Philippe Sands Considers A Legacy Of 'Torture'

Fresh Air from WHYY, January 7, 2009 · Although the Bush administration has stated that the interrogations techniques used at Guantanamo Bay came from the bottom up, British lawyer Philippe Sands disagrees.

In his 2008 book, Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, Sands argues that the harsh interrogation policy that emerged after Sept. 11 came from high-ranking government officials and top military figures.
Sands warned in a June 2008 Fresh Air interview that the impact of the Bush administration's conduct would be felt internationally:

Read Rest Here

Listen To Todays Show With This Link

The June 2008 Discussion

You Can Listen To That One With This Link

Washington's Battle against America's Veterans

"The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans"

Veterans for Common Sense highly recommends this well-written documentary about how poorly our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are being treated. As the Houston Chronicle editorial board wrote on December 14, 2008, "Since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and all of the resulting harms to soldiers, civilians, economies and constitutional principles, no segment of society has been more abused and neglected than returning U.S. military veterans."

Description

The War Comes Home is the first book to systematically document the U.S. government's neglect of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Aaron Glantz, who reported extensively from Iraq during the first three years of this war and has been reporting on the plight of veterans ever since, levels a devastating indictment against the Bush administration for its bald neglect of soldiers and its disingenuous reneging on their benefits. Glantz interviewed more than one hundred recent war veterans, and here he intersperses their haunting first-person accounts with investigations into specific concerns, such as the scandal at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This timely book does more than provide us with a personal connection to those whose service has cost them so dearly. It compels us to confront how America treats its veterans and to consider what kind of nation deifies its soldiers and then casts them off as damaged goods.

Reviews of "The War Comes Home" --

"A breathtaking rebuke to government hypocrisy and an overdue contribution to gaining critical public awareness of this official neglect."—Publishers Weekly

"Aaron Glantz is one of the truly outstanding young journalists of our times." —Bob McChesney, author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy, and founder of Free Press

"One of the many scandals of the war in Iraq is how the administration has betrayed our returning servicemen. I'm grateful that the facts surrounding these tragedies are finally being exposed."—Paul Haggis, Academy-Award-winning director of Crash and In the Valley of Elah, screenwriter of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

"A must-read for those who claim to support our troops."—Robert G. Gard, Lt. General, U.S. Army (ret.)

"The treatment by the Bush Administration of America's returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is one of the saddest chapters in American history. This story is painfully documented by Aaron Glantz. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to make the phrase, 'Support the Troops,' more than a slogan."—Former US Senator Max Cleland

"A fitting tribute to what these men and women fought and risked their lives and well-being for."—Gerald Nicosia, author of Home to War

"This superbly documented and eloquent book is a clarion call for honesty, compassion, outrage, and an end to the lies that cause so much suffering in far-off countries and in our own nation."—Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

"Aaron Glantz draws on his eyewitness experiences of reporting in Iraq to bring the courage and the suffering of our troops into vivid relief. The War Comes Home exposes how physical and mental injuries plague our returning servicemen and what we can do about it."—Linda Bilmes, coauthor of The Three Trillion Dollar War

"Weep, America, cringe, America. We talk a good game about honoring all those who go into harm's way for our sake and caring for those who get physically and psychologically broken, but do we go beyond fine words and a few gold-plated flagship medical facilities? Are we walking the walk? Are we getting it right? Aaron Glantz is in our face on the military treatment facilities, the VA, and civilian society at large."—Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD, author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America. MacArthur Fellow

"Aaron Glantz reports on the human cost of war, what it does physically and emotionally to those young men and women who carry out industrial slaughter. He rips apart the myths we tell ourselves about war and illustrates, in painful detail, the dark psychological holes that those who have been through war's trauma endure and will always endure. He reminds us that the essence of war is not glory, heroism, and honor but death."—Chris Hedges, former New York Times foreign correspondent, author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

"We should all be reading people like Greg Palast and Aaron Glantz."—Al Kennedy, The Guardian (UK)

The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans

A Former POW Speaks......

A Former POW's Open Letter to Congress

Here is the Oath of Office I took on July 1, 1957:

I, Phillip Neal Butler, having been appointed a Midshipman in the United States Navy, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, so help me God.

Upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1961, I repeated this oath to be commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy. I served 20 years as an active duty commissioned officer. During that time I became a Naval Aviator, flew combat in Vietnam, was downed over North Vietnam on April 20, 1965 and became a prisoner of war. I was repatriated on February 12, 1973, having served 2,855 days and nights as a POW – just short of 8 years. The Vietnamese were not signatory to any international treaties on treatment of prisoners. They pronounced us "criminals" and freely used torture, harassment, malnutrition, isolation, lack of medical care and other degradations during our captivity. I was tortured dozens of times during my captivity. But I often thought of our Constitution and the higher purpose we served – a purpose that helped me resist beyond what I thought I’d ever be capable of. Ironically, we POWs often reminded each other that our country would never stoop to torture and the low level of treatment we were experiencing at the hands of our captors.

SNIP

So what in the world has happened during the past 8 years of the Bush administration? The only defensible answer is that he and his subordinates have trampled our precious Constitution and the Rule of Law into the ground while our elected members of Congress have stood idly and complicitly by. Our highest elected officials have utterly failed with their greatest responsibility.

During these years we have seen gross attempts to institutionalize torture. Our Constitution, Article VI, (2) commonly known as the "Supremacy" clause clearly states that treaties made shall become "the supreme law of the land," thus elevating them to the level of Constitutional law.

SNIP

I suggest a visit to read the rest.

You might also take a look at the comments, most at military.com come from little 'chickenhawks' playing online soldiers!!

"Riveting" - U.S. Presidents and the Middle East

The present, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 265 Posted - January 5, 2009, looks mighty interesting, especially reading the few documents they have linked there.

Details inconsistent policies and influence of foreign leaders

New Patrick Tyler book narrates: "A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror"

American Presidents from Eisenhower to George W. Bush have sought to distinguish themselves from their predecessors with sudden shifts in Middle East policy and questionable strategies that have contributed to undermining American credibility in the region, according to a new book, A World of Trouble, by veteran correspondent Patrick Tyler, a fellow of the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Tyler's account begins with a raucous night of recriminations over George W. Bush's Middle East diplomacy by former CIA Director George Tenet, and then rewinds to the grand deception of Dwight Eisenhower by Britain, France and Israel, in the Suez Crisis. In bringing the narrative forward to the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of today, Tyler gives the reader an intimate portrait of presidential decisions and the out-sized influence of White House aides and foreign leaders and their emissaries.

These are but a few, of the documents, that they have listed at the archives site:

* The private pleadings of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who in June 1973 sought to convince President Nixon that war was coming in the Middle East and that the only way to avert it was by a robust diplomatic intervention by the superpowers. Nixon and Kissinger, fearing domestic blowback in the midst of the Watergate scandal, refused to be drawn in and war broke out four months later.

* The Reagan Diary entry that sheds light on how the White House and the Saudi royal family circumvented the law on presenting lavish gifts to the President, in this case, a pair of Arabian horses.

* The top-secret channel opened by the Nixon White House with the Shah of Iran to discuss "contingency" planning by the Iranian leader to seize Saudi Arabia and its oil resources in the event of a coup or an external assault on the Saudi kingdom. (two documents)

* The confidential debate within the Nixon National Security Council on how to invent a claim of "Russian treachery" in order to justify the U.S. tilt toward Israel, and a massive resupply of its forces, during the 1973 October War. (two documents)

* The CIA's confidential description of the internal pressures within the Israeli leadership that tipped the Jewish state toward a preemptive attack on the Egyptian army in Sinai after the closure of Israeli shipping lanes in the run-up to the the Six Day War. (two documents)

Haven't read the book yet, so can't add much more, except to raise the curiosity of those that might be interested

Iraq Memorial to Life

The ongoing loss of civilian lives in Iraq is alarming and incomprehensible. Most Americans do not know how extensive the loss really has been - and continues to be. The Iraq Memorial to Life will present a striking visual image to Americans; it will illustrate the magnitude of the senseless loss of life in Iraq since March 2003.

People from all over this country, and other countries, will personally make over 100,000 markers that will be assembled to create the Memorial to be installed in Washington D.C. early in 2009.

Construction of the Memorial is planned for the lawn near the Washington Monument on the National Mall, with commemorative days scheduled for April following the sixth anniversary of the invasion.

Your help is needed... Consider making the markers for one of the incidents.

Using the menu below, you may:

* Select an incident for which you will make a memorial marker(s).

* Print out the marker template used to make a marker for each person.

* Look at the plans for the Iraq Memorial to Life.

* Sign onto to help build the memorial in Washington DC.

* View related links & learn about other ways you can help the project be successful.

* Please donate at least a small amount & help to make this happen.


How You Can Help Create the Iraq Memorial to Life

How Israel is Multiplying Hamas by a Thousand

Molten Lead in Gaza

JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, Aljazeera’s Arabic channel was reporting on events in Gaza. Suddenly the camera was pointing upwards towards the dark sky. The screen was pitch black. Nothing could be seen, but there was a sound to be heard: the noise of airplanes, a frightening, a terrifying droning.

It was impossible not to think about the tens of thousands of Gazan children who were hearing that sound at that moment, cringing with fright, paralyzed by fear, waiting for the bombs to fall.

As a matter of fact, the cease-fire did not collapse, because there was no real cease-fire to start with. The main requirement for any cease-fire in the Gaza Strip must be the opening of the border crossings. There can be no life in Gaza without a steady flow of supplies. But the crossings were not opened, except for a few hours now and again. The blockade on land, on sea and in the air against a million and a half human beings is an act of war, as much as any dropping of bombs or launching of rockets. It paralyzes life in the Gaza Strip: eliminating most sources of employment, pushing hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation, stopping most hospitals from functioning, disrupting the supply of electricity and water.

Those who decided to close the crossings – under whatever pretext – knew that there is no real cease-fire under these conditions.

That is the main thing. Then there came the small provocations which were designed to get Hamas to react. After several months, in which hardly any Qassam rockets were launched, an army unit was sent into the Strip “in order to destroy a tunnel that came close to the border fence”. From a purely military point of view, it would have made more sense to lay an ambush on our side of the fence. But the aim was to find a pretext for the termination of the cease-fire, in a way that made it plausible to put the blame on the Palestinians. And indeed, after several such small actions, in which Hamas fighters were killed, Hamas retaliated with a massive launch of rockets, and – lo and behold – the cease-fire was at an end. Everybody blamed Hamas.

Read Rest Here

Uri Avnery's Column of Gush Shalom

Gaza's Scant Resources Stretched to Exhaustion

Stench in the air: scant resources stretched to exhaustion

FIDA BASAL, 20, was not there when the missile struck her uncle's house the day after Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza. But her sister, Hanin, 18, was.

Fida found Hanin at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. One of Hanin's legs, her sister was told, had been amputated. "I want her leg now," Fida screamed at her mother. "God has no mercy. You get me her leg now."

Her uncle lost both legs.

Yet on Sunday the day Israeli troops flooded Gaza and ground battles with Hamas began, there appeared not to be a single one.

The casualties at Shifa on Sunday - 18 dead, hospital officials said, among a reported 30 around Gaza - were women, children and men who had been with children. One surgeon said he had performed five amputations.

"I don't know what kind of weapons Israel is using," said a nurse, Ziad Abd al Jawwad, 41, who had been working 24 hours without a break. "There is so much amputation.

Read Rest Here

U.S. Supplied, Israel Uses WMD's

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims

Medics tell Press TV they have found traces of depleted uranium in some Gaza residents wounded in Israel's ground offensive on the strip.

Norwegian medics told Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari that some of the victims who have been wounded since Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip on December 27 have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies.

Read Rest Here

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel's offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

Read Rest Here

Camp Hope 2009

If you're in or near Chicago, or traveling to this coming week, and you didn't know about or might have heard about, Pay A Visit to Camp Hope 2009

Down the street from Barrack Obama's home on Chicago's south side: CAMP HOPE 2009

Sub-freezing temperatures and a brisk wind did not darken the day in Drexel Park for the kick off of Camp Hope, an 18-day vigil just down the street from Barrack Obama's home on Chicago's south side, yesterday.

Organized by a coalition of social justice, religious and peace organizations from the Chicago area, Camp Hope's goal is to remind President-elect Obama of the progressive themes he sounded in his campaign and urge him to follow through with policy changes when he takes office later this month. { Read more }

Location

Every day from New Year’s to Dr. Martin Luther King Day, whatever winter has in store for us, we will set up at the intersection of East Hyde Park Boulevard and South Drexel Avenue, Chicago.

On most days, our presence in Hyde Park will be from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with an emphasis on the periods from 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM and from 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM. Please see the calendar for the schedule of community forums, films, other special events endorsed by Camp Hope and for variations to the regular daily presence in Hyde Park.

Participating Organizations

We recognize that other groups will also be organizing campaigns intended to communicate with the general public about crucial issues in advance of President-elect Obama's inauguration. We vigorously uphold the right to free speech. As we exercise our right to free speech, we further recognize our responsibility to clarify this coalition's commitment to nonviolence. This commitment challenges us to strive for nonviolence in our lifestyles and personal interactions, and to reject any and all reliance on threat, force and weapons in resolving disputes, be they domestic or international.

Voices for Creative Nonviolence,
Justice and Peace Shares,
Pax Christi Springfield,
AFSC Chicago, Illinois Great Lakes Regional Office,
8th Day Center for Justice,
Kairos, Chicago,
North Suburban Peace Initiative,
North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice,
Hyde Parkers for Peace and Justice,
Peace Action Sub-committee- First Unitarian Church of Chicago,
Veterans For Peace,
Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ,
Midwest Pacifist Center,
Northside Action For Justice,
Eco-Justice Collaborative,
Chicago Area CodePINK,
CODEPINK - NW Indiana,
DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice,
Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice,
Catholic Action Network for Social Justice (St. Louis),
Pax at St. Louis University,
Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice,
South Siders for Peace,
Chicago New Sanctuary Coalition,
Social Justice Committee of University Church,
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice,
New Life Midwifery Services,
Movimiento 10 de Marzo,
West Suburban Faith-based PEACE Coalition,
Fellowship of Reconciliation, Chicago Area Chapter,
Informed Energy Decisions,
Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization,
Nuclear Energy Information Service,
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization,
Illinois Solar Energy Association,
Blacks in Green,
Oxfam International,
Christian Peacemaker Teams,
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space,
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,
St. Liborius Peace and Justice,
Generations For Peace,
Logan Square Neighbors for Justice and Peace,
Casa Maria Catholic Worker - Milwaukeem
Peninsula Peace and Justice- Maine

,

Below are the events starting with tomorrow 1-5-09, the previous days and writeups you can find at the site:

Schedule & Events

Jan 5 2009 3:00pm - 9:00pm Vigil, Walk and Screening - "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"

Jan 7 2009 6:30pm - 8:30pm Evening discussion on withdrawal of troops from Iraq

Jan 8 2009 7:00pm - 8:30pm "Abandoning War: A Peoples' Agenda" featuring Col. Ann Wright, Michael McPhearson,and Stephen Kinzer

Jan 9 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm Premiere Showing of "War on the Family"

Jan 10 2009 7:00pm - 8:30pm Myths and Realities about U.S. War in Afghanistan -A Presentation by Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid

Jan 11 2009 11:30am - 1:00pm Screening & Discussion - "Taxi to the Dark Side"

Jan 11 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm Witness Against Torture Forum: From Guantanamo to the Streets of Chicago

Jan 12 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm Economic Justice Forum

Jan 14 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm An Evening With Ali Abunimah

Jan 15 2009 6:30pm - 8:30pm Immigration Reform and Workers Rights

Jan 16 2009 7:00pm - 8:30pm Blackwater Worldwide In Illinois and Beyond: The Dangers of Outsourcing Our Security

Jan 17 2009 10:00am - 12:00pm Eco-Justice Collaborative- Morning Presentation and Walk to Vigil Site

Jan 17 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm Political Satirist Dave Lippman and the Singing C.I.A. Agent formerly known as George Shrub

Jan 18 2009 8:00am - 6:00pm Closing of Camp Hope with Candlelight Vigil- Sending off of Caravan to DC

Jan 18 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm Nature of Racism Lecture Discussion: Neo-Racism and the Myth of a Post-Racial US American Empire

Jan 19 2009 8:00am - 6:00pm Vigil at the Federal Building to celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday

Visit The Site: Camp hope 2009 for much more information!

Veterans of george's War Want a Bailout

392,000 Pending Appeals to VA for Help

It's not easy to get the runaround when you have a traumatic brain injury from George's war.



Did You Know 200,000 Vets Are Sleeping on the Streets?

America's promise to "Support the Troops" ends the moment they take off the uniform and try to make the transition to civilian life.

Demand O'Reilly apologize to the "non-existent" homeless vets he attacked →

"The Old Man and the Storm"

Last night, 1-02-009, on the PBS News Hour they held a discussion with "Frontline" correspondent and filmmaker June Cross who describes her documentary "The Old Man and the Storm" which will air on PBS's "Frontline" on Jan. 6th, New Orleans: Three Years After Katrina.

This is a timely documentary more than three years after Katrina and especially as to the way the Government has been handling that compared to the extremely quick bailouts of the financial institutions in the present economic collapse and at other times when the corporate elite demanded their political friends come to their aid. There are three short video's at the 'Frontline' site that I'm embedding below, the third one touches on just that, especially as to the promises made by the President bush and other Government Officials and to the rapidly failing 'free market' 'trickle down' economic policy of the GOP.

It is also timely in these times that are rapidly coming down to hopefully not total destruction. The subject of the documentary, 82 year old Mr Herbert Gettridge, belongs to the generation of skilled tradespeople, extremely skilled, that built the economy we once had, where through hard work, knowledge, skills, an always thirst to improve, pride and much more, not only the businessmen benefited but so did the worker and their families. He's of a skilled trade, an artist, of many trades that are now dead or dying because few are left who used to work in them and the young haven't developed the knowledge to even attempt them. Trades in the construction of the country, trades in the manufacturing of our own needs especially with being able to quickly transform those skills if needed for our National Security, not having others build what we need. A whole host of trades or other descriptive jobs that no longer exist or only exist in small pockets sans the numbers if needed quickly.

You can listen to the discussion in mp3 with this link, the transcript hasn't been posted as yet at the News Hour site.

This is a cut of her documentary that they showed on the PBS News Hour show last night:



Slide Show: View images of New Orleans three years after Hurricane Katrina.

Six months after Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, producer June Cross came across 82-year-old Herbert Gettridge working alone on his home in the lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood devastated when the levees broke in August 2005. Over the next two years, Cross would document the story of the extended Gettridge clan--an African-American family with deep roots in New Orleans--as they struggled to rebuild their homes and their lives. Their efforts would be deeply impacted by larger decisions about urban planning, public health, and the insurance industry, by the decisions of policymakers about federal funding for rebuilding the Gulf, and state and city plans for dispersing those monies. The moving personal story of Mr. Gettridge and his family reveals the human cost of this tragedy, the continued inadequacies of government’s response in the aftermath of Katrina, and how race, class, and politics have affected the attempts to rebuild this American city.

Below is the opening video at the Frontline site



The third video, at the PBS Frontline site, is the one I mentioned above that touches on the who gets what, rapidly or even at all, and the failure of the bush administration to not only keep the promises made, in front of the camera's, in photo ops and when needed to propagandize politically, but the total lack of feeling any need to come to the aid of the citizen of the country but quickly aid the corporate elite, the politically elite's base as bush called them.



You can find some Related Features at this News Hour link about Katrina and the rebuilding.

Tune into PBS Frontline, or watch it online after, for "The Old Man and the Storm" on Tuesday, January 6th '09 at 9PM ET to watch this documentary.

The book Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City, shown when the author talks about Katrina in the Documentary

The Invisible Injuries of the Invisible Ranks: A Military Spouse

Earlier today I received an e-mail from an on line friend, she is the wife of a military serviceman now serving in Iraq, she is also very active in support of her fellow spouses and the families as well as returning OIF and OEF military personal seeking needed help but finding the going sometimes extremely troubling, confusing or denied.

Many of us Veterans have found her and she us and have gotten to know her through our own advocacy of our brothers and sisters. Some are working directly with her and she with them.

She has written a very personal letter, part of the title I used above is the one from her letter to us, of her experiences and feelings, as a military spouse, and while posting it on a few sites it has now found it's way to a number of other sites.

This is what I received earlier, I've added the links.

Military spouses are often called the silent ranks, but sometimes it seems as though we are invisible too. On top of that, when our service members go to war and we hold down the home front, many of us carry our own burdens, make our own sacrifices, and sometimes, have own invisible wounds.

Michelle Obama has said that she is going to focus on the needs of military families. Given that focus, I thought my latest blog was particularly timely: Military Spouse Press

This blog was also posted on Military.com, but I wanted to draw your attention to our blogging site, Military Spouse Press. Anyone can register and post their own thoughts and experiences and comment on the blogs of others. In 2009, let us continue to encourage and inspire one another to be strong for the service members we love, the families we love, and the country we love.

Carissa Picard, Esq.
President
Military Spouses for Change
P.O. Box 216
Copperas Cove, TX 76522
Military Spouses for Change

Those of you reading who might be spouses of or even family members might want to bookmark not only Carissa's group site but also their interactive blog Military Spouse Press, you can also join that site and interact with posts and comments with the other spouses using it now. It's not an extremely active site but there are some great posts and information to be found there, and the more joining in the more support that will generate for everyone.

I won't add much to what Carissa wrote, just give you some cuts from, and encourage you to visit the link above or this Truthout Link where it is also now posted to read what she wrote in it's entirety.

Carissa S. Picard stands at the entrance to Fort Hood, Texas. Picard is the founder and president of Military Spouses for Change. (Photo: Erich Schlegel / Dallas Morning News)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~Margaret Mead

"A 2008 RAND study reports that at least one in five soldiers are returning from war with PTSD. When are they going to do a study on the spouses and children left behind in these wars? The ones who self-medicate or are prescribed anti-depressants {parent and child alike}, who can never look at the world or the Army or themselves the same way again? What have we lost in service to this country?

We are only a third of the way through my husband's deployment and I can already identify our wounded. Am I the only one paying attention?"

Expectations

I don't know what military life was like before 9/11, but I can tell you what it is like now: and it isn't quirky and wacky and "just like civilian life but different." There is a reason Sarah Smiley {a female Dave Barry} is a Navy wife and Jenny {the cartoon} is an airman's wife: Army and Marine wives have less to laugh about.

In March 2008, The Associated Press reported that 72 percent of Iraq deaths were Army, 24 percent were Marine, two percent were Navy and one percent was Air Force. These percentages obviously reflect who is being deployed the most; i.e., who is being exposed to combat and who isn't.

Casualties of War

My ex-husband called me the other day and asked me what a "Blue Star wife" was. I explained that it was a wife whose husband was serving in combat.

Then I asked him if he knew what a Gold Star wife was. Of course he didn't.

"That's a wife whose husband has died in combat."

"Wow," he replied, "that's, uh, kind of sick, isn't it?"

I laughed. I knew what he meant. The "Gold Star" comes across as a quasi-cultural "WAY TO GO!" for the surviving family member (as the term technically applies to the entire family). And let us not forget the "Silver Star" for the family of a service member wounded in a war!

A Call to Arms

Nothing prepares you for war. There is no training center for spouses. You are either going to make it or you won't.

They're Not Waving, They're Drowning

In June, the parade of terribles begins. News from the front: soldiers being electrocuted in the showers, self-inflicted gunshot wounds, 10-year-old suicide bombers, sexual assaults on female soldiers.

I am learning not to worry about that which I cannot control {i.e., the life or death of the father of my children}, although much of your time will be spent listening and validating the feelings and experiences of others: your soldier-spouse, your warrior-children.

For example, when a soldier deploys to combat, those of us at home eventually get "the call."

The call comes when his {or her} veneer of strength has cracked. When something really bad has happened; when he {or she} has witnessed {or done} something that he/she was not prepared for or expecting to be upset by; when the surreal becomes real and that reality comes crashing down upon them with crushing force.

Nothing prepares you for this call, and you will usually hang up hurting and feeling totally useless.

Like I said you should read this whole Letter to Us from One who is Sacrificing. And if you can visit the Military Spouses for Change site and offer any help you might be able to, as they are not only spouses of and family of they also Sacrifice their time and energy for those others who are serving!

As Carissa signs off her e-mails:

"Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest,' but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is."
Sydney J. Harris

Farewell Tom Bernard‏

I just received this a short while ago:

Dear friends of Sir! No Sir!

It is with deep, deep sadness that I am writing to tell you of the death of Tom Barnard. Tom suffered a massive heart attack on Sunday, December 27. He was 60 years old.

I met Tom while filming Sir! No Sir! in what I later learned was a typical “Tom” way. I’ll never forget the email I got out of the blue from this guy I had never heard of, telling me simply that he had been part of an extremely significant group that had to be part of this film. They had never told their story publicly, and in fact had been threatened with prosecution for treason if they ever did. I was certainly intrigued, and soon Tom and I were friends.

Several months and a couple of failed attempts later, I found myself in a house with Tom and three other courageous, exemplary members of the WORMS–We Openly Resist Military Stupidity.

One of the most thrilling aspects of the GI Movement during the Vietnam War was its ubiquitous nature. In every corner of the military, everywhere on the planet, GIs found creative, stunning ways to rebel. Even if no one outside their individual unit knew they existed, they became part of an elegant tapestry of chaos and resistance.

And none were more elegant than the WORMS. Trained in Vietnamese, they were part of an ultra-secret unit that flew over North Vietnam intercepting communications from the “enemy,” and translating them for the Pentagon to use in planning military strategy. As Tom described it to me, they began developing an almost personal relationship with the voices they were hearing, and soon knew that the real “enemy” was not the people they were listening to, but their own bosses. Knowing firsthand how civilian centers were targeted and hospitals were being bombed, they decided to dedicate their lives toward ending that criminal war.

As they told me their story, the depth of their humanity and courage shown through–and I knew Tom had not exaggerated their significance. Finding themselves in a critical position for the war effort, they developed creative, challenging, fun(that was a requirement!), and profoundly effective ways of resisting. Their impact was far greater than they or anyone else knew.

I don’t know much about Tom’s life after Vietnam, but I do know that–as is true for thousands–those years as a GI resister informed all of it. I know that he never gave up his determination to change the world and his sense of purpose that was born with the WORMS.

My heart goes out to his wonderful wife, Helen, and their family. I will never forget Tom, and am very grateful to have known him the brief time I did.


David Zeiger
Sir! No Sir!

Rest In Peace 'Nam Brother Tom, Rest In Peace!!

Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

Playing For Change



Join with the Playing For Change Foundation

Two Poems.....

The following two poems were sent to a friend, a 'Nam brother, who has a now long running newsletter similar to the G.I. Anti-War movement newsletters of the 'Nam era found on bases, and In-Country ,around the world back than.

Gaza Has Become A Warsaw Ghetto

Palestinian child demonstrates against
the slaughter of her people.
Generation after generation after generation.
Like the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto,
three generations ago.
If the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust
could see what is now happening in Palestine,
they would stand in front of the Palestinians.
Why?
Because there is solidarity in the persecuted.
Gaza has become a Warsaw Ghetto.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
December 31, 2008

This one comes from JM and She writes:

Something very different: a poem.
Have you heard of Erich Fried who is often referred to as the greatest modern, Jewish, poet?
He was born in Vienna in 1921 and escaped to England, with his mother, after his father was tortured to death by the Gestapo, in 1938.
Because of his experiences with racism and Fascism he became involved in the Palestinian cause.
He was a leader in the fight against both Fascism and Zionism.
I’m sending a copy of his best poem, in my opinion. It was first published in 1988 just before he died.
Please take the time to read it. I think it’s wonderful.

A Jew to Zionist Fighters, 1988

What do you actually want?
Do you really want to outdo
those who trod you down
a generation ago
into your own blood
and into your own excrement
Do you want to pass on the old torture
to others now
in all its bloody and dirty detail
with all the brutal delight of torturers
as suffered by your fathers?
Do you really want to be the new Gestapo
the new Wehrmacht
the new SA and SS
and turn the Palestinians
into the new Jews?
Well then I too want,
having fifty years ago
myself been tormented for being a Jewboy
by your tormentors,
to be a new Jew with these new Jews
you are making of the Palestinians
And I want to help lead them as a free people
into their own land of Palestine
from whence you have driven them or in which you plague them
you apprentices of the Swastika
you fools and changelings of history
whose Star of David on your flags
turns ever quicker
into that damned symbol with its four feet
that you just do not want to see
but whose path you are following today

Nine Steps to Peace - Deepak Chopra to President Barack Obama

Nine Steps to Peace for Obama in the New Year

Thursday 01 January 2009

by: Deepak Chopra

The face of peace.


Steps the incoming president can take to build a peace-based economy.

The following is a memo to Barack Obama from Deepak Chopra.

You have been elected by the first anti-war constituency since 1952, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected after promising to end the Korean War. But ending a war isn't the same as bringing peace. America has been on a war footing since the day after Pearl Harbor, 67 years ago. We spend more on our military than the next 16 countries combined. If you have a vision of change that goes to the heart of this country's deep problems, ending our dependence on war is far more important than ending our dependency on foreign oil.

The most immediate changes are economic. Unless it can make as much money as war, peace doesn't stand a chance. Since aerospace and military technologies remain the United States' most destructive export, fostering wars around the world, what steps can we take to reverse that trend and build a peace-based economy?

1. Scale out arms dealing and make it illegal by the year 2020.

2. Write into every defense contract a requirement for a peacetime project.

3. Subsidize conversion of military companies to peaceful uses with tax incentives and direct funding.

4. Convert military bases to housing for the poor.

5. Phase out all foreign military bases.

6. Require military personnel to devote part of their time to rebuilding infrastructure.

7. Call a moratorium on future weapons technologies.

8. Reduce armaments like destroyers and submarines that have no use against terrorism and were intended to defend against a superpower enemy that no longer exists.

9. Fully fund social services and take the balance out of the defense and homeland security budgets.

These are just the beginning. We don't lack creativity in coping with change. Without a conversion of our present war economy to a peace economy, the high profits of the military-industrial complex ensures that it will never end.

Do these nine steps seem unrealistic or fanciful? In various ways, other countries have adopted similar measures. The former Soviet army is occupied with farming and other peaceful work, for example. But comparisons are rather pointless, since only the United States is burdened with such a massive reliance on defense spending. Ultimately, empire follows the dollar. As a society, we want peace, and we want to be seen as a nation that promotes peace. For either ideal to come true, you as president must back up your vision of change with economic reality. So far, that hasn't happened under any of your predecessors. All hopes are pinned on you.

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Deepak Chopra is acknowledged as one of the world's greatest leaders in the field of mind-body medicine. He is the author of over 50 books, including "Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment" and "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old"

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'If You Go After the Wrong People, You Convert Moderates into Extremists'