Man Who Pleaded Guilty to Molesting Iraq Veteran Had Conviction for Fondling Police Officer
"The Army always tells you all the way from basic training that we're a family, and if you do the right thing, we'll take care of you," Burgess said. "You believe that. You want to believe that, but then you find out they don't."
"I can't believe the Army doesn't do a better job of researching its employees and contractors," Matthew Burgess said. When Burgess was abused, Echeverri was employed by Dale M. Carafa, a medical industry contractor. Carafa, of Sterling, said she had no comment. The sleep center no longer uses Carafa's service, Kristo said. Walter Reed contractors are required to perform background checks and urinalysis for all new hires, but officials could not say whether that policy was in effect in 2002, when Echeverri began working at Walter Reed. "The case certainly indicates the need for a background check," Kristo said.
Baghdad in the Midwest cornfields What an outing to a market in Indiana would look like if a congressman's observations were correct.
The delegation arrived at the market [in Baghdad], which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees … and attack helicopters…. Sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests…. At a news conference shortly after their outing, Mr. McCain … and his three congressional colleagues described Shorja as a safe, bustling place full of hopeful and warmly welcoming Iraqis — "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime," offered Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican. — New York Times
Proud Active Duty Troops Speaking Out Against Iraq War
Conflict in Iraq: Some active duty troops, while proud to serve, are speaking out and signing a petition against the war
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Swastika Stars
By Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace 50 Michigan, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree.
Swastika Stars
Bush still will not budge he is surging straight ahead he has his Fox TV, talk radio propaganda war machine spinning at full speed too. All the Democrats do is just follow with one arm saluting like a canon to the sky Americans now know how the German people felt when Hitler rose to power he is out of control by anyone Just replace the SS with Blackwater like mercenaries they will kill anybody for money Replace the Jews with Muslims so ironic But Bush is just like Hitler he will not listen to his Generals when they tell him we are losing the war His face turns red, he grits his teeth he snarls that losing is not an option with a swastika tattooed between his eyes like Charles Manson He does not care how many Soldiers die or how many wounded we must fight this war until we win He scrapes his fingernails across a map of Iraq and throws Afghanistan on the floor The flag has swastikas where there used to be stars on the red white and blue His Nazis want to grab all the oil grab the whole wide world in their hands and shake it real hard tell all the countries big and small that America is the Empire now
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Those who take some sort of relief in the "We are fighting them over there so we won't be fighting them here!", Better Rethink their Future, or rather their Childrens Future!!
The Failed Policies will Haunt Us and the World for Decades!!
For students attending schools at hundreds of military installations, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a constant topic for discussion, even at the youngest of ages. Special correspondent John Merrow reports from one school in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Poets in Middle Eastern societies are often held in high regard, and many achieve a level of celebrity and authority not common in the West. Senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown travels to Israel and the occupied territories to provide insight into the lives of Israeli and Palestinian poets, writers in a place of conflict providing a voice for those who feel they don't have one.
April 6, 2007
Author Explores Both Sides of Conflict's Toll Acclaimed author and peace advocate David Grossman has become one of his Israel's leading writers exploring the toll that war and occupation have taken on both Israelis and Palestinians. Jeffrey Brown talks with Grossman about being a writer amid the conflict.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a documentary film directed by Errol Morris and released in December, 2003. The film includes an original score by Philip Glass. It won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature for 2003.
The film consists of interviews with former United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, detailing his life and the difficult decisions that he made during his career. The term "fog of war" refers to the uncertainty that descends over a battlefield once fighting begins.
The Neo-Cons of today, like their predecesors before them, Fascism comes to mind, believe that Ideologies can be Beat into others by Bombs, Bullets, and Destructive Force, in our case 'Democracy' and 'Freedom'. That is for those who Survive the Destructive Forces loosing Everything that was their 'Individual Freedom' that had existed prior to the Killing, Maiming, and Total destruction around them.
Their counterparts, the extremes of the Fundamentalist wings of Religious Ideologies, Christian, Muslim and Jews, and the Racists in All Societies, give them the needed backing to carry out their wants and destruction under the guise of Patriotism, Flag, Country and Group Think while completely disregarding the real teachings of those Religious Ideologies.
Why do we, Responsible Adults, keep teaching the children that this world exists only to destroy each other by forcing others to believe as we want them to believe?
Lessons of War never learned, but Opposite Taught and Embraced!
Honor guards replace forklifts for fallen troops after father takes up cause
In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.
Four long years and now All The Fallen Will Get Honor Guards on return yet the Nation still cannot show the Honor due!
The same excuse as from the beginning, 'Intrusion on the families', of which, wether the War is Right or Wrong, they did Not Die for just their families, They Died Serving The Nation!
As many may have heard, last week the city of Charlotte NC had an extremely senseless tragic killings of Two Police Officers.
The city has been going through a Sad week culminating yesterday and today with the Funerals of the Fallen Officers.
We 'Honor' these officers, as do any community in these the United States, who are killed in the line of Duty. That 'Duty' is to the residents of the communities, they and the Firefighters, Medical Rescue Personal and others who Die doing their service to Community Deserve the 'Honors' Bestowed from that Community.
There is more at the links, including Video's of the Funerals and Motor Processions to the Buriel Sites.
But from the killings of these two officers to today, as I listened to the reports and the words said and watched the video clips, All I Kept Thinking was about our Military Troops, from the two theaters, who are Killed and Maimed, and we aren't allowed to view their return to this soil. Nor do many get front page cover, especially if in larger city publications. Most reports of the KIA's are religated to small writeups within the newspapers, or quick reports of the numbers than move on to the weather or soft news with smiles!
Do these two Police Officers, and their families, deserve the outpouring they received, Most Certainly Yes, for a Community must come to some term and start healing!
And the Communities are reminded of the cost of the service that others provide for their reliative safety.
But the Community Of The Nation must also be Allowed to See The True Cost of the Wars that far too many Support, for that Cost comes back in Caskets and with Lost Limbs, and The Families Must Be Embraced by the Community!
And the Community of the Nation should also know the Cost in Innocent Lives Lost in the Countries It Invades!!
Iraq's health status, four years into the occupation, is nothing short of disastrous. Iraq's health index has deteriorated to a level not seen since the 1950s, says Joseph Chamie, former director of the United Nations Population Division and an Iraq specialist. People's health status is determined by social, economic and environmental factors much more than by the availability of healthcare. Not surprisingly, all these factors have deteriorated in the course of the occupation. A recent UNDP-backed study reveals that one-third of Iraqis live in poverty, with more than five per cent living in abject poverty. The UN agency observes that this contrasts starkly with the country's thriving middle- income economy of the 1970s and 1980s. But these figures may well be a grave underestimation, as other reports speak of eight million out of 28 million Iraqis living in extreme poverty on incomes of less than $1 per day. More than 500,000 Baghdad residents get water for only a few hours a day. And the majority of Iraqis get three hours of electricity a day, in contrast to pre-war levels of about 20 hours.
THE DEVASTATED HEALTH OF IRAQI CHILDREN: The combination of sanctions, war and occupation has resulted in Iraq showing the world's worst evolution in child mortality: from an under-five mortality rate of 50 per 1000 live births in 1990, to 125 in 2005. That means an annual deterioration of 6.1 per cent -- a world record, well behind very poor and AIDS- affected Botswana. At the outset of the 2003 war, the US administration pledged to cut Iraq's child mortality rate in half by 2005. But the rate has continued to worsen, to 130 in 2006, according to Iraqi Health Ministry figures. Nutrition is, of course, vital to health. According to the United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF), about one in 10 Iraqi children under five are underweight (acutely malnourished) and one in five are short for their age (chronically malnourished). But this is only the tip of the iceberg, according to Claire Hajaj, communications officer at the UNICEF Iraq Support Centre in Amman. "Many Iraqi children may also be suffering from 'hidden hunger' -- deficiencies in critical vitamins and minerals that are the building blocks for children's physical and intellectual development," Hajaj says. "These deficiencies are hard to measure, but they make children much more vulnerable to illness and less likely to thrive at school." Hayder Hussainy, a senior official at the Iraqi Ministry of Health, states that approximately 50 per cent of Iraqi children suffer from some form of malnourishment. Also important is the psychological impact of war and occupation. In a study entitled "The Psychological Effects of War on Iraqis", the Association of Iraqi Psychologists (AIP) reports that out of 2,000 people interviewed in all 18 Iraqi provinces, 92 per cent said they feared being killed in an explosion. Some 60 per cent of those interviewed said the level of violence had caused them to have panic attacks, which prevented them from going out because they feared they would be the next victims. The AIP also surveyed over 1,000 children across Iraq and found that 92 per cent of children examined had learning impediments, largely attributable to the current climate of fear and insecurity. "The only thing they have on their minds are guns, bullets, death and a fear of the US occupation," says the AIP's Marwan Abdullah.
HOSPITALS AND CLINICS FACED WITH A CRITICAL LACK OF RESOURCES: On 19 January 2007, a group of some 100 eminent UK doctors signed a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to voice their grave concern over the fate of Iraq's children. The statement read: "We are concerned that children are dying in Iraq for want of medical treatment. Sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated by simple means, are left to die in their hundreds because they do not have access to basic medicines or other resources. Children who have lost hands, feet, and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated." The Iraq Medical Association reports that 90 per cent of the almost 180 hospitals in Iraq lack essential equipment. At Yarmouk Hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in Baghdad, five people die on average every day because medics and nurses don't have the equipment to treat common ills and accidents, according to Yarmouk doctor Hussam Abboud. That translates to more than 1,800 preventable deaths in a year in that hospital alone. Hassan Abdallah, a senior health official in the Basra Governorate, says that information suggests that from January to July 2006, about 90 children died in Basra as result of the lack of medicine, a worse figure than for the same period last year, when some 40 children died for similar reasons. Marie Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the Vienna-based aid agency Saving Children from War, deplores the lack of essential supplies, especially intravenous infusions and blood bags. "Children are dying because there are no blood bags available," says Fernandez.
HOSPITALS SUBJECT TO MILITARY ATTACKS AND OCCUPATION: "The Geneva Conventions state that hospitals are and should remain neutral and accessible to everybody, particularly civilians. Yet, when it's occupied by armed groups or official forces, people don't have this free and humanitarian access," says Cedric Turlan, information officer for the Coordinating Committee in Iraq (NCCI) NGO. His observation is corroborated by numerous reports and sources. In the first week of November 2006, in Ramadi, some 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, 13 civilians entering the hospital to get treatment were killed by snipers. Less than 10 per cent of the hospital's staff was still working there when US-led forces burst into the hospital many times day and night, looking for snipers on the hospital's roof. "The multinational forces were outside, surrounding the hospital, but they intruded into the hospital on a daily basis," Turlan said. "Now people rarely go to the hospital because they fear being shot or arrested." For several months now, patients have refrained from using the hospital for fear of being shot by snipers or by US-led forces. According to other reports received by NCCI, military forces have also occupied Mosul Hospital, and ambulances have been attacked regularly in Najaf, Fallujah and other parts of Anbar. On 7 December 2006, there was yet another US military raid at the Fallujah General Hospital that had suffered similar attacks during various US siege operations in the city in April and November 2004. Eyewitnesses said US soldiers raided the hospital "as if it were a military target". Doctors and medical staff were arrested, insulted and called terrorists. A hospital employee said that it was already the third time he was handcuffed by US soldiers, and alleged that "they have been more vicious with medical staff than with others because they consider us the first supporters of those they call terrorists." US Lt Col Bryan Salas, spokesperson of Multinational Forces-Iraq, had quite a different explanation: "Coalition forces searched the hospital to ensure that it continues to be a safe place for the citizens of Fallujah to receive the medical treatment they deserve." After the US military raid, the hospital remained closed for several days.
GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN ATTACKS AND FAILING HEALTH: With current Minister of Health Ali Al-Shimari belonging to the political movement of Moqtada Al-Sadr, the latter's military arm, the Mahdi Army, is acting inside hospitals with impunity. Sick and wounded patients have been abducted from public hospitals and later killed. As a consequence, more and more Iraqis are avoiding hospitals. "We would prefer to die instead of going to the hospital," says Abu Nasr, a resident of a Baghdad suburb. "The hospitals have become killing fields." The ministry also appears to discriminate in the provision of supplies. Tariq Hiali, a health official in Baqouba (60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad), laments that "the Ministry of Health is not providing us with medications and medical equipment -- they consider us to be terrorists." An employee at Baqouba's blood bank, Jamal Qadoori, says: "Ambulances we send to Baghdad are being intercepted by the Mahdi Army." The emergency unit in the Basra Teaching Hospital was closed for five months after unidentified assailants killed a number of doctors working there. Now many doctors and nurses refuse to go to work, fearing for their lives. Likewise, clinics have shut down in Ramadi, Hit, Haditha and Fallujah. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting states that in Baghdad, those doctors still practicing have moved their clinics into residential areas or inside medical compounds for safety reasons. They only open in the morning, because of curfews and poor security.
HEALTH WORKERS HARASSED, ARRESTED AND ASSASSINATED: Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 18 reads: "Civilian hospitals organised to care for the wounded and sick, infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict." On-the-ground reality in Iraq today is quite different. "A major problem affecting Iraq's health sector is the country's desperate security situation," says Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "Armed men storm operating theatres forcing doctors to treat the patients they bring as a priority. Some patients insist on keeping their weapons and masks while being treated. This creates a traumatising situation for the doctors," she says. Examples abound. Dr Washdi Mahmoud works in the Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital, the largest cardiovascular centre in Baghdad. Via telephone from Baghdad on 27 February 2006, he said: "Yesterday morning, we were threatened by the relatives of patients. They even pointed a gun at one doctor's head! The hospital's security guards didn't bother to intervene, so we decided to go on strike." Dr Salam Ismael of the Doctors for Iraq society explains: "We are harassed by militias of certain political parties. The government is not acting on them. They enter the patient's rooms with their weapons, they shout at the doctors, they threaten to kill them." Doctors for Iraq received reports that armed gunmen had entered Tel Afar Hospital in the northwest of Iraq on 9 May 2006 and threatened and attacked staff and patients waiting to be treated. A doctor described how one of the armed men put a gun to his head demanding that he stop treating a wounded child and instead attend to a man with a minor shell wound in his leg. The armed group started vandalising and breaking hospital equipment and then attacked an ambulance driver, breaking his arm with a rifle butt. Another ambulance driver was punched in the face, and three armed men attacked the hospital pharmacist, taking turns in hitting and kicking him. One of the armed men fired bullets above a doctor's head, missing him narrowly and causing fear and hysteria in the hospital. On 28 September 2006, doctors at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital went on strike after Iraqi police burst into the facility and forced doctors to treat a wounded colleague, while brandishing their guns. The doctors called on the Interior Ministry to enforce a complete weapons ban in the hospital. Early November 2006, Dr Ibrahim Abdel-Sattar, a cardiologist in Baghdad, reported: "My colleague was killed while he was attending one of his patients two weeks ago. The armed gang broke into his clinic, shot him dead and left without explanation."
HEALTH WORKERS KIDNAPPED AND HELD FOR RANSOM As if the daily violence was not enough, in the chaos and disorder that reign in occupied Iraq, health professionals are also prone to getting kidnapped for ransom. On 9 November, men reportedly wearing blue police uniforms kidnapped the head of Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) administration, Dr Anas Al-Azawi, in front of his house. The price for his freedom was set at $750,000, but he was released after a lesser ransom was paid. On 17 December, armed men allegedly wearing Iraqi Army uniforms stormed the office of the IRCS in Baghdad and abducted 42 people. 26 IRCS employees, both Shia and Sunni, were later released. Peter Kandela, an Iraqi doctor working in the United Kingdom, interviewed Iraqi medical staff that had fled to Jordan and Syria. He recounts the story of a kidney surgeon seized by a group of armed men whose first act was to go through his address book to look for other potential victims. "They had the audacity to suggest that in return for receiving better treatment in captivity, I should recommend others for kidnapping," the surgeon said. He was released after his wife paid a ransom of $250,000. Dr Kandela also explained that "in the new Iraq, there is a price tag linked to your position and status. Those doctors who have stayed in the country know what they are worth in kidnapping terms, and ensure their relatives have easy access to the necessary funds to secure their speedy release if they are taken."
MASSIVE FLIGHT OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS: In March 2006, the British NGO Medact said that 18,000 out of Iraq's 34,000 physicians had left the country since the onset of the war, according to official figures from the Iraq Medical Association (IMA). Farouk Naji, a clinician and senior member of IMA, declares: "About 2,000 physicians have been killed since 2003. The violence has increased and everyday we are losing the best professionals in Iraq." In some cases, ambulances picking up the injured after explosions are without paramedics or nurses, Naji says. "There are not enough professionals and the ones available are in hospitals, trying to figure out how to treat patients in improvised operating theatres," he adds. Dr Omer, a cardiovascular surgeon, left his job in Baghdad and is now working as a general practitioner in a primary health care clinic in Syria. "What could I do?" he asks, "I was threatened by armed militias inside the hospital. Three surgeons had been killed already and there were only three of us left. I couldn't be the next target as I have a child to raise." Dr Omer was forced to flee Iraq. He added: "I am not happy with what I am doing here in Syria. I was a specialist doctor and now I am working as a junior doctor. It is as if you were asking an officer to work as a soldier." A shortage of doctors and nurses has also been reported in Basra. According to health official Hassan Abdullah, there are no reliable statistics on how many doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses have left the area, but unofficial data suggests that at least 200 health professionals have left since January alone. Some of them try to get more secure employment elsewhere in Iraq. Rezan Sayda, a senior official in the Kurdistan Regional Government's Health Ministry, said last December that her ministry had employed 600 doctors who had fled insecure parts of the country, and that another 320 were on the waiting list for employment. The lack of health personnel has disastrous consequences for the health of local patients. Writing in The British Medical Journal, Dr Bassim Al-Sheibani and two colleagues from the Diwaniyah College of Medicine in Iraq report that, "medical staff admit that more than half of those who died could have been saved if trained and experienced staff were available."
RECONSTRUCTION UNDER OCCUPATION: A DISMAL FAILURE : Four years into the US- led war on Iraq, the country's healthcare system is in a shambles. Most hospitals lack basis supplies, dozens of clinics remain incompletely constructed, and costly high-technology equipment lies idle in warehouses. Since 2003, US agencies may have spent up to $1 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds on healthcare, but no new hospitals and only a few local clinics have been built. Even the pet project of First Lady Laura Bush -- a $50 million state-of-the-art children's hospital in Basra -- is running far behind schedule and over budget. According to Amar Al-Saffar, an official in charge of construction at the Iraqi Health Ministry, not a single hospital has been built in Iraq since Al-Khadimiyah Hospital opened in 1986 in Baghdad. A $200 million reconstruction project for building 142 primary healthcare centres ran out of cash in early 2006, with just 20 centres on course to be completed, an outcome the World Health Organisation described as "shocking". In a damaging report, CorpWatch harshly criticises the US-led reconstruction of Iraq's health infrastructure, demonstrating how US companies such as Parsons Global, Abt Associates and Bechtel did little more than take the money and run. Those companies were awarded huge reconstruction contracts -- a $70 million contract for Parsons, $43 million for Abt Associates and $50 million for Bechtel -- while effectively sidelining experienced UN agencies as UNICEF and WHO. In April 2006, the US Army Corps of Engineers that was supposed to construct 150 primary healthcare centres decided to cancel the construction of 130 of them. The construction had been contracted out to Parsons Global and by the time the US Army Corps cancelled Parsons' contract only six clinics had been completed. Meanwhile, 150 sets of medical equipment had already been ordered and warehoused at Abu Ghraib. Thus, 130 sets are intended for clinics that will never see the light of day. Abt Associates was contracted to repair existing Iraqi hospitals but handed the job over to local sub-contractors who were inexperienced or corrupt. When, in April 2004, the security situation in Iraq turned from bad to worse, Abt Associates staff left the country. $20.7 million of US taxpayers' money had already been paid to Abt Associates through USAID. Laura Bush's showcase children's hospital in Basra, a project awarded to Bechtel, went much the same way. The hospital was slated to feature 94 beds, private cancer suits, CAT scans and other high-tech equipment necessary to treat childhood cancer in a region highly affected by depleted uranium following the 1991 Gulf War. The price tag rose from $50 million to $170 million and in July 2006 Bechtel was asked to withdraw from the project. It remains on hold.
CRIMINAL NEGLECT: THE OCCUPATION MUST END: Four years after its onset, it has become clearer than ever that the US-led war and occupation of Iraq have resulted in a massive public health disaster for Iraqis. Reversing the current trend of ever-deteriorating health conditions requires first and foremost the end of the occupation. * The writer is coordinator for Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium, and member of theBrussels Tribunal.
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Those who take some sort of relief in the "We are fighting them over there so we won't be fighting them here!", Better Rethink their Future, or rather their Childrens Future!!
The Failed Policies will Haunt Us and the World for Decades!!
Unsurprisingly, George W. Bush's announcement of a "surge" in Iraq came despite the firm opposition to any such move of Americans and the even stronger opposition of the (thoroughly irrelevant) Iraqis. It was accompanied by ominous official leaks and statements -- from Washington and Baghdad -- about how Iranian intervention in Iraq was aimed at disrupting our mission to gain victory, an aim which is (by definition) noble. What then followed was a solemn debate about whether serial numbers on advanced roadside bombs (IEDs) were really traceable to Iran; and, if so, to that country's Revolutionary Guards or to some even higher authority.
Most Americans have little or no confidence in the information they receive from the military or the media about the situation in Iraq, according to a poll released Thursday.
Our men and women in uniform are ordered into harm's way in far-flung places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Then they're tossed aside to battle with a hidebound bureaucracy when they return home in need of what should be the best medical care on earth.
Well, no more.
We've published one horror story too many about shabby treatment of our returning veterans since this war with no end in sight began more than four years ago. From rat-infested quarters at Walter Reed Hospital in the nation's capital to an overwhelmed military medical care system elsewhere, our veterans are being shortchanged by a systemic failure.
They deserve the best care this nation can provide and for as long as it is needed.
Last week, this newspaper carried a story on the appearance before a congressional committee by Denise Mettie of Selah. She told a story of incredible insensitivity on the part of Army officials in dealing with her wounded son, Spc. Evan Mettie of Selah.
She said the Army knew her son had post-traumatic stress disorder after his first tour of duty in Iraq but did nothing to treat it because if he was medicated, the Army wouldn't have been able to redeploy him.
As it turned out, when Evan Mettie returned for his second tour of duty, the 23-year-old 2002 Selah High School graduate suffered serious head wounds during a New Year's Day 2006 suicide car-bombing in Baji, Iraq.
Subsequently, Denise Mettie said she signed away her son's health-care options without realizing it, agreeing to a medical retirement for her son. She told committee members that it was unfair for the Army to begin the retirement process just 17 days after Evan's injury -- especially since retirement limits health-care options.
We find it incredible the Army would so quickly push "retirement" for someone suffering severe brain injuries. It might be expedient, but it's certainly not in the interests of proper care. And sure enough, there have since been complications with his condition.
We totally agree with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who told Mettie that "our country owes you and your son an apology. Your son fought a war for our country. You shouldn't have had to fight every day to get him the care he deserves."
The Washington state Democrat is a senior member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The daughter of a disabled World War II veteran, Murray speaks from more than passing knowledge and interest and has been an outspoken advocate for veterans' care.
"War is expensive and if we don't face the full costs of war -- including caring for our veterans -- we'll never be able to get the resources and help families like Evan's need," Murray said. "We need the truth, so we can set the right budget and the right policies."
The war has dragged on for more than four years now and obviously just as the administration had no exit plan for getting out of Iraq, it also had no plan for dealing with the thousands of injured and wounded men and women the fighting would inevitably produce.
We call on Sen. Murray to do whatever it takes in Congress to "set the right budget and the right policies," now that she's part of the majority party in the Senate.
It's the least this country can do. It's certainly the right thing to do.
* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee.
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Those who take some sort of relief in the "We are fighting them over there so we won't be fighting them here!", Better Rethink their Future, or rather their Childrens Future!!
The Failed Policies will Haunt Us and the World for Decades!!
We speak to Joshua Kors who writes in the current edition of the The Nation about Army Specialist Jon Town. Town was injured in Iraq and returned home to be told he was no longer "combat-ready" and was diagnosed with "personality disorder." To Town's shock, this meant he would no longer receive disability and medical benefits from the Army and the VA.
Beyond Vietnam: 40th Anniversary of King's Landmark Antiwar Speech
Forty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King gave the speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." It was April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was murdered. He was speaking at the Riverside Church here in New York. King billed the speech as a declaration of independence from the war and called the United States: "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
I was able to catch this, on the NPR Diane Rehm Show this morning.
This sounds like a series that many will find extremely interesting.
It will be on PBS and called, what I titled with, America At A Crossroads. It will cover several nights with Two Hour Documentaries each night.
Robert McNeil is back on PBS but not on the 'News Hour'.
You can listen to McNeil and Rehm discuss this upcoming PBS series:
Robert MacNeil on the "America at a Crossroads" Documentary Series Journalist Robert MacNeil talks about the series of documentaries developed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to explore the challenges confronting the post- 9/11 world, including the war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experience of American troops, the struggle for balance within the Islamic world, Muslim life in America, and perspectives on American's role globally.
There is even one of the documentaries by none other than Richard Perle, which from the discription, given by McNeil to Diane, sounds like the last gasp of a Neo-Con attempting to hold on to their Extremely sick and dangerous Ideology as other DemiGods, through history, have tried but Failed, anybody remember Adolf! Oh and the list can be expanded with many others as we all know!
Thinking somehow one can totally Destroy, Kill and Maim others to your idea's of some type of Ideology, in this case Democracy, the Total Opposite of 'Destruction', 'Blowing Others to Pieces', and 'Dictoral Rule By Surogates Pretending to be Leaders', through 'Bombs', Bullets' and 'Blood'! 'Democracy' I think not!
When To Watch America at a Crossroads Broadcast Line-up {All times are Eastern Standard Time, Schedule Subject to Change}
Sunday, April 15: JIHAD: THE MEN AND IDEAS BEHIND AL QAEDA, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Monday, April 16: WARRIORS, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 17: GANGS OF IRAQ, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. THE CASE FOR WAR: IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 18: EUROPE’S 9/11, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. THE MUSLIM AMERICANS, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 19: FAITH WITHOUT FEAR, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM: INSIDE INDONESIA, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.
Friday, April 20: SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY: THE OTHER WAR , 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. THE BROTHERHOOD, 10:00 - 11:00 p.m.
If you visit the 'When to Watch' link, each nights show is linked to a description page, letting you know all about each. I could link them here but you should visit the site to find out much more.
As there is a link letting you What the Series is about. There's another where people, from around the World can submit their own Video Diaries about the series. Another for Discussion. And plenty more!
Norman Solomon writes: "The media spectacle that John McCain made of himself in Baghdad on Sunday was yet another reprise of a ghastly ritual. Senator McCain expressed 'very cautious optimism' and told reporters that the latest version of the US war effort in Iraq is 'making progress.' Awakening from a 40-year nap, an observer might wonder how much has changed since the last war that the United States stumbled over because it could not win. The Congressional Record is filled with insistence that the lessons of Vietnam must not be forgotten. But they cannot be truly remembered if they were never learned in the first place."
Soldiers Speak Out is a powerful, first-hand testament to the reality of the military experience told entirely in the words of American veterans who have been to war and are now opposing it. We hear how they came to join the military, about their experiences in training and in war, and what led to the turning point when they decided they could no longer, in good conscience, participate in the war or keep silent. This half-hour documentary sheds light on the growing and courageous anti-war and anti-occupation movement within the military and their families, and serves as a counter-recruitment and organizing tool for activists, schools and organizations. It provides a sober view of the war in Iraq and an important counterpoint to the 'stay-the-course' rhetoric of the Bush administration.
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"As An Embedded First-Hand Witness in Iraq...I Want to Share Stories the American Public is Not Aware of and the Mainstream Media is Not Telling" Iraqi-American Sami Rasouli
Iraqi American Sami Rasouli was a well-known restaurateur in Minneapolis. In 2004, in the midst of the war and occupation - three decades after leaving Iraq - he returned to his home country to help it recover from the war and U.S. occupation. Rasouli has spent much of his time in the Shiite holy city of Najaf where he was born. He also helped establish the Muslim Peacemaker Team. He recently returned for a visit back to Minneapolis where he joins us today for an extended interview.
"The Worse Things Get in Iraq, the More Privatized This War Becomes, The More Profitable This War Becomes" - Naomi Klein on the Privatization of the State
Acclaimed author and journalist Naomi Klein spoke about the 'privatization of the state' at a recent talk in New York City. Klein is a widely read columnist for the Nation magazine and the London Guardian and author of the international bestseller, "No Logo." Her forthcoming book is titled "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."
On January 26, 2005, Specialist Roberto Reyes Jr. was returning to base after a five-day mission when the Humvee he was riding in hit a mine just west of Baghdad. The force of the blast threw Reyes 20 feet and caused the ears of his comrades to bleed. The sergeant who found Reyes crawling on all fours with his skull hanging open saw Reyes's helmet nearby. A shimmering liquid in it caught his attention; as he poured it out, he realized what it was: part of Reyes's brain.
