Saturday, February 24, 2007
Interesting CBS 60min. On Sunday
Global Warming - Walter Reed - James McMurtry
A Veteran's View of Conditions at Walter Reed
Weekend Edition Saturday, February 24, 2007 · A Washington Post series focused on poor conditions and bureaucratic obstacles for care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. What does a wounded veteran have to say? Steve Robinson, a Gulf War veteran who is a special adviser to the group Veterans for America, discusses the situation with Scott Simon.
Listen To Report
Songwriting and Protest with James McMurtry
Weekend Edition Saturday, February 24, 2007 · As a young boy growing up in Texas, James McMurtry wanted to be Johnny Cash. His mother taught him to play a few chords on the guitar and he started writing songs around the age of 18.
Seven albums later, Childish Things was named Best Album of 2006 at the American Music Awards. "We Can't Make it Here," a grim lament about economic conditions in the United States, was also named Best Song. (And when you listen to it, you can hear Johnny Cash's influence in every intonation.)
"We Can't Make it Here": "It instantly got more attention than anything I'd done on a CD in 10 years," he says. "I was completely surprised by the power of the Internet."
Listen To Interview
Arctic Team Studies Global Warming, Inuit Culture
Weekend Edition Saturday, February 24, 2007 · Beginning this month, a team of seven explorers — including three Inuit hunters — are embarking on a 1,200-mile journey across Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Traveling by dog sled, the expedition will spend time in local villages discussing the effects of Global Warming on Inuit cultures. A project of the Will Steger Foundation, the team will communicate with and educate online participants around the world.
A team of seven explorers — including three Inuit hunters — is about to embark on a 1,200-mile journey across Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Traveling by dogsled, the expedition will spend time in local villages discussing the effects of global warming on Inuit cultures — and will use the Internet to communicate with interested observers around the world.
The project is sponsored by the Will Steger Foundation, dedicated to the exploraiton and preservation of the Arctic.
Global Warming 101
The Will Steger Foundation
Listen To Report short but really interesting!
War is not a GAME!
Toting menacing looking toy guns, young boys swarm around an abandoned car, chanting battle cries of a Shiite militia and pointing their play weapons at the “terrorist” in the driver’s seat.
“You coward! I will kill you,” shouted 6-year-old Haidar Faraj, who played a Shiite militiaman from the Shiite Mahdi Army militia on a recent afternoon in Hurriyah. His younger brother Abbas was the Sunni “terrorist.”
“They challenge teachers and even threaten them,” said biology teacher Abu Ali. “They are so frustrated and do not care about their work because they think they may end up displaced or killed, so why should they bother to study.”
This is just one of the results many of us, opposed to the failed policies, right from the beginning, were saying would happen if those policies were carried out, it has only gotten worse since they were!
gratitude" - The pResident {Yep up to 655,000 are really Grateful, many in
their Mass Graves, as are their Survivors}
support those troops," Mr. Hadley said. {Harms Way, shows what the
administration thinks of the Troops, it's called a Strong Defense!}
Friday, February 23, 2007
PBS News Hour - Walter Reed
Thursday, February 22, 2007
DN: Walter Reed
Medical Facility *
The Army's Vice Chief of Staff General Richard Cody admitted on Wednesday
there has been a ³breakdown in leadership² at the Walter Reed Army Medical
Center. His comments came three days after the Washington Post revealed that
hospital rooms at Walter Reed were infested with mouse droppings,
cockroaches, stained carpets, rodents and black mold. We speak with a former
Walter Reed patient; the wife of another patient, and a Salon.com reporter
who documented the problems at Walter Reed two years ago.
Listen/Watch/Read
MOJO: The IRAQ Effect
The study, by terrorism experts Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, uses data from the RAND Corporation to produce the first public report that measures the "Iraq effect" on jihadist terrorism. Their report is summarized in the March issue of Mother Jones magazine and can be found in its Entirety Online at MotherJones.com . It documents that since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, incidents of jihadist violence in the world have increased by 607 percent, and the number of people killed in those attacks has risen by 237 percent.
Excluding violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the authors found a 35 percent rise in the number of jihadist attacks and a 12 percent rise in fatalities worldwide. They found that the rate of attacks on Western interests and citizens has risen by almost 25 percent.
This new study comes at a pivotal time as Congress and President Bush contend over authority to manage the war and its statistical analysis casts further doubt on the Bush administration's claim that the Iraq invasion has helped stem global terrorism.
of Iraq *
As the fourth anniversary of the Iraq approaches, a new study by Mother
Jones magazine has found that the number of fatal terrorist attacks has
increased by over 600 percent since the U.S. invasion. We speak with the
study¹s co-author, Paul Cruickshank.
Listen/Watch/Read
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Walter Reed - Care Of Military Personal
Army Hospital Struggles to Provide Iraq Veterans Adequate Care
Some Iraq war veterans returning to the United States for medical treatment have found that Washington, D.C.'s Walter Reed Army Hospital has failed to provide them with adequate care. Dana Priest, a Washington Post reporter who broke the story, describes the problems.
You can listen to this report with the Real Media Audio
Or view it HERE
The transcript is at the title link.
Outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Guest host: Susan Page
Two Washington Post reporters describe the challenges some injured marines and soldiers face as outpatients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Guests
Dana Priest, intelligence correspondent for "The Washington Post" and author of "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military"
Anne Hull, reporter, "The Washington Post"
Lt. General Kevin Kiley, U.S. Army Surgeon General Commander, U.S. Army Medical Command
or
Windows Media Player
The Eyes of the Children
"Did you kill anyone?"
"So, what do you think of the war?"
Of course this might now be the case for every veteran, but I find it is the case for me. I therefore have decided to write this account. I will carry it in my back pocket and when someone asks me about my experience I will simply hand it over. This should bring me a small ounce of relief I think.
In the fall of 2004, my unit, Blackjack Troop 2/14 Calvary and I were deployed to a northern city of Iraq called Tal Afar. Our mission was simple. Kill or Capture AIF, or Anti Iraqi Forces. There are many events I will remember from that year, and I could go on for ten more just talking about it. One I will share with you now is the events of November 14th, 2004. This was my platoon's baptism by fire, and it is a day that will, like the smell of the gunpowder, forever be burned into my memory.
It was the afternoon, and we had been sitting in a traffic circle on the southern corner of the city for almost two days. During Ramadan, insurgents had blown almost every police station from Mosul to the border. We were assigned to guard one of the last remaining in Tal Afar. It had been a quiet day so far, and it was close to my relief. I was eager to get off the gun and sleep for awhile. I was about to wake my driver, when I spotted a young teenager walk up to the station. He told us that "Ali Baba", the word used for a thief or someone with a bad label, were up the road and preparing for an attack. We geared up and moved out to patrol the area.
We spent about forty minutes patrolling the outskirts of Al Seriah*, the worst neighborhood in Tal Afar. This was a place where it wasn't if you got shot at, it was when. We headed up the road leading from Al Seriah to the main highway of the city, and turned around for a third pass. It was then that we passed by the police station at the entrance to the city. I surveyed the damage caused by a bomb the day before. It had been leveled. The perfect distraction, it seemed that the tip was a false alarm and I was going to get my rest after all. That was when someone yelled it.
"Grenade!"
I turned to see a young boy no older than twelve toss an object at our vehicle. Time slowed like one of those John Woo action films. I watched, mouth gaping, as the explosive flew over my dismount's head and landed on the other side of the Stryker. It exploded and shook the world.
Almost immediately, I heard the retort from his weapon. A pair of bullets ripped through the air, cracking past the boy as he bolted down the alley paralleling us. The street turned to utter chaos. People ran in every direction, cars sped away, groceries flew, mothers screamed. They knew what was coming. From every window AK-47 fire erupted in bursts. We were in the middle of a planned ambush. Most of the battle was a blur, accentuated by explosions, cracks of automatic gunfire, and the pink mists that appeared when they hit their targets. I was the gunner of our 50 caliber machine gun, and unleashed upon that street a lead hell. I fired at everything and everyone, because that was where the gunfire was coming from.
More clear than anything that day is a moment frozen in time. One single moment that wasn't drowned out by the noise and smell of gunfire and smoke. We had been separated from our convoy when my driver did not take a turn. This forced us back through the carnage, because I'll be damned if I was going into Al Seriah! Ahead of us, a car had driven across the road and smashed into a truck that was parked. It was blocking the road. My driver asked me what to do.
"Smash through it!" I screamed.
He slammed on the gas, and at the exact point of impact I glanced into the back of the truck. Time halted for that instant.
Curled in the bed of the truck was young boy. He couldn't have been any older than six. I have never seen anyone so terrified in my life. He looked up at me with those eyes and burned that moment into my soul. I will never forget those eyes and the face they were held in.
As quickly as it had stopped, time resumed. The car, the truck and everything in it flew onto the sidewalk in a twisted mess of steel and glass. We had made it out alive, but the street and everyone, and everything on it, had suffered a horrible wrath.
We headed back to our security spot to link up with the rest of our platoon. Fortunately, none of us had been hit. I could still feel the adrenaline flowing through my body. As we entered the traffic circle, crowds of people lined the streets. I screamed at them, waving my weapon in the air like a gladiator who had just won his match. I felt great. I felt alive. All we could do was laugh, because we had made it. Upon further investigation of my turret, I found a bullet hole that, at its trajectory, should have hit me square in the face. For some reason I'm still here. God knows we were protected that afternoon.
When I think about that day, I think about how lucky I am to be alive. I am grateful to have been born in a country where war and violence is not a daily part of life. I think about how I should never take advantage of a single second of this precious life we are given. Most of all, however, I think about the eyes of the children, and they will haunt me until my dying day.
To order the book or DVD, go to Voices In Wartime
Voices in Wartime is a 240-page book containing the most powerful and eloquent voices - poets, writers, reporters, and veterans - testifying to the trauma and devastation of war, and the need for healing. Voices in Wartime is also a feature-length documentary that delves into the experience of war through powerful images and the words of poets - unknown and world-famous. Poets around the world, from the United States and Colombia to Britain and Nigeria to Iraq and India, share their poetry and experiences of war. Soldiers, journalists, historians and experts on combat interviewed in Voices in Wartime add diverse perspectives on war's effects on soldiers, civilians and society.
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