Monday, June 2, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
General Odom Recommends Rapid Withdrawal
GENERAL ODOM RECOMMENDS RAPID WITHDRAWAL
(received 4-8-08) General Odom: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040408D.shtml
“Rapid Withdrawal Is Only Solution” By William E. Odom, lieutenant general, USA (retired)
Information Clearinghouse Wednesday 02 April 2008
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq.
Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. It is an honor to appear before you again. The last occasion was in January 2007, when the topic was the troop surge. Today you are asking if it has worked. Last year I rejected the claim that it was a new strategy. Rather, I said, it is a new tactic used to achieve the same old strategic aim, political stability. And I foresaw no serious prospects for success. I see no reason to change my judgment now. The surge is prolonging instability, not creating the conditions for unity as the president claims….. [Click on web site above for entire testimony.].
Senator Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
MORE BOOKS ON THE IRAQ WAR (from Bibliography #28)
(See Dick’s bibliographies for more.)
--Collins, Jane. For Love of a Soldier: Interviews with Military Families Taking Action Against the Iraq War.
--Ilona Meagher. Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops. Editor of PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within.
--Roston, Aram. The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi. Nation Books, 2008. Chalabi’s massive campaign to induce the US to invade Iraq was paid for US taxpayers, etc.
--Rosen, Nir. The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. (updated paperback, 2008). See Rosen’s “Inside the Surge,” The Nation (April 21, 2008): The US occupation has torn Iraq into fragments, and sectarian militias are on the rise. “…a foreign military occupation is a systematic imposition of violence and terror on an entire people.”
--Schwartz, Michael. War Without End: The Iraq Debacle in Context. Describes three waves of displacement since the invasion.
--Mitchell, Greg. Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed on Iraq. Union Square, 2008. Rev. In These Times (May 2008), “lays out a timeline of the media’s damning missteps.” “a history of the war as told through the mainstream media prism.”
-- Meeting Resistance: A Conversation with Steve Connors and Molly Bingham
Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Baghdad in 2003, journalists Steve Connors and Molly Bingham began work on their documentary film "Meeting Resistance", an in-depth look at the Iraqi insurgency. Filmed over the course of ten months in 2003-2004, the film examines the diversity, motivations, and goals of the anonymous members of the resistance centered in the al-Adamiya neighborhood of Baghdad. Directors interviewed by Laura Flanders on her FSTV show “Grit TV” 5-29-08. Emphasized how the US military controls information about the insurgency.
--Jeremy Scahill's prize-winning bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is now available in a fully updated paperback edition...and we're offering our readers a 40% discount when you order the book directly from HaymarketBooks.org - that beat's Amazon's price, and you'll be supporting the independent press in the process! The New York Times Book Review calls Blackwater "a crackling expose," and Naomi Klein has called it "[t]he most important and chilling book about the death throes of U.S. democracy you will read in years. . . a triumph of investigative reporting."
Blackwater is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from North Carolina to become one of the most powerful players in America's 'War on Terror'. Scahill takes readers from the bloodied streets of Fallujah to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, and reveals that not only is Blackwater a central part of US war machine, but mercenary forces will be with us for years and conflicts to come.
--Tillman, Mary. Boots on the Ground by Dusk:: My Tribute to My Son Pat Tillman. Mary Tillman was interviewed by Amy Goodman 5-22-08 accompanied by several film clips, including the also powerful indictment of the US gov’t. by Pat’s brother. The film adds more damning, sad evidence of how the Army has been corrupted and demoralized by these 2 illegal, immoral wars.
FILMS
MORE FILMS ABOUT THE OCCUPATION’S IMPACT ON US SOLDIERS
Occupation Dreamland
Ground Truth
Marines of Lima Co.
(See Iraq War Newsletter # 3, which is entirely on films.)
MORE INFO ON THE BODY OF WAR
Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HZuQkITY64
Website: http://www.bodyofwar.com/
Soundtrack: http://www.bodyofwarmusic.com/
COMMENT ON PBS/FRONTLINE FILM “BUSH’S WAR.”
Every citizen should see this masterful summary of the trickery behind the invasion and the incompetence of the occupation. But four major factors were omitted from the film: 1) the unprofessional cheerleading for the invasion by the mainstream media, 2) the invasion’s violation of international laws and conventions, 3) Bush and Cheney’s real motives for the invasion: establishment of permanent bases to control middle eastern resources particularly oil, 4) congressional prohibition of permanent bases and takeover of Iraqi oil nullified by another of Bush’s “signing statement.” Thus the film contributed to the five-year deception of the public regarding this disaster.
WAR, INC. FILM
--“War, Inc.” film with John Cusak, Marissa Tome, Dan Ackroyd, et al. Cusak was interviewed by Amy Goodman 5-23-08, along with Jeremy Scahill (Blackwater author) praising the film.
http://www.myspace.com/johncusack
John Cusack Talks About "War, Inc" (VIDEO) - Entertainment on The ... - 10:56pm
Watch John talk "War, Inc" and read more about the film here, here, ..... to John Cusack, New Crime and everyone involved in bringing War Inc. to the screen ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/_102010.html - 176k
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/16/john-cusack-talks-about-w_n_102010.html
John Cusack Goes To War http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/john-cusack-is-angry-you_n_103267.html and links.
John Cusack War INC at Tribeca Film Festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVLHwojWae4
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-scahill/john-cusacks-war-the-acto_b_102068.html
War Inc. is already an underground cult classic and will likely remain so for years to come. The film is not without its shortcomings -- at times it is confusing and drags -- but its faults are significantly overshadowed by its many strengths. It also accomplishes the difficult feat of being very entertaining and funny, while delivering a powerful punch of truth. War, Inc. is a movie that deserves a much wider viewing than the barons of the film industry are likely to give it. But by filling the theaters in the opening days, people can send a powerful message that there is -- and must be -- a market for films of conscience. Visit the official website of War, Inc. or John Cusack's website to view trailers, get info on tickets for the premieres and to read more about the film. War, Inc. is a radically different kind of movie. In fact, it really defies genre. It is sort of like this generation's Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange and The Wizard of Oz mixed together with the un-embedded reporting of Naomi Klein, spiced up with a dash of South Park. It is a powerful, visionary response to the cheerleading culture of the corporate media and a pliant Hollywood afraid of its own shadow.
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380
Senator Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
OMNI SEEKS A WORLD FREE OF WAR AND THE THREAT OF WAR, A SOCIETY WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FORALL, A COMMUNITY WHERE EVERY PERSON’S POTENTIAL MAY BE FULFILLED, AN EARTHRESTORED. GRASSROOTS NONVIOLENCE, WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP/PROTECTING SPECIES AND THE EARTH.
END OF NEWSLETTER #5 ON IRAQ (June 1, 2008)
(received 4-8-08) General Odom: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040408D.shtml
“Rapid Withdrawal Is Only Solution” By William E. Odom, lieutenant general, USA (retired)
Information Clearinghouse Wednesday 02 April 2008
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq.
Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. It is an honor to appear before you again. The last occasion was in January 2007, when the topic was the troop surge. Today you are asking if it has worked. Last year I rejected the claim that it was a new strategy. Rather, I said, it is a new tactic used to achieve the same old strategic aim, political stability. And I foresaw no serious prospects for success. I see no reason to change my judgment now. The surge is prolonging instability, not creating the conditions for unity as the president claims….. [Click on web site above for entire testimony.].
Senator Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
MORE BOOKS ON THE IRAQ WAR (from Bibliography #28)
(See Dick’s bibliographies for more.)
--Collins, Jane. For Love of a Soldier: Interviews with Military Families Taking Action Against the Iraq War.
--Ilona Meagher. Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops. Editor of PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within.
--Roston, Aram. The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi. Nation Books, 2008. Chalabi’s massive campaign to induce the US to invade Iraq was paid for US taxpayers, etc.
--Rosen, Nir. The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. (updated paperback, 2008). See Rosen’s “Inside the Surge,” The Nation (April 21, 2008): The US occupation has torn Iraq into fragments, and sectarian militias are on the rise. “…a foreign military occupation is a systematic imposition of violence and terror on an entire people.”
--Schwartz, Michael. War Without End: The Iraq Debacle in Context. Describes three waves of displacement since the invasion.
--Mitchell, Greg. Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed on Iraq. Union Square, 2008. Rev. In These Times (May 2008), “lays out a timeline of the media’s damning missteps.” “a history of the war as told through the mainstream media prism.”
-- Meeting Resistance: A Conversation with Steve Connors and Molly Bingham
Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Baghdad in 2003, journalists Steve Connors and Molly Bingham began work on their documentary film "Meeting Resistance", an in-depth look at the Iraqi insurgency. Filmed over the course of ten months in 2003-2004, the film examines the diversity, motivations, and goals of the anonymous members of the resistance centered in the al-Adamiya neighborhood of Baghdad. Directors interviewed by Laura Flanders on her FSTV show “Grit TV” 5-29-08. Emphasized how the US military controls information about the insurgency.
--Jeremy Scahill's prize-winning bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is now available in a fully updated paperback edition...and we're offering our readers a 40% discount when you order the book directly from HaymarketBooks.org - that beat's Amazon's price, and you'll be supporting the independent press in the process! The New York Times Book Review calls Blackwater "a crackling expose," and Naomi Klein has called it "[t]he most important and chilling book about the death throes of U.S. democracy you will read in years. . . a triumph of investigative reporting."
Blackwater is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from North Carolina to become one of the most powerful players in America's 'War on Terror'. Scahill takes readers from the bloodied streets of Fallujah to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, and reveals that not only is Blackwater a central part of US war machine, but mercenary forces will be with us for years and conflicts to come.
--Tillman, Mary. Boots on the Ground by Dusk:: My Tribute to My Son Pat Tillman. Mary Tillman was interviewed by Amy Goodman 5-22-08 accompanied by several film clips, including the also powerful indictment of the US gov’t. by Pat’s brother. The film adds more damning, sad evidence of how the Army has been corrupted and demoralized by these 2 illegal, immoral wars.
FILMS
MORE FILMS ABOUT THE OCCUPATION’S IMPACT ON US SOLDIERS
Occupation Dreamland
Ground Truth
Marines of Lima Co.
(See Iraq War Newsletter # 3, which is entirely on films.)
MORE INFO ON THE BODY OF WAR
Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HZuQkITY64
Website: http://www.bodyofwar.com/
Soundtrack: http://www.bodyofwarmusic.com/
COMMENT ON PBS/FRONTLINE FILM “BUSH’S WAR.”
Every citizen should see this masterful summary of the trickery behind the invasion and the incompetence of the occupation. But four major factors were omitted from the film: 1) the unprofessional cheerleading for the invasion by the mainstream media, 2) the invasion’s violation of international laws and conventions, 3) Bush and Cheney’s real motives for the invasion: establishment of permanent bases to control middle eastern resources particularly oil, 4) congressional prohibition of permanent bases and takeover of Iraqi oil nullified by another of Bush’s “signing statement.” Thus the film contributed to the five-year deception of the public regarding this disaster.
WAR, INC. FILM
--“War, Inc.” film with John Cusak, Marissa Tome, Dan Ackroyd, et al. Cusak was interviewed by Amy Goodman 5-23-08, along with Jeremy Scahill (Blackwater author) praising the film.
http://www.myspace.com/johncusack
John Cusack Talks About "War, Inc" (VIDEO) - Entertainment on The ... - 10:56pm
Watch John talk "War, Inc" and read more about the film here, here, ..... to John Cusack, New Crime and everyone involved in bringing War Inc. to the screen ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/_102010.html - 176k
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/16/john-cusack-talks-about-w_n_102010.html
John Cusack Goes To War http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/john-cusack-is-angry-you_n_103267.html and links.
John Cusack War INC at Tribeca Film Festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVLHwojWae4
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-scahill/john-cusacks-war-the-acto_b_102068.html
War Inc. is already an underground cult classic and will likely remain so for years to come. The film is not without its shortcomings -- at times it is confusing and drags -- but its faults are significantly overshadowed by its many strengths. It also accomplishes the difficult feat of being very entertaining and funny, while delivering a powerful punch of truth. War, Inc. is a movie that deserves a much wider viewing than the barons of the film industry are likely to give it. But by filling the theaters in the opening days, people can send a powerful message that there is -- and must be -- a market for films of conscience. Visit the official website of War, Inc. or John Cusack's website to view trailers, get info on tickets for the premieres and to read more about the film. War, Inc. is a radically different kind of movie. In fact, it really defies genre. It is sort of like this generation's Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange and The Wizard of Oz mixed together with the un-embedded reporting of Naomi Klein, spiced up with a dash of South Park. It is a powerful, visionary response to the cheerleading culture of the corporate media and a pliant Hollywood afraid of its own shadow.
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380
Senator Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
OMNI SEEKS A WORLD FREE OF WAR AND THE THREAT OF WAR, A SOCIETY WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FORALL, A COMMUNITY WHERE EVERY PERSON’S POTENTIAL MAY BE FULFILLED, AN EARTHRESTORED. GRASSROOTS NONVIOLENCE, WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP/PROTECTING SPECIES AND THE EARTH.
END OF NEWSLETTER #5 ON IRAQ (June 1, 2008)
Why people can't just all get along
ANALYSIS WRITTEN 2 YEARS AGO BY STEVE BOTTOMS
Can't we all just get along?
Of course not.
• Spy chief: Iraq may spark regional battle
• Civil war looms with 68 killed in Baghdad
If it were in our nature not to fight over resources we still be afraid of fire. Alas, what has given us the ability to evolve also has cursed us with the propensity to kill each other over land, religion, water, fuel, ad nauseum... It really makes me embarrassed to be a human being.
Now to the specifics. Here's what I think about the Iraq mess:
Iraq isn't a "real" country, as we generally know them. Its borders were artificially created by the British, and they installed a king almost 90 years ago following WWI (ironically called at the time, the "war to end all wars").
Much like the former Yugoslavia, the only thing that kept the lid on sectarian strife was iron-fisted rule... Saddam being the most recent iteration of that type. Like the pullout of the former Soviet Union from Yugoslavia, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's brutal kleptocratic regime has unleashed the tightly wound hatreds and old scores, and freed the primal nature of man in a lawless environment...
Freedom for the long oppressed Iraqi people in the abstract cannot be seen as a bad thing, of course. Freedom is a universal ideal. But if the "freedom," that we are "ostensibly" trying to achieve is unreachable because of the careless removal of the top of this artificial nation without forethought to what to do when the lid came off, have we helped them in the long run? Sadly, it appears, no.
Perhaps, without our intervention, eventually, despots like Saddam would have been deposed naturally. And since there are 40 or so other countries under the thumb of dictators (several of which, if you didn't know, the US government either directly, or indirectly support), one must hope that it is indeed possible to break these tyrannies with the cooperation of free nations. It is the best way, since we've seen very glaringly that war is not the answer.
I know, that "freedom," wasn't the motivation for the Iraq war, any fool knows that, but it is honestly the only thing left to hope for, and it seems that is lost. Who knows how bad it is going to get with the back and forth attacks between Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq? With the Sunni's being outnumbered 3 to 1 in that country, if it completely melts down into civil war, it will be awful. What have we done? What have we done?
I disagreed, vehemently, with the invasion, knowing it was just a stupid megalomaniacal grand game of Risk to surround Iran, and to place a new 'police station' in the Middle East, since we had to quietly leave Saudi Arabia to appease the despotic royal family in that 'kingdom,' for they feared our presence would result in their overthrow. Well, it may happen anyway.
How do I know this? I'm an Air Force veteran having worked in the intel community and a voracious reader of history and politics... and we are, I have to sadly conclude, repeating the failures that have been glaringly written in history. We are indeed, doomed to repeat history. Repeat it because human avarice and greed have not changed even if our ability to lay waste to one another has dramatically improved.
What have we gained with the half trillion dollars of taxpayer money, 2400 US deaths, over 20,000 injured (many more psychologically) and some 100,000 Iraqis themselves if it just boils down to a sectarian bloodbath? What have we gained?
And be sure, there will be "blowback" for generations to come from this ill-begotten campaign. Our children, our children's children will be presented with an unpaid bill.
What have we done? What should we do?
Can't we all just get along?
Of course not.
• Spy chief: Iraq may spark regional battle
• Civil war looms with 68 killed in Baghdad
If it were in our nature not to fight over resources we still be afraid of fire. Alas, what has given us the ability to evolve also has cursed us with the propensity to kill each other over land, religion, water, fuel, ad nauseum... It really makes me embarrassed to be a human being.
Now to the specifics. Here's what I think about the Iraq mess:
Iraq isn't a "real" country, as we generally know them. Its borders were artificially created by the British, and they installed a king almost 90 years ago following WWI (ironically called at the time, the "war to end all wars").
Much like the former Yugoslavia, the only thing that kept the lid on sectarian strife was iron-fisted rule... Saddam being the most recent iteration of that type. Like the pullout of the former Soviet Union from Yugoslavia, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's brutal kleptocratic regime has unleashed the tightly wound hatreds and old scores, and freed the primal nature of man in a lawless environment...
Freedom for the long oppressed Iraqi people in the abstract cannot be seen as a bad thing, of course. Freedom is a universal ideal. But if the "freedom," that we are "ostensibly" trying to achieve is unreachable because of the careless removal of the top of this artificial nation without forethought to what to do when the lid came off, have we helped them in the long run? Sadly, it appears, no.
Perhaps, without our intervention, eventually, despots like Saddam would have been deposed naturally. And since there are 40 or so other countries under the thumb of dictators (several of which, if you didn't know, the US government either directly, or indirectly support), one must hope that it is indeed possible to break these tyrannies with the cooperation of free nations. It is the best way, since we've seen very glaringly that war is not the answer.
I know, that "freedom," wasn't the motivation for the Iraq war, any fool knows that, but it is honestly the only thing left to hope for, and it seems that is lost. Who knows how bad it is going to get with the back and forth attacks between Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq? With the Sunni's being outnumbered 3 to 1 in that country, if it completely melts down into civil war, it will be awful. What have we done? What have we done?
I disagreed, vehemently, with the invasion, knowing it was just a stupid megalomaniacal grand game of Risk to surround Iran, and to place a new 'police station' in the Middle East, since we had to quietly leave Saudi Arabia to appease the despotic royal family in that 'kingdom,' for they feared our presence would result in their overthrow. Well, it may happen anyway.
How do I know this? I'm an Air Force veteran having worked in the intel community and a voracious reader of history and politics... and we are, I have to sadly conclude, repeating the failures that have been glaringly written in history. We are indeed, doomed to repeat history. Repeat it because human avarice and greed have not changed even if our ability to lay waste to one another has dramatically improved.
What have we gained with the half trillion dollars of taxpayer money, 2400 US deaths, over 20,000 injured (many more psychologically) and some 100,000 Iraqis themselves if it just boils down to a sectarian bloodbath? What have we gained?
And be sure, there will be "blowback" for generations to come from this ill-begotten campaign. Our children, our children's children will be presented with an unpaid bill.
What have we done? What should we do?
Destruction of Iraq children
YouTube - Iraqi Kid Runs For Water
Iraqi Kids Begging For Water · Iraqi Kids Begging For Water ...
1 min 6 sec -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9A_vxIOB-I
Trauma severe for Iraqi children - USATODAY.com
About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a ...
www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-15-cover-war-children_N.htm - 50k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Iraq Kids
Another concern addressed on Iraq Kids is the condition of schools in Iraq, primarily rural schools that have been largely ignored during re-building. ...
iraqkids.blogspot.com/ - 86k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Asia Times
Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children By Pepe Escobar ... also happening on the Iraqi frontlines: babies cut in half, amputated limbs, kids with their faces ...
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED04Ak07.html - 27k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids Home Page
Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids provides pediatric wheelchairs for disabled children of Iraq. The wheelchairs are sponsored by individual and corporate donors ...
www.wheelchairsforiraqikids.com/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Jacob Hornberger: Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Why Most Kids Are Left Behind. In a radical probe of the functions of US ..... As tens of thousands of Iraqi children were dying year after year from the ...
www.counterpunch.org/hornberger04042008.html - 94k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Disabled Iraqi children get wheelchairs, big smiles - CNN.com
Mothers cradle children in their arms. Fathers smile softly at the helpless bodies they hold. Other parents are bent over from the weight of their teenage ...
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/13/iraq.wheelchairs/index.html - 85k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Children of Iraq Association Charity
children of Iraq association is a children's charity dedicated to saving infants and children born and living in Iraq. Children in Iraq have been subjected ...
www.coia.org.uk/ - 56k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Iraqi Children Suffer Mental Stress from War : NPR
Apr 21, 2007 ... A new study in Iraq surveyed 2500 kids, randomly chosen from a middle-income area of north Baghdad, to see if researchers could determine ...
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9750915 - Similar pages - Note this
News results for Iraqi Kids
Daily Mail
UN says young Iraqis increasingly recruited for violence - Apr 25, 2008
Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, called Iraq's children the "silent victims of the ...
The Associated Press - 117 related articles »
US says Iran increasing support of insurgents - MSNBC - 256 related articles »
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
Iraqi Kids Begging For Water · Iraqi Kids Begging For Water ...
1 min 6 sec -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9A_vxIOB-I
Trauma severe for Iraqi children - USATODAY.com
About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a ...
www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-15-cover-war-children_N.htm - 50k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Iraq Kids
Another concern addressed on Iraq Kids is the condition of schools in Iraq, primarily rural schools that have been largely ignored during re-building. ...
iraqkids.blogspot.com/ - 86k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Asia Times
Cluster bombs liberate Iraqi children By Pepe Escobar ... also happening on the Iraqi frontlines: babies cut in half, amputated limbs, kids with their faces ...
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED04Ak07.html - 27k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids Home Page
Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids provides pediatric wheelchairs for disabled children of Iraq. The wheelchairs are sponsored by individual and corporate donors ...
www.wheelchairsforiraqikids.com/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Jacob Hornberger: Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Why Most Kids Are Left Behind. In a radical probe of the functions of US ..... As tens of thousands of Iraqi children were dying year after year from the ...
www.counterpunch.org/hornberger04042008.html - 94k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Disabled Iraqi children get wheelchairs, big smiles - CNN.com
Mothers cradle children in their arms. Fathers smile softly at the helpless bodies they hold. Other parents are bent over from the weight of their teenage ...
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/13/iraq.wheelchairs/index.html - 85k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Children of Iraq Association Charity
children of Iraq association is a children's charity dedicated to saving infants and children born and living in Iraq. Children in Iraq have been subjected ...
www.coia.org.uk/ - 56k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Iraqi Children Suffer Mental Stress from War : NPR
Apr 21, 2007 ... A new study in Iraq surveyed 2500 kids, randomly chosen from a middle-income area of north Baghdad, to see if researchers could determine ...
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9750915 - Similar pages - Note this
News results for Iraqi Kids
Daily Mail
UN says young Iraqis increasingly recruited for violence - Apr 25, 2008
Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, called Iraq's children the "silent victims of the ...
The Associated Press - 117 related articles »
US says Iran increasing support of insurgents - MSNBC - 256 related articles »
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
EXCEPTIONALISM: THE ENORMOUSLY POWERFUL MYTH UNDERLYING THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION
Michael Ignatieff, ed. American Exceptionalism and Human Rights. 2005. This myth has produced three deeply crippling national behaviors:
1) US exempts itself from provisions of international law conventions and treaties by reservation, nonratification, or noncompliance;
2) double standards US judges itself and its friends by more permissive criteria than it does its enemies;
3) legal isolation: US courts disregard international rulings and standards, e.g. European Court of Human Rights.
IRAQI CHILDREN
Operation Iraqi Children
Supports the efforts of American soldiers to assist Iraqi children. School supply kit program, forum, and media center.
www.operationiraqichildren.org/ - 1k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
1) US exempts itself from provisions of international law conventions and treaties by reservation, nonratification, or noncompliance;
2) double standards US judges itself and its friends by more permissive criteria than it does its enemies;
3) legal isolation: US courts disregard international rulings and standards, e.g. European Court of Human Rights.
IRAQI CHILDREN
Operation Iraqi Children
Supports the efforts of American soldiers to assist Iraqi children. School supply kit program, forum, and media center.
www.operationiraqichildren.org/ - 1k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Greg Palast on Iraq war and oil
IRAQ WAR AND OIL, an argument by Greg Palast
By Greg Palast for TomPaine.com/OurFuture.org (from Clair D)
[New York, May 22, 2008.]
I can’t make this up:
In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world’s top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.
The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week’s rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.
It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.
Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton’s team. There could be no more vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won’t learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.
Let me explain.
In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now British Petroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.
The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remain there, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.
Again and again, year after year, the world price of oil has been boosted artificially by keeping a tight limit on Iraq’s oil output. Methods varied. The 1928 “Redline” agreement held, in various forms, for over three decades. It was replaced in 1959 by quotas imposed by President Eisenhower. Then Saudi Arabia and OPEC kept Iraq, capable of producing over 6 million barrels a day, capped at half that, given an export quota equal to Iran’s lower output.
In 1991, output was again limited, this time by a new red line: B-52 bombings by Bush Senior’s air force. Then came the Oil Embargo followed by the “Food for Oil” program. Not much food for them, not much oil for us.
In 2002, after Bush Junior took power, the top ten oil companies took in a nice $31 billion in profits. But then, a miracle fell from the sky. Or, more precisely, the 101st Airborne landed. Bush declared, “Bring’m on!” and, as the dogs of war chewed up the world’s second largest source of oil, crude doubled in two years to an astonishing $40 a barrel and those same oil companies saw their profits triple to $87 billion.
In response, Senators Obama and Clinton propose something wrongly called a “windfall” profits tax on oil. But oil industry profits didn’t blow in on a breeze. It is war, not wind, that fills their coffers. The beastly leap in prices is nothing but war profiteering, hiking prices to take cruel advantage of oil fields shut by bullets and blood.
I wish to hell the Democrats would call their plan what it is: A war profiteering tax. War is profitable business – if you’re an oil man. But somehow, the public pays the price, at the pump and at the funerals, and the oil companies reap the benefits.
Indeed, the recent engorgement in oil prices and profits goes right back to Bush-McCain “surge.” The Iraq government attack on a Basra militia was really nothing more than Baghdad’s leaping into a gang war over control of Iraq’s Southern oil fields and oil-loading docks. Moqtada al-Sadr’s gangsters and the government-sponsored greedsters of SCIRI (the Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution In Iraq) are battling over an estimated $5 billion a year in oil shipment kickbacks, theft and protection fees.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge-backed civil warring has cut Iraq’s exports by up to a million barrels a day. And that translates to slashing OPEC excess crude capacity by nearly half.
Result: ka-BOOM in oil prices and ka-ZOOM in oil profits. For 2007, Exxon recorded the highest annual profit, $40.6 billion, of any enterprise since the building of the pyramids. And that was BEFORE the war surge and price surge to over $100 a barrel.
It’s been a good war for Exxon and friends. Since George Bush began to beat the war-drum for an invasion of Iraq, the value of Exxon’s reserves has risen – are you ready for this? – by $2 trillion.
Obama’s war profiteering tax, or “oil windfall profits” tax, would equal just 20% of the industry’s charges in excess of $80 a barrel. It’s embarrassingly small actually, smaller than every windfall tax charged by every other nation. (Ecuador, for example, captures up to 99% of the higher earnings).
Nevertheless, oilman George W. Bush opposes it as does Bush’s man McCain. Senator McCain admonishes us that the po’ widdle oil companies need more than 80% of their windfall so they can explore for more oil. When pigs fly, Senator. Last year, Exxon spent $36 billion of its $40 billion income on dividends and special payouts to stockholders in tax-free buy-backs. Even the Journal called Exxon’s capital investment spending “stingy.”
At today’s prices Obama’s windfall tax, teeny as it is, would bring in nearly a billion dollars a day for the US Treasury. Clinton’s plan is similar. Yet the press’ entire discussion of gas prices is shifted to whether the government should knock some sales tax pennies off the oil companies’ pillaging at the pump.
More important than even the Democrats’ declaring that oil company profits are undeserved, is their implicit understanding that the profits are the spoils of war.
And that’s another reason to tax the oil industry’s ill-gotten gain. Vietnam showed us that foreign wars don’t end when the invader can no longer fight, but when the invasion is no longer profitable.
*****************
Greg Palast is the author of, “Trillion Dollar Babies,” on Iraq and oil, published in his New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse.
Palast is currently working with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on investigation the latest attacks on the right to vote in America. Support this effort and receive a signed copy of Armed Madhouse from the author at Palast Investigative Fund.
View Palast’s commentary on oil and war windfalls on Air America Radio’s Palast Report – on YouTube here.
A BIG LIE REVERSED: IRAQ WAR FOR OIL
"My friends, I will have an energy policy which will eliminate our dependence on oil from Middle East that will then prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East." --McCain, May 2, 08
Chris Matthews opines:
"You know, if somebody else were to say that, they would be accused of being a communist, or radical, or a leftist.for John McCain, a war hero, to say that we're fighting in the Middle East to protect our oil sources is an astounding development." --ibid
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/02/john-mccain-admits-iraq-war-was-over-oil/
12 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq by Tom Engelhardt* (from Bill O)
$1 TRILLION
The interest the U.S. will have paid by 2017 on the money borrowed to finance the war.
$16 BILLION
The amount the US spends on the monthly running costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of regular Pentagon spending.
Etc.
END THE WAR: Take Action
See links below ("further information") about The Responsible Plan to End the War.
Dear _________________:
I urge the President and Congress to adopt the recommendations of the "Responsible Plan for Peace". These recommendations offer real hope of bringing U.S. military occupation of Iraq to a productive end.
The authors of these recommendations are experts, retired military officers, and foreign policy specialists. The plan is simple but realistic, and incorporates many of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group Report. Several of the candidates for national office have endorsed this plan.
Sincerely,
Further information:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/responsible_plan/?r=38&id=16-137274-TOL0nT
http://www.responsibleplan.com.
Make Your Voice Heard. Enroll in
http://ProgressiveSecretary.Org
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380
By Greg Palast for TomPaine.com/OurFuture.org (from Clair D)
[New York, May 22, 2008.]
I can’t make this up:
In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world’s top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.
The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week’s rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.
It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.
Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton’s team. There could be no more vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won’t learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.
Let me explain.
In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now British Petroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.
The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remain there, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.
Again and again, year after year, the world price of oil has been boosted artificially by keeping a tight limit on Iraq’s oil output. Methods varied. The 1928 “Redline” agreement held, in various forms, for over three decades. It was replaced in 1959 by quotas imposed by President Eisenhower. Then Saudi Arabia and OPEC kept Iraq, capable of producing over 6 million barrels a day, capped at half that, given an export quota equal to Iran’s lower output.
In 1991, output was again limited, this time by a new red line: B-52 bombings by Bush Senior’s air force. Then came the Oil Embargo followed by the “Food for Oil” program. Not much food for them, not much oil for us.
In 2002, after Bush Junior took power, the top ten oil companies took in a nice $31 billion in profits. But then, a miracle fell from the sky. Or, more precisely, the 101st Airborne landed. Bush declared, “Bring’m on!” and, as the dogs of war chewed up the world’s second largest source of oil, crude doubled in two years to an astonishing $40 a barrel and those same oil companies saw their profits triple to $87 billion.
In response, Senators Obama and Clinton propose something wrongly called a “windfall” profits tax on oil. But oil industry profits didn’t blow in on a breeze. It is war, not wind, that fills their coffers. The beastly leap in prices is nothing but war profiteering, hiking prices to take cruel advantage of oil fields shut by bullets and blood.
I wish to hell the Democrats would call their plan what it is: A war profiteering tax. War is profitable business – if you’re an oil man. But somehow, the public pays the price, at the pump and at the funerals, and the oil companies reap the benefits.
Indeed, the recent engorgement in oil prices and profits goes right back to Bush-McCain “surge.” The Iraq government attack on a Basra militia was really nothing more than Baghdad’s leaping into a gang war over control of Iraq’s Southern oil fields and oil-loading docks. Moqtada al-Sadr’s gangsters and the government-sponsored greedsters of SCIRI (the Supreme Council For Islamic Revolution In Iraq) are battling over an estimated $5 billion a year in oil shipment kickbacks, theft and protection fees.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge-backed civil warring has cut Iraq’s exports by up to a million barrels a day. And that translates to slashing OPEC excess crude capacity by nearly half.
Result: ka-BOOM in oil prices and ka-ZOOM in oil profits. For 2007, Exxon recorded the highest annual profit, $40.6 billion, of any enterprise since the building of the pyramids. And that was BEFORE the war surge and price surge to over $100 a barrel.
It’s been a good war for Exxon and friends. Since George Bush began to beat the war-drum for an invasion of Iraq, the value of Exxon’s reserves has risen – are you ready for this? – by $2 trillion.
Obama’s war profiteering tax, or “oil windfall profits” tax, would equal just 20% of the industry’s charges in excess of $80 a barrel. It’s embarrassingly small actually, smaller than every windfall tax charged by every other nation. (Ecuador, for example, captures up to 99% of the higher earnings).
Nevertheless, oilman George W. Bush opposes it as does Bush’s man McCain. Senator McCain admonishes us that the po’ widdle oil companies need more than 80% of their windfall so they can explore for more oil. When pigs fly, Senator. Last year, Exxon spent $36 billion of its $40 billion income on dividends and special payouts to stockholders in tax-free buy-backs. Even the Journal called Exxon’s capital investment spending “stingy.”
At today’s prices Obama’s windfall tax, teeny as it is, would bring in nearly a billion dollars a day for the US Treasury. Clinton’s plan is similar. Yet the press’ entire discussion of gas prices is shifted to whether the government should knock some sales tax pennies off the oil companies’ pillaging at the pump.
More important than even the Democrats’ declaring that oil company profits are undeserved, is their implicit understanding that the profits are the spoils of war.
And that’s another reason to tax the oil industry’s ill-gotten gain. Vietnam showed us that foreign wars don’t end when the invader can no longer fight, but when the invasion is no longer profitable.
*****************
Greg Palast is the author of, “Trillion Dollar Babies,” on Iraq and oil, published in his New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse.
Palast is currently working with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on investigation the latest attacks on the right to vote in America. Support this effort and receive a signed copy of Armed Madhouse from the author at Palast Investigative Fund.
View Palast’s commentary on oil and war windfalls on Air America Radio’s Palast Report – on YouTube here.
A BIG LIE REVERSED: IRAQ WAR FOR OIL
"My friends, I will have an energy policy which will eliminate our dependence on oil from Middle East that will then prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East." --McCain, May 2, 08
Chris Matthews opines:
"You know, if somebody else were to say that, they would be accused of being a communist, or radical, or a leftist.for John McCain, a war hero, to say that we're fighting in the Middle East to protect our oil sources is an astounding development." --ibid
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/02/john-mccain-admits-iraq-war-was-over-oil/
12 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq by Tom Engelhardt* (from Bill O)
$1 TRILLION
The interest the U.S. will have paid by 2017 on the money borrowed to finance the war.
$16 BILLION
The amount the US spends on the monthly running costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of regular Pentagon spending.
Etc.
END THE WAR: Take Action
See links below ("further information") about The Responsible Plan to End the War.
Dear _________________:
I urge the President and Congress to adopt the recommendations of the "Responsible Plan for Peace". These recommendations offer real hope of bringing U.S. military occupation of Iraq to a productive end.
The authors of these recommendations are experts, retired military officers, and foreign policy specialists. The plan is simple but realistic, and incorporates many of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group Report. Several of the candidates for national office have endorsed this plan.
Sincerely,
Further information:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/responsible_plan/?r=38&id=16-137274-TOL0nT
http://www.responsibleplan.com.
Make Your Voice Heard. Enroll in
http://ProgressiveSecretary.Org
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380
Suicides in Iraq and Afganistan
IRAQ/AFGHAN VET PTSD
TMN 5-28-08: “Stress Disorder Cases Jump 50 Percent.” “Records show roughly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the illness…since 2003. Officials believe that many more are likely keeping their illness a secret.”
IRAQ/AFGHAN VET SUICIDES
Memorial Day is about honoring those who have sacrificed themselves for the nation, in our armed forces. We cannot honor them properly unless we know the full extent of their sacrifice.
We have to count the victims of Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome, what we used to call being shell-shocked, as victims of the war. The number of those victims has been covered up.
Investigative reporters at CBS News found that in 2005, 6,250 veterans took their lives, nearly 18 a day. Emanuel Margolis writes,
' Dr. Ira Katz, chief of mental health services for the Department of Veterans Affairs, sent an e-mail to a VA colleague this past February that read:
"Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before somebody stumbles on it?"'
Margolis charges that Katz covered up this startling statistic, showing 12,000 attempted suicides a year while in VA care, when he testified before Congress.
Have 30,000 veterans died of suicide in the past 5 years? Have 60,000 tried to? Shouldn't these deeply depressed men and women be added to the casualty tolls? Is war a plague on the mind of those who fight it?
Margolis writes,
' • 120 veterans commit suicide every week.
• 1,000 veterans attempt suicide while in VA care every month.
• Nearly one in five service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (approximately 300,000) have post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or major depression.
• 19 percent of post-Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with possible traumatic brain injury, according to a Rand Corp. Study in April.
• A higher percentage of these veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than from any previous war because of "stop loss" or an involuntary extension of service in the military (58,300), multiple tours, greater prevalence of brain injuries, etc. '
19 percent of returning vets from Iraq and Afghanistan would also be nearly 300,000 persons, suffering from traumatic brain injury.
Wounded vets often face quality of life issues for the long term.
Others face profound moral dilemmas growing out of a conviction that they have been ordered to commit atrocities. The warping of the moral being may not be an inevitability of war but it is a severe risk.
Active duty soldiers in a war zone have a fear of becoming mere statistics, a fear I've had expressed to me in correspondence from Iraq. The LA Times profiles those soldiers from California who have given their lives to this war. The LAT says,
' Kelsey Johnson remembered that her husband, Marine Cpl. Stephen P. Johnson, 24, told her that he had "a really bad feeling" about an upcoming mission. Johnson, of Yreka, was among 31 troops killed when their helicopter crashed in the Iraqi desert.
"I dropped down on the ground and started screaming," she said. She was 19 when her husband was killed. . .
Army Spc. Daniel F. Reyes told his mother that if he died, he wanted to be buried next to his brother, Roberto Esparza, who was 21 when he was killed in a bike accident in San Diego.
Reyes was survived by his wife, Rebekah, 23, and year-old son, Daniel Fernando. "He was always thinking of us," she said. "He called me every morning in Iraq."
Like many of those killed, the severity of Reyes' wounds from an explosion precluded an open-casket service. Mortuary affairs personnel in the war zones have developed a word for such cases: unviewable.'
But in a way, all of the casualties from the Iraq War are "unviewable."
We aren't told the scale of the sacrifice by our corporate media or Washington officials. Michael Munk has done a fine job of focusing in like a laser on the real numbers of casualties for the Iraq War. Here is the last dispatch I have from him, dated May 6, 2008:
'US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered at least 108 combat casualties in the week ending May 6, as the official casualty total reached at least 65,500. The total includes 33,325 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and 32,175 (since over a month ago on March 1) dead and injured from "non-hostile" causes.*
The actual total is over 85,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the approximately 20,000 casualties discovered only after they returned from Iraq -mainly brain trauma from explosions.**
In addition, a rare report showed that 1,123 "US civilian contractors" has been killed since the invasion, including a record 353 in 2007. No numbers are available on the wounded and injured, nor about casualties among the "contractors" who are not US citizens. (Houston Post, Feb. 9, 2008.)
US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by routinely reporting only the total killed (4,073 as of May 6) and rarely mentioning the 30,004 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 31,325 (as of March 1)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,058 reported deaths include 752 (no change last week ) who died from those same causes, including 145 suicide as of March 1.
* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesdays) by the Pentagon at this site (pdf.). The dead are reported by Iraq Coalition Casualties .
** see USA Today, Nov. 23, 2007
*** the number of "non combat" injured is reported by Iraq Coalition Casualties.
Visit my website '
I think all of us Americans fall down crying this time every year. We want it to be over with.
Posted By Juan Cole to Informed Comment at 5/25/2008 06:38:00 AM
TMN 5-28-08: “Stress Disorder Cases Jump 50 Percent.” “Records show roughly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the illness…since 2003. Officials believe that many more are likely keeping their illness a secret.”
IRAQ/AFGHAN VET SUICIDES
Memorial Day is about honoring those who have sacrificed themselves for the nation, in our armed forces. We cannot honor them properly unless we know the full extent of their sacrifice.
We have to count the victims of Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome, what we used to call being shell-shocked, as victims of the war. The number of those victims has been covered up.
Investigative reporters at CBS News found that in 2005, 6,250 veterans took their lives, nearly 18 a day. Emanuel Margolis writes,
' Dr. Ira Katz, chief of mental health services for the Department of Veterans Affairs, sent an e-mail to a VA colleague this past February that read:
"Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before somebody stumbles on it?"'
Margolis charges that Katz covered up this startling statistic, showing 12,000 attempted suicides a year while in VA care, when he testified before Congress.
Have 30,000 veterans died of suicide in the past 5 years? Have 60,000 tried to? Shouldn't these deeply depressed men and women be added to the casualty tolls? Is war a plague on the mind of those who fight it?
Margolis writes,
' • 120 veterans commit suicide every week.
• 1,000 veterans attempt suicide while in VA care every month.
• Nearly one in five service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (approximately 300,000) have post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or major depression.
• 19 percent of post-Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with possible traumatic brain injury, according to a Rand Corp. Study in April.
• A higher percentage of these veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than from any previous war because of "stop loss" or an involuntary extension of service in the military (58,300), multiple tours, greater prevalence of brain injuries, etc. '
19 percent of returning vets from Iraq and Afghanistan would also be nearly 300,000 persons, suffering from traumatic brain injury.
Wounded vets often face quality of life issues for the long term.
Others face profound moral dilemmas growing out of a conviction that they have been ordered to commit atrocities. The warping of the moral being may not be an inevitability of war but it is a severe risk.
Active duty soldiers in a war zone have a fear of becoming mere statistics, a fear I've had expressed to me in correspondence from Iraq. The LA Times profiles those soldiers from California who have given their lives to this war. The LAT says,
' Kelsey Johnson remembered that her husband, Marine Cpl. Stephen P. Johnson, 24, told her that he had "a really bad feeling" about an upcoming mission. Johnson, of Yreka, was among 31 troops killed when their helicopter crashed in the Iraqi desert.
"I dropped down on the ground and started screaming," she said. She was 19 when her husband was killed. . .
Army Spc. Daniel F. Reyes told his mother that if he died, he wanted to be buried next to his brother, Roberto Esparza, who was 21 when he was killed in a bike accident in San Diego.
Reyes was survived by his wife, Rebekah, 23, and year-old son, Daniel Fernando. "He was always thinking of us," she said. "He called me every morning in Iraq."
Like many of those killed, the severity of Reyes' wounds from an explosion precluded an open-casket service. Mortuary affairs personnel in the war zones have developed a word for such cases: unviewable.'
But in a way, all of the casualties from the Iraq War are "unviewable."
We aren't told the scale of the sacrifice by our corporate media or Washington officials. Michael Munk has done a fine job of focusing in like a laser on the real numbers of casualties for the Iraq War. Here is the last dispatch I have from him, dated May 6, 2008:
'US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered at least 108 combat casualties in the week ending May 6, as the official casualty total reached at least 65,500. The total includes 33,325 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and 32,175 (since over a month ago on March 1) dead and injured from "non-hostile" causes.*
The actual total is over 85,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the approximately 20,000 casualties discovered only after they returned from Iraq -mainly brain trauma from explosions.**
In addition, a rare report showed that 1,123 "US civilian contractors" has been killed since the invasion, including a record 353 in 2007. No numbers are available on the wounded and injured, nor about casualties among the "contractors" who are not US citizens. (Houston Post, Feb. 9, 2008.)
US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by routinely reporting only the total killed (4,073 as of May 6) and rarely mentioning the 30,004 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 31,325 (as of March 1)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,058 reported deaths include 752 (no change last week ) who died from those same causes, including 145 suicide as of March 1.
* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesdays) by the Pentagon at this site (pdf.). The dead are reported by Iraq Coalition Casualties .
** see USA Today, Nov. 23, 2007
*** the number of "non combat" injured is reported by Iraq Coalition Casualties.
Visit my website '
I think all of us Americans fall down crying this time every year. We want it to be over with.
Posted By Juan Cole to Informed Comment at 5/25/2008 06:38:00 AM
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