News Crawl 1-28-07

This Marine's death came after he served in Iraq
When Jonathan Schulze came home from Iraq, he tried to live a normal life. But the war kept that from happening.
At first, Jonathan Schulze tried to live with the nightmares and the grief he brought home from Iraq. He was a tough kid from central Minnesota, and more than that, a U.S. Marine to the core.
Yet his moods when he returned home told another story. He sobbed on his parents' couch as he told them how fellow Marines had died, and how he, a machine gunner, had killed the enemy. In his sleep, he screamed the names of dead comrades. He had visited a psychiatrist at the VA hospital in Minneapolis.
Two weeks ago, Schulze went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud. He told a staff member he was thinking of killing himself, and asked to be admitted to the mental health unit, said his father and stepmother, who accompanied him. They said he was told he couldn't be admitted that day. The next day, as he spoke to a counselor in St. Cloud by phone, he was told he was No. 26 on the waiting list, his parents said.


Boy's Father Dies In Iraq And Mother Scheduled To Return
Army specialist Katie Lavely is certainly no anti war activist. She has proudly served several months in Iraq.

She's due to return to active service soon, but she doesn't want to go. It has nothing to do with politics, but everything to do with her little boy, two year old Devic.

Devic just lost his father, also a soldier serving in Iraq. Lavely does not want to risk her son losing BOTH his parents.

Her ex-husband was Sergeant Victor Langarica. He died Saturday when insurgents shot down his helicopter near Baghdad.

Lavely knows when she signed up; she made a commitment, but tell that to a two year old boy.

Lavely says, "I'm expecting them to understand and leave me here with my son, but the military is the military. So, whatever they say goes."

Lavely and her family live in Brunswick Maryland. 9 News Now will stay with this story and let you know what happens.
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The True Cost of War
Newsweek
Feb. 5, 2007 issue - For American soldiers stationed in Iraq, one of the few comforts of this war is how easily they can keep in touch with family back home. Many service members call their spouses and kids several times a week and e-mail daily, reassuring them that they are all right. Sgt. 1/c John Gary Brown knew his wife, Donna, worried every time he went up in the air. A Black Hawk helicopter crew chief and gunner with an Arkansas Army National Guard unit, Brown had experience calming the anxieties of his wife of 18 years. War had separated them before: Brown had flown missions over a similarly bleak landscape a decade and a half ago when he served in the gulf war.


A Sorry State
Jan. 27, 2007 Newsweek - President George W. Bush concluded his annual State of the Union address this week with the words “the State of our Union is strong … our cause in the world is right … and tonight that cause goes on.” Maybe so, but the state of the Bush administration is at its worst yet, according to the latest NEWSWEEK Poll. The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent—and more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans. Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House.