Saturday, March 31, 2007
Killing the Children of Iraq
A Soldier's Tale
By Tara McKelvey, The American Prospect. Posted March 31, 2007.
Interrogator Tony Lagouranis says he discovered and indulged in his own evil at Abu Ghraib prison, and now fears that it will be his constant companion for the rest of his life.
The Torturer's Toll
Tony Lagouranis is a 37-year-old bouncer at a bar in Chicago's Humboldt Park. He is also a former torturer. That was how he was described in an email promoting a panel discussion, "24: Torture Televised," hosted by the NYU School of Law's Center on Law and Security in New York on March 21. And he doesn't shy away from the description.
As a specialist in a military intelligence battalion, Lagouranis interrogated prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Al Asad Airfield, and other places in Iraq from January through December 2004. Coercive techniques, including the use of military dogs, waterboarding, and prolonged stress positions, were employed on the detainees, he says. Prisoners held at Al Asad Airfield, which is located approximately 110 miles northwest of Baghdad, were shackled and hung from an upright bed frame "welded to the wall" in a room in an airplane hanger, he told me in a phone interview after the NYU event. When he was having problems getting information from a detainee, he recalls, the other interrogators said, "Chain him up on the bed frame and then he'll talk to you." (Lagouranis says he didn't participate directly in hangings from the frames.)
The results of the hangings, shacklings, and prolonged stress positions -- sometimes for hours -- were devastating. "You take a healthy guy and you turn him into a cripple -- at least for a period of time," Lagouranis tells me. "I don't care what Alberto Gonzales says. That's torture."
Lagouranis was on the NYU panel -- along with Jane Mayer, a New Yorker staff writer; Stephen Holmes, an NYU School of Law professor and author of an upcoming book, The Matador's Cape: America's Reckless Response to Terror; Jill Savitt, director of public programs for Human Rights First; and Wesleyan University professor Richard Slotkin -- to talk about torture and its role in the Emmy-Award-winning 24.
The show's hero, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), is famously ruthless in his attempts to extract information about terrorist plots from suspects in "ticking timebomb" situations. The prevailing sentiment of the show, as Mayer wrote in her February 19 New Yorker article about 24, is, "Whatever it takes." Lagouranis met with the show's creative team in California in November, she wrote. He told them that the grisly plotlines of television shows like 24 had given soldiers ideas on how to torment prisoners (for example, forcing a prisoner to listen to the sounds of men being tortured in a nearby cell -- a method that was proposed, he said, but not carried out during his time in Iraq).
The violence on 24 is horrific and almost cartoon-like in its depiction. Yet the show does have a moral conscience. One of the themes, as lead writer Howard Gordon told Mayer, is that Jack Bauer suffers over the violence he is forced to inflict on men and women in the name of national security. "Jack is basically damned," Gordon told Mayer.
Jack Bauer is, of course, a fictional character. Lagouranis, meanwhile, has seen the suffering of people who have been interrogated in Iraq. Their pain is muted in comparison to the ordeal that 24 suspects have endured. The Iraqi prisoners were not electrocuted or attacked with knives, as Mayer wrote about the terrorism suspects in 24. And Lagouranis may not be, in Hollywood discourse, "damned." But he is in a state of mind that could be described as -- at the very least -- uneasy.
Lagouranis is one of the few individuals to have spoken publicly about his experiences as an interrogator who used or saw harsh techniques inflicted on prisoners in the war. His book, Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq, co-authored by Allen Mikaelian, will be published in June. But he is hardly the only one familiar with the stories. It is hard to know how many men and women have witnessed acts of detainee abuse or participated in the use of coercive interrogation methods that appear to violate international law during the Iraq war. At least nine individuals, including Lynndie R. England and her former boyfriend Charles A. Graner Jr., have been sentenced to prison for detainee-related offenses at Abu Ghraib. Others may someday face prosecution for alleged crimes and detainee abuse in the Iraq war.
Lagouranis reported the detainee abuses that he witnessed in Iraq and is not a suspect in detainee-related abuses. As he says, he followed military guidelines during interrogations. "The things I participated in were technically legal," he explains. Yet there have been repercussions. He suffered from panic attacks after his return to the United States and was placed under army psychiatric care. He received an honorable discharge from the army in July 2005.
Lagouranis studied ancient Greek at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. As he explained in his book and in conversations with me, he is familiar with classical and modern texts about warfare and the Middle East as well as with international law that protects the rights of prisoners of war.
He and other soldiers discussed the Geneva Conventions during military training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 2003, before being deployed to Iraq. But it became clear they were not always expected to abide by them, he says. Some of the soldiers and officers had been influenced by Mark Bowden's October 2003 Atlantic Monthly article, "The Dark Art of Interrogation," which describes techniques that, in the author's words, are "excruciating for the victim" yet "leave no permanent marks and do no lasting physical harm."
"It seems to me Bowden was advocating what he calls 'torture lite,'" Lagouranis tells me. "That made an impression on a lot of people. The feeling was that what we had been taught about the Geneva Conventions was not going to be followed anymore. We would be following a new set of rules -- and that was what Bowden was talking about."
Things seemed different in Iraq. "I started realizing that most of the prisoners were innocent," Lagouranis says. "We were torturing people for no reason. I started getting really angry and really remorseful and by the time I got back I completely broke down."
Maybe that was a normal reaction, I tell him.
"That's what my shrink told me," he says. "I can just say that people don't fully realize that for a person to do that to another human being -- it definitely takes a toll."
Back during the NYU event, Lagouranis had sat behind a long table on a stage with his sleeves rolled up and his arms folded across his chest. Toward the end of the discussion, he leaned forward and told the audience that, ultimately, the abuse of prisoners could not be blamed on shows like 24. "I'm from New York City. I'm college-educated," he said. "But you put me in Iraq and told me to torture, and I did it and I regretted it later."
It is clear that he and others like him will be dealing with the fallout from the war, especially those aspects that have been hidden from public view, for a long time. "I didn't know I would discover and indulge in my own evil," he writes in his forthcoming book. "And now that it has surfaced, I fear that it will be my constant companion for the rest of my life."
This article is available on The American Prospect website. © 2007 by The American Prospect, Inc.
Friday, March 30, 2007
George Bush’s Land Mine:
George Bush has a land mine planted in the supplemental appropriation legislation working its way through Congress.
The Iraq Accountability Act passed by the House and the companion bill passed in the Senate contain deadlines for withdrawing our troops from Iraq, in open defiance of the President’s repeated objections.
He threatens a veto, but he might well be bluffing. Buried deep in the legislation and intentionally obscured is a near-guarantee of success for the Bush Administration’s true objective of the war-capturing Iraq’s oil-and George Bush will not casually forego that.
This bizarre circumstance is the end-game of the brilliant, ever-deceitful maneuvering by the Bush Administration in conducting the entire scenario of the “global war on terror.”
The supplemental appropriation package requires the Iraqi government to meet a series of “benchmarks” President Bush established in his speech to the nation on January 10 (in which he made his case for the “surge”). Most of Mr. Bush’s benchmarks are designed to blame the victim, forcing the Iraqis to solve the problems George Bush himself created.
One of the President’s benchmarks, however, stands apart. This is how the President described it: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis.” A seemingly decent, even noble concession. That’s all Mr. Bush said about that benchmark, but his brevity was gravely misleading, and it had to be intentional.
The Iraqi Parliament has before it today, in fact, a bill called the hydrocarbon law, and it does call for revenue sharing among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. For President Bush, this is a must-have law, and it is the only “benchmark” that truly matters to his Administration.
Yes, revenue sharing is there-essentially in fine print, essentially trivial. The bill is long and complex, it has been years in the making, and its primary purpose is transformational in scope: a radical and wholesale reconstruction-virtual privatization-of the currently nationalized Iraqi oil industry.
If passed, the law will make available to Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell about 4/5’s of the stupendous petroleum reserves in Iraq. That is the wretched goal of the Bush Administration, and in his speech setting the revenue-sharing “benchmark” Mr. Bush consciously avoided any hint of it.
The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.
It is why we went to war.
For years President Bush has cloaked his intentions behind the fabricated “Global War on Terrorism.” It has long been suspected that oil drove the wars, but dozens of skilled and determined writers have documented it. It is no longer a matter of suspicion, nor is it speculation now: it is sordid fact. (See a brief summary of the story at Alternet . )
Planning for the two wars was underway almost immediately upon the Bush Administration taking office–at least six months before September 11, 2001. The wars had nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorism was initially rejected by the new Administration as unworthy of national concern and public policy, but 9/11 gave them a conveniently timed and spectacular alibi to undertake the wars. Quickly inventing a catchy “global war on terror” theme, the Administration disguised the true nature of the wars very cleverly, and with enduring success.
The “global war on terror” is bogus. The prime terrorist in Afghanistan and the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was never apprehended, and the President’s subsequent indifference is a matter of record. And Iraq harbored no terrorists at all. But both countries were invaded, both countries suffer military occupation today, both are dotted with permanent U.S. military bases protecting the hydrocarbon assets, and both have been provided with puppet governments.
And a billion dollar embassy in Baghdad is under construction now. It will be the largest U.S. embassy in the world by a factor of ten. (To see it, go to Global Research .) It consists of 21 buildings on 104 acres, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York city, larger than Vatican City. It will house a delegation of more than five thousand people. It will have its own water, electric, and sewage systems, and it is surrounded by a fortress wall of concrete fifteen feet thick. For an Administration committed to fighting terrorism with armies and bombs, that’s far more anti-terror diplomacy than a tiny country needs. There must be another purpose for it.
In the first two months of the Bush Administration two significant events took place that preordained the Iraqi war. Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force was created, composed of federal officials and oil industry people. By March of 2001, half a year before 9/11, the Task Force was poring secretly over maps of the Iraqi oil fields, pipe lines, and tanker terminals. It studied a listing of foreign oil company “suitors” for exploration and development contracts, to be executed with Saddam Hussein’s oil ministry. There was not a single American or British oil company included, and to Mr. Cheney and his cohorts that was intolerable. The final report of the Task Force was candid: “… Middle East oil producers will remain central to world security. The Gulf will be a primary focus of U.S. international energy policy.” The detailed meaning of “focus” was left blank.
The other event was the first meeting of President Bush’s National Security Council, and it filled in the blank. The Council abandoned abruptly the decades-long attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and set a new priority for Middle East foreign policy instead: the invasion of Iraq. This, too, was six months before 9/11. “Focus” would mean war.
By the fall of 2002, the White House Iraq Group-a collection not of foreign policy experts but of media and public relations people-was cranking up the marketing campaign for the war. A contract was signed with the Halliburton Corporation-even before military force in Iraq had been authorized by Congress-to organize the suppression of oil well fires, should Saddam torch the fields as he had done in the first Gulf War. Little was left to chance.
The oil industry is the primary client and top-ranked beneficiary of the Bush Administration. There can be no question the Administration intended to secure for American oil corporations the rich petroleum resources of Iraq: 115 billion barrels of proven reserves, twice that in probable and possible resources, potentially far more than Saudi Arabia. The Energy Task Force spoke to this and the National Security Council answered.
A secret NSC memorandum in 2001 spoke candidly of “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields” in Iraq. In 2002 Paul Wolfowitz suggested simply seizing the oil fields. These words and suggestions were draconian, overt, and reprehensible-morally, historically, politically and diplomatically. The seizure of the oil would have to be oblique and far more sophisticated.
A year before the war the State Department undertook the “Future of Iraq” project, expressly to design the institutional contours of the postwar country. The ”Oil and Energy Working Group” looked with dismay at the National Iraqi Oil Company, the government agency that owned and operated the Iraqi oil fields and marketed the products. 100% of the revenues went directly to the central government, and constituted about 90% of its income. Saddam Hussein benefited, certainly-his lavish palaces-but the Iraqi people did so to a far greater extent, in terms of the nation’s public services and physical infrastructure. For this reason nationalized oil industries are the norm throughout the world.
The Oil and Energy Working Group designed a scheme that was oblique and sophisticated, indeed. The oil seizure would be less than total. It would be obscured in complexity. The apparent responsibility for it would be shifted, and it would be disguised as benefiting, even necessary to Iraq’s well being. Their work was supremely ingenious, undeniably brilliant.
The plan would keep the National Iraqi Oil Company in place, to continue overseeing the currently producing fields. But those fields represent only 19% of Iraq’s petroleum reserves. The other 81% would be flung open to “investment” by foreign oil interests, and the companies in favored positions today-because of the war and their political connections-are Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell.
The nationalized industry would be 80% privatized.
The investment vehicle would be the “production sharing agreement,” a long-term contract-up to 40 years-that grants to the company a share of the oil produced; in exchange, the company underwrites the development costs and oilfield infrastructure. Such “investment” is touted by the Bush Administration and its puppets in Iraq as necessary to the country’s recovery, and a huge benefit, accordingly. But it is not unusual for these contracts to grant the companies more than half the profits for the first 15-30 years, and to deny the host country any revenue at all until the investment costs have been recovered.
The Iraqi oil industry does very much need a great deal of investment capital, to repair, replace, and upgrade its infrastructure. But it does not need Exxon/Mobil or any other foreign company to provide it. At a reduced level, Iraq is still producing oil and hence revenue, and no country in the world, perhaps, has better collateral against which to float bond issues for public investment. Privatization of any sort and in any degree is utterly unnecessary in Iraq today.
The features of the State Department plan were inserted by Paul Bremer’s Provisional Coalition Authority into the developing structures of Iraqi governance. American oil companies were omnipresent in Baghdad then and have been since, shaping and shepherding the plan through the several iterations of puppet governments-the “democracy” said to be taking hold in Iraq.
The package today is in the form of draft legislation, the hydrocarbon law. Only a handful of Iraqi officials know its details. Virtually none of them had a hand in its construction. (It was first written in English.) And its exclusive beneficiaries are the American and British oil companies, whose profits will come directly from the pockets of the Iraqi people.
The Iraqi people do, however, benefit to some degree. The seizure is not total. The hydrocarbon law specifies the oil revenues-the residue accruing to Iraq-will be shared equally among the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish regions, on a basis of population. This is the feature President Bush relies upon exclusively to justify, to insist on the passage of the hydrocarbon law. His real reasons are Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell.
No one can say at the moment how much the hydrocarbon law will cost the Iraqi people, but it will be in the hundreds of billions. The circumstances of its passage are mired in the country’s chaos, and its final details are not yet settled. If and when it passes, however, Iraq will orchestrate the foreign capture of its own oil. The ingenious, brilliant seizure of Iraqi oil will be assured.
That outcome has been on the Bush Administration’s agenda since early in 2001, long before terrorism struck in New York and Washington. The Iraqi war has never been about terrorism.
It is blood for oil.
The blood has been spilled already, hugely, criminally. More than 3,200 American military men and women have died in Iraq. 26,500 more have been wounded. But the oil remains in play.
The game will end if the revenue-sharing “benchmark” is fully enforced. The land mine will detonate.
Mission almost accomplished, Mr. President.
This article was written assuming the members of Congress were ignorant, when they passed the supplemental appropriation bills, of the clever origin, the details, and the true beneficiaries of the Iraqi hydrocarbon law. It was written assuming they did not know President Bush’s stated “benchmark” of revenue-sharing was fraudulently incomplete, intentionally obscuring the fully intended seizure, by military force, of Iraqi oil assets.
The Bush Administration made every effort to mislead deliberately both the Congress and the American people. Ignorance of the circumstances was imposed.
If any members of Congress acted with full and complete knowledge, however, then they have become complicit in a criminal war.
Richard W. Behan lives and writes on Lopez Island, off the northwest
coast of Washington state. He is working on his next book, To Provide
Against Invasions: Corporate Dominion and America’s Derelict
Democracy. He can be reached at rwbehan@rockisland.com (This essay
is deliberately not copyrighted: it may be reproduced without restriction.
Walter Reed is Not a Photo Op
I just learned that President Bush will visit Walter Reed tomorrow afternoon {This Afternnon}.
The President should use his visit to gather first-hand accounts from our newly injured soldiers. He should use this trip to become more aware of the appalling state of military and veterans health care in this country, and he should use this trip to reinforce the responsibility that he has to ensure that our service members and veterans receive care for their injuries that is worthy of their sacrifices.
If the President uses this trip as an opportunity to justify a veto of the supplemental, then SHAME ON HIM.
Walter Reed is still broken.
The DoD healthcare system in this country is still broken.
The social contract between our country and those it sends to war is broken.
Now is the time for action. Tomorrow cannot be a photo op; it cannot be a political stunt.
Our troops need their Commander in Chief to start working harder for them.
President Bush should visit the areas of Walter Reed where our soldiers are suffering because of our neglect. He should visit Ward 54, where soldiers are suffering from acute mental health conditions. He should visit the decrepit outpatient holding facilities where our soldiers are waiting close to a year to get processed out of the Army.
Congress, the media, and the American people need to send a strong message that we will not tolerate any more political maneuvering at the expense of our troops.
(Please visit Veterans For America to learn about our work with Walter Reed. Veterans for America has been working to address the needs of service members and veterans for over 30 years)
Eagles And Harleys
To: GI Special
Sent: March 27, 2007
Subject: Eagles And Harleys
Don’t you remember that we were brothers,
I covered your ass and you covered mine.
Now I’m standing here with a peace sign
and you are across the road calling me a traitor.
Are you still my brother like we were in Vietnam
or did you forget all about that ?
Besides all the bullshit brother
didn’t we fight for freedom
freedom to say I’m against the war
freedom to say I’m for the war,
so have your For The War action another day,
we won’t bother you at all, it’s your right.
I know 80% of you never saw battle
you were smoking pot and drinking beers
in the rear where you had it made,
I hope it’s not you causing the trouble.
But 20% of you were like me
fighting and bleeding together
eating ham and motherfuckers brother
in the rain when the leaches
would jump on us, sucking down our blood.
Do you remember how the Vietnamese hated us,
No VC, No VC, they would say to us,
yet there were all kinds of kids in their village
and their fathers were no where around.
I was so pissed off humping back
from the field one day,
mamason had a Coke stand on Highway one.
I told her to give my squad big Cokes with ice
then when she asked for the money,
I raised my 16 at her, ready to blow her away,
none of them gave a shit for us fighting
for their country
they liked our money and liked it
when we would die because they hated us
So we were fighting and dying for nothing
just like in Iraq and Afghanistan now.
What would of happened if we had won
our war,
they now have a Ford factory in Vietnam
while they close a Ford factory in Michigan.
Now Penny’s shirts are made in Vietnam
cost is $40 - $50 a pop at the mall
and now you want me to back
a punk and coward named Bush,
who finally made it to Vietnam last year
and all his draft dodger friends are
For The War for oil to get rich.
Give me a motherfucking break brother
give me some fucking respect
give me some fucking truth.
Walter Reed and the VA are chumping
our Iraq and Afghanistan wounded Soldiers
just like they did to us,
or did most of you not fire a shot
in Vietnam so you don’t know
what the fuck I’m talking about.
I’ve seen your Rolling Thunder on C-Span
when he asked one of you
where he was in Vietnam, he couldn’t say
because he was never there.
He was just some wannabe on a Harley
putting along just for the ride.
But a brother in mortar in our company
who sometimes went out with in the boonies
and had a real nice hootch over there
rode his Harley from Detroit to DC
to be with you, rode there with peace
but came back with war.
Your Gathering of Eagles do Not
make me proud.
You are not protecting the Wall,
you are protecting the coward Bush,
you are Not protecting our Soldiers in Iraq
because the Iraqi people hate them
just like the Vietnamese hated us.
It took courage and bravery to fight
the VC and NVA
but it doesn’t take a big man
to spit on peace marchers
and throw sulfuric acid at them,
maybe it’s because they are for peace
and you know they won’t attack you,
Yes, I remember coming home
to the peace movement from Vietnam
at the end of 1968.
I have scars on my arms and legs
and my Dad, a WWII veteran
took me down to his VFW Hall,
they bought me a beer and then
turned their backs on me.
My father was cussing all the way home,
do you remember that or did you
erase that from your memory ?
Yes I remember the hippies
and students against the war.
39 years ago the peace marchers
didn’t always treat us so good,
I know you blame them for losing
our war
and that’s where your anger comes from.
But even back then I never spit on them
or tried to hurt them in any way
so leave these new ones alone
and let me do what I have to do.
Vietnam will never be over for us,
we will take to our graves.
I hope you will never forget
we will be brothers until we are dead.
If you are working for the government,
I take back all I said,
please do Not threaten me with death
because I still have a gun
and I will kill you first
just like in Vietnam.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Video Invitation to 'Move a Nation to Care' for our Returning Troops
An invitation to join Ilona Meagher and other concerned citizens to learn more about the social, political, and psychological issues concerning the reintegration of our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, while working together to improve their return home. Ilona is the editor of the online journal PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within and author of the upcoming book Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops. See PTSD Combat: Winning The War Within and Moving A Nation To Care and the PTSD Timeline for more -- and please join with us!
Asheville, Salisbury NC VA Facilities
had Severe Care Issues
After inquiry, federal officials told center to stop admitting patients to its nursing home
Federal officials told the Asheville veterans hospital to stop admitting patients to its nursing home in late 2004 after investigators found serious care problems.
This is the second N.C. veterans hospital at which the Observer has uncovered problems with patient care, including deaths.
"The incidents are disturbing," Adrien Creecy-Starks, with the VA in Washington, D.C., said in an e-mail Wednesday.
The Asheville investigation focuses on 4 cases, you can find them in report.
On heels of Salisbury findings
The attention to VA health care follows emotional congressional hearings this month about deplorable conditions for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Army hospitals are not part of the VA system, which provides health care for millions of veterans.
Than we have the following, which is a link at the above report.
COUNSELORS, ADVOCATES, HOT LINE IN PROPOSAL
House seeking fast action for veterans
Funny what a change in the seats of power can bring about.
But wait a minute: It proposes group to help wounded; White House says bill is premature
PREMATURE! Say What! They have us in Two War Theaters and a bill to help the Veterans of previous misadventures, and the growing numbers of the new Veterans, is PREMATURE!
What planet sent us their Arrogant, Ignorant Nitwits, that somehow managed to reap seats of leadership{?} and power, with our own ignorants supporting them?
Reacting to shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the House on Wednesday voted to create a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Wounded Warrior Assistance Act, approved 426-0, also establishes a hot line for medical patients to report problems in their treatment and demands an end to the red tape that has frustrated disabled service members as they move from Pentagon to Veterans Affairs Department care.
"We cannot allow those who have fought our foreign enemies in the defense of freedom to come home and fight the federal bureaucracy to get the health care they need," said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., a member of the Armed Services Committee.
The White House, in a statement, said that while those goals are commendable, the legislation is premature.
But lawmakers from both parties, intent to show support for troops regardless of divisions over the war in Iraq, are in no mood to wait.
The White House also objected to a provision imposing a one-year moratorium on a program letting private companies compete with public agencies for military hospital work contracts. The administration said the program, criticized for contributing to substandard conditions and inadequate nonmedical staffing at Walter Reed, is generating billions in savings.
There’s a short list of other provisions at this report.
One thing with all these reports coming out. The greater majority of those in the VA System, that do the real work, are extremely dedicated and caring, especially those that do volunteer work, on a regular basis, it's what has kept many of these facilities still around!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Worries grow over mental health of soldiers
“I can’t say that I can’t go because we don’t do that, I also can’t go because I’m putting people in danger if I do,” he said of his first brush with suicidal thoughts, which came while he was awaiting his second deployment.
In the end, Anderson was not deployed but it sparked a two-year effort to get help for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of thousands of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan facing a battle to re-enter everyday life.
While much of the attention has been on physical wounds like traumatic brain injuries, as well as squalid living conditions for recovering soldiers, doctors, families and lawmakers are expressing growing concerns that veterans are not be getting the right mental health help.
Those worries come as President George W. Bush has ordered almost 30,000 more troops to Iraq. Already 1.5 million soldiers have been deployed in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, with one-third serving at least two combat tours, which increases the chances of PTSD.
Despite finally receiving treatment, Anderson finds himself in the middle of a divorce and still constantly on edge — jumpy at loud noises and always eyeing the exits of rooms.
“I have triggers every day, but I’m learning how to deal with them,” he said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 12 percent to 20 percent of those who served in Iraq suffer from PTSD. A 2004 Army study found 16.6 percent of those returning from combat tested positive for the disorder.
Individuals suffer from PTSD if they relive the trauma, experience emotional numbness, isolation, depression, substance abuse, and memory problems. These often lead to job instability and marital troubles.
‘Help should be made available’
“I see a range of people coming in from a level of having PTSD but not being severely handicapped and dysfunctional, then I see other people who are really, really handicapped and dysfunctional,” said Dr. Wayne Gregory, a psychologist at the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System.
Two studies in the last month have shown more than 30 percent of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan met the criteria for a mental disorder, with the American Psychological Association (APA) finding at best that 40 percent sought help.
“Now people are getting out of the service and they’re beginning to seek help,” said Dr. Paul Hicks, professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at Texas A&M’s Health Science Center College of Medicine.
“We don’t know when or if that will level off. It’s got to level off at some point, but we haven’t reached that point,” he said.
A study published by the Archives of Internal Medicine found 13 percent of almost 104,000 veterans evaluated suffered from PTSD. Mental illness “threatens to bring the war back home as a costly personal and public health burden,” it said.
Congress has ordered the Pentagon to establish a mental-health task force, though its findings won’t be presented until May.
“We have put them in very stressful situations and often times people need help and that help should be made available,” said Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat.
Defense Department reaching out
The Pentagon is already on the defensive about medical treatment for soldiers after an investigation found shoddy living conditions for troops recovering from physical injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress last month that the number of troops who tested positive for a mental health condition after being deployed was lower, 22 percent.
A Defense Department (DOD) spokeswoman defended its practices, noting mental health teams were in the field and they had begun a new program this year to also screen troops three to six months after they return home.
“DOD has been aggressively reaching out to support our military personnel before, during and after their deployments and their family members, this is unprecedented,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.
PTSD can be complicated by the fact that it frequently occurs in conjunction with related disorders such as depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition and other physical and mental health disorders. The condition is also associated with impairment of a person's ability to function in social or family life, including occupational instability, marital problems and divorce, family discord and difficulties in parenting.
An estimated 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives, with women (10.4 percent) twice as likely as men (5 percent) to develop PTSD. About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 (5.2 million people) have PTSD during the course of a given year. This represents a small portion of those who have experienced at least one traumatic event; 60.7 percent of men and 51.2 percent of women reported at least one traumatic event in their life.
The traumatic events most often associated with PTSD for men are rape, combat exposure, childhood neglect and childhood physical abuse. The most traumatic events for women are rape, sexual molestation, physical attack, being threatened with a weapon and childhood physical abuse.
About 30 percent of the men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD. An additional 20 to 25 percent have had partial PTSD at some point in their lives.
PTSD can develop at any age, including in childhood. Symptoms typically begin within 3 months of a traumatic event, although occasionally they do not begin until years later. Once PTSD occurs, the severity and duration of the illness varies. Some people recover within 6 months, while others suffer much longer.
Symptoms to watch for:
Recurring thoughts or nightmares about the event.
Having trouble sleeping or changes in appetite.
Experiencing anxiety and fear, especially when exposed to events or situations reminiscent of the trauma.
Being on edge, being easily startled or becoming overly alert.
Feeling depressed, sad and having low energy.
Experiencing memory problems including difficulty in remembering aspects of the trauma.
Feeling "scattered" and unable to focus on work or daily activities.
Having difficulty making decisions.
Feeling irritable, easily agitated, or angry and resentful.
Feeling emotionally "numb," withdrawn, disconnected or different from others.
Spontaneously crying, feeling a sense of despair and hopelessness.
Feeling extremely protective of, or fearful for, the safety of loved ones.
Not being able to face certain aspects of the trauma, and avoiding activities, places or even people that remind you of the event.
Children with PTSD may also show the following symptoms:
Worrying about dying at an early age.
Losing interest in activities. Exhibiting physical symptoms such as headaches and stomach aches.
Showing more sudden and extreme emotional reactions.
Having problems falling or staying asleep.
Showing irritability or angry outbursts.
Having problems concentrating, acting younger than their age (for example, clingy or whiny behavior, and thumbsucking).
Showing increased alertness to the environment.
Repeating behavior that reminds them of the trauma.
Research has found cognitive-behavioral therapy to be effective in treating PTSD. Group therapy and exposure therapy, in which the patient gradually and repeatedly relives the frightening experience under controlled conditions to help him or her work through the trauma, have also been shown to be effective.
Studies have also shown that medications help ease associated symptoms of depression and anxiety and help promote sleep. Scientists are attempting to determine which treatments work best for which type of trauma.
Some studies show that giving people an opportunity to talk about their experiences very soon after a catastrophic event may reduce some of the symptoms of PTSD.
Ilona Meagher - In The News - PTSD
Junior journalism major Ilona Meagher recently finished writing a book titled "Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops," which will hit bookshelves in May.
Tragedy changes people.
Meagher, a junior journalism major, possesses an overwhelming passion for shedding public spotlight on the post-traumatic stress disorder engulfing the souls of so many Iraq war veterans.
Meagher's book, "Moving the Nation to Care," will be released by Ig Publishing on May 1.
This is short and quick as I'm off to work. Pick up a copy and start the journey with Ilona to Help those who suffer from, and to better understand your own and everyones minds!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
STOP THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
Alive In Baghdad & Democracy Now
According to Dr Mayssun Abdel-Rahman, a paediatrician at Baghdad’s Children Teaching Hospital…the country’s health system is crumbling and…only UNICEF and the World Health Organization [are] keeping it afloat. But much more needs to be done, she said, as hundreds of children are dying from easily cured ailments, such as diarrhoea and undernutrition.
Demonstrating how bad things have become, Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite whose most recent role is to lead the committee working to win popular acceptance of the security plan, said he saw four problems particularly plaguing Sunni areas: food distribution, electricity, fuel and health services.
Food rations are a holdover from the days of sanctions. There continued use, 4 years after the invasion of Iraq began, is an easy benchmark demonstrating how tenuous life in Iraq remains. Some Iraqis have even taken to selling their rations, in order to save money for fleeing Iraq.
According to Marwan Hussein, interviewed March 21 by IRIN, “For the past seven months, I’ve been selling half of our monthly food rations [distributed as aid by the Ministry of Trade to help poor families registered by the government] to raise some money to flee to Syria. We don’t need that much to get the whole family there - about US $400 for a taxi ride. I might soon have enough money.
Even with the food rations system, many Iraqis are going hungry or incapable of receiving rations, because displacement or violence has made them incapable of receiving their rations. Isam Rasheed worked with activists in Japan, to raise money for food donations in Baghdad. These donations were given during Ramadan, to families who were not able to travel to the markets, due to the risk of violence, or who lived in areas where most of the shops have been closed.
Unfortunately, Alaa Adel, Isam’s assistant and partner was killed while assisting him to provide food for poor Iraqis.
We continue our work despite the risks and danger, please consider making a donation, to help continue our work and provide better equipment for our Iraqi correspondents. We’ve recently hired a new correspondent, and are hoping to further expand, but we can’t do this without your help. Please help out however you can!
We speak with independent journalist Reese Erlich about his report on
Iranian Kurdish guerillas based among their Kurdish bretheren in northern
Iraq. Erlich writes, "Kurdish and American sources say the United States has
been supporting guerilla raids against Iran, channeling the money through
organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan." [rush transcript included]
HOMELESS VETERANS ON THE STREETS OF AMERICA
Leaders at Fort Carson say they’re trying to change Army culture by leading the way in compassionate care for soldiers with war-caused mental illness.
But they admit they’ve got a long way to go to shed the stigma that only cowards suffer combat stress.
It’s been more than 60 years since Gen. George Patton slapped a soldier suffering from “battle fatigue,” sparking a controversy in the midst of World War II. But some in the Army are still stuck in the mind-set, says Maj. Gen. Robert Mixon, commander of the post.
As a kid growing up on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Christopher Brevard dreamed of military glory. As an adult, he spent the last months of his life fighting a war he didn't believe in.
Monday, March 26, 2007
GoldStar Families and Iraq Vets SPEAK OUT!!
t r u t h o u t | Video
Thursday 22 March 2007
As criticism of the Iraq war grows at home, some US soldiers abroad increasingly are rejecting Bush's mission. On military bases across Germany, many are now seeking a way out through desertion or early discharge.
Soldiers on crutches and canes were sent to a main desert camp used for Iraq training. Military experts say the Army was pumping up manpower statistics to show a brigade was battle ready.
By Mark Benjamin
Sunday, March 25, 2007
A Web-Wide Challenge
I'm not that trusting of a soul either, so you can bet I wouldn't send money to anything being run by our Gov. This seems to be the real deal from what I have found with a quick Google.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Laura Brown, a mother with a son who fought in the Iraq war, is trying to improve conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center -- one laptop computer at a time.
OneCrankyDom's diary :: ::
The 50-year-old from Cody, Wyo., was chatting on the Internet with the mother of a wounded soldier two years ago when the mother mentioned she had to print out her son's e-mails and take them to him at Walter Reed because there weren't enough laptop computers to go around.
How hard can be for a group like us that can thousands of dollars overnight for a Candidate we think needs our help, to raise enough money for our Wounded to have the ability to write home ? Imagine being trapped at a hospital, low on money, nothing to do or read, and bored to death. Now imagine handing this soldier a window of their own to the world. Feels pretty good don't it ?
We talk a lot about how much we support our troops. I think it's time we showed it. I know we sent lots of money for the phonecards last year. IS it time to put a challenge out to all the Left and Right Political Blogs to see how much we can collect ?
Please get behind this issue with me and issue the Challenge to every blog you frequent. I made a comment in a diary a day or 2 ago about how the Newspapers only print the News, but we make the Noise. How much noise can we make to help Laura Brown complete her mission ?
Laptops for the Wounded is a non-profit organization developed by one woman in Cody, Wyoming to help make this possible through donations. Laura Brown was blessed to have her own son return from Iraq following the first year of the war and this provides her with a measure by which she can help those not so fortunate. But it takes a lot of dedication and assistance with this work. Please close your eyes and really try to put yourself in that scenario. Please then contact Laura for more information.
This is not my typical type of diary and being disabled myself, the writing of this is about the best I can do to help. You also can help even if you don't have the money. You can post this challenge everywhere, you can rec. this diary so it hits as many readers as possible. I'm sure any donation, no matter how small can add up to another laptop for someone.
Voices From The Fallen
The letter no family wants to receive.
"Operation First Casualty"
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 20, 2007; Page C01
There's a lot of weirdness every day in the capital city, but this one pushed the envelope: 13 Iraq war veterans in full desert camo going on "patrol" from Union Station to Arlington National Cemetery. They carried imaginary assault rifles, barked commands, roughly "detained" suspected hostiles with flex cuffs and hoods -- and generally shocked, frightened and delighted tourists and office workers.
"How does occupation feel, D.C.?!" shouted Geoff Millard, head of the local chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, who previously served on a brigadier general's staff in Tikrit.
By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post
Shouts and curses, shoving and arm-twisting, from Reppenhagen and his men: "Don't move!" "Get down on the ground!" "Do I have to shoot you, or are you going to stay still?"
The soldiers twisted on the cuffs and adjusted the hoods, then ordered, "Get 'em out of here!"
In two frantic minutes the scene was over; the civilians moved on to the next location outside CNN and Fox News, and the soldiers continued their patrol.
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