has grown up in the shadow of occupation.
No, this news did not come to me as a shock, and it wasn’t delivered in a dramatic fashion. That almost makes it worse, however, because I saw it coming for so long and, despite all the work IVAW has put in on behalf of those who no longer have a voice, there was nothing I could do to stop it. Help IVAW prevent a 5,000th story of loss today by pledging your support and demanding an end to the occupation of Iraq.
Families Torn by Citizenship for Fallen - New York Times
A young, ambitious immigrant from Guatemala who dreamed of becoming an architect. A Nigerian medic. A soldier from China who boasted he would one day become an American general. An Indian native whose headstone displays the first Khanda, emblem of the Sikh faith, to appear in Arlington National Cemetery.
These were among more than 100 foreign-born members of the U.S. military who earned American citizenship by dying in Iraq.
For Wounded Veterans and Their Families, a Journey Without Maps - New York Times
How much more can this country keep demanding of Justin Bunce, Daniel Verbeke and Michael McMichael?
The men — a marine, a sailor and a National Guardsman — went to Iraq to fight as ordered, served honorably and suffered grave injuries. When they came home another struggle began, to find the care to make them whole again.
MFSO Michigan participated in a Candlelight Vigil at Eastern Michigan University to mark the 5th Anniversary of the Occupation of Iraq. Deb Regal Coller was a speaker at the event.
Veterans Administration Won’t Help Soldiers Register to Vote | AlterNet
For at least four years, since the 2004 presidential election when a veteran, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was the Democratic Party nominee, the Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked efforts to help U.S. soldiers register to vote at its facilities in all 50 states.
“This is politically motivated voter suppression,” said Scott Rafferty, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who has fought the Veterans Administration (VA) in federal courts since 2004 over the right to assist veterans, including homeless vets, to register to vote at the VA campus in Menlo Park, California. “The VA is making its open campuses, even those where hundreds of homeless and aging veterans live, First Amendment-free zones.”
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