The American Patriot Institute

A Poem Worth Reading

2011-09-12T04:12:00.000-07:00

A Moment of Silence

Emmanuel Ortiz

Before I begin this poem, I’d like to ask you to join me in a moment of silence in honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001.
I would also like to ask you to offer up a moment of silence for all of those who have been harassed, imprisoned, disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed in retaliation for those strikes, for the victims in Afghanistan, Iraq, in the U.S., and throughout the world.
And if I could just add one more thing…
A full day of silence… for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died at the hands of U.S.-backed Israeli forces over decades of occupation.
Six months of silence… for the million and-a-half Iraqi people, mostly children, who have died of malnourishment or starvation as a result
of a 12-year U.S. embargo against the country.
…And now, the drums of war beat again.
Before I begin this poem, two months of silence… for the Blacks under Apartheid in South Africa, where “homeland security” made them aliens in their own country
Nine months of silence… for the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where death rained down and peeled back every layer of concrete, steel, earth and skin, and the survivors went on as if alive.
A year of silence… for the millions of dead in Viet Nam —a people, not a war—for those who know a thing or two about the scent of burning fuel, their relatives bones buried in it, their babies born of it.
Two months of silence… for the decades of dead in Colombia, whose names, like the corpses they once represented, have piled up and slipped off our tongues.
Before I begin this poem,
Seven days of silence… for El Salvador
A day of silence… for Nicaragua
Five days of silence… for the Guatemaltecos
None of whom ever knew a moment of peace in their living years.
45 seconds of silence… for the 45 dead at Acteal, Chiapas…
1,933 miles of silence… for every desperate body
That burns in the desert sun
Drowned in swollen rivers at the pearly gates to the Empire’s underbelly,
A gaping wound sutured shut by razor wire and corrugated steel.
25 years of silence… for the millions of Africans who found their graves far deeper in the ocean than any building could poke into the sky.
For those who were strung and swung from the heights of sycamore trees
In the south… the north… the east… the west…
There will be no dna testing or dental records to identify their remains.
100 years of silence… for the hundreds of millions of indigenous people
From this half of right here,
Whose land and lives were stolen,
In postcard-perfect plots like Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, Fallen Timbers, or the Trail of Tears
Names now reduced to innocuous magnetic poetry on the refrigerator of our consciousness…
From somewhere within the pillars of power
You open your mouths to invoke a moment of our silence
And we are all left speechless,
Our tongues snatched from our mouths,
Our eyes stapled shut.
A moment of silence,
And the poets are laid to rest,
The drums disintegrate into dust.
Before I begin this poem,
You want a moment of silence…
You mourn now as if the world will never be the same
And the rest of us hope to hell it won’t be.
Not like it always has been.
…Because this is not a 9-1-1 poem
This is a 9/10 poem,
It is a 9/9 poem,
A 9/8 poem,
A 9/7 poem…
This is a 1492 poem.
This is a poem about what causes poems like this to be written.
And if this is a 9/11 poem, then
This is a September 11th 1973 poem for Chile.
This is a September 12th 1977 poem for Steven Biko in South Africa.
This is a September 13th 1971 poem for the brothers at Attica Prison, New York.
This is a September 14th 1992 poem for the people of Somalia.
This is a poem for every date that falls to the ground amidst the ashes of amnesia.
This is a poem for the 110 stories that were never told,
The 110 stories that history uprooted from its textbooks
The 110 stories that that cnn, bbc, The New York Times, and Newsweek ignored.
This is a poem for interrupting this program.
This is not a peace poem,
Not a poem for forgiveness.
This is a justice poem,
A poem for never forgetting.
This is a poem to remind us
That all that glitters
Might just be broken glass.
And still you want a moment of silence for the dead?
We could give you lifetimes of empty:
The unmarked graves,
The lost languages,
The uprooted trees and histories,
The dead stares on the faces of nameless children…
Before I start this poem we could be silent forever
Or just long enough to hunger,
For the dust to bury us
And you would still ask us
For more of our silence.
So if you want a moment of silence
Then stop the oil pumps
Turn off the engines, the televisions
Sink the cruise ships
Crash the stock markets
Unplug the marquee lights
Delete the e-mails and instant messages
Derail the trains, ground the planes.
If you want a moment of silence, put a brick through the window
of Taco Bell
And pay the workers for wages lost.
Tear down the liquor stores,
The townhouses, the White Houses, the jailhouses, the Penthouses
and the Playboys.
If you want a moment of silence,
Then take it
On Super Bowl Sunday,
The Fourth of July,
During Dayton’s 13 hour sale,
The next time your white guilt fills the room where my beautiful brown people have gathered.
You want a moment of silence
Then take it
Now,
Before this poem begins.
Here, in the echo of my voice,
In the pause between goosesteps of the second hand,
In the space between bodies in embrace,
Here is your silence.
Take it.
Take it all.
But don’t cut in line.
Let your silence begin at the beginning of crime.
And we,
Tonight,
We will keep right on singing
For our dead.

Emmanuel Ortiz is a third-generation Chicano/Puerto Rican/Irish-American community organizer and spoken word poet. He is the author of a chapbook of poems, The Word Is a Machete (self-published, 2003), and coeditor of Under What Bandera?: Anti-War Ofrendas from Minnesota y Califas (Calaca Press, 2004). He is a founding member of Palabristas: Latin@ Word Slingers, a collective of Latin@ poets in Minnesota. Emmanuel has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Oakland, California; and the Arizona/Mexico border. He currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the “buckle of the Bible Belt,” with his two dogs, Nogi and Cuca. In his spare time, he enjoys guacamole, soccer, and naps.

http://spadoman-roundcircle.blogspot.com/2011/09/read-this.html

Another Brother Gone but Not Forgotten

2009-12-15T05:34:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been spending a lot of time on Facebook. It has been, for the most part, a rewarding experience. It has enabled me to meet people from all over the world and has taught me much about the different people and cultures we share this globe with.

One of the men I have met is another salty old Marine named Daniel Pickens. This morning when I opened my inbox, I found this. Daniel wanted us to remember his friend and mentor, Craig Matlock, Specialist 5, Gunship Crew Chief, United States Army, so this is for him. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

Craig Matlock
15 June 1946 - 1 May 2008

Crew Chief
1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry
Alpha Troop
Republic of Vietnam

1966 - 1967
"Head Hunters"
(Vietnam's first reconnaissance squadron)

From Daniel:

Craig was the husband of my friend Lois and father of my friends Paul, Matt and Steven. You really had to know him to understand the kind of man he was. He always said what was on his mind and if he didn't like you, you knew about it right away.

Specialist five, Craig Matlock, was drafted, run through the training mill, and sent to Vietnam. There he discovered what it really meant to crew a gunship. At the age of twenty he learned what it was like to kill to survive, to appreciate the beauty of a gunship run, and to feel pride in a unit.

It took me a long time for him to speak to me about Vietnam. These are a few of his words....

"I don't talk much about the war because no one ever wants to hear about it. When I came back through San Francisco airport, I got spit on. I didn't know what was going on in the States. We read the 'Stars and Stripes' over there and it printed what they wanted us to read."

"I had been drafted. I didn't ask to go over to Vietnam, but I still got called a baby killer."

"Almost everybody there was eighteen to twenty years old. They did their jobs well. We were damned good at what we did. The American people should have been proud of us, instead of treating us the way they did."

"I remember that country. It was really pretty country from the air, but sometimes you would see the bomb craters where men had fought and died. Vietnam was the kind of place you always wanted to get the hell out of, and once you left, you always wanted to see it again. I have a great regard for the MIA's and POW's who are STILL over there."

"I don't have anything against the people of Vietnam, even the Viet Cong. They were doing what they thought was right, and we were doing what we were told."

"People ignored Vietnam veterans and insulted us and treated us really badly, but I believe we will have our day."-- Craig Matlock Awarded: 19 Oak Leaf Clusters, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart

I will always remember....

So will we...

d.

Merry Christmas & Happy Chanukah to Those who Serve...

2009-12-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother...
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.."

" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Semper Fidelis to ALL who serve...

Cross posted at deuddersun says...

Military caught on tape cheating Vets out of health care as policy

2009-04-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

We've posted before on the military cheating Vets out of the long term care that's due them for PTSD. They've been caught at it by 'Sgt. X' and still no one's listening.

Salon

Last June, during a medical appointment, a patient named "Sgt. X" recorded an Army psychologist at Fort Carson, Colo., saying that he was under pressure not to diagnose combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Listen to a segment of the tape here.

For more than a year he's been seeking treatment at Fort Carson for a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, the signature injuries of the Iraq war. Sgt. X is also suffering through the Army's confusing disability payment system, handled by something called a medical evaluation board. The process of negotiating the system has been made harder by his war-damaged memory. Sgt. X's wife has to go with him to doctor's appointments so he'll remember what the doctor tells him.

But what Sgt. X wants to tell a reporter about is one doctor's appointment at Fort Carson that his wife did not witness. When she couldn't accompany him to an appointment with psychologist Douglas McNinch last June, Sgt. X tucked a recording device into his pocket and set it on voice-activation so it would capture what the doctor said. Sgt. X had no idea that the little machine in his pocket was about to capture recorded evidence of something wounded soldiers and their advocates have long suspected -- that the military does not want Iraq veterans to be diagnosed with PTSD, a condition that obligates the military to provide expensive, intensive long-term care, including the possibility of lifetime disability payments. And, as Salon will explore in a second article Thursday, after the Army became aware of the tape, the Senate Armed Services Committee declined to investigate its implications, despite prodding from a senator who is not on the committee. The Army then conducted its own internal investigation -- and cleared itself of any wrongdoing.

When [Army sawbones] McNinch learned he would be quoted in a Salon article, he cut off further questions. He also said he would deny the interview took place. Salon, however, had recorded the conversation.

A recently retired Army psychiatrist who still works for the government, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said commanders at another Army hospital instructed him to misdiagnose soldiers suffering from war-related PTSD, recommending instead that he diagnose them with other disorders that would reduce their benefits. The psychiatrist said he would be willing to say more publicly about the cases and provide specific names, but only if President Obama would protect him from retaliation.

Less money for damaged soldiers = more money for the military industrial complex and cushy post-retirement jobs for generals + hides the true cost of Bush's Imperialist Oil War.

Go read the rest, please.

If you are aware of a soldier who has served or is serving in the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts and is having trouble getting a PTSD diagnosis or proper benefits, please contact Mark Benjamin at mbenjamin (at) salon (dot) com.

NOW on PBS did a report on a similar situation last week. See it here.

Thousands of U.S. troops are getting discharged out of the army. Many suffer from post traumatic stress disorders and brain injuries, and haven't been getting the care they need. The Army's been claiming these discharged soldiers had pre-existing mental illnesses. But health advocates say these are wrongful discharges, a way for the army to get rid of "problem" soldiers quickly, without giving them the treatment to which they're entitled.

NOW covered this issue last summer, and this week we revisit the army's controversial position and follow up with affected soldiers we met.

As a result of the media attention from our report and others, the Department of Defense revised its criteria for diagnosing pre-existing conditions and, now, fewer soldiers are receiving the diagnosis, making more of them eligible for care.

I suggest we e-mail President Obama and demand he do the following:

1) Issue an Executive Order to SecDef and the VA to knock off the cheap shit NOW. INSIST that Veterans be properly diagnosed and cared for.

2) Make retaliation against those GIs and Medical Officers who come forward and speak out a court-martial offense, and a criminal offense in the VA.

3) Review all previous diagnoses of 'pre-existing personality disorders' and 'anxiety disorders'. ALL of them.

4) By all means have the Armed Forces Committee, the JAG Corps, and DOJ investigate this, but take care of the Veterans first.

Just as a closing thought, now that Senator DOH! (Party of No - NC) has heard from every Post Commander of VFW, AL, DAV, MCL, VoteVet, and every other Vets outfit in North Carolina, he has dropped his obstruction to the appointment of Tammy Duckworth to Veterans Affairs. I think General Shinseki and Major Duckworth will do what's best for our Veterans. If they are allowed to.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

The Unmaking of A Marine

2009-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in Veterans Affairs as we are, go read this book review.

If Boudreau's brutally honest, devastatingly accurate, hard-hitting memoir, Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine were read by the powers that be in Washington, D.C. and by the journalists assigned to cover both military conflicts, there is absolutely no way in hell the plight of our nation's veterans would take a backseat to the issues currently dominating the evening news coverage or the topics of conversations at dinner tables throughout the country.

And therein lies one of the central themes of Boudreau's 222-page book: the images of the war he has heroically fought have been implanted inside of his mind and are on a permanent loop.

"To say I was duped is not sufficient to lighten the load," he writes. (my em)

The post-traumatic stress of the war in Iraq will forever be a part of Boudreau's identity and it will be a lifelong battle to keep it in check. For some soldiers, post-traumatic stress is the precursor to suicide, for others it leads to a life of drug abuse, alcoholism, or crime.

Boudreau said "the smallest action or phrase from a commander can influence Marines and other soldiers not to seek help."

"The pressure to prepare ourselves quickly was intense. When the first Marine came to my office and asked to see the psychiatrist about some troubling issues from our time in Iraq, I was sympathetic. I said, "No problem." When another half dozen or so Marines approached me with the same request, I was only somewhat concerned."

"But when all of them and several more returned from their appointments with recommendations for discharge, I'll admit I was alarmed. Suddenly I was not as concerned about their mental health as I was about my company's troop strength."

Boudreau said the treatment of post-traumatic stress is antithetical to the mantra of "Mission Accomplished."

"The mission will always supersede treatment," Boudreau said. "And because of that the treatment will always be dubious."

"And all the talk from bureaucrats about putting an end to multiple deployments, which has been blamed on the skyrocketing cases of post-traumatic stress and suicides, is inconceivable," Boudreau said.

"I've heard the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff say 'we have to change this ethic,'" Boudreau said. "But it's not going to happen. Why? Because the military cannot afford a 20 percent reduction in its force."

There are hundreds of thousands of known PTSD and an untold much larger number that are as yet undiagnosed or have not surfaced yet. This is a problem that will be with us until the last Veteran of Bush's Dual Clusterfuck dies eighty years from now. Or depending on how long the Iraq and Afghanistan wars continue, 150 years from now. We had better do some serious thinking as a nation about how to deal with it in a compassionate and effective manner or we are going to pay a tremendous human and societal price for Bush's criminal imperial misadventures. The cost of his entire administration in actual money so far, both current and the debt passed to two or three generations yet to come, will be as nothing compared to the cost of not doing the right thing for these Veterans.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Border Region

2009-03-26T06:36:00.001-07:00

Dan Rather has a weekly program on HDNet. Unfortunately, at the HD.net web site they only post a 38 second teaser of the hour long show. If you cannot watch it on your TV, they want you to buy a DVD of the show.

However, that takes nothing away from Dan Rather's presentation. I mention this because I think that this is extraordinary reporting. This is far more graphic than anything on the local news.

This week's show has a report from Quetta, Pakistan and from the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

The video of fire base Restrepol in the Korengal Valley of the platoon high in the mountains, at the 6000' level, reminds me of Viet Nam. Whether one is in a remote mountain outpost or up to your neck in water in a canal with leeches on your legs and abdomen waiting to ambush a barge carrying a regional chief, the extreme similarity is that in both places one is very uncomfortable.

This show brings home the gritty reality that the vast majority of Americans have never experienced. The privations, primitive living conditions and adaptabilty of the U.S. fighting man never cease to amaze me.

Priority and Punishment

2009-03-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest column in the CityView magazine. The link is to the published version and the text is what I submitted. I haven't actually noticed any differences.

CAFKIA

http://cityviewmag.com/departments/dupree/327-dupree--punishment-vs-perspective.html

In my early years in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club, I was somewhat of a screw up. It didn't really start there but that was where it manifested and became obvious to anyone who cared to look. It wasn't anything intentional I was doing to screw up my job. No, it was more of a problem of self-confidence. On my communications watch section in Rota, Spain, we had approximately 27 sailors. I think there were six of us who did not have college degrees and at least a couple of the six had at least gone to college. Only about four of us had never gone past high school. As a matter of fact, there were more sailors with advanced degrees than there were with no college at all on my watch section. It was the tail end of Vietnam and there were still a lot of guys on active duty who had joined the Navy rather than depend on their luck with the draft lottery. As one of the "uneducated" I had rather
severe feelings of inadequacy that were to all appearances, not completely undeserved. My primary means of dealing with these feelings was to do individualized scientific research into the capacity of a given human body to metabolize increasing amounts of barley derived alcohol. I can't remember what the results were.
The thing was, in my mind, I had equated education with intelligence, a mistake that someone as smart as I should not have made. From a strict intelligence
standpoint, I had all the potential in the world and there were certainly plenty of people who either were or had been in my life that had told me that very thing. Of course, I thought I was doing all I could and whatever potential they were seeing was an illusion I had created.
So anyway, I screwed up. I have no memory what the specific thing was that I did or didn't do that particular time but, it earned me a trip to the Master Chief's office. In the USN, Master Chief is the highest of the enlisted ranks (E-9). It is a position that few, if any, achieve by accident, subterfuge, or favoritism. It
requires that one be proficient in one's job field as well as a proven leader and manager. They also have typically been in the Navy 18+ years. They may not know every trick in the book but bullshitting them was not an easy thing to do. The use of profanity in the Navy is legendary as evidenced by the common phrase "cuss like a sailor". The average Master Chief was above average in their ability to spew sustained bursts of incredibly creative invective. So I knew what was
coming when I was sent to see the Master Chief. I knew that I had screwed up and I knew that I was in for a royal ass chewing. Really, it would be somewhat cathartic, he would yell, cuss, insult and exhort me to never again be brave enough to screwup while he was in charge. I would be a little humiliated and maybe even get some looks and/or words of sympathy from other sailors but, that would be the end of it. That would be my punishment. So I walked into the Master Chief's office "knowing" what was about to happen and yea, sure I was dreading it but,
I was looking forward to being done with it. It turns out, he was using a completely different playbook.
I walked in and stood at attention and he said in a quiet voice "Have a seat Steve". He paused as if collecting his thoughts and then quietly continued "Steve, you
have really disappointed me." He went on in that vein for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. He never raised his voice and no profanity was used inside that office. He told me why he was so disappointed and that he knew I was capable of better. By the time I left his office, I was practically crying. I had been blindsided, caught unawares. I didn't see it then but, that was a turning point for me. For some
reason I never understood, CTOCM Norm Champagne's expression of knowledge that I could do better, that I was smart enough to do anything, "took" when similar expressions from relatives, teachers, and other supervisors had left no real impression. I got much better at my job. By the time I left the Navy several years later, many expressed the opinion that I was the best in the job at E-5 and below. (at E-6 you really move more into a management thing)
At that time, I didn't really think about what he had done or how but, I have been
thinking about it a lot lately. Apparently, he didn't think it was important that I be punished. He had a mission to support. What was important to him was that I function in the capacity that was designated. So rather than focus his energy on punishing me, he focused on changing my behavior and/or attitude. He didn't worry about his reputation or image as a Master Chief, he wanted his crew to work
and he wanted to make sure that the taxpayer money spent training me, and the experience I already had, were not wasted.It is not news to anyone that reads me or knows me that I am no fan of the previous White House administration. I have loudly and vehemently expressed my opinion that Bush, Cheny, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Libby, and others were guilty of criminal behavior and should be severely punished. My memories of the transformative experience described above
will not change that opinion but, I no longer think it is especially important. It is not where I think the lion's share of the nation's energy needs to be expended. We do need to learn from the mistakes. We need to make sure that the national experience is not for naught. We need to act on the idea that ensuring the health of the nation is more important than punishing those I perceive as having injured it.
I'm not ready to say we should just move on but, I think I understand why the current executive is not making issuing punishment a priority for his administration.

crossposted at www.meanderthal.typepad.com

Obama abandons veterans' private insurance plan

2009-03-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

After reading yesterday's post, President Obama has seen the light.

Raw Story

After today's meeting between veteran advocacy leaders and the Obama administration, the White House announced that it will be abandoning a plan to make veterans use private insurance for war-related injuries.

The 11 leaders of veterans advocacy groups left today's meeting feeling relieved that veterans' health care wasn't going to be further jeopardized. Journalists caught up with Norbert Ryan, president of Military Officers Association of America, after the meeting. Ryan told reporters, "Our voices were heard. They made the right decision on this."

Yes, they did.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Plan to bill insurance for combat injuries criticized

2009-03-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

WaPo via LATimes

An Obama administration proposal to bill veterans' private insurance companies for combat-related injuries has prompted veterans groups to condemn the plan as unethical, and powerful lawmakers on Capitol Hill have promised to oppose it.

The proposal -- intended to save the Department of Veterans Affairs $530 million a year -- would authorize the VA to bill private insurance companies for treatment of injuries and medical conditions related to military service, such as amputations, post-traumatic stress syndrome and other battle-related conditions. The VA already pursues so-called third-party billing for non-service-related conditions.

Veterans groups said the change would abrogate the government's responsibility to care for the war-wounded. And they expressed concern that the new policy would make employers less willing to hire veterans for fear of the cost of insuring them, and that insurance benefits for veterans' families would also be jeopardized.

Veterans groups described the plan as a puzzling political misstep by the new administration in its relations with the 25 million Americans who have served in the military. Obama heard firsthand about such objections Monday when he met with leaders of the groups at the White House.

So...is a traumatically amputated limb suffered in service to one's country a 'pre-existing condition' worthy of denying benefits? Sounds like a can o' worms to me. Among other things.

Quite simply the most ridiculous and mean-spirited cockamamie idea I have heard yet from this administration. It must not happen, and I have faith that it will not.

C'mon, you guys, this is a misstep worthy of the Repugs' "no pull trigger, no get food, make 'em pay for their own rides home and their meals in a roach-infested moldy chow hall" mentality.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Some Sow, Some Reap

2009-01-04T06:40:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately, the “sowers” are not the “reapers” in this case.

In a different lifetime, I was the supervisor, Recruiter-in-Charge (R-in-C), 0f a four man recruiting office in a midwest town of about 20,000 people with a recruiting area of three counties. We had a “goal” of about fourteen contracts a month with an occasional dip to thirteen. Through an abundance of hard work and long hours we shipped about 145% of our goal. In other words, we were pretty good and we all ended up with at least one promotion because of it.

But it took an immense toll on our family life. One divorce (not me) and one 14 year old daughter pregnant.

The pressure, unbelievable. Actually the pressure is well beyond unbelievable. The pressure is there every waking moment. Saturdays, Sundays, when eating, when engaged in any activity. And, even though we were very successful, only one month in the three years I was a recruiter, did we make our goal before the last working day of the month.

And, none of us had come directly from a combat zone where people were actively trying to kill us.

I understand the pressure. What is unconsionable is the lack of caring for the troops by the commanding officer.

Jobs - Census Taker

2008-12-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

Just in case any readers are looking for a job, the U.S. Census Bureau is hiring part-time census takers. Here is the link.

About Afghanistan ...

2008-12-10T03:05:00.000-08:00

Dday points out the big reason we can't win in Afghanistan:

...

That dissent is wholly justified given the realities on the ground. The Taliban, by one account, has a permanent presence in 72% of the country and is closing in on the capital, Kabul. Unlike Iraq, the militant groups here have a connection to the local tribal communities - they are not solely foreign fighters imposing their will - and they are determined not to make the same mistakes as Al Qaeda in Iraq, even loosening its doctrinaire extremism to accommodate the locals and multiple insurgent groups. The plan floated to "restart the surge" by enlisting tribal groups to fight the Taliban won't work with coalition forces targeting them at the same time:

...

The response to additional troops in the region will clearly be additional violence. This is particularly the case if civilian casualties continue, increasing anger among the local population. The US plan appears to be to focus their troops in the Kabul region, which is incredibly ominous, suggesting that the countryside is being given up for the time being. And the supply lines connecting the region have been breached. [my ems]

...

So what; we're gonna build an 'enclave of democracy' in Kabul? A centralized target on which attacks from the outside can be directed? A place where none can leave the city limits without being targeted?

What we are seeing is there is no real plan for Afghanistan. Fortifying Kabul (an obvious attempt to protect the Karzai government) will merely create an island in a sea of anarchy. We have painted ourselves into a corner.

We are resorting to a strategy used 500 years ago, a 'siege mentality' where the defenders hope their fortifications withstand bombardment from without until the enemy runs out of supplies or gets tired of the fight. This is not the way to 'win' a war.

Like the firebases and airfields in Vietnam Gord showed us the other day, our troops (and the civilians in Kabul) will come under constant fire, the aircraft and runway in particular, for we really have no other way to resupply. Think Berlin Airlift but with anti-air going up at the transports and mortar fire coming down on the runway. It'll be a mess.

Afghanistan is a place best left alone; ask the British and the Russians. We cannot occupy it (the terrain making it logistically impossible), we cannot democratize it (the tribal culture will not support a centralized government), and we cannot buy their cooperation (there isn't enough money in the U.S. Treasury to guarantee their loyalty to us). And then there is the complication of Pakistan (namely the tribal areas of Waziristan), whose government has neither the stomach or the army to clean up the 'safe haven' for Afghani militants on their side of the border and cannot allow the U.S. to do it and survive politically.

Our occupation of Afghanistan (if history is any guide) will end about as well as the British and Soviet versions did. We will leave (when the costs become too high), eventually, after declaring victory, and Afghanistan will return to being the way it always was. It's time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan as well, not send more, and promise them that the next time some idiot in a cave decides to attack the United States, the nation of Afghanistan will be nothing more than a smoking hole in the ground. When dealing with a population still living in the 8th Century, you cannot use a 21st Century strategy. In Afghanistan there are two constants; life and death. Allow them the first and promise them the last if they misbehave. Any other alternative is nothing more than a waste of lives and money.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Team Obama

2008-11-30T17:19:00.000-08:00

The possible strategy behind the picks.

Finally, we have unity between conservatives and progressives. Unfortunately it is a unity based either in stupidity or deceitfulness.

Both sides are tripping all over themselves to criticize Obama's picks for his cabinet and advisers. Progressives in particular seem to be livid that moderates figure so prominently and conservatives, who want change less than they want a salt filled straw in the eye, are falling all over themselves pointing out that Obama's picks seem to be at odds with his campaign mantra of "change". One side is being incredibly shortsighted and the other is being blatantly disingenuous. Both are being patently ridiculous.

Barack Obama will face challenges upon taking the oath like no president in recent times has seen and possibly, no president ever. I certainly have no contact with or special insight to the Obama mindset but, it is obvious what he is doing. Given the current economic crisis and the wars that have so far been idiotically prosecuted, team Obama will have to hit the ground running. Among the things he wants to avoid are contentious and drawn out confirmation hearings. He also simply does not have the time to wait for an entire crew of fresh minded Washington outsiders to learn the whos, whys, and hows of the Washington system. It is almost an impossibility that many of today's picks will not start to need to spend more time with their families in two years or whenever things start to get better. I fully expect them to be replaced with those who would be considered outsiders today. They will be working for current picks and/or will have been apprised of their position on the list and will have been given study materials plus, they will not all start at once. It would be irresponsible, even if it were possible, to institute al the desired change at once. It must be instituted over time.

However, all of that is pretty much secondary. There is an old saying that "the fish stinks from the head". The Clinton appointees will not do as they did under Bill Clinton. They will have the knowledge and experience but they will have a leader with a a different agenda. What seems to be forgotten is that Bush did not hire stupid people to work for him. He hired smart people(of perhaps questionable moral character) and he led them to do stupid things. The fish stinks from the head. Anyone who doubts that Barack Obama could take the exact same crew who helped bush screw the nation and achieve significantly different and positive results is simply not paying attention.

So what say we give Obama a chance to lead. What say we withhold judgment until we have some evidence. It may be that he can't fix this but then, it may be that no one or group can fix this. For sure his chances will not be improved by building his team entirely out of rookies.

CAFKIA

cross posted at www.meanderthal.typepad.com

45 Years

2008-11-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

Where were you, 45 years ago, when you heard the “news?” This was the first really big dose of reality in my life. I had been in the Navy over five years, was in Washington, D.C. on 20 Jan 1961 when John Kennedy was inaugurated and married with one child.

But I was not prepared for the news that came over the TV while I was eating lunch at the Acey-Duecy Club at the Naval Training Center on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The assassination of the President of the United States was a foreign concept. It was not in realm of the possible for me.

So, at 1215 22 Nov 1963, my world changed (as did a lot of other people’s worlds.)

Where were you ? ?

All Gave Some...Some Gave All

2008-11-11T07:05:00.001-08:00

This post is crossposted at deuddersun says... and is the opinion of deuddersun. It is in no way meant to reflect the position of the American Patriot Institute or it's members. I encourage other members to cross post their own tributes here as well. - d.

(I am once again re-posting this Tribute...because I just can't say it any better...)This is a post from Veteran's Day last year. I have reposted it, with some modifications, because I think it says it all. While the video and song below relate to a particularly bloody battle fought by the United States Army's 173rd Airborne, the message relates to all who have given their lives in service to the United States of America, whether it be 1945, 1965 or 5 minutes ago on a debris littered street in Baghdad.

Today I would like to put politics aside and honor the Warriors.

The Sentinels Creed

My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted.
In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter.
And with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection.
Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect.
His bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this soldier will in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.

Poster courtesy United States Army. Image and Sentinels Creed courtesy Arlington National Cemetery

This is for Jerry Maguire.

Mag's First love...

Who, only six weeks in country

Was shot in the head

While walking point.

God Bless You

Jerry

Today we'll visit the wall

here in Philly

and drink a beer with you.

Gerald Maguire

United States Army

Once, Always. Forever

Faithful

For My Own...

Photo courtesy of Arlington National Cemetery

While the weapons may have changed over time, one thing remains the same, the Marine who wields it.

The Final Inspection

The Marine stood and faced his God

Which must always come to pass.

He hoped his shoes were shining

Just as brightly as his brass.

Step forward now, oh, Devil-Dog,

How shall I deal with you?

Have you always turned the other cheek?

To My Church have you been true?

The Jarhead squared his shoulders... said,

"No, Lord, I guess I ain't,

'cause those of us who carry guns

Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays

And at times my talk was tough,

And sometimes I've been violent,

'cause the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a penny

That wasn't mine to keep...

Though I worked a lot of overtime

When the bills just got too steep,

And I never passed a cry for help,

Though at times I shook with fear,

And sometimes, God forgive me,

I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place

Among the people here,

They never wanted me around

Except to calm their fear.

"If you've a place for me here, Lord,

It needn't be so grand,

I never expected or had too much,

So if you don't, I'll understand."

A silence fell all 'round the throne

Where Saints had often trod,

As the Marine awaited quietly,

The judgment of his God.

Step forward now, My Fine Marine,

You've borne your burdens well,

Walk your post on Heaven's streets,

You've served your time in Hell.

Sleep in Peace, Brothers.

deuddersun

I Need Some Help

2008-11-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

My co-blogger, Kathy, at Liberty Street has asked me a question about U.S. Army unit hierarchy. I cannot answer her. Can anyone here shine some light on this ? ?

"I've just begun reading David Halberstam's book on the Korean War, and in the front matter of the book he has a listing of military terminology, of military units, from largest to smallest: Army, Corps, Division, Regiment, Battalion, Company, Platoon, and Squad. He says:

An Army is comprised of 2 or more Corps and is normally commanded by a full General.

A Corps is comprised of 2 or more Divisions and is normally commanded by a Lieutenant General.

A Division is comprised of 3 Regiments and is commanded by a Major General.

A Regiment is comprised of 3 Battalions and is commanded by a Colonel.

A Battalion is comprised of 4 or more Companies and is commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel.

A Company is comprised of 4 Platoons and is commanded by a Captain.

A Platoon is comprised of 4 Squads and is commanded by a Lieutenant.

A Squad has 10 or more soldiers in it and is commanded by a Staff Sergeant.

Does the above accord with your experience of military hierarchy?"

Another Tragedy

2008-11-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

This story, as much of a huge tragedy as it is, is difficult to know where to begin writing about. The end of the story reflects my initial thoughts.

Pietrzak's mother said she can't understand how Marines could have committed such a crime.

"Don't the Marines screen out people like this?" she said. "Didn't they know they had murderers under their roof?"

I was a Navy recruiter for three years. Only a recruiter or ex-recruiter can understand the extreme pressure that is applied to find "warm bodies."

The up-front cause of this tragedy may have a strong racial component, although I read that two of the accused are white and two are African-American, or maybe not. But I believe the underlying cause will be shown to be the recruitment of people that have no business being in the U.S. military and are only there because the military is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

2008-10-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

I meant to link to this the other day but my real world is crazy and I forgot. Remembering now (as I head out the door) to send you to Left of College Station. Liberal Texan makes the case against McCain with quotes from vet bloggers. Our great thanks to be included in the 'evidence'.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Veterans Beaten at Presidential Debate

2008-10-18T05:20:00.000-07:00

Nick Morgan, a former Army Sergeant was trampled, knocked out, and had his face crushed by the hoof of a horse.

On October 15th, the third Presidential debate was held at Hofstra University in New York. A group of Veterans from the peace activist group Iraq Veterans Against the War, or IVAW, assembled peacefully and asked to deliver questions for the candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, about Veterans issues.

Ten members of IVAW were arrested with one Veteran trampled by a police department horse. His cheek bone was crushed and he required stitches on his face. You can read the Whole Story right here. It is complete with pictures. Some of these photos are graphic and there is blood so be aware of that.

Please read the whole article. It seems that these Veterans are saying that they assembled in a peaceful manner. They claim the injured protester was not given any medical attention until it was demanded by the other Veterans in their midst. They go on to claim the police harassed the injured Veteran while chaining him to a bench at police headquarters.

I am a member of Veterans For Peace. I attended the annual convention and met many IVAW members. Their mantra and behavior during RNC was stellar as far as practising peace was concerned. When conventional methods of trying to negotiate through proper channels is ignored, the protest march and requests in person might be one of the only avenues left. Men and women in uniform, attesting that they are indeed Veterans and want to peacefully assemble and ask questions of our future leaders, need not be attacked and thwarted without cause by authorities.

We have come to a time when the people we are to trust need to protect themselves with heavily armed guards, some who are private contractors such as Blackwater, just to stand and tell us how good and trustworthy they are.

The article published phone numbers of the appropriate department heads to complain, ask questions of or just put your two cents worth in about such treatment of peaceful Veteran protesters wanting issues pertaining to all Veterans to be heard. I urge anyone concerned to call and voice your concern.

While you're at it, the RNC 8, the group of people arrested under the Patriot Act and charged with "suspicion to commit terrorism" could use a few letters and phone calls as well. My friend, who was arrested during the RNC is not one of the RNC 8, but he did get arrested and detained. He was released but had to wait a ridiculous amount of time for his personal belongings. Here is is, in a strange town, without money, credit card, cell phone, transportation or clean clothes, waiting for the bumbling farce of a police force to process him, only to find out that now, a month and a half after the event, his case is still pending charges. All the while, the City of Saint Paul raking in the 50 million dollar "fee" to hold the Republican Convention in a city where no Republican wanted to be. That's another rant and I may have made that one already previously.

I have bowed out of the politics thing. It is obscene to me. The money being spent to attack another candidate. These politicians are no better than the government as far as spending, no, wasting, millions of dollars to get elected. I am voting for the lessor of two evils. I think that my vote will end the current regime in Washington if the candidate I choose wins. But both are serving the interests of big money contributors and special interests.

The bottom line for me here is to call attention to the fact that there are many issues on the table during this presidential election. The issues for Veterans returning from this illegal and immoral war are as real as they get. When the police attack and beat back people, Veterans, who simply want to deliver a message, in this case questions of concern about Veterans issues, those law enforcement entities are the problem and stand for what America has become. It is no less a police state than what Americans were told about East Germany and the USSR during the cold war.

In my opinion, since there has been no report by either the McCain or the Obama campaign intervening on the behalf of these Veterans proves they are out of touch and not worth a pile of shit, either of them.

Sometimes I truly believe we shouldn't vote, as it just encourages them to think that we really want them as leaders. Most of the time, we are voting so the more evil of the two gets elected. The "real" candidates are lost and forgotten. The good messages and strong support towards a real sense of peace and justice for all people is forgotten. We are told that a vote for and other party is a lost vote and will surely allow the other candidate to win. All we really want is a balance of the issues that are unfair to be shifted either to the right or left so as to bring peace and real justice to all Americans and to the citizens of the Sacred Earth Mother that this country has forsaken with their bombs, money, one-sided self-righteous foreign policy and arrogance.

By the way, I got my absentee ballot in the mail and there are no less than nine candidates for President. The choices are there, but our bought and paid for media mentions none of this. We are suppose to be represented, but only the high rollers are mentioned. The Republicans and the Democrats.

Seems the Green, Libertarian, Socialist Party USA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Independent, Constitution and We The People parties don't exist in the news, but have candidates on the official sanctioned ballot.

Please make your calls about these Veterans. And when you're done there, read THIS ARTICLE.

This article also appears at Round Circle

Golden Anniversary

2008-10-07T06:42:00.001-07:00

Most people probably would not give this a second thought, but today is a B-I-G day, a very memorable day for the Ol’ Chief.

7 Oct 1958

Fifty years ago today, I left home for the first, and last, time to go into a somewhat wider world than Hanover, Massachusetts to seek my fortune. That I was far more successful than anyone could have imagined cannot be argued. That I have not made my first million yet is also true.

Yet how many people can say they were responsible for the maintenance of all United States communication equipment for a whole continent? The above picture was taken at the South Pole a long time ago.

So we mark this day, and we celebrate this occasion, in a quiet, peaceful way that befits a senior citizen who has accomplished much and is enjoying his “golden” years.

2008-09-25T20:23:00.001-07:00

Shipmates,

It is with heavy heart I report on the passing of Chester M. (Whitey) Mack, Captain, USN (Ret.). Knowing in advance the end was so near makes this announcement no less sad for me. No other person in my life impressed on me the worth of trust and the advantages gained by surrounding oneself with superior talents. In my mind I can think of no greater position of responsibility than that of ship captain. It is not that Whitey may have been the greatest captain of all time, or even of his time. But, Whitey took us into harms way and brought us back home. That was his task and he did it well.

Whitey passed at 1819 EDT, Sept. 25, at a hospice near Englewood, Florida.

Say a prayer tonight for the soul of Whitey Mack and for God's blessing on Joan and their children. "Oh hear us when we call to thee, for those in peril on the sea"

Rest your oars Whitey Mack.

Chuck Petterson

I recieved this e-mail from a former shipmate who served on board USS LAPON (SSN-661), a nuclear fast attack submarine made legendary in the "silent service", thanks to this man, Captain Whitey Mack, who commanded this fine boat a few years before I had the honor to serve aboard her. I never had the privelege to meet Capt. Mack, and I would not venture to suggest that the Captains I served under were made of the same steel as this man. Regardless, I feel the same loss as every crewmember of this submarine does, and I want to thank Capt. Mack for his service to our country. I can only hope that generations of warriors and politicians that follow do not shame this man's memory, as they threaten to do now.

"They go down to the sea in ships...."

Rest your oars, Captain, My Captain........

Veterans For Peace is Taking Action

2008-09-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

Members of Veterans For Peace alert at their occupation of the National Archive in Washington DC.

I received this in today's E-mail from my local Veterans For Peace Chapter 27 in Minneapolis, MN. Just wanted the members of the API to know that action is being taken to defend our Constitution. Now I'm wondering if I should go to DC and be with them, if not actually on the ledge, but to support them by my presence. After the Veterans For Peace National Convention and the RNC and all the turmoil I have been witness to right here in my own town, I am reluctant to go and put myself in the midst of more actions, yet a part of me tells me that the fight of a true Warrior will never end until justice is served. In any event, I will be thinking hard about this and whether I go or not, the fact will remain that these people standing up for our Constitution are courageous individuals.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 23, 2008
Contacts: Elliot Adams 518-441-2697, Ellen Barfield 410-948-8023, Tarak Kauff 845 249-9489

VETERANS OCCUPY NATIONAL ARCHIVES BUILDING

“Arresting Bush and Cheney for war crimes will honor our oath to the Constitution,” vets say.

On Tuesday morning, September 23, 7:30am, at the front of the National Archives Building on Constitution Ave. in Washington, D.C., five military veterans will risk arrest as they climb a 9-foot retaining fence and occupy a 35-foot high ledge to raise a 22x8 foot banner stating, “DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!”

The group has declared its intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours “in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration,” according to a written statement. With a portable PA system, they will broadcast recorded statements from prominent Americans for the impeachment and/or arrest of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. “Citizens Arrest Warrants” will be distributed to people waiting in line to enter the National Archives.

The veterans emphasized they are taking this action because “Bush and Cheney’s serial abuse of the Law of the Land clearly marks them as domestic enemies of the Constitution…they have illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, deliberately destroyed civilian infrastructure, authorized torture, and unlawfully detained prisoners. These actions clearly mark them as war criminals…accountability extends beyond impeachment to prosecution for war crimes even after their terms of office expire.”

“We take this action as a last resort,” their statement added. “For years we have pursued every avenue open to good, vigilant citizens to bring these men to justice, to re-establish the rule of law, and to restore the balance of power described in our Constitution. We are not disturbing the peace; we are attempting to restore the peace. We are not conducting ourselves in a disorderly manner; our action is well-ordered and well-considered. We are not trespassing; we have come to the home of our Constitution to honor our oath to defend it.”
(more)

pg. 2 VFP National Archives action

Those participating are all members of Veterans For Peace and include Elliott Adams: 61, NY, VFP President and former Army paratrooper in Viet Nam; Ellen Barfield: 52, MD, former U.S. Army Sgt., full-time peace and justice advocate; Kim Carlyle: 61, NC, mountain homesteader, former Army Spec 5, 828-626-2572; Diane Wilson: 59, TX, shrimp boat captain, former Army medic, 361-785-4680; Doug Zachary: 58, TX, VFP staff, former USMC LCpl discharged as a conscientious objector, 512-791-9824; and Tarak Kauff (ground support) 67, NY, painting contractor, former U.S. Army Airborne.

Founded in 1985, VFP has 120 chapters throughout the country and has actively protested the Afghanistan and Iraq wars since their inception. Membership includes men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations spanning the Spanish Civil War, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. VFP is an official Non Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the UN.

###

"May the innocent find peace; may the dead find grace; may the wounded find healing; may the homeless find shelter; may America find forgiveness; and may justice find the guilty." - Veterans For Peace Ch. 39

Honor

2008-09-12T07:44:00.001-07:00

I'm sure most, if not all, of the adees have seen the phrase "Death Before Dishonor." I have seen it tattooed on the arm of both sailors and Marines. But the Sgt. Major says is far mor eloquently than I at this site

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/10/172053/416

and copied below. "Honor" and most especially the lack thereof is the single biggest reason that I cannot and will not vote for Sen. McCain for president.

SGT MAJOR MYERS's diary :: ::

Throughout my life growing up in a military family and in my military career one predominate trait or quality was emphasized and driven home by both my family and every leader I have ever met. That trait or quality was honor. Just to refresh your memory the dictionary defines honor as, honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions: a man of honor.

From the time that I had what I believe was probably my very first logical thought about the subject I do not believe that there was ever any doubt in my mind of what the meaning of honor was nor was there ever any doubt of what actions honor required. There was a second thing that I never had any doubt about and that was that once ones honor was compromised it was a permanent and oft never fading blemish. I know this from personal experience and my own personal failures against which I struggle to this very day. I point that out because I believe that even the most honorable and well intentioned people with the most hard earned sense of honor can fail and that they can be guilty of being dishonorable and I believe that that has happened in the presidential race.

I have known of and about John McCain for as long as he has been in the public eye. I have, as a fellow soldier and as a fellow citizen, respected him for his extraordinary military and public service. In fact I believe we as a nation should respect and appreciate and yes honor what he has done for our nation. I believe his have been the actions of an exceptionally brave and historically honorable man.

However there is something else that I believe. I believe that past honorable service and dedication to duty and country does not immunize one against poor judgment, failure or even from doing the wrong thing. I believe that ones honor is not something one does once and then puts it on a shelf where it shines forever. Honor is second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour and year by year. It is only as untarnished and undiminished as ones past and ones last action.

It is with great sadness that I say to you that John McCain is not an honorable man today. The reason I say this is because I am observing and hearing reported by every major news organization in this country that he and his running mate are participating in and personally articulating blatant lies. These are not the actions of honorable people. When one is aspiring to the highest and second highest public offices in the land it is incumbent upon one to speak truth and only truth and to communicate about those issues that are vital and of importance to the citizens of the nation. It is not honorable for individuals to speak lies to the citizens and make unproven accusations against those whom they oppose. When one opposes another person in vying for public office it becomes even more important to insure that one speaks the truth and deals with issues and substantive differences and not innuendo and accusation.

The fact that John McCain is a former Naval Officer and a sitting United States Senator makes this lack of honor horribly reprehensible. But I think what makes this lack of honor so disgusting and even more vile is that he would lose himself to the point of using his own sacrifice and service as a shield to commit such petit dishonorable acts of lying. Conservative, liberal, or Independent, share his beliefs or not, it would be morally reprehensible for anyone to support someone who displays so little honor. Sometimes we must call them like they are. Prisoner of war or not service to country or not there is a line and John McCain and his running mate have crossed the line.

This nation has endured eight long years of lies and deceptions from the two highest ranking public figures in the country and virtually their entire administration. Our honor as a nation is not just blemished but in tatters and we cannot endure another four or eight years of the same. If for no other reason than the fact that John McCain and his vice presidential running mate have publicly lied and continue to lie this nation needs to insure that he does not occupy the office of the president. Our nation needs honor above all else at this crucial point in our history. With honor comes respect and from these come all else.

Cross posted at Liberty Street.

Support Our Troops!

2008-08-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

Iraq Veterans Against the War

at the Democratic National Convention

Dear IVAW Supporter,

IVAW Claims Victory in Denver and Heads to Minneapolis

Our members were in Denver on Wednesday leading a march of ten thousand to the Democratic National Convention where we delivered a message to the Obama camp in a meeting with senior campaign officials. IVAW called on the Democratic nominee to endorse the three main goals of IVAW: Immediate withdrawal, full veterans benefits, and reparations for the Iraqi people.

There was plenty of news coverage about our march and actions at the DNC, just go to our homepage to learn more. IVAW will continue to advance its goals through the strategic action of our members and the generosity of our supporters.

There is No Better Time Than Now to Support IVAW

IVAW members are now on their way to Minneapolis for the annual IVAW convention. Many will stay on in Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention. We need your support to help keep the momentum from this event going. Please make a donation to IVAW today.

Thank you for your continued support,

Kelly Dougherty

Former Sergeant, Army National Guard

Executive DirectorIraq Veterans Against the War

Also posted at The American Patriot Institute

What killed the Russians ...

2008-08-21T02:08:00.000-07:00

In Afghanistan will kill us as well:

...

The 'western' forces in Afghanistan have huge logistic problems. To put two feet on the ground they need twenty feet or more behind them shuffeling papers, organising and feeding the logistic queue. Their way of existence and fighting is incompatible with the country they are in. Too many trucks will not come through. The logistic lines are too long and to insecure. The road war will kill their mission.

What do I always say? Amateurs talk strategy and tactics, experts talk logistics. Don't matter how many great plans you have, if you can't support your operators, the plans ain't worth a shit. Ask the Russians about how many of their convoys got ambushed in the Hindu Kush. Ask their men how many helicopters were taken out by a buncha goat-humpers with AKs shooting down at 'em from the surrounding heights.

We shoulda learned from the Brits (read Kipling) and the Soviets. You cannot take and occupy Afghanistan; it's almost an impossible logistical nightmare. There should never have been 'boots on the ground'. We should have exacted a price for 9/11 (bombed everything into gravel and killed as many of 'em as we could) and then called it a day.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

The Bills WILL Come Due........

2008-08-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

When one struggles through their early years without the benefit of Mother, Father, or blood relations to set one upon a path, one is bereft of any sense of culture or clan heritage. Thus I was a tradition upon myself, every day an opportunity to invent my place in the world based solely upon my own understanding, which would continue to evolve decade after decade, independent of any expectations laid down by a previous generation of my own origins.

What was left me was the "culture" of modern America, with all it's evolving sense of power, superiority, and entitlement. After all, I was born only ten years after the "sleeping giant" had been awakened by the Japanese, only to surmount an almost impossible victory against fascism and imperialism, to turn the tide and become the world's greatest military and economic superpower. It could only get better, and I had every expectation, even without the guidance of family or mentors, to benefit greatly. I believed all those rosy predictions of moon bases, universal peace, and a cure for all diseases. Fast-forward half a century, chock full of more advances than any previous era, and where am I? Where are WE?

The seeds of our own downfall were sown immediately after the signing of the articles of surrender of the former Empire of Japan aboard the Battleship U.S.S. Missouri. Within that decade we would attain our highest pinnacle in manufacturing, finance, innovation, and social evolution. We still had the social contract, only enhanced; we were sending a wave of young men, ex-citizen soldiers, to college, to become our new hope for the future, leaders of a whole new tomorrow. And we were determined to make the lives of our children, like those generations before us, better than our own, that they might never again know deprivation or the horrors of war. And we failed miserably.

We failed so utterly due to that very toxic characteristic of any great civilization.....ENTITLEMENT. Yes, we had cheap gas, cheap automobiles, ever-increasing wages (thanks finally to strong unions), increasingly advanced health care, cheap food, the suburbs with a quarter-acre of grass and a picket fence, and this ida that everybody else in the world wanted to be just like us.

Only everybody DIDN'T want to be "just like" us. On top of that, our first generation of children after WWII increasingly found reasons to not even like their own parents. It was then that all our shortcomings in the area of ethics and human rights began to show themselves in the faces of our own kids. Capitalism, that economic model that promised to deliver the goods to every corner of the land began to divide us ever more increasingly into the haves and the have-nots. Racial equality, something we were supposed to have taken care of courtesy of the bloody war between the States, wasn't even CLOSE to being reckoned with, only now it was GOING to be reckoned with, one way or another. And before we knew it, all the rules we had been raised with were going out the window in favor of a new freedom of thought and expression that did not want to recognize boundaries or responsibility.

What the Democratic Party fought so hard to establish that would truly make us that "shining city on the hill" would soon be turned upside down by a new generation of righteous nay-sayers, disillusioned with the loss of social order and strict rules, who began to be manipulated by "Conservative" party bosses to try and contain this populace who were trying to throw off the yoke of the rich and powerful, by calling upon religion and fear to power a backlash which would destroy the American dream from the inside out, all the while feeding the coffers of increasingly wealthy king-makers, even starting wars to distract us and have us fight each other for the right to claim a purer practice of patriotism. Thus, in order to form a more perfect union, we fed the beast our children, and our hopes for a free and democratic future for our grandchildren, who instead face the very extinction of our species.

I want all of you to understand that it's not the commies, or the terrorists, or the pinko-fags that brought us here; it was each and every one of us, thanks to our worship of the devil himself...ENTITLEMENT. Thanks to entitlement, we have a healthcare system which isn't working for us anymore. Thanks to entitlement, we can't get enough gas and can't afford the gas we get. Thanks to entitlement, our cars are bigger than they ever had to be. Thanks to entitlement, we will heat up our planet faster than we can wean ourselves off our poisons, and our grandchildren, if we even HAVE any, will curse us for our avarice. After all, weren't we supposed to make THEIR future better than our own, rather than cutting it short altogether?

Make excuses if you want. I'm sure you're entitled.

P.S. To my readers; please do not think I direct this at you unless you recognize within examples of your own complicity, as do I. Most of those who remain within my readership I would hope have recognized the truth of what I say already and would not take offense at such self-examinations. For those of you entirely new to my pontifications, I invite you to rail against what is said here by turning your rage into positive action rather than denial, even if it means something simple as changing out all your house lights to fluorescents or car-pooling when possible. Hope is Hope; denial is nothing but death.

Veterans! Think Before You Vote

2008-08-19T01:32:00.000-07:00

d.

Also posted at deuddersun says...

My Absence

2008-08-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Been absent from blogging for a few months. I'm getting old. Suffered from a stomach/GI problem which left me in constant pain all day long until I laid down. Add to that...a constant case of the "trots" and you can get an idea of how wonderful I felt. Couldn't go anywhere...not even my own kid's houses...it sucked. Dr's ruled out cancer...my first concern...and settled on some god-awful thing called "Irritable Bowel Syndrome"...

Anyway...I'm finally starting to feel a little better. I'll try to add to the conversation whenever I have anything important to say.

Stay strong...Peace

Mod

THIS is the State of our Nation

2008-08-18T05:52:00.000-07:00

Over many years upon the pages of many posts, I have pontificated my understanding of the events that have brought our nation to the perilous precipice it now totters upon. Yet, in all my days, including those remaining, I will NEVER be able to articulate the utter and dismaying truth that has been placed before us better than this gentleman, an ex-military officer, and professed conservative. I want all who view this post to please go to THIS site and if possible, view the episode of Bill Moyers Journal in which this gentleman is interviewed. I think you will want to pass this on, and think deeply about what he has said.

I Am a Conservative

2008-08-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

This was written by a friend of mine named John. John is an artist and writer from Minneapolis. This is cross-posted at my Round Circle Blogspot along with more verbage.

http://spadoman-roundcircle.blogspot.com

Hi Joe,

Here's the piece I was telling you about.

Attach any additions that you think of to the following list and
continue to forward it to your friends. You can also send it back to
me. I'm interested to see what other people might add.

If you know anyone that shoots YouTube videos, I think that it could
make a great video with people standing up and declaring that "I am a
conservative..." and re-framing the definition by context.

Blessings,

John

Conservative: tending or disposed to maintain existing views,
conditions, or institutions : traditional b: marked by moderation or
caution, a conservative estimate marked by or relating to
traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of the freedom of assembly.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of the freedom of speech.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of the freedom of the press.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of the right to privacy.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of the right of
due process.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of civil liberties
and rights granted under the constitution.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of small businesses.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of natural resources.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of quality education.

I am a conservative...I believe in the conservation of the family farm.

I am a conservative...I believe in conserving the separation between
church and state.

I am a conservative...I believe in conserving a woman's right to choose.

I am a conservative...I believe in conserving the middle class.

I am a conservative...I believe in conserving representation for taxpayers.

I am a conservative...I believe in conserving cultural diversity.

Another Hit to Morale

2008-08-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

According to this post at Raw Story, at least two Marine units will have their tours in Afghanistan extended. According to the article

Asked about Gates' decision, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the secretary was responding to a request from the commanders.

Gates "is always pained to have to extend tours. He understands the effect that has on the families of our forces, but he also appreciates our commanders' need to make additional progress while the weather is still good in Afghanistan," Morrell said.

I would suggest that Gates has no clue to the effect that extending a deployment has on the service member and that member's family back home. It reduces the retention rate for those on their first enlistment and cuts short those senior enlisted members careers who just might have stayed past the minimum retirement of 20 years service.

And, it is not the danger that they face on a daily basis in Afghanistan that affects their decision. No, it is the loss of faith in those in positions of leadership to be able to stick to their promises, their commitments.

It is like saying, "You're doing such a good job, that we are going to reward you by letting you stay here a little longer."

Devastating.

Cross posted at Liberty Street.

The Theft of Patriotism

2008-08-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

It's hard enough to have been there, knowing the full brutal impact of what armed conflict means, both to the warrior and to the civilians he brings this terrible art to, but to have civilian chieftains who haven't wielded anything more lethal than a poison pen pontificate on strategy, consequence, cost, effect, and goals as if they truly have the slightest idea what they are talking about just nauseates me. Donald Rumsfield is the one man that comes to mind when I think of a clueless military genius who should never have been given command of peoples lives and the security of this nation. Dick Cheney is another man that I believe whose motivations have more to do with personal and familiar enrichment than the well-being of our first line of defense; our fighting men and women.

I suppose they must think that because these kids volunteered to put on the uniform, then they must know the full measure of what they could be used for. Of course, those amongst us who actually live on the streets of America versus it's ivory towers know full well that from an 18 year old perspective, the prospect of a college education, veteran's benefits, and the respect that (at least USED to) comes with having served your country totally crowds out any thought of putting their flesh and bone on the line for what could be a totally unethical use or their service; i.e. the occupation of a nation for no rational reason other than making money for certain twisted individuals in positions of power. I know in my case, I was not having grandiose dreams of bringing the communist juggernaut to it's knees through superior American morality and firepower; I just wanted a place to be, a way to feed my belly and expand my horizons after finding out I was soon to be turned out of my home and not enough credits earned to graduate from high school. I also had the specter of the draft hanging over my head, with no college to save me from dying in a far-eastern rice patty for no good reason any kid my age could fathom. It was 1973, and I didn't know a hell of a lot about politics or human nature in my short 18 years of life. But the next four years was going to provide me with a unique education.

Now, all these years later, I have to endure the bullshit spouted by people who in some other universe might be considered good, patriotic Americans. People who haven't "Been" there, or had and where coddled, or simply enjoyed being a soldier to the exclusion of any kind of human empathy for anyone beyond immediate kin. People who have been indoctrinated by their fundamentalist ministers to equate shallow patriotism with being God-fearing, totally ignoring the concept I was always told Christ tried his damnedest to promulgate; that you don't hate anyone for any reason, much less "kill them for Christ". People who use these perhaps genuinely caring and religious salt-of-the-Earth type of citizens to further their capitalistic agendas, using them to harp this "love it or leave" mentality that dares to suggest to the rest of us that we don't belong here if we can't buckle under to authority. Sounds suspiciously like communism, if truth be told, only your average redneck could never understand that.

Well, I've had about enough of this, this fake, yellow- ribbon- on- your- SUV- bumper patriotism. I've had enough of this willingness for the masses to do the bidding of the intelligent and sly architects of this disaster in the Middle East which has already consumed over 4000 of our finest and our good name throughout the world. If ever I regretted one thing, it's that these individuals will probably never be brought to justice, that they will leave laughing to enjoy their insanely generous government pensions, and that they will retain Secret Service protection till the day they draw their last criminal breathes, thus I can never entertain the idea of kicking Karl Roves' ass on a street corner of our choosing. I might be a shrimp of a guy, but you'd be amazed what the right motivation can accomplish.

But what shames me the most is that I entertain these ideas as a Wiccan, whose code of conduct decrees that "An it HARM NONE, do as thou will". If the Christians can constantly find exceptions to all those commandments, why can't I find wiggle room in my simple creed? I can't, but a guy can dream............can't he?

Vets Against McCain

2008-08-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a site deserving of much more attention. This is a site, perhaps a little biased, that at least is shining a light on the Senator’s failings. I particularly like the part about his less than stellar career as a Naval avaitor.

The part of his life we never hear about, is the lady he was married to before and during his extended shore duty in Hanoi. Read more here.

My question to you is: Just as McCain abandoned his first wife after an automobile accident left her less than perfect, will he abandon us when the going gets tough in the White house.

The Cost of War

2008-07-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have been away from the blogs for quite a while. Summer has been very busy for me. A lot of travel and family business to take care of, a move from Northern Wisconsin back to St. Paul, MN and dealing with the tragedy that has struck some great long time cherished friends.

One of the projects that I was involved with was The Longest Walk II. This is a commemorative walk from San Francisco to Washington DC of the original walk that took place in 1978. The purpose of the walk was to bring forth, in a positive way, concerns about pollution of Mother Earth, the idea that all life is Sacred, Peace and Justice, the degeneration of the people from sickness, the failure of the government to adhere to treaties and to keep Sacred sites Sacred.

Read all about the Longest Walk II, see the pictures and read the stories at this site:

http://longestwalk.org

One of the purposes of the walk was to assemble a Manifesto and deliver this document to Congress. The ideas set forth in the Manifesto were from the actual lives of people across the United States as we walked.

As a Veteran, my duty was to prepare a piece to address the growing concern over benefits and benefit changes to soldiers returning home from the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters of war.

The entire Manifesto is also available to read at the above listed site. Here is the article I presented to Congress on behalf of my Veteran Bothers and Sisters:

ADDENDA

to

Manifesto For Change

“All Life Is Sacred”

THE COST OF WAR: Message from a Veteran

By Joe Spado, member of Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and The American Patriot Institute.

As we crossed the United States, we on The Longest Walk II heard many concerns from a wide variety of citizens. Most of these concerns dealt with environmental problems like poisons or cancer causing substances in the drinking water, or pollution of water supply reservoirs and air quality. Problems related to health issues and access to adequate healthcare. Problems with the cost of food, gasoline and drugs. Problems dealing with discrimination based on skin color or spoken language for jobs and/or housing opportunities. Problems with the treatment of areas and sites that are considered Culturally Sacred, or actual burial sites of family members and ancestors of the Native Indigenous people of America.

These matters are of extreme importance to the individuals that are exposed, but affect all people in one way or another. Another problem that needs to be addressed is the treatment and access to benefits for Veterans who served in the armed forces of the United States. The Veterans from wars of the past, World War II, Korea and Vietnam and returning Veterans from the current war activity in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As I spoke with Veterans I heard their accounts of rejection for benefits and the long waiting period even the denial takes. One Veteran told me he was refused health care as his home was being foreclosed upon.

It is hard to get benefits. The application process is flawed and inaccessible to many. The bureaucracy and long waiting periods, rules and regulations make it hard for Veterans to make and keep appointments or persevere in their attempt to see their claims through to a fair conclusion.

In most cases, the burden of proof lies on the shoulders of the Veterans to prove they were even in a battle zone or that they were injured while on active duty. Laws have been changed and benefits have been reduced or taken away from Veterans.

When I speak of benefits, I am talking about health care as a priority, but also benefits relating to job seeking and job keeping skills, the teaching of real life technical and liberal education and readjustment counseling after a Veteran has served in a combat zone or in any theater where combat and the violence and destruction that goes along with it are present. I speak of housing benefits, educational benefits, mental health treatment benefits and other benefits that were implemented to help the Veteran get back to a normal life after serving in the military.

I speak of legal help and relief from creditors. Many Veterans were taken from their everyday routine and put into repeated tours of duty, disrupting their income. They return to face bankruptcy or credit problems so severe there is no escape.

Obviously, one solution is to sign onto law the needed bills to rectify these problems for Veterans. This would cost money to the taxpayers. In an attempt to keep taxation low, benefits were cut and measures taken to reduce the cost of care for any Veteran. But spending less on war and war related armament and activities would offset the additional cost that would be needed to take proper care of our Veterans.

Another solution is to work harder and create laws that allow for peace and peaceful settlements of disputes with other countries and adopt this as a main ideal in our framework of foreign policy.

As a member of Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and having fought as a combat infantry soldier in Vietnam, I speak from the first hand experience of being in war and seeing it up close. Peoples’ lives are shattered, both the lives of the soldiers on both “sides”, and the lives of their close friends and family members. The lives of the civilians caught up as war has its collateral damage and their close friends and family members.

The death and destruction to people and property. The after effects of wounds received and inflicted, both physical and emotional wounds. The obvious and blatant war profiteering by the arms companies and others that partake in such crime. The continuing effects of weapons and arms left behind like unexploded bombs and depleted uranium armaments. The destruction of lives from the behavior that results from such trauma, like drug addiction and alcoholism, spousal brutality, anxiety, anger, depression and panic attacks.

Society decides and allows war, through the officials they elect. It is societies burden then, to pay for it before it starts, while it is happening and when the conflict is over. The cost of war isn’t the billions that the President asks for from the legislature to fight the war. It is ongoing as the wounds of war to the people of the world never cease, even years after the conflict.

A first shot should never be fired by our Nation. We should stand ready to defend, but not be the reason for war. Standing as the worlds strongest Nation has a responsibility to the rest of the world, and that is to help promote peace at all costs.

The cost of war is staggering in dollar value, but the cost to humanity is even more as lives lost and the lost lives of the survivors can’t be counted with dollars. The best and easiest investment is in real peace through diplomacy and negotiations. The best and easiest solution to the problem of providing for our Veterans is peace.

Scumbag, Draft Dodger, VEEP

2008-07-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Kathy at CFLF for posting on this piece of special interest to veterans. Seems as if the guy who was too busy making babies to join the military has a draconian set of rules an organization must meet if they want him to speak to them.

Well, one organization, the Disabled American Veterans, have told VP Cheney to take a hike and do not bother to come to their convention in Las Vegas in August.

Hypocrite in Chief - NOT

2008-07-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

Reminiscent of Kiplings poem Tommy (which can be found here), we have the Republican nominee trying to balance the budget on the backs of the veterans, the very people he supposedly understands.

From a post at Blue Girl In A Red State comes this

Blue Wren, a blogging buddy and a female veteran who served in the Air Force during peacetime, writes:

John McCain, a Vietnam war veteran and POW who has supported Bush Administration cuts in VA health care funding and service for veterans in the past, has a new bright idea about how to save America money.

"Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s call to "concentrate veterans’ health care on those with combat injuries" is raising questions about the Arizona senator’s commitment to funding the ailing VA system."

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., said a system that treats combat veterans and non-combat veterans differently is inherently unfair. “We can care for both combat veterans and non-combat veterans if we just decide it is an important thing to do,” Filner said Thursday, one day after McCain talked at a Dover, N.H., town hall meeting about the need to concentrate veterans’ health care on people with injuries that 'are a direct result of combat.'"

It's infuriating that people like Bush and McCain would even consider trying to economize by refusing or delaying health care to veterans who've served their country honorably and in good faith while at the same time spending billions on a war that was started through dishonesty, hubris and greed.

Count me in among those who responded to this news with an emphatic "You've got to be shitting me."

Read the rest of Blue Wren's post, McCain would ration VA medical care. Make sure you read the comments, too.

McCain touts himself as a support the troops person, visit the troops, photo ops shaking hands with the troops but in his left hand is the knife with which he is stabbing the troops in the back.

McCain has turned into a lying, sniveling coward who will do anything, say anything in his pathetic attempt to win the general election in November.

As a retired career member of the U.S. Navy, I would much rather serve under an honest person who never wore the uniform, such as Senator Obama, than a boot licking appeaser like Senator McCain.

Cross posted at Liberty Street

VoteVets: Keep Your Word John MCain

2008-07-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today, we're announcing a new national television ad, and wanted you to see it right away.Senator McCain once said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to leave. Those of us who served agree with that. Senator McCain now either has to back off his refusal to set a plan to leave Iraq, as Prime Minister Maliki requested a number of times in the past week, or tell the American and Iraqi people why he would overrule Iraq's government and turn our troops into an indefinite occupying force. Those are his only two options. Our new ad makes that clear.

Click Here To Help Keep Ads Like This On The Air

Now is not the time to send mixed messages to the Iraqis. Even the Bush administration is bending on timelines for redeployment. Senator McCain does more harm than good when he signals to the Iraqi government that their request for a timetable for redeployment is a non-starter. We should be supporting the Iraqi government, not undermining it.

Further, there is a real enemy to fight in Afghanistan. It is time to set our focus on destroying the real terrorist threat in the Afghansitan/Pakistan region. We cannot want to be in Iraq more than the Iraqis want us to be there. We cannot referee Iraq's political problems with troops, especially when we have a real job to do protecting America from the terrorists in Afghanistan. And, we cannot do it all.

Click Here To Support VoteVets

Please take a moment to look at this powerful new ad, and donate to help us keep turning ads like this out. And, don't forget to tell your friends about this ad, and spread the word about the work VoteVets.org does. It's easy – just click on the "Tell-a-friend" link below.
Thanks for all of your support.

Sincerely,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Chairman, VoteVets.org

Paid for by VoteVets.org Action Fund

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
Tell-a-friend!

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for VoteVets.org.

Also posted at deuddersun says...

Joseph Dwyer, KIA

2008-07-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of the grimmest articles I've yet read about a problem that is only going to get worse. Please read it. I want you to stay angry about a completely failed system that needs to get changed. Whatever it takes.

Raw Story

A photograph taken in the first days of the war had made the medic from New York's Long Island a symbol of the United States' good intentions in the Middle East. When he returned home, he was hailed as a hero.

But for most of the past five years, the 31-year-old soldier had writhed in a private hell, shooting at imaginary enemies and dodging nonexistent roadside bombs, sleeping in a closet bunker and trying desperately to huff away the "demons" in his head. When his personal problems became public, efforts were made to help him, but nothing seemed to work.

This broken, frightened man had once been the embodiment of American might and compassion. If the military couldn't save him, Knapp thought, what hope was there for the thousands suffering in anonymity?

In July 2007, Dwyer checked into an inpatient program at New York's Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He stayed for six months.

He came home in March with more than a dozen prescriptions. He was so medicated that his feet flopped when he walked, as if he were wearing oversized clown shoes.

The VA's solution was a "pharmaceutical lobotomy," his father thought.

"And so it's a dance between the clinicians and the patient."

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, feels the VA is a lousy dance partner.

Rieckhoff said the VA's is a "passive system" whose arcane rules and regulations make it hard for veterans to find help. And when they do get help, he said, it is often inadequate.

"I consider (Dwyer) a battlefield casualty," he said, "because he was still fighting the war in his head."

There are tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of cases out there like Specialist Dwyer's, and more to come. We don't hear about them until someone investigates and reports on them, and not all of them will end like that, of course, but even one is too many.

Until more than lip service is given to fixing the problems in the military and VA mental health care systems, the problem will exist until all the Iraq Vets are dead.

It's going to take more than yellow ribbons on cars. It's going to take guilt and anger by millions of people to fix the aftermath of a warmongering imperialistic ideology that is still sending Americans to a criminal war and then throwing them away in repayment for their service.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

The Learned Warrior

2008-07-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

The learned warrior......there were such creatures; Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Lord Nelson. It was not enough in the minds of these men to know how to kill their fellow man and take what was theirs; you first find purpose in your conquest, you find method in your madness, then you turn your enemy upon himself, and in the end, the conquered become one and the same with the conquerors. Thus the world was changed at various intervals of human history, perhaps not necessarily, but strangely beneficially.

Young men seek the uniform, the weapon, and the attendant glory, for they will live forever, with stories of glory to pass on to their children, and put to rest any accusations of less than manly character. But the ranks swell with those that look no further beyond this characteristic hormone storm; very few that seek the whys and wherefores and context of their adventures. Most, I think thankfully, will have the impact of their actions realized as their friends drop beside them, or return home with pieces missing, or have children drill looks of hatred into their soul for having taken their parents. This is a price needing to be paid if we are to remain citizen soldiers called to defense of our own, rather than centurion mercenaries who find death a mere commodity. and become accustomed to the stench the rest of us could never tolerate.

Politicians who never served, who never went in harms way, who never stared down a barrel or bomb sight or periscope need not imagine themselves capable of crafting policy that will place warriors at the reapers disposal, yet they do, and the results of such blasphemy is now evident in the mounting toll of this big mistake we call a war on terrorism. The learned warrior knows a twisted truth, and will speak against it at first opportune. Not enough learned warriors seem to be with us these days, and that is the shame we will suffer for, for generations to come.

No, I did not wear gold braid upon my shoulders. No, I did not happen upon circumstance which would have branded me with valor. And no, I was not tested in such a way that I dare not dream for the horrors it could visit upon my slumbers. But I remember the mission, I remember how we carried it out, and I now know of the honor I wished we had realized in those days spent on a razor's edge. I am a learned warrior after the fact, and I second-guess with reckless abandon, and will continue to do so with confidence in my right and ability to do so, until such time that a learned man steps to the forefront and puts right this waste of lives and waste of honor which is Iraq. I am a veteran, and I stand by my judgement.

Moral waivers ...

2008-07-14T02:54:00.000-07:00

Or, Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel. Via Avedon, the Army is taking anyone they can get:

...

A yearlong examination of military and civilian records by The Sacramento Bee involving hundreds of troops who entered the services since the Iraq war began identified 120 cases of people whose backgrounds should have raised the suspicions of military recruiters, including felony convitions and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems.

Of those, 70 later were involved in controversial or criminal incidents in Iraq.

...

The 70 were among the tens of thousands of military personnel recruited or retained as the armed services, entering the sixth year of the Iraq war, lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted a growing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds previously would have barred them from serving.

...

That's it. Take violent, anti-social offenders, hand them a rifle, and tell 'em it's okay to kill brown folks. And we wonder when shit like Abu Graib happens, or when they come home and commit violent crimes against American citizens.

These clowns shouldn't be allowed to possess a BB gun, let alone be put in a war zone, and is a testament to how badly the situation in Iraq has crippled our military. The latest line from the White House this weekend is that there will be "a drawdown" of troops from Iraq, but that's only to send them to Afghanistan because we don't have the reserves to fill in the gaps (though Afghanistan was treated like the red-headed step-child from Day One) our half-assed commitment created.

Cdr. Huber:

... The Bush spin machine was quick to declare that the administration is considering increasing the pace of the pullout from Iraq (as if they were actually considering "pulling out" in the first place), not as a reaction to Maliki's invitation to pack sand, or because the force is collapsing from the deployment tempo, but because the extra troops are needed in Afghanistan.

...

The real moral waiver came when the U.S. Congress gave these assholes carte blanche to start this war and continue to fund it into its sixth year. Unfortunately, the way things are going, any grip we get on Morality is a long time coming. As long as insane foreign policy is considered mainstream, we will continue to field a military made up of convicts, gang bangers, and low lifes. Atrocities will continue and American credibility will continue to circle the bowl.

John McCain wants to stay in Iraq forever? Answer me this. Where is he gonna get the troops? Or is he just gonna empty out the prisons?

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Help Keep Us Out of Iran

2008-07-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

Dear MoveOn member,

By all accounts, the news coming out lately about Iran is scary. Iran is testing more missiles, and the Bush administration is promising swift retribution for any attack on the US or our allies.

To top it off, John McCain keeps joking about killing the Iranian people—discussing rising U.S. exports of cigarettes to Iran, he joked, "Maybe that's a way of killing them." And we all remember McCain's infamous, "Bomb Iran" song. (See video below)1

War is not a joke. The truth is that the Bush-McCain policy of reckless saber-rattling and threatening doesn't work—it just makes things worse and increases tensions in the region. What we need is serious, tough, and smart diplomacy—not another war.

Right now, Congress is considering bills that could clear the way for escalation or war. But they can act to make sure President Bush and John McCain don't lead us into another reckless war. Can you sign this petition asking Congress to push for diplomacy and demand Congressional authorization before getting us into another war? Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/diplomacyiran/o.pl?id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=3

The petition reads: "Saber-rattling and threats towards Iran without diplomacy is not working. Please support a new direction towards Iran and demand President Bush get Congressional authorization before getting us into another war."

For years, the Bush administration's policy has been the same—tough talk and no real diplomacy. So far, that hasn't helped curtail Iran's apparent nuclear ambitions or advanced American interests.

Unfortunately, John McCain's belligerent comments only make matters worse—at a moment when the Persian Gulf is on the brink of war because of leaders who dehumanize and demonize folks on the other side, John McCain is offering more of the same old approach.

As NPR reported this morning, "McCain believes that the Bush administration's approach has been the right one."2

What we need right now from this administration, and from our next president, is serious diplomacy. As Barack Obama said, "The United States has to gather up others in the region, as well as internationally, to apply pressure on Iran. But it's very difficult for us to do so when we haven't shown a willingness to engage in the sort of direct negotiations with Iran that would give them carrots and sticks for a change in behavior."3

We don't need more saber-rattling, belligerent rhetoric or jokes about killing Iranians.

Too many lives—American, Israeli, and Iranian—are at stake. Please click here to tell Congress to help avoid another war:

http://pol.moveon.org/diplomacyiran/o.pl?id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=3

Thanks for all you do.

–Nita, Wes, Peter, Eli and the rest of the team

P.S. Check out Video of McCain's comments:

Sources:

1. "Bad Joke," Progressive Accountability, July 9, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3918&id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=6

2. "Candidates Diverge On How To Handle Iran," NPR, July 10, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3919&id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=7

3. "Iran Tests Missiles Able To Reach Israel." US News and World Report, July 10, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3920&id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=8

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Let 'em serve ...

2008-07-07T16:13:00.001-07:00

I've served with gays and they performed at the same caliber or better than the rest of us. And, truly, they were the most fun to hang around with. Now there's proof:

WASHINGTON - Congress should repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy because the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win, according to a new study released by a California-based research center.

The study was conducted by four retired military officers, including the three-star Air Force lieutenant general who in early 1993 was tasked with implementing President Clinton's policy that the military stop questioning recruits on their sexual orientation.

"Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion," the officers states.

...

Now, let' em fucking serve if they want. There is no reason to marginalize any segment of our population, in any capacity, let alone denying them the chance to serve the country they love.

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

A long, long time ago in an ocean far, far away...........

2008-07-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

A steel cigar slid silently through the depths of the Mediterranean sea, a small body of water as oceans go, but chock full of sea-craft ranging from small fishing boats to mighty aircraft carriers. These ships, boats, and as-sundry watercraft sported flags of damn near every nation with access to the open ocean, and at least two of these flags did not approach each other with any kind of affection. The Stars and Stripes kept a watchful eye on the Hammer and Sickle, and vice versa, each waiting for the other to make the wrong move, the move most of us onboard these vessels prayed would never come. But we all had our fingers on our triggers, for that was what our respective countries had trained us for, and I for one know that MY side was damn good at hitting what we shot at.

However, the world that all this angst was flavoring was a different one than the ones our fathers and grandfathers served, for this was not the life and death struggle between two distinct philosophies brought to a head, but a slow, simmering bickering between two superpowers with Armageddon at their disposal. Then, it was us or them. In this new "cold war", it could easily be us AND them. Our superiors knew it, we knew it, and perhaps that knowing kept us from having a hair trigger. None of us savored the possibility of our own families suffering their own private Hiroshima.

On top of all this posturing of man and machine above and beneath the waves, was the entanglement that the United States found itself involved with in Vietnam. I can safely say that a good portion of the ranks of both the Navy AND the Air Force was filled with patriotic young Americans who were not quite patriotic enough to wish to find themselves wading through rice paddies with no earthly idea who their enemy really was. The fly boys dropped their bombs on coordinates; THAT was their enemy, and most of the time they never had to actually SEE that enemy. Likewise, out here in the oceans, our targets were ships of designs different than ours with a different flag flying from the mast. Our torpedos would seek out a THING, a great big STEEL thing that was going to kill us if we didn't kill it first. We could not afford to worry about the flesh and bone within those steel hulls, just as they couldn't afford to worry about us. So, you had at least ONE branch of the service facing down an easily identifiable enemy, a cadre of sailors who felt much more comfortable risking annihilation by an easily understood enemy than those in Vietnam who increasingly found themselves BECOMING the enemy, against all those ideals they thought they had been raised with and measured by.

I was just one of a crew of a hundred-odd individuals who found themselves in a decade of transitions, who didn't quite understand the history they were making, who in a very human way were more worried about running out of cigarettes on a long deployment and getting laid back in port than they were with the geopolitical implications of the missions they were participating in. It wasn't until long after I had satisfied my active duty requirements and did a few years of Reserve duty did I finally come across a book that spelled out in startling detail some of the dangers I had been exposed to and didn't even know it. You see, loose lips sank ships, and there was so much secrecy involved in OUR branch of the Navy that half the time we didn't even know ourselves half the stuff we weren't allowed to talk to anyone about, including our own spouses. If you want to know how fast and how deep my submarine could go, you can find out in this book, but we were never allowed to divulge that information, no matter how common knowledge we suspected it might actually be. So, years after the fact, instead of the disaffected Personnelman who served aboard two nuclear attack submarines who could not wait to get back to civilian life in order to find some sort of respect, I have become the enlightened veteran, who had no idea that yes, I actually played a major part in contributing to the ultimate downfall and disillusion of the Mighty Soviet Empire. Contrast against those fine young men who survived a FUBAR only to watch the North Vietnamese Army drive a tank through the gates of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace. How do you come to grips with THAT?

The decades since have passed beyond us much faster than any of us imagined they could. WE are now the older men, with memories to pass on to younger generations who perhaps think of us more as the baby boomer hippies rather than the young men out to change the world for the better, who both utterly failed and succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. Old threats vanquished, we now face new and confusing challenges, and once again finding those in power failing us and this fresh new generation paying THEIR price for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The mantle has been passed to US; shall we stand idly by while caskets draped in American flags continue to return across oceans that no longer protect us, while people in places most of us can't find on maps learn to hate us for manufactured reasons having nothing to do with who we are as a people? America STILL can stand for something precious in this world; it remains to us to lend voice to that truth.

My brothers, thank you for finding me worthy to join you here, practicing with full force the rights we served to protect, in one capacity or another. You will find me a harsh practitioner of those rights, for I have lived long enough to actually think that I could be called to arms to protect those same rights, only this time from DOMESTIC threats, which I never in my wildest dreamed imaginable. No, I doubt very seriously that any of us will find ourselves becoming involved in some sort of insurgency against our own brothers, as we did back in the civil war, but I do believe that those now here will utilize this amazing and powerful forum to speak out and shine the bright light of reason on these outrages perpetrated by our present administration and those in congress who enable them to do such damage to our precious constitution, our armed forces, and the prestige that we once enjoyed around the world as that "shining city on the hill".

So, once again, thank you, and you can be rest assured they can shut me up when they pull this keyboard out of my cold, dead fingers.

Welcome To The American Patriot Institute, Michael

2008-07-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

Nothing seems more appropriate to me than welcoming a new Resident Scholar to the American Patriot Institute on Independence Day. So it is with great pleasure that I ask you to welcome Michael, of Pendragon's Hold, to our ranks.

Our little ragtag bunch has grown. What started out as a "Rogues Gallery" is becoming something of a minor force in the socio-political blogosphere. When Moderate Man took the Rogue's Gallery one step further, and founded the American Patriot Institute, it was more of an inside joke than anything-else. Why shouldn't we, he reasoned, who have served our nation and believe in the oath we swore to defend the Constitution of The United States of America, have an "umbrella organization" from which we could "issue papers" countering the propaganda of other "patriotic" organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute, and none has done so more effectively than the Moderate Man himself. (With the possible exception of Kitchen Window Woman, whose posts continue to amaze me.) Yet we all have something to contribute in our own way, and we all do. Whether it be Spadoman regaling us with details of "The Longest Walk" or the Ashland Peace Vigil, or Buffalo spinning a tale that takes us back to our lost youth, we have all continued to "fight" for the America we were once so proud to serve. We are all in accordance that the path this current Administration has chosen is terribly wrong for America and we are united in our efforts to change it for the better. While we don't always agree on all things, we do agree that we love our country and that our meager efforts to restore her to her once great glory is Patriotic and that by doing so, we are fulfilling the oaths we swore, (for some of us), so long ago.

Michael's voice will strengthen us. His writing is poignant and insightful. His dedication to our cause is clearly evident in his posts. His service in the United States Navy provides him with a perspective no chickenhawk can ever have.

Welcome aboard, Michael.

At some time in the near future, please post a your "baby picture" (boot graduation pic or any pic of you in uniform), for inclusion in the image map posted in the sidebar of many of our sites. Your pic will be included and will link directly to your site, These Thoughts Escape Me. You may copy and paste the Flag and Eagle logo of the API in your sidebar, as evidence of your membership. You may also copy the link-list to the other members from my site, (I believe I have the most recent list). Shortly, you will receive an invitation to post here with full admin rights. This site is a "we" thing, so feel free to add links, change the template, whatever. This site will only grow if we all water and feed it.

Once again, welcome. Welcome home, Brother.

d.

Michael posts at These Thoughts Escape Me.

Please update your API linklists to include Michaels' website.

Oh, and Happy Independence Day Brothers and Sisters! Let us continue our efforts to win our Independence from those who have abused our nation and it's Constitution!

Semper Fi!

Also posted at deuddersun says...

Embrace Democracy Website

2008-07-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

Deuddersun asked where I had gotten the "Embrace Flag". I hadn't saved the link so had I to search for the envelope with the mailing address and website. I ordered our flags two years ago from Dr. Paul A. Redstone, M.D., whose concern led him to take action. I visited the website today and it appears to still be active but no where is anything dated.

Here it is: www.embracedemocracy.org

Peace,
KWW

The Gunny

2008-07-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

I saw him from his left side. I could see the letters “M C’ on his blue ball cap. My ball cap says “U S Navy - SCPO.” Eventually, I saw all four letter “U S M C” at least two inches tall in gold embroidery.

I paid for the fresh peaches, tomatoes and green beans Mrs. Chief picked up at this farmer’s market and proceeded to put them in the car while she went to find her mother. In the parking lot I spotted a red pickup with a license plate that only a career Marine would have.

He was just finished paying for his fresh strawberries so I asked him, “That your red pickup?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“How many years,” I queried.

“32”

“Holy shit,” I said, “ I only did 21.”

“That’s a long time.”

So we chatted a bit. His 32 years had taken him to a tour in Kuwait, two tours in Tunisia, two aboard the Forrestal. He was on the Forrestal in ’67 when they had the big fire.

As we parted, he said, “Thank you for your service.”

I was somewhat surprised by that, because he had served more than fifty percent longer than I. I said, “But you gave more than I did.”

“But some gave more than either of us,” he said.

On that note we waved good-bye.

Comical Ignorance

2008-06-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Except it isn't funny. Pitiful perhaps, dangerous maybe but, funny it aint. "It" is the response of the reich-wing bloviators I half heard on CNN late at night responding to General Wesley Clark's well considered denunciation of the idea of flying and/or crashing a fighter plane as qualifying one for the job of POTUS. I suppose it will come as a shock to no thinking person that General Clark is waaaaaayyy more likely to be right when it comes to military issues than the chickenhawk guild. However, there are a couple of points worth expanding.

In the USN, unless you are the CO or XO of a squadron, a pilot is in command of nothing. (S)He does not lead men and flying is not generally considered a command path. Even the term/job "plane captain" does not refer to the pilot but instead, to the enlisted (wo)man who has the responsibility for just damn near everything on the bird except when it is actually in flight. Yes, pilots are officers but, few of them turn out to be leaders. Their training focuses on what they can do to avoid costing the U.S. and USN a shitload of money by giving gravity primary control of an airborne plane.(Such training apparently did not take with McSame as evidenced by his time as a POW.) They also receive some training on delivering death, destruction and mayhem on command. As a general rule, with acknowledged exceptions, O3 and below flyboys know less about leadership and command than your average E6 and up. Yea, sure the E6 will have to salute the O3 but that is more tradition and general orders than it is respect.

"Line" officers are the command path officers. They learn to drive boats and head up divisions on a ship and they cross train in a lot of different shit. In running a division, they will be the leader of the enlisted men who make up that division (if the Chief lets them) and they can dream of their own command. Interestingly enough, John Kerry was a line officer with command experience. When he was being unfairly dissed and outright lied about by veteran and chickenhawk alike, such experience wasn't especially valuable to the GOP. Even to the point of the rank and file rethugs making graphic fun of Purple Heart earners at the national convention.

In short Barack Obama has just as much command experience as John McSame. Both have "commanded" political campaigns. It is comical ignorance indeed to believe that all military service is the same or that all military jobs are command prep. But, these comically misinformed individuals have huge misinformed audiences. Even worse, none of them seem to even want to know the truth. The relevant truth here is that Clark is right. Flying and/or crashing airplanes is in no way, shape, form, or fashion, suitable or significant preparation for the job of POTUS. Serving as a POW does not give one special insight into how to prosecute a war or, how to lead the nation in times of peace. Physical suffering for one's nation does not entitle one to high political office. It just doesn't.

I interacted with a lot of officers during my time in the military and, like just damn near any other enlisted puke, I learned to size them up pretty quickly. If I was being recalled into the military tomorrow and I had to choose one of the two presidential candidates to be the officer I reported to, the nation would be in trouble because with my life on the line, I would pick the intelligent, analytical, clear-headed, quick thinking one of the two. I'd pick Obama.

CAFKIA

cross posted to meanderthal

Patriotism

2008-06-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't as yet written an API piece on the meaning of patiotism, I've spent some time recently reading and thinking on the subject. Given the abusive, dangerous, and very oppressive home that I grew up in, I abhor authoritarianism and the tyranny with which it stalks, traps, and devours its victims. The "Embrace Democracy" flag above expresses my view of patriotism in full.

The Embrace flag measures 61/2 '' by 4". We have two of them. One is magnetized so reminds everyone here daily of the basics involved in maintaining a participatory democracy - it is the largest magnet on our refrigerator. The other, a plastic window decal, is the only flag decal that has ever graced one of our cars. Remember that John Prine song....

Your flag decal won't get you into heaven any more
It's already overcrowded from your dirty little war
Jesus don't like killin' no matter what the reason for
Your flag decal won't get you into heaven any more.

The "Embrace Democracy" flag says it all. We all took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. We along with non-veterans are all charged with protecting the freedoms and rights alloted all of us by the founders of our democratic system. Debate, Dissent, and Question translate into three of the most powerful arms every American can and should bear when threatened by authoritarianism. We are under threat now, and have been throughout the worst, most destructive presidency this nation has ever experienced.

On Thursday, June 26th four of us from San Diego Veterans For Peace met with two of congressman Duncan Hunter's staff members to voice our opposition to H. Con. Res. 362. This dangerous proposal, if passed, would demand that the president order a blockage against Iran. A blockade is considered by international law, to be an act of aggression. This administration may be hoping that by passing Resolution 362 they will be able to provoke Iran into a war with the United States.

The meeting at Hunter's office was a new experience for me. My fellow vets had done such visits before. One acted as the lead and then we each in turn spoke. As the only female present I chose to speak from that perspective so attempted to give voice to the victims, both Iranian and American, of an expanded war. I learned from our visitation and will put what I've learned to use in the future.

On one hand, it seemed access to our elected representative was as close and open as the corner store; on the other, the president and the congress have been taking our money and screwing us for years.

We went to speak truth to power but when I thought about it later, I realized that speaking truth to power doesn't apply in a democracy. The people are the power in a democracy - so arm yourselves, my brothers, Debate, Dissent, and Question!
________________________________________________________

Life has been a whirlwind lately and I've had one heck of a case of writer's block. I think the Hillary/ Obama thing did a real job on me. Still dealing with some health issues but nothing major and doing OK. I hope that all of you are well and that life is being good to you.

Catfish and I are going to the Veterans For Peace convention in Minneapolis from August 27 - 31. Will any of you be there? We are scrimping and saving to afford it but looking forward to taking part.

I tried to put the new photo map on my page but it wouldn't work - I don't know why. I'll try again tomorrow.

That's it for now,
.....PEACE......
......KWW.......

Meet Michael

2008-06-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

These Thoughts Escape Me is authored by Michael, a ne’er do well of my long acquaintance. In addition to being an excellent writer, Michael is a patriotic American who is not reluctant to speak out against the assaults on our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and the questionable actions of some of our leaders.

Michael also served honorably in the U.S. Navy. I offer his name for membership in the august ranks of the American Patriot Institute.

Buffalo

Thank You, from VoteVets.Org

2008-06-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

Yesterday, I represented VoteVets.org at a press conference with leaders in the Senate, before the body passed the bipartisan GI Bill for the 21^st Century. It was an honor to be there, but I wasn’t just representing my fellow veterans, I was representing each and every one of you.

30,000 petition signatures. Tens of thousands of letters to Capitol Hill. Thousands and thousands of letters to the editor. Donations that allowed us to air national TV ads on the bill. That’s what you did to help pass this bill, in the name of VoteVets.org, and that’s why I was invited to stand with Senators as the bill was brought up for consideration.

More importantly, your work made passage of the bill a reality.

Now, the bill will go to the President’s desk, and he has signaled he will sign it. It wasn’t so long ago that the President had threatened to veto the legislation, with Senators like John McCain backing him up on that decision. The President’s reversal can also be attributed to just how much you worked to pass this bill. The President and those in his party know that there could be nothing more unpopular than vetoing increased education benefits for those who serve in war, in a time of war.

That’s why I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. What you have done is make the American dream possible for so many of us. Many of us who couldn’t afford college will now be able to. We’ll go on to become doctors and lawyers and teachers, and have the chance to raise families in the American middle class. It was a promise made to us by Franklin Roosevelt, and your work has restored that promise.

You are truly patriots, in every sense of the word.

Sincerely,

Brian McGough

Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran
VoteVets.org

PAID FOR BY VOTEVETS.ORG ACTION FUND
www.VoteVets.org

Department of Justice Corrupted by Bush Administration

2008-06-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Proof is emerging that the Bush Administration has done everything in it's power to pervert the Department of Justice by politically profiling candidates for the position of Attorneys General. This is despicable and shows how far the Always Wrong Right will go to maintain their death grip on our country. Talk about shredding the constitution! Please copy the video below and post it since Keith Olbermann seems to be the only one, (as usual), in the main stream media willing to talk about it. Anyone who thinks that the fight to regain our America will be easy needs to watch it.

Now pardon me while I go puke.

d.

Post Script: The above makes it clear once and for all, (at least to me), that this Administration is neither bumbling nor incompetent, but rather, a Mafia-like family, bent on controlling our nation for their own gains, in a cold, calculating way. They will use any means possible to maintain this control and protect their asses. Face it, we have been taken over by Facists, and anyone who doesn't think so has their head up their ass.

This makes the upcoming Presidential Election more important than ever. With the collapse of our Democratic led Congress on Telecom Immunity, Impeachment, the Plame "incident" and other vital issues, we may never know how far reaching their crimes are, but a clean sweep in November, DINO's (Dems In Name Only), as well as Republi-cons, would be a great start.

Also posted at deuddersun says...

Hail to the Chief

2008-06-21T17:31:00.001-07:00

This week and up to July 1, 2008, chiefs across the Navy and the nation are in stand-down reflecting on heritage and traditions, and enhancing knowledge and skills. On the yard specifically, the senior enlisted are reflecting on the privilege of service, development of future leaders, humility, equal opportunity, and the value of diversity.
The rank of the Chief Petty Officer was established in the Navy on April 1, 1893, with Masters-at-Arms, Boatswain's Mates, Quartermasters, Gunner's Mates, Machinists, Carpenter's Mates, Yeomen, Apothecaries, and Band Masters serving as the first Chief Petty Officers.

One hundred years later, on April 1, 1993, then-Chief of Naval Operations ADM Frank Kelso II said, "The example set by Chiefs for the last century inspires our young men and women of today. Indeed, what Americans see in our impressive young Sailors is the tradition of devotion and dedication the first Chiefs established with their sacrifices and valor."

Now, 15 years later, those words still ring true. Today, Chief Petty Officers serve in many vital roles at the Naval Academy.

They are Senior Enlisted Leaders within Bancroft Hall. They are Craft masters aboard the Yard Patrol Craft. They are instructors in Engineering & Weapons, and in Seamanship & Navigation. They are leaders within the Naval Academy Band. They lead Sailors in mission-accomplishment, ensuring the YPs and sailboats are ready to train; ensuring medical staffs are ready and able to provide high quality care to active duty, family members, and retirees; ensuring the Sailors standing watch at our gates are trained and equipped to carry out the mission. These Chiefs serve every day as role models to thousands of future Navy and Marine Corps officers, providing the standard of excellence in leadership we should all expect from our superiors.

There is a common tale about the critical role of Chief Petty Officers that has roots back in the days of ADM William "Bull" Halsey, Class of 1904, Fleet Admiral and Commander of the Third Fleet during the Pacific War against Japan. At the end of World War II, legend has it that the city of Los Angeles had a ceremony on the steps of the county courthouse to honor their home town hero, which included a line of sideboys. According to the story, the sideboys were all active duty and retired Chief Petty Officers who had served with ADM Halsey. ADM Halsey approached one of the retired Chiefs, and they winked at each other. At a cocktail party later on in the evening, one of the guests at the event asked the Admiral about the wink he shared with the Chief.
The story says that ADM Halsey explained, "That man was my Chief when I was an Ensign, and no one before or after taught me as much about ships or men as he did. You civilians don't understand. You go down to Long Beach, and you see those battleships sitting there, and you think that they float on water, don't you?"

The guest replied, "Yes sir, I guess I do."

To which ADM Halsey stated, "You are wrong. They are carried to sea on the backs of those Chief Petty Officers!

As we honor the 115th birthday of the Chief Petty Officers, please take a moment to reflect upon the significance of those fouled anchors and the years of experience, wisdom, and deckplate leadership they represent.

Veterans Used To Test Suicide-Linked Drugs

2008-06-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

ABC News

Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are being recruited for government tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects, an investigation by ABC News and The Washington Times has found.

If the WT is involved, it means even the wingnuts are pissed-off at this one. Good. This kinda shit crosses party lines.

In one of the human experiments, involving the anti-smoking drug Chantix, Veterans Administration doctors waited more than three months before warning veterans about the possible serious side effects, including suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior.

"Lab rat, guinea pig, disposable hero," said former US Army sniper James Elliott in describing how he felt he was betrayed by the Veterans Administration.

As much as I've been helped by the VA, and they helped me save my own life, it's getting harder and harder for me to respect them. One unconscionable stupid fuck-up after another and so on and so on will do that.

Months after he began taking the drug, Elliott suffered a mental breakdown, experiencing a relapse of Iraq combat nightmares he blames on Chantix.

"They never told me that I was going to be suicidal, that I would cease sleeping. They never told me anything except this will help me quit smoking," Elliott told ABC News and The Washington Times.

On the night of February 5th, after consuming a few beers, Elliott says he "snapped" and left his home with a loaded gun.

Go read the rest of this.

Pfizer maintains that "the benefits of Chantix outweigh the risks" and that it continues to do further studies on the drug.

The FAA has prohibited commercial airline pilots from using Chantix because of its possible side effects.

Just...swear words.

Note to the next President: Barry, you fix this first thing. Clean house over there and get some Veterans in charge of it.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Federal judge gives smackdown to McCain and Bush

2008-06-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Stolen in toto from Badtux:

Federal Judge Samuel Conti accepts into evidence an email suggesting that it was official Bushevik strategy to deny veterans' PTSD claims.

If he'd already made up his mind to believe the Busheviks, he wouldn't have done this. Which leads me to believe that he is about to lay down a major smackdown in the fraud trial where the Busheviks are accused of denying care to PTSD patients by deliberately misdiagnosing them...

-- Badtux the Veterans Penguin

Thanks, bud.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

New Image Map Available

2008-06-08T16:52:00.001-07:00

Thanks to scroff, of Any Which Way, the new image map for The API is now available. The new map includes the "baby pictures" of Chief and Cafkia. Simply click on the link below. The image map links each picture to that person's website and is undeniable proof that we are who we say we are, veterans of the Armed Forces of The United States of America dedicated to defending the Constitution of the United States of America, against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic.

Please update or post this in the sidebar of your website, if possible.

American Patriot Institute

Want this code?

Semper Fidelis,

d.

Gitmo

2008-06-01T16:30:00.001-07:00

Gitmo, to me, is, perhaps, similar to a relationship one has with a (former) significant other, in that your memories of that time are sweet and positive, but today the relationship, if there really is one, is negative.

Gitmo is one of those places where I learned to be an adult and assume adult responsibilities.

For about an 18 month period, Early Spring 1961 to late Summer 1962, I was in and out of Gitmo many, many times on two different Navy ships. The first ship was a WW2 Sumner class destroyer. I was a third class Electronics Technician, ET3 in Navy speak who maintained radars and equipment associated with Combat Information Center or CIC. I also stood underway watches in CIC. The height of my proficiency was the ability to radar navigate out of Gitmo harbor.

Normally, the folks on the bridge control the movements of the ship. But as a exercise to prepare for foggy weather, the ship uses radar to navigate so everybody can be experienced in this maneuver. That was the Radarman’s job (Operations Specialist in today’s Navy), but I had gained the skills, working outside of my rating to be able to give the orders to navigate using radar out of the confines of the Guantanamo Bay harbor. Of course, everyone on the bridge was watching shore line and bouys and would have taken over If I goofed up. But I got us out safely.

But from the Bay of Pigs to the Berlin Wall crisis in 1962, I had far too much familiarity with Gitmo. But, you know what? I take a lot of pride in my accomplishments during that period of my life, not the least of which was a great deal of “personal growth.” I got married and eventually we had our first child on the way. Of course that helps you grow up real quick.

But the responsibilities I had thrust on me and which I mastered helped show me how an adult is supposed to conduct themselves.

Those are very fond memories and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is a large part of those memories.

Today “Gitmo” is a mark of shame. A place that I wish my country was not involved with. A concept of holding people prisoner in a place where”we” can make any law we want to. It is a concept that is foreign to my idea of what Constitutional government is supposed to be. It is akin to the Russian gulag or a Nazi concentration camp.

2008-06-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

Yesterday, Senator Chuck Hagel sent a note to us, thanking us for our work to pass the Webb-Hagel GI Bill. I wanted to share it with you, because whatever VoteVets.org has accomplished, it was only because of your hard work and support. So, this note is for you:

Dear Jon and Friends,
As you know, the Webb-Hagel GI Bill passed both Houses of Congress with overwhelming bi-partisan support. The Senate's vote last week (75-22) was a big win for us. We could not have made this progress without your organization's strong support.
Thank you for your commitment and leadership in ensuring that we get this legislation passed and signed into law.
This effort is not over. I will continue to do all I can to see the Webb-Hagel GI Bill become a reality for America's deserving veterans. Thanks again to you and your colleagues for all your help. We're getting close!
Best wishes.
Regards,
Chuck Hagel

I think we all thank Senator Hagel back, for his leadership and commitment to speaking for our service members. It's something he wrote about very poignantly in his new book (which, incidentally, my mother just bought me for my birthday - it's a great gift!).

In "America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers," Senator Hagel writes, "In my mind, patriotism is about asking the tough questions, not avoiding them. It is unpatriotic not to question a government's policies before the first life is lost. Of course I want our country to "win," but we must ask precisely what does "winning" mean and we need to ask that question before the first shot is fired. You can question and criticize my judgment-or any elected representative's judgment."

The name of the chapter that passage is from is "Who Speaks Up For The Rifleman?"

Thankfully, for us, Senator Hagel speaks up for the rifleman, and is one of the best friends that troops and veterans have ever had in Congress. And you all, for your hard work on the GI Bill and other issues, are some of the greatest friends and supporters that the troops and veterans have ever had in the American public.

Thanks for all of your support.

Sincerely,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Chairman, VoteVets.org

Things that make me sick ...

2008-05-27T02:58:00.000-07:00

One of the worst is watching this idiot placing the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Pic stolen from C & L.

And Bob Geiger says it just about right:

Dead Troops Remembered By President Who Had Them Killed

Yes, that's a harsh headline for this piece.

But I'll ask you to forgive me because, as a Veteran, there isn't a day on the calendar that causes my hatred -- and I do indeed mean hatred -- of George W. Bush to bubble over the top more than Memorial Day.

...

The Chickenhawk-in Chief says a lot of things that make this Vet's blood boil but stuff like saying that he prays "...that our country may always prove worthy of the sacrifices they have made" is almost vomit inducing.

...

Makes me wanna puke too, pal.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Some Folks Get It...

2008-05-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

Billionaire treats wounded soldiers to Vegas weekend

LAS VEGAS — All too familiar with the gambles of war, Jimmy Kinsey, Kyle Riley and a few dozen fellow soldiers landed in the desert. But for these guys this Memorial Day, the most at stake is a few bucks.

The soldiers-turned-high rollers took a private jet to Las Vegas over the weekend for an all-expenses-paid getaway with all the perks normally saved for casinos' richest regulars.

They were greeted at the airport by Wayne Newton, chilled backstage with the guys from Blue Man Group and hobnobbed with Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul who runs Las Vegas Sands Corp. and paid for the trip.

The trip, organized by the Armed Forces Foundation, brought 40 wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., to the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

"I'm gonna be bragging about this for a long while," said Kinsey, 23, while hanging out in his penthouse overlooking the nearby Wynn Golf Course. Each of the soldiers, mostly in their 20s, stayed in a penthouse, and several who came alone got one to themselves.

Kinsey, a Marine corporal from Foley, Ala., who lost part of his left leg to an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2006, said he hadn't spent too much time gambling — just a few slots.

"On a scale from one to 10 I gave this trip a 15 when I got on the plane," he said.

Riley, a 21-year-old from Catlett, Va., who also lost part of his left leg to an IED in Iraq, was so overwhelmed by the trip he decided with his fiancee, Alyssa Mergler, to make it their wedding weekend. They planned to wed Monday on a gold and white gondola, courtesy of Adelson, whom Mergler said insisted on having his staff handle the plans.

Mergler, 21, said a wedding coordinator showed up at their suite with a thick book of flower choices.

"I don't have the money to do that," said Riley, who asked Kinsey to be his best man.

Armed Forces Foundation officials said the trip was a dream distraction from the everyday life at the hospitals, where the soldiers lived while recovering from their injuries.

Armed Forces Foundation spokesman Doug Stone said the trip would be the first of many, and said Adelson wanted to eventually extend the all-expenses-paid offer to every veteran who had been admitted to the two hospitals.

A spokesman for Adelson said the executive was not available for comment because he was traveling.

___

On the Net:

Armed Forced Foundation: http://www.armedforcesfoundation.org

Venetian: http://www.venetian.com

If you enjoy Casino's, may I suggest patronizing the VenetianOrganization. Even if you don't, a short e-mail of appreciation will ensure that this wonderful show of respect for our Veterans continues.

Semper Fi!

Not to put too fine a point on it ...

2008-05-26T02:56:00.000-07:00

The Normandy American Cemetery - Normandy, France

But Memorial Day is not a 'happy' holiday.

Memorial Day is a time to reflect on the people who sacrificed their lives so you can live the life you do in this country.

Especially this year, the 6th since the War in Iraq began, when over 4000 of our service people have died, not to protect this nation or our way of life but in an illegal, unjustified provocation. 4000 dead for nothing. 4000 lives wasted.

I'll have a 'happy' Memorial Day when Bush, Cheney, and their minions are in a dock in The Hague.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

McCains Votes On Vets Issues

2008-05-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

John McCain once stood for something honorable. Today he is a sorry shell of the man he used to be. His lack of a vote on Senator Webb's Expanded G.I. Bill and his comments backing President Bush's threatened veto, make me wonder how any veteran can consider him to be worthy of being president.

Senator McCain was in California for two, count ‘em T-W-O, fundraisers when he should have been doing his job as a U.S. Senator and been standing by his shipmates to make sure they can get an education. His education was free to him because we taxpayers paid for his four years at the U.S. Naval Academy. Yet he doesn't want to give any of those benefits to those that already have served. They have a name for people like that - hypocrite.

Here are some more details on Senator McCains dismal record regarding votes on veterans issues by Brian Beutler in The Nation. Deep into the article, I find these tidbits

"John McCain voted against veterans in 2004, '05, '06 and '07," says Jeffrey David Cox, who spent twenty-two years as a VA nurse

During a March 2005 Senate budget debate, McCain voted to kill an amendment that would have "increase[d] veterans medical care by $2.8 billion in 2006.

In September 2006 McCain voted to table an amendment to a Defense appropriations bill that would have prevented the department from contracting out support services at Walter Reed. The amendment was indeed tabled--by a vote of fifty to forty-eight, the sort of margin a true veterans' senator might have been able to flip if he really cared about veterans' healthcare.

McCain voted against an amendment that would have "increase[d] Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes." Two days after it failed, he voted to kill "an assured stream of funding for veterans' health care that [would] take into account the annual changes in the veterans' population and inflation to be paid for by restoring the pre-2001 top rate for income over $1 million, closing corporate tax loopholes and delaying tax cuts for the wealthy." That amendment died quietly, forty-six to fifty-four.

The very good news is that the Webb Bill leaves the Senate on a resounding 75 yeas v. 22 nays. That's called veto proof.

Supporting the troops ...

2008-05-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

In their usual style. The Chimp threatens to veto the Webb GI Bill when it gets to his desk. Says Sen. Webb:

... And then we see this president, he’s fine with sending these people over and over again where they’re spending more time in Iraq than they are at home. He’s fine with the notion of stop loss, where we can, we can make people stay in even after enlistments are done. And then we say, “Give them the same benefit that the people in World War II have,” and they say it’s too expensive.

...

As opposed to tax breaks and subsidies for the oil companies, right? As opposed to tax cuts for the rich?

Cross-posted at the Brain.

The Truth About Veteran Suicides

2008-05-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Here's some excerpts from an article on a huge problem that is not being adequately addressed, and the huge cover-up of it, in Foreign Policy In Focus:

Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.

These are statistics that most Americans don't know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.

We should all be angry about what has gone on here, Filner said. This is a matter of life and death for the veterans that we are responsible for and I think there was criminal negligence in the way this was handled. If we do not admit, assume or know then the problem will continue and people will die. If thats not criminal negligence, I dont know what is.

Its also part of a pattern. The high number of veteran suicides werent the only government statistics the Bush Administration was forced to reveal because of the class action lawsuit.

Another set of documents presented in court showed that in the six months leading up to March 31, a total of 1,467 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claim would be approved by the government. A third set of documents showed that veterans who appeal a VA decision to deny their disability claim have to wait an average of 1,608 days, or nearly four and a half years, for their answer.

Other casualty statistics are not directly concealed, but are also not revealed on a regular basis. For example, the Pentagon regularly reports on the numbers of American troops wounded in Iraq (currently at 31,948) but neglects to mention that it has two other categories injured (10,180) and ill (28,451). All three of these categories represent soldiers who are so damaged physically they have to be medically evacuated to Germany for treatment, but by splitting the numbers up the sense of casualties down the public consciousness.

Heres another number that we dont often hear discussed in the media: 287,790. Thats the number of returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who had filed a disability claim with the Veterans Administration as of March 25th. That figure was not announced to the public at a news conference, but obtained by Veterans for Common Sense using the Freedom of Information Act.

Why all the secrecy? Why is it so hard to get accurate casualty figures out of our government? Because the Bush Administration knows if Americans woke up to the real, human costs of this war they would fight harder to oppose it.

According to an April 2008 study by the Rand Corporation, 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans currently suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or major depression. Another 320,000 suffer from traumatic brain injury, physical brain damage. A majority are not receiving help from the Pentagon and VA system which are more concerned with concealing unpleasant facts than they are with providing care.

In its study, the RAND Corporation wrote that the federal government fails to care for war veterans at its own peril - noting post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury can have far reaching and damaging consequences.

Bush and Congress have the power to stop this problem before it gets worse. Its not too late to extend needed mental health care to our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans; its not too late to begin properly screening and treating returning servicemen and women whove experienced a traumatic brain injury; and it is not too late to simplify the disability claims process so that wounded veterans do not die waiting for their check. As the Rand study shows, this isnt only in the best interest of veterans, its in the best interest of our country in the long run.

To start with, the Bush Administration needs to give us some honest information about the true human costs of the Iraq War.

Well, that isn't going to happen, and neither will Veterans get the services they need and deserve from the current regime. They only care about money going to the military industrial complex, which includes themselves, and control of oil. They care not one whit about the human carnage they have created in the lust for profit. After all, it's other people's kids who've been dying and suffering. The administration has lied and conned them into volunteering by disguising their true agenda and wrapping it in the flag. They pay great lip service to 'support the troops', but it's just more of the lies and bullshit that characterize the Bush junta.

I am down-deep certain that someone, somewhere, in this administration is hoping, perhaps to a level of policy, that if enough Veterans kill themselves, die awaiting treatment that may never come, get locked up, or just shut the fuck up and stay out of sight, the problem will go away. Not having served themselves, they don't understand Veterans very well. Not being good human beings, they don't understand obligation to those they've hurt either.

This is just one more mess they've left for the next and subsequent administrations to deal with. And those had better.

As a nation, we will be cleaning out Bush's stables for the next generation and beyond, and I hope the crap lands right on those responsible, but I'm sure that in the world of reality they'll duck it and prosper as always. Dammit.

1.20.09

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Betraying The Troops Is Big Bucks

2008-05-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

Go see this video interview. Put something in between your teeth so you don't grind them to dust.

In their recent book "Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War," Dina Rasor and Robert Bauman present firsthand accounts of fraud, deception, negligence and treachery by contractors during the privatized invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This is the first war that was designed to rely on contractors - private companies with profit as their top priority - for transportation, food, water, spare parts and even protection. As a result, according to Rasor and Bauman, the government has been bilked out of billions of dollars, Americans and Iraqis have suffered and died, and the war effort as a whole has been deeply weakened.

Dina Rasor founded the Project On Governmental Oversight and now serves on the board of directors. She sat down with me to discuss the ongoing problems with military contracting and the complete lack of fraud prosecution at the Department of Justice.

For more information on Rasor and Bauman's work, visit Follow the Money Project.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Dear Brothers,

2008-05-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

I promised myself that when I began to feel better the first thing I'd write would be a post to all of you on API's new page...

So I went online and looked up and down all of my links for the API link and couldn't find it. I KNEW that I had added the link a month ago, right after I had dental surgery. What happened to it? Vicodin happened. I guess I only THOUGHT that I had put the link in. I lost a lot of stuff around the house too, while on pain meds. Anyway, I've added the link under the API photos at the "Chronicles".

Like a cat, I've been off licking my wounds and healing for a while. Similar to so many events in life, my dental surgery snowballed into another physical problem. So that one had to be dealt with as well.

The Vicodin led me to another issue - sleep - or rather the lack of sleep. I haven't slept well at all during my adult life due to what happened to me as a child. The EMDR has helped considerable with the nightmares, but I still was not getting any rest. When I was taking the Vicodin, I noticed that I was actually sleeping but was still so tired that it was really scaring me.

I called the doctor to see if I could take something to help me sleep and went in for an appointment. The doctor told me that I was tired from the surgery but it was a lot worse because I had a serious sleep deficit. She prescribed a low dose of Trazodone and told me that I had to stop and rest whenever my body told me to. As someone who easily disassociates, I now had to pay attention. I rested frequently and for long periods. She said it would take time - boy it sure did!

I am finally almost to a good level of energy as I am getting some real sleep. I have altered my diet while trying to manage with the temporary dentures but also am eating with health in mind.

I have not been online much except to download some information for a pamphlet I am working on - so haven't been entirely lazy. The pamphlet will be used to educate soccer moms and other folks who seem to have no idea about the types of weapons (or the effects of those weapons) used by the US against civilian populations during military operations. I am focusing on incendiary weapons, cluster munitions, and depleted uranium and will also add Agent Orange into the mix to illustrate the type of weapon that keeps on "giving". I hope to do an informative pamphlet with links that can be explored for further info. I used to do some public speaking and may see if I can speak to groups of women. The printed material could be passed out during VFP events where we do a table or at a speaking event.

This will all take time, but I am pretty determined. If anyone has some info to contribute (I am trying to educate myself in the above mentioned areas) please let me know.

I thank you for all of your support. I missed blogging and all of you.
.......................Kitchen Window Woman....................................

Flag criminals ... revisited

2008-05-09T02:13:00.000-07:00

For anyone who's ambivalent about the flag officer 'analysts' who go on the news to give their 'opinion', Media Matters will set you straight:

Following the publication of the April 20 New York Times front-page article on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon, the Department of Defense has released to the public numerous documents regarding the analyst program. One of the documents released is an audio recording of an April 18, 2006, meeting that several military analysts attended with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During the meeting, one of the attendees tells Rumsfeld, "[W]e get beat up on television sometimes when we go on and we are debating" and says that he would "personally love" for Rumsfeld "to take the offensive, to just go out there and just crush these people so that when we go on, we're -- forgive me -- we're parroting, but it's what has to be said. It's what we believe in, or we would not be saying it." The individual adds: "And we'd love to be following our leader, as indeed you are. You are the leader. You are our guy." The transcript released by the Pentagon does not identify the person who made this comment; the Pentagon has provided this list of "confirmed" "[p]articipants." Media Matters for America has documented the consistent unwillingness of most of the outlets mentioned in the Times article to discuss the military analyst story. Will media outlets try to determine if they have hosted the person who asserted that Rumsfeld was "our guy" and suggested that he would "parrot[]" Rumsfeld's statements? [my ems]

...

And just a thought: If they actually believed that war in Iraq was "the right thing", I'm glad none of 'em ever was my CO. Come on, if an old Buck Sergeant (me) knew beforehand that the war would turn into a mess, these guys surely did. They should be hanging from the same tree as the civilians in the Bush administration.

Great thanks to Nicole for the link. Cross-posed at the Brain.

Gun to their heads ...

2008-05-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

Via our pal Montag, seems DoD is using soldiers' pay as leverage over Congress to pass the latest war appropriation:

In an announcement that puts troops and their families in the middle of a political dispute, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the Army will not be able to pay soldiers after June 15 unless Congress approves an emergency war funding bill.

...

How about putting war expenditures on the federal budget instead of trying to pay for them out of the petty cash box? How about giving us some idea of how the money will be spent and how much more you'll need until we get out of there? As the Chimp likes to say when he pushes his tax cuts "it's the taxpayers' money". This war started out as a 6 month, $50 billion effort. Five years and hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars later, not to mention over 4000 US lives, and they're holding the soldiers hostage for appropriations. Nothing is beneath these assholes.

...

[Rep. John] Murtha said there is no threat to military paychecks and that it is inappropriate for the Pentagon to try to involve soldiers and their families in a political dispute over how much money is needed to pay for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and exactly when the money is needed.

...

Murtha said threatening paychecks is a mistake. “It is unacceptable for them to say something like that,” he said. “It is unacceptable for the Pentagon to make a political statement like that, scaring troops and their families in time of war. [my em]

...

20 January can't come soon enough.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Thanks To You - It's Working!

2008-05-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I asked you to sign a petition supporting the GI Bill for the 21st Century, and you did! Now more is needed. Please follow the links below and let's make sure McInsane's watered down Bill is defeated!

Thanks!

d.

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

Wow! Last week, we asked you to write to the Senate, urging them to support the bipartisan GI Bill for the 21st Century, and reject a watered down bill offered by John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Richard Burr. You responded - with force - sending 16,000 letters to the Senate! Add that to the 30,000 petition signatures on the GI Bill that we took to the Hill, and op-eds around the country that our veterans have written on the GI Bill, and we are dominating efforts to get a new GI Bill passed.

Now it's time to take it to the next level, and get a letter to the editor in every daily newspaper in America!

CLICK HERE TO SEND A LETTER TO THE EDITOR ON THE GI BILL

Letters to the editor are the most read part of the paper, so when you submit a letter, it will be read by tens of thousands of your friends and neighbors. If we can get a letter to the editor in papers across the country, it's the strongest message we can send that we will not allow the Senate to cave on such important legislation for our veterans. With all of you - 95,000 people strong - blanketing newspapers with letters to the editor is a goal we can reach.

The stakes couldn't be higher. The bipartisan new GI Bill (S. 22) is poised to pass the Congress and go to the President. It will update GI Bill benefits to keep up with the cost of college, allowing those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan to get the higher education that we've promised our veterans since World War II. Senators McCain, Graham, and Burr, by introducing legislation that would cut the benefits in S. 22, are attempting to split the Senate, so nothing gets passed, and our veterans' service is not honored.

ANGRY? WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF YOUR PAPER TO MAKE IT CLEAR!

Our Letter to the Editor tool is easy to use. Just plug in your zip code, use our talking points to write a quick letter, and hit send. That's it! In just a couple of days, your letter could be in the daily paper, read by thousands and thousands of people!

Please take a second, today, to take this quick action to help our veterans.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Chairman, VoteVets.org

Senate Rejects Boosting Health Insurance Premiums

2008-05-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Senate Armed Services Committee is working hard to keep the promise that was made to me and millions of other military retirees regarding free health care for life. In The Virginian-Pilot today, here is the lead paragraph

A Senate committee has rejected Pentagon proposals to boost the health insurance premiums paid by more than 3 million military retirees, stripping the plan out of legislation setting a wide range of Defense Department policies.

If you read to the bottom, you'll see that the committee is not pleased with the condition of the Navy's ships.

Mission Accomplished ...

2008-05-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

Pic thanks to Digby.

Five years on ...

"in the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

I'd hate to see what losing looks like.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Bush/McCain: The Arlington Plan

2008-04-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Politics Plus

All of the soldiers interviewed passed the rigorous health screening given recruits before being accepted into the Army. All were deemed physically and psychologically fit in a second screening as well, before being deployed to Iraq, and served honorably there in combat. None of the soldiers interviewed during this eleven-month investigation had a documented history of psychological problems.

Yet after they returned from Iraq wounded and sought treatment, each was diagnosed with a pre-existing personality disorder, then denied benefits. As in Town's case, Army doctors determined that the soldiers' ailments were pre-existing without interviewing friends, family or fellow soldiers who knew them before they were wounded in combat.

In this article you will hear from Army doctors who say wounded soldiers are routinely misdiagnosed. One says he was pressured by superiors to diagnose personality disorder in cases where soldiers were physically wounded or suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Inserted from The Nation

This is just the introduction to a major five page article, and I urge you strongly to click through and read the rest. I have watched with growing frustration as Democrats in Congress have put forward measure after measure to improve the lot of our troops and veterans only to see them either vetoed by the ChickenHawk-in-Chief or fall to GOP filibusters, in which the GOP could always count on John McHypocrite to vote against our nation's troops and vets.

GW Bush, McConJob, and the GOP have a formula for supporting our troops and vets. I call it The Arlington Plan. If that isn't clear, see the graphic.

Live Veterans cost money that might better go to the war profiteers. Dead ones cost nothing. Nor do any the government can screw out of their benefits. See Chief's post just below this one.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Erosion of Benefits

2008-04-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

I know that most folks that visit The American Patriot Institute did not stay in the military long enough to retire. And folks, that's fine. The military is not for everyone. But I did. Retire that is, from the United States Navy after serving 21 years, going where ever I was sent, protecting that old parchment (U.S. Constitution) from enemies, foreign and domestic.

And when I retired Uncle Sam promised me a whole bunch of benefits for my faithful and loyal service and for all my sacrifices (like lower wages). Well, quite a few Presidents have been screwing around with reducing those benefits, especially the last two, Clinton and George "I Support Screwing The Troops" Bush.

Here is a link that lays out some of the more egregious broken promises to us retirees.
If you've been in the military, call your reps in Congress and tell them that you don't like broken promises. For those of you that have not served in the military, you can call your reps in Congress, too. Give 'em an earful.

When caught, Army acts

2008-04-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Following up on last week's post about the awful living conditions for Iraq returnees at Fort Bragg, from Yahoo!News:

Army officials said Tuesday they are inspecting every barracks building worldwide to see whether plumbing and other problems revealed at Fort Bragg, N.C., last week are widespread.

Yeah, like the soldiers didn't tell the Corporals who didn't tell the Sergeants who didn't tell the First Shirt and so on and so on that shit was backing up into the barracks. Gimme a break.

I wonder how many of those GIs wrote to their Congressmen about the conditions? In my day, that was the way to get things done. When the Congresscritter inquired of the Commanding General just WTF was going on, things happened. It may have been out of trying to avoid an investigation and resultant damage to their careers rather than a sense of duty to the enlisted swine, but things got done.

Oh, silly me, I forgot - the military works for Bush now, not us. Congress doesn't count any more.

I got a sneakin' hunch that these kinds of things are known by the local brass, but get put on a to-do list because the Bush administration would rather borrow trillions to profit their cronies than expend thousands on the welfare of the troops. I've heard that some bases have even had trouble paying their electric bills.

The operative word here is 'revealed'. One rightly pissed-off dad with a video camera and YouTube made more difference than a barracksful of soldiers in knee boots. That got this deal moved to the top of the list. The Army'll put a little PR lipstick on the pig and hope it goes away.

Support the troops. Yeah, right, until they gotta do something expensive like hire a plumber.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

'Support The Troops!' - Part 2

2008-04-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Our Brother, Gordon, a United States Marine, currently on In-Active Duty, has a post below this one illustrating how the Republicans reward our fighting men and women when they return home after a 15 month tour in Afghanistan. First read that one. Once you have, you can do something to correct this travesty by following the links in this post.

It's time to show some backbone and give the troops the "support" they really need.

d.

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

We need your help. This week, Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Richard Burr offered a watered-down substitute to the 21st Century GI Bill, which was introduced by Senators Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel.

We need you to write to your Senators telling them that the McCain bill is unacceptable.

CLICK HERE TO WRITE TO YOUR SENATOR

The Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (S.22), the Webb-Hagel bill that we support, now has 57 supporters in the Senate, from both sides of the aisle. With three more supporters, this bill would be filibuster-proof, and guaranteed to get to the President's desk. Senator McCain's bill could split the Senate, undermining the common-sense legislation that Senators Webb and Hagel offered. In doing so, it also undermines America's veterans.

Here's how.

1) The McCain-Graham-Burr legislation creates a flat education benefit, not taking into account the cost of state colleges where veterans live. This would mean veterans in states where the cost of education is higher than the benefit would have go to into debt to get an education, or uproot themselves and their families to move to a place where the benefit would cover college. In many cases, the McCain bill won't even cover half the cost of college. The Webb-Hagel Bill determines the education benefit based on the highest state college tuition in a veterans' home state, allowing veterans to come home and attend college, without upheaval in their lives.

2) The McCain-Graham-Burr legislation creates second-class veterans, by offering those who serve in the military for 12 years the chance to transfer their education benefits to their children. This says to a veteran who serves for two years and loses both of his legs in combat that his service isn't as valuable as someone who has served for longer.

3) The McCain-Graham-Burr legislation leaves the National Guard and Reserve out in the cold. In the current conflicts, the National Guard and Reserve have served faithfully alongside their active duty compatriots, and deserve equal benefits. Yet, the McCain bill does nothing to reward our Guard and Reservists for their cumulative service. Under the McCain bill, over 160,000 members of the Guard and Reserves who have done more than one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan would get no credit towards an education for their additional sacrifice.

WRITE TO YOUR SENATORS, TELLING THEM THE MCCAIN BILL IS UNACCEPTABLE

A fair education benefit is a sacred promise made to America's military after World War II. That promise has been allowed to become outdated and tarnished. Only the Webb-Hagel bill will restore its luster. And, for that reason, it is the only acceptable bill to America's veterans. Any Senator who joins Senator McCain on his bill does not support our veterans, and it is important that you let your Senator know that, right away.

Thank you for your support.
Jon Soltz Iraq War Veteran Chairman, VoteVets.org

'Support the troops!' Yeah, right. Again...

2008-04-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hi. My name is Gordon and I'm proud to be hyar. Be gentle, this is my first time...

From Attackerman:

“America has three-quarters of a billion dollars to spend on the embassy in Baghdad, but our troops have to live like this.”

In my service days, I lived variously in Quonset huts, WWII-vintage two-story brick barracks, six-man pyramidal tents, snap-together shelter-half pup tents, old ships and new ships, and occasionally in godforsaken swampy, rainy places with no roof and a long walk to plumbing, and I never once saw anything like that.

Crossposted at Alternate Brain.

Soap Box Time

2008-04-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

“Federal agents at the border do not need any reason to search through travelers' laptops, cell phones or digital cameras for evidence of crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, extending the government's power to look through belongings like suitcases at the border to electronics,” is the lead paragraph of an article on the Wired Blog Network.

“The unanimous three-judge decision reverses a lower court finding that digital devices were "an extension of our own memory" and thus too personal to allow the government to search them without cause. Instead, the earlier ruling said, Customs agents would need some reasonable and articulable suspicion a crime had occurred in order to search a traveler's laptop,” the article continues.

The article contains a link to a PDF of the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It makes for interesting reading.

During July of 2005, Michael Arnold flew into Los Angeles International after a vacation in the Philippines. When he went through customs, Arnold was randomly selected for further scrutiny. While the agent inspected his luggage, she asked the sort of routine questions they ask at a time like that. As she went through the luggage, he was asked to boot his computer. The agent continued her questioning after handing the computer to another agent.

When the desktop full of files came up, the agent noticed two files in particular. One was named Kodak and the other Kodak memories. When he opened the file, he immediately saw a picture of two nude women. Arnold was immediately handed over to ICE. After being questioned, he was released. His laptop and external drives were seized as they contained images ICE believed to be child porn. About two weeks later, he was charged and subsequently taken to trial.

Arnold’s attorney argued that the border agents had no right to search the laptop; in fact, it was necessary for them to secure a search warrant as the contents were protected under our 4th Amendment rights. The lower court agreed and tossed the evidence. An appeal was filed and heard by the Superior Court whose decision came down on the side of the government.

What happened to the 4th Amendment? Did the Supreme Court repeal “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures …?” I checked. You will be relieved to know the 4th Amendment has not been repealed. You may, or may not, be relieved to know it was “redefined” by the Supreme Court. A few of the cases were Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 273 (1973); United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 616 (1977) and United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149, 153 (2004).

In a nutshell, the government is saying “we have an interest in anything you are bringing into our country. Any rights, any expectations to privacy, begin and end at the border.” That doesn’t sound unreasonable, does it?

Yeah, it does sound unreasonable to me. Amended or not, our constitution protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures. Empowering law enforcement agents to go on fishing expeditions without probable cause is absolutely wrong. The idea that an American citizen does not have any rights at an American border is ludicrous beyond words.

I’m not going to foam at the mouth over having luggage X-rayed before being loaded on an airplane. I don’t have a problem if luggage is X-rayed upon re-entering the country. If those X-rays reveal something suspicious, I don’t have a problem with a closer inspection taking place. Those are the times in which we live.

If a trained and competent border agent sees someone acting in a manner that reasonably seems suspicious, they should give that individual further scrutiny. The key word is “reasonable.”

Without probable cause, without reasonable cause, no law enforcement agent or officer should have the right to view the contents of anyone’s camera, cell phone, computer or any of those other marvelous inventions that allow us to store data.

There are all manner of files stored in my laptop. Some of those files are highly personal; files like my medical records for the last 20 plus years that I downloaded before taking off on my motorcycle to see the world. There are files that would enable someone to very easily steal my identity. You know there are nude pictures that I sure as hell don’t want someone drooling over. There isn’t one damned thing in the computer that is illegal and I would object to anyone viewing any of it without my permission. It isn’t anyone’s business.

The case that allowed the Superior Court to make this decision involved kiddy porn. The nature of the offense with which he was charged makes me want to cheer the agents that nailed him. That he was arrested as the result of a search that, in my opinion, was unconstitutional makes it impossible to cheer too loudly.

Life is sweet – because the Supreme Court ruled in the United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 541 (1985) that it is illegal to perform “alimentary canal” searches based on “mere chance” there might be evidence concealed.

"Bomb, bomb, bomb ...

2008-04-21T02:39:00.000-07:00

Bomb, bomb Iran." Since John McCain is so eager to feed the bloodthirsty Republican 'base' some red meat in the form of an escalation against Iran, Cdr. Huber takes a look at what might probably happen if we did begin a bombing campaign over there:

...

The Navy’s tasks in an operation against Iran would include projecting air power ashore (from the carriers and cruise missile shooters), keeping the Strait open, and deterring or stopping another tanker war like the one that broke out in the 80s during the conflict between Iran and Iraq. To do all those things, the Navy pretty much has to go into the Gulf, and it has to go through the Strait to get there.

In the bathtub, defense in depth becomes nearly impossible to conduct. The state of the art anti-ship weapons Iran recently bought from the Russians—the SSN-22 Sunburn missile and the rocket torpedo—are bad news. One school of thought says the only way to defend against them is to stay tied to the pier stateside, but it’s not just the latest generation of ship-killers we need to worry about. Any time you find yourself in a point defense situation against a homing weapon designed any time after 1970 or so your whole day just became irretrievable.

I rather doubt that anything short of extra terrestrial intervention could actually sink a 100,000-ton Nimitz class carrier, but a rocket torpedo up its stern could send it out the Strait under tow. That would be an unmitigated nightmare. Even if not a single member of the ship’s crew were killed or injured, for a minor power like Iran to have knocked one of America’s preeminent instruments of military might out of action would be a strategic catastrophe for the U.S.

...

We've already gamed this scenario, in 2002, and the U.S. was handed it's ass.

...

In the days since the encounter with five Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz, American officers have acknowledged that they have been studying anew the lessons from a startling simulation conducted in August 2002. In that war game, the Blue Team navy, representing the United States, lost 16 major warships — an aircraft carrier, cruisers and amphibious vessels — when they were sunk to the bottom of the Persian Gulf in an attack that included swarming tactics by enemy speedboats.

...

We cannot 'win' in Iran, just as we can't win in Iraq. We don't have the money, the troops, or the national will. If the Chimp doesn't destroy this nation before he leaves, McCain will once he's elected.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Kudlow On Kennedy...

2008-04-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

THE MODERATE MAN

If you use "islamofascists" or "jihadists" in a sentence, I will kick you in the nuts. If you don't have nuts...I'll figure something out.

18 April 2008

Kudlow On Kennedy...

(Larry Kudlow, April 8, 2008)

"Perhaps the anti-war forces should recall the portion of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, where he called on Americans to pay any price, and bear any burden, in order to preserve freedom, liberty, and democracy. Do these folks actually think 1 percent of GDP is too large a price, too heavy a burden? I sure hope not."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kudlow's feelings are certainly not uniquely his...rather, they unfortunately exemplify the notion that the values of most importance to this country are somehow measured simply in dollars. There is no recognition of the thousands of lives lost, of the sons and daughters not returning home. Obviously Kennedy was speaking about sacrifice far greater than monetary ones...he was asking Americans to be ready to commit their very lives to protect these values we held so dear.

In 1960, lest we forget, the United States was the world leader in virtually every arena. Our education system was the envy of the world; our medical system was superb and affordable, our military, (with draftees), was far and away the leader, (even though we may not have known it); our businesses were the largest and most successful ...and they paid higher wages than those in any other country which gave us the highest standard of living. Our taxes were also...far higher than today.

But Kennedy wasn't talking about money to fund an invasion and occupation of a small country... he was talking about the problems that we faced at the time. We were in the early phases of the great racial uprising which would require us all to take a hard look at ourselves and our core beliefs. He had committed us to land a man on the moon within the decade...something which doesn't seem so amazing now...but was strictly the stuff of science fiction in 1960.

He was talking about the fight against communism. At the time it posed a terrifying threat to us. A country equipped with a nuclear arsenal equal to our own...with countless missiles targeted on our most populous cities...and a political system which might just use them. In 1963, of course, the Soviet Union brought the world closer to a nuclear Armageddon than we had ever been.

No, Kennedy wasn't talking about a percent of GDP when he asked us to "pay any price, bear any burden", he was asking each American to work side-by-side, to pitch in, to help one another ...not to fight a war...but to see ourselves fully and finally accomplish those goals of freedom, liberty and democracy for all Americans.

The "sacrifice" Kennedy envisioned was that of each American, united by the strength of our combined will, lifting all...the rich and the poor, so that we might all share in the enjoyment of those noble concepts committed to by our forefathers.

Unfortunately for America in 2008, the Kudlows of the country don't have this vision of our country. Their field of vision is limited to the fortunes of themselves and their friends..."sacrifice" to them is measured in dollars and the effect those dollars have on their lifestyle. America is a lapel pin and a flowery mention of "patriotism". It is a bucket full of dollars belonging to the rich and powerful. It is greed.

It is the ability to buy other people's children to die in a war far away.

(Moderate)

Labels: Kennedy inaugural speech, Kudlow, rich and poor

(From "The Moderate Man" )

Flag Criminals ...

2008-04-20T05:01:00.000-07:00

Maybe we should yank their pensions and benefits?

...

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air. [my em]

...

I would certainly feel comfortable calling these retired flag officers traitors.

Update:

Greenwald is on this too:

...

At the same time, though, in light of questions on this very topic raised even by the NYT back in 2003, it is difficult to take the article's underlying points seriously as though they are some kind of new revelation. And ultimately, to the extent there are new revelations here, they are a far greater indictment of our leading news organizations than the government officials on whom it focuses. [em in orig]

...

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Welcome to the API Chief

2008-04-19T13:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Senior Chief Petty Officer, "Chief"

Welcome to the American Patriot Institute. You have been unanimously and enthusiastically accepted by the current membership. We welcome you Brother. Your experience and wisdom will certainly be quite an asset to our organization.

If you have a picture of yourself in uniform, either your graduation picture or another, please post it on your website. One of us will capture it and add it to the image map, which will link directly to your blog or website. As a Resident Scholar, we ask that you capture the logo from one of our sites and post it on your blog, along with a link list to the other Scholars. Feel free to copy the link list from any one of our sites.

As someone who has spent his entire life dedicated to our cause, your insight and wisdom will not only be greatly appreciated, but sought after by those of us who lack your experience as a career Military Man.

Welcome aboard, Sir.

Respectfully yours,

deuddersun

What It Isn't

2008-04-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

For several years, during my various postings to European locales, when in my civvies, I routinely wore an American flag patch on the sleeve of my jacket. I wore that or other identifying accoutrement there and in North Africa and the Middle East. I was proudly an American wherever I went. I proclaimed my Americanness BECAUSE I am a patriot, because I was willing to take the blame as well as the credit, because I was sure that in the balance, the positive won out. I was NOT a patriot because I wore the flag, I wore the flag because I was a patriot.

I served and traveled alongside Gawd only knows how many folks that I never saw wearing a flag. I was never of the opinion that they were not a patriot or even less of a patriot than I. As far as I know, they simply did not wear the flag but, they may have had a clear and logical and intent in not doing so. I didn't ask and they did not force it on me.

Now, years later, I hear folks who have never been anywhere less American than Berkley, CA (if that) bitching that a presidential candidate doesn't wear a flag lapel pin when traveling the highways and byways of our nation. These idiots actually claim that it is some sort of indicator of his level of patriotism. It isn't!

The proclaiming of one's Americanness while here in this nation is meaningless. It is shouting Black Power, at a Nation of Islam rally. It is wearing a Dodge Roadrunner tee shirt at a Mopar show. It is claiming to enjoy sex when you are at an orgy. It is claiming to be Christian in a Baptist church. It is safe. No one will challenge you because of what ever you claim in those situations. If you want it to mean something, take it someplace with less of an Amen Chorus

Those of us who took the vow and followed the orders know that patriotism isn't safe or easy. We know that the true measure of a (wo)man has nothing to do with removable externalities. Many of us realize that those who try to obscure this basic truth are not you friends and most likely, do not have your best interests at heart.

Call it fashion. Call it a thousand different things but, do not, DO NOT mistake the wearing of lapel pin for patriotism or the non-wearing for a lack of patriotism. That is exactly what it isn't.

CAFKIA

Patriotism

2008-04-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

Much has been written here about Patriotism. What it is, what it isn't. Here's my take.

Patriotism means being the "Right Kind of Guy". You either know what I mean or you don't. The kind of "guy" your Mom would be proud of. The kind of "guy" who won't look away when injustice occurs. The kind of "guy" who will stand up to the "bully" and say,"That's enough". The kind of "guy" who will tilt windmills. The kind of "guy" who will always protect the weak and defend the innocent. No matter what their race, color, religion or national origin. The kind of "guy" I want standing next to me when the shit goes down, whatever that shit may be. The kind of "guy" who will tell you to your face that you are fucking up, when you are fucking up.

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn! That shit was worth it!"

This is our country. These are our ideals. This is what we swore to protect, against All Enemies, foreign and domestic. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is why we are here.

We believed. We took them at their word. We gave our word.. Now it is time to keep our word. And to make them keep theirs!

I am proud to be here, part of this thing we have created. Proud to be an American Veteran. Proud to keep my word to my fellow Americans, who I swore to protect and defend. All my fellow Americans. For when the blood runs it always runs red, regardless of the color of the skin that contains it.

My job is not done. My oath is unfulfilled. My greatest mission lies before me. That is why I am here.

We are all different. We all have different agendas. Yet we are all together. This is what differentiates us from the Republi-cons, who march to the same tune no matter who the Piper is. We think, then we act. They act, then they justify their actions with bullshit.

They claim to be Patriots.

We are Patriots. The difference is as simple as being the Right Kind of "Guy". The "guy" your mother would be proud of.

Semper Fidelis
(Always Faithfull)

d.

More About Patriots and Patriotism

2008-04-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

I came across this article about John McCain, the perceived Republican nominee for President. It is from Alternet.

Here is the URL:

http://www.alternet.org/story/82597

I feel that there is nothing more honorable and patriotic than to serve your family, community and country. The benefits given to returning Veterans are miniscule when compared to the benefits received working at most wage earner occupations. This article explains McCain's position against a new GI Bill that pretty much gives the Veteran a fighting chance to have a decent life, at least financially, because we know that chances are they will be all screwed up from the PTSD that occurs in many returning Veterans.

Patriotic? Serving in the armed forces with a promise of a little money for higher education and being told by a person who could become the next Commander in Chief that he'd rather you stay in the military to fight the war he's resolved to be involved in for the next hundred years instead of letting you go to college and have a civilian life.

Peace to All.

Nomination For Membership

2008-04-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Brothers and Sisters:

I received this e-mail today from a Retired Senior Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy, seeking admission into the API. Below the e-mail is a post written by Chief entitled Winning. I ask that you vote yes on this candidate.

Thank you,

d.

Dear Sir;

I have been posting for about nine months at Liberty Street http://libertystreet.wordpress.com/

at Kathy's invitation. I am a Senior Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy (Retired) who fervently believes that the U.S. Constitution is much more than a "piece of paper" and have been defending that same Constitution and it's ideals since I first enlisted in 1958.

I hope that I can be of value to the American Patriot Institute.

Chief

April 10, 2008

Winning

This is the last paragraph of “Out of Iraq” by George McGovern and William R. Polk published in 2006.

“Finally, all war is unpredictable and horrible. Our wise old statesman Benjamin Franklin once said, “There never was a good war.” But among wars, guerrilla wars are the worst; at beat they are unwinnable, lasting in Ireland for centuries and in Algeria for a century and a half. Chechens suffered massacre, deportation, rape and massive destruction at the hands of the Russians for nearly four centuries, and now incorporated into Russia, Chechnya still is not “pacified.” Aware of this history, the American neoconservative advisors to our government plan for (and indeed advocate) perpetual war. If they get their wish, then the final lesson of Iraq will emerge from the “fog of war.” It is that insurgency and counterinsurgency brutalize whole societies, even those of the victors. This was true of the British in Kenya, French in Algeria, Americans in the Philippines, Russians in Chechnya, and Chinese in Tibet. Hegel may be right - we may not learn; but certainly, we would be wise to heed the warning of Santayana not to “blot” the lessons of this costly adventure out of our minds. It has been our most expensive school.”

Winning. There are many different meanings for “winning” depending on who you are. For the average American, winning means to stay in Iraq as long as it takes to set up a society similar to the one we are used to here in the United States. The average American, who is not the least bit familiar with Iraqi history and Iraqi culture, thinks that that outcome is obtainable while we have over 100,000 troops in Iraq. It hasn’t occurred to that average American that as long as foreign troops are occupying the country it is fiction to believe the Iraqis will do anything but fight us.

Winning for the neo-cons means keep raising the patriot issue by calling anyone who suggests we find a way to withdraw, “cut ‘n run liberals.” Never mind that over 80% of the country thinks the country is heading in the wrong direction. Neo-cons will continue to demagogue and use their empty arguments about not withdrawing as a way to divide the electorate.

Winning for George W. Bush and his handlers is getting cheap access to Iraqi oil. Iraq has the largest reserves of oil in the mid-East. And it is sweet crude (low sulpher). Saudi has a lot of oil but is sour, high Sulpher. The Iraqi government has signed long term contracts with some major international oil companies at terms that are not real favorable to the Iraqi people.,

Once the United States troops leave, you can safely bet that the government that is installed after the civil war will not be the one that signed the contracts and the oil companies may be nationalized. No greater fear has an oilman than a government taking over their company, equipment and profits. This is really what Bush fears.

Chief

What is an American Patriot?

2008-04-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is something I have asked myself several times since being invited by Moderate Man to join the American Patriot Institute, and again now that Deuddersun has invited me to contribute here.

I'm not sure what it means to my fellow members; only what it means to me. I used to think it was just because I served my country in the Marine Corps. Then I would think that no, that doesn't make me a "patriot" per se, just a military member. These back and forths inside my head would get to be pretty annoying and I would just file the question away in my brain housing group for recollection another day. The dictionary definition of Patriot is as follows:

pa·tri·ot n. One who loves, supports, and defends one's country.

Looking at that definition, I figured I definitely fit at least 2 of the criteria. I love my country. As a veteran I can say that I served my country and was willing to defend it if the need arose. But ever since I took up blogging, I've had a hard time saying that I "support" my country. Truth be told, I don't support my country. Now before any extreme right-wingers say "See, I told you them Libtards hate America!", let me clarify that statement: I do not support the actions of our government as it relates to the War in Iraq among other policies adopted by President Bush.

I started my first blog, Unpopular Opinions, as a means to speak out against the War in Iraq and its effect on my older brother's service in the National Guard. If you go back to my site, The Bulldog Says... and check my archives, you'll see my very first post was my outrage about Road Rage's stop-loss. You see, he was a good and faithful servant of this country for 20 years and was waiting to retire when 9-11 came around and then our desert fiasco, Iraq. That had me fuming and so I began to write. Now the tagline that deuddersun placed up there says to "...defend the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic". Notice that last word there, domestic. Well, that's what I started writing about and continue to do today. Domestic enemies as I see them. In my view, our current President and his Cabinet could very well be called domestic enemies. In my view, they have trampled the Constitution, shredded our civil rights, and invaded a sovereign country just because they wanted to.

So am I a patriot? After all is said and done, all my internal arguments for and against, I believe I am. I am doing my part, however small it is, to defend my country even now. I feel it is my obligation to speak out against actions taken by our government to subvert the will of the people and destroy the Constitution. This is an obligation I take very seriously. So ask yourself the same question: Are you a Patriot?

In the Name of Patriotism

2008-04-07T05:33:00.001-07:00

You know, at first, when I got the e-mail inviting me to be one of the American Patriot Institute blog participants, I wondered if I should be part of it or not. My feelings have changed somewhat and maybe I’m not so much in agreement with the rest of the members anymore. Let me explain.

No, I didn’t go over to the Dark Side and side with chain dick the almighty or all of a sudden think that we should be fighting an illegal, immoral war that we started on false pretenses. No, nothing like that. I’m still one hundred percent against the war and for the unforeseeable future, I’m against all war. So it’s nothing like that.

What has changed in me to a certain extent is the way I actually feel about our government. And not just this current corrupt and dishonest administration. I’m talking about the 500 years of genocide that has been offered to the original inhabitants of this Nation. Most of this at the hands of the government of the United States of America.

The evil they are doing now, in Iraq and other parts of the world is bad enough. But look back at your history. We have had a hand in so many things around the world trying to tell other countries how to live their lives. How their governments should be run. How they should practice their religious beliefs. How to run their markets. How to allow or disallow immigration into their country.

This is the main problem here in America with the Indigenous people and their rights. These people are treated as second class citizens unless they adjust and accept the governments way of doing things. When they don’t, they are cast aside and forgotten, allowed to remain poor with no opportunity for advancement, held on Reservations as their land has been and still is taken from them.

So, I’m having a hard time being patriotic and proud to be what I once felt proud to be, that is, A Warrior, a combat soldier who served his country. God knows I didn’t serve the country that was doing these things to people. Yet I paid no attention as it went on right before my own eyes. I didn’t know what life was on the Reservation. I didn’t know about the land grabs. I didn’t know about the poisons thrown into and onto the land and the water where the Indians live.

I didn’t know so much because I had the luxury and privilege of being a white man. Even the poorest of white people can reinvent themselves when times got bad. If you are white, you could move and become someone else, meet new people, get a job. The Native Indigenous person didn’t have this choice or opportunity. They would always look like an Indian. The Latino or Mexican American the same, the African American too.

My most recent experience was with the Indian Nations, so that is the fight I’m picking right now. It is hard to honor the flag when I know the Eagle Staff was the first flag of this Nation. The Eagle staff was here long before Betsy Ross sewed a flag and we called it our National flag. Yet the Native people honor the Flag right along with their Eagle staffs. And they serve in the military, with honor, more often, per capita, than any other race.

It is confusing, to say the least, this idea of our great country taking language away from people. Sending children to boarding schools and not allowing them to have their own culture. Taking the land away by devious methods of misinterpretation of, or outright disregard for, treaties. To say we are in a country with religious freedom and force people into churches as we judge them as savages and heathens just wreaks of running things with a double standard, the old “forked tongue” idea.

Now, we do this in the modern day with the Islamic religion and any Muslim. The Muslim is put under scrutiny. Like Barrack Obama’s middle name, Hussein. Make the comparison that he is a Muslim and therefore a terrorist. Attack those that don’t share the anglo saxon white man way of praying to a god that kills and hates and steals for greed, their messiah is money.

Nope, I’m just confused. I wasn’t born an Ojibway. I wasn’t born from parents of people who were brought here against their will from Africa. I wasn’t born of a poor farmer whose family was starving, so he came North to pick grapes. None of these. I was born, in Chicago, at a hospital, and on my birth certificate in the space that states Race: Mine says Caucasian.

There were even times years ago when the darker skinned Sicilian Italian was called names by the whites. Dago, Guinea, Wop. We called names back at the Polish, the Irish and the Chinese. Yet we fought in wars to protect them all. Why don’t we stand up and protect those that were here before the occupation by Europeans? We spend billions to rebuild and repatriate the countries we attack. We spent billions in Japan after we bombed the shit out of them. We spent billions in Germany rebuilding. In each case, we allowed them their religion and their human rights, yet we don’t lift a finger for those whose land we took in conquest.

My plans have always been to treat everyone in a way I know to be right. Fair and equal to everyone, no matter how they eat, live and pray. No matter what language they speak, no matter if they know English at all. I’ll continue to pray that I understand all who are different so as to not have hatred or fear from that which I do not understand. I pray I learn and understand as I feel understanding is the key to accepting.

And I’ll continue to fight, ever so patriotically, for the wrongs that this government has done to others. After all, I am a Patriot. I don’t want to leave this land because of the horrible things that have happened at the hand of the American government of democracy. I want to bring it to your attention and to the attention of the people of the world. And with this knowledge, we go forth, one person at a time, and change the landscape. We allow and accept people as people, and pray that we ourselves are accepted as Americans.

I am proud to a part of the American Patriot Institute. I am honored beyond belief to be accepted by my fellow Veterans. And I proudly cry out to all to right the wrongs of the past and live from this day forward without hatred, judgment or bias of another human being, but rather leave that work for The Creator of all things.

Peace to all as ALL life is Sacred.

Update

2008-04-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

So far Moderate, KWW, scroff and Spadoman have answered the invites and now have Admin rights. Since I will be gone all week, they can grant admin rights to whoever answers next. Just click on the settings tab then the permissions tab, (you can find the settings tab when you click on "new post".).

While I said earlier that this site should be all API, there may be room for posts like KWW did on Winter Soldier, or perhaps a weekly round up of topics related to API causes we all support. I don't know, what do you think?

Take care of each other. See you in a week.

d.

Help Wanted!

2008-04-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

As soon as you get your invite and respond you will have Author's privileges. So far Moderate Man, Spadoman and deuddersun have full admin privileges. Once you have answered the invite, one of us can authorize you for full admin status. Once you have that, well....

We are building something here and it needs a lot of work. A counter would be cool, one that tracks visitors and logs IP's, so long as it's free. At this point, why spend money on things we can get for free? A link list to other relevant sites would also be great - Vet's sites in particular are important, especially those that deal with the Fiasco in Iraq (IAVA, VVAW, etc) and sites that offer aid to Veterans. It's your blog, what do you think we need here?

While we all maintain our own separate and distinct personalities on our own sites, this site is our "Band of The Hand", where we work together to achieve our mutual goals. So dig in!! This is our collective public "face", so grab yer make-up crayon (sorry Ladies) and get busy!

d.

Welcome to The American Patriot Institute

2008-04-05T08:23:00.001-07:00

This is my lame attempt to establish a blog for the API. Here, we can deal with votes, action alerts and other business pertaining to the API without having to travel to each other's blogs. All members of the API will have full privileges.

I have sent out e-mail invitations to those members whose e-mails I had. If you didn't receive one, it's because I don't have your email, simple as that. Please send me your email at 52hammer@gmail.com and I will add you to the Admin list. Also, feel free to change or add anything here, it's a we thing folks, and at some point it will grow into something we are all proud of. Please limit posts to API business or alerts, however, since that is the inherent nature of this blog, (as I see it, if you disagree, please say so).

Anyway, here it is. Let's work together to make it something great.

Thanks,

deuddersun

2008-04-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

From The Moderate Man:

The American Patriot Institute needs you! We're a group of Veterans, some old, some younger, who believe in our country, our Constitution, and our honor. We're sickened by this administration's handling of everything...from the economy...to the environment ...to...and most importantly, perhaps...the illegal war in Iraq. We're disgusted with the powerful who feel it's their right to buy and sell our lawmakers to enrich themselves and their friends. We try mightily to restrain ourselves when those who have never worn the uniform, much less seen action, continually promote war , seeing it as a game fought by underlings rather than themselves or their children. We don't always agree on everything...who does...but we agree that this government is not the one we supported when we proudly put on that uniform. If you'd like to join us...let one of us know. It's not hard. These are a great bunch of guys...and a superior woman. Give us a shout!

Kitchen Window Woman
Bulldog
deudderson
Fixer
Gordon
Scroff
Spadoman
Moderate...well...that's me, isn't it? (Moderate Man is the Founder of the American Patriot Institute.)

Peace !

Moderate Man

If you are a Veteran of the Armed Forces of The United States of America who shares our views, why not check us out.

The American Patriot Institute

A Poem Worth Reading

Another Brother Gone but Not Forgotten

Merry Christmas & Happy Chanukah to Those who Serve...

Military caught on tape cheating Vets out of health care as policy

The Unmaking of A Marine

Border Region

Priority and Punishment

Obama abandons veterans' private insurance plan

Plan to bill insurance for combat injuries criticized

Some Sow, Some Reap

Jobs - Census Taker

About Afghanistan ...

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Team Obama

45 Years

All Gave Some...Some Gave All

I Need Some Help

Another Tragedy

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Veterans Beaten at Presidential Debate

Golden Anniversary

7 Oct 1958

Veterans For Peace is Taking Action

Honor

Support Our Troops!

What killed the Russians ...

Cross-posted at the Brain.

The Bills WILL Come Due........

Veterans! Think Before You Vote

My Absence

THIS is the State of our Nation

I Am a Conservative

Another Hit to Morale

The Theft of Patriotism

Vets Against McCain

The Cost of War

Scumbag, Draft Dodger, VEEP

Hypocrite in Chief - NOT

VoteVets: Keep Your Word John MCain

Joseph Dwyer, KIA

The Learned Warrior

Moral waivers ...

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Help Keep Us Out of Iran

Let 'em serve ...

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.Cross-posted at the Brain.

A long, long time ago in an ocean far, far away...........

Welcome To The American Patriot Institute, Michael

Embrace Democracy Website

The Gunny

Comical Ignorance

Patriotism

Meet Michael

Thank You, from VoteVets.Org

Department of Justice Corrupted by Bush Administration

Hail to the Chief

Veterans Used To Test Suicide-Linked Drugs

Federal judge gives smackdown to McCain and Bush

New Image Map Available

Gitmo

Things that make me sick ...

Pic stolen from C & L.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Some Folks Get It...

Billionaire treats wounded soldiers to Vegas weekend

Not to put too fine a point on it ...

The Normandy American Cemetery - Normandy, France

Cross-posted at the Brain.

McCains Votes On Vets Issues

Supporting the troops ...

Cross-posted at the Brain.

The Truth About Veteran Suicides

Betraying The Troops Is Big Bucks

Dear Brothers,

Flag criminals ... revisited

Great thanks to Nicole for the link. Cross-posed at the Brain.

Gun to their heads ...

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Thanks To You - It's Working!

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Cross-posted at the Brain.