'Peace Takes Courage'........

{Flash Productions}



3 YEARS



ASHAMED



Peace Takes Courage Site

Honorable Moments In U.S. Military History:

The Ft. Hood Strike:

“The Little Brass Dictators Are Facing A New Kind Of Enlisted Man And They Haven't Figured Out How To Deal With Him”

[This article is posted at The Sir! No Sir! web site, well worth checking out for a rich collection]

Vietnam GI, Sept. 1968


The action of 43 black EMs at FT Hood has set a precedent that may well be followed and improved upon by thousands of GIs in the future.

On August 23, the 43 stopped going along with the Brass's game-they refused to be used to put down so-called "civil disturbances" in Chicago during the Democrat Convention.

Now the Brass are trying every trick in the UCMJ, as well as several new ones, to punish the demonstrators. They're afraid millions of other GI's might get the idea they can buck the system and win. But the Army is finding that it's a lot harder to railroad 43 men who hang together than it is to screw them over one at a time, as they usually do.

The demonstrators, many of them decorated Nam returnees, are members of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions at Hood.

When they decided the time had come to make a stand, they issued a statement which said: "We won't go to Chicago or any place in the United States to put down a civil disturbance or riot by our black brothers."

The GIs began assembling on post at the intersection of 65th and Central on the evening of the 23rd. The group was orderly and quiet and expanded as the night wore on.

At 2 a.m. MAJ. GEN John Boles, of the 1st AD, tried to talk the men out of staying. When that failed Boles, fearing the solidarity of the group, told the men they could continue demonstrating without repercussions. When asked to put his promise in writing Boles refused, but he raised his right hand and swore to it with his staff as witnesses.

At 5:45 a.m., however, a Colonel tried to break the General's promise. LT COL Edwin Kulo, 1st AD Provost Marshal, appeared and said, "I want you all to go back to your area." A couple of minutes later he added, "I'm asking you to leave now, otherwise the MPs will take you in." Again no direct order was given, only a request and a threat. The men remained solid and unmoving.

As MPs stood by, some of the men asked to see their lawyers and were refused. Shortly after, an MP Captain yelled 'get 'em" and the MPs attacked, screaming and swinging clubs. Many of the demonstrators were injured as they attempted to protect their heads from the blows. One, a wounded combat vet, demanded medical attention. He had difficulty breathing and his wounds were bothering him seriously. Ten hours later, and only after he began urinating blood, he was finally treated.

The Brass had not covered themselves, even under their own kangaroo code, by issuing any direct orders.

But that screwup didn't seem to bother them.

They singled out 8 of the 43 as leaders and set up general courtsmartial on charges of disobeying a direct order!

The 8 are now attempting to force the Brass to limit their prosecution to special courts-martial. The remaining 34 (one other was not charged) are receiving special courts, many of which have now ended. They are being tried in groups of 6 and 8 at time. The brass are trying to ram through convictions by lying and other tactics. But the heaviest stockade sentence thus far has been 6 months; several have gotten 3 months or acquittals. Of the most recent group, as VGI goes to press, 4 out of 6 were acquitted.

There are several reasons for these "light" sentences (according to the usual standards.)

There are the determination and aggressiveness of the GIs, and the fact that they have a civilian lawyer. The publicity about the case also makes it tough for the Brass to be as heavy-handed as they are when they're dealing quietly with isolated individuals. And there's no doubt that they fear the response of thousands of other GIs at Hood if they hand down extreme sentences.

But the Brass's case is too shabby even for convictions, much less extreme sentences.

Some examples:

Defense attorney Weldon Berry of Houston had the defendants sit in the spectator section at the beginning of the trials. Prosecution witness SGT Walton of the 501st MP Co stated, "I never forget a face," yet he picked out only one of the accused from among the spectators.

High officers were called in to lie about the events. LT COL John J. Cassidy and LT COL John Saalberg testified that they heard COL Kulo give the 43 a direct order to disperse. But the Brass couldn't produce Kulo as a witness.

Strangely enough, GEN Boles never appeared to testify about his promise.

At one trial the defense called CAPT William R. Robbins, former senior aide to GEN Boles. He turned out to be the one officer involved who told it like it was.

Robbins testified that he heard GEN. Boles tell the men that they could stay where they were gathered without fear of punishment, but that he had "advised" or "suggested" that they disperse.

He also said that Boles told the men that if they did not want to go to Chicago, they should not have to go.

But Robbins' testimony didn't matter, of course. It didn't fit the official Brass version that the LT COLs had testified to.

The Army is shook.

FT. Hood is one of several recent events which shows that the little brass dictators are facing a new kind of enlisted man and they haven't figured out how to deal with him.

The general courts of the 8 men who were singled out are yet to come. But the events thus far are themselves a victory for EMs everywhere.

If the trend continues-and thousands of GIs can make it continue, the Brass will be unable to force GIs to fight in countries and cities, in wars that no one voted for and no one benefits from, except for the hawk corporations and their politicians.

The information for this article has been gathered by the staff of Fatigue Press, an underground sheet put out by GIs at Hood and from the staff of the "Oleo Strut," a coffeehouse run by GIs and sympathetic civilians in Killeen.


Welcome to the Sir! No Sir! Reference Libraries

Visit the above link for a host of collected information of what Exactly was going on at that time. And try as they might were kept out of the mainstream by the powers that were. But the dam had burst and G.I.'s were not going to be Silenced!

'Sir! No Sir!' How To End A War!!

Dear Friends,

The brand new, exciting, dynamic web site for Sir! No Sir! is up!



View The Trailer:
28/56 Dialup
DSL/CABLE
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Thursday April 6th at 7:00pm, Oakland Preview Screening - Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA.
A Benefit for Iraq Vets Against the War
For More Information click here
Monday April 17 at 7:45 PM and 9:55 PM, New York Preview Screenings - IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue, at West Third Street, New York City, NY.
With Jane Fonda and Vietnam GI Resisters From the Film, A Benefit for Iraq Vets Against the War
For More Information click here


We had a showing of Sir! No Sir! last week, 3/25/06, in the Charlotte NC Public Library, featuring

Ahmad Daniels, who was incarcerated for over two years (of a 10 year sentence) for speaking out against the war while actively serving in the United States Marine Corps.
As a Vietnam Veteran, I wasn't as active than, while still on Active Duty, {but knew full well what others were doing} untill I was Discharged and joined in the local activisms that were taking place in opposition of that 'Illegal Invasion/Occupation/Destruction!
This is a must see Documentary to better understand those times, in a country that is Still in Denial, and has Once Again Allowed Fools To Destroy an Innocent Country and People, as well as to understand what Actually brought about the End of that Extreme Tragedy of Death and Destruction!

Please take a moment to go to Sir! No Sir! and see what it has to offer:

--The theatrical trailer for Sir! No Sir!;

--Daily updates of theatrical openings;

--Downloadable posters, photos, and press releases;

--Reviews from around the world;

--The story behind Sir! No Sir!;

--Links to dozens of web sites and publications;

--A bulletin board to join the discussion and debate surrounding Sir! No Sir! ;

--An extensive and constantly growing archive of the GI Underground Press and original material from the GI Movement, including previously classified military investigations Displaced Films was able to get for the film;

GI Rebels
(Photo courtesy of Displaced Films)


This is a site you will want to return to over and over, as Sir! No Sir! spreads to theaters around the country.

(If you have visited the site previously using Safari, make sure you empty your Cache to let the new site in).

Thanks, and enjoy the site,

David Zeiger
Displaced Films

"Sir! No Sir!" combines exceptional artistry and insightful analysis with great story telling. This is no facile agitprop piece, but a careful dissection of a growing military rebellion that permanently altered American society, but has largely been forgotten. International Documentary Magazine

Fort Lewis GIs at the entrance to the Ft. Dix stockade.
(Photomontage by James Lewes. Courtesy of Displaced Films)




Nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary

Audience Award Best Documentary--Los Angeles Film Festival

Jury Award Best Documentary--Hamptons International Film Festival

Jury Award Best Film on War and Peace--Vermont International Film Festival

Nominated for a Gotham Award and International Documentary Association Award



Sir! No Sir!

Displaced Films

3421 Fernwood Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90039

323-906-9249

323-913-0683 fax

Displaced Films

The movement has started with this New Generation of War Veterans sent and fighting, once again, in a Conflict Based On 'LIES' and 'CORRUPT' Politicians and some Military High Brass, Leaders they think they are, and call themselves such in their Destructive Arrogance!




Iraq Veterans Against The War

Listen to what some of these present day War Veterans have to say:

BBC Documentary from 'Walkin' To New Orleans'

Wednesday, 29 March, 2006

{23min Long, don't know how long it will be up at their site, it was aired on the 29th. on BBC2, it was still there when I checked a sort while ago}

From Jasmin Buttar
Programme Producer, BBC Newsnight

When the dust settles: Anger from US soldiers back from Iraq
Presented by Jeremy Paxman

US Soldiers

{Click on Report Link in Title, Video Link is on the Right Hand Side Titled 'Former U.S. Soldiers'!}

We have a powerful film this evening. We follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience.
As they march across America to protest against the war they reveal their own experiences of the conflict, make some disturbing allegations about military practices in Iraq and reflect on how it feels to come home.

This is a short Flash/Music Video, with a Iraq War CO Speaking before Song and another Iraq Vet, IVAW member, speaking at end, Must See!
Walkin' To New Orleans, Sunday March 19th 2006, 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Flash Video Last Day Of March



VIDEO SPECIAL |

Katrina Plus Seven Months

A Film by Chris Hume
The latest video in the Hurricane Katrina series by Chris Hume. It has been seven months since New Orleans was nearly wiped out by the storm, and Chris Hume is revisiting some of the people he met the first time, when the city was still flooded and under martial law. Also, a coalition of Iraq War veterans and Katrina Survivors march to New Orleans from Mobile, Alabama, to speak out against the occupation of Iraq and to help rebuild the Gulf Coast.

QuickTime
DSL | 56K

Windows Media
DSL | 56K

RealMedia
DSL | 56K

Tracking coalition military deaths in Iraq, one day at a time, across the map. Click HERE to see the Flash-Animated Map.



"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."
"Sow Justice, Reap Peace -- Strategies for Moving Beyond War" 2006 VFP Annual Convention August 10-13, Seattle, WA
Member: Veterans For Peace

BBC Documentary from 'Walkin' To New Orleans' {23 min long}

Wednesday, 29 March, 2006

From Jasmin Buttar
Programme Producer, BBC Newsnight

When the dust settles: Anger from US soldiers back from Iraq
Presented by Jeremy Paxman

US Soldiers

We have a powerful film this evening. We follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience.
As they march across America to protest against the war they reveal their own experiences of the conflict, make some disturbing allegations about military practices in Iraq and reflect on how it feels to come home.
We'll discuss some of the issues raised with the former Judge Advocate General for the US Army who is also a decorated combat veteran.

{Click on Report Link in Title, Video Link is on the Right Hand Side Titled 'Former U.S. Soldiers'!}

Tales of Lunacy and Hope from New Orleans

"A patriot is mocked, scorned and hated; yet when his cause succeeds, all
men will join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." -- Mark
Twain

~~~~~~~~


Bill Quigley |

Sleeping in Your Car in Front of Your Trailer in Front of Your Devastated Home

Bill Quigley writes: In New Orleans, seven months after Katrina, senior citizens are living in their cars. WWL-TV introduced us to Korean War veteran Paul Morris, 74, and his wife Yvonne, 66. They have been sleeping in their 2 door sedan since January. They have been waiting that long for FEMA contractors to unlock the 240 square foot trailer in their yard and connect the power so they can sleep inside it in front of their devastated home.

~~~~~~~~


"The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was
elected.” -- Kurt Vonnegut

~~~~~~~~


VIDEO SPECIAL |

Katrina Plus Seven Months

A Film by Chris Hume
The latest video in the Hurricane Katrina series by Chris Hume. It has been seven months since New Orleans was nearly wiped out by the storm, and Chris Hume is revisiting some of the people he met the first time, when the city was still flooded and under martial law. Also, a coalition of Iraq War veterans and Katrina Survivors march to New Orleans from Mobile, Alabama, to speak out against the occupation of Iraq and to help rebuild the Gulf Coast.

QuickTime
DSL | 56K

Windows Media
DSL | 56K

RealMedia
DSL | 56K

~~~~~~~~~~


"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."
-- Mark Twain, 19th century

~~~~~~~~


Tracking coalition military deaths in Iraq, one day at a time, across the map. Click

HERE

to see the Flash-Animated Map.

Iraqi's Thankful......

"I can't thank them enough because they feel for Iraq and Iraqi peoples'........



They Never Deserved This!!!

Peace-Tolerance-Understanding!!!

SPEECH BY DAVID CLINE, National Pres. VFP - AGENT ORANGE

SPEECH BY DAVID CLINE,
PRESIDENT OF VETERANS FOR PEACE, USA
AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE VIETNAM AGENT ORANGE
RELIEF AND RESPONSIBILITY CAMPAIGN

First let me thank the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin for organizing this international conference and to the Agent Orange Vets from Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada who have traveled here to participate.

The US delegation I am leading is made up of Agent Orange vets Frank Corcoran, Joan Duffy, Ralph Steele Dan Shea.

I was an infantryman with the 25th Infantry Division in Cu Chi and Tay Ninh in 1967 and was wounded 3 times but do not suffer from dioxin related health conditions myself.

When I came back from the war, I had knowledge of the use of Agent Orange having seen sprayed areas and knew that they destroyed nature but had no knowledge of the negative effects these defoliants had on human beings.

I remember in 1969 a veteran I knew named Jeff Sharlett died of cancer at age 27 in the Miami, Florida Veterans Hospital and thinking it was strange that someone so young had cancer.

Over the years other friends of mine got sick or had deformed children or sometimes died. Mike Keegan and John Miffin who died and John and Rena Kopystenski who had several children with birth defects are among them. So this issue has always been personal to me.

In 1977, a woman who worked as a claims representative at the Chicago Veterans Administration named Maude DeVictor was the first person to really put two and two together when she witnessed the VA higher-ups denying veterans claims and covering up their health problems and the connections to dixon exposure.

The next year, 1978, a veteran name Paul Reutershan who was sick with cancer got on television and said "my government killed me in Vietnam and I didn't even know it". He began a lawsuit against the chemical companies who manufactured Agent Orange, Blue, White, Purple etc. but he never lived to see that lawsuit completed because he died within the year.

The reason that this lawsuit was started was because the VA was denying veterans claims for medical treatment and compensation and according to US law, citizens cannot sue the government for these type of claims.

From 1978-1984 the lawsuit continued and was eventually settled, although many veterans opposed the settlement for millions of dollars. Sadly many veterans got very little of that money since the army of lawyers who got involved got a good portion of it in legal fees.

I have been a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War since 1970 and that organization played a critical role in launching the movement for justice for Agent Orange vets, supporting Maude Devictor who became the godmother of the movement, recruiting veterans to joining the lawsuit and raising general public awareness of this issue.

But we always believed that while the chemical companies had responsibility and should be held liable, the primary responsibility lay with the US government which ordered and continued to use these poisons after they were becoming aware of the negative effects on people. Instead of changing course, they covered up the facts and kept using them until 1971. After that they gave their remaining supplies to the former Army of the Republic of Vietnam who continued to use them until 1975 when that regime ceased to exist.

In VVAW, our demand has always been Testing, Treatment and Compensation for Agent Orange Victims. We never thought the lawsuit against the chemical companies was the answer, but rather a way to continue putting pressure on the US government.

Finally progress was made on that front when in 1991, Congress passed the Agent Orange Act, acknowledging several conditions as being dioxin related for purposes of medical treatment and disability compensation. It also established a mechanism for the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine to review new studies and make recommendations to the Secretary of the Veterans Administration for expanding the recognized conditions.

Currently there are thirteen conditions acknowledged by the VA including two conditions among veterans children but over 27 conditions have been rejected since there was a finding by the IOM of not enough scientific research to indicate a connection to dioxin exposure.

So many veterans are still not being treated with any fairness. And how does someone give justice to all those who have died? The hidden casualties of the Vietnam War continue to grow but the struggle continues as well.

And today we need to talk about the other side of the coin, not just American, Korean, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian veterans but the people of Vietnam as well.

Remember also that these chemicals were also used in parts of Cambodia and Laos as well as along the DMZ in Korea and in Panama.

In the United States we began the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign to support the efforts of VAVA and join with concerned veterans and people in other countries to demand Justice for ALL Agent Orange Victims!

While the Campaign is sponsored by Veterans For Peace, it is made up of war veterans, Vietnamese-Americans, peace activists, environmentalists and other friends of Vietnam. We are supporting the international petition drive in support of the VAVA lawsuit and recently sponsored a 10 city speaking tour by 4 VAVA members.

We are also planning to encourage sympathetic representatives and senators to introduce legislation in Congress for the US government to step up to the plate and provide compensation and medical assistance, if not for political reasons, then fro moral and humanitarian purposes. It is time to really heal the wounds of that war, not to ignore them or let them fade into history.

Let me make on last point. This is a struggle to expose and end the use of chemical weapons by all nations but especially by my government. This is not just about something that happened over 30 years ago. Today the Bush administration has led our country and the world into another invasion and occupation, this time in Iraq and is now used Depleted Uranium that will in time poison US troops and Iraqi citizens. They have also used White Phosphorus bombs against whole cities like Fallujah.

It is time for humanity to demand an end to these weapons as part of our efforts to abolish war. That is what Veterans For Peace is pledged to work for. That will only come through the determined efforts of all of us, throughout the world.

The great American abolitionist Fredrick Douglass said:

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without the thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will"

With that as our watchword, lets make this conference a call to all the people of the world.

JUSTICE FOR ALL AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS!

'Walkin' To New Orleans': "If you start looking at them as humans......."

'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'

They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of veterans of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the third anniversary of the invasion this month, a group of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Inigo Gilmore and Teresa Smith joined them

Wednesday March 29, 2006
The Guardian

At a press conference in a cavernous Alabama warehouse, banners and posters are rolled out: "Abandon Iraq, not the Gulf coast!" A tall, white soldier steps forward in desert fatigues. "I was in Iraq when Katrina happened and I watched US citizens being washed ashore in New Orleans," he says. "War is oppression: we could be setting up hospitals right here. America is war-addicted. America is neglecting its poor."

A black reporter from a Fox TV news affiliate, visibly stunned, whispers: "Wow! That guy's pretty opinionated." Clearly such talk, even three years after the Iraq invasion, is still rare. This, after all, is the Deep South and this soldier less than a year ago was proudly serving his nation in Iraq.

The soldier was engaged in no ordinary protest. Over five days earlier this month, around 200 veterans, military families and survivors of hurricane Katrina walked 130 miles from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq war. At its vanguard, Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group formed less than two years ago, whose very name has aroused intense hostility at the highest levels of the US military.

Mobile is a grand old southern naval town, clinging to the Gulf Coast. The stars and stripes flutter from almost every balcony as the soldiers parade through the town, surprising onlookers. As they begin their soon-to-be-familiar chants - "Bush lied, many died!" - some shout "traitor", or hurl less polite terms of abuse. Elsewhere, a black man salutes as a blonde, middle-aged woman, emerging from a supermarket car park, cries out, "Take it all the way to the White House!" and offers the peace sign.

Michael Blake is at the front of the march. The 22-year-old from New York state is not quite sure how he ended up in the military; the child of "a feminist mom and hippy dad", he says he signed up thinking that he would have an adventure, never imagining that he would find himself in Iraq. He served from April 2003 to March 2004, some of that time as a Humvee driver. Deeply disturbed by his experience in Iraq, he filed for conscientious objector status and has been campaigning against the war ever since.

He claims that US soldiers such as him were told little about Iraq, Iraqis or Islam before serving there; other than a book of Arabic phrases, "the message was always: 'Islam is evil' and 'They hate us.' Most of the guys I was with believed it."

Blake says that the turning point for him came one day when his unit spent eight hours guarding a group of Iraqi women and children whose men were being questioned. He recalls: "The men were taken away and the women were screaming and crying, and I just remember thinking: this was exactly what Saddam used to do - and now we're doing it."

Becoming a peace activist, he says, has been a "cleansing" experience. "I'll never be normal again. I'll always have a sense of guilt." He tells us that he witnessed civilian Iraqis being killed indiscriminately. It would not be the most startling admission by the soldiers on the march.

"When IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] would go off by the side of the road, the instructions were - or the practice was - to basically shoot up the landscape, anything that moved. And that kind of thing would happen a lot." So innocent people were killed? "It happened, yes." (He says he did not carry out any such killings himself.)

Blake, an activist with IVAW for the past 12 months, is angry that American people seem so untouched by the war, by the grim abuses committed by American soldiers. "The American media doesn't cover it and they don't care. The American people aren't seeing the real war - what's really happening there."

We are in a Mexican diner in Mississippi when Alan Shackleton, a quiet 24-year-old from Iowa, stuns the table into silence with a story of his own. He details how he and his comrades in Iraq suffered multiple casualties, including a close friend who died of his injuries. Then he pauses for a moment, swallows hard and says: "And I ran over a little kid and killed him ... and that's about it." He has been suffering from severe insomnia, but later he tells us that he has only been able to see a counsellor once every six weeks and has been prescribed sleeping pills.

"We are very, very sorry for what we did to the Iraqi people," he says the next day, holding a handwritten poster declaring: "Thou shall not kill."

As we get closer to New Orleans, the coastline becomes increasingly ravaged. Joe Hatcher, always sporting a keffiyeh and punk chains, reflects on his own time in the military and the hostility he has met from pro-war activists at home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a town with five army bases where he campaigns against the war at town hall forums. He says: "There's this old guy, George, an ex-colonel. He shows up and talks shit on everybody for being anti-war because 'it's ruining the morale of the soldier and encouraging the enemy'.

"I scraped dead bodies off the pavements with a shovel and threw them in trash bags and left them there on the side of the road. And I really don't think the anti-war movement is what is infuriating people."

When we reach Biloxi, Mississippi, the police say that there is no permit for the march and everyone will have to walk on the pavement. This is tricky because Katrina has left this coastal road looking like a bomb site.
Jody Casey left the army five days ago and came straight to join the vets. The 29-year-old is no pacifist; he still firmly backs the military but says that he is speaking out in the hope of correcting many of the mistakes being made. He served as a scout sniper for a year until last February, based, like Blake, in the Sunni triangle.

He clearly feels a little ill at ease with some of the protesters' rhetoric, but eventually agrees to talk to us. He says that the turning point for him came after he returned from Iraq and watched videos that he and other soldiers in his unit shot while out on raids, including hour after hour of Iraqi soldiers beating up Iraqi civilians. While reviewing them back home he decided "it was not right".
What upset him the most about Iraq? "The total disregard for human life," he says, matter of factly. "I mean, you do what you do at the time because you feel like you need to. But then to watch it get kind of covered up, shoved under a rug ... 'Oh, that did not happen'."

What kind of abuses did he witness? "Well, I mean, I have seen innocent people being killed. IEDs go off and [you] just zap any farmer that is close to you. You know, those people were out there trying to make a living, but on the other hand, you get hit by four or five of those IEDs and you get pretty tired of that, too."
Casey told us how, from the top down, there was little regard for the Iraqis, who were routinely called "hajjis", the Iraq equivalent of "gook". "They basically jam into your head: 'This is hajji! This is hajji!' You totally take the human being out of it and make them into a video game."

It was a way of dehumanising the Iraqis? "I mean, yeah - if you start looking at them as humans, and stuff like that, then how are you going to kill them?"
He says that soldiers who served in his area before his unit's arrival recommended them to keep spades on their vehicles so that if they killed innocent Iraqis, they could throw a spade off them to give the appearance that the dead Iraqi was digging a hole for a roadside bomb.

Casey says he didn't participate in any such killings himself, but claims the pervasive atmosphere was that "you could basically kill whoever you wanted - it was that easy. You did not even have to get off and dig a hole or anything. All you had to do was have some kind of picture. You're driving down the road at three in the morning. There's a guy on the side of the road, you shoot him ... you throw a shovel off."

The IVAW, says Hatcher, "is becoming our religion, our fight - as in any religion we've confessed our wrongs, and now it's time to atone."

Just outside New Orleans, the sudden appearance of a reporter from al-Jazeera's Washington office electrifies the former soldiers. It is a chance for the vets to turn confessional and the reporter is deluged with young former soldiers keen to be interviewed. "We want the Iraqi people to know that we stand with them," says Blake, "and that we're sorry, so sorry. That's why it was so important for us to appear on al-Jazeera."

A number of Vietnam veterans also on the march are a welcome presence. For all the attempts to deny a link between the two conflicts, for both sets of veterans the parallels are persuasive. Thomas Brinson survived the Tet offensive in Vietnam in 1968. "Iraq is just Arabic for Vietnam, like the poster says - the same horror, the same tears," he says.

Sitting on a riverbed outside New Orleans, Blake turns reflective. "I met an Iraqi at one of the public meetings I was talking at recently. He came up to me and told me he was originally from the town where I had been stationed. And I just went up to this complete stranger and hugged him and I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.' And you know what? He told me it was OK. And it was beautiful ..." He starts to cry. "That was redemption".

· Inigo Gilmore and Teresa Smith's film on the March to New Orleans is on Newsnight tonight at 10.30pm on BBC2.
~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~


Walkin' To New Orleans, Sunday March 19th 2006, 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Flash Video Last Day Of March
***
"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."

Afghanistan: The Forgotten War

Soldier on patrol walks past two women in burkhas. (AP FILE)

Afghanistan: The Forgotten War

Story aired: Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Here & Now speaks with author Sebastian Junger about his story on "The Forgotten War," published in this month's Vanity Fair.

LISTEN TO DISCUSSION

America's Forgotten War
More than four years after the invasion of Afghanistan, 20,000 U.S. soldiers are still there, pitting their diplomatic skills—and massive airpower—against the Taliban's terror tactics
By SEBASTIAN JUNGER

Uncertainty...

Riverbend - Uncertainty... - Baghdad Burning

PTSD Stalks Veterans, Civilians

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

BY JOHN HALE

AUGUSTA - Until 1980, it didn't have an official name.

But soldiers in all the wars in history, dating back to the Egyptians and the Greeks, had suffered from it.

Some called it shell shock, others called it battle fatigue.

In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association officially dubbed it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, an anxiety disorder that curses people who are forced to relive an emotionally stressful event over and over again.

It's particularly acute for battlefield soldiers. But civilians in stressful situations also can get PTSD. Survivors of terrorists attacks like 9/11 or natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina can get PTSD. So can battered wives and abused children.

On Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Senator Inn in Augusta, Maine Veterans for Peace is sponsoring a symposium on PTSD. The fee at the door will be $10 per person and $25 for health professionals, which includes lunch.

“We won't turn anyone aside if they can't afford it,” said Doug Rawlings, president of Maine Veterans for Peace, who is hoping for a large turnout.

“It's tough to deal with,” Rawlings said. “One of the symptoms of PTSD is you don't want to be around groups. To encourage people to come out to a symposium is a delicate task.”

The symposium has two featured speakers.

Bruce Letch is a clinical psychologist in the Psychiatry Department at Togus veterans hospital who has been treating PTSD patients since 1980.

Glenn Schiraldi is a public-health educator on the stress management faculty at the University of Maryland and formerly on the stress management faculty of the Pentagon. He is author of “The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook.”

PTSD first came to the public's awareness after the Vietnam War as thousands of returning veterans experienced flashbacks, nightmares and social withdrawal.

Now, thousands of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are reporting the symptoms of PTSD.

Laurie Tranter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, said that a total of 505,366 veterans have already returned from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of that total, 144,424 veterans have sought medical help in VA hospitals and clinics and 20,638 veterans have been given the initial diagnosis of PTSD. That's about 1 in 25 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't think all veterans who need help have come forward.

“It's probably going to end up being similar to Vietnam,” Schiraldi said.

According to the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” the Bible of the mental-health profession, PTSD has to have four conditions in order to be present. They are:

€ Exposure to an initial stressful event.

€ The event is reexperienced through nightmares or flashbacks or unwanted memories.

€ There is trouble falling asleep, angry outbursts, difficulty concentrating, hyper-vigilance and exaggerated startle response.

€ In the avoidance or numbing cluster, people with PTSD try to avoid anything that reminds them of what happened. People may become socially withdrawn. They may avoid crowds. They may not be interested in parties, sex or hobbies. They feel like they may never have a normal life again.

Schiraldi said there a number of ways of treating PTSD, most of them centered on talking therapies.

“You take this memory that's sitting there like an angry child in a playpen and you try to calm it so you can put it away,” he said. “You try to neutralize the memory, which is intruding, put the pieces together and then store it in long-term memory.”

He said therapy for PTSD patients usually follows a sequence, such as:

€ Educating the person - normalizing the symptoms and understanding the symptoms.

€ Stabilization phase - making sure they're not harming themselves.

€ Managing the symptoms.

€ Cognitive behavioral treatments - These include correcting unreasonable negative memories such as “I'm responsible for losing my squad members when we were attacked.”

Various skills are used for expressing the memories and bringing the traumatic memory to awareness. Schiraldi said art therapy can be very effective.

“If a soldier comes in with unresolved trauma from his earlier life, such as child abuse, they're more vulnerable to getting PTSD from combat duty,” Schiraldi said.

€ “Group therapy can be very helpful, especially for soldiers who feel that nobody but other soldiers can understand what they've been through,” Schiraldi said.

€ Serotonin enhancers that are used to treat depression such as Zoloft have been found to be effective medications to combat PTSD.

“Mental-health professionals have many more tools than they used to have and so the prognosis is much brighter,” Schiraldi said. “Individuals would be wise to seek a trauma specialist, not just a generic counselor. Sometimes just talking about it is not just enough.”

He said the Sidran Institute in Maryland keeps a registry of trauma specialists.

“There is some evidence that you don't want to wait, that the sooner you get treated, the better your prognosis,” Schiraldi said. “Some people suffer for decades, not realizing that if they got treatment, their suffering would lessen quickly.”

“The more you keep these memories secret, the more they will eat away at you,” he said.

Schiraldi said many members of the World War II generation masked their painful war memories by drinking, and not talking about them for decades.

He said a U.S. naval veteran who was in a Kamikaze attack in the Pacific on a warship had all his memories flood back over him almost 60 years later when he saw the World Trade Center attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. n

Agent Orange Victims, Seeking Justice

Published on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 by Reuters

Agent Orange Victims Gather to Seek Justice

A view of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as it crosses the Rinh River near the village of Thanh Liem, in an undated photo. Vietnam War veterans from the United States, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam gathered on Tuesday to call for more help for the victims of the Agent Orange defoliant used by the U.S. military. REUTERS/File

HANOI - Vietnam War veterans from the United States, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam gathered on Tuesday to call for more help for the victims of the Agent Orange defoliant used by the U.S. military.

Deformed children born to parents Vietnam believes were affected by the estimated 20 million gallons of herbicides, including Agent Orange, poured on the country were brought to the conference as dramatic evidence of its effects.

"The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam produced unacceptable threats to life, violated international law and created a toxic wasteland that continued to kill and injure civilian populations long after the war was over," said Joan Duffy from Pennsylvania.

Duffy who served in a U.S. military hospital in Vietnam in 1969-1970, said the Agent Orange used there was more toxic than usual.

"In an effort to work faster and increase production of Agent Orange, the chemical companies paid little attention to quality control issues," she said.

"The Agent Orange destined for Vietnam became much more highly contaminated with dioxin as the result of sloppy, hasty manufacturing," she told the conference in Hanoi.

Last March, a federal court dismissed a suit on behalf of millions of Vietnamese who charged the United States committed war crimes by its use of Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, to deny communist troops ground cover.

The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) has filed an appeal, saying assistance was needed urgently as many were dying.

The U.S. appeals court was expected to make a decision in April.

Dioxin can cause cancer, deformities and organ dysfunction. Manufacturers named in the suit included Dow Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co..

VAVA chairman Dang Vu Hiep said Vietnam's lawsuit against U.S. chemical manufacturers was meant not only to help Vietnamese victims, but also victims in other countries.

In January, a South Korean appeals court ordered Dow Chemical Co and Monsanto Co. to pay $65 million in damages to 20,000 of the country's Vietnam War veterans for exposure to defoliants such as Agent Orange.

Due to problems arising from jurisdiction and the amount of time that has elapsed since the war, legal experts said it will be cumbersome or perhaps impossible for the South Korean veterans to collect damages.

The chemical remains in the water and soil, scientists say.

"Thirty years after the fire ceased, many Vietnamese are still dying due to the effect of toxic chemicals sprayed by the U.S. forces in Vietnam and many Vietnamese will still be killed by the chemicals," said Bui Tho Tan, a war reporter who suffers from throat cancer.

"Those who committed the crime must be punished," he said.

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"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."

Walkin' To New Orleans, Sunday March 19th 2006, 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Flash Video Last Day Of March

Walkin' To New Orleans

"'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'...To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink."
-- George Orwell, 1949



Walkin' To New Orleans, Sunday March 19th 2006, 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Flash Video Last Day Of March



I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country's most agile military force, the Marines.
I served in all ranks from second lieutenant to major general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.
In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.
The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras 'right' for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotion. Looking back on it, I feel that I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three city districts.
The Marines operated on three continents.
Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler (former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps), Common Sense, November 1935



"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."

Incompetent Design

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. – Howard Zinn



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VETERANS DISCUSS IRAQ
March 24, 2006


Four Iraq war veterans discuss their experiences in Iraq and their views on the war's impact three years after the initial U.S.-led invasion.
Click Here To Listen To Discussion
Or Click HERE To Visit Site To Listen And Read Transcript.


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Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem. – Howard Zinn



~~~~~~~~


FBI Keeps Watch on Activists
Antiwar, other groups are monitored to curb violence, not because of ideology, agency says.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer
March 27, 2006


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The working masses of men and women, they and they alone, are responsible for everything that takes place, the good things and the bad things. True enough, they suffer most from a war, but it is their apathy, craving for authority, etc., that is most responsible for making wars possible. It follows of necessity from this responsibility that the working masses of men and women, they and they alone, are capable of establishing lasting peace. – Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism



~~~~~~~~



Freed British Peace Activist Norman Kember Tells World Not to Forget
Plight of "Ordinary Iraqi People"

The three recently freed kidnapped members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
have returned home. Last week, Norman Kember of Britain, and Canadians James
Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden were found after nearly four months in
captivity. We play Kember's statement to the media shortly after arriving in
London.

Listen/Watch/Read


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A people free to choose will always choose peace. – Ronald Reagan



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William Rivers Pitt | Incompetent Design

William Rivers Pitt writes: Last week, George W. Bush got up before a gaggle of reporters and washed his hands of the mess in Iraq. The question of how long an American presence will remain in that country "will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq," said Bush. To be fair, he isn't the only one. The entire administration appears to have become bored with the whole process.



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That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true... – Thomas Paine

VETERANS DISCUSS IRAQ - PBS NewHour

March 24, 2006



Four Iraq war veterans discuss their experiences in Iraq and their views on the war's impact three years after the initial U.S.-led invasion.

Click Here To Listen To The Discussion

To Listen & Read Transcript Click On Link In Title Or Graphic

Word and Photo Flash Video - Questions Asked

Ides of March

If You Know A Vet or Military Family Member That Are Having Coping Problems Pass This On!!

I have placed the link to this at the top of the PTSD Section, of this site, over on the right hand side.This was forwarded on to me and I'm passing it as well, hopefully those who visit will do so as well!!

Online Free Mental Health Screening for Returning Vets & Families

Dear Colleague,

We were so pleased to join you as participants at SAMHSA's Returning Veterans conference last week. As your partner in serving our nation's service members and veterans, we are writing to alert you of a new Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored online mental health screening and referral program for families and service members/veterans affected by deployment or mobilization. As you may know, (if you visited our conference exhibit or presentation) Screening for Mental Health, Inc. has been contracted by the DoD Office of Health Affairs to provide this program of free and anonymous mental health and alcohol screening with referrals to services provided through the DoD and Veterans Affairs. It is available to every branch of the military including National Guard and Reserve units. The new "Mental Health Self-Assessment Program" launched at the end of January. Your service members/veterans and families can access it at: Military Mental Health.

Please help us reach as many service members/veterans and their families as possible by sharing this link through your website, email listservs and newsletters. You can download articles, emails and other materials to promote this link at: Mental Health Screening. Simply click on "Materials to Publicize the Online Screening Program."
Thank you so much for notifying your service members/veterans and families about this valuable service. Please contact either of us with any questions or if we can be of help in any way.

Sincerely,
Barbara S. Kopans, Executive Director
Anne S. Keliher, Senior Program Director
Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
781.239.0071
bkopans@MentalHealthScreening.org
akeliher@MentalHealthScreening.org
Mental Health Screening

bushFlash Has A New Flash Video Up, and.........

Eric has Produced another Powerful Video:

Simply Called

3

~~~~~~~~~~

This one is a production of 'Smashface':

WAKE ME UP...

Katrina Video

~~~~~~~~~~

This one is from the last day of the 'Walkin' To New Orleans' March:

THE SUNDAY VIDEO

On the 3rd Anniversary of the 2nd Iraq War, Iraq veterans clearly spell out the problems with words and song. Words by Camilo Mejia and Michael Blake; song by VOICE.

Registrar Needed - Non Violent Peaceforce

[English, Español]

Registrar Needed

The Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) is looking for an experienced person or organization to create and manage an international register of people interested in and suitably qualified for NP field missions- working as nonviolent peacemakers and peacekeepers in areas of conflict. During the first year the registrar will verify, enter and track information for at least 500 peacekeepers and in the coming years include thousands.

The contracting party would need to provide quality assurance through reference checking, personal interviews, and observational assessments, in partnership with other NP member organizations and external parties assisting in this effort. It will be necessary to commit to maintaining the register in good order and ensure that it is accessible and relevant to people in all parts of the world. The contracting party will need to communicate on a regular basis with the members of the register and inform them of opportunities available with NP.

Applicant must have experience in creating and managing online registry services or related web based work.

Please provide curriculum vitae and work sample and bid to Gilda Bettencourt at gbettencourt@nonviolentpeaceforce.org by April 10th, 2006

Anuncio para una plaza como Registrador en Las Fuerzas de Paz Noviolentas (NP)

Las Fuerzas de Paz Noviolentas (NP) busca a persona u organización con experiencia para trabajar en la creación y manejo de un registro internacional de personas interesadas y debidamente calificadas para las misiones de campo de la NP como pacificadores no violentos en las áreas en conflicto. Durante el primer año, el registrador verificará, ingresará y monitoreará la información de al menos 500 pacificadores. En los años sucesivos, el manejo de datos incluirá miles de pacificadores.



La parte contractual necesita proporcionar confianza y seguridad mediante la verificación de referencias, entrevistas personales y observaciones de evaluación, en conjunto con otras organizaciones miembros de la NP y participantes externos que contribuyan con este esfuerzo. Será necesario comprometerse a mantener dicho registro en buen estado y asegurarse de que sea accesible y relevante para las personas en todo el mundo. La parte contractual necesitará comunicarse en forma regular con los miembros que se encuentren registrados para informarles de oportunidades disponibles en la NP.

Los solicitantes interesados deben tener experiencia en la creación y manejo de un registro por internet o servicios similares relacionados con trabajo en redes de internet..

Los solicitantes interesados pueden enviar su currículum y una muestra de su trabajo a Gilda Bettencourt a gbettencourt@nonviolentpeaceforce.org . La fecha límite es el 10 de abril del 2006


Nonviolent Peaceforce
Rue Van Elewyck 35, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium, +49-40-655-90-940
425 Oak Grove St, Minneapolis, MN 55403, USA, +1-612-871-0005