They Served Their Country Honorably

Seven veterans under VA's care commit suicide

They served their country honorably but after risking their life in combat abroad, coping with coming home was too much. In the last three months seven servicemen being treated by Spokane's VA Hospital have committed suicide.

What does one say when they have watched others go through All This Before, and having beared witness through these many years!

Any who have read my attempts at putting the reality to words over these past 6 years, long before the carnage again started, or read and listened to others saying pretty much the same damn thing, you know how I feel!

"After returning home from his tour of duty in Iraq, Tim was given the following choice -- either commit to a two-year enlistment in the Washington National Guard and receive a stability from deployment for that amount of time or be stop-lossed and face certain redeployment within a year," Hergert wrote in a letter to Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the Senate's Veterans Affairs committee. "Tim chose to enlist in the Washington National Guard unit and was assigned to Spokane, Washington."

Only back than, till now, my brothers and sisters, weren't forced into 'Stop Loss' nor 'Mutiple Extended Tours', back in the Debacle Occupation the Country said they'd Never Forget and Learn The lessons Of, one had to Volunteer for more than one tour, the few I know that did were KIA on their second or third, they couldn't cope in the Real World!

"Mom, I don't think I can go back to Iraq," Jacqueline Hergert recalls her son's words.
Last month, Juneman was found hanging in his Pullman apartment.
"My son hanged himself in his apartment on March 5, 2008. He was not discovered for 20 days, and then only because he didn't pay his rent for the month," Hergert continued in her letter to Sen. Murray. "He missed numerous scheduled medical appointments at the VA hospital. He missed his weekend duty with the National Guard unit. Yet, no one came to check on him, not even the doctors or counselors who were seeing him for his injuries and trauma."

These tragic incidents are Not The Fault of the Greater Majority who Work In The Veterans Administration System, most are extremely dedicated not only to their work but those They Serve!

This is Totally In The Lap of the Leadership, the Political Appointee's, and those in the Administration parts of the systems, especially if hired because of Political affiliation these past 7 years, not only VA but across the board in this failing Government, Total Incompetence, and an Apathedic Freightened Country that Refuses to Hold Accountibility on those as that Incompetence Continues, Unabated!!

"I have to live with the knowledge that he died alone and in despair and feeling without hope," Hergert said.

The lead to the tragic story above, and those I'm placing below, come from Veterans For Common Sense who are spearheading the Lawsuit, now in trial, against the VA. Visit their site and throw a few duckets of that Tax Rebate their way, they could use it as Veterans Fighting For Veterans, along with other organizations you might be inclined to Support.

One for those Not Serving and Suffering, as our Military Personal and Their Families Are, You're Way Overdue your Sacrifice! {Service Members and Families of Disregard previous sentence, You've Given This Country Way Too Much All Ready!!}

Two, it's the Best Way to put that money that should Already be Going to these returning Vets to a use that is extremely worthwhile, you certainly don't need to shop for more crap in your lives!

Mental Health

The War Within: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
James Sperry's nightmares always take him back to Fallujah.

Combat Vets Face Hurdles as Students
Colleges learning to deal with PTSD, lost limbs, brain injuries.

Many Troops Never Get Help for Mental Wounds
Army Cpl. Robb Rudd finished basic training within 48 hours of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Inner War Knows No Truce
The movie “Stop Loss” filled the silver screen with haunting images of bad dreams, alcoholism and family strife in the wake of a tour of duty in Iraq.

Bill Would Expand PTSD Benefits
House lawmakers have reworked a bill that would make it easier for veterans to get benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder by not requiring them to prove their exposure to a stressor.

Editorial Column: Half of Vets Suffering Brain and Mind Injuries Go Untreated, But Pentagon Pretends Nothing's Going on
Penny Coleman
An activist travels to the DoD's annual suicide prevention conference, only to find the military brass living in a parallel universe.

Department of Veterans Affairs

Mitchell to VA: 'My Patience is at an End'
Rep Harry Mitchell (D-5) has given Deparment of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake an option: Produce documents related to suicides among veterans by May 9, or he will pursue "other options."

Iraq War

Investigators: Millions in Iraq Contracts Never Finished
Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.

Talk Doesn't Mean Action for Vets
Judging by sheer numbers alone, this is most definitely the Year of the Veteran at the state Capitol.

Department of Defense

Is There an Army Cover Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?
The Department of Defense statistics are alarming — one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military.

Bring Them Home and Take Care Of Them When They Return, Now!!!

We've gone through all of this before, this time Learn From The Mistakes and Incompetence of those we Call Our Leaders, Never Again!!!

Paradox: Construction - Destruction

Iraq

Contractors operate equipment under the crackle of automatic weapon fire and with the protection of M-1 tanks, Stryker vehicles and Apache helicopters. The workers in this case are constructing a series of walls to block certain areas of Sadr City, the vast Shi'ite slum in Baghdad.

Dozens of walls have already been built around Baghdad, the southern city of Basra and other Iraqi cities, creating segregated ethnic Sunni and Shi'ite neighborhoods ringed with checkpoints and command posts. The latest flurry of construction activity has little to do with nation building, but rather is more related to a deteriorating security environment.

Vietnam

"Motor grader operators work with loaded carbines at their sides; ... scrapers cut roads across the shadows of hastily prepared gun emplacements; a lean, tanned construction superintendent waxes enthusiastic over the future while helicopters stutter overhead looking for enemy guerrillas."

The above description is not from the latest edition of the New York Times reporting from Iraq, but rather from a journalist covering the US's massive construction effort amid the war in Vietnam in 1966. Then, the project to build a separate state out of the southern half of Vietnam involved the energies of the best and brightest academic experts in economics, political science, police systems and government, as well as dozens of private corporations which specialized in engineering and construction.

The above were taken from an article in Asia Times by James M Carter who is an assistant professor of history at Texas A & M University.

The article by James Carter US paradox of construction and destruction was posted up on the 25th of this month.

On the 28th, this was being reported: Audit: Millions Wasted In Iraq Contracts
Investigator Gives Snapshot Of The Uneven Reconstruction Effort That Has Cost U.S. Taxpayers $100B

Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.

The Audit was released on Sunday which you can find here - SIGIR: Independent & Objective Oversight

Another cut from Mr Carters article:

The idea was to quickly build up southern Vietnam's primitive physical infrastructure while putting in place a government in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) advised and funded by Washington. The working assumption was that the local people would be grateful and welcoming, and, working alongside American advisors and experts, would contribute to the invention of a new, prosperous and non-communist state.

Visit Mr Carters article, he has much more about the policies than and abit of comparison.

Than visit, if you already haven't, the above report on the Audit of Iraq Reconstruction, or one of the many in the mainstream on topic, and the Audit itself.

Than you might want to see, if you haven't already, what is already being planned in the halls of Congress in this report Congress wants Iraq to repay U.S. expenses

Iraqis would be forced to pay for U.S. efforts in their country directly or via loans from the United States if any of at least five similar pieces of legislation introduced on Capitol Hill this month is approved.

We Invade, Destroy, Kill and Maim, Occupy, Torture, Imprison, Segragate, than turn around and "Send Them The Bill"!

Than we, in our Arrogance, wonder why "Others Hate Us!"!

I'll close with another observation of Mr Carter:

As the US's Vietnam experience showed, war is not the same as nation building. If ever larger military deployments are necessary simply to hold ground, then perhaps it's high time to admit that the Iraq project has already failed. Vietnam showed that greater militarization will only bring more destruction, suffering and political polarization and accentuate the paradox of simultaneous construction and destruction, which unfortunately has found painful new life in Iraq.

"May Day! May Day! May Day!"

MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!

The following was written by Jack Heyman a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks

Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war

While millions of people worldwide have marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and last week's New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 81 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction - key concerns being the war and the economy - the war machine inexorably grinds on.

Amid this political atmosphere, dockworkers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to call for an end to the war.

This decision came after an impassioned debate where the union's Vietnam veterans turned the tide of opinion in favor of the anti-war resolution. The motion called it an imperial action for oil in which the lives of working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being wasted and declared May Day a "no peace, no work" holiday. Angered after supporting Democrats who received a mandate to end the war but who now continue to fund it, longshoremen decided to exercise their political power on the docks.

Last month, in response to the union's declaration, the Pacific Maritime Association, the West Coast employer association of shipowners, stevedore companies and terminal operators, declared its opposition to the union's protest. Thus, the stage is set for a conflict in the run up to the longshore contract negotiations.

The last set of contentious negotiations (in 2002) took place during the period between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq. Representatives of the Bush administration threatened that if there were any of the usual job actions during contract bargaining, then troops would occupy the docks because such actions would jeopardize "national security." Yet, when the PMA employers locked out the longshoremen and shut down West Coast ports for 11 days, the "security" issue vanished. President Bush then invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing longshoremen back to work under conditions favorable to the employers.

The San Francisco longshore union has a proud history of opposition to the war in Iraq, being the first union to call for an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of troops. Representatives of the union spoke at anti-war rallies in February 2003, including one in London attended by nearly 2 million people, the largest ever held in Britain. Executive Board member Clarence Thomas went to Iraq with a delegation to observe workers' rights during the occupation.

At the start of the war in Iraq, hundreds of protesters demonstrated on the Oakland docks, and longshoremen honored their picket lines. Without warning, police in riot gear opened fire with so-called less-than-lethal weapons, shooting protesters and longshoremen alike with wooden dowels, rubber bullets, pellet bags, concussion grenades and tear gas. A U.N. Human Rights Commission investigator characterized the Oakland police attack as "the most violent" against anti-war protesters in the United States.

And finally, last year, two black longshoremen going to work in the port of Sacramento were beaten, Maced and arrested by police under the rubric of Homeland Security regulations ordained by the "war on terror."

There's precedent for this action. In the '50s, French dockworkers refused to load war materiel on ships headed for Indochina, and helped to bring that colonial war to an end. At the ILWU's convention in San Francisco in 2003, A. Q. McElrath, an octogenarian University of Hawaii regent and former ILWU organizer from the pineapple canneries, challenged the delegates to act for social justice, invoking the union's slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all." She concluded, "The cudgel is on the ground. Will you pick it up?"

It appears that longshore workers may be doing just that on May Day and calling on immigrant workers and others to join them.

May Day protest

WHEN: 10:30 a.m., May 1, followed by a rally at noon.

WHERE: Longshore Union Hall, corner of Mason and Beach (near Fisherman's Wharf)

.
WHAT: March to a rally at Justin Herman Plaza along the Embarcadero.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: May Day!**ILWU Homepage**Transport Workers Solidarity Committee or call (415) 776-8100.

A CALL TO ACTION ALL OUT ON MAYDAY TO STOP THE WAR!

At the start of the Iraq War in 2003, many working people were opposed to the invasion. Now the overwhelming majority want to end the war and withdraw troops.
Yet, both major political parties continue to fund the war.

Marches and demonstrations have not been able to stop the war. The Longshore Union (ILWU) will stop work for 8 hours in every port on the West Coast on May 1st.
This action shows that working people have the power to stop the war.

Don't work on May 1st — MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!

*Stop the war!
*Withdraw the troops now!
*No scapegoating immigrant workers for the economic crisis!
*Health care for all!
*Funding for schools and housing!
*Defend civil liberties and workers' rights!

MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!

Port Workers' May Day Organizing Committee

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT:

Contact ILWU President Robert McEllrath With A Letter Of Support For The Longshore Caucus’ Resolution To Use International Workers Day To “Stop Work To Stop The War”

Date: 29 Mar 2008
From: Clarence Thomas
Via New York City Labor Against The War

As a result of an important action taken at the recent International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Caucus, Longshore workers will stop work during the first shift in opposition to the war in Iraq, on May 1, 2008.
They will also use this occasion to acknowledge International Workers Day to express labor solidarity concerning issues and challenges that confront workers.
This war has cost more than 4,000 American lives and 29,000 have been seriously injured. It has been estimated that 1 million Iraqis have lost their lives, untold have been injured and 4 million have been displaced in this illegal and amoral war and occupation. The war is costing $435 million per day.
So far, $526 billion has been expended on the war. The daily amount spent on the war could enroll 58,000 youngsters in Head Start or provide health insurance to 329,200 low-income children.
We’re writing to ask you to contact ILWU President Robert McEllrath with a letter of support for the Longshore Caucus’ resolution to use International Workers Day to “stop work to stop the war”. Please ask other organizations to do the same.
Robert McEllrath, ILWU President
1188 Franklin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 775-0533
(415) 775-1302 FAX
Your support in spreading the word of this historic action is very important.
In Solidarity,
Clarence Thomas
National Co-Chair
Million Worker March Movement

And there's MORE:

Mail Carriers Vote 2 Minutes Of Silence On May Day To Oppose The War

April 11, 2008 New York City Labor Against The War

Postal letter carriers in Greensboro voted to observe 2 minutes of silence at 9:15 a.m. on International Workers Day - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.
Their workplace action is in solidarity with the ILWU longshore workers, who are shutting down all West Coast ports for 8 hours on May 1st in opposition to the war. The vote took place on April 3 at their regular membership meeting in Greensboro.
The action by Greensboro Branch 630 of the National Association of Letter Carriers is also in solidarity with San Francisco Branch 214 letter carriers and the American Postal Workers Union in the New York Metro Area and San Francisco, who earlier voted to pause for 2 minutes of silence on that day to oppose the war.
The APWU locals, whose members work around the clock, plan to observe the period of silence at specific times on all three shifts.

And still MORE:

New York Faculty/Staff Union Supports ILWU Anti-War Work Stoppage

April 11, 2008 New York City Labor Against The War

The following anti-war resolution was adopted unanimously at the March 27 delegate assembly of the Professional Staff Congress, AFT Local 2334 at the City University of New York.

Whereas, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has voted to stop work and shut down all 29 West Coast ports for the full 8-hour day shift on May 1st, in protest against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

Whereas, this historic decision to use the power of their contract to close the ports represents one of the most powerful forms of labor action a union can take to demand an end to the war; and

Whereas, the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY has, since the start of the war in Iraq, called for an end to the war and a reordering of national priorities so that funding is available for education, healthcare, jobs and other human needs; and

Whereas, it is especially important that CUNY students, faculty and staff have an opportunity to discuss the meaning of a powerful labor action to end the war, given the intense military recruitment our students face and the direct effect of the war budget on CUNY funding and contracts; and

Whereas, the PSC has embarked on the most intense phase of our fight for a fair contract; and

Whereas, the ILWU has expressed the hope that its decision will be a "clarion call" to the rest of labor; and

Whereas, the March meeting of the Hunter PSC chapter voted to hold an outdoor event/teach-in against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan on May 1st in solidarity with the ILWU work stoppage and with the theme of mobilizing labor's power against the war; therefore be it

RESOLVED that the PSC send to the ILWU a message of solidarity on the occasion of their historic initiative for workers' action against the war, and as part of this effort, be it further

RESOLVED that while the priority for PSC organizing during the next two months will be the drive to reach a good contract settlement, PSC chapters that vote to undertake a campus event or teach-in on May 1 in solidarity with the ILWU action will be supported in
doing so; and such actions should reach out as broadly as possible to students and the community and should contribute to building the union campaign for a good contract.

A big Tip of the Hat goes out to Brother 'Nam Vet Thomas Barton, over at Military Project - G.I. Special and Traveling Soldier who passed on the above information in his lastest G.I. Special Newsletter, I just did abit of extra highlighting and added a few links!

What say folks, will You MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!

Take the Day Off, have a Planned Action to show your Solidarity with the Longshoreman and Support For The Troops, Real Support "Bring Them Home Now, And Take Care Of Them When They Return!!"

IRAQ:

Returning Home Is No Easy Solution for Displaced Iraqis

Assessments by Iraq's Ministry for Displacement and Migration (MoDM) and IOM of Iraqis having returned to their original homes from internal displacement or asylum abroad reveal that return has not brought them relief from the humanitarian crisis they suffered during their displacement.

Priority needs among the 5,200 people assessed by IOM monitors out of nearly 78,200 returnees identified so far across the country are food, fuel, non-food items and access to health care and medications.

In the first of IOM reports focusing exclusively on the monitoring and needs assessment of returnees, nearly two-thirds of identified returns were to Baghdad with March 2007 as the peak month for returning.

Almost half of these returnees said they only had an intermittent access to government food rations which were largely insufficient to meet their needs.

For those returning to Baghdad, lack of access to health care was the worst of any region at 70 per cent with the national average still high at 56 per cent. Shortage of health facilities and medications and a lack of finances were the main reasons cited.

Although the vast majority of returnees had returned to their original house (84 per cent), many properties had sustained significant damage and lost or stolen belongings including furniture, highlighting a significant need for property assistance.

In Baghdad, where most property disputes occur over occupied houses, the resettlement of returnees is currently being handled on an ad hoc basis by various authorities. Any future large scale returns would necessitate setting up a comprehensive policy and mechanism in order to avoid renewed tensions.

Although identified returns so far constitute less than one per cent of the total displaced Iraqi population (an estimated five million internally displaced people and refugees), monitors had observed an increase in returns in March prior to the recent violence in Basra, Baghdad and elsewhere that outstripped the capacity of the MoDM and local authorities to identify all locations. Therefore, real figures for returns are likely to be higher.

"The situation for those returning is grim and isn't necessarily an improvement from when they were displaced. Many returnees are unemployed while only a fraction have received any form of humanitarian assistance other than some food rations," said Rafiq Tschannen, IOM's Chief of Mission for Iraq.

"Although efforts are being made to help returnees really get back on their feet, intensifying these efforts is major challenge for all the humanitarian agencies as well as the Iraqi government. IOM is working closely with the MoDM to ensure assistance reaches a much greater number of returnees and our reports on the monitoring and assessment needs of returnees will go a long way to making sure we all get the right kind of help to those who need it."

To access the report in PDF Click Here

Basra Breaking?

A few days ago we get this:

U.S. Wants British 'Surge' In S. Iraq: Paper

And why, because:

It quoted an unnamed senior U.S .military source saying: "Three big militias are currently engaged in a particularly bloody battle in southern Iraq.

And the U.S.

"If they do not have enough troops, then they will be offered U.S .Marines to help out.

"The feeling is that if southern Iraq is hugely unstable, it will affect the success of the surge in the north and destabilize the whole country."

Today we get this:

Heavy fighting in southern Iraqi oil hub

Heavy fighting erupted on Tuesday in the southern oil city of Basra where Iraqi security forces launched a major operation at dawn against powerful militias, military officials and witnesses said.

"There are clashes in the streets. Bullets are coming from everywhere and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions. This has been going on since dawn," resident Jamil told Reuters by telephone as he cowered in his home.

Who was it that said Iraq is Stable?

Two powerful factions of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Mehdi Army militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, are fighting for power in Basra along with a smaller Shi'ite party, Fadhila.

Basra is Iraq's second city and gateway to the Gulf. Its oil fields are the source of most government revenues.

Will these unstable questionable alliances be starting to break down?

And can the Iraq Governments?? forces gain control or stalemate or join the fighting factions?

Holloway said Iraqi troops had been sent from across Iraq to reinforce the 14th Iraqi Army division in Basra.

Where will this leave the rest of the country?

4,000 Souls

Sen. Robert Byrd has a request posted over at Huffington Post, the title is his.

He hasn't Waivered as apparently many in this Country have!

Each brave soul leaves behind devastated loved ones -- sons, daughters, wives, husbands, moms, and dads. Each tragic loss leaves a void -- a missing smile and loving embrace, an empty chair at the family dinner table -- that can never be filled.

It's not a long read, won't interupt the clinton/obama mass postings, you can spare a minute or two!
{This line is for the KOS crowd, as I posted there as well}

At this somber moment, let us resolve to take steps to finally bring this tragic war to an end. In 2008, the American people must not stand passively mute, as far too many of their leaders did five years ago. Let your voices be heard.

Not just their leaders, but Far Too Many Americans, Period!

I didn't than, and I'm Still Not Mute, as tens of thousands of us haven't waivered neither, how about you!!

And what do the pResident cheney, and his little puppet say:



**********

PBS Nightline

Tonight and Tomorrow Night:

Bush’s War–And Our Own

If We Truly Face Up to What We’ve Done

Losing the future

by Robert C. Koehler
March 5, 2008

A certain reverence is required just to approach the book’s title: The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
by noted economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. I can see why they understated it.

The pulse of outrage beats behind the cold calculations in this concise volume, newly published by Norton. We’re not just “losing” this tragic, arrogantly unplanned war in the conventional sense of failing to subdue our enemies — we’re committing slow socioeconomic suicide with its open-ended pursuit, losing, as we plunge recklessly into debt over it, our options, our ability to choose. We’re losing the future.

“Because of the war, the national deficit is $2 trillion higher,” Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, told me. “At 5 percent interest, that’s $100 billion a year, year after year after year — forever!”

Such numbers are beyond the scope of the human imagination. To begin putting the war into financial perspective, Stiglitz suggested that we need a new unit of account: “Think of what things would cost in terms of hours, days, weeks of fighting.”

For instance, he said, “Three years ago we had a financial crisis with the Social Security system. For one-sixth of an Iraq war, you could have fixed Social Security for the next 50 to 75 years.”

Or how about health insurance for children? Remember when President Bush vetoed a bill to expand it? “We’re talking about days of fighting in Iraq,” Stiglitz said.

Or, hmm, what about the fact that suddenly one of every 150 children is being diagnosed with autism? The cost of serious research on this issue? “Four hours of an Iraq war!”

(Note: The American Friends Service Committee has a Web page devoted to the Iraq war as a unit of account. )

Before we begin a serious waltz with the current war numbers that Stiglitz and Bilmes force us to confront in their book, let’s ponder some far easier stats. Remember Gulf War I? We drove Saddam out of Kuwait, racking up huge kills in the process and sustaining a mere 148 of our own dead and another 467 injured. Combat operations lasted a month. What’s more, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait paid for most of it — it was practically a free war.

Except, as Stiglitz and Bilmes point out, in the aftermath of this quickie, yellow-ribbon-festooned war, vets started getting sick — started dying — of mysterious maladies that came to be called Gulf War Syndrome. Some 17 years later, “the United States still spends over $4.3 billion each year paying compensation, pension and disability benefits to more than 200,000 veterans of the Gulf War,” they write. “We have already spent over $50 billion in Gulf War I disability benefits.”

Almost two decades later, our tax dollars are still disappearing down the gaping maw of this monthlong war. Now, consider that the current Iraq war is five years old this month and counting (John McCain is ready to go at it for another hundred), and we’ve been in Afghanistan so far for six and a half years. The secret and terrible costs of these wars are growing, growing, growing; and they are exponentially greater than the still enormously expensive, and forgotten, Gulf War I.

Just the cost of care for physically and emotionally injured vets for these two protracted wars — in which our GIs are being forced to return for two, three and even more tours of duty — will run, the authors estimate, to more than $700 billion. And, they note, the care the government refuses to pay for doesn’t simply disappear as a cost. It falls on the families themselves. Someone pays it, so it’s part of the total.

Stiglitz and Bilmes do more than ferret out the operational, medical and other war costs hidden in various parts of the national budget. When they also factor in reasonable estimates of the macroeconomic costs (including interest on our staggering debt, the war-triggered increases in the price of oil), they are forced to add another $2 trillion to the cost of the war.

When they press on with their analysis and begin calculating the global costs as well — including such arcane and disconcerting calculations as the value of an Iraqi life figured, in terms of lost income generation, at 7 percent of an American life — suddenly there’s another $6 trillion. Add it up, if you dare, and you wind up in the neighborhood of $11 trillion. Helluva neighborhood.

But there’s more to the book than numbers. The authors are clearly aware that to a certain extent they are calculating the incalculable: the value of our lost national credibility (“We have become toxic”); the value of human life; the value of shattered hopes. For instance, “The majority of Iraqi children are not attending school,” they note at one point.

The authors move on, but this is where I’ll stop. If we truly face up to what we’ve done, we’ll never go to war again.

---
Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com or visit his Web site at commonwonders.com. © 2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Success in Iraq?

Success in Iraq? Not for Iraqi Women

Click To Play

Let's make sure all of our candidates know that we are not distracted by the bright shiny surge success chatter.

Guess Who Said, "America Has Failed Our Veterans"

Why none other than, Colonel David Hunt, U.S. Army (Ret.), a FOX News military analyst!



He also says this in the commentary:

"For my disconnected, disinterested

uncaring friends, it's not about the damn money, We have the

damn money, it's us, we suck, we do not care...We are all

collectively allowing out government to perpetuate this

crime, the crime of not taking care of soldiers."

I found this over at VA Watchdog and decided to make an extremely rare visit to the FOX News? site where it originated.

The Colonel starts out with this little gem:

We — that’s you and me — just had a Veterans Day. You might have missed it? Did you notice that we had fewer parades and TV and radio shows talked a little less about the holiday. Just last year, we were all over our men and women in uniform and retired — we all said no matter what we think of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, we were going to honor thos who served … remember that?

And than continues with a scathing attack.

We find this ending one paragraph:

I can say with a sadness that cuts very deep that we are now seeing returning veterans from this current war living on the streets of Boston and L.A. That ought to be enough to unseat a government.

It's not a long read, so I suggest you visit either link above and read the whole thing yourself.

Than ask yourself, as I did, Where The Hell Were You Colonel as Veterans, like myself, from 'Nam, Korea, WWII, and everything in between all of those were telling everyone Exactly what was going to happen to the returning Military Personel and Veterans of these latest Debacles of Wars of Choice!!

The Wounds of War

CNN's Gary Tuchman visits young Iraq war victims at a military hospital in Balad, Iraq.

No matter how bad, our once good buddy and known to be brutal when we helped install him, Saddam was the Iraqi People were Not living, if one could call it that, in the World We Have Given Them!!

And the Failed policies will Haunt Everyone for Decades!!!!!

For Reading on This Labor Day

God's Not Watching Baghdad

It's September. Four and a half years in, the author, a former infantryman, went back to Iraq to profile the president's surge. Here's what he found...
By Brian Mockenhaupt {for more from this author}
8/29/2007

Brian Mockenhaupt

Watching soldiers on a mission can be poignant. Watching soldiers on a mission spiraling toward failure is devastating. Outside a house in western Baghdad's once-upscale Ghazaliya neighborhood, next to a broken Iraqi Humvee, I enjoyed this rare bit of clarity, and in a moment I saw why Iraq is such a mess. It's not the obvious choices -- sectarian hatred or Al Qaeda or meddling by Iraq's neighbors -- but something much more pedestrian, exceptionally mundane: flat tires.

Congress Did It Once, Can Do Again

"Once Upon A Time", ahhh it's sad to be living in a fairytale time in our countries history.

It's more than sad because of the devestation we have caused and the spineless people's representatives we hire now, it's a Travesty Beyond Belief, and a future of more we are leaving the coming generations!
There was an interview on NPR's 'Here and Now' today that brought back Memories of 'when' and the debacle many of us were caught up in than, those of us who served there and the country. That interviews link is at the bottom.

Listen to the interview, with BU Professor Julian Zelizer and visit 'American Prospect Online' to read an advance of what will be in the magazine in March.
A few snippets below, no need to add commentary to a fine piece of re-visiting history.

How Congress Helped End the Vietnam War

Since January 10, when President Bush proposed a "troop surge" in Iraq, the administration has responded to legislative critics by stating that Congress cannot handle the responsibility of conducting an effective war. "You can't run a war by committee," Vice President Richard Cheney told FOX News on January 14.

The advice that most troubled Johnson came from the senior southern hawk, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia -- Lyndon Johnson's mentor in the Senate. In some of the most chilling telephone conversations from the Johnson presidential archives, Russell explained to Johnson why this war could not be won and how unimportant the conflict was to the outcome of the Cold War.

As the war in Vietnam progressed, however, and the military situation deteriorated, a few Democrats used the power of congressional investigation to force the administration into a contentious public debate. The most significant proceedings were Fulbright's Foreign Relations Committee hearings in February 1966. Eighteen months after passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Fulbright decided that he could no longer stand by the president in a war he opposed. He was worried, as were most members of his committee, that the administration's optimistic assessments were wrong and that a huge buildup of troops would be required in the coming years. He also felt personally betrayed by the president, who had promised to act with restraint.

Congress's Response to President Bush's War Strategy

Thursday, February 08, 2007
Listen Here

While Congress debates how to respond to President Bush's war strategy, we go back to the history books with BU professor Julian Zelizer, who writes about Congress and the Vietnam War in the American Prospect online. While the Vietnam-era Congress had failings, Zelizer writes, lawmakers forced discussions on difficult issues about Vietnam and challenges the White House's arguments for the war. They also used the budget to pressure the Pentagon.

I'm hoping that with the, Finally, 'Oversight' and 'Congressional Investigations', long overdue, will end this Travesty that should never have been started and places our so called National Security, along with everything else, into an extremely deep hole of unknowns!