Wednesday, February 28, 2007

THIS JUST IN! THE SINKING CAMPAIGN!

 
HUSKY TOUGH SKINS MODEL AND 2008 PRESIDENTIAL WANNA BE BILL RICHARDSON IS SO DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION, HE CONSIDERED POSING TOPLESS. 
 
 
WHEN ASKED ABOUT IT AND HOW IT COMES OFF AS SCOLDING, A CAMPAIGN STAFFER EXPLAINED TO THESE REPORTERS THAT RICHARDSON IS ATTEMPTING TO GET THE "SCHOOL MARM VOTE."
 
HE'S ALSO REFUSED TO DIET WITH HOPES THAT HE CAN GET SOME SYMPATHY VOTES "AND THAT," THE CAMPAIGN STAFFER ADDED, "ALSO EXPLAINS THAT HAIR!"
 
ASKED IF RICHARDSON REALLY BELIEVED THAT GETTING ATTENTION BY TALKING ABOUT HIS RIVALS WAS BETTER THAN NO ATTENTION AT ALL, THE STAFFER SIGHED AND SAID, "LOOK, IF WE CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THIS CAMPAIGN WITHOUT THE PRESS ASKING US ABOUT WEN HO LEE, WE'LL CONSIDER IT A VICTORY."
 
 
 
 
Starting with news of petty retaliation which, after all, is the Bully Boy's M.O. as demonstrated for the last seven years (if not sooner.)  As noted by Aaron Glants today on  KPFA's The Morning Show, Kelly Kennedy (Army Times) is reporting that Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Medical Hold Unit patients are being "told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media" in what is widely seen as a punishment for the recent Washington Post expose on the deplorable conditions at what is supposed to be the United States top facility for military medical care.  In addition, Kennedy reports, the soldiers receiving medical care were informed that will move from Building 18 into Building 14 and, just happenstance -- surely, unlike Building 18,  Building 14 requires that "reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel." 
 
In a series of articles that concluded last week, Dana Priest and Anne Hull (Washington Post) examined the realities behind the image of the 'premier medical center' -- focusing largely on Building 18, and revealed problems such as cockroach infestation, lack of heat, lack of water, mice and black mold, clerks that were overworked or didn't care.  The answer for the US administration when confronted with reality is apparently the same answer they always reach for "DESTROY."  Joe Wilson goes public about Niger, out Valerie Plame (his deep cover CIA wife).  Soldiers talk to the press about the deplorable conditions that the administration is fine with them living in?  Punish the soldiers.
 
The Bully Boy who loves strut around in uniforms (with or without codpieces) is far less willing to do anything to actually help the soldiers wounded in his illegal war and the administration's answer to the Walter Reed scandal is to punish the troops with daily inspections and other idiotic chores WHILE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RECEIVING MEDICAL CARE FOR THEIR WOUNDS. 
 
Turning to news of war resisters, Tina Chau (Hawaii's KMGB9) reports that Ehren Watada's court-martil has been set for July 16-20 and that the "pre-trial motions are to be heard on May 20 and 21." In June, Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.  In August of last year, the military held an Article 32 hearing at Fort Lewis to determine whether or not to go forward with a court-martial. At the start of this month, the court-martial of Watada began and ran for three days -- on the third day, Judge Toilet (aka John Head) ruled a mistrial over the objections of the defense (and initially without even the prosecution in support of a mistrial).  Eric Seitz, Watada's civilian attorney, has maintained that the double-jeopardy clause of the Constitution now applies and that he will appeal any attempts to court-martial on that basis.
 
Lehia Apana (The Maui News) reports that Ehren Watada's father Bob and his step-mother Rosa Sakanishi were at the Maui Community College Library on Monday where Bob spoke to "an energetic crowd" of at least 75 people about his son and how "he believes the judge realized his son had a chance of being acquitted of the charges and therefore forced the prosecution to request a mistrial."
 
Last Friday the military re-filed charges against Watada, the day prior, as Conor Reed and Steve Leigh (Socialist Worker) observe was Mark Wilkerson's court-martial and that he issued a statement,  "My Conscience is Clear," at his website:
 
I am now a twenty three year old man. When I made the decision to join the Army, I was a boy.  When I made the decision to go AWOL I was still in many ways a boy.
I realize in retrospect that going AWOL may not have been the right decision for me to make, but given the circumstances I found myself in at that time, I felt it was the only logical decision for me. I felt as though I wasn't being taken seriously by my chain-of-command. I was crushed when my conscientious objector application was denied. I had failed somehow in conveying in words just what I felt in my head and heart, and that was that I could not, in good conscience, serve as a soldier in the United States Army. I could not deploy to a foreign land with a weapon in my hand, representing my government. I am not willing to kill, or be killed for my government. When I enlisted in the Army, I thought I would be able to, but after Iraq, my beliefs became such that I could no longer participate.
This was what I told my chain-of-command. I felt they didn't care what I said or believed. So I fled. I quit my job. No other occupation in the United States punishes you as badly as what the military does for quitting your job. But that's ok. I'm willing to face whatever punishment the government deems appropriate.
In my Battalion's Retention Office, there is a quote by Retired Army General Bernard Rogers, and it states "This is a volunteer force. Soldiers volunteer to meet our standards. If they don't meet them, we should thank them for trying and send them home." Well, I enlisted into the Army with the best intentions. I had other options. But I wanted to serve my country. And when I felt my country was doing the very thing we pretend to condone, I took a stand. And to me that is the core of democracy. If the Army feels as though I didn't meet the standards, they should thank me for trying and send me home. There's no lesson prison can teach me. Prison is established for criminals who committed crimes that the majority of our society can say in morally wrong. And with this crime, I don't know if that can be said. Even though I committed a crime, I'm no criminal. And even if I do go to prison, I'm no longer a prisoner. My conscience is clear. I'm no menace to society. I have stayed true to myself and my moral code throughout my life, and that will never change. Just let me live my life, and I know I will live it well.
 
Susan Van Haitsma (CounterPunch) shares some of her encounters with Wilkerson and observations before concluding: "Mark wanted to help his country, but his country betrayed him.  His country capitalized on his honorable intentions, gave him false promises, fed him misinformation, used him to carry out inhumane missions, caused him psychological injury and then punished him by making him an object lesson for his fellow GI's.  In fact, Mark is an example of the best kind, for all of us.  In the same courtroom where soldiers were sentenced for harming Abu Ghraib prisoners, Mark was sentenced for refusing to harm."   
 
 
Wilkerson is scheduled to be released in September; however, the judge could release him earlier.  Going before a judge Tuesday, March 6th in Germany is war resister Agustin Aguayo.  Workers World notes that he is "charged with desertion and missing movement because of his refusal to go to Iraq."  Though not etched in stone, the military has generally attempted to use desertion charges for those who were absent without  leave for a month or more.  In Aguayo's case, they've elected to toss that (Aguayo was gone from September 2nd through September 26th). Gillian Russom (Socialist Worker) spoke with Helga Aguayo, Agustin's wife, about his case, his feelings about the war, her own and much more.  Agustin was a medica and he joined the military to support his family and to help people (he and his wife have two young daughters).  Helga explained to Russom that, for her, it was seeing the experiences of military families that made her start questioning the war -- the creation of "geographical single mothers" -- and that for her husband, a book on Iraq's history took him from conscientious objector to the belief "that the war in Iraq has essentially been created of the personal gain of a few people."  Helga also notes that her husband saw Sir! No Sir! and "it just revved him up for what he knew he might have to face."  He's facing?   Agustin Aguayo could be sentenced to as many as seven years in prison if convicted during his court-martial because the military is going for desertion.  Why go for desertion? 
 
Aguayo and Kyle Snyder both were screwed over by the military in different ways and they were among the last ones going public.  (Snyder is back in Canada.)  Tossing aside the rule of thumb re: desertion to charge Aguayo with that is considered as part of an effort by the military to clamp down on the growing movement.
 
Aguayo, Watada, Wilkerson and Snyder are part of a movement of resistance with the military that includes others such as Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Joshua Key,  Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 
Joshua Key, war resister and author of the new book  The Deserter's Tale, speaks with Christina Leadlay (Canada's Embassy Book Review) and notes that the passport requirement for travel back and forth between the US and Canada "would deter a lot of people [who] don't have passports, and if you're on the run and a deserter from the military, you're not going to be able to gain that passport."  Joshua, his wife Brandi and their children went to Canada after Key returned from Iraq.  There, he has sought refugee status and is currently appealing the denial of asylum.  Key describes his decision to join the military as part of "the military's poverty draft" telling Leadlay: "You're stuck.  You have no money.  There is no other choice.  If you want health care, if you want steady pay, and if you're even considering going to college, the [military] billboards pretty well offer it to you.  When I joined there was not a wealthy person in the entire operation.  I'd never seen a rich person in the military.  I'd never seen a politican's son; I'd never seen anybody with any stature.  We were all the same . . . coming from places that most people wouldn't even hear of, small towns, farms boys, and you're just looking for a way out."
 
Key's statements jibe with the study  Kimberly Hefling (AP) reported on last week -- the communities in America that are most directly effected by the US military death toll in Iraq -- almost half of the dead are "from towns . . . where fewer than 25,000 people live" and that "nearly three quarters of those killed in Iraq came from towns where the per capita income was below the national average. More than half came from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty topped the national average."
 
Sir! No Sir!, noted above, is a study of resistance within the military during the Vietnam era.  The amazing documentary, directed by David Zeiger, was recently re-released in a special director's cut version with additional bonus features.  In addition, (audio link) DJ Dave Rabbitt  interviews Jane Fonda here.  DJ Dave Rabbitt, along with Pete Sadler and Nguyen, operated an underground radio station (Radio First Termer) while serving in Vietnam.  (He also acts as the dee jay for the soundtrack to Sir! No Sir!)
 
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
 

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