Remnants of War, Just One

There are many for if there is an end it doesn't come for decades later for those invaded and occupied by others. The innocent are the ones who suffer the most and in greater numbers by the destruction and death from the moment of invasion and decades later with what's left behind by those who are ordered to invade and then occupy in these Wars of Choice based on lies or for reasons of material worth a small country can add to a power that wants to control.

This is just one of many of the long running destructive remnants of our generations War of Choice, an extremely destructive Weapon of Mass Destruction, Dioxin, Agent Orange and the others used as we occupied a small country Vietnam for over a decade. Destructive not only to the Vietnamese Civilians, then and now, but also to many soldiers who served in country and elsewhere, where it was stored and packaged for shipment to Vietnam and stored at bases to be sprayed over the country at the whim of the commanders of war.

Scientists have been raising the alarm about dioxins since the 1960s....>>>>>

Agent Orange Continues to Poison New Generations in Vietnam

Deformed fetuses at Ho Chi Minh City's Tu Du Hospital, where doctors blame the high incidence of deformities on the use of Agent Orange during the war. STR New / Reuters

This lonely section of the abandoned Danang air base was once crawling with U.S. airmen and machines. It was here where giant orange drums were stored and the herbicides they contained were mixed and loaded onto waiting planes. Whatever sloshed out soaked into the soil and eventually seeped into the water supply. Thirty years later, the rare visitor to the former U.S. air base is provided with rubber boots and protective clothing. Residue from Agent Orange, which was sprayed to deny enemy troops jungle cover, remains so toxic that this patch of land is considered one of the most contaminated pieces of real estate in the country

Snip

After years of meetings, signings and photo ops, the U.S. held another ceremony in Vietnam on Dec. 16 to sign yet another memorandum of understanding as part of the continuing effort to manage Agent Orange's dark legacy.....>>>>>

In 2007 and 2009, the US Congress allocated a total of US$6 million for efforts to ease the impact of dioxin in Vietnam.

The sum comprises US$2 million under cooperative agreements on providing health, education and social services for the handicapped in Danang. It is part of a larger sum of over US$46 million that the US has provided for assisting Vietnamese people with disabilities.

In September 2009, the US spent $1.9 million helping Vietnam set up a project to treat and contain dioxin left in the Danang airport after war...>>>>>

Put those monetary figures above into perspective, and just on the economic impact to those companies who's products are used in waging and fighting our Wars of Choice. Just take one years, out of the last couple of decades and more, compensation paid to the corporate heads of these companies add in the company perks, written off as company expenses, and the bonuses given. Now think of same for all the executives under these corporate leaders, and these are given out even if these executives prove to be incompetent or try and cover up the known within that corporate world. And that's not even looking at the wealth made from investors especially the big investors!

"If those were in Canada or in the U.S., they would require immediate cleanup," Boivin says.

Snip

But critics believe the U.S. is playing a grim waiting game: waiting for people to die in order to avoid potentially costly lawsuits. For a country currently engaged in two wars, accepting comprehensive responsibility for wartime damages could set an expensive precedent. "They know what the problem is and where it is," says Chuck Searcy, country representative of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. "Why do they now need an environmental impact assessment? They are studying this to death."

Snip

Dow and Monsanto, the chemical's largest manufacturers, eventually shelled out millions in damages to U.S. troops who were exposed to it while it was being used as a wartime defoliant from 1961 to 1971. The U.S. government still spends billions every year on disability payments to those who served in Vietnam — including their children, many of whom are suffering from dioxin-associated cancers and birth defects. In October, the Department of Veterans Affairs added leukemia, Parkinson's and a rare heart disease to the list of health problems associated with Agent Orange. Yet U.S. official policy maintains that there is no conclusive evidence that the defoliant caused any health problems among the millions of exposed Vietnamese or their children....>>>>>

Still, the Vietnamese people (and the government, though more quietly) contend it's the U.S. that should be doing more — much more. Some point out that the U.S. spends only a fraction on Agent Orange cleanup compared to the $50 million it spends every year on searching for the remains of American soldiers missing in action. Thao Griffiths, country director of Vietnam Veterans of America, which works on lingering war issues, points out that the legacy of each is equally painful. "The issue of MIAs for Americans holds the same importance that Agent Orange does for the Vietnamese," she says. And until the issue is resolved, the legacy of the war will continue to haunt both sides....>>>>>

Many Vietnam Veterans, like the VVA, have worked with the Vietnamese in trying to resolve the issues, and guilt, of what our country did to theirs as we occupied it for a number of years. Many were, and still do, travel to Vietnam in that advocacy even before this country finally normalized relations with we once called our enemies.

Faces of Agent Orange {2page pdf}

For Gary Jones, the puzzle that is Agent Orange can be explained, or more to the point, not explained, by two words — “circumstantial” and “coincidence.” The words are at once the core and the conundrum of his Agent Orange experience....>>>>>

Also members of Veterans for Peace helping to build and support orphanages and other needed facilities within Vietnam for the Vietnamese and what we left behind and our Government has yet to compensate for the death and destruction wrought. Like the Veterans Viet Nam Restoration Project and the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, in this there has been ongoing help in fighting the Chemical Companies in the United States Courts over these past decades.

The Chicago Tribune has a five part series on the legacy of the Dioxins, Agent Orange, left behind and still contaminating the Vietnamese people as well as the American Soldiers, our brothers, who haven't yet perished from their contact with while In-Country or handling it anywhere.


Photo Gallery: The Legacy of Agent Orange

Memories of the Vietnam War are dimming, but veterans and Vietnamese nationals who were exposed to Agent Orange and other dioxin-laced defoliants are still experiencing devastating health effects, and birth defects have brought the impact into a second generation. Yet the U.S. government has yet to make full amends, either in the U.S. or overseas.

Part 1 of 5: For U.S., a record of neglect

U.S. veterans exposed to Agent Orange face delays and a maddening bureaucracy as they seek compensation for related illnesses. In Vietnam, where untold numbers of people suffer from the same maladies and the chemicals continue to poison the environment, government officials wonder how the U.S. can ignore the ongoing effects of the defoliants....>>>>>

Part 2: 'Insult to injury'

For many U.S. veterans, the bureaucratic fight to be compensated for health problems linked to Agent Orange amounts to a new and unexpected war, long after the shooting ended overseas....>>>>>

Part 3: Born into controversy

The most contentious question surrounding the use of defoliants in the war is their impact on citizens, particularly the suspected link between the herbicides and birth defects....>>>>>

Part 4: A poison still potent

New research finds former U.S. airbases in Vietnam remain polluted from defoliants, underscoring the urgency of a solvable problem. The U.S. has done little to clean up the hot spots....>>>>>

Part 5: Danger not averted

The Tribune unearths documents showing that decisions by the U.S. military and chemical companies that manufactured the defoliants used in Vietnam made the spraying more dangerous than it had to be....>>>>>

At each, and on the main page, there are links to video's as well as side links to other information and photo's.

These are the Weapons of Mass Destruction used in mans waging of War and Occupations on others, long lasting, and the defoliants are only one of many remnants of these wars. As we are still occupying two other small countries, in this new century and generation, we are leaving behind many of these same remnants and even more in our use of the modern weaponry or just needs, like burn pits, as we occupy them.

These not only contaminate the ground but also the water supplies as well as getting into the air that is breathed, once in the air they can travel for miles as they are now in our atmosphere, collecting and trapped there and continually moving around the planet.

Add to them the contaminations and pollutions man produces, or uses, especially in industrialized nations, making that which we need or just the materialistic items we crave, and we are contaminating much of our earth, soil, the waters we drink and gather a food supply from, and the air we all breath, collecting and trapped in the atmosphere that sustains not only our lives but that which is living on this planet.

The more we contaminate the faster the planet evolves and that evolution, with the contamination by man, not only continues to kill after our wars but will cause and disfigurements and death of all living things on this planet many already gone and never to return. And we don't know what many benefits they might have had as to disease or in helping sustain a planet of life.

Ex Senator Faced '2nd Vietnam'

Former Sen. Max Cleland Details Political War Wounds in Memoir: Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

Vietnam Vet Tells ABC News' David Muir: 'I Went Down Into Almost a Death Spiral'

As a young Army platoon leader in Vietnam, Max Cleland sent hours of audio dispatches home to his parents not knowing just how true his words would become.

"I'm definitely coming back a little bit differently than when I came here," he said on tape.

On April 8, 1968, just days from the scheduled end of his tour in Vietnam, Cleland spotted a hand grenade in the grass as he jumped off a helicopter. It had been dropped by another soldier, and Cleland reached for it, not knowing it was live.

In a flash of fire, Cleland lost both legs, his right arm and, almost, his life.

Snip

Cleland's descent began after he lost a bruising battle for re-election to Republican Saxby Chambliss in 2002. Losing was tough enough, but the way he lost added to the pain. Chambliss' campaign questioned Cleland's "courage to lead" in a campaign ad that flashed pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Snip

Playing on television screens at Walter Reed was the inspirational video Cleland had starred in as a senator to help the newly injured returning from war.

"The irony was overwhelming," he said. "I mean, you know, because I could see myself saying those things and they were great and accurate at the time, but I hadn't received the second wound, the second Vietnam, the second loss of sense of meaning and purpose and direction in life.

"I would look down the hall," he added, "and I would see a younger generation, you know, missing arms, legs ... and I thought, 'Oh my God.'"..>>>>>

Max Cleland talks to David Muir


Max's Book: "Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove"

Click here to read an excerpt of Cleland's book, "Heart of a Patriot," in PDF form

The Effects of War One in six Americans soldiers suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder



US: Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care

With a military health care system over-stretched by two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, more soldiers are deciding to go absent without leave (AWOL) in order to find treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Snip

"What I saw and what I did in Iraq caused my PTSD," Jasinski, 23-years-old, told IPS during a phone interview, "Also, I went through a divorce - she left right before I deployed - and my grandmother passed away when I was over there, so it was all super rough on me."

In addition, he lost a friend in Iraq, and another of his friends lost his leg due to a roadside bomb attack.

Snip

During his pre-deployment processessing "they gave me a 90-day supply of meds to get me over to Iraq, and I saw a counsellor during that period, and I told him "I don’t know what I’m going to do if I go back to Iraq."

"He asked if I was suicidal," Jasinski explained, "and I said not right now, I’m not planning on going home and blowing my brains out. He said, ‘well, you’re good to go then.’ And he sent me on my way. I knew at that moment, when they finalised my paperwork for Iraq, that there was no way I could go back with my untreated PTSD. I needed more help."...>>>>>

"Trooper"

Murphy OShea, an Iraq Veteran, has a hard time re-adjusting to society upon his return from a long tour. His world crumbles when he discovers his father, Bill, a Vietnam Veteran, is dying. Trooper is a story of a father and son, two veterans from two very different Wars, helping each other to get through each day, and heal the wounds of War.

Trailer

“Finally, a film producer that gets it right! Trooper may serve well to educate an unaware public about the epidemic level of emotional trauma that today’s young warriors are living with. It is a dark journey and this film captures its pain—and also gives us a glimmer of hope.” Rev. Bill McDonald Founder The Military Writer’s Society of America.

MOVIE REVIEW: TROOPER

Nov. 20 1969, Forty Years Ago: "A clump of bodies"

My Lai photographer Ron Haeberle exposed a Vietnam massacre 40 years ago today in The Plain Dealer

November 20, 2009

Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer Ron Haeberle, a Fairview High School graduate, was a combat photographer in Vietnam. He was in the village of My Lai in 1968 when 300 Vietnamese civilians were killed by American troops. Haeberle, who still lives in Northeast Ohio, has finally broken his silence about got the photos and the impact they have had on his life and the history of his country.
Forty years ago today, black-and-white photographs of slaughtered women, children and old men in a Vietnamese village shocked the world -- or that portion of the world willing to believe American soldiers could gun down unarmed peasants and leave them to die in streets and ditches...>>>

Only speaking up brought light onto a reality of War and Occupation:

The Plain Dealer front page on Nov. 20, 1969
View full size
It was too hard, too painful, to comprehend.

But the atrocities committed by soldiers in the U.S. Army's Charlie Company were captured by combat photographer Sgt. Ron Haeberle, a Fairview High School graduate who'd been drafted after college.

The Army did not begin investigating My Lai until the spring of 1969, a year after the killings, after a former member of Charlie Company sent a letter to government officials, including President Richard Nixon and numerous members of Congress...>>>

The Plain Dealer's original My Lai coverage

Haeberle: Some photos destroyed

"First, I showed all the good we did there, what the medics did, and photos of Vietnamese people smiling. And then I'd go to the My Lai photos, and there'd be dead silence," says Haeberle today, in one of his first U.S. interviews in many decades...>>>

For any of the good to win hearts and minds they are quickly wiped out in the atrocities of war and the killing and maiming of the innocent citizens of any occupation, survivors don't forget, some join the battles to rid their land of those that occupy.

Unbelievable massacre still reverberates

On March 16, 1968, American soldiers, "the good guys," who were not under fire, entered a village where residents were eating breakfast, rousted them from their homes, raped young girls and then killed them, their siblings, parents and grandparents. When the injured moved among the corpses they lay with, they were shot again until they were still...>>>

What was the My Lai massacre?

* The My Lai massacre occurred on March 16, 1968, less than three months after the start of the Tet Offensive, a series of surprise attacks by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese on U.S. troops.

* By the time the U.S. Army's Charlie Company headed for My Lai, it had lost several men to mines and booby traps. The soldiers were warned that "VC" could be anyone and were hiding everywhere.

* That set the scene for the unit's attack and shootings that left hundreds dead in the village of My Lai..>>>

In Vietnam, a shocking memorial

In 2000, Haeberle went back to Vietnam for the first time. He bought a number of original works by Vietnamese artists, which hang in his living room today. Most are abstracts; one is a black-and-white, delicately needleworked portrait of a woman, gracefully reaching one arm toward the sky.

He and a group of cyclist friends biked 775 miles from Hanoi to Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, with stops along the way.

One was at My Lai, where women still push and pull water buffalo alongside green rice fields and where there is now a museum and peace garden memorializing the dead.

Haeberle's traveling friends knew of his role in My Lai's past. "But we just kept it quiet. They were protective."

He walked into the small museum -- "It's beautiful," he says -- and was shocked to see the 16-by-20-inch photos on the wall. The massacre photos were all his, some color, some black-and-white; there was even a black-and-white shot of him.

"I never gave them the photos," he explains. "So the Army must have."

He won't say he got choked up, exactly, but he was affected by being in that space, his own powerful images of horror looking back at him from the walls.

"I found myself making an apology for what happened," he says. "I walked around by myself. No one else was around, and I was making silent amends.

"For something that didn't have to happen, but did." ...>>>>>Rest Here

The war photographs that should have changed history

The lessons were widely discussed, in particular what they revealed about the GI's attitude to the enemy they were fighting. Name-calling and indoctrination had dehumanized the Vietnamese in their minds to the extent that even violence against civilians seemed uncontroversial.

It would be good to think that this lesson stuck, but the pictures of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and humiliated at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad show it's a mind set that has never been eradicated.

After Haeberle's photographs were published, anti-war protests took on a new momentum, but just as vocal were the protests from "patriotic" Americans against the premeditated murder conviction and life sentence given to Calley. A year after the court martial, Nixon caved in to their uproar and had him freed pending a case review....>>>>>

Last night, November 20, 2009, on the Bill Moyers Journal LBJ'S PATH TO WAR

Bill Moyers considers a President's decision to escalate troop levels in a military conflict. Through LBJ's taped phone conversations and his own remembrances, Bill Moyers looks at Johnson's deliberations as he stepped up America's role in Vietnam. Explore a multimedia timeline.

The origins of the Vietnam War lie in 1945, when the British ignored Ho Chi Minh's declaration of independence and restored French rule to the country.

After a protracted conflict with Ho Chi Minh's nationalist forces and a massive defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the French left Vietnam in 1954.

During the Cold War many foreign policy analysts subscribed to "The Domino Theory" — which contended that should one country come under communist rule, its neighbors were likely to follow suit. President Eisenhower, worried about the spread of communism, sent U.S. advisors to train forces in South Vietnam in 1956, and President Kennedy increased American forces significantly, with 12,000 U.S. military advisors stationed in Vietnam by 1962.

But it was under President Johnson that the U.S. escalated the conflict to a full scale war...>>>>>

Times are different now and have been since our long ocupation of Vietnam, of which I served In-Country '70-'71. The Vietnamesse, wanting their Freedom, just wanted the invaders and occupiers of out of their country, first the French then the United States and the few coalition forces who joined us.

Since then the failed policies towards the smaller less powerful countries, by the powerful, have caused what we now refer to as terrorism and those that lash out terrorist, everybody not us.

The criminal acts of terrorism, knowing no borders, have taken untold numbers of lives of innocents of the countries carrying out their failed policies in the names of those they lead.

Today, as has been for long before the Sept 11th '01 attack within our borders, and many other countries before and since, the invasions and occupations as well as the continued failed foreign policies lead not only to extreme destructive attacks within the borders of the occupied countries but a greater occurance of same anywhere, especially towards those who's governments and more try to force their ideologies or seek the resources of others for themselves.

Lessons Never Learned, and Now we've created the destructive future for those who follow us!

I Would Strongly Suggest

If you didn't watch last night, that you visit the Bill Moyers Journal and watch both video's or read the transcripts of.

Knowing it seems hard for many to do, as you watch, listen or read, think of the present and place yourselves in those past times and now!!

Vietnam-Era Women Veterans

Damn Do I Like What The VA Is Finally Doing and Under Sec. Shinseki, commonsense, critical thought and intelligence reign!

Secretary Shinseki Announces Study of Vietnam-Era Women Veterans

Comprehensive Study Will Help VA Provide High-Quality Care

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is launching a comprehensive study of women Veterans who served in the military during the Vietnam War to explore the effects of their military service upon their mental and physical health.

"One of my top priorities is to meet the needs of women Veterans," said Secretary Shinseki. "Our Veterans have earned the very best care. VA realizes that women Veterans require specialized programs, and this study will help VA provide high-quality care for women Veterans of the Vietnam era."

The study, which begins in November and lasts more than four years, will contact approximately 10,000 women in a mailed survey, telephone interview and a review of their medical records. ..>>>>>

This will only help the Women Veterans of today, especially those who have served in our ongoing Two occupations!

A Journey Back, 40yrs. Later

Troubled vet journeys back to Vietnam -- this time to offer helping hand

Kevin Roberts, now 64, will build houses for poor families along the Mekong River

He is a former Marine who has lived with battleground nightmares for 40 years and now plans a return to the land that haunts him.

Snip

As for a sense of closure: "I hate that word," he says without hesitation, thinking both about the war and his 13-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who died in 1995 from a congenital heart problem.

"I was there and did what I did; that's not going to change," he says. "My daughter died and is not coming back. Things like this don't close."

So why, after years of heroin addiction, alcoholism and untreated post-traumatic stress disorder, has Roberts decided to do something good in the land he remembers as bad? And how will it affect him?

Snip

Next week, he'll pick up a hammer and saw for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2009, an annual weeklong affordable housing project led by the former president. Roberts will join a team of about 20 volunteers who will construct houses in Ke Sat village, just outside Hanoi, November 15-21.

His daughter Mary organized raffles at the Starbucks where she works to raise money to defray his costs. "He really wanted to go," she says, "and I am so proud of him."

The tough part for Roberts will begin after the back-breaking work is over. He plans to hop on a motorcycle and fly like the wind south to Da Nang, where he learned the meaning of fear.

Snip

But nights were another thing. The war was full throttle after the sun went down. Small-arms fire rattled the valley below and artillery rounds tore through the air overhead. Roberts learned to await the thud of the impact somewhere in the near distance.

"We expected the enemy to attack every night, and we spent entire nights listening to the darkness."

Snip

Roberts is on his way back to the land where he was sent on a mission of destruction more than 40 years ago. This time, his task is quite the opposite, though the journey may be no easier...>>>>

Everyday Is Veterans Day

More than just a holiday now, Veterans Day has become every day

With two wars and the recent attack at Fort Hood, there’s more public concern about the treatment of vets. The Obama administration and Congress are doing something about that.

Snip

One troubling sign here: Iraq and Afghanistan vets are likely to become homeless sooner after they’re back in the US than veterans of previous wars did. The state of the economy no doubt is a factor, but so are the multiple combat deployments many are required to make — an important difference with Vietnam where draftees did their one tour and came home for good.

It’s no coincidence that the suicide rate among solders today is 11 percent higher than it was in Vietnam.

Snip

Obama recently went to Dover Air Force Base to witness the return of GI’s who’d been killed in Afghanistan. As there has been with former presidents, there was talk about whether — as a civilian, even though he is commander in chief — he should have saluted the caskets.

But one Marine Corps gunnery sergeant and Iraq war vet I know says he’s OK with that, pronouncing Obama’s salute “impeccable.” That may not mean much to most civilians, but it counts with those in uniform … whether or not it’s Veterans Day...>>>>

American Muslim Veterans

Muslim veterans in Charlotte condemn Fort Hood shooting

The vets said they hope not all Muslims would be blamed for the actions of one man. The suspected shooter who killed 13 people is Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who is said to be a devout Muslim.

"I'm not a terrorist. I love America," said Salahuddin Hasan, a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Hasan and the other vets gathered at the Masjid Ash-Shaheed mosque on West Sugar Creek Road in Charlotte where Khalil Akbar is the Imam...>>>>>Rest Found Here

Commentary: Many Muslims have died in the service of America

Leonard Pitts' latest tackles ugly online comments about Muslims in the military.

I would add to the above commentary by Pitt, the meme's of another group this past decade, So Have Many Hispanics, Citizen and Non Citizen!!

Notice, and it's not hard to, that most of those who are condemning, and have been these past years, a whole group of people, in these times of a religious ideology and the regional countries they live in or are from, because of the acts of a few or in the Ft Hood Extreme Tragedy just one person, have never served this country in any form especially the Military and these aren't only the talking heads of our opinionated, called news? programs, 24hr cable news? channels but also the civilians living in an extremist ideology of hate, racism and fear! Young enough to be serving in these two occupations of choice and the old farts who went out of their way to dodge the draft and service while many of us were sent to our other years long occupation of choice, Vietnam!

Service means No ideology, political and Especially religion, always has and always will, and us older Vets have known and served with many who Honorably Serve then are dumped by a Nation after that service.

Just like a society the Military is no different in it's diversity and those that try and use diversity and condemn should and will be called out for their embedded hatreds and false flag waving!!

"THE GOOD SOLDIER"

On November 6, 2009, the JOURNAL broadcasts THE GOOD SOLDIER, a film which follows four veterans — one from World War II, two from Vietnam, and the fourth from Iraq — as they reveal how the experiences of battle changed their lives. Watch a preview below.

Premier:


November 6th PBS Bill Moyers Journal {visit the Journal Link as it has more backlinks for Veterans.}

As America prepares to observe Veterans Day and President Obama weighs sending more troops to fight in Afghanistan, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL broadcasts a powerful documentary about the impact on soldiers of learning to kill – or be killed. THE GOOD SOLDIER follows four veterans – one from World War II, two from Vietnam, and the fourth from Iraq – as they reveal how the experiences of battle changed their lives.

Find out more about the film and theatrical release locations and dates at The Good Soldier

"THE GOOD SOLDIER" Trailer:

Ellsberg: From Vietnam to Afghanistan

Ellsberg: As President Obama decides what to do in Afghanistan he must learn the lessons of Vietnam

Remorse for wartime massacre

Remorse for wartime massacre is bringing US, Vietnam closer

Lieutenant William Calley, the only US military officer prosecuted in the infamous massacre at My Lai in Vietnam in 1968, is coming back.

Snip

He will follow in the tracks of Kenneth Schiel, another US veteran who had a hand in the slaughter of 504 peaceful villagers and who returned last year for the massacre’s 40th anniversary.

Throughout the three hours he spent with the surviving villagers, Schiel did nothing but cry. Any questions or attempts at explanation would have been superfluous and pointless.

A survivor’s big hug out of the blue only served to worsen the American’s torment...>>>>>

Vietnam, US make headway at fourth AO meeting

The fourth annual meeting of the Vietnam-US joint advisory committee (JAC) on Agent Orange/dioxin closed Thursday with both sides saying they’d forged closer ties on the issue.

Snip

The scientists will examine health issues related to Agent Orange/dioxin and aid the disabled in identified hotspots.

Since 2006, the US Congress has allocated about $6 million to address the lasting effects of Agent Orange, an amount many experts and those in the international community criticize as being too little compared to what’s actually needed.

Snip

At least 1 million to 4 million of Vietnam’s citizens are believed to have suffered health consequences after being exposed to dioxin but according to Dr. Son, the exact figure is still undetermined....>>>>>>

DAV Virtual March on Washington

The March Has Begun



Welcome to the Virtual March on Washington for Veterans

“Million Claims March.”

The YouTube player here is showing the videos in a certain order, but feel free to jump around by clicking on the video if you want to pick and choose. But every message here contains important information. Also, there are links in several of the video descriptions that you might find informative.

Thank you for marching with us and for standing up for veterans!

Before you proceed, please register for the march. It is free and only asks for your name, e-mail address and ZIP code.

Visit the Virtual March Site for much more information.

This Country needs to finally stand up for those who serve, by helping to bring the Veterans Administration into the 21st Century in the Technology needed, we've been playing catchup for far to long causing higher costs and extreme delays. This isn't only in the Veterans Administration but across the spectrum of the Government Agencies.

The blame doesn't just rest in any Executive Administration nor Congress, though there are some who voice support for us Veterans but Obstruct when the needs are placed into legislation. The blame lies with the Country, the majority that don't serve and don't want to sacrifice anything, that causes more costs and hardships over the years from our Wars of Choice, it's long past time to remedy the countries self created problems.

Lets make sure we keep our representatives to their words "In Our Names", but they are only hired to represent, It's Up To The Country To Really Support!

We have a President and Congress, that Congress has been playing catchup the last couple of years correcting what wasn't done nor even thought about as to the military and veterans, Now that are not only trying to fix what wasn't done in the leadup to and continued occupations of two countries over these past eight years but trying to push the Veterans Agency into the twenty first century and bring not only the care and need for quicker resolution to benefits owed but by doing so bringing the cost of operating the agency down.

Press Release Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

The following resolution was adopted by the Democratic National Committee on Friday, September 11th, 2009 in Austin, Texas.

Resolution Commending Democrats for Delivering a New Direction for America's Servicemembers, Veterans and Military Families

Submitted by: Christine Pelosi, California; Don Fowler, At-Large/South Carolina; Alice Germond, DNC Secretary/West Virginia; Steven K. Alari, California; Belkis Leong-Hong, At-Large/Maryland; Barbara Easterling, At-Large/Virginia; Ben Jeffers, Louisiana; and James Zogby, At-Large, District of Columbia

WHEREAS, Democrats promised a new direction for America's servicemembers, veterans and military families, who have demonstrated great patriotism and sacrifice in their commitment to keeping us safe and free; and,

WHEREAS, in the first 200 days of the 111th Congress and the Obama administration, Democrats have kept this promise, beginning with the FY 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill that provides our troops with planning, equipment, and leadership to wind down the Iraq war, changes strategy in Afghanistan; and, makes retroactive payments to over 185,000 service members whose enlistments were involuntarily extended since the 9/11 terrorist attacks; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats directed specific aid to servicemembers, veterans and military families in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the stimulus package provided veterans direct and indirect aid, adding up to $15.8 billion. Disabled veterans received direct benefits in the form of one-time payments of $250 and all businesses can now claim a tax credit for 40 percent of the first $6,000 of wages paid to unemployed veterans. In addition, the stimulus included renovation to national cemeteries and veterans medical facilities, grants to build new veterans care

facilities and money to improve VA benefits administration; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats have led the charge to successfully pass and implement the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and recently expanded the Post-9/11 GI bill benefits to cover the full cost of a college education for all children of fallen U.S. servicemembers; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats have passed, and President Obama has signed legislation that provides mental health screenings and more veterans healthcare resources than at any other time in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration; and,

WHEREAS, House Democrats have passed legislation to strengthen national security by bolstering State Department resources to prevent conflict and failed states around the world; authorizing a 3.4% pay raise for our troops; expanding support for military families such as health care and housing; investing 15% more than 2009 for medical care, benefits claims processors, and facility improvements; and permitting veterans medically retired from active service to receive both military retirement and Veterans Disability Compensation.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the DNC commends the successful leadership by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress to provide a new direction for servicemembers, veterans and military families, and to deliver bipartisan results that make a real difference in their lives, and pledges that Democrats will never waver in our support for our servicemembers, veterans and military families.

SOURCE Democratic National Committee

Revisiting Vietnam: Vietnam's MIA's

US OFFICIALS STILL ARE SEARCHING for the remains of roughly 1,500 American soldiers who never came home from the Vietnam war. The government of Vietnam says it still can't find 300,000 of its own soldiers. With 25 years gone by, the Vietnamese are turning to unconventional methods to trace the missing in action.

Every Sunday night, people across Vietnam tune their televisions to their country's version of Unsolved Mysteries. This program searches for the remains of North Vietnamese soldiers who disappeared while fighting against the South Vietnamese and the United States..........Rest Here

Listen to report, brings up real player

The number of walls the size of the Vietnam Memorial it would take to list all Vietnamese who died in the war: 69 Source

Vietnam: U.S. MIA Remains Returned

Vietnam to hand over more US MIA remains

The remains of what are believed to be US servicemen who died in the Vietnam War will be handed over to the US government on September 12 in the 111th repatriation ceremony held by the two nations.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The remains to be handed over at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport include those recovered by a

Vietnamese excavation team in central Vietnam, as well as remains turned over by Vietnamese citizens. The exact number of persons the remains account for will be released at the ceremony, according to the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City.

US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak and US Army Lieutenant Colonel Todd G. Emoto will represent the US government at the ceremony.

So far, the remains of 909 Americans have been identified in and around Indochina since US troops officially left Vietnam in 1973: 645 in Vietnam, 230 in Laos, 31 in Cambodia and three in China, according to the US Embassy in Hanoi.

There are 1,737 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, including 1,322 in Vietnam, the embassy said in a statement.

Vietnam and U.S. Meet...

US, Vietnam open annual Agent Orange meetings

Vietnam urged the U.S. to do speed funding for Agent Orange victims today at start of the fourth annual meeting on joint efforts to clean up areas that American forces contaminated with the toxic herbicide during the Vietnam War.

U.S. troops sprayed Agent Orange on jungles to deprive Vietnamese troops of ground cover. Vietnam says from 1 to 4 million of its citizens may have suffered serious health consequences because of the poisonous spraying.

So far, clean-up efforts have focused on the airport at Danang, a former U.S. air base in central Vietnam where American troops stored, mixed and loaded Agent Orange onto planes during the Vietnam War.

Snip

Studies by a Canadian environmental consultant have identified seven Agent Orange hot spots, but Vietnam says there are as many as two dozen that need to be cleaned up.

As this week's meetings opened, the Vietnamese side urged the U.S. to speed up disbursement of money to help the disabled, saying they weren't getting help quickly enough.

"We all know that exposure to dioxin is the cause of serious suffering to the victims," said Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vietnam's vice minister of natural resources and the environment............Read Rest Here

"Death was all over the place"

For those that Still don't get what War does to a Human Being, and not only those fighting, nor understand the same happens to civilians who experience extreme trauma, like the recent reports about the young girl kidnapped and now found almost two decades later, Read This Short Article!!

Friday August 28, 2009

World War II veteran can finally open up about horrific battle- "Death was all over the place"

John Landry, 85, in the kitchen of his Thetford Township home, Landry fought for the NAVY in WWII as a top turret gunner and as a ground soldier in the battle of Okinawa in Japan. Landry has never talked about his experiences during the battle of Okinawa until recently, when he decided he wanted to tell his story "I didn't talk about the war because I didn't want people to hear about it, " Landry said.

He wasn't even supposed to be there.

John Landry never spoke about the island, the scattered bodies, the smell of death -- but six decades later, nightmares of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II woke him up from his sleep soaked in sweat.

"They were things I could never talk about, but it's time I told it like it was," said Landry, 85, whose buried memories began haunting him after he saw scenes of the Iraq war on television.

"I don't want to leave this world and take it with me."

Snip

"The things that went on on that island are things you never forget," Landry said. "Death was all over the place."

Except for a long time, Landry did manage to push down those memories.

Only recently have the long-blocked scenes started to come back to life.

He can suddenly see mothers clutching babies and leaping off cliffs into the water. He can see the natives fleeing into caves engulfed by fire minutes later from grenades.

"What got me was these people were trying to get away from us, and it was their island," he said. "I hadn't seen the destruction we were doing from the air. Now I'm on land and I'm seeing the bodies, the kids. I could smell burning flesh, which is something if you ever got near it, you never forget."

Snip

The father of five sons said Okinawa scenes have started coming back in bits and pieces, many times through nightmares.

"I'm lost and I can't get to where I want to be," he said of his dreams. "I think it's because I don't want to do what I have to do. I don't want to wake up in a foxhole or in the dirt."

He has finally began sharing with his family the details he had intentionally forgotten.

Many, never having problems with the realities they lived through, burying them deep in their minds, from WWII to Korea to 'Nam, and all between them, to the present past were starting to relive, in their minds,their own experiences long withheld within, as these two occupations started and continued, some right from 9/11, Our Brothers, and those the country ignores!!

GWU Edu. NSA: The CIA's Vietnam Histories

On the heals of What were they hiding? concerning the torture policies of the cheney/bush administration/CIA/Private Contractors/Military, the George Washington University National Security Archives brings a slew of documents on the CIA and Vietnam conflict years, before our invasion, during and after.

The CIA's close relationship with Ngo Dinh Nhu, chief political adviser to his brother President Ngo Dinh Diem, is demonstrated by the presence of CIA officer Paul Harwood and his spouse at the confirmation ceremony for the Nhu's daughter Le Thuy. From left: Ngo Dinh Nhu, Mrs. Paul Harwood, Le Thuy, Bishop Ngo Dinh Thu, with Nhu's son Qunh, son Trac, {CIA officer} Paul Harwood, Madam Nhu." {Source, The CIA and the House of Ngo, p. 26}

The CIA's Vietnam Histories

Newly-Declassified CIA Histories Show Its Involvement in Every Aspect of the Indochina War

Washington, D.C., August 26, 2009 - The Central Intelligence Agency participated in every aspect of the wars in Indochina, political and military, according to newly declassified CIA histories. The six volumes of formerly secret histories (the Agency's belated response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados) document CIA activities in South and North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in unprecedented detail. The histories contain a great deal of new material and shed light on aspects of the CIA's work that were not well known or were poorly understood. The new revelations include: {Link brings you the rest, to the brief descriptions and documents links.}

On the right side you'll find a description titled: "A TALE OF OBSESSIVE SECRECY" starting with,

Before addressing the substance in the new CIA histories it will be useful to pause and consider what this case also shows about the U.S. Government's broken system for declassifying and releasing records. In actuality, this CIA release was not at all a voluntary contribution to American history, but was compelled by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Filed in 1992, that FOIA request may be the longest running case in the CIA's files, and its treatment shines a blinding light on how the agency handles its statutory duty to release records.........................

That you might want to read the rest of.

It continues with a brief synopsis of John Prados book on Vietnam Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975

The CIA's Vietnam Story

The Central Intelligence Agency's Vietnam war history actually begins in 1950, when agency officers moved to French Indochina as part of the United States legation in Saigon. During the French war in Indochina the CIA's involvement grew to encompass a base in Hanoi but not much more, since the French did not encourage CIA activity. The French tamped down further after an incident in which CIA officers were revealed as reaching past them to open channels to Vietnamese nationalists. When the lands of Indochina—Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—became independent "associated states" the CIA expanded its activity somewhat, and during the last year of the French war, 1953-1954, agency involvement grew considerably as the French were obliged to accept U.S. assistance with unconventional warfare activities as a condition of expanded military aid from the Eisenhower administration, and with the use of CIA proprietary aircraft of Civil Air Transport (later Air America) in Laos and at Dien Bien Phu.......................

Between the Torture documents and reports, still coming in, and this new addition on the CIA's involvement in Vietnam, for years, there is a whole host of information to absorb. But their archives don't stop with these, they've been researching and archiving a whole host of issues, especially on National Security for a long time, and will be adding much more, so explore.

After our failed policies concerning Vietnam it will be more then interesting to one day read of the lead up to our numerous failed policies in the regions of Afghanistan, support and supplying the Mujahadeen then walking away, and Iraq. Especially concerning Iraq and our connections, through the CIA and more, with Saddam's reign leading up to and including the First Gulf War then to Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, and continuing, along with 9/11 and Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF! Maybe they won't trickle out many years later, hopefully for the rest of the World we'll get the facts and truth much earlier, but us 'Nam Vets will probably mostly be long gone.

Lets hope that what this Country, if it still exists, didn't learn from 'Nam, it will Finally absorb from these times, OEF and OIF, and stop the few from pushing for these War and Occupations, of others, Of Choice! But unlike 'Nam, these times will bring blowback on our country and citizens!

Calley Apologizes For My Lai Massacre

August 21, 2009

Lt. William L. Calley, Jr., in April 1971, during his court-martial at Fort Benning, Ga

Speaking in a soft, sometimes labored voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he was court-martialed.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," William L. Calley told members of a local Kiwanis Club, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Friday. "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

SNIP

Wearing thick glasses and a blue blazer, he spoke softly into a microphone answering questions for a half-hour from about 50 Kiwanis members gathered for their weekly luncheon in a church meeting room.

"You could've heard a pin drop," said Al Fleming, who befriended Calley about 25 years ago and invited him to speak. "They were just slack-jawed that they were hearing this from him for the first time in nearly 40 years."

Both Fleming and Lennie Pease, the Kiwanis president, told The Associated Press in phone interviews Friday that Calley's apology came at the beginning of his brief remarks before he began taking questions................

Only comment to this I will give is it isn't only about the slaughter, Atrocity and not the only one, of these Innocent Vietnamese but also the Soldiers Killed and Maimed, in an invasion and occupation that should never have been, as a direct result of! As in All Wars Atrocities bring the Blowback and aid the so called enemy, those fighting to rid their country of an occupier, and are no different then that we accuse of in our self righteous arrogance and apathy!!

T. Boone Pay Up

PAY THE MILLION BUCKS YOU OWE PARALYZED VETS NOW!

FRANKEN SHOOTS DOWN "DRAFT DODGER PICKENS"

PICKENS STILL REFUSES MILLION BUCK PAYMENT TO PARALYZED VETS OF AMERICA

T Boone Pickens, famous for offering a million dollars to anyone who could prove John Kerry earned his combat awards got a dressing down by Senator Al Franken. Picken spent $3 million spreading what were later proven to be total lies.

Pickens, who refused to serve during the Korean War, stuck it to paralyzed veterans when his challenge was met and his Swift Boat politicos were proven liars.

Snip

When Vietnam veterans submitted a 12 page letter and 42 pages of documents disproving Pickens claims and demanding payment be made to Paralyzed Veterans of America, Pickens made a series of unintelligible excuses, believing, perhaps rightly so, that money and control of the press could help him avoid humiliation for bad mouthing a combat veteran and being called to pay.................

Mother’s love: a plea to Michelle Obama

An Agent Orange activist calls on the first lady to help dioxin victims in Vietnam.

Vietnamese victims of the defoliant Agent Orange play at a social sponsorship center in Da Nang City June 26, 2009. US warplanes dropped about 18 million gallons of the defoliant on southern Vietnam for most of the 1960s.

The following is a letter sent to Michelle Obama by Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association Len Aldis, who has worked for years to spread awareness of Agent Orange victims’ plight.

August 2 marks the beginning of Orange Week, a government program to create Agent Orange awareness through various programs nationwide. Orange Week ends on August 10, 48 years to the day since the US military begin spraying the defoliant on Vietnam.

Dear Michelle Obama,

You can find the Letter Here

Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association


"AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER"

“AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER” is a drama-documentary about the victims of Agent Orange 30 years after the Viet Nam War.

The goal of this documentary is to make the viewers aware of the impact of dioxin on the environment and the people. The film also underscores the need for compassion and heightens a sense of responsibility for our actions towards each other as stewards of the planet without regard for political differences.....>>>>>Much More Here

Justice for Victims of Agent Orange

I put this together when the Vietnamesse Reps were attempting to get the U.S. Courts to rule on Compensation for Defoliant Victims that still plague that country today.

The Vietnamese government says this has left more than 3
million people disabled.
Please Visit The Following Links

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign

The Thanh Xuan Peace Village in Vietnam

Agent orange girl determined to overcome her destiny

"Chorus for Justice"

Vietnamese Delegation in U.S. to Sue Chemical Companies for Ongoing
Effects of Agent Orange

Justice for Victims of Agent Orange


'Nam Vets Again Press VA on Agent Orange

Armed with the latest study from the Institute of Medicine, Vietnam Veterans of America is petitioning Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki to add three illnesses -- including high blood pressure -- to the long list of deadly or debilitating ailments that have been linked to Agent Orange exposure.

The outreach is the latest in a long fight between some Vietnam veterans’ organizations and the U.S. government to connect a wider range of ailments to the chemical defoliant used throughout the conflict to strip away the enemy’s jungle sanctuaries.............

39 years later, Australia finds last Vietnam War missing
The officer in charge of Operation Magpies Return, wing commander Michael Warby (L), assisted by Vietnamese workers, sieves soil at the crash site.

An Australian search team has found the remains of the country's last two missing Vietnam War servicemen, 39 years after their aircraft crashed into a thick jungle, officials said Thursday............

Some History of 28th July

The Bonus Army

Bonus Marchers on the Capitol Steps
July 28, 1932 Federal troops, under command of General Douglas MacArthur, forcibly dispersed the so-called “Bonus Expeditionary Force,” or Bonus Army. They were World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand money they had been promised but weren't scheduled to receive until 1945. Most of the marchers were unemployed veterans in desperate financial straits during the Great Depression........Rest Here

Film of the confrontation in Washington



From Wikipedia

The self-named Bonus Expeditionary Force was an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers — 17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups, who protested in Washington, D.C., in spring and summer of 1932....................

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Pres. Lyndon Johnson: Vietnam

July 28, 1965 President Lyndon Johnson ordered 50,000 troops to Vietnam to join the 75,000 already there. By the end of the year 180,000 U.S. troops will have been sent to Vietnam; in 1966 the figure doubled. In addition to countless Vietnamese deaths, close to 1900 Americans were killed in 1965; the following year the number more than tripled. President Johnson explained: “We intend to convince the communists that we cannot be defeated by force of arms or by superior power.”

Part of a Tom Paxton’s anti-Vietnam-war song, “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation”

Lyndon Johnson told the nation
Have no fear of escalation

I am trying everyone to please
Though it isn’t really
war

We’re sending fifty thousand more

To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese

Full lyrics of the song

“Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation” written and performed by Tom Paxton (1965)


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Fourteenth Amendment

July 28, 1868

Passed in the wake of the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process, equal protection of the law, and full citizenship to all males over 21, including former slaves, went into effect.

Booklet {PDF} on the 14th Amendment from the Damon Keith Collection of African-American Legal History at Wayne State University Law School.