GI SPECIAL 3D51:
BULGARIAN TROOPS GOING HOME NOW:
NEVER TO RETURN
Bulgarian troops from Iraq arrive at Sofia, Bulgaria
airport Dec. 20, 2005. Bulgaria began withdrawing the remainder of its troops
from Iraq on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry announced. All are expected to
return home by the end of this month. (AP Photo/Dimitar Deinov)
[Thanks to PB who sent this in. He writes: COALITION OF
THE SHRINKING. MAYBE BUSH WILL ORDER THE NSA TO TAP THEIR PHONES SO HE CAN GET
ADVANCE NOTICE OF WHO THE NEXT COUNTRY TO BAIL WILL BE?]
12.20.05 By JASON STRAZIUSO & By
ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press
Ukraine began the final withdrawal of its remaining 876
troops Tuesday. The government began calling home troops in March. President
Viktor Yushchenko made a pullout from Iraq one of his campaign promises.
The U-S is picking up the three million dollar cost of
Ukraine's withdrawal.
The multinational force has steadily
unraveled as the death toll rises and angry publics clamor for troops to leave.
IRAQ WAR REPORTS
Summers County Soldier Dies
12/15/2005 Story by Aaron Mesmer, West Virginia Media
22-year-old Brian Karim is the second soldier from Hinton
to die in combat this year.
22-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Brian Karim from Hinton died
Tuesday when his Humvee ran over a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq. Karim died
of head injuries while being transported to the hospital.
"It is hard for all of us to think he had so much
potential and just to think that everything is now lost," said David
Harvey, who graduated from Summers County High School with Karim in 2001.
Harvey said he last saw Karim in Hinton about three
months ago. "I seen him in the store and I said, 'Oh, so you're back,
thanks for serving over there, and thanks for doing this.' And he said, 'you
know, you're the first person to thank me,'" Harvey said.
In addition to a son who's less than a year old, Karim
leaves behind his wife and high school sweetheart Rachel Lasley, who Harvey
said was the center of Karim's universe. The two were voted cutest couple when
they were seniors in high school.
Karim is the second soldier from Hinton to die in combat
this year. 25-year-old Sgt. Bernard Sembly Junior was shot in the chest by a
sniper in May.
People in the close-knit community of Hinton said they'll
pull through just as they did six months ago.
"Everybody will just rally around their family, and we
will be OK, but it's just very hard," said Harvey. "He died...trying
to make life better for people."
"We'll all probably always remember him, you know, but
life goes on," said Henry Jackson, a friend of Karim's family.
According to friends, funeral arrangements will be made
after Karim's body is brought back to the U.S.
Irwin Soldier Killed In Iraq By Explosives
December 13, 2005 By ADRIENNE ZIEGLER, Staff Writer, Desert
Dispatch
A Fort Irwin soldier was killed Friday in Baghdad, Iraq when
an improvised explosive device hidden in a vehicle detonated on a road in the
western Abu Ghraib region of Baghdad
Sgt. Adrian Orosco, 26, was doing unspecified combat
operations when the IED exploded, said Fort Irwin Public Affairs Officer Maj.
John Clearwater.
Orosco was an infantryman with the 1st Squadron, 11th
Armored Cavalry Regiment, stationed at Fort Irwin. He was from Corcoran.
Orosco leaves behind a wife, Elizabeth, and three children
between the ages of 3 and 7, who still live at Fort Irwin, Maj. Clearwater
said.
Orosco arrived at Fort Irwin in October 2004, and was
deployed to Iraq shortly after his arrival. Fort Irwin was his first assignment
after his initial Army entry training, according to Clearwater.
Orosco's death is Fort Irwin's 14th casualty since
Operation Iraqi Freedom began, and the third soldier killed in Iraq from the
1st Squadron.
U.S. Military Convoy Hit In Baghdad
U.S. Military convoy of trucks in flames after they were
attacked by insurgents in al-Adel highway in the outskirts of west Baghdad
December 20, 2005. A group of insurgents opened fire at the convoy of six
trucks loaded with pipes killing two of its drivers. REUTERS/Ali Jasim
1,492 Air Missions In November
December 20, 2005 Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have flown
thousands of missions in support of U.S. ground troops in Iraq this fall with
little attention back home, including attacks by unmanned Predator aircraft
armed with Hellfire missiles, military records show.
The number of U.S. airstrikes increased in the weeks leading
up to last Thursday's election, from a monthly average of about 35 last summer
to more than 60 in September and 120 or more in October and November.
The monthly number of air missions, including refueling and
other support flights, grew from 1,111 in September to 1,492 in November,
according to figures provided by Central Command Air Force's public affairs
office.
LETHAL ENVIRONMENT:
NO HONORABLE MISSION:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW
11.4.05: US soldiers
during a patrol of western Baghdad. (AFP/David Furst)
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Just In Case You Missed It The First Ten Times
20 December 2005 By Frangoise Chipaux, Le Monde &
12.19.05 Reuters
The year 2005 was the deadliest since the fall of the
Taliban in 2001, and the American Army lost proportionally more soldiers in
Afghanistan than in Iraq.
Militants killed three policemen early on Monday.
TROOP NEWS
"Faced With Growing Unrest Among Soldiers"
12.20.05 USA Today
About two-thirds of the Army officers in a special
Reserve program have been allowed to resign rather than go to war.
Faced with growing unrest among soldiers called back to
active duty from the rarely used Individual Ready Reserve, the Army took the
unprecedented step last month of letting officers who didn't want to go to war
resign.
Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL
along, or send us the address if you wish and we'll send it regularly. Whether
in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service
friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance
to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up
top.
Most Americans Want Troops To Come Home Within A Year
12.20.05 USA Today & Wall St. Journal 12.16.05
Most Americans want U.S. troops to come home from Iraq
within a year and don't believe the war in Iraq is part of the broader war on
terrorism, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll
Wall St. Journal/NBC News Poll:
Some 68% of those younger than 35 want a drawdown.
By 53% to 43%, they'd favor a candidate who wants to
reduce troops in Iraq over one who advocates staying the course "until the
situation is stable."
Americans rate Iraq a higher priority than the economy.
Vermont Governor Wants Troops To Get Out Of Iraq
12.19.05 Boston Globe, December 19, 2005
Vermont has lost more soldiers per capita in Iraq and
Afghanistan than any other state. Gov. James H. Douglas wants Washington to
prepare a withdrawal schedule for bringing home U.S. troops.
County Native Wounded
December 19, 2005 By JIM TATUM, C-I senior staff reporter
It happened, as such moments do, so fast.
An Iraqi civilian vehicle was moving too fast toward a U.S.
Army striker vehicle. The driver of the striker turned to ask his commanding
officer what to do.
Then the Iraqi vehicle exploded right in front of the
striker, the driver of the military vehicle lost control, and the striker
plunged some 20 feet down an embankment, landing upside down. Two of the crew
would escape with minor scratches. The others, including commanding officer
1st Sgt Mark Shaylor, son of Mazie and Jim Harrell of Camden, would not be as
lucky.
"Two walked away with minor scratches, but Mark and the other
four were sent to Germany for surgery, and Mark had surgery before he was flown
out of Iraq," said Saylor's stepfather, Jim Harrell.
Shaylor was wounded Nov. 6, one day shy of his 21st year in
the Army. His family was informed of the situation a few days later.
"You're shocked with news like that," Jim Harrell said. "You're
shocked and you're hoping its not as severe as it could have been."
Shaylor suffered brain trauma, bone contusions, broken bones
in his face, two broken fingers on his left hand, and six vertebrae in his neck
and several vertebrae in his lower back ruptured, Harrell said.
Shaylor, who is believed to be the first soldier from
Kershaw County severely wounded in action during the Iraq war, will have to
have surgery to put a plate in his head, but it will probably be several months
before that can happen, Harrell said.
The Harrells have seen their son twice since he was brought
to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is conscious now and
responding well to therapy, Harrell said. He also is starting to eat on his own
again; he had been fed through a tube since November.
"He had some ice cream the other day -- this is the first
thing they've given him by mouth since he was injured,`` Harrell said.
Shaylor has some movement on his right side, although his
left side is limited right now, Harrell said.
"He is responding very well to physical and occupational
therapy they're giving him, but it's going to be a long, drawn-out thing for
his rehabilitation," Harrell said. "He's trying to talk but cannot speak
yet. But he's a fighter; he's determined to get it all behind him. He's
progressing well every day.``
Mark Shaylor grew up in Camden and attended Camden area
schools although he attended his junior and senior years in high school in
Virginia.
"He decided in high school that the military was what he
wanted to do, and he made a career of it," Mazie Harrell said. "He wanted to
travel, and he has traveled -- he's seen a lot of the world."
Shaylor has done tours in Germany, Saudi Arabia and Iraq;
his current duty station is Fairbanks, Alaska, where he lives with his wife,
Melissa.
"He's had a good career and done well," Harrell said.
Meanwhile, family members have been going to Walter Reed to
be with Shaylor and to support his wife, who has been staying there since
Shaylor was transferred in. But all anyone can really do at this point is
continue to pray, the Harrells said.
"It's like his wife says; he's in God's hands right now, and
God is the chief doctor," Harrell said. ``When he decides, that's when things
will come along."
"I can't wait to hear his voice again," Mazie Harrell said.
"I Was Required To Provide Medical Care To Wounded
Prisoners Who Were Tortured During Questioning"
I was asked by the regimental
intelligence officer if I would administer succinyl choline to temporarily
paralyze the muscles of respiration of POWs as an aid to interrogation. I
could not abide it and after six months I registered a public protest during a
change-of-command ceremony for my commanding officer. I was arrested for
"conduct unbecoming an officer" and my career in military medicine
was over.
November 6, 2005 Gordon S. Livingston, S.F. Gate
Recently, I went back to West Point for my 45th reunion. We
members of the class of 1960 are 67 years old now. We have lived through a
lot: the decade of the moon landing and the war in Vietnam, the end of the Cold
War in which we enlisted in 1956, the advent of the Internet, and the conflicts
in the desert.
We're a surprisingly varied group. Only about half of us
finished 20 or 30 year careers in the Army. The rest chose civilian vocations
as businessmen, engineers, lawyers, even a poet or two.
Out of the 550 of us that graduated, 82 are now dead. We
lost our first classmate to an auto accident one week after graduation; our
most recent death, from lung cancer, came two weeks before the reunion. In
between, 12 were killed in Vietnam. We are, as expected, dying more rapidly
now.
It was good to go back to that citadel of our youth and
strength for the first time in many years.
It looks much the same. The Gothic granite barracks have
been expanded to accommodate more cadets. The Protestant chapel still
dominates on the hillside. There are new buildings and the football stadium
has been improved even as the team has grown worse.
On parade the Corps of Cadets still looks to be the best
close-order drill unit in the world, though the sight of women marching, even
leading companies and battalions, is difficult to absorb for older graduates,
steeped in the monastic masculinity of outdated tradition.
The real evidence that the place has changed, however, came
on Friday night when the entertainment in Eisenhower Hall consisted of Jon
Stewart doing a stand-up routine in front of hundreds of cadets. They loved
him.
The department of history is compiling oral histories from
graduates who have served in combat, apparently in an effort to impart to the
cadets of today some lessons they can use in wars of the future. This is how I
came to be interviewed by an earnest young major about my experiences as the
regimental surgeon of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam.
He sent me some questions ahead of time ("How can
current cadets best prepare for their roles as officers in an unconventional
environment?") I wanted to talk about something else: What does a soldier
do when he discovers that the rationale for the war he has been sent to fight
bears no relationship to what is happening on the ground?
What I found In Vietnam was that in spite of our
protestations about "winning hearts and minds" we treated the
Vietnamese with contempt. They were commonly referred to as "gooks"
and "dinks."
As a doctor, I was required to provide medical care to
wounded prisoners who were tortured during questioning.
I was asked by the regimental intelligence officer if I
would administer succinyl choline to temporarily paralyze the muscles of
respiration of POWs as an aid to interrogation.
I could not abide it and after six months I registered a
public protest during a change-of-command ceremony for my commanding officer.
I was arrested for "conduct unbecoming an officer" and my career in
military medicine was over.
The reunion was the first time since I returned from Vietnam
36 years ago that West Point has shown an interest in what happened to me
there. So into that video camera I poured everything I could say in an hour
about what I had seen and done and learned.
I didn't have much advice to offer cadets.
I just told my story and asked them to think about who they
are and where their core identities fit with their duty as soldiers, what they
stand for, and what they cannot.
I have no idea whether any cadet will ever see this tape,
but it was an important moment for me nonetheless, the confession of a man once
faced with an irresolvable conflict between my loyalty to the Army and to my
deepest convictions about what it means to be a physician, a patriotic American
and a free man upon the Earth.
And through it all ran my love for West Point, which had
brought me back one more time to celebrate my connection with the place that
had taught me the values of honor and obligation that I tried to reify, even at
the cost of all that I had aspired to be.
On the afternoon I left home for my reunion I received an
e-mail from the mother of a young West Point graduate recently killed in
Afghanistan. She had read a book of mine and wanted something that might
comfort her in her mourning. I sent her a prayer I had composed for bereaved parents
after the death of my 6-year-old son:
May we all find peace in the shared hope that our
children who brought us such joy with their short lives are now a host of
angels, loving us still, feeling our love for them, awaiting our coming, and
knowing that they are safely locked forever in our hearts.
During our reunion we had a memorial service for our
departed classmates in which each of their names was called out by someone who
had been his friend. We prayed for their eternal rest and sang the alma
mater.
We listened to a retired general evoke their memories
with cliches about honor and duty and freedom that are as inevitable as they
are irrelevant to men who died in ways heroic and prosaic, with thoughts and
fears likely unrelated to the mantle of patriotism in which we would now wrap
their souls.
In the chapel at West Point as before the black granite
wall in Washington, I remember my classmates dead in Vietnam, eternally young,
immortal in my mortal mind.
They will not grow old and frail like the rest of us.
They will not linger on beds of pain.
Perhaps, after all, they are the lucky ones. But what of
the songs unsung, the children and grandchildren unborn, the peaceful pleasures
of longtime love? These things they were denied.
The circle, it seems, is never closed.
I fear that young men and women are still dying for
reasons that 45 years from now will cause another group of old graduates to
honor their memories, as did we, with devotion and regret.
IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP
Three Provinces And Unions Reject Fuel Price Increases
Dec 20 (KUNA) & Middle East Online
Kirkuk Governorate Council decided to contact proper
authorities in Baghdad and maintain the current prices of oil products that
were increased by Iraq's Cabinet.
The council will inform Baghdad of increase's affect in
light of the standard of living and income of Kirkuk's residents.
Since Sunday there have been demonstrations around the
country.
As the cost of all local goods soared due to the
increase, Iraqi labor syndicates organized protests all over Iraq and met city
officials to explain their reasons behind opposing the rise.
Three southern Iraqi provinces have refused to implement
a wildly unpopular government increase in petrol prices, despite insistence
in Baghdad on Tuesday that the measure would help the poor.
In Misan, Dhi Qar and Basra provinces, petrol is still
available at the highly subsidized price of 50 dinars (three US cents) per
litre rather than the new price of 150 dinars, AFP correspondents reported.
"This (rise) risks provoking a widespread increase in
other prices that will have direct impact on the lives of citizens," said
Fadel Nemaa, president of the provincial economic commission, justifying
Misan's decision.
On Monday, the government of Dhi Qar province, whose
capital is Nasiriyah, asked gas stations to stick with the original price after
clashes between angry demonstrators and police.
Moqtada Sadr sent a delegation to meet Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jaafari to get assurances that the nation's numerous poor would be
exempt or receive some sort of compensation.
Assorted Resistance Action
12.20.05 By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press
A driver for the Jordanian Embassy was captured after his
car was "intercepted" by three vehicles as he was driving to work,
Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh said in Amman.
Two police officers were shot to death in Baqouba, about
35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and one officer was slain in the capital, police
said.
Attackers in southern Baghdad shot to death a member of
the Badr [collaborator] organization, the military wing of the Supreme Council
of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, police Capt. Taleb Thamer said.
North of Baghdad, three policemen were killed in the town of Tuz.
Two local employees on a US military base died when
resistance fighters opened fire on their car in Balad, police said.
In the western district of the capital, an employee from
the electricity ministry was killed and one of his colleagues wounded when insurgents
attacked their convoy, a security source said.
"Armed men ambushed a civil defense vehicle in
Ameriayh district and opened fire with small arms, wounding three of them,"
Captain Ahmed Abdullah said.
IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION
The Argument For The Resistance:
"The More The United States Tries To Destroy Its
Enemies In Iraq, The More It Finds That The Resistance Of The Iraqi People
Grows"
(Graphic: London
Financial Times)
December 8, 2005 Abdul-Ilah Al-Bayaty, Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt)
[Excerpts]
The American ship of state will be broken on the rock of
the nation of Iraq, leaving unconditional withdrawal as Washington's only
option, writes Abdul-Ilah Al-Bayaty
The defeat of the United States' aggression on Iraq was
expected even before the beginning of the invasion. There were many indicators
to show that the right of Iraqis to independence and democracy would be
stronger than all the military might of the US.
As is well known in war theories, aggressive power cannot
achieve victory except under two scenarios: by its ability to destroy
completely, or by destroying the will to continue resisting.
In the case of the war on Iraq, it is evident that the enemy
of the United States is the majority of the Iraqi people which it attacked to
destroy its Arab-Muslim appurtenance and identity, plunder its natural
resources and subjugate it to a puppet government it creates.
This is impossible for geopolitical, moral and practical
reasons. The consequence of this impossibility is that the more the United
States tries to destroy its enemies in Iraq, the more it finds that the
resistance of the Iraqi people grows.
The Iraqi people by its culture, civilisation and heritage
supported, and supports always, the oppressed against the oppressor.
If it seemed to some that the Iraqi people are against
Saddam Hussein, they forgot that the same people were never against the Iraqi
state that the United States invaded to crush, abolish and remake according to
its interests and will.
Only some Kurdish leaders who seek separation, and some Shia
politico/religious men who want to install Wilayat Al-Fakih (the rule of the
supreme guardian) under Al-Hakim family, can accept to destroy the secular
Iraqi state. Iraqis are proud of being Iraqis. They consider themselves all
sons of Iraq and are proud of having a united Iraq that possesses oil, culture
and science, water and a strategic position.
The ignorance of the American strategists and their allies
-- Ahmed Chalabi, Rend Rahim, Kinaan Makiyah, Falih Abdul-Jabar, and the like
-- who theorised the US invasion of Iraq is such that they took their interests
as reality, forgetting Iraqis' pride in their free will and independence, and
in their Arab-Muslim identity which passes to them from father to son.
They believed, or wanted to believe, that with some money
and much terror, Iraqis would bow before their imperial project as they bowed
-- at least they think -- before Saddam Hussein.
They forgot, or wanted to forget, that Saddam Hussein, in
spite of his dictatorship, has the support of the secular, educated middle
class for the nationalisation of the oil industry, the development of Iraq's
modern infrastructure, the universalisation of electricity, education and
health services, and for putting Iraq on the plain of Cuba, Venezuela and North
Korea in refusing imperialist diktat.
They forgot also, Kurds and pro-Iranian religious leaders
excepted, that Iraqis may differ but they continue to feel that they are the
same people, that they are brothers, and that they don't want Iran, Arab,
Western or Eastern interference in their affairs.
In addition, the invasion of Iraq by the United States
and its allies took place when imperialist powers wherever are no more able to
invade other countries as they used to do in the 19th century. The reasons are
multiple.
Firstly, the wars in Vietnam, Cuba, South Lebanon and
Palestine proved that military superiority and military victory don't mean the
ability to occupy the invaded country if its people resist; and the Iraqi
people proved it would resist from the very first battles in Um Qasr and
Nassiryah.
Secondly, it is the youth of the world and its progressive
movements that builds world public opinion, not the mainstream media controlled
by the US. This was proven in Seattle, Durban and in the world's
demonstrations against the war on Iraq. We see the result of this fact in the
demonstrations against the war in the US itself.
Thirdly, war and invasion cost money and the American
people have no interest in paying money to invade other countries, by way of
which only the military industries and oil multinationals make profits,
especially when the Iraqi military, as every patriot would do, prevented the
occupation from using Iraqi petrol to finance the occupation's military
operations.
Fourthly, civilisation and international law don't permit
any more adventurers like President Bush and the neo-buccaneers around him to
insult the world's human consciousness by invading poor peoples in name of
lies.
Fifthly, Iraqi people, like all living peoples, do not
accept occupation and slavery.
Now we arrived to a situation where the US, by invading
Iraq, is in a political and moral ruin from which it will not recover -- if it
tries to recover -- for years. On the other hand, Iraq has suffered political,
moral and economic crimes committed by the US. What is the way out?
I think it is of no use all this changing of tactics,
like the Cairo Conference or the phony next elections, whose end is that the US
decides the destiny of Iraq and escapes liability in waging an illegal war on
Iraq.
As long as Iraq is not left to its people, America's
military, economic, political and moral losses will continue to increase.
There is no path before the US but to pull out rapidly and unconditionally,
taking with it this monster which it created and called the government and
security forces, recognising that all oil in Iraq is the property of the whole
Iraqi people, and letting the legal administration pre-invasion, especially the
national army and its resistance groups, take power and administer the country
until free and fair democratic elections can take place.
The people of Iraq will never, however long is the time
afforded, recognise the puppet government, its contracts and agreements and
laws, as legal or legitimate. In addition, if the US wants to have
amicable relations with the people of Iraq, it should pay compensation for all
the damage and suffering it caused Iraq.
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
"The US Presence Perpetuates The Resistance"
18 December 2005 By Laith Saud, Aljazeera [Excerpt]
It had to be known that US forces would be resisted, thus
their role as facilitators of reconstruction would be minimal at best.
American forces have never been able to make the
reconstruction a central feature of Iraqi life in the past years; rather, as an
invading power, the United States has logically been exhausting more effort in
attempting to put down the resistance.
Ironically, of course, the US presence perpetuates the
resistance and by extension the instability of the country.
Simply put, the Americans cannot provide security and
without security there will be no reconstruction.
Resistance Or Doom:
"You Cannot Save Your Ass, And Your Face At The Same
Time"
Peace. A road less traveled.
[Camp Casey, Crawford,
Texas]
Photo and caption from
the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army
Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)
From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: December 18, 2005
Subject: Resistance or Doom
The Iraqi resistance is going to continue non-stop, until
the last American leaves Iraq.
This is no different than what happened in Vietnam.
The Iraq War is the same recipe of lies in a different
bowl.
The U.S. government cannot control the destiny of 25
million Iraqi people. It will drain the U.S. economy of money and blood, and
inflict death and suffering beyond belief in Iraq.
As this war continues, our society is becoming more and
more mentally ill. I see it everyday, as I travel and walk the streets of
America. As a photographer, I see it in the desperate faces of people
everywhere.
Even after saying all this, there is one major issue that
haunts me.
The biggest difference between Vietnam and Iraq, is that
Vietnam was not sitting on the second largest oil reserves in the world.
This quagmire is potentially worse than Southeast Asia.
I can say one thing that will always be true, When You
Bury Your Past, You Bury Yourself. And, America is very good at doing that.
While many U.S. citizens pray for peace, our economy
worships war.
If more reluctant Americans do not hit the streets and
protest this war, we are doomed.
There Are No Free Lunches!
You cannot save your ass, and your face at the same time.
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 18, 2005
What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans,
are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org. Name, I.D.,
withheld on request. Replies confidential.
WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ
December 14, 2005 By Eliot Weinberger [Excerpts] Via Ward
Reilly, Vietnam Veterans Against The War Net
I heard the vice president say that the war would be over in
'weeks rather than months'.
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: 'It could last six days, six
weeks. I doubt six months.'
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say there was 'no question' that
American troops would be 'welcomed': 'Go back to Afghanistan, the people were
in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things
that the Taliban and al-Qaida would not let them do.'
I heard the vice president say: 'The Middle East expert
Professor Fouad Ajami predicts that after liberation the streets in Basra and
Baghdad are "sure to erupt in joy". Extremists in the region would
have to rethink their strategy of jihad. Moderates throughout the region would
take heart. And our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
would be enhanced.'
I heard the vice president say: 'I really do believe we will
be greeted as liberators.'
I heard that the president said to the television evangelist
Pat Robertson: 'Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties.'
On 1 May 2003, I heard that 140 American soldiers had died
in combat in Iraq.
I heard Richard Perle tell Americans to 'relax and celebrate
victory'. I heard him say: 'The predictions of those who opposed this war can
be discarded like spent cartridges.'
I heard that Pentagon planners had predicted that US
troop levels would fall to 30,000 by the end of the summer.
I heard Paul Bremer say, 'Most of the country is, in fact,
orderly,' and that all the problems were coming from 'several hundred hard-core
terrorists' from al-Qaida and affiliated groups.
As attacks on American troops increased, I heard the
generals disagree about who was fighting: Islamic fundamentalists or remnants
of the Baath Party or Iraqi mercenaries or foreign mercenaries or ordinary
citizens taking revenge for the loss of loved ones. I heard the president and
the vice president and the politicians and the television reporters simply call
them 'terrorists'.
I heard the president say: 'There are some who feel that
conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: bring them on!
We have the force necessary to deal with the situation.'
I heard Colonel Nathan Sassaman say: 'With a heavy dose
of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince
these people that we are here to help them.'
I heard Richard Perle say: 'Next year at about this time, I
expect there will be a really thriving trade in the region, and we will see
rapid economic development. And a year from now, I'll be very surprised if
there is not some grand square in Baghdad named after President Bush.'
I heard an American soldier, standing next to his Humvee,
say: 'We liberated Iraq. Now the people here don't want us here, and guess
what? We don't want to be here either. So why are we still here? Why don't
they bring us home?'
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say that the fighting was the work
of 'thugs, gangs and terrorists'. I heard General Richard Myers, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say: 'It's not a Shiite uprising. Muqtada al-Sadr
has a very small following.' I heard that an unnamed 'intelligence official'
had said: 'Hatred of the American occupation has spread rapidly among Shia, and
is now so large that Mr Sadr and his forces represent just one element.
Destroying his Mehdi Army might be possible only by destroying Sadr City.' Sadr
City is the most populated part of Baghdad. I heard that, among the Sunnis,
former Baath Party leaders and Saddam loyalists had been joined by Sunni tribal
chiefs.
I heard Tony Blair say: 'Before people crow about the absence
of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.'
I heard General Myers say: 'Given time, given the number of
prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find
weapons of mass destruction.'
I heard Tom Foley, director of Iraq Private Sector
Development, say: 'The security risks are not as bad as they appear on TV.
Western civilians are not the targets themselves. These are acceptable risks.'
I heard the spokesman for Paul Bremer say: 'We have isolated
pockets where we are encountering problems.'
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: 'Death has a tendency to
encourage a depressing view of war.'
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say, when asked why the troops
were being kept in the war much longer than their normal tours of duty: 'Oh,
come on. People are fungible. You can have them here or there.'
I heard General John Sattler say that the destruction of
Fallujah had 'broken the back of the insurgency'.
I heard a reporter say to Donald Rumsfeld: 'Before the war
in Iraq, you stated the case very eloquently and you said they would welcome us
with open arms.' And I heard Rumsfeld interrupt him: 'Never said that. Never
did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't
find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just
said I said.'
I heard a reporter ask Lieutenant-General Jay Garner how
long the troops would remain in Iraq, and I heard him reply: 'I hope they're
there a long time.'
NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER
Telling the truth - about
the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington - is the
first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the
truth; we want to report on the resistance - whether it's in the streets of Baghdad,
New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to
become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services
together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize
resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you've read, we hope that
you'll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to
end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)
"The American People Will Not Continue To Support
Expeditionary Warfare With Either Their Taxes Or Blood"
Letter To The Editor
12.19.05
Army Times
The biggest mission creep the Regular Army faces is its
continued existence.
Now that the Cold War is over, we have no more possessions
to guard in China and the Philippines, and the Indians, Mexicans, British and
Spanish no longer require what little constabulary forces we needed in the
first 150 years of our existence as a nation.
The default peacetime defense establishment the founders
originally intended is the National Guard, whose existence is guaranteed by the
Second Amendment, plus a federal navy.
The only justification for a large standing army is to deal
with foreign threats that are overseas or directly on our borders and pose an
immediate, present and sustained threat to the continental United States.
The threats posed by weapons of mass destruction delivered
through the air do not require modular brigades or expeditionary forces, and
WMDs delivered by stealth are the responsibility of the police powers of the
states and the nation.
The biggest successes against terrorist networks have been
through cooperation among our CIA and FBI and their counterparts in foreign
countries.
The standing force we need to keep foreign threats from
developing overseas is today more a function of nation-building than
nation-busting. Even nation-busting requires nation-building.
This is what the Army has been doing for the past 20 years,
and missions like hurricane relief are the best form of experience.
The appearance of U.S. ships, aircraft and troops in
Indonesia during the tsunami recovery totally reversed the attitudes of the
Indonesian people toward us.
The American people will not continue to support
sustained rotational expeditionary warfare with either their taxes or blood.
It may be time to restore the original peacetime
establishment the founders intended, particularly since the Guard costs
one-third to one-sixth as much to maintain the same capabilities.
Lt. Col. Gordon S. Fowkes (ret.)
Sugar Land, Texas
OCCUPATION REPORT
U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS
A US marine from 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment enters
a house to search as an elderly Iraqi woman in seen inside a kitchen in
downtown Fallujah. (AFP/Mauricio Lima)
[Fair is fair. Let's bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to
the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses by force,
overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it
"sovereign" and "detain" anybody who doesn't like it in some prison without any
changes being filed against them, or any trial.]
[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives.
They actually resent this help, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight
and kill the soldiers sent to occupy their country. What a bunch of silly
people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by
George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that?]
OCCUPATION ISN'T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK
THIS IS NOT A SATIRE:
FBI Terrorist Hunters Spied On Vegetarians And
Catholic Pacifists
December 20, 2005 By ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times
Company
Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering
operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as
diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed
agency records show.
One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis
planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community
Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's
"semi-communistic ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest
in determining the location of a protest over lla