Angry 'Stop-Loss' Hip Hop Song=Jail

Marc Hall jailed for angry 'Stop-Loss' Hip Hop song

By Courage to Resist. Updated 16, 2009

Stop-lossed Army Specialist Marc Hall (aka Hip Hop artist Marc Watercus) was placed in the Liberty County Jail Friday, December 11 for speaking out against the continuing policy that has barred him from exiting the military, including recording an angry and explicit song. He was shipped off to jail after talking to to his Ft Stewart, Georgia commander Captain Cross about not wanting to redeploy...Who To Contact to Help Marc Out

Army Suicides, "Things are getting better." Huh?

This was caught a short while ago:

Number of Army Suicides Expected to Top Last Year's Number

The U.S. Army says it expects the number of suicides among active duty soldiers to top last year's numbers, although it says progress is being made in addressing the issue...>>>>

Army thinking seems to not have changed after the previous CiC leadership and all that entailed as to failed leadership, extremely failed policies and total incompetence. More suicides is making progress, Right!

Which leads into this found at Veterans Today

Bush VA Appointees:'Believe in God, You Won't Have PTSD'

God, the Army, and PTSD
Is religion an obstacle to treatment?

by Tara McKelvey

When Roger Benimoff arrived at the psychiatric building of the Coatesville, Pennsylvania veterans’ hospital, he was greeted by a message carved into a nearby tree stump: “Welcome Home.” It was a reminder that things had not turned out as he had expected.

In Faith Under Fire: An Army Chaplain's Memoir, a memoir about Benimoff’s life as an Army chaplain in Iraq, Benimoff and co-author Eve Conant describe his return from Iraq to his family in Colorado and subsequent assignment to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He retreated deep into himself, spending hours on the computer and racking up ten thousand dollars in debt on eBay. Above all, he was angry and jittery, scared even of his young sons, and barely able to make it through the day. He was eventually admitted to Coatesville’s “Psych Ward.” For a while the lock-down facility was his home. He wondered where God was in all of this, and was not alone in that bewilderment and pain.

Snip

During the Iraq war, however, the great difficulty veterans experienced in getting psychiatric care—greater than before—was not a product of cost-cutting, but of conviction: many Bush administration officials believed that soldiers who supported the war would not face psychological problems, and if they did, they would find comfort in faith. In a resigned tone, one prominent researcher who worked for the VA, and asked that he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, explained that high-ranking officials believed that “Jesus fixes everything.” Benimoff and the others who returned with devastating psychological injuries found a faith-based bureau within the VA. At veterans’ hospitals, chaplains were conducting spirituality assessments of patients.

Snip

Things had already begun to change dramatically at the VA by early 2005, shortly after Roger Benimoff left for his second deployment to Iraq. Many appointees at the agency were disturbed that so many Iraq veterans showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In part the concern grew from skepticism about the diagnosis itself, which some believed to be a legacy of the Vietnam-era anti-war movement....>>>>>

That ones a long read but worth it.

How wide spread was this? And if well embedded at the time in the VA Health Care System was it done at Walter Reed, a Military Care Facility as well? Now this might be an issue to keep in mind as to the extremely tragic killings of the soldiers at Ft Hood by a soldier who was a Major and a mental health care psychiatrist in the military at Walter Reed and then Fort Hood but wasn't of the christian faith!

Camp Lejeune whistle-blower fired

A psychiatrist who tried to prevent Fort Hood-style violence among Marines about to "lose it" instead loses his job

Last April, two Marines at Camp Lejeune predicted to a psychiatrist that some Marine back from war was going to "lose it." Concerned, the psychiatrist asked what that meant. One of the Marines responded, "One of these guys is liable to come back with a loaded weapon and open fire."...>>>>>

Army Trains For Battle For Mental Health {UpDated}

Sunday, NPR Morning Edition, 08.23.09 {4min 5sec.}

Daniel Zwerdling, of NPR, continues his outstanding research into and reporting on the Army's, and the Military's, care of returning soldiers suffering from PTSD and other possible mental problems developed as to serving in these wars and occupations.



Top link brings you to the transcript, and if you do a search at their site under Daniels name you'll find the many previous reports by him and related on these issues.

They can try all the training idea's that pop into their heads, extreme trauma situations bring on post traumatic stress, be it combat, living in combat theaters, or in someone's life, that's the reality.

You can't 'train' against trauma's that haven't happened yet, the individual experiences seen and done, unless you want to develop ways to turn intelligent humans into living robots or develop, as we already have with flying drones, robots that destroy other's in our wars of choice.

It's not 'before training', it's finding the best ways to take care of those who have developed what once wasn't within them, be it from war or in civilian experiences, but now exists in different levels in those we send to invade and occupy.

War's are the total opposite of anyone's upbringing, especially in civil societies, hell military training is in the preparation of turning one into a soldier to defend ones country. Traumatic experience of combat, and even living within, of all that happens, and the stress of 24/7 possibility of what's coming taxes the minds and the reality humans live in and by as intelligent beings. Mental problems develope from those experiences, being lived over and over in ones mind. They don't only happen to someone considered not strong of mind, even those we would least expect, the so called strong, develop the stressor's that can trigger the reliving of these experiences, sometimes fatally.

War's should not be fought of choice, choice of a few we have as our leaders, civilian and military, not by civil societies! War's should be as we have always stated but rarely followed in our modern history, fought as an Absolute Last Resort! And the results of War's, physical and mental problems of, not only as to the soldiers who we send but those we invade and occupy, should stand right alongside the Absolute Last Resort we should have as our policies as a Leading Nation on this Planet!

If this society and country wants to Cheer on these War's of Choice then be Ready to Pony up the Extreme Costs of the Failed Policies Followed!! And that doesn't just mean in monetary costs but also in the cost of a weaken security to it's citizens, no matter where they are or go, from the blowback!

Veterans forsake studies of stress

Stigma impedes search for remedies

Researchers testing ways to treat the psychological wounds of war among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are encountering a serious roadblock: a shortage of willing study participants.

A strong stigma in the military associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is blamed for the reluctance of combat veterans to take part in a pair of treatment programs being evaluated by staff from the Veterans Administration in Boston at facilities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, study directors said................

This doesn't help, especially as the country was extremely slow in even listening to our brother's returing from 'Nam and the veterans who started coming forward from WWII and Korea over these many years!!

UpDate: This just hit my inbox

PTSD Compensation Rules

Secretary Shinseki Moves to Simplify PTSD Compensation Rules

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is taking steps to assist Veterans seeking compensation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“The hidden wounds of war are being addressed vigorously and comprehensively by this administration as we move VA forward in its transformation to the 21st century,” said Secretary Shinseki.

The VA is publishing a proposed regulation today in the Federal Register to make it easier for a Veteran to claim service connection for PTSD by reducing the evidence needed if the stressor claimed by a Veteran is related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity. Comments on the proposed rule will be accepted over the next 60 days. A final regulation will be published after consideration of all comments received.....................

Great advancement on this issue and once again long overdue!!

What motive does the Army have to misdiagnose PTSD?

So asks the two Salon writers, Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna, following their recent series starting with the incriminating evidence, an audio recording by a Veteran suffering from PTS. Recording his visit because his wife couldn't be there so he needed a way to remember what took place in his session with his army psychologist.

A reluctance to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder could be about the money, and about the need for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The subject title and the blockquote above are what they use in their forth of four reports from last week. That all started with this audio from a session with Sgt. X and his army psychologist:

April 10, 2009 | In two stories published this week, Salon has described how a soldier secretly taped a psychologist saying that the Army was exerting pressure not to diagnose soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychologist Douglas McNinch of Fort Carson, Colo., twice states on the recording that the Army discourages PTSD diagnoses.

If what McNinch says on the tape is true, why is it happening? Why would the Army purposely diagnose soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder with something other than PTSD? Combat stress is as real as your big toe. Why would the Army want to deny, or at least minimize, a known consequence of combat? The truth might rest in math.

This is their first report:

"I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"

A secret recording reveals the Army may be pushing its medical staff not to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army and Senate have ignored the implications.

Editor's note: Last June, during a medical appointment, a patient named "Sgt. X" recorded an Army psychologist at Fort Carson, Colo., saying that he was under pressure not to diagnose combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

April 8, 2009 | FORT CARSON, Colo. -- "Sgt. X" is built like the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he rode in while in Iraq. He's as bulky, brawny and seemingly impervious as a tank.

In an interview in the high-rise offices of his Denver attorneys, however, symptoms of the damaged brain inside that tough exterior begin to appear. Sgt. X's eyes go suddenly blank, shifting to refocus oddly on a wall. He pauses mid-sentence, struggling for simple words. His hands occasionally tremble and spasm.

The Audio with above initial report is the one above or at that site page.

The next day Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna wrote a follow up article:

Tale of the secret Army tape

After a soldier taped a psychologist saying he'd been pressured not to diagnose PTSD, the Army launched an investigation. Read the details of how the Army declared itself innocent.

Editor's note: Read about Sgt. X's tape -- and listen to a segment of it -- in the first story in this series, "I Am Under a Lot of Pressure to Not Diagnose PTSD." Read a summary of the Army's internal investigation, in which it determined that it was not exerting such pressure, here

"This report does not find pressure to change clinical diagnoses"
A summary of an Army investigation says some soldiers with PTSD may not get the diagnoses they deserve -- but nobody in the Army did anything wrong.

April 9, 2009 | In a story published yesterday, Salon reported on a surreptitious tape recording of an Army psychologist telling a patient last June that he had been pressured not to diagnose soldiers as having post-traumatic stress disorder. The soldier, whom Salon dubbed Sgt. X to protect his identity, recorded the Fort Carson, Colo., psychologist, Douglas McNinch, twice describing pressure to label soldiers with "anxiety disorder" instead of PTSD. The diagnosis of anxiety disorder could result in improper treatment and lower disability payments if the Army discharges a soldier from the military. "It's not fair," McNinch said on the tape. "I think it's a horrible way to treat soldiers."

That night, the 9th, on MSNBC HardBall they had this discussion:



Now to just break in, on the Salon reports, here this was known about, or at least suspected, from reports many of us Veterans or Advocates of had been hearing about or in talking to the returning soldiers from these two theaters. But on May 15th 2008 VoteVets and CREW {Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington} broke it open with a press release:

15 May 2008 // Washington, DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and VoteVets.org released an e-mail obtained from a Veterans Affairs (VA) employee directing VA staff to refrain from diagnosing soldiers and veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

And in searching out a bit of information I came across this CNN Video from a month before:

Post traumatic stress stigma Sun, March 8, 2009
Army generals hope to remove the stigma that keeps many soldiers from getting help for stress. CNN's Barbara Starr reports.

These two Generals had recently come out about their own PTS and the counciling and help they received, and their want to help their fellow soldiers to seek out the help needed themselves.

On the day of the second Salon report there was another discussion at CNN:

Veterans and PTSD Thurs. April 9 2009
Veterans groups talk about post-traumatic stress disorder to CNN's Kyra Phillips
.

Now in the CNN discussion, in the beginning, Kyra makes the point that they've been contact the new Veterans Administration Director General Shinseki and that he hadn't returned their contacts for this report. I'm not going to fault Kyra for whatever point she wanted to make, as she clears that up later in the discussion by pointing out this all happened under the previous administration in 2008. But will say that the General has only been in the lead a very short time, and would not want to speak about all that is coming out finally until he has all the facts, so Kyra think before speaking please!

Salon followed up the first two reports with the following:

"I believe that I did have PTSD"

Matthew Marino was sent back to Afghanistan for a second tour of duty after the Army diagnosed him with "anxiety disorder" instead of post-traumatic stress disorder.

April 10, 2009 | Matthew Marino served five years in the Army and was deployed to fight in Afghanistan twice. He began to suffer from symptoms typical of post-traumatic stress disorder following his first tour. After returning to Fort Drum, N.Y. in late 2004, he couldn't lose the hyper-alertness he'd developed in Afghanistan. He had thoughts of suicide, was nervous, had nightmares, couldn't sleep, and stayed away from family and friends.

Despite his symptoms, however, the Army diagnosed the first lieutenant with anxiety disorder instead of PTSD. He was also diagnosed with depression and given antidepressants. The Army then "stop-lossed" Marino, to prevent him from leaving the Army although his time was up. He was shipped back to Afghanistan for a second tour in 2006. A diagnosis of PTSD might have kept him from being redeployed and sent back into combat; a diagnosis of anxiety disorder did not.

While searching I found a few more reports, following the Salon report, like this one:

Wartime Mental Health, Scandal and Stigma

Posted on April 9th, 2009 by Kelley Vlahos

Nearly a year ago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that eliminating the stigma of mental health from the military culture would be a Pentagon priority. Seeing that some one-third of soldiers returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are reporting mental health symptoms, particularly those associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), hearing him say, “We have no higher priority in the Department of Defense, apart from the war itself, than taking care of our men and women in uniform who have been wounded — who have both visible and unseen wounds,” was at the very least, an institutional acknowledgment of the problem.

Good intentions and politically correct language aside, like most of what we see and hear in Washington, his words papered over and have yet to affect a cruel reality, one with which only a small percentage of Americans have any real familiarity. Perhaps with the help of investigative reporters Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna, who have been producing some amazing work for Salon.com, we can all get up to speed.

I would like to make a couple of points to Kelley on an otherwise needed article. First: when Gates made his call he was relatively new in an administration that, while starting two long running occupations, all that is coming out now happened under their watch and with a congress of the same political ideology. Second: we could have all "gotten up to speed" if many had been listening to those of us, in the previous administration labeled "focus groups", had been saying all along, not to mention all of us Veterans who have been saying for years, but welcome to the reality now!!

WWP Concerned by Stigma of PTSD and Mental Illness in Military

In response to recently released information, http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/Wounded Warrior Project again cited their grave concerns with the manner in which mental health and PTSD are perceived and dealt with within the military. One specific article on Salon.com highlighted concerns that military doctors are being pressured to not diagnose PTSD in returning military personnel and specifically brought to light such a situation in Fort Carson, Colorado.

"Post traumatic stress disorder is very serious," said Nardizzi. "We call on the military to prioritize the reduction of this stigma against seeking care and to foster unfettered access to mental health services, regardless of cost."

VA psychiatrist orchestrates services for increased PTSD patients

Some veterans got proper treatment 20 or 30 years after the issue should have been recognized, he said.

Many returning Vietnam veterans sought refuge from PTSD with addictive behaviors. They were frequently misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychological abnormalities, Otero said. In reality, they were driven to those addictions to mask the increasing severity of flashbacks to horrific combat experiences.

"One of the differences between the current war and the Vietnam conflict is that current vets are receiving counseling and education (about PTSD) before they go and immediately after they return, he said.

"We are trying to catch PTSD early - undiagnosed, it becomes a much more disabling condition," he said.

While the VA mental health community is much more in tune to the workings of PTSD for the new group of veterans, these veterans face some stress issues the Vietnam era combatants did not.

As many Vietnam-era veterans were drafted, they served in the combat zone for a year and were discharged back to civilian life, Otero said.

Now this is for the Veterans and residents of Maryland but others may want to study what they're doing and submit to their state legislators to follow the example, if you don't have similar in your states.

Veterans Network Of Care Portal
Lt. Governor Brown Launches Maryland Veterans Network Of Care Portal

Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Press Release:

ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 31, 2009) - Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown today joined representatives of the public mental health industry and veterans affairs as Maryland became the first state in the nation to launch a "Network of Care" Website devoted to the state's veterans. The Maryland Veterans Network of Care portal is an on-line resource that provides simple and fast access to information on local, state and national behavioral health services available to veterans. The portal is part of Network of Care online community.>>>>>Rest Here

And those who may be seeking a new profession, have kids looking for a rewarding profession, or are returning Veterans of these conflicts seeking to continue your service to country and citizens of, you may find this worthy to research further.

VA Announces New Nursing Academy Sites
April 9, 2009

To provide compassionate, highly-trained nurses to serve the health care needs of the nation’s Veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is establishing new partnerships with five of the country’s finest nursing schools. With these new partnerships, the VA Nursing Academy will expand the number of collaborations between the department and nursing schools from 10 to 15.

“The expanded role of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the education of nurses will ensure the department has the nurses needed to continue our world-class health care for Veterans,” said Dr. Linda D. Johnson, director of VA Nursing Academy. “The VA Nursing Academy expands the teaching faculty, improves recruitment and retention, and creates new educational and research opportunities.”

The VA Nursing Academy is a virtual five-year pilot program with central administration in Washington. It expands learning opportunities for nursing students at VA facilities, funds faculty development of VA staff for additional faculty positions to competitively selected school partners. The five-year, $59 million program began in 2007.

The names of the newly added schools, as well as those participating already in the program, can be found at the site link.

"Honorably Discharged"

Attorney: mom recalled to Army duty is discharged

The attorney for a North Carolina mother who reported for Army duty with her two young children says she has received an honorable discharge.

What the Army put this mother through, as well as many other Soldiers, should Never Have Happened!

It's not about her nor any other soldier mom, it's about using the IRR to beef up the military anytime, backdoor draft, especially when all the services are propagandizing they are topping their recruitment numbers.

The IRR is supposedly setup as a Last Resort in Times Of Emergency, Real Emergency, and the needs of the already trained is a must!

PTSD Combat: Rising Tide

2008 OEF/OIF Veteran Suicides 28% of Army, Marine Casualties; Jan '09 Army Suicides May Surpass Month's KIA Count

The continued rise of OEF/OIF veteran suicides reported by the military over the past weeks isn't very surprising news for longtime followers of this issue; but, it's no less alarming.

Read the Rest at: Ilona Meagher's; PTSD Commbat: Winning the War Within

Recruiting stand-down ordered

Probe of Houston suicides prompts wide-ranging action

Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a stand-down of the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of the job is underway in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four suicides in the Houston Recruiting Battalion.

Poor command climate, failing personal relationships and long, stressful work days were factors in the suicides, the investigation found. The investigating officer noted a “threatening” environment in the battalion and that leaders may have tried to influence statements from witnesses.

I'm not going to add to this, they list a few of the problems, already found, in the report.

But a 'Stand Down', across the whole Recruiting Force means this is Big and possibly wider, in other area's, than just what happened in the Houston Battalion!!

***************

Purple Heart, Purple Haze

On October 22, 1967, General William C. Westmoreland paid a surprise visit to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital near Long Binh, South Vietnam. He had come to distribute Purple Hearts. To his chagrin, he arrived first at a medical ward where soldiers were convalescing from various tropical diseases and infections. "Medical wards!" the General yelled. "I don't want to see medical wards. I don't want to see those fakers." Westmoreland's classless quote is recalled by doctors and nurses at the 93rd who were then treating those "fakers" and was recorded for posterity in David Maraniss's Vietnam epic, They Marched Into Sunlight. The message was simple: When it came to the suffering of US soldiers, bombs and bullets were honorable; mosquitoes and microbes were not.

***************

"America Supports You"

Investigation Begins

Defense officials have launched a preliminary investigation into how Stars and Stripes and its former parent organization, American Forces Information Service, handled money for the America Supports You program, a Defense Department spokesman said.

Not For The Weak Stomach - Reality of War!! {UpDated}

Salon has this up at their site and I'm sure we haven't heard the end of this incident, or like others maybe we have!!


The only way that doesn't happen is if You, the Citizens Of This Country, Make Sure It Gets Investigated and Indictments come down, not for the Soldiers but for those in Leadership, Top Down!!


Friendly fire in Iraq — and a coverup


The Army says no, but a graphic video and eyewitness testimony indicate that a U.S. tank killed two American soldiers. The mother of one soldier demands answers.


I'm not going to give you much here, but Watch the Videio's, warning included, and use the above links, than slam your Representatives with the needs to investigate, help these soldiers Families and this Nation!

Editor’s note: Mark Benjamin’s friendly fire investigation contains 1) the main article, 2) video documentation {Video's Below} and 3) the Army’s own report on the killing of Nelson and Suarez.

The main article starts out with the following:

Oct. 14, 2008 | PHILADELPHIA — Once a cop, always a cop. Asked if she wanted to see a graphic battle video showing her son Albert bleeding to death, Jean Feggins, retired from the Philadelphia Police Department, said yes.

“Listen, I’ve moved dead bodies of people I don’t even know,” she told me, as she sat on a brown couch in the den of her West Philadelphia row house. “I need to know everything. Because he is not a stranger. That’s my baby. That’s my child.”

Listen carefully.

Helmet-cam footage from Ramadi, Iraq (12-min. edited version). Warning: Contains graphic violence and profanity.



An interview with Jean Feggins, mother of Pfc. Albert Markee Nelson, who died of wounds received in the alleged friendly fire incident.



This report is five pages at the site, at the bottom of each page there's a title for the next, below are these titles:

“Dude, I’m almost positive that was that tank, because I saw him flash”


“We know it was a tank. They got an ass whooping coming. That’s all I got to say”


“It is fucking plain as day that the tank shot at the building I was in and killed two of my friends”


“He said, ‘He was killed instantly. He was killed so fast that he didn’t have time to feel pain’”


Accountibility for all that this Country, and much of this World, have been put through, leading up to the Financial Collapse, must be one of the first Orders of this Countries Business when the Civilian Leadership Changes, taking with them many in the Military Ranks as well.

"Bring Them Home NOW, and Take Care Of Them When They Return"

UpDate

New probe sought in servicemembers’ deaths
Lawmaker petitions Army after video of battle suggests friendly fire

Iraq, Baghdad and an Army Report on a recent Killing

U.S. Troops in Iraq

US troops' anger on Iraq duty

US troops talk to Newsnight's Andrew North about not wanting to be in Iraq and how the effort is hurting the US economy and reputation.

Guardian photographer and film-maker Sean Smith spent two months with the US 101st airborne division over the summer, in the Shia strongholds of Sadr City and Shu'la, where peace still seems a long way off.

~~~~~~~~~~

Getting to School in Iraq

09.15.2008

Iraq, Baghdad/Adhamiya - Over the last five years violence, terrorism, and fundamentalism have a severe impact on the ability of Iraq's children to receive an adequate education. This week Alive in Baghdad's Isam Rasheed speaks with parents, teachers, and children about the issues facing the Iraqi education system.

For many, simply the issue of travelling to and from school prevents them from attending their classes regularly. Roads and even schools are often closed for government military operations, or by insurgents or militias opposed to the idea of an unfettered education system.


Alive in Baghdad

~~~~~~~~~~

Army report on Touma killing

Army's report finds fault with Touma's unit

Touma, who was 23, checked in at Fort Bragg on June 12 and was not expected back at the post until June 16. Police investigators believe she was killed June 13 or 14.

The military’s investigation shows that Touma should have been declared “absent without leave” on June 17, but paperwork declaring her AWOL was not started until June 22 — the day after her body was found.

Touma UpDate

No court appearance for soldier charged with murder

Forced to Resign

Liaison in Sill mold issue forced to resign

FORT SILL, Okla. — An Army social services coordinator here who told USA Today about poor conditions at Fort Sill’s unit for wounded soldiers has been forced out of his job, the employee and base officials said Tuesday.

In Too Deep:

In Too Deep: 'He wasn't really all there,' his squad leader says, but the Army needed more scouts, so that's the job they sent him in to do IRAQ

He Should Never Have Gone to Iraq’
More borderline troops are being sent to the front, sometimes with tragic results.

By Dan Ephron | NEWSWEEK
Jun 30, 2008 Issue

Pvt. David Dietrich had a history of cognitive problems. He struggled in boot camp at Fort Knox, Ky., striking at least one of his superiors as unfit for the military. Dietrich was so slow at processing new things, some fellow soldiers called him Forrest Gump. His squad leader, Pfc. Matthew Berg, says Dietrich couldn't hit targets on the rifle range and had trouble retaining information. "He was very strong physically, but mentally he wasn't really all there," Berg says. Recruited as a cavalry scout, one of the toughest specialties in the Army, Dietrich seemed to lack the essential skills for the job: concentration, decisiveness and the ability to move around without being noticed. He was sent for psychological evaluations at least twice, yet somehow Dietrich advanced—from Fort Knox to Germany and on to Iraq in November 2006. Eight weeks later, at 21, Dietrich was killed by a sniper while conducting reconnaissance from an abandoned building in Ramadi.

This RepugNut Has Got To Be Kidding!

A group of Marines ogling a pinup girl outside their bunkers in Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, in January 1968

Targetting Congressional Pages or Toe Tapping in public bathroom stalls is just fine and dandy, as well as giving male prostitutes seemingly unlimitted access to the White House Press Room and only rove knows where else, and the other numorous sex related adventures of mostly republican congressmen, bet the women have a few little secrets themselves.

But shockingly, once again, after being the Lead Cheerleaders, along with their equally sex confused talking heads, o'really are you listening, you to fatboy cyst, to the extremely failed policy of Wars/Occupations Of Choice we get this:

Stars, Bars and Skin
A congressman cracks down on soft porn at the PX.

Wonder what's hidden in his closet, and/or how many names did he use in describing All Of Us who Opposed their Need to Occupy another small country, destroying it and it's people, creating more Hatreds and Damaging our National Security for the years to come!

Republican Congressman Paul Broun, the representative from Georgia's 10th District, wants to stop the sale of Playboy and Penthouse at military bases around the world, invoking an argument that at the very least is scientifically questionable: that consuming even soft pornography makes men more prone to committing sex crimes.

This while they are lowering the standards for recruitment to supply the Military Industrial Complex the warm bodies needed in order to maintain their Occupations of Innocents, to kill and be killed, so they can claim their Strenght on National Security and how Mocho, with Family Values, they are!

According to data released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps recruited significantly more ex-convicts last year than in 2006. The crimes included assault, sex crimes, manslaughter, and burglary.

I'm still wondering where are all those Supporters, Young RepugNuts, and Why? they haven't been rushing to their recruitment centers to sign on the line and take The Oath of Service to Country, I mean they've had plenty of time, we're into the sixth year in Iraq and Afganistan, with those who are serving, many because there no longer are comfortable paying jobs with any type of future, serving two, three, four, and now some five tours In Theaters!

You would think this congress critter would be more concern with this:

YouTube video raises concerns about Bragg barracks

Barracks for Charlie CO 2/508 82n Airborne

Or this:

Lawsuit: Veterans Affairs Has Failed To Prevent Suicides
Lawsuit Accuses Dept. Of Veterans Affairs Of Failing To Prevent An 'epidemic Of Suicide'

And how about their leading Candidate for leadership of Country and Party:

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS STRONGLY REJECT MCCAIN'S
WATERED-DOWN EDUCATION BILL
"Stop undermining America's heroes," say war veterans

Or the Many Other Overwelming reports, finally servicing, this year especially, of what these RepugNuts should have placed Front and Center as they Beat The Drums Of War/Occupation Louder and Louder, and Keep On Beating, placing themselves, along with their spin meisters, Above All in this Society a Society they're Hired to Represent!

I mean with all these Family Values that bring on a his False sense of Morality of Soft Porn that may Corrupt these Young Minds of our Military Personal, like these war mongers and profitteers could care, especially in Theaters of Their Wars/Occupations!

Bragg Barracks Living Conditions

Another rising case of the Mis-Treatment of the Military Troops returning from the Theaters of Afganistan and Iraq.

The following was printed in the Fayetteville Observer, in Fayetteville North Carolina, home to Ft Bragg Army Base.

YouTube video raises concerns about Bragg barracks

The video was produced by a Father of a returning Afgan Soldier, and he isn't Happy. Don't blame him At All, how about You!

The video was made by Edward Frawley, the father of a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division who returned from Afghanistan on April 13 and is among the soldiers now living in the barracks.

Barracks for Charlie CO 2/508 82n Airborne

Added: April 22, 2008
This video shows the condemned terrible conditions that soldier must live in after a 15 month tour in Afghanistan