The Troops Protect Our Freedom, and Other Lies I Learned in School Posted on Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson on Dec 19, 2009 in Commentary
One of the most central items in the American creed is the belief that the troops “protect our freedom.” By definition, any war the United States fights is to “defend our freedoms.” Just watch the cable news shows, or read your local newspaper’s editorials on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day, if you don’t believe it. If any one belief is central to the ideology of One Hundred Percent Americanism, this is it.[.....]
HELMET-CAM VIDEO:
FRIENDLY FIRE ATTACK IN RAMADI, IRAQ Posted on Salon.com
Helmet-cam video footage from Ramadi, Iraq, where Pfc. Albert Nelson was allegedly killed by an American tank, and an interview with the soldier's mother.
The video comes from a camera mounted on the helmet of Sgt. 1st Class Jack Robison, who donned it to record a firefight in progress. The footage begins with Robison in a courtyard attached to building #2. The original video was 52 minutes and 38 seconds long; Salon has abridged it to show the alleged friendly fire incident and its aftermath, including exchanges between Robison and a commanding officer as to whether or not a U.S. tank fired on the building, and the comments of other soldiers in the house who say they saw the tank fire at their position. The video shows Pfc. Nelson receiving medical attention for his left leg, which was severed in the blast. At the request of Nelson's family, we have blurred his image throughout. It includes graphic violence and profanity. The video can be viewed in its entirety by clicking the link below, albeit with Nelson's image obscured.
America the Illiterate Posted on Truthdig Drilling beneath the headlines
Nov 10, 2008
by Chris Hedges
There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year.[...]
Sound familiar? US refuses to allow UN inspectors to investigate its WMDs By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 -- 11:00 am
The United States said Wednesday that it remained opposed to international inspections of biological weapon sites, even though it stressed its commitment to a UN treaty covering such arms. "When it comes to the proliferation of bio weapons and the risk of an attack, the world community faces a greater threat," Ellen Tauscher, US Under Secretary [...]
Obama Lied: Taliban Did Not Refuse to Hand Over Bin Laden December 4, 2009 at 01:38:59
Obama slipped past a real doozy Tuesday night when he said the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. It just ain't so. They tried three times to open negotiations for this, but Bush refused each time. He wanted to bomb people so bad it hurt.
Iraq vet charged with murder in Fort Drum killings Iraq veteran charged with murder in stabbing deaths of 2 Army buddies outside NY's Fort Drum.
AP News Dec 04, 2009 11:58 EST
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Relatives of a Fort Drum soldier accused of stabbing his two Army buddies to death said Thursday that he told them he saw his best friend "blown to pieces" in Iraq and came back a changed man: abusive, violent, sleepless, edgy and plagued by flashbacks.
Veterans For Peace Statement on the Ft. Hood Tragedy Posted November 6, 2009
Veterans For Peace extends our sympathies to the families and soldiers of Fort Hood. The pain and sadness felt by the community is shared by our members. Nearly every day in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places across the globe tragedy strikes as a result of war. On November 5th, tragedy struck close to home.
U.S. Army Underreporting Suicides, Says GI Advocacy Group by Dahr Jamail
November 16th, 2009 | Inter Press Service
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov 16 (IPS) - According to a soldiers’ advocacy group at Fort Hood, the U.S. base where an army psychiatrist has been charged with killing 13 people and wounding 30 in a Nov. 5 rampage, the official suicide figures provided by the Army are “definitely” too low.
Chuck Luther served 12 years in the military and is a veteran of two deployments to Iraq, where he was a reconnaissance scout in the 1st Cavalry Division. The former sergeant was based at Fort Hood, where he lives today.
MOTHER REFUSES ARMY DEPLOYMENT By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 16, 2009
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Specialist Alexis Hutchinson of Oakland, CA is the single mother of an 11-month old boy, Kamani. Currently she is confined to Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, where she has been posted since February 2008, and threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to be deployed to Afghanistan, even though she has not found anyone to take care of her child while she is away.
Can attacks on a military base constitute "terrorism"? If attacks on soldiers now qualify, how is it possible to exclude many American actions? by Glenn Greenwald
No matter one's views on how unjustified and evil this attack was, can an attack on soldiers -- particularly ones in the process of deploying for a war -- fall within any legitimate definition of "terrorism," which generally referis to deliberate attacks on civilians?
Democracy Now Interview with Fort Hood IVAW Member Michael Kern
and Journalist Dahr Jamail Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report
Broadcast on November 9th, 2009
As families and friends mourn the thirteen individuals who were shot dead at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, questions continue to be raised about what might have motivated Thursday’s rampage. The suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was an Army psychiatrist who had spent most of his career at Walter Reed Hospital before being transferred to Fort Hood earlier this year. He had also recently received orders to deploy to Afghanistan. We speak to Private Michael Kern from Fort Hood and independent journalist and author Dahr Jamail.
Another Soldier Refuses Afghanistan Deployment Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report
Broadcast on August 5th, 2009
We turn now to the growing movement of GI resisters in this country. A US Army specialist who refused to deploy to Afghanistan faces a court-martial today and up to a month in jail. Twenty-four-year-old Specialist Victor Agosto from Miami spent thirteen months in Iraq with the 57th Battalion. When he returned to the Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas last November, he thought his contract with the Army would end this summer. But Agosto became a victim of the stop-loss program that has extended the tours of more than 140,000 troops beyond their contracts since 9/11. After nearly four years with the Army, Agosto was told he would be deployed to Afghanistan.
'There Is No Way I Will Deploy to Afghanistan'
-- Seeds of Dissent in the U.S. Military Are Growing By Dahr Jamail, Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Posted July 2, 2009.
From suicide to desertion to refusal to deploy -- service members' dissent may be growing into something far larger.
Air Force recruiting pilots for unmanned, remotely controlled, drones By Bill Meyer
October 23, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Scrambling to meet commanders' insatiable demands for unmanned aircraft, the Air Force is launching two new training programs, including an experimental one that would churn out up to 1,100 desperately needed pilots to fly the drones over Iraq and Afghanistan.
Where Will They Get the Troops? Preparing Undeployables for the Afghan Front
By Dahr Jamail and Sarah Lazare
We are, in fact, facing an ongoing disaster not just for the U.S., but for the U.S. military. Read the following piece and ask yourself: What state would a military have to be in to consider sending such men back into a war zone? A desperate military is, of course, the answer -- a military rubbed raw and, as the shocking mass murder spree at already stressed-out Fort Hood may indicate, on edge in a way that perhaps no one has quite grasped.
U.S. Official Resigns Over Afghan War Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows
why his nation is fighting
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.
A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.
What are US troops dying for in Afghanistan? 29 October 2009
At least 21 US soldiers and Marines have been killed in Afghanistan since last weekend, making October the bloodiest month for US forces since they invaded the country eight years ago. Still more have been wounded by roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
New bases in Bulgaria, Romania cost U.S. over $100M By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, October 17, 2009
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — The Pentagon is spending more than $100 million to build new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania, even as the Obama administration recently scrapped plans for a missile-defense shield in other parts of Eastern Europe.
Conscientious Objectors Persecuted: The Pentagon violates 6th amendment
Scott Horton Interviews Dahr Jamail September 30, 2009
Independent journalist Dahr Jamail discuses the mistreatment of conscientious objectors on U.S. military bases, systemic “warehousing” of AWOL and injured soldiers, the redeployment pressure faced by soldiers with serious brain injuries or PTSD and the support network available for those seeking conscientious objector status.
Army prisoners isolated, denied right to legal counsel Monday 28 September 2009, by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report
Afghanistan war resister Travis Bishop has been held largely "incommunicado" in the Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Bishop, who is being held by the military as a "prisoner of conscience," according to Amnesty International, was transported to Fort Lewis on September 9 to serve a 12-month sentence in the Regional Correctional Facility. He had refused orders to deploy to Afghanistan based on his religious beliefs, and had filed for Conscientious Objector (CO) status.
Bishop, who served a 13-month deployment to Iraq and was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, was court marshaled by the Army for his refusal to deploy to Afghanistan. Given that he had already filed for CO status, many local observers called his sentencing a "politically driven prosecution."
10 Ways the U.S. Military Has Shoved Christianity Down Muslims' Throats By Chris Rodda, Talk To Action. Posted September 23, 2009.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation was founded in 2005 by Mikey Weinstein, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and Reagan administration White House counsel, after the harassment his own sons faced as Jewish cadets at the academy led him to discover that the fundamentalist Christian takeover of the Air Force Academy was far from an isolated problem.
Lt. Ehren Watada's Successful Resistance to Iraq Deployment September 12, 2009
Adam Szyper-Seibert, counselor and office manager at Courage to Resist, discusses Lt. Ehren Watada’s successful resistance to an Iraq deployment, the year-long waiting list for treatment at the VA, the fraternal bonds that keep reenlistment rates high, increased military success (since WWII) in training soldiers to be hate-driven killers and the “Ft. Bragg 50” who are held without charges in degrading conditions.
Adam Szyper-Seibert is a counselor and office manager at Courage to Resist, an organization that provides support to military resisters.
Estimate of Iraqis Killed Much Higher than Previous Reports NPR Radio Broadcast, October 11, 2006
A report released by researchers at Johns Hopkins University appeared this week in the online edition of The Lancet, a leading British medical journal. The researchers estimated that 654,000 more Iraqis died of various causes after the invasion than would have died in a comparable period before.
Guest: Jonathan Bor, medical reporter for The Baltimore Sun.
Dr. Gilbert Burnham, co-director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at Johns Hopkins University; lead author of the study
Ohio Soldier Made 2 Calls to Mom Telling of Abuse Before Suicide Associated Press, August 28, 2009
WILLARD, Ohio — Before killing himself with a single gunshot, Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm called his mother twice from Iraq and told her he was being targeted in his new unit and forced to run for miles with rocks in his pockets that smashed against his knees.
He told her he hated it, she said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, marking the first time anyone has said Wilhelm spoke to them about the abuse.
Why Am I Carrying an M-16 In the Garden of Eden? An Excerpt from the Emmy-Award Nominated Documentary
Kevin Benderman is a 10-year veteran who comes from a family with a long tradition of military service. However, after serving in Iraq, he was so distressed at the carnage and destruction the war had caused, he started wondering, "I found myself in the region that the historians say might have been the Garden of Eden. I asked myself, 'why am I carrying around an M-16 in the Garden of Eden?'" Benderman's application for conscientious objector status was rejected and he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment and given a dishonorable discharge.
Obama's War Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report
While Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency on an anti-war platform on Iraq, his administration has called for a major escalation of military operations in Afghanistan. This includes a troop surge as well as increased drone attacks over the border in Pakistan. While civilian deaths and displacement are rising, public support for the policy in many NATO countries is eroding. Democracy Now! speaks with grassroots activists, scholars, and journalists on the new administration’s developing policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the realities on the ground.
Exclusive: The Parents of John Walker Lindh Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report
July 31, 2009: EXCLUSIVE: John Walker Lindh’s Parents Discuss Their Son’s Story, from Joining the US-Backed Taliban Army to Surviving a Northern Alliance Massacre, to His Abuse at the Hands of US Forces.
In their first extended interview, the parents of John Walker Lindh, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, join us for the hour to tell their son’s story. He was born in Washington, DC in 1981. At the age of sixteen, he converted to Islam. In 1999, Lindh left the United States for Yemen to study Arabic and the Koran. He later traveled to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan, before 9/11, where he received military training from the US-backed, Taliban-run Afghan Army to fight against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan’s civil war. He was captured in late 2001, found emaciated and wounded, one of the few to survive a massacre by the Northern Alliance. To his parents’ relief, he was handed to US forces, but they brutalized him, as well. Donald Rumsfeld had ordered them to “take the gloves off.” He was designated Detainee 001 in the war on terror. When he returned to the United States in January 2002, he was being held as a prisoner accused of conspiring to kill Americans. As part of a plea deal, Lindh pleaded guilty to serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons and was given a twenty-year sentence. [includes rush transcript]
Casualties of War, Soldiers in Colorado slayings tell of Iraq horrors Associated Press, Sun Jul 26, 2009
Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home Colorado Springs, The Gazette, July 24, 2009 - 11:48 AM
DAVE PHILIPPS, The Gazette
Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez’s mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill.
It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thrashing nightmares. He was devouring pain pills and drinking too much. He always packed a gun.
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning Signs Colorado Springs, The Gazette, July 24, 2009 - 5:27 PM
DAVE PHILIPPS, THE GAZETTE
After coming home from Iraq, 21-year-old medic Bruce Bastien was driving with his Army buddy Louis Bressler, 24, when they spotted a woman walking to work on a Colorado Springs street.
Bressler swerved and hit the woman with the car, according to police, then Bastien jumped out and stabbed her over and over.
Correctional Facility at Fort Lewis, Washington. 
