Veterans

Bring 'em home

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq 1,339,771

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 4,667

Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan 1446

Cost of U.S. War and Occupation of Iraq $689,451,723,581

Sources for the numbers

For those who cheered this war on - is it worth it? Seriously?

15 months after bloodbath in Iraq, young veteran takes his life

By Cynthia Hubert

chubert@sacbee.com

Published: Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

Last Modified: Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009 - 12:19 pm

On March 7, 2007, Army Spc. Trevor Hogue was inside his barracks in Baghdad, describing his morning on the battlefield.

"I saw things today that I think will mess me up for life," Hogue typed to his mother, Donna, as she sat at her computer thousands of miles away from Iraq, in Granite Bay.

That day the young soldier, whose assignment included driving a Humvee through perhaps the most dangerous ZIP code on the globe, saw his sergeant blown to pieces. He saw the bodies of half of the men in his platoon torn apart. Heads were cut off and limbs severed. It happened 30 yards in front of him, and he had never been so afraid, he told his mom.

"My arms are around you," Donna Hogue wrote. "You'll be alright."

But Hogue never really recovered. Last week, he committed suicide by hanging himself in the backyard of his childhood home. He was 24 years old.

According to the Army, soldiers are killing themselves at the highest rate in nearly three decades, surpassing the civilian suicide rate for the first time since the Vietnam War.

At least 128 U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year, a number that has risen four years in a row. The death toll could be even higher this year. Through April, 91 soldiers had committed suicide.

Click

The Final Inspection

American Death Squad

Obama inherits Cheney's army of assassins – and promotes their commander

by Justin Raimondo, May 20, 2009

As the story of Bush administration’s war crimes comes out in fits and starts, it appears that torture is only one aspect – and not the worst, by any means – of this horrific history. In an interview in mid-March, Seymour Hersh let slip the following:

"After 9/11 – I haven’t written about this yet – but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet. That does happen."

Well, yes, that’s hardly surprising. The PATRIOT Act and other legislation [.pdf] passed by Congress gives the government the legal "right" to spy on American citizens and, in the case of Jose Padilla, lock them up without a trial and throw away the key. But, as Hersh reveals, it gets worse. Much worse:

“Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command – JSOC it’s called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. …

“Congress has no oversight of it.It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on. … Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us."

Well, yes, that’s not too surprising, either, actually. It’s so – what’s the word? – Cheneyesque. Those Rethuglicans! Well, we’re past all that now. The Dear Leader’s in the White House, and it’s time to move on, right? Oh wait…

It turns out the commander of this international order of assassins has just been appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. As part of the "fresh thinking" in the Obama administration, epitomized by the COIN crowd, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal replaces Gen. David McKiernan. So who is McChrystal? A 2006 profile in Newsweek put it this way:

"JSOC is part of what Vice President Dick Cheney was referring to when he said America would have to ‘work the dark side’ after 9/11. To many critics, the veep’s remark back in 2001 fostered his rep as the Darth Vader of the war on terror and presaged bad things to come, like the interrogation abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. But America also has its share of Jedi Knights who are fighting in what Cheney calls ‘the shadows.’ And McChrystal, an affable but tough Army Ranger, and the Delta Force and other elite teams he commands are among them."

The dark side includes McChrystal’s overseeing of Camp Nama, a detainee center outside of Baghdad (since renamed and relocated) notorious for its brutality. The very same administration that is up on its high horse about forbidding torture has just elevated one of the chief torturers to direct Obama’s war in Afghanistan. It is hardly inconceivable that what we saw at Camp Nama – beatings, degradation of prisoners, and outright, cold-blooded murder – is going to be replicated on a nationwide scale.

That’s what they call "fresh thinking" over at Obama’s Pentagon.

Donkey ‘suicide’ bombing is latest tactic against patrols

Michael Evans

A senior British Army officer and six other military personnel survived attack when a tethered donkey laden with explosives was detonated as their armoured vehicle passed in southern Afghanistan.

The huge explosion showered the soldier standing on “top cover” out of the Mastiff’s turret with donkey entrails and blood, and the sight was so gruesome that the rest of those in the vehicle thought he had been mortally wounded in the blast, south of Garmsir in southern Helmand province.

”I’m all right, I’m all right,” he shouted, according to one of the officers at the incident who spoke to The Times, giving the first account of the incident.

”We’d spotted the donkey tethered to a tree as we were on our way down south to monitor an operation that had been going on that day, but thought nothing of it. There are donkeys around everywhere,” the officer said.

Nothing happened when they first passed, but as the patrol returned to the British battle group headquarters at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Delhi, explosives hidden in buckets slung from the donkey’s saddle were detonated.

“I was asleep because you can feel quite nauseous travelling in a Mastiff and was woken by the explosion,” the officer said. “When I saw the top cover guy covered in blood, I tried to get to him with emergency medical kit.

“He said he was all right but I told him he had been badly injured. When we realised what had happened it wasn’t long before the first donkey jokes started to come out — ‘drop the dead donkey’ was one, and ‘pain in the ass’ another.”

The explosion damaged three of the wheels of the Mastiff and caused severe hearing problems for the Territorial Army soldier riding aloft. The stench of donkey remains lingered for weeks inside the vehicle.

[This is so wrong on so many levels. I have no idea how someone so smart could be so stupid; this is something Bush would do. Where's The Change ™? Click the pic to read a report on medical conditions from a few years ago]

Senators slam plan for wounded vets to use private insurance

By Adam Levine

CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.



But the proposal would be "dead on arrival" if it's sent to Congress, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said.

Murray used that blunt terminology when she told Shinseki that the idea would not be acceptable and would be rejected if formally proposed. Her remarks came during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs about the 2010 budget.

No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama voicing their opposition to the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration.

The groups also cited an increase in "third-party collections" estimated in the 2010 budget proposal -- something they said could be achieved only if the Veterans Administration started billing for service-related injuries.

Asked about the proposal, Shinseki said it was under "consideration."

"A final decision hasn't been made yet," he said.

Currently, veterans' private insurance is charged only when they receive health care from the VA for medical issues that are not related to service injuries, like getting the flu.

Charging for service-related injuries would violate "a sacred trust," Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis said. Davis said the move would risk private health care for veterans and their families by potentially maxing out benefits paying for costly war injury treatments.

Admirals, Generals: Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Monday 17 November 2008 - by: Brian Witte, The Associated Press

Top generals are calling for an end to "don't ask, don't tell." (Photo: Susan Walsh / AP)

Retired admirals, generals seek repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in military.

Annapolis, Maryland - More than 100 retired generals and admirals called Monday for repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays so they can serve openly, according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

The move by the military veterans confronts the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama with a thorny political and cultural issue that dogged former President Bill Clinton early in his administration.

Congresswoman Doris Matsui Announces New Veterans Service Center

Democratic Congress Continues to Deliver on Promise to Provide for Veterans

Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Doris Matsui (CA-05) announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs will open a new Vets Center in Sacramento County by the Fall of 2009. The new Center was made possible by the $15 million funding increase for Vet Centers provided last year by the Democratic Congress. The additional resources will address the growing need for readjustment services to existing and new combat veterans. It will also assist families of those killed while on active duty and veterans experiencing military related sexual trauma.

“Over the last year and a half, we have made landmark investments in veterans’ services and funding. Now, as we prepare to welcome home the veterans currently serving our country, the new Vet Center will make sure that they have the tools and assistance they need to successfully reintegrate into our community,” said Rep. Matsui.

Tom Hayden adds wisdom of experience to social activism

By Bruce Dancis - bdancis@sacbee.com

Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Editor's note: Bee staff writer Bruce Dancis was a prominent anti-war activist and member of Students for a Democratic Society. He spent 20 months in federal prison as a Vietnam War draft resister. Dancis also has a master's degree in American history from Stanford University. Dancis and Tom Hayden have met a handful of times since being introduced in 1966, most recently at an SDS reunion in the early 1980s.

At 68, Tom Hayden says he's "retired from competitive politics."

Yet the well-known activist, defendant in the Chicago 8 conspiracy trial and member of the California Legislature for nearly 18 years is hardly idle, despite having heart bypass surgery in 2001.

While Hayden has no plans to run for office, that doesn't mean he's given up on shaping the nation's politics.

Hayden currently sits on the editorial board of the Nation and writes for the online Huffington Post. He's founded two Web sites – Progressives for Obama and Stop Funding Torture – and teaches, most recently at Occidental and Pitzer colleges in Southern California. He's also involved in efforts to end the war in Iraq and in other issues, such as sweatshops, globalization "and the effects of it in my own backyard, in Los Angeles, where we have 97,000 out-of-work, out-of-school kids on the street."

Primarily, though, says Hayden in a recent hourlong phone interview from his office in Culver City, "I think my proper role is to reflect and research and write."

He has written six books since 2000, including two released this year, "Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader" (City Lights, $21.95, 592 pages), a collection of nearly 50 years of journalism and autobiography; and (with Ron Sossi and Frank Condon) "Voices of the Chicago 8: A Generation on Trial" (City Lights, $15.95, 285 pages).