Soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan often face daily attacks and are under constant alert. Two counselors who work with traumatized soldiers talk about their coping mechanisms.
Lastnight, 8-31-07, on the PBS Newshour, they showed parts of this video report:
Inside The Surge
They than had a discussion with the two counselors who work with traumatized soldiers.
The Counselors:
Heidi Kraft Psychologist
"This is something, unfortunately, that with operational tempo many times we're up against, but of course sleep deprivation and physical and emotional exhaustion all play into a person's ability to cope with stress."
And
Brian Butler Pike Peak Behavior Health Group
"It has a huge impact on them, in terms of the existential anxiety and the confusion they feel in trying to do the mission as well as they can, but at the same time there's no clear-cut boundaries and there's no clear-cut enemy."
The transcript can be found at the above link as well as the audio, or you can Click Here to Listen in Real Audio
Also
Both Heidi Kraft and Brian Butler will be taking questions about combat stress in an online forum. To participate, go to this page at the NewsHour site
You can leave a question for these counselors, than return on Sept. 7th '07 for answers to your questions.
"Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's image.
Brian De Palma:
"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening. "The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.
The movie was shown at the Venice Film Festival and stars Robert Devaney and Patrick Carroll and yes is directed by De Palma.
stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.
It's about an extremely tragic event, War Crime!, that took place in Iraq and we All know about.
the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family
it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.
It's about Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi and the Soldiers who brutalized her, gang raped and than burned, and killed her parents and sister!
It's written as
halfway between documentary and fiction and draws on soldiers' home-made war videos, blogs and journals and footage posted on YouTube
De Palma again:
"In Vietnam, when we saw the images and the sorrow of the people we were traumatizing and killing, we saw the soldiers wounded and brought back in body bags. We see none of that in this war,"
Click on the movie title above to find out what De Palme says about the American Media and a little about the making of it.
The movie
ends with a series of photographs of Iraqi civilians killed and their faces blacked out for legal reasons.
This movie sounds like it would be a must see, if one has a strong will, to better understand some of what actually goes on in a War Theater.
The small number of military personal who commit what would be considered War Crimes create even more danger for their fellow soldiers and raise the hatreds of the occupied populace, already in rage for many over all the death and destruction, bringing more into the fold trying to rid their homeland of the invaders.
The report says there probably will be a limited U.S. release.
We don't mind waging Wars on little countries, with all our might, we just don't like to view the results of that might. It doesn't have a 'Rambo' figure to cheer and never ends happily like those good ole World War II movies I grew up with, nor the westerns fighting those savages who were here first!
During a protest march to the Bush estate in Maine in August 2007, Iraq war combat veteran Eli Israel tells of dissatisfaction among the troops and failure in the war.
You can find out more about Spc. Eleonai "Eli" Israel by visiting the 'Courage to Resist' site in this link.
'The Sutras of Abu Ghraib' is the story of a soldier who refused to succumb to violence. In chronicling the struggles of military life and the dehumanizing effects of war, Aidan Delgado examines the attitudes that make prisoner abuse possible and explores his own developing Buddhist beliefs against a brutal backdrop. It is a tale of physical bravery, moral courage, and the cost of holding on to your identity while everyone around you is losing theirs.
"Aidan Delgado is a powerful, eloquent writer. His description of how he was transformed by the horrors of Iraq is unforgettable. He is a diamond in the rough, sandblasted in the desert of Iraq." — Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
In explaining why he wrote the book, Aidan Delgado explained, "Throughout my career as an activist, I have always wanted to talk to people in depth, away from the politics and the rhetoric. I hope this book will finally allow me to speak to people in the way I always intended: person to person."
From Publishers Weekly Delgado, one of the few soldiers to gain conscientious objector status during the Iraq War, paints a grim picture of an army suffused with casual racism and capricious violence. After signing up to become an army reserve mechanic—he completed the paperwork on September 11, 2001, minutes before the first tower was hit—Delgado found himself drawn to Buddhism, and his faith ultimately clashed with the military service he faced in Iraq. Having lived in Egypt as a teenager, Delgado was alarmed by the ignorance of Islam and xenophobia among his fellow soldiers. He attributes those attitudes to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, where he was stationed for much of his tour of duty. Delgado's commander, who did not look favorably upon applications for CO status, took his body armor away and didn't return it, even when the unit was under continual mortar bombardment. This slim and readable volume is best when recounting the author's conversations, altercations and adventures in Iraq; his meditations on pacifism are sometimes repetitive and tendentious. In the end, he offers a welcome corrective to much of the aggressive rhetoric that has pervaded the debate over the war in Iraq.
Reviews Publishers Weekly : "he offers a welcome corrective to much of the aggressive rhetoric that has pervaded the debate over the war in Iraq."
Booklist, ALA : "an absorbing and worthy story that offers one man's perspective on a conflict that continues to divide our nation."
Over 330billion Already! But the Real Costs are in Lives Lost and Maimed, and the loss of the National Security with the Hatreds that have been created leading to More in human costs and monatary costs!
And the Shame it has placed on this Country as we have joined in doing exactly what we Condemn others for what they have done and do!
The two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still there are tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scattered across the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any of the 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt. To share some of these people's stories, we have put together a short film, "When the Saints Go Marching In."
Watch the video: "Two years after Katrina and thousands are still w/o homes"
By now, the initial images are familiar: rows of city blocks flooded past the horizon, crowds outside the Superdome begging for help, hundreds stranded on highways looking for somewhere to go.
Two years after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana on August 29, 2005, the story is no longer about leaving. It's about coming home. For many, that process has not been easy. Tens of thousands of houses still remain empty, a majority of them belonging to the poor. In New Orleans alone, most of the 77,000 rental units have not been rebuilt.
As staggering as the numbers are, though, they cannot do justice to the emotional turmoil left in the hurricane's wake. Just what does it take for a family to start over? How does one survive not only the loss of a house, but the very real economic hardships of paltry insurance payments and lack of jobs, housing, and so many basic needs.
Photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally, originally on assignment for The New York Times Magazine, documents the seemingly endless struggles some families face as they set about Finding the Way Home: Two Years After Katrina.
What does it take for a family to start over? Photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally documents the seemingly endless struggles some families face as they set about Finding the Way Home: Two Years After Katrina.
The White House's September Report on Iraq has yet to be released, and the discussions and debates have already begun over the success or failure of the troop escalation in Iraq. As I've said before, we need to stop arguing over the troops or their tactics and raise the debate to the administration's strategies and policies in this region. We can't succeed in Iraq with more troops, no matter how good they are, because we can't succeed in this war just by killing people or intimidating the opposition. Sign Up Here
Or
On Aug. 28th, join hundreds of thousands of Americans as they speak out and call on their representatives to Take A Stand to End the War in Iraq.
Sign up for a Take A Stand Town Hall in your community at Iraq Campaign.org
The first part of this repeats above, than we have Iraq Veteran John Bruhns.
Iraq Vet Calls on You toTake A STAND on Aug. 28th
Iraq war veteran, John Bruhns, calls on you to join hundreds of thousands of Americans on Aug. 28th for National Take A Stand Day. Make your representatives Stand Up in September to end the war in Iraq.
Sign up for a Take A Stand Town Hall in your community at Iraq Campaign.org
THE VETERAN is the newspaper of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Inc. In 1971 and 1972 it was published as 1st Casualty. From 1973 to 1975, it was published as Winter Soldier. In 1975, it became THE VETERAN. THE VETERAN was the first voice of Vietnam Veterans in America, and has consistently addressed issues of peace and justice. Original articles on Post Traumatic Stress and Agent Orange have appeared since its first year of publication. THE VETERAN still continues publication two times a year.
I've added some links to the referances givin in the interview for those interested in finding out more, more is the Truth!
This article originated as a review of Camouflage & Lace (Camo), an audio book about Diane Ford Wood's experiences with Willie Hager, VVAW and PTSD in the early 1970s. Vietnam vet Jerry Lembcke (The Spitting Image) also wrote about Hager related to the 1978 film Coming Home. This historical overlap revealed powerful ways that Vietnam veterans can support the post-traumatic struggles and understanding of today's returning veterans. The interview evolved from there.
Diane: What is your connection to the movie Coming Home?
Willie: As the VVAW regional coordinator in LA at the time, I was interviewed extensively for the movie. Screenwriter Waldo Salt asked me what was the hardest part of Vietnam. "Coming home," I told him. For me, that was far more painful than Vietnam itself. I was given a role as a technical advisor which wasn't a completely new experience. In 1976, I helped make Still at War {Google video, "Is Iraq Like Vietnam? PTSD and the Readjustment Blues - Willie Hager"}, one of the earliest documentaries on PTSD and mistreatment of paraplegic veterans on film. After Salt got informally sidelined, the new writers revised Bruce Dern's character (loosely based on my life) in the same way society revised us. In an insightful and compelling way—and with the benefit of having reviewed the original UCLA interview transcripts—Lembcke got this.
Coming Home began as a story about how a career Marine turns into an anti-war veteran organizer. Dern's character and the script took a completely different turn from Salt's original story premise; it became a foil for the administration's reframing program. Go figure! It wasn't the movie I had signed on to make. I probably wouldn't have become involved had I known how it was all to come out.
Jerry: When I was writing The Spitting Image, I came across interviews that screenwriter Waldo Salt did with Willie and other veterans for the script of Coming Home. Speaking of what was then called "post-Vietnam syndrome" (PVS), Willie told Salt that their Vietnam experience had taught veterans that American society was a lie and that that same society did not want to deal with them. I wrote that, in effect, the raised consciousness that men like Willie came home with was pathologized, beginning with the way Salt used Willie's story to construct the prototypical whacked-out veteran played by Bruce Dern in the film and later canonized by psychiatrists as the mental health problem, PTSD.
Images of spat-upon veterans and traumatized veterans constituted portraits of victimization. These portraits displaced from public memory the fact that their time in Vietnam was one of empowerment and politicization for many GIs. Reading books like Alan Young's The Illusion of Harmony: Inventing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, I became aware of how the diagnostic category PTSD also functioned as a political and cultural concept.
With the Vietnam-era "anti-war warrior" screened out by the "victim-veteran," it was no surprise that the current wars began with both the pro-war Right and anti-war Left pledging to support the troops. It was no surprise either when the film Sir! No Sir! (about the GI anti-war movement during Vietnam) pulled that piece of history back into view. It inaugurated a new anti-war coffee house near Fort Drum; a petition campaign against the war by military personnel; and new stories of spat-on veterans. This redirected public attention to the televised images of battered veterans images heretofore banned from public consumption.
Diane:The Spitting Image talks about how Willie's experiences were misunderstood by the VA, the military, Hollywood, society and even those closest to him. Camo describes living this nightmare from a woman's perspective. Were we all too caught up in the moment to have any kind of overview? How could so many caring people miss the point?
Willie: We were living history. We were blinded by the light.
Jerry: Hollywood was a major player in displacing the story of the war itself with the story of GIs coming home to the country that had betrayed them and their mission. Coming Home, for which Willie's interviews were used, had powerful feminist and anti-war messages and was heralded as a contribution to the disability-rights movement. For those who needed a different story, it also helped construct a mythical betrayal narrative for why we lost the war.
Diane: When producing Camo, we enlisted the help of Vietnam-era veteran/musician Russ Scheidler and Vietnam veterans Steve Sherlock (Aid to Southeast Asia) and Doug Drews (Vets For Peace) to read the parts on tape. Russ and Doug say that the new cycle of returning veterans with PTSD seriously rekindles their own depression. Do you have these feelings?
Jerry: In Sir! No Sir! Bill Short recalls that one of his duties in Vietnam was to count the dead Viet Cong after a fight. The task revolted him and when he refused to do it any longer he was sent to the unit shrink for psychiatric evaluation. His resistance about to be pathologized as a mental health problem (he thinks), the psychiatrist turns instead and pulls from the shelf a copy of The New York Times with a full-page petition against the war signed by GIs. Bill needed a social movement, not treatment, and the same can be said for hundreds of troops and veterans today who are similarly disgusted with the war they've been sent to fight and depressed with the realization that there is no glory in inglorious war.
Willie: The devil is in the details: The more you know about PTSD, the more pissed you become. Sure I have those feelings, especially when it is all coming around again as a result of our combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. We need to eliminate PTSD as a "mental" disorder and address it for what it is: A psycho-social anomie arising from our service on behalf of a power-mongering government out for political, personal, and capital gain.
Diane: Jerry, you are a Vietnam veteran, presumably with some level of disillusionment. Yet you found your way in society to become a college professor. How have you managed to survive in a society with which you have such issues?
Jerry: Janice Joplin sang "freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." That was the mindset I returned with from Vietnam. One of the veterans in Gerald Gioglio's book, Days of Decision (about in-service conscientious objectors) says he never had more clarity about life than during his days of resistance. This is the kind of clarity that comes when you're stripped-down to the essentials of life. That's the way I felt. I vowed never again to be entrapped by this society's materialism or to be bonded to what Willie described to Salt as "little bullshit jobs that don't really count." At about that time, I read Neil Postman's book Teaching as a Subversive Activity. I used it as a kind of playbook for a dialectical engagement with society—surviving within it while simultaneously working for its transformation into something beyond itself.
Diane: Willie, you and veterans like Calixto Cabrera ("Alfredo" in Camo) joined the military as patriots and believers. You turned down a presidential appointment to Annapolis to become a Marine. Yet ultimately, you chose the outlaw life after Vietnam. How do you feel about that choice now?
Willie: I am still a patriot and always will be. I joined the Marine Corps in 1959 as a result of patriotism. Ten years later, I left and joined VVAW in 1971 – also as a result of patriotism. It was a patriotic act to rally with the grassroots to maintain our Constitutional perspectives. We won. Nixon and his band of thugs were ousted from power and for a while, the government did the People's Business. Remember the Erich Fromm quote: "The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal"? Given the context, and using this history as a criterion, I consider "outlaw" an honorable definition of character synonymous with "patriot." Oh, yes; and I still believe.
Diane: In the '60s and '70s, VVAW trail-blazed post-traumatic stress research using their own lives as collateral. Can this make a difference to today's returning vets?
Jerry: The movement of in-service resisters and Vietnam veterans against the war called attention to the human costs of that war and mustered the political support for increased services for the mentally and physically wounded. The needs of the current wars' many victims will be best served not by public lamentations on the costs of war and pledges to support the troops but by an anti-war movement inclusive of the men and women sent to fight the war.
Willie: Absolutely! But only if we don't allow the government to divide and conquer us as they did after our initial victories back in The Day. There is always a cost for speaking truth to power. For us, it was being shunned as Communist agitators and told that Vietnam wasn't a real war. Our service was questioned. We were labeled cry-babies and sissies for calling attention to inferior conditions at the VA (See Camo, Still at War, Winter Soldier and more). Some older veterans worried that the surge of new combat veterans might infringe on their lock on Congress and the VA and minimize their priorities and benefits. And we often experienced non-acceptance at VFW and American Legion Posts throughout America.
Hopefully we can be more supportive to the men and women coming home today. Vietnam veterans have never been a quiet group. The counsel and experience we offer is practically unprecedented in American history. But I'm afraid the recognition of that fact might take a very long time.
Jerry Lembcke is a professor at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam {2000} is available nationwide.
Willie Hager and Diane Ford Wood are principal organizers of PTSD-centered Vetspeak.org. Still at War will soon be available at Wisbooks. Camouflage & Lace {Camo} {2005} is available at CD Baby.
A powerful true story of love & revolution in the anti-war Vietnam era told on 2 CDs. You won't be able to get the 8 original songs out of your head. A flashback and an awakening -- could this happen today?
"Camouflage & Lace" {Camo} is an original audiobook, with 8 original songs, that tells the true story, of a young college woman among soldiers, California 1972. Words and music by Diane Ford Wood, songs arranged and played by Vietnam-era veteran Russ Scheidler.
This started out as just a transfer of the Convention wrapup newsletter for those who might be interested in reading about the VFP convention, but going through and listening to some great interviews, as well as a few great video reports, I was able to grab and upload, it turned out more than just transfering links, Enjoy!
One convention participant described this convention as hot, hot, hot! The temperature was hot (100 degrees), the workshops were hot, the speakers were hot, and IVAW was hot! Together with over 44 workshops and over 400 participants, that makes one amazing convention.
SEE VIDEO OF IVAW'S ACTION - "War is not a game!" Iraq Veterans Against the War confronted Army recruiters at a St Louis expo. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) stood in mass company formation and sounded off with "War is not a game" in front of an America's Army game booth staffed with Army recruiters.
But in Karpinksi's view, the atmosphere changed at Abu Ghraib after Miller's two-week visit. Miller "directed Gen. Fast to be more involved with Col. Pappas and the interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib," said Karpinski, who oversaw that facility and 16 other prisons. "Who knew and how far up did this go in the chain of command?"
KTVI-myFOXstl.com -- The war in Iraq will certainly dominate the Veterans For Peace national convention coming this week to St. Louis. When they convene on Wednesday, it will be against a backdrop that leaves some in tears. Fox 2's Paul Schankman has more details.
