Saturday, February 16, 2008

THIS JUST IN! BAMBI INSISTS ON PUFF PIECES!

 
THESE REPORTERS WERE IN THE MIDST OF SPEAKING WITH SAN ANTONIO VOTERS WHO WERE EXPLAINING WHY SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON WAS THEIR CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT AND HOPING TO CHECK OUT THE RIVERWALK WHEN SENATOR BARACK OBAMA PHONED.
 
"WHY DO THEY SAY SUCH MEAN THINGS ABOUT ME," WHIMPERED BAMBI.
 
AT FIRST WE THOUGHT HE'D SEEN RIGHT WINGER MONA CHAREN'S PIECE COMPARING HIM AS A PRESIDENT TO JIMMY CARTER.
 
"IT''S NOT AS IF," WE EXPLAINED, "SHE WROTE, 'JUST WHAT WE DON'T NEED, CHICKEN SOP FOR THE SOUL SERVED UP WITH A DOLLOP OF MALAISE." 
 
BUT HE HAD NOT SEEN THAT COLUMN.  HE WAS WHIMPERING OVER A BLOOMBERG NEWS ARTICLE THAT MERELY NOTED THAT HE HAD SOME STRANGE BED FELLOWS OVER THE YEARS.
 
"THEY'RE SO CRUEL!"  HE YELLED.  "HERE'S WHAT I WROTE IN MY SLAM BOOK: 'BLOOMBERG NEWS HAS BAD ACNE AND NO ONE'S GOING TO ASK THEM TO THE 8TH GRADE DANCE!' THAT MAY BE A LITTLE HARSH BUT CATTY IS CATTY DOES."
 
AS WE BEGGED OFF THE CALL, BAMBI WAS ASKING US IF WE'D WRITE IN HIS SLAM BOOK WHEN WE SEE HIM NEXT AND IF WE DIDN'T THINK HE WAS PRETTIER THAN MILEY CYRUS. 
 
"WHY NOT!" HE HOLLERED AS WE HUNG UP.
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Brad McCall is a war resister who went to Canada because he could not serve in an illegal war. Yesterday he blogged about an e-mail he received from an angry Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Driggers whom McCall attempts to explain it again to, "I am protecting my nation by doing what I have done.  I am also supporting my fellow soldiers that are serving in this war.  By leaving and making it clear that I will not conform to this act of hate committed by my government, I make it clear that there are soldiers with conscience and that we (soldiers) should be kept safe in our own borders, and not in some country that we have no business in."  Earlier this week, he addressed another e-mail from a soldier and responded, "You see, the military is built so that men, and women, have no chance to speak out against what is obviously wrong.  In the Army there was this saying: 'Out of sight, out of mind'.  Most lower ranking soldiers live on that principle.  They believe that the quieter they stay, the smoother they will flow through, and essentially, the quicker they will get out.  They are afraid to speak out.  They know what can happen.  I knew what would happen when I spoke up."
 
With Canada's Supreme Court refusing to hear appeals on the issue of safe harbor status for war resisters in Canada. The country's Parliament remains the best hope for safe harbor war resisters like McCall may have. You can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.



Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).

 

In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers. IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause.  Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible.  The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies.  It won't be easy but it must be done.  Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it."
 
IVAW calls for an immediate end to the illegal war, for reparations for the Iraqis and for full benefits for US service members.  Today the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the US House Armed Services Committee held a meeting on "Medical Care For Wounded Soldiers."
US House Rep Susan Davis is chair of the subcommittee and she opened with a statement which included: "The purpose of today's hearing is for members to get an update on the implementation of the Army's Medical Action Plan (AMAP) and hear how the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force are caring for their wounded warriors.  At out last hearing on this subject back in June of last year, the Army's Vice Chief of Staff, General Cody, suggested that we have him back in October and January to testify on the progress of AMAP towards Full Operational Capability.  Circumstances precluded such follow-up hearings, and we understand that General Cody has just returned from Iraq in the past few hours, but we will nonetheless push foward so that we may learn how far the AMAP has come, and how far it still has to go."  Testifying were Vice Admiral Adam Robinson, Surgeon General of the Navy; Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, Surgeon General of the Army; and Brig. Gen. Michael Tucker, Assistant Surgeon General of the Army.  With those and members of Congress, you might think the hearing could get somewhere.
 
You would be wrong.  Can someone offer US House Rep Joe Wilson a job with MoviePhone?  How much time did he use talking about the documentary Fighting for Life?  Did the limited time of the hour and 45 minute hearing really allow for Wilson to read from p.r. material for the film?  To note a screening?   But regardless of the Congress member, there appeared to be far too much concern with making nice and far too little concern about getting down to what was being done or what needed  to be done.
 
Rep John McHugh broke from his peers to ask actual questions regarding demobilization and to address the stories the committee was hearing about servicemembers "being ordered to demobilze while still undergoing treatment." McHugh noted the information on this continues to come in despite the fact that "we brought those concerns to your predecessor and we were assured by Navy leadership that those practicies would end."  Robinson claimed to be unaware of any such stories and insisted that care for those in the service was maintained before offering, "From the surgeon in me, I'm tell you that most of the time I don't think that anyone should leave the service until their medical condition has been delineated or treated."  It was all a lively side-step by Robinson.  The question wasn't 'What do you think?'  Again, to McHugh's credit, he did show some focus and determination and followed up with, "To be clear, in general terms, it would not be the navy's policy to discharge a soldier who a few days later had surgery scheduled?"  When pressed Robinson would answer and answered, "That is correct."  However, he quickly followed with, "I would expect that we would care for them."  You would expect?  What is the policy and is the policy followed?  This is the military appearing before Congress -- what is the policy, what are the orders.  It's very basic.
 
Bethesda (National Naval Medical Center) was mentioned often.  Walter Reed Army Medical Center is set to be closed and replaced with a systematic facility that would see Bethesda expanded.  Schoomaker stated that the "full integration of services" has already began and used US Secretary of Defense Robert Gate's shoulder injury to illustrate the way the system flows.  Robinson maintains that, under the new system, "there won't be anyone left behind" and that "inroads" are being made.
 
US House Rep Nancy Boyda started off noting that a one year ago the committee was informed "military to civilian transitions were supposed to be halted" but when she looks at the 2009 budget, she sees they "are still in there." In March of 2007, the subject was addressed with US House Rep McHugh endorsing the 'need' for military positions to be transitioned to civilians as 'cost-cutting' steps.  At that time, McHugh noted that 5,500 positions had already been 'transitioned' to civilians with 2,700 left to go.  Boyda's point was that, after previous hearings, this is still in the budget.  The response was, for the Air Force, that the positions "not filled by 2009 will revert back to the military."  Did Boyda have a point in asking the question?  Apparently not because she mistook herself for a high school guidance counselor in all that followed -- non-stop repetitions of speaking-for-me-we-want-to-make-sure-your-needs-are-met.  Over and over.  Really, when you a member of Congress, why not try conducting yourself like one.  Boyda went on to insist that we (but really her, remember, speaking for herself) want the military to have "the ability to make the decisions that you think are best for our military personnel."  Boyda may see that as footage to run in her re-election campaign but the reality is not only does Congress have an obligation  but there's also the fact that the Walter Reed scandal requires that Congress provide serious oversight.  If anyone member of Congress other than McHugh (a Republican) had any idea what they were doing in that hearing, they hid it very, very well.
 
Having wasted so much time with 'Help-me-help-you' babble, there wasn't time for all the witness to answer her question on what they needed.  Schoomaker stated "we need more latitude" when it came to mental health.  It really would have been nice to have had a follow up to that but Boyda ensured that no follow ups would come as she wasted her time. Schoomaker also wanted to  see "a medical suppliment". 
 
Susan Davis, the chair, captured the mood of the hearing and it wasn't pretty as she asked, "Any additional thoughts on what the problems were?  Whether there was a" here she laughs "misscomunication somewhere?"  Exactly what was funny about that?  And does Davis really think that's how to chair a committee?  It was disgusting.  Davis wanted to know about the "bedside training" of the military's CADRE. 
 
Tucker explained that the CADRE comes "from all the ranks in the Army" and that the course-work is currently a 40 hour training; however, it is becoming a three week course based out of Houston beginning in October.  The three week course will put "them through the bedside manner, like you've spoken about, ma'am."  He explained the special duty pay which was not initially in place (this despite his terming the CADRE's work to be "the Lord's work").  Currently they get $300 of special duty pay a month the first year and $375 the second.
 
Schoomaker gave a complicated example that was meant to confuse but, judging by their performance, the committee showed up confused.  Schoomaker's example rested around the fact that when you are in the military and found to have a health problem, say weak ankles, they discharge with a rating, say 30%.  But a person usually has more than just that or, as Schoomaker termed them, a "total person," they have a "combination of problems."  And the problem with military care for active duty service members, according to Schoomaker is that.  After discharge, the same service member will begin receiving treatment in a VA hospital and the VA will certify him or her for additional health problems.  Schoomaker appeared to be making an argument that both the VA and the military should work from the same table -- this was what he found "fundamentally flawed" in the process.  It really shouldn't require a great deal of work on the part of Congress to ensure that the VA and the military work from the same disability tables.  And it should be the VA's because, as Schoomaker pointed out, that table addresses the "total person" and the health in full.  Why don't they use it currently?  No one on the committee thought to ask.  It's cheaper to discharge with one disability, cheaper for the military.  It keeps the costs of beneifts down.  Sure would have been nice if Davis or Boyda had thought to use their time for something that really mattered.  Schoomaker cautioned of quick fixes, "When you speed up a bad process all you have is a fast bad process."
 
US Rep John Kline wondered if "we let this emphasis on PTSD . . . pull us away from this orthopedic effort?" Schoomaker disagreed that there was a signature injury to the Iraq War although he did feel there was a signature weapon "blasts." On "blast injury," Schoomaker wondered, "Are we keeping balanced?  Are we looking at all the gaps? . . . And are we doing all the things for this singular weapon which is blast?"  Robinson offered that "amputations are seen" which makes it appear to have an end point that conditions such as PTSD may not appear to have.  He stated that "research needs to be done also in terms of the limbs and the bio-mechanics and the future is really bounding with opportunities."  But TBI -- traumatic blast injury -- "is something that's unseen and we don't know what we don't know.  With a limb there is an amputation . . . With" TBI "you don't know."  Robinson also noted that PTSD was present during Vietnam and the veterans who developed it "were not treated . . . and now we're seeing . . . 35 years later that that was an important thing."
 
Davis was in wind-down mode (even though the hearing could have run for 15 more minutes) and wondered whether evaluations (she termed what had transpired an "evaluation") should be done yearly or every six months.  All offering testimony agreed that a year was too long and that they should meet every six months on this topic. Davis' website notes, "A leading advocate for military families in San Diego and around the world, Davis intends to conduct thoughtful hearings which will focus on the needs of our servicemen and women and their families."  That intention was not present in the hearing.
 
 

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

THIS JUST IN! BAMBI'S NOT HAPPY ABOUT NEW MEXICO

 
MUCH EXCITEMENT IN HOUSTON AS NEWS SPREAD THAT HILLARY CLINTON WON NEW MEXICO -- ANOTHER BIG STATE WIN FOR CLINTON AS SHE MAKES THE CASE THAT SHE IS THE ONE WHO CAN WIN THE WHITE HOUSE FOR THE DEMOCRATS.
 
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA CALLED THESE REPORTERS AS THE NEWS WAS MAKING THE ROUNDS. 
 
"IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING!" HISSED BAMBI.  "NEW MEXICO'S A LITTLE STATE AND IT ALWAYS GOES REPUBLICAN."
 
WHEN THESE REPORTERS POINTED OUT THAT NEW MEXICO IS A BIG STATE -- AND EXPLAINED THE DIFFERENCE TO BAMBI WHO HAS NOT SHOWN ANY KNACK FOR WINNING THOSE -- AND POINTED OUT THAT BILL RICHARDSON WAS, IN FACT, THE GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO, BAMBI REPLIED, "WHO?"
 
WHEN WE EXPLAINED THAT RICHARDSON HAD BEEN IN MULTIPLE DEBATES AS A CANDIDATE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION, BAMBI STILL PULLED A BLANK UNTIL FINALLY HE EXCLAIMED, "OH YEAH!  HIM!  HE KEPT GETTING IN MY WAY AND MAKING ME TURN MY HEAD SO THAT MY BEST SIDE WAS NOT ON DISPLAY.  I'M SO PRETTY, DON'T YOU THINK?  I WILL ONLY DEBATE HILLARY IF THE CAMERA MAN AGREES TO FILM ME FROM MY BEST SIDE."
 
WHEN ASKED IF HE CALLED SENATOR CLINTON TO CONGRATULATE HER ON HER WIN, BAMBI INSISTED HE WOULD RATHER TALK ABOUT HIS "UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE" AS THE ADS IN TEXAS CLAIM.
 
WHEN THESE REPORTERS POINTED OUT THAT 15 MILLION ARE UNINSURED UNDER HIS PLAN, BAMBI INSISTED THEY DIDN'T "MATTER AND BESIDES THEY'RE PROBABLY ALL FROM NEW MEXICO." 
 
 
 
Starting with war resisters.  Lance Griffin (The Dothan Eagle) profiles war resister Brad McCall who explains why he went to Canada rather than to deploy to an illegal war.  "They," McCall explains of service members who were returning from Iraq, "were telling us all of these things they did over there; things where you would have thought you were listening to the Nazi tribunals.  Innocent people were dying, more of them than the terrorists.  That's when I realized I couldn't go over there and be a part of that.  When I joined up, I agree with our mission, which was we were fighting terrorism.  And I agreed that we were looking for weapons of mass destruction, taking a tyrant out of office and bringing freedom to a people that had never known freedom before.  But now I see the war as being about money to line the pockets of politicians and corporations.  It's a battle over (expletive), pretty much." At his own site, McCall noted February 4th, "I received my first notice to appear befor a Canadian court today.  So I'm pretty bummed.  Oh, yeah, and my family are being very, well, unsupportive.  So, it's just a horrible day."  Griffin reports of McCall's attempts to win refugee status in Canada, "He expects to lose, then he predicts a long appeals process.  He said he hopes the political climate in Canada changes before his appeal options run out.  If it does, he plans on living the rest of his life in Canada.  If it doesn't . . . 'If somehow I get deported, then I guess I will be serving some time in Ft. Leavenworth,' he said.  'Do I think that's fair?  No, because I'm standing up for my moral right to make decisions for myself.  But I'll do it'."
 
With Canada's Supreme Court refusing to hear appeals on the issue of safe harbor status for war resisters in Canada. The country's Parliament remains the best hope for safe harbor war resisters like McCall may have. You can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.
 
Meanwhile Kate Murphy (Oakland Tribune) reports that Oakland High School was the setting for a debate regarding military recruiters access to schools between military recruiter Sgt. Jose Delao and war resister Pablo Paredes.  Murphy reports (separate story) that on Tuesday the two ("Delao encourages young people consider the path he chose, while Paredes tries to spare them from making the same choice") debated in front of "dozens" of students and quotes Paredes explaining, "Right now, tens of thousands of people, just like you, have come back from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts with injuries that are going to affect them for the rest of their lives" and that there are other means to funds for college: "Whatever dream you're trying to chase in the military, there are other ways to chase that dream."  As Dee Knight (Workers World) noted at the start of the month, Paredes was among those taking part (Friday January 25th) in the US to show support for war resisters in Canada: "In San Francisco, the delegation to the Canadian Consulate was led by Pablo Paredes and Mike Wong.  Paredes is a former U.S. sailor who refused orders to return to Iraq, and is now a GI Rights Hotline counselor.  In December 2004 at Camp Pendleton, Calif., he publicly refused to get on a ship returning to Iraq.  'I don't want to be part of a ship that's taking 3,000 Marines over there, knowing a hundred or more of them won't come back,' he told reporters at the time.  Mike Wong is a Vietnam War-era veteran who chose exile in Canada for five years in the 1970s."
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.



Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).

 

In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers. IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause.  Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible.  The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies.  It won't be easy but it must be done.  Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it."
 
Kokesh and IVAW will have testimony worth hearing.  But today in Congress, maybe not so much with others?  Michele A. Flournoy rips through group associations faster than Fox 'News' offers up excuses for the White House.  No longer with CSIS, she's now with CNAS  and the only logical explanation for the switch may be that the taint on CSIS is too extreme (War Hawks and War Hawks who were wrong).  CNAS is the Center for a New American Security and if you ever wonder why so many 'reporters' sound so damn similar look no further than the ambitious start-up of CNAS which has already signed up, for their 'writers program'  -- think of it as day-camp, if not day care, for those not ready for sleep away camp.  Little Davey E. Singer and Davey Clouds, the paper of record's Two Davids (Cloud is no longer with the paper) along with Greg Jaffe (ex-Wall St. Journal) get cookies and watered down juice each day.  Are the three so busy with pillow fights and panty raids (on one another?) that our young students can't think a minute or two about affialiating with an organization that things counter-insurgency (slaughtering the native people) is something to hop on board with?  There really isn't a great deal of independence in the press (Big or Small). 
 
Wearing a shocking pink wrap-around (was it a sari, a sarong or a mini-burka?) that may have been as frightening to the eye as her plans for war-war-more-war! are to the heart and mind, Michele A. Flournoy was among those speaking to the US House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on Military Readiness: Implications for Our Stategic Posture which was chaired by Ike Skelton.
 
Ike Skelton brought up West Point professor and Army General Barry McCaffrey's remarks that ten percent of today's army recruits do not need to be in uniform (McCaffrey to the Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2007: "Ten percent of Army recruits are of low caliber and do not belong in uniform")  and Flournoy responded that "1 in 5 are receiving some kind of waiver to enter the force" and that, relying on what she identified as anecdotal evidence, that military command she speaks with say that "more and more of their command time worrying about a central number of problem children in their unit."  What's being discussed there are the multiple waivers being granted and the lowered standards for recruting.  Moral waivers -- such as the one Steven D. Green were let in on -- are a serious issue and just as head injuries are the key injury of the Iraq War, recruits let in on waivers may be the key characteristic of enlistment today.  [Steven D. Green has been portrayed in military court-martials as the ringleader who plotted the gang-rape and murder of Abeer in the home invasion that also killed her five-year-old sister and both of her parents.  Green maintains that he is innocent.  Others participating in the War Crimes have admitted to their own guilt and consistently fingered him as the ring-leader.  Green is scheduled to go on trial in a civilian court in April.]
 
US House Rep Jim Saxton, apparently hoping to serve in the jury pool at Green's trial, maintained that "we have looked at this at length and found that some soldiers with waivers do better than soldiers without."  Flournoy wasn't speaking of "some," she was speaking of a trend.  Saxton didn't help his own argument wasting everyone's time with a statistical citation that had no point.  "About .26%," he declared of recruits let in with waivers, "was the rate of disatisfaction expressed by waivered [recruits]" while the "unwaivered" -- e.g. traditional recruits -- was "double that."  Imagine that.  More recruits let in on a moral waiver that allowed them, like Green, to avoid a jail term or probation are happy to be in the military?  That is a shocker.  Flournony restated that she was maintaining this was an issue that needs to be studied -- by the military and Congress, she was repeatedly clear -- and noted, "In some cases, these waiver soldiers become models in the army.  In other cases, they don't and they show greater difficulty in meeting army standards so I think it is something we need to watch over time. I think the jury's out . . . and we need to watch it very carefully over time." 
 
To be clear, the waivers have always existed and many men and women have joined the military under those circumstances and excelled by the service's own standards.  That's not the issue nor is the issue that the waivers exist.  The issue is the heavy reliance on them today.  Someone who may be a bit below the basic standards that really wants in (even to avoid jail or probation -- though some get waivers for academic backgrounds and other issues) can (and they have) live up to all the goals and even surpass those goals.  That's not the issue.  The issue is that these cases were not the norm for recruitment in times past.  Today, if the military couldn't rely on the waivers, they wouldn't meet their targeted goals and a lot of people who should not be accepted are being let in.  This is an issue for those stationed and it is an issue for career military types.  We'll come back to this topic but let's highlight the rest of the hearing briefly since it seems like the press these days has a really hard time reporting on Congressional hearings. 
 
US House Rep Solomon P. Ortiz was concerned that "the time it would take to restore military readiness gets longer and longer every day."  Those invited to give testimony did not dispute that or question it -- it was noted that when there's no X-day for the wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) to be completed, restoring readiness will be always be an estimate that's altered continually -- such as with Bully Boy's decision to 'pause' the drawdown.  US House Rep Duncan Hunter was concerned with the readiness of the inventory -- both in terms of whether or not bar-coding is used to track military equipment and also in terms of "what it would be better to leave" in Iraq "and what we might want to cascade to the Iraqis."  On the first part, it wasn't clear (whether any tracking was used consistently throughout the branches).  On the second part, this fell back into the theme that the US military is being asked, in Iraq (Afghanistan as well, but the comments focused on Iraq), to carry out tasks that are not military tasks.  US House Rep Patrick Murphy noted a recent trip overseas where he was asked by a service member "Where the hell is everyone else?" because the military was doing the work that the US State Department and USAID should be doing.  US House Rep Vic Snyder stated that the cost will be "20 to 30 billion additional dollars to do the kind of counter-insurgency we need to do."  No one bothered to ask what "kind" that was or to question the idea that counter-insurgency was a plus.  Sharon Pickup of GAO did make the point that "DoD needs to" clearly outline "what it is getting for the money" but that was a passing comment that no House member felt the need to explore.  This despite the fact that Pickup's comment was perfectly in keeping with what Skelton outlined in his opening remarks, "If an unexpected contingeny arises, what will be the cost to us in lives and in dollars?  Is that cost one we are truly prepared to accept, or would we instead wish we had done more to prepare for or prevent it?  We must also evaluate the initiatives and programs which the Department of Defense is proposing to address our strategic risk and determine whether they are realistic, and whether their scope and pace is sufficient to protect national security."  But maybe, here's where we get back to the main topic, answers aren't going to come when centrists think-tank flacks are the ones speaking.  Why were the Dems put in control of both houses of Congress?  To end the illegal war.  And they can't even expand upon the witnesses they call to testify.  Anita Dancs of the National Priorities Project was far more informed on the January 23rd broadcast of Uprising Radio (noted in this snapshot) than Floury was today speaking to a Congressional committee.
 

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

THIS JUST IN! BAMBI'S BAD AD BUY

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- DALLAS-FORT WORTH.
 
'I'M BARACK OBAMA AND I APPROVED THIS MESSAGE," SAYS BAMBI IN THE LATEST COMMERCIALS THAT ARE AIRING IN TEXAS. 
 
YES, BUT DID HE PICK HIS NOSE?
 
"I REALLY DON'T NEED TO STARE UP HIS NOSTRILS," EXPLAINS BILLIE WHO CAUGHT IT ON THE CW DURING FAMILY GUY LAST NIGHT.  "IS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM NOT TO LOOK DOWN HIS NOSE AT PEOPLE?"
 
KENDRICK CAUGHT IT ON WFAA'S MORNING NEWS SHOW AND WONDERED THE SAME THING AS WELL AS, "WHERE'S THE HOPE?  ALL THAT TALK ABOUT HOW HE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN 'FIX HEALTH CARE' -- IT'S A HEALTH SCARE AD AND ALSO A SLAP AT HILLARY.  BUT IT'S THE LOOKING DOWN THE NOSE AT THE CAMERA THING THAT MAKES HIM COME OFF LIKE SUCH A JERK."
 
DESHAWN CITED BAMBI'S CLAIM THAT HE'S GOING TO "FIX WASHINGTON" WHICH "MIGHT BE MORE BELIEVABLE IF HE ACTUALLY HAD SOME EXPERIENCE."
 
AT MOUNTAINVIEW AND EL CENTRO CAMPUSES, THESE REPORTERS POLLED STUDENTS AND WERE SURPRISED AT THE ANTI-BAMBI SENTIMENT THAT CUT ACROSS CATEGORIES.
 
DESHAWN SPOKE FOR SEVERAL AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS WHEN HE EXPLAINED, "IF YOU'RE NOT BAPTIZED, DON'T PRETEND TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN A BLACK CHURCH.  JUST DON'T GO THERE."
 
 
LATINA DIANE, MOTHER OF 5, TOLD US, "THEY'VE BUILD NOT SUPPORT HERE.  I'M A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT.  EVERYONE I KNOW, REGARDLESS OF RACE, IS TALKING ABOUT HILLARY."
 
DIANE SPOKE OF HILLARY'S AD WHICH SHE CAUGHT ON WFAA THIS MORNING AND HOW HILLARY'S APPROACH IS "I'M ABLE AND WILLING AND CAN DO THE JOB."  ASKED TO CONTRAST IT WITH BAMBI'S AD, DIANE NOTED, "HILLARY'S SPEAKING WITH PEOPLE.  BAMBI'S STARING DOWN AT A CAMERA, LOOKING POMPOUS AND LIKE HE'S DOING AN ARROW SHIRT AD.  HE SPEAKS VERY AWKWARDLY IN IT AND MY HUSBAND SAYS IT'S LIKE OBAMA'S TRYING TO BE LENOARD NIMOY'S SPOCK IN STAR TREK."
 
BEAM HIM UP, BAMBI. 
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Courage to Resist notes a new campaign for Andrew Hegerty, Jeffrey Gauntt and James Blanks, all US service members, all in Mannheim, Germany in a US military prison for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.  They note Agustin Aguayo's confinement there earlier and how much letters meant to him.  Aguayo went to Iraq as a medic.  He found that training and ethics were disregarded (that's putting it mildly and Aguayo's comments are echoed by many others who were sent to Iraq as medics).  While serving, Aguayo had a religious awakening or deepening.  Seeing death and destruction strengthened previous beliefs and led him to contemplate additional issues.  Not surprising and not uncommon.  But the military command attempted to play dumb, attempted to act as though such a thing never happened, could never happen.  Aguayo applied for CO status.
He was then informed that his CO status would be determined AFTER his second tour of Iraq.  On his first tour, he'd refused to load his gun due to his religious deepening.  While this was going on, his fight for CO status was also going through the federal courts.  Despite that, the US military told him he was going back to Iraq.  Aguayo self-checked out briefly trying to demonstrate how serious he was about not returning to Iraq.  When that message was not received, he self-checked out again and was gone for less than the 30-day rule of thumb (30 days or more usually is seen by the US military as desertion, less is generally seen as AWOL).  Aguayo turned himself in.  He was court-martialed and charged with desertion which was only one of the many violations in the military 'justice' system.  He is appealing the verdict from his court-martial (he has already served the time the judge sentenced him to). 
 
Courage to Resist provides contact info for James Blanks (due out this month), Jeffrey Gauntt (due out April 2008) and Andrew Hegerty (due out in August 2008) are reachable at: Unit 29723, Box LL, APO, AE 09028-9723, USA -- Just put the name of whichever of the three you are writing to. 
 
 
And while you're writing, Canada's Supreme Court has refused to hear appeals on the issue of safe harbor status for war resisters in Canada.  The country's Parliament remains the best hope for safe harbor war resisters may have. You can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.
 
Monday's snapshot notes the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy and the protests taking place which included war resister Chris Capps who was an awarded a peace medal from the Munich American Peace Committee.  Tim Slater (Media with Conscience) provides some of Capps speech:
 
To all of you here, at this protest: I would like to thank you, not just for awarding me this prize, but also for exposing and standing up to the arrogance of those leaders who commonly make decisions that destroy the lives of those who certainly are not a threat to their nations' security.  To be certain, it is the legitimate right of a just government to protect the lives of its citizens.  However, this is not accomplished by bombing and invading countries on the other side of the world where the majority of their citizens live in poverty.  The kind of 'security' policies my country, the United States, has pursued over the last few years has enraged much of the world's Muslim population, and brought more desperation to Iraq and Afghanistan; it has led to loss of privacy and liberty for American citizens, and it has reverted my country to the dark ages when torture was an acceptable form of interrogation.  Today, as it stands, America has invaded Iraq supposedly to defend its "national security".  The allegations that Iraq was a threat to America have since been proven false.  As a result, four thousand American soldiers have died in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead over thirty thousand Americans are wounded, and millions of Iraqis have become refugees.  It is time to show the people in there [indicating the location where the Munich Security Conference was being held] that military force should only be a very last resort, that it should not be used until all other options are exhuasted, and until it is completely transparent and evident that we truly must take these actions to defend ourselves.  Thousands of soldiers have made the same decision I have: the decision not to do the bidding of those who consider them Federal property.  Many more people have refused to pay their taxes until these wars come to an end; and then there are people like you who have taken to the streets to show their outrage about these destructive policies.  It is going to take all of us and all of our efforts to put these policies to an end and hold our leaders accountable for them.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.



Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).

 

In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers.
 
 

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

THIS JUST IN! BAMBI TRIES TO FORM AN OPINION!

 
BAMBI WAS NOT A HAPPY CAMPER.  NOT BY A LONG SHOT.
 
THESE REPORTERS WERE SUMMONED EARLIER TODAY BY THE WOULD BE PRINCE OF THE PTOMIAC WHO WANTED US TO ANSWER "JUST ONE DARN QUESTION, WHO IS THIS JOE WILSON AND WHY IS HE SAYING STUFF ABOUT ME?"
 
 
WE EXPLAINED TO BAMBI THAT WILSON WAS SAYING HE WAS NEITHER STRONG ENOUGH NOR DECISIVE ENOUGH TO WHICH BAMBI REPLIED, "I DON'T THINK THAT'S TRUE.  YOU DON'T THINK THAT'S TRUE, DO YOU?  MAYBE IT IS TRUE?  OH, I HOPE IT'S NOT TRUE.  COULD IT BE TRUE?"
 
 
Starting with war resisters.  Linchpin's "US AWOL's in Canada -- Let them stay" (Anarkismo) provides the background on war resisters in Canada:
 
Hear any of the Toronto based war resisters speak at a public meeting and patterns become clear in their experiences. Kim Rivera, a red head in her early twenties, served in an Artillery unit in Baghdad, that shipped out first in August 2006. Tales of gore, IED's and guts quickly changed her mind about the mission. The dehumanisation of Iraqi workers forced to etch out employment inside forward operation bases added to it.

Another of the Toronto based war resisters is Phil McDowell. He joined straight after the September 11th attacks during his senior year majoring in IT. He was discharged in June 2006, some months later while traveling, he got notice he was being stop lossed back to Fort Hood, Texas for yet another deployment to Iraq.

The Stop Loss policy is designed to offset the ebb and flow of recruiting patterns. It allows the military to forcibly re-enlist soldiers or involuntarily extend their tour of duty in a war zone -- it's a virulent source of antagonism for soldiers.
 
Canada's Supreme Court has refused to hear appeals on the issue of safe harbor status and the country's Parliament remains the best hope for safe harbor war resisters may have.  You can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada.  Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.



Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
 
 

 
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

 
March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'."  As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers.
 
As Steve Lannon (McClatchy Newspapers) explains today, "Violence is increasing In Iraq . . . Car bombs in Baghdad on Monday killed at least 11 people and injured a prominent leader of one of the country's most influential American-allied tribal militias.  The Ministry of Electricity announced that power to much of the nations, already anemic, is likely to lag in coming days because insurgents had blown up transmission facilities and natural gas pipelines that fuel generators."  And on the 12th day of the month, there have been 16 US service members announced dead thus far this month.  The stated purpose of the escalation, stated by the White House, was to allow 'breathing space' for the puppet government in Baghdad to reach benchmarks -- those would be benchmarks that they failed to reach in 2007, White House defined benchmarks. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who earlier was seen as in a battle with other members of the cabinet over his insistence that the drawdown start and proceed smoothly so that the approximately 30,000 US troops sent over to Iraq as part of the escaltion return as they were supposed to, has now declared that a 'pause' can be taken in the drawdown -- indicating that he either had a mysterious change of heart or he is not calling the shots for the department he heads.  Thom Shanker (New York Times) observes that Gates' turnabout "was something of a surprise," that he was once "seen as a potential counterpoint to General Petraeus's calls for caution about withdrawing troops" and notes Gates previous public statements about the drawdown (which he then favored).  Anna Mulrine (US News and World Reports) opines, "Gates's statement yesterday make it clear that the pause will likely last for some months and become the operative word in Iraq -- and it may become as overused as the now-familiar term surge."  This as Richard Cowan (Reuters) reveals Gordon England, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense, informed the Senate Budget Committee today that in addition to the $70 billion planned for funding the illegal war in 2009, the White House will be asking "Congress for more money".
 
AFP addresses the realities of what's been accomplished during the escalation (nothing): "The reconciliation program was supposed to hang on three main pieces of legislation: a relaxation of the law to bar former Baathists from public office, a provincial election law and a law to distribute oil revenue.  Of the three, only one has been passed."  That would be the de-de-Baathification program.  At the start of the month, Amit R. Paley and Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) reported on the passage/approval of that law while Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) reported on the criticism coming from CIA asset and Iraqi exile  Ahmed Chalabi that the result of passage would be "all former Baathists now serving in the security services would lose their jobs, a total of 7,000 people" and, of the Iraqi Parliament, "People should pay attention to what they are discussing and voting on."  One of three and the one is a nightmare (as all will no doubt be -- illegal occupations do not make for pleasant dreams).  Working from agency reports, The Daily Star reports Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the Iraqi Parliament's Speaker of the House, revealed that the country's treasury had thrown away $3 million by still not approving the 2008 budget and "threatened Tuesday to disband the legislature" which is permitted by the Constitution provided the move has the support of at least a third of the Parliamentay members (which he says it does) and this action "would further undermine Premier Nuri al-Maliki's shaky government, which is currently limping along with nearly half of the 40 government departments without ministers."  Ahmed Rasheed (Reuters) maintains that an "absolute majority" of Parliament must favor dissolution for the body to be dissolved and quotes a member of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc, Bahaa al-Araji, stating, "The crisis of conficence in parliament has grown.  I think we should admit the failure of the (political process), dissolve parliament and hold new elections."
 

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Monday, February 11, 2008

THIS JUST IN! BAMBI'S MULTIPLE VISITS WITH REZKO!

 
"THOMAS," WAS THE WHISPER.  "JOHN THOMAS."
 
"WHY ARE YOU WHISPERING?"  THESE REPORTERS ASKED.  "AND WHY ARE YOU GIVING US DIRT ON YOURSELF?"
 
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA STOPPED FOR A MOMENT TO CONSIDER THAT.  THEN DRAWING BACK HIS HEAD IN THAT REGAL POSE HE IS SO PRONE TO THESE DAYS, HE REPEATED, "JOHN THOMAS."
 
WE THOUGHT HE HAD SEEN FIELD OF DREAMS ONE TO MANY TIMES.
 
THEN WE DISCOVERED JOHN THOMAS WAS THE NAME OF THE MOLE THE FBI HAD SPYING ON BIG TONY REZKO. 
 
 
 
WAIT!  "VISITS"?  PLURAL.  BUT IN A DEBATE . . .
 
 
 
 
WHY IS BAMBI RUNNING TO BIG TONY FOR "VISITS" IN 2004 AND 2005?  AFTER HE WAS IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE? 
 
WHEN ASKED BY THESE REPORTERS, BAMBI WHISPERED, "IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME."
 
 
Starting with war resisters.  Over the weekend, the Captains Of War met in Germany for the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy.  Among the attending was US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.  Also 'representing' the US were US Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman -- who no doubt made a delightful traveling couple -- with Turkey represented by its prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Little Kenny Roth of Human Rights Watch among others.  We'll come back to what was stated at the conference.  But while Captains Of War gathered to plot continue war, people rose up en mass to protest. Amy Bradley (Indybay IMC) reports that Friday saw "several hundred activits" protesting and the number increased the following day as "several thousand protesters gathered in Marienplatz to continue the protests" including Iraq War veteran and war resister Chris Capps who the Minuch American Peace Committee awarded a peace medal and who is starting an IVAW chapter in Germany.  Bradley reports 14 arrests while an estimated "3,700 police monitored the marchers."  Bradley provides a number of photos of the two day protests and this one probably depicts the size of the crowd best.  Courage to Resist profiles Chris Capps here and a quote we'll note is his stating, "If the politicians refuse to listen to the people, then the people need to take action.  If we had resistance throughout the military then we could finally end this war here and now." 
 
Among those who have resisted, the ones in Canada need help.  The country's Supreme Court has refused to hear appeals on the issue of safe harbor status and the country's Parliament remains the best hope for safe harbor war resisters may have.  You can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada.  Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.



Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
 
 

 
In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.

 
March 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'."  As part of their fundraising efforts for the event, they are holding houseparties and a recent one in Boston featured both IVAW's Liam Madden and the incomprable Howard Zinn as speakers.
 
Returning to the Munich Conference on Security Policy for a number of reasons including that it is news.  The protests against it are news and what was stated is news.  We'll focus on a few speeches briefly and then move to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. 
Lindsey Graham was making his tenth trip and apologizing for being "a poor substitute for Senator [John] McCain" and, as if to make clear how poor, he made a non-funny joke about Russia that wasn't well received and his "I'll buy you a beer after" didn't smooth things over.  Even with a crowd that didn't boo his white-washing/minimizing Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, he managed to get off on the wrong foot immediately.  Graham offered this look-for-the-rainbow praise: "when NATO expands, the war is enriched." Joe Lieberman wants war with Iran very, very badly.  It was the focus of his speech and just because there is no "covert work on bomb design" going on, Lieberman's up in arms over the "overt work on enrichment" as Iran established a nuclear power industry.  Human Rights Watch's Little Kenny Roth bragged about the "expertise" his organization has allegedly developed.  "We do not deal with the nuclear question.  But we look at weapons systems that are used," explained Roth.  "Cluster munitions caused more civilian casualities," in Iraq, he declared, "than any weapons other than small arms."  He spoke of his concern with "the failure rate" of cluster munitions. Yes, that is a serious concern -- those pesky things do not go enough immediately.  So he's not opposed to the indiscriminate deaths they cause immediately, just the deaths they cause days, weeks or years later?  Someone needs to watch Human Rights Watch. Bobby Gates declared his focus was the Afghanistan War (for his speech -- before the British and Canadian governments protest, it was the focus for his speech only) and that would be the war that started in 2001 and continues today.  He offers a revisionary history -- in bulletin points -- on the 'justification' for the war (no, he doesn't mention Osama bin Laden -- which, for anyone with a memory, was why the US began bombing -- after the Tailaban asked for proof of crimes before turning over bin Laden, the US response was to begin bombing).  That war celebrated its sixth anniversary last fall so pay attention to this statement by Gates, "As many of you know, a Strategic Vision document is being drafted that will assess NATO's and our parenters' achievements in Afghanistan, and will produce a set of realistic goals and a roadmap to mee them over the next three to five years."  Three to five years?  The US Secretary of Defense is stating that the Afghanistan War could last through 2013 or even later?  He went on to bemoan "bureaucratic hurdles" that "hinder our progress in Afghanistan" and advoacted for the passage of the NATO Commander's Emergency Response Fund which "will, for NATO, require a more flexible approach to budgeting and funding."  Considering the millions, billiions and trillions being spent on both the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War presently, it's hard to see what "bureaucratic hurdles" Gates imagines side-stepping unless he means Congress itself? Walter Pincus (Washington Post) reports on US House Rep John Murtha's take on the huge financial cost of the illegal war and whose being effected -- Murtha: "You can't put a trillion-dollar war on a credit card and leave the bills for our children to pay.  The same Americans suffering in Iraq today will be paying for this borrowed war for the rest of their lives."  Pincus reports, "Noting that the administration is spending $343 million every 24 hours on the Iraq war, Murtha said that 11 hours in Iraq 'could restore $156 million cut by the president's Defense Department budget for the Family Advocacy Program'."
 
 
Back in Munich, Secretary Gates insisted that "we are applying a comprehensive strategy" in Iraq and then declared the following:
 
We have leanred that war in the 21st century does not have stark divisions between civilian and military components.  It is a continuous scale that slids from combat operations to economic development, governance and reconstruction -- frequently at the same time.   
The Alliance must put aside any theology that attempts clearly to divide civilian and military operations.  It is unrealistic.  We must live in the real world.  As we noted as far back as 1991, in the real world, security has economic, political, and social dimensions.  And vice versa.  In the future, the EU and NATO will have to find ways to work together better, to share certain roles -- neither excluding NATO from civilian-military operations nor barring the EU from purely military missions.  In short, I agree entirely with Secretary General [Jaap] de Hoop Scheffer and Minister [Herve] Morin's comments yesterday that there must be a "complimentarity" between the EU and NATO. 
 
We could go on and on regarding that push for war-more-war-always-war. Instead, we'll note that Oliver Rolofs found Gates "ostentatiously concillatory towards Germany during the conference.In his contribution on the future of Aghanistan on the Sunday morning, he said that he had not intended to point a figner at Germany at all, explaining that the request for more commitment in Afghanistan had been issued to all the members of the Alliance."   Secretary Gates next jaunted off to Iraq where, Steve Lannen (McClatchy Newspapers) reports, "A few hours before he landed in Baghdad, a big suicide car bomb exploded near a local market in Yathrib, north of Baghdad in Salahuddin province, killing at least 23 and injuring 45. . . .  Another car bomb exploded near Ramadi, killing three, and further north two car bombs were reported in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.  Both of them targeted Iraqi soldiers and four were killed in one of the explosions, police said.  To the west of Mosul, 21 people were killed in fighting between insurgents and members of the U.S.-funded local awakening council militia."   "Awakening" Councils are the US effort at Rent-An-Ally, whereby they toss coins around in an attempt to buy loyalties from those against centeral government in Baghdad, those against the illegal US occupation of Iraq, etc.  They're more like Rent-A-Thugs and Ian Fischer (New York Times) explains, "At least 100 Awakening members have been killed in the last few weeks."  Fisher goes on to detail the US government's latest attempt to control the news cycle by having the military selectively releasng two documents one allegedly portions of a diary but it's no The Diary of Anais Nin.  Maybe they tell something, maybe they don't.  Maybe a full release would.  But, to be sure, the US government thinks this is the story to inject into the news cycle.  Probably a 'happier' thought than letting people focus on the latest problems with the "Awakening" Council.  Steve Lannen (McClatchy Newspapers) reported Saturday that the US collaborators in Diyala Province went on strike and that "A leader of the group said that brigade members, most of them Sunni Muslims, wouldnt' resume working with U.S. and Iraqi government forces until the Shiite police feisng or is indicted."  Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) picked up the story on Sunday noting that the Diyala "walkout" wasn't the only problem, there were problems in Anbar Province as well where the conflict is over the outcome of elections which the Iraqi Islamic Party won and that outcome is not pleasing the 'Awakening' Council or helping with the turfs war.  (Both the IIP and members of 'Awakening' are Sunni.)  In Diyala, Rubin notes, while the 'Awakening' Council members want the police commander gone (he's Shi'ite and they declare he's a bagman for Moqtada al-Sadr while he stated that the problem is that they are "continuing their past activies of killing and displacing Shiite families." 
 
We're not done with Gates.  He announced Lieapalooze 2008 today.  CNN reports that Gates has held a press conference this morning in Baghdad and declared it "makes sense" to halt the return of US troops from Iraq and "A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad told CNN recently that Petraeus feels strongly there should be a period of review before he makes any decisions about additional troop withdrawals."  BBC notes it as well but notes that Gates himself  "favours a 'pause' in troop reductions in Iraq".  Demetri Sevastopulo and Steve Negus (Financial Times of London) quotes Gates stating, "I think that the notion of a brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense" and the reporters remind, "Until recently, Mr Gates repeatedly said he hoped the military could continue to pull out troops at the same pace over the second half of 2008, which would have left about 100,000 forces in Iraq when the next US president takes office in January 2009."  Yes, he did take that position publicly . . . once.  Apparently, despite Gates quoting Alexis de Tocqueville in Munich, he actually packed Jerry Hopkins' trashy No One Here Gets Out Alive?  That seems to be US Senator John Ensign's opinion as well.  CBS and AP report that the senator "rejected calls Saturday for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of the year".
 
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"

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