A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways - including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The mind behind it will never be the same.
The Troubled Homecoming Of The Marlboro Marine
Only one face, of the tens of thousands, radically changed by their experiance in a War Of Choice, Choice by those who don't fight them, not Absolutely The Last Resort! In Wars Of Choice most start questioning the Why? of their being ordered there, Survival becomes the 'Nobel Cause', theirs and those around them, and Survival comes with Deep Costs! Once having normal trained minds, absorbing more knowledge and experiances, the Nightmares of Death and Destruction take over, haughting many for the rest of their lives!
This happens in All wars, to Military Personal sent into anothers Country and to the Citizens of that Country either fighting the invaders or innocents trying to exist in the carnage growing daily, especially to the children! But Wars Of Choice brings on the True Trauma much faster and deeper!
Blake Miller can't stand cats. He didn't always hate them, but that was before Iraq; before he fought in the battle of Fallujah; before the first enemy soldier Miller killed lay rotting in the street for three days, his remains picked over by a hungry cat that had crawled inside the dead Iraqi's hollowed-out chest. Miller's life divides like that, into then and now. Before November 9th, 2004.
You can use another face, not as traveled around the World as the early photo of Blake and seen by millions, but of a recent Tragedy of a Marine haunted by the Nightmares of his War experiances.
This is Eric Hall who apparently, while visiting a relative, had an Extreme Flashback, a flashback similar to others he's had since returning from his service in Iraq, only this one ended Tragically as his body was finally discovered some fifty feet in a drain pipe, not far from where he left his running motorcycle in the middle of a street, by a Tunnel Rat of our 'Nam War Of Choice. Veterans joined Erics family members, friends, and others, searching for him for a couple of weeks before finally finding his body.
Eric's tragedy wasn't a National Story, at first, and has only received scant coverage since it broke and finalized with his burial, than like almost all stories disappears from the countries conscious, a country that sent him, and thousands of others over and over and Still Do, into a War Of Choice and Occupations.
I only found it visiting a site that covers an area where I have a sister, and her family, living in Florida. Than I followed the story till it's tragic end and the burial of this Marine, Eric Hall. You can find more of the reports I posted Here, Here, Here, Here and finally Here.
Two more reports have surfaced since Erics death, Eric Hall death ruled "undetermined" and Motorcycle club helps with inappropriate bill for diseased veteran
News of an unpaid bill for a towed motorcycle at a memorial service in Florida for a former marine was enough for the Vietnam Brotherhood to step in and help out.
The captain of the honor guard for the Vietnam Brotherhood, Donald Pedriali was at the memorial service for a former Marine when he learned the young man's family faced a $232 bill for towing the deceased's motorcycle from the intersection near where he died.
Rolling Stone magazine has an indepth report, link above, for it's April '08 issue now up on it's site, about what Blake, and other Veterans, of the past Conflicts to the present Conflicts are going through as they have been completely changed from what they once were and now exist trying to Survive, as they did in the Conflicts, fighting the battles, that were the reality they experianced, in their minds. As the Nation that sent them into Invasion and Occupation almost totally Ignores what it has done to them and the Countries Invaded and Occupied!
Miller's nightmares, insomnia, heightened alertness, self-imposed isolation and persistent recollections of his seven months in Iraq are all classic symptoms of PTSD, an anxiety disorder that results from exposure to an event so psychically frightening that the aftershocks continue for months or even years. Studies estimate that as many as 500,000 troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from some form of psychological injury, with PTSD being the most common. Miller hasn't been to a doctor in over a year, and, like so many vets, he seems to have fallen off the government's radar. He tried the abundance of medications — antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, mostly — that the Veterans Administration has sent him, but they only exacerbated his nightmares, jitters and apathy. And therapy is hard to get in places like Jonancy: For a while, he tried living in West Virginia to be near a PTSD specialist, but he missed his familiar surroundings and moved back home. Besides, the VA bureaucracy is hell for anyone to navigate, let alone a guy who feels like he could snap at any moment.
"The military makes it hard for these guys to get help," says Rep. Bob Filner, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "We're letting ticking time bombs out into society. Suicides are increasing among vets, and many of those with PTSD have felony convictions. The VA and the Department of Defense won't acknowledge the incredible size of the problem, and it's yet another indictment of the war we're fighting and how we deal with these fighters."
Like many disabled vets, Miller feels betrayed by the military, neglected by the VA and misunderstood by pretty much everyone else. "People hear 'PTSD' and they think that means you're crazy," he says. "My aunt tells her kids, 'Don't go around Blake. He might flip out and shoot you.'"
The Blame doesn't only lie with the Military nor any other Government Agency, it Lies Straight In The Laps Of This Entire Nation!
A Nation of Apathy and Denial, placing same into leadership positions that Readily Back using others to show how tough it thinks it is!
Boss, whose speech has grown progressively more slurred, demands his turn, and he takes us through a country breakup song called "Left Side of the Bed." Miller makes an exaggerated sobbing sound as Boss gets to the end, and then busts up laughing. For an instant, he seems genuinely happy. He even hints that, over the past several months, things have felt a little less bleak. "I used to believe that I was gonna be just like Boss — the old vet that everyone is afraid of, who just wants to crawl in a hole and disappear," he tells me. "That's the way I felt when I first came back. But Bodean and Lita really keep me out of it."
Sitting next to each other, Miller and Lita talk about their struggles, often completing each other's sentences. "I just want people to understand what PTSD is," Miller says. "It's not that you're a wack job who needs a straitjacket. It's just that you have thoughts not exactly on the level . . ."
"And you can't stop them," Lita adds.
"Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam," Boss mutters, almost entranced.
Even more than wanting to be understood, Miller wants vets suffering from mental injuries to receive the same honor awarded to those with physical wounds: the Purple Heart. Currently, veterans receive the medal only if they have endured bodily harm during battle. "What's the difference between going into a combat zone and being injured physically versus being injured mentally?" Miller says. "One gives you a visible scar and the other doesn't. Imagine how you would feel to be completely whole and not have the mind to function — just locked inside a hell you can't escape."
Educate Yourselves, for many that surround you suffer the ravages of PTSD, not Combat PTSD but their own nightmares from tragic events in their own lives, happening in their childhoods or adult lives, Trauma's that change them forever and haught their conscious, they do so mostly In Silence!
When a Nation, especially with a powerful military machine, spending obscene amounts of it's wealth on, never questioning exactly where that money goes, looks at the option of War, right next to it being An Option Of Absolute Last Resort the four letters PTSD should not follow but be placed Right Next To or Spoken in the Same Sentence!
This is The Face
Of those who Cheer On Wars Of Choice and how they feel about those they send, Spitting not only on the Decorated Brother of my Service In but Any and All after they Return:
Don't Forget This Face, It Represents This Nation!!!
A Hat Tip to Ilona Meagher, a tireless civilian advocate, never experiancing Combat Trauma, who had the link at her site. I might have caught it at some point but a visit there gave me the headsup and trip over to read, As You Should.
And so from the spectre of the summer soldier who shrinks from the hard truths and his country's crises, comes the Winter Soldier who will not look away.
97 percent of U.S. deaths in Iraq have occurred after George W. Bush declared an end to "major combat."
Mission Accomplished
"It is important to understand that the MI units at Abu Ghraib were far from complete units," reads the internal report. "They were small elements from those units. Most of the elements that came to Abu Ghraib came without their normal command structure.
One of Numorous F***ups!!
Before dawn every Sunday morning, at the foot of the Santa Monica Pier, volunteers set up crosses in memory of American service members killed in Iraq.
The Video was produced for the New York Times and can be also seen At Their Site
The Times don't include an 'embed' link, so for those who might want to add this to their sites you can get the above embed link at Blip TV, also at Google Video if you prefer or at Live Video as well.
For Vietnam Veterans, Families, Relatives, Friends of, and all those interested but not touched by having a Fallen Loved One Honored on 'The Wall' the Memorial and the National Archives offers a great new service:
WASHINGTON - The National Archives is joining with a Web site to make historical records of tens of thousands of deceased Vietnam War veterans available electronically for the first time.
The interactive site - at Footnote - The Wall - is a Web re-creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. The site offers access to thousands of pages of casualty records and agency photos. People can search by name, hometown, birthdate, or dozens of other categories.
The site allows people to post photos they may have of a deceased veteran and to make comments. The service is currently free for Vietnam War information; the company is deciding whether to charge fees for some of the 50,000 National Archives photos now digitized.
Note: Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial It's Free, leave a tribute, a story or photograph about any of the 58,256 veterans killed or missing in the Vietnam War.
This morning, 3-27-08, the local affiliate of NPR, WFAE had a report on a few of the local family members with sons or daughters serving in the Military and In-Theater either Iraq or Afganistan, and how their neighbors are disconnected from what they are experiancing, after talking to the family members they did an interesting follow, talking to people of the WWII era showing the total Disconnect of this Country, and it's Citizens, Now as to these Occupations to Than.
You can Listen with this Link, brings up windows media player.
Thinking, as I listened, they could have expanded the report to the Occupation myself and thousands of my brothers and sisters served in. Than we didn't have Cable, with so many stations, mostly of uninteresting shows, and with a number of so called News Channels that Rarely show what is happening in Either Theater and flip through reports of those killed or maimed Without a Concious thought as to them or their families. The greater majority of the country were disconnected, carried over from the Korean Conflict, But The Conflict Was In The Living Rooms Almost Nightly on any one of the three stations or all three.
Though because of the Extreme Danger to the Real Journalists, doing war correspondence, they can rarely get out of their safe zones in either Iraq or Afganistan to actually report first hand, as was not the case in 'Nam, but the almost total lack of reporting on the Soldiers this Country sent into these Occupations leaves the Country Totally Disconnected and Unwilling To Sacrifice as these soldiers and Families Carry The Full Burden of the Extreme Failed Policies of Country and Society!
Also on NPR, this morning, but on Morning Edition they had this report Ft. Campbell Soldiers See Kids' Milestones from Afar
Seniors at Fort Campbell High School near Nashville, Tenn., are preparing to graduate. But as the Iraq war enters its fifth year, some of those students have had a parent deployed overseas for a lot of their time in high school.
Soldiers at Fort Campbell are on their third deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan — missing the milestones of watching their kids grow up.
And what's this costing us, much more than those not Sacrificing a thing Think, or rather as we put it all on a Credit Card, our Next Generations Will Be Paying! You can get a taste of the cost with an updated report, aired last night on The News Hour:
Five Years In, Cost of Iraq War Far Exceeds Early Estimates
In a follow-up report to a series on the cost of war, Paul Solman examines the new estimates for short- and long-term expenditures related to the ongoing conflict in Iraq -- including military recruitment, equipment and medical treatment for those injured. You can view The Report with this Link. If you prefer to just listen the audio link is at the site.
And rummy, a clip from back when in the report:
PAUL SOLMAN, The cost of the Iraq war, it's a far cry from the original estimates.
DONALD RUMSFELD, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense: The Office of Management and Budget estimated it would be something under $50 billion.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, Anchor, "This Week": Outside estimates say up to $300 billion.
DONALD RUMSFELD: Baloney.
These returning present day Combat Veterans will face a Country not only Disconnected but in Denial and in Collective Apathy, they will continue what those before them, from Korea to 'Nam to the First Gulf War and all Military Actions in between, Fighting For What This Country Owes Them!!
And their Children, because of the nature of the Hatreds we have Created, will be facing not only the costs of the Failed Policies but the Blowback, Retaliations, from the Deaths and Destruction we have wrought!!
We have lost over 900 dead Americans since the surge. Now if you want to dismiss that as "success" that would be your interpretation.
Chuck Hagel
97 percent of U.S. deaths in Iraq have occurred after George W. Bush declared an end to "major combat."
Mission accomplished!
Paralyzed Iraq Vet Responds to Cheney: "We Didn't Volunteer Where You Sent Us to Go" *In an interview on ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney was also asked about the 4,000 soldiers killed in Iraq. We are fortunate to have a group of men and women, an all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and goin harm¹s way for the rest of us, Cheney said. In response, Tomas Young, an Iraq war veteran who was paralyzed after being shot in Baghdad said, "Many of us volunteered with patriotic feelings in our heart, only to see them subverted and bastardized by the administration and sent into the wrong country. Yes, we volunteered, but we didn¹t volunteer where you sent us to go."
Listen/Watch/Read
As the US occupation of Iraq enters its sixth year, we take a look at a new documentary that captures the struggles of one of the tens of thousands of US troops injured in the war. Body of War is directed by film maker Ellen Spiro and veteran broadcaster Phil Donahue. The film tells the story of Iraq war veteran Tomas Young. On April 4, 2004, his fifth day in Iraq, Young¹s unit came under fire in Baghdad. He was left paralyzed, never to walk again.Released from medical care three months later, Young returned home to become an active member in Iraq Veterans Against the War. We play excerpts of Body of War and speak with Tomas Young and with filmmakers Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro.
Listen/Watch/Read
It quoted an unnamed senior U.S .military source saying: "Three big militias are currently engaged in a particularly bloody battle in southern Iraq.
"If they do not have enough troops, then they will be offered U.S .Marines to help out.
"The feeling is that if southern Iraq is hugely unstable, it will affect the success of the surge in the north and destabilize the whole country."
Heavy fighting erupted on Tuesday in the southern oil city of Basra where Iraqi security forces launched a major operation at dawn against powerful militias, military officials and witnesses said.
"There are clashes in the streets. Bullets are coming from everywhere and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions. This has been going on since dawn," resident Jamil told Reuters by telephone as he cowered in his home.
Two powerful factions of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Mehdi Army militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, are fighting for power in Basra along with a smaller Shi'ite party, Fadhila.
Basra is Iraq's second city and gateway to the Gulf. Its oil fields are the source of most government revenues.
Holloway said Iraqi troops had been sent from across Iraq to reinforce the 14th Iraqi Army division in Basra.
Each brave soul leaves behind devastated loved ones -- sons, daughters, wives, husbands, moms, and dads. Each tragic loss leaves a void -- a missing smile and loving embrace, an empty chair at the family dinner table -- that can never be filled.
At this somber moment, let us resolve to take steps to finally bring this tragic war to an end. In 2008, the American people must not stand passively mute, as far too many of their leaders did five years ago. Let your voices be heard.
But the true subject of the movie is the mentality and the atmosphere that produced sadistic conduct, both at Bagram and at Guantánamo
We are a country that speaks on principle, morality, religious ideologies of Human Caring and Rights, the shining house on the hill that condemns others to shame on their actions!
and such figures as John Yoo, the Department of Justice attorney who redefined the practices permitted by the Bush Administration in such a way that they couldn’t be deemed war crimes
We are a country of Law that holds those Responsible that Break the Laws of this Land and on the World Stage!
The prisoners—cut off from any possible counsel, harassed, stripped, hooded, bound, and, in many cases, threatened with attack dogs or abused physically—were locked into a system of punishment before any guilt was established
We are a country that Treats others as we wish them to Treat our own, giving us the right to Condemn others for their Immorality against fellow Human Beings!
>It is not known why Dilawar was accused, but, as his tormentors admit, it became clear before the end of the interrogation—during which he was hung up by his arms and repeatedly struck on the legs—that he was innocent. They kept hitting him, however. They all took turns.
Taxi to the Darkside - The Movie
Above, and below, is Now the Ideology of this Country as seen and understood by others on this planet, National Security Was Never A Factor, No more!
Creating Enemies with more Hatreds and want for Retribution is more apt, Perpetual Conflict!
Exposure
The woman behind the camera at Abu Ghraib
All that the soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, a Reserve unit out of Cresaptown, Maryland, knew about America’s biggest military prison in Iraq, when they arrived there in early October of 2003, was that it was on the front lines. Its official name was Forward Operating Base Abu Ghraib. Never mind that military doctrine and the Geneva Conventions forbid holding prisoners in a combat zone, and require that they be sped to the rear; you had to make the opposite sort of journey to get to Abu Ghraib. You had to travel along some of the deadliest roads in the country, constantly bombed and frequently ambushed, into the Sunni Triangle. The prison squatted on the desert, a wall of sheer concrete traced with barbed wire, picketed by watchtowers. “Like something from a Mad Max movie,” Sergeant Javal Davis, of the 372nd, said. “Just like that—like, medieval.” There were more than two and a half miles of wall with twenty-four towers, enclosing two hundred and eighty acres of prison ground. And inside, Davis said, “it’s nothing but rubble, blown-up buildings, dogs running all over the place, rabid dogs, burnt remains. The stench was unbearable: urine, feces, body rot.”
SNIP
This countries policies have never been perfect, now what went on somewhat quietly is completely out in the open!
Never again will we find a need to ask, "Why do others Hate us So?", the answer has come out into the open, Finally!!
“ Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life's sanctity, is a "civil war" waged by humanity against itself."
- Daisaku Ikeda
No Accountibility, No Democracy, No Constitution, No Country!!!!
