From Across the Pond - Step forward George Bush

Keep your eyes and ears peaked for this coming week, when the whittle prince makes the rounds of his final goodbyes to Old Europe, many, my guess would be, will not enthused with welcoming his horror, whoops sorry, his honor.

"George Bush should be in The Hague facing war crimes charges over the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed in Iraq since 2003, not being entertained in Downing Street. Gordon Brown doesn't need a policy brief for this meeting, just a pair of handcuffs."

Gee ya think! I Do!!

The above comes from The Independant of Great Britain.

And found in this article:

George Bush will face protests and demands that he be charged as a war criminal over the Iraq conflict when he makes his final visit to Britain as US President next weekend.

And who will be joining in the call:

leading voices in the worlds of the arts and politics, including the novelist Iain Banks, the artist David Gentleman and the human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, have now joined forces to call for Mr Bush to face a war crimes trial in the Hague.

Wonder how the Brits will handle the security and where they will force their citizens to assemble.

All the President's visits

18-20 July, 2001
High: Bush meets the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Holds talks at Chequers with Tony Blair and appears at a joint press conference. Bush says: "Chequers is a ... it's a great place to get a night's sleep."

Low: There are protests against the visit, in contrast to the euphoria for Bill and Hilary Clinton in May 1997, when the Blairs took the Clintons to the fashionable Le Pont de la Tour restaurant.

7-8 April, 2003
High: Bush visits Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, to support the peace talks just weeks after the invasion of Iraq.

Low: Sinn Fein and SDLP supporters join anti-war protesters near Hillsborough.

18-21 November, 2003
High: Bush visits Buckingham Palace, and then has lunch with Tony Blair at the Dun Cow pub in Sedgefield, the Prime Minister's constituency.

Low: Protest march by an estimated 200,000 against the Iraq war. US request for American fighter planes over London and closure of the Tube system is turned down.

6-8 July, 2005
High: Bush attends annual G8 summit at the world-famous golfing hotel at Gleneagles, Scotland, well away from anti-war protesters.

Low: Bush overheard snubbing Blair by rejecting an offer by the Prime Minister to visit the Middle East as a peacemaker. Says he would rather send the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. End of summit overshadowed by terrorist bombings in London which kill 52 people.

Labour Against the War

Anti-war protest planned for Bush visit to London

Stop the War Coalition (STWC) described Bush as a "war criminal" and said the protest will be held outside the British parliament on June 15.

And a Happy Fathers Day jr. bush, by the way, why isn't your new son-in-law in a military uniform!

Stop The War Coalition {STWC}

I had no intention of arresting John Bolton, the former under-secretary of state at the US state department, when I arrived at the Hay festival. But during a panel discussion about the Iraq war, I remarked that the greatest crime of the 21st century had become so normalised that one of its authors was due to visit the festival to promote his book. I proposed that someone should attempt a citizens' arrest, in the hope of instilling a fear of punishment among those who plan illegal wars. After the session I realised that I couldn't call on other people to do something I wasn't prepared to do myself.

And from Down Under

Australians Organize “A Group Of Veterans And Former Military Personnel Who Oppose The Current Wars Of Occupation In Iraq And Afghanistan”

Stand Fast seeks to add weight to the antiwar movement in Australia through organising veterans to speak out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by debunking the myth that “If you’re against the war, you’re against the troops."

Taking inspiration from US groups such as Iraq Veterans Against War, a new group of former military personnel opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — Stand Fast — was launched at the March 16 anti-war rallies across Australia, in time for the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Anti-war veterans group to be launched at Palm Sunday rallies

This Sunday at rallies across Australia marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq a new veterans group will be launched which opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Our group, called Stand Fast, will have speakers at rallies in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane,” said Hamish Chitts, former Australian infantry soldier, East Timor veteran and one of the founders of Stand Fast.

The group’s statement reads:

And what will our press be covering?

Well lets hope they've run out of repeating everything on Hillary and at least start covering Barack, after all isn't he the one who will be running for President, cause we know they won't be covering the Call from London!!

VA Lawsuits

California: A New Hearing in V.A. Case

A federal judge presiding over a lawsuit alleging mistreatment of veterans has ordered a hearing regarding new evidence in the case. The judge, Samuel Conti of Federal District Court in San Francisco, ordered the hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, after the emergence of an internal e-mail message that appears to urge Veterans Affairs clinicians to avoid making a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder to save money.

The first of several breaking news stories involves the latest on the "Blue Water Navy" lawsuit. Unfortunately, it is not good news. Several years ago Congress ordered the Department of Veteran Affairs to stop compensating Navy Veterans who did not serve on land during the Vietnam War. These veterans suffered from the same diseases that plague those who did serve on land. But, according to somebody in power in Washington, they could not possibly have been exposed to the herbicides, which were sprayed over the entire land therefore their benefits were stopped.

So Wrong For So Long

There's a reason I use the breakin line to Greg Mitchells book So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President--Failed on Iraq.

Part of that reason is an article printed in the Asian Times, I just finished reading.

The "So wrong for So long" not only can describe how our current tragic history has been evolving, and what may be coming in the short term future and beyond, in it's lack of competent leadership, it's rapidly changed policies of death and destruction of others pre-emptively for no reason or a veriaty of reasons with no foundations nor proof of existance, it's violations of human rights through arrests and torture of others on whims of suspicion or even less than that.

The 'So wrong for So long" describes how this country doesn't learn it's own lessons from it's own past in it's relative short existance.

One of those lessons is the lesson of War, especially the Wars of Choice leading into Occupations of Others and the terror those invasions and occupations bring upon them, those others haven't done a thing to deserve the total destruction of the World they once lived in and now is changed forever, with the children growing up in a World the complete opposite of what should be and shaping their lives from the experiances of that existance.

The article in the Asian Times is titled What it means when the US goes to war but could be titled with any countries name substituted or just "What it means to go to War". This is about what happens to American Soldiers sent into Invasions and Occupations of Choice, we've gone through all this before, lessons not learned, none of the lessons of!

American soldiers in Iraq daily face "atrocity producing situations", from patrols, convoys (which race along like freight trains of death), home raids, detentions and military checkpoints: the essence of war, after all, is death. Using the experiences of soldiers on the ground, Chris Hedges strips away the myths of glory and honor and discovers the uncommon "moral courage" that the veterans he quotes have exhibited by telling the truth about their war.

And moral courage it is, when for the health and sanity of the individual, that individual must let go of what's deeply hidden and speak out on what they have seen or taken part in, in the hell on earth War, man's destruction of others, man's terrorizing others to force their ideologies and beliefs on them, or simply to strip them of their individual dignity and material wealth and countries resources.

They confront the grave, existential crisis of all who go through combat and understand that we have no monopoly on virtue, that in war we become as barbaric and savage as those we oppose.

This is an extremely important read for the Uneducated and Unexperianced of War and Occupation, and for those who have but choose denial to cope, how all that one has grown to learn, in many area's of ones young life, is quickly stripped away in the reality of what man does to fellow man.

These are the already grown children, sent off to engage in these Wars, think of the experiances of the young children living in these theaters of war, this is how they are learning the lessons of the world they were born into, and growing up in as it continues, they can't be taught differant, they can hear about beauty and peace, tolerance and love, but they exist in a hell created around them, with all the fears and terror it brings, that man rages on other men.

Last night, in case you missed it, Greg Mitchell was one of the guests on the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS

If you did miss it, or would like to re-visit, you can watch it here as well as read the transcript

A few clips from the discussion:

GREG MITCHELL: Right. Well, that's — again, it's different coming from the chief White House spokesman than coming from me — you know, for better or worse. But you know, I — that's what I mean. I think what's troubling to me is the response to that. The media has not responded by saying, "Boy, we really got caught out here, and we really need to look at what we did wrong. And we're, you know, we need to report on what the mistakes we made and what we — you know, what we've really learned now."

Now a few days ago the Senate Intelligence Committee finally released a report about the lies the administration fabricated, and more, in the reasoning to invade an innocent country, Iraq. Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true. And what have the media placed front and center as most important, what Hillary Clinton will do now that this Historic Presidential Campaign has passed the torch of leadership to Barrack Obama, even half the time frothing over Hillary could and should have been used to report on the Intelligence Report and our Soldiers at War, but for myself even more should be reported! The PDF of the Report

JONATHAN LANDAY: What's disappoints me is that here was an opportunity, once again, but a very large opportunity for major news organizations to do the mea culpa they never did, to admit that they indeed failed to do what they're supposed to do, failed to be the watchdogs they're supposed to be.
And yet we saw exactly the opposite for the most part. And I was just I was left breathless by some of the things that I heard where you heard correspondents say, "Well, we did ask the tough questions. We asked them to the White House spokesmen," Scott McClellan and others. And you say to yourself, "And you expected to get real answers? You expected them to say from the White House podium — 'Yeah, well, there were disagreements over the intelligence, but we ignored them'" when the President made his speeches and the Vice President made his speeches. No, I don't think so.

They blew it once again this past week, and will blow it in the coming weeks!

JOHN WALCOTT: You know, if Fox News's mission is to defend Republican administrations then they're right, they didn't fail. One of the things that puzzles me about all of this, in Scott's book is this notion that it was the liberal media. I'm not — I don't understand what liberal versus conservative has to do with this. I would have thought that conservatives would be the ones to ask questions about a march to war. How much is this gonna cost us? What's the effect of this gonna be on our military, on our country's strength overseas?
I don't think it's a liberal conservative question at all. I think that's, frankly, a canard by Scott

I highlighted the passage above because that's what I've felt right from the beginning even though it was so called conservatives beating the drums louder and louder for invasion and occupation, but I've been answered over and over with the fact that Conservatism, as it once was, is dead, none existant, undefined, in this new century. What's replaced it can only be described with a word from the past, Facism, for the many resemblances to.

GREG MITCHELL: You'd have to see whether the press this time would use the phrase "taking care of Iran." Now, what does that mean? Even if you do bomb Iran, what does that do? What is the aftereffect? What is the overall effect of it? What does it do to, you know, how many people do you kill? What happens in the wreckage afterwards? So if it's the media is — which it didn't do with Iraq — does it in this case then people will have a better understanding of what we're letting ourselves in for if we do attack Iran.
JOHN WALCOTT: That's an excellent point because the failures before the war on Iraq are probably matched by the failure to ask this question about invading Iran. Is it really gonna be easy? Are we really gonna be greeted with flowers and chocolates, as liberators, which is what the defectors told us? And one of the things this Administration has never been able to get through its head is the old saying that the enemy has a vote, that the enemy, whatever you do, they will respond in some way. And the Iranian-

Can the World, and our National Security, become worse than it is today, in the near future? Yes, invaded or bomb Iran and watch the Hatreds and Growth of Enemies result from!!

A Country like ours should be Leading by Example, making friends not enemies, helping others not destroying them, setting examples of moral and human tolerance and dignity not joining those who torture and control, trying to live as we preach, not condemning others when doing the same.........................................................................!

Setting the Example that can be Admired and Followed!

Power To The People

That Great Part of Youth that Never Left Many of Us!!!!

The 'Dreams' that could and should be!!

Democratic 'Keynote' Convention Speaker

Who else would be better to be chosen as the 'Keynote' speaker at the Democratic Convention than one of those this country sent into a failed Foreign Policy Conflict and Occupation.

There are many to choose from, way too many, who have Sacrificed way too much for this country, but now that Senator Obama has made History and will Lead the Convention they need look no further than his own State for one who can speak of the incompetence within the Veterans Administration leadership, and the Administration, and the Failure of the Republican Controlled Federal Government, while beating the Drums of War Louder and Louder, failed to even Think about those returning from their War Of Choice, the results of which we've been finding out about as Congress finally got back to it's job of Oversite and Investigation, as well as the MSM!

Welcome to the Web site for the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, the state agency dedicated and committed to assist veterans and their family members get the services they have rightfully earned.


"Our veterans put their lives on the line to fight for our freedoms. Now, it is our time to fight for them. We owe it to them."

L. Tammy Duckworth
Director, DVA

Committed to Serving Country and Community
Director L. Tammy Duckworth was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs by Governor Blagojevich on November 21, 2006.

Director Duckworth brings considerable managerial experience to the department. She was the Manager for the Club and District Administration Department for Rotary Internationals Asia-Pacific Region from 2002 to 2004, with direct supervision over employees in five regional offices in Japan, New Delhi, Sydney, Seoul and Chicago, providing administrative services to the organizations tens of thousands of members.

From 1999 to 2001, Director Duckworth coordinated the Center for Nursing Research at Northern Illinois University. She is a published author with textbook chapters and articles on the effects of Environmental Radon and Lung Cancer.

As a member of the military, Director Duckworth is currently a Major with the Illinois National Guard. Previously she was the 106th Aviation Battalion Logistics Officer in Peoria, and later the Commander of B/1-106th Aviation, a 15-ship, UH-60A Blackhawk Helicopter Company located at the Chicago Midway Airport. She served in Iraq as a Battle Captain and Assistant Operations Officer for a 500-soldier aviation taskforce. She also flew combat missions as a Blackhawk pilot. It was during a mission in November 2004 that a rocket-propelled grenade struck the cockpit of the helicopter she was co-piloting and exploded. Director Duckworth suffered grave injuries, losing both legs and partial use of one arm.

Since coming home from Iraq, Director Duckworth has remained active in the public arena, regularly speaking to Veterans groups, testifying before Congress on issues of medical care for returning veterans and running for a U.S. Congressional seat.

As a Soldier, Director Duckworth received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal, along with other decorations, citations and badges.

Director Duckworth, who speaks four languages, has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii and an M.A. from the George Washington Universitys Elliott School of International Affairs. Her PhD studies on the topic: Public-Private Partnerships in Public Health programs was interrupted by her mobilization to serve in Iraq and subsequent injury.

Director Duckworth was born in Thailand and grew up in several countries in Southeast Asia. Her father Franklin Duckworth fought as a U.S. Marine in World War II and Vietnam.

Director Duckworth and her husband MAJ Bryan Bowlsbey, currently reside in Hoffman Estates, IL.

Than 'President Obama' can place Tammy at the Head of the Veterans Administration! Illinois Vets would be sad to loose her but happy for the Veterans and Countries gain!!

{Word is she is being considered to run for Barracks Senate Seat, she would be well placed in either position, but being the fighter she is she would be a powerful voice and Advocate for Veterans around the Country!}

Tammy Duckworth: IAVA's 2007 Veterans Leadership Award


If not Tammy for the 'Keynote' than Anyone of the few, Who Have Actually Sacrificed for Country, another OIF or OEF Veteran, Goldstar Mother or Father, Goldstar Wife or Husband of a Fallen Soldier, Goldstar Child of a Fallen Soldier, would be the right way to Start the Turn of this Ship of State towards it's New and Correct Direction!

Though it may not mean much, but within the speach, a Huge Apology to the Innocent Victims, those killed, those maimed, those ethnically cleansed and made into refugees, of our Failed Policy of Wars of Choice and Devestating Occupations would start the needed Healing, Hopefully!!

For as long as We are in these Theaters of Occupation 'We Are Responsible', and that Responsibility continues in Helping Rebuild that which we Destroyed for the wants of the few!

This week on BILL MOYERS JOURNAL

There’s nothing new in Scott McClellan’s book about the propaganda campaign or the role of the press in selling the war, so why is it such big news? Journalists Jonathan Landay and John Walcott of McClatchy newspapers and Greg Mitchell of EDITOR & PUBLISHER examine the performance of the press in the lead up to the war, the reaction of the administration and the media to McClellan’s book, and how the press is handling other important stories today. Landay and Walcott were part of an award-winning team of journalists at Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) that consistently challenged the administration’s case for war and Mitchell is the author of So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President--Failed on Iraq.

Check Local Listings

We All Knew They Knew, by 'We All', the Focus Groups that 0ver 70% of this Country Refused To Listen To!!!!

Remember the report that the Republican Senate Intelligence Committee refused to complete, that ranking Democrat Jay Rockefeller raised hell over for years, even shutting down the Senate over it? Well, a mere year and a half after becoming Chairman, Rockefeller has quietly slipped this report out under the door.

Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true Senate Intelligence Committee Report!

The PDF of the Report

America's Medicated Army

Illustration by Lon Tweeten and D.W. Pine for TIME

Seven months after Sergeant Christopher LeJeune started scouting Baghdad's dangerous roads — acting as bait to lure insurgents into the open so his Army unit could kill them — he found himself growing increasingly despondent. "We'd been doing some heavy missions, and things were starting to bother me," LeJeune says. His unit had been protecting Iraqi police stations targeted by rocket-propelled grenades, hunting down mortars hidden in dark Baghdad basements and cleaning up its own messes. He recalls the order his unit got after a nighttime firefight to roll back out and collect the enemy dead. When LeJeune and his buddies arrived, they discovered that some of the bodies were still alive. "You don't always know who the bad guys are," he says. "When you search someone's house, you have it built up in your mind that these guys are terrorists, but when you go in, there's little bitty tiny shoes and toys on the floor — things like that started affecting me a lot more than I thought they would."

More at Time Magazine

And or read this post at VetVoice.

Treating PTSD - Soldiers Placed In Barracks Next To Firing Range?

Who are the Total Idiots within the ranks of the Military Health Care that thought this would help?

Nearby Firing Ranges Complicate Soldiers' Recovery From Stress

Firing Range a Reminder for Soldiers with PTSD

Army Sgt. Jonathan Strickland sits in his room at noon with the blinds drawn, seeking the sleep that has eluded him since he was knocked out by the blast of a Baghdad car bomb.

Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built "warrior transition" barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.

Why are they even using Benning as a Treatment Center?

Soldiers interviewed said complaints to medical personnel at Fort Benning's Martin Army Community Hospital and officers in their chain of command have brought no relief, prompting one soldier's father to contact The Washington Post. Fort Benning officials said that they were unaware of specific complaints but that decisions about housing and treatment for soldiers with PTSD depend on the severity of each case. They said day and night training must continue as new soldiers arrive and the Army grows.

stressing that the battalion's mission is "getting those soldiers to heal."

Right!! Healing Soldiers is the last thing on the minds of these leaders!!

This Ought To Be Good?

VA Staffer To Testify Over PTSD Email

A Veterans Affairs clinic coordinator is to face questions from lawmakers keen to determine whether a controversial email she sent was simply misguided advice from an individual, or part of a widespread effort by the VA to avoid paying veterans benefits for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

With the above report breaking, lets just Add More Stupidity to the Pile!!!!!!

"True Crimes: The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq."

Join many others online, or if in New York city at the event, tomorrow evening:

On Tuesday, June 3, join the Center for Constitutional Rights for an exciting live webcast of the event "True Crimes: The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq."

The event, which will take place at New York City's Town Hall, features bestselling author JEREMY SCAHILL, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer CHRIS HEDGES, journalist LAILA AL-ARIAN, and The New Yorker's SEYMOUR HERSH, as they go behind the headlines to tell the untold story of the occupation of Iraq, the daily plight of Iraqi civilians, and the ongoing role of private mercenaries in America's so-called "war on terror."

The webcast will stream live on CCR's website on Tuesday, June 3, 7 p.m. EST. Go here for more details.

This event also marks the book launches of Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian and the updated paperback edition of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill.

CCR has worked with all of these authors in our pursuit of justice for the victims of the war and occupation of Iraq. Recently, we filed new cases against Blackwater for its killing of Iraqi civilians as well as a new case against CACI and Titan, military contractors in Iraq who were responsible for interrogation and translation at Abu Ghraib.

The event is co-sponsored by CCR, The Nation, Public Concern Foundation, Democracy Now!, The Indypendent, CERSC, Democrats. com, Veterans for Common Sense, Peace Action New York, Alternet and Tricycle.

For those in or near New York City:

Tickets are available for the event at the Town Hall Box Office, 123 W. 43rd St., New York City ( 212-997-6661) or at Ticketmaster (212-307-4100/ )

And from 'Democracy Now!' today an interview with Jeremy Scahill:

* Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary
Industry *

The private military firm Blackwater has gone from being a relatively
unknown contractor working in Iraq to a household name and the subject of
multiple investigations, lawsuits and congressional inquiries. In the
meantime, the company continues to reap millions of dollars in profits and
was recently awarded a new contract from the State Department. Last year,
Democracy Now! correspondent and Nation Fellow, Jeremy Scahill, published
his book Blackwater: The Rise of the Worldｹs Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
The book quickly landed on the New York Times bestseller list and helped
frame the debate that was to come. With the book's paperback release in a
thoroughly revised and updated edition, Jeremy Scahill joins us for the
hour.

Listen/Watch/Read

The Above Interview Is GOOD!!!

Let me say, Anything and Everything 'Blackwater Does' can Will Create 'Blowback' on the Military Personal, this Countries Citizens and the Nations National Security, Anything!!!!!

Cluster bombs:

Hell from above


More at The Real News
111 countries ban the use of cluster bombs, except Israel, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and the US

The US bomb legacy in Laos


More at The Real News
30 years after the Vietnam war, 78 million unexploded US cluster bombs remain scattered across Laos

Iraq Getting Lonelier For U.S.

There's someone who gets it:

Rudd has said the Iraq deployment has made Australia more of a target for terrorism.

Though the damage is already done, from the invasion and occupation, the hatreds intensified, new enemies established, Australia ends Iraq combat operations, after their five years of wrongly following the failed policies of the U.S. and joining the small contingent of the coalition of the willing.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country's 550 combat troops by the middle of 2008.

And from around Australia:

Troops heading home

About 500 Australian combat troops today have begun pulling out of their base in southern Iraq.
A British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra said the pullout from Talil base in Nassiriya was underway.
But a spokesman for the governor of Dhi Qar province said it had been completed, with US forces replacing the Australians.

Troops begin arriving home from Iraq

AUSTRALIAN troops have begun arriving home from Iraq, signalling an end to the nation's combat mission in the war-torn country and fulfilling an election promise made by Kevin Rudd.

Iraq Diggers back in Brisbane

The first of about 500 soldiers from the Overwatch Battle Group (West) 4 and Australia's Army Training Team reportedly touched down in Brisbane late this afternoon.

Troops begin arriving home from Iraq

Mr Rudd, who ousted John Howard's coalition government after 12 years at last November's election, promised to bring home frontline troops this year.
During his prime ministership, Mr Howard repeatedly said the troops should stay until the job was done, arguing Labor's plan to "cut and run'' from Iraq would galvanise terrorists.
Polls show 80 per cent of Australians oppose the war.

There's that mind control phrase 'cut and run'.

One doesn't cut and run from an extremely failed policy that 'galvanises' hatred in others, from the killing of their own and destruction of their country, especially when they have done Nothing to deserve that Devastating Carnage, based on lie after lie after lie............................, of those who sent their own to invade and occupy, Controll, and reigning Terror on them while calling them Terrorists!

When will this Nation start the Drawdown, and our Newspapers have 'Breaking News' headlines in Huge Print declaring the return of our troops from a conflict that should never have occurred and has placed this country and it's citizens in greater danger, that danger will exist, to many now truely despise our countries leaders and us the people of, but it will start the extremely long process of righting the dangerous direction set forth by the Power Hungry and War Profitteers!