I heard the news today -- Iraq

Voices from the Military Families on Iraq

A Letter from a Military Wife My husband has been in the military for four years. He joined for reasons probably very similar to the rest of the people he serves with. We were young, newly married, with a baby on the way. Every time he thought he was going to get a decent job, it ended up being a dead end.

From the wife of an Army Captain: I love my country very much. I love my husband very much. I would not have a problem with my husband being deployed if the premise of the war was just and honorable.

From the mother of an Army Sargent: As one of the small number of Americans who have actually made a great sacrifice for Bush's Iraq war, I write today...

From the mother of a veteran: My son spent a year in Iraq watching his friends get blown to pieces. My son came home. So far more than 3000 of our brave soldiers won't be coming home. Why are our children dying in Iraq?

From the parents of a soldier: The problem isn't a lack of funding to support the troops, as some in Washington want the American public to believe, rather it is a basic disregard for the lives and well being of our loved ones.

From the mother of two soldiers: Every family, with a loved one in Iraq, knows the true meaning of "support the troops". I doubt anyone, who hasn't had to say goodbye, can say they "support the troops" with the same measure of dedication and commitment.

From the Parents of a Marine Reservist: This Government abandoned many of our loved ones not just once by this war of choice but then again by not caring enough to prepare, to demand and to fund the very best healthcare system for those who have answered this country's call to arms and have sacrificed so much.

Letter from a Marine mom: The war that was launched on a lie for no good purpose was conducted with arrogance and funded on the cheap. It has wreaked havoc on the lives, homes, health, and livelihoods of the Iraqi people.

From a gold star mother: My son showed leadership, courage, and a sense of duty no matter the cost by the many letters from his fellow soldiers. These character traits seem to be in short supply on Capital Hill.

From the sister of an Army Medic: I and my family face the daunting task of dealing, on a daily basis, with the worry and fear that we feel as my brother serves in Iraq. He is John Evans, an excellent flight medic with the National Guard, flying in Blackhawk helicopters.

From an Army wife: I sit here tonight watching my husband pack his things. He's getting ready to fly back to Iraq in the morning.

From the sister of an Army soldier: As I type this letter, my brother, a U.S. Army Tank Commander, fights for his life in Ballad, Iraq. I feel guilty when I laugh at something my children have done, or when it's a beautiful day outside.

I am the mother of a Soldier who is now fighting in a war that I and the majority of voters disapprove of. As long as the President has one dime of taxpayer money, he will keep US troops in harms way in Iraq.

From the co-founders of MFSO: We are breaking the code of silence that has historically kept our voices from the public. We are speaking out in support of our loved ones and the loved ones of others by calling for an end to the war in Iraq.

My name is Bonnie McCoy Ernst and i am an army wife. My husband, David Ernst, is currently serving his first tour in Iraq. This recent exetension, as you could imagine, has hit too close to home. David will not be coming home as planned. As I write, I feel the emotion beginning to hit me.

Recommended Viewing

America At a Crossroad-Part 1( A MUST SEE SERIES)

PBS-America At A Crossroad-Please click here to watch the series I am posting this entry today because this is something you should all go and read/watch. It will give you a better understanding of what our American Soldiers are facing on a daily basis being deployed to Iraq to fight for a country that doesn't want us there and are killing our troops on a daily basis. Below is a detailed description of what the show consists of and information about each show aired. America at a Crossroads is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the ...

Bill Moyers on Why the Press Bought the Iraq War

The media took the Bush administration's Iraq claims at face value, but it didn't have to. Bill Moyers Journal: "Buying the War" will broadcast on PBS on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 at 9:00 p.m.
(check local listings - www.pbs.org/moyers).

The marketing of the war in Iraq by the administration has been much examined, but a critical question remains: How and why did the press buy it? The new Bill Moyers Journal documentary from PBS explores these very questions.

Bill Moyers and his team piece together the reporting that shows how the media were complicit in shaping the "public mind" toward the war, and ask what's happened to the press's role as skeptical "watchdog" over government power. This segment features the work of some intrepid journalists who didn't take the government's word at face value, including the team of reporters at Knight Ridder news service whose reporting turned up evidence at odds with the official view of reality.

Sundance channel airing two great dvds - one we know about = 'Ground Truth' and if you haven't yet seen 'Sir! No Sir!' then I'd like to recommend it - highly.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/schedule/

On Monday May 7th 2007...there will be an historic night of GI resistance on national television as the Sundance Channel presents the U.S. broadcast premiere of both.


Sir! No Sir!
Monday, May 7
The Sundance Channel
9 pm Eastern
8 pm Central
7 pm Mountain
6 pm Pacific



The Ground Truth
Monday, May 7
The Sundance Channel
10:30 pm Eastern
9:30 pm Central
8:30 pm Mountain
7:30 pm Pacific

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

This is a wonderful chance for millions of people to see these films that, together, link the tremendous movement of American soldiers against the Vietnam war with the growing opposition
among soldiers to the Iraq war today.

Voices from U.S. Labor on Iraq

Despite Baghdad "Security" Plan: increase in assasinations of Iraqis academics

Vermont Senate: Impeach the President

Dems reluctant to oppose Iraq funding

US has lost war in Iraq, says top Democrat

America's dismal debate brings little hope of peace in Iraq

US presses Iraqis on reconciliation plans

RECONSTRUCTION ROADBLOCKS: New Rebuilding Plan in Iraq Ignites Debate About Tactics

Young People and the War in Iraq

IRAN: NEITHER U.S. AGGRESSION NOR THEOCRATIC REPRESSION

Iran and Beyond: Shi'ite vs. Sunni?

Conference Committee Agrees on Iraq War Supplemental Funding

Ex-Halliburton unit accused of war profiteering

3 Suspects Talk After Iraqi Soldiers Do Dirty Work

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy

Record of Iraq War Lies to Air This Wednesday, April 25, on PBS

Resolution on Renewal of US Labor Against the War Affiliation and Update of Anti-War Position

The Occupation is Not the Solution, It is the Problem

Four years since the looting of the National Museum

Gates vows US will persevere with Baghdad crackdown

Wednesday: 312 Iraqis, 1 GI Killed; 302 Iraqis Wounded

"They can kill somebody's body, but they can't kill love."

Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad

Feingold Introduces Bill To End U.S. Military Involvement In Iraq

Iraqis Finally Unite ­Against the U.S.

Military Families Across U.S. Responding To the Extension of Army War-Zone Stints

Army Cost-Cutting in Budget Standoff May Actually Add to Costs

U.N.: $80 Million Overpaid to Victims of Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait

UN warns of Iraqi refugee crisis

Iraq may hold twice as much oil

Dems Divided over Webb's Proposal Requiring Approval for Attacking Iran

Majority Expect U.S. Will `Lose' War In Iraq

Iraq's Education System Is On the Verge of Collapse

Troop Mobilizations

National Guard (In Federal Status) And Reserve Mobilized As Of April 25, 2007

News Releases are official statements of the Department of Defense.

My Note:All U.S. Army troops to have Extended Deployments. Can you say 'Stop Loss'? Can you say 'Back Door Draft'? Can you say 'Involuntary Military'?

Three Months Tacked Onto All Army Combat Deployments

From VOA: The U.S. Defense Department announced Wednesday that most of the U.S. army troops now in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East and East Africa will have their assignments extended from 12 months to 15 months, and that the longer tours of duty will apply to soldiers who deploy to the region for the foreseeable future. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon the move



Memorials

More soldiers from Fort Lewis killed in Iraq; Memorials at Fort Lewis, Washington state

Memorials

By Ken Swarner on Fort Lewis

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (I Corps Release) -- A memorial ceremony for Cpl. Michael Mathew
Rojas and Cpl. Wade James Oglesby will be held Tuesday, April 24 at 2:30
p.m. in the Main Post Chapel, where they will be remembered by family,
friends, Soldiers and the Fort Lewis community.

Memorial

By Ken Swarner on Fort Lewis

FORT LEWIS, Wash.(I Corps release) -- A memorial ceremony for Sgt. Larry R. Bowman
will be held Thursday, April 19 at 2:30 p.m. in the Main Post Chapel.

More Memorials

9 Fort Bragg Families Told of 82nd Airborne paratroopers deaths in Iraq

Officials at Fort Bragg, N.C., met Tuesday with the families of paratroopers killed a day earlier in Iraq. A truck bomb claimed the lives of nine members of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg.

Wounded Soldiers - Broken VA Medical Care Services

Eight Thousand Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injuries

Iraq war brain trauma victims turn to private care

Opinion: Proactive Community Needed to Help Troops Reconnect, Reintegrate

From the Spring Grove [MN] Herald: I am watching the growing furor over the shortcomings in the Veterans Administration system and the fallout from Walter Reed Army Hospital with growing alarm. I am concerned that we are going to fix the crisis and forget the problem. The problem is how to help warriors, and their families, successfully reintegrate back into our communities, and their homes

Family 'Respectfully Disagrees' With VA Report on Son's Suicide

From the Associated Press: [Iraq vet Jonathan] Schulze had made at least 40 visits to the VA hospital in Minneapolis, where doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder, the report said. But it said mental health workers at the St. Cloud hospital told investigators Schulze never mentioned suicide to them, and they would have taken it seriously if he had. “The report and story has

U.S. News & World Report: More Evidence That Military Downgrading Disability Ratings

The evidence keeps piling up: U.S. military appears to have dispensed low disability ratings to wounded service members with serious injuries and thus avoided paying them full military disabled retirement benefits. While most recent attention has been paid to substandard conditions and outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the first stop for many wounded soldiers stateside

Lead Ft. Lewis Army Lawyer: Military Stacks Deck Against PTSD, TBI-injured Troops

Lots of articles, for good reason, coming out on the topic exploring the issue of troops not getting a fair shake when going through their disability claims processing; I recently was asked to contribute some background material on an upcoming piece for the Tacoma News-Tribune. This latest piece, from Military Times, also concerns troops at Washington state's Fort Lewis: The Army disability

Army made video warning about dangers of depleted uranium but never showed it to troops

David Edwards Published: Tuesday February 6, 2007

A special investigation on the effects of depleted uranium reveals the Army made a tape warning of the effects of depleted uranium which was never shown to troops despite the fact the Pentagon knew the agent to be potentially deadly, CNN reports Tuesday.

Depleted uranium -- or DU -- was used in the Gulf War as a projectile that could penetrate tank armor. A group of soldiers are suing the US government because they are sick from exposure; despite the unshown video, the Army denies that depleted uranium represents a serious health risk.

CNN reporter Greg Hunter explains. The soldiers "report similar ailments. Painful urination, headaches and joint pain. They say Army doctors blame their symptoms on post traumatic stress. We showed them a tape the Army made in 1995, a tape the Army never distributed. It warned of potential D.U. hazards. The army's expert on D.U. training concedes some information contained on the tape is true. For instance, radioactive particles can be harmful."

A doctor who once investigated DU for the Army now believes that the health risks are serious.

"In the 1990s this doctor studied D.U. health effects for the U.S. military," Hunter says. "Now a private researcher, he says his own test of these veterans showed abnormally high levels of D.U. this their urine and that those levels pose a serious health threat."

"One doctor... calls it, quote, 'a radiological sewer,'" Hunter adds. "The Army adamantly denies that."



Depleted Uranium: Poisoning Our Planet

Depleted Uranium used in weaponry of U.S. troops - NOT depleted, in fact, radioactive and causes radiation poisoning illnesses. Veteran Activist Dennis Kyne speaks at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Link to article and video.

Troop Resistance

Army Raises 2006 Desertion Figure by 1,000

From the Pasadena Weekly: [T]he US Army has revised its count of active duty soldiers who have deserted the military, raising that figure by almost 1,000 for fiscal year 2006 alone. Until the new figures were released on March 23, it had been widely reported that the number of deserters and soldiers absent without leave, or AWOL, had been decreasing since the start of the Iraq War except for a

Politically Speaking

Kucinich introduces impeachment resolution against Cheney

Raw Story reports that late today Dennis Kucinich submitted House Resolution 333 which sets out three "deeply researched" charges against Vice President Dick Cheney. The articles of impeachment and supporting documents are on Kucinich's site. Here's the transcript of his press conference in a Washington Post article.

House Set to Vote on Compromise War-Funds Bill

Gen. David Petraeus visits Capitol Hill Wednesday as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on a measure that will directly affect his mission in Iraq. The bill would both fund the war and set a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.

Bush Repeats Threat to Veto Iraq Spending Bill

Speaking at the White House, President Bush repeats his threat to veto an Iraq war spending bill that includes a timetable for the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq. Congressional Democrats agreed Monday to a bill that would require troops to begin leaving Iraq on Oct. 1.

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Two Ft Lewis Army Rangers killed in Iraq on 6th deployment

Two Army Rangers killed in Iraq | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
Published: March 22nd, 2006 01:00 AM
Two U.S. Army Rangers from Fort Lewis were killed last weekend in fighting in Ramadi, Iraq, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

The Pentagon identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Ricardo Barraza, 24, of Shafter, Calif.; and Sgt. Dale G. Brehm, 23, of Turlock, Calif.

The two were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Lewis and were serving on their sixth trip into Iraq or Afghanistan with the elite infantry unit, according to a news release by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

A Pentagon news release said the two men were killed Saturday when they came under small arms fire in Ramadi, west of Baghdad in Anbar Province. The Special Operations Command release said Brehm died Sunday. Officials could not be reached Tuesday evening to explain the discrepancy.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Special Operations Command released additional details about how the men died.

Barraza’s family told The Bakersfield Californian newspaper that he was shot in the chest while evacuating a building.

“He always thought of the rest of the people, not to have glory, but for everyone,” his mother, Nina, told The Bakersfield Californian on Monday. “He respected that uniform.”

Barraza joined the Army out of high school in 1999 and arrived at Fort Lewis to join the Ranger battalion in 2000.

He is survived by his parents and two sisters in California, another sister and a brother in Sunnyside, Yakima County, and his fiance, who lives in Yakima, the military said.

Brehm joined the Army in early 2001 and arrived at Fort Lewis with the Rangers in October of that year. He is survived by his parents in California and his wife, Raini, of Steilacoom.

The Fort Lewis-based battalion is one of three Ranger battalions across the Army, and has been deployed extensively for special operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Army in most cases releases little information about their operations.

The battalion has been deployed at least three times to Afghanistan and at least three times to Iraq.

Barraza and Brehm are the second and third Rangers from 2nd Battalion to be killed in Iraq. Pfc. Nathan Stahl of Highland, Ind., was killed there Sept. 21, 2004, when an improvised bomb detonated nearby.

Two other Fort Lewis Rangers – former NFL star Cpl. Pat Tillman and Sgt. Jay Blessing of Tacoma – were killed in Afghanistan.

They are among 82 Fort Lewis-based service members to be killed since the onset of the war on terrorism in October 2001.

Michael Gilbert: 253-597-8921

mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com

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The 5 Rs for military families and the troops; Retention, Recruitment, Recovery, Replenish, Repolitics

I just learned we have another family member, National Guard, who deployed to Iraq this week. To my knowledge, we now have 4 in our family in military service, 3 have deployed to Iraq of which 2 are returning Iraq veterans facing second deployments to Iraq under Stop Loss. That is in my immediate family.



I'm in contact with many military families who share similarities in their family experience to my own. One family has a son going for a third deployment while the daughter returns from her deployment with yet a third son in military service. In yet another family, a son is extended in Iraq beyond his contract even though he has been wounded three times already.



If I tried, I could not make this up. It goes from incredible to incredulous for military families across the country. Borrowing from the words of other military families, and borrowing from what has already been written and published, a panoramic photo forms and solidifies. It becomes difficult to dismantle with the tired spin arguments for why our troops should remain in combat in Iraq or even why they are there in the first place.



But aside from the point / counterpoint abstract arguments that serve the ego of the point of view, what is to become of our loved ones deployed? Has this country abandoned them and their families to suffer the losses while the arguing continues until someone, anyone can figure out how to get it right?



On Retention, Stop Loss, Extensions, Repeat Deployments; see this article;'Mothers on Their Soldier Sons' and read a full discussion on same article content with military families sharing their experiences at 'Stories from the Front'



On Senior and Junior Officers Decline in the ranks; becoming a serious and under reported difficulty. Here is letter from a military mother describing the experience of her son, who is an officer. It speaks quietly yet profoundly to how the soldiers care about each other.



From Army Infantry Mom:



Everyday our son was over in Iraq I just prayed he would come home safe. He was injured but was sent back. He told us each day that he went out, he did not know if he would come back alive.



His men were more important to him than his own welfare. It was his job to keep his men alive, despite some of the orders he was given that put his men in direct danger.



Iraq has become a haven for terrorists everywhere in the Muslim world.



Because of the lack of experience in this type of war, the senior officers have no idea what is happening on the streets. This is a serious problem. The junior officers have very little say in what they do day to day. They are the ones on the front line, making life or death decisions. Seven out of eight soldiers in our sons group died not in fighting insurgents, but as sitting/walking targets.



This is happening all over Iraq. The psychological toll to junior officers is much greater than people realize. Their men are their responsibility, their loss is never forgotten.



The situation in Iraq is not getting better. It has deteriorated. Each new group that is sent over from the states starts from scratch, making the same stupid mistakes that the group they are replacing has made.



There does not seem to be adequate training for replacements in the states by people who have actually been in battle. Our son had to counter many of the things his replacements had been told to do. The junior officers who have been in Iraq should be the ones training the reservists and the National Guard. They essentially have no control, no say in how things are being run, yet they are the ones fighting in the streets everyday.



This coupled with long deployments away from loved ones, has made reenlistment for junior officers extremely undesirable. Our son did not know of any junior officers that planned on staying past their enlistment requirements. Many that he knew were extremely bitter about being stop lossed.



The responsibility of young men’s lives is too great to be taken lightly. When they see young men dying needlessly, it is unacceptable, yet they are powerless to do anything.



Our son does not want to see another soldier blown up because someone in headquarters thought it would be a good idea to check IED craters on the side of the road.



He does not want to see another soldier die or become injured permanently because headquarters want convoys to drive around all day as targets for VBIED's, or IED's.



He does not want to set up another checkpoint that does not catch insurgents, but lets units become targets for VBIEDs that drive up and blow themselves up.



Junior officers are responsible for their men. When they cannot protect their soldiers adequately from harm, they cannot do their job, nor do they want to.



There is no satisfaction in this war that is getting worse by the day. Our son said that he did not think that we had any business being in Iraq. Afghanistan, but not Iraq.



On Recruitment Practices; full scale market and research development tools in use now to attempt to overcome the current declining recruitment levels, targeting the younger generation. Read that as designed to tap your children for military service. 'An Army of (No) One: An Inside Look at the Military's Internet Recruiting War' and 'Cyberstalking the Recruitable Teen'



Excerpt: What the military truly values is green teens. Not surprisingly, the Pentagon pays companies like Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), which claims it offers its "clients virtually unlimited methods for researching teens," to get inside kids' heads. It was also recently revealed that the Department of Defense (DoD), with the aid of a private marketing firm, BeNow, has created a database of twelve million youngsters, some only 16 years of age, as part of a program to identify potential recruits. Armed with "names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, individuals' e-mail addresses, ethnicity, telephone numbers, students' grade-point averages, field of academic study and other data," the Pentagon now has far better ways and means of accurately targeting teens.



Excerpt: What we do know, however, is that JAMRS is currently focusing on the following areas of interest in an attempt to bolster the all-volunteer military:



*Hispanic Barriers to Enlistment: a project to "identify the factors contributing to under-representation of Hispanic youth among military accessions" and "inform future strategies for increasing Hispanic representation among the branches of the Military."



*College Drop Outs/Stop Outs Study: a project "aimed to gain a better understanding of what drives college students to… ‘drop out' and determine how the Services can capitalize on this group of individuals (ages 18-24)."



*Mothers' Attitude Study: "This study gauges the target audience's (270 mothers of 10th- and 11th-grade youth) attitudes toward the Military and enlistment."



Excerpt: Additionally, eyebrows ought to be raised over a Pentagon that is looking at ways to influence the mothers of teens to send their sons and daughters off to war and at a military eager to study what it takes to get kids to "drop out" of school and how the military might then scoop them up.



On Wounded Soldiers, Veterans; facing the hurdles thrown up within the military systems that prohibit medical care they need to recover. See this newspaper article 'The Battle after the Battle'



Excerpt: The day before his 22nd birthday, a bomb hanging from a tree along a road near Fallujah exploded above Rory Dunn’s Humvee.



Dunn’s forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel; the left eye nearly so. His hearing was severely damaged.



Within minutes of the May 2004 explosion, he was strapped on a stretcher and flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad – the first step in his 10-month struggle to recover.



Yet, even as Dunn fought to overcome his traumatic brain injury and other wounds, his mother, Cynthia Lefever, fought the Army to ensure her son continued to receive critical care from Army specialists. Lefever said the Army tried to pressure her son into accepting a discharge before he was ready – pressure other severely wounded soldiers say they’ve experienced, too.



Lefever and other critics say the Army’s medical system, particularly Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has been overwhelmed by the number of wounded returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. They accuse the Army of attempting to discharge wounded soldiers before their essential medical needs are met and transfer them to Veterans Affairs medical facilities.



Excerpt: Fernandez, the retired 1st lieutenant, was injured in a friendly fire incident in Iraq in April 2003. His right leg was amputated below the knee, as was his left foot. He was fitted with eight prosthetics before he found ones that were comfortable.



A graduate of West Point, where he captained the academy’s lacrosse team, Fernandez studied the regulations and was able to “push back” and fend off the discharge for months.



Excerpt: Former Staff Sgt. Jessica Clements of Canton, Ohio, suffered a traumatic brain injury when a bomb – the military calls them “improvised explosive devices” – detonated while she was riding in a convoy near the Baghdad airport. To relieve brain swelling, Clements said, a neurosurgeon at the Baghdad hospital clipped off a piece of her skull and temporarily inserted it into her belly for safe keeping.



“I could feel it,” said Clements of the piece of skull stored in her belly for four months before it was removed and reattached.



As she lay in a bed at Walter Reed, Clements said, she received repeated telephone calls from an Army official telling her she needed to start the discharge process



More on Wounded Soldiers; A snippet of Interview with Jack Robinson, legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America of Dallas, Texas.



Question; What is the process involved when someone is badly injured in Baghdad?



Jack Robinson: They get processed. Then from Baghdad, they usually go to Germany and get transferred to another aircraft. Then they go to Walter Reed. From there, they are processed out to all 50 states in different hospitals and bases. When I was up in Washington, I asked Congressman Chet Edwards how many wounded they had so far because the count I got the year before was over 15,000 wounded and maimed. He said it was into the 40 thousands. Now this is accidents, trucks, everything. That includes mortars and roadside bombs.



Read more; Who Supports the Troops, Part 1 and Part 2, Stories in America



On Depleted Uranium Troop Exposure: Louisiana recently passed legislation giving all returning veterans the right to get a best practices health screening test for exposure to depleted uranium. 'Depleted Uranium: States Take Action to Protect Their Soldiers and Veterans'





My own opinion having researched depleted uranium and soldiers potentially exposed is that it would be wiser to err on the side of caution and heed the expert opinions. Experts say, while again arguments continue in a controversial swirl of is it or isn’t it actively radioactive, that immediate and long-term health consequences compromising genetic makeup will have far-reaching impact onto generations being born and yet unborn. See Traprock for much more detail on depleted uranium.



On Political Scene; politically just now the buzz over Karl Rove deliberately leaking identity of undercover CIA operative to media has uppermost attention on many fronts. Is it treason? Is it administrative complicity in giving aid to the ‘enemy’? Is it criminal? Is it an offense to be prosecuted? Will there be a spin that will enable Karl Rove to waltz around the issue and avoid personal responsibility and accountability? Will this Administration bite the bullet on this and step up to the plate to acknowledge the deception foisted on the American public about reasons for initiating war in Iraq? Will this Administration continue to stonewall on hard issues that perpetuate the continued death and carnage of our deployed troops and Iraqi people?



Whatever it is or is not; one thing is clear to me. It is related to why this country is in Iraq in the first place and at the very least it ought to have every citizen questioning why did we sent combat troops into Iraq and why are they still there and what are the objectives and goals in Iraq? It ought to be abundantly clear by now that the Bush Administration misled America into war in Iraq. In my opinion, with deliberate deceptiveness the Bush Administration pushed an agenda of war in Iraq and it is showing a destabilization of America on a scale yet to be felt and seen. I hope not irreparably, yet fear the damage is one to be born for our coming up generation and even into next generations.



Military families bear the brunt of the political tango being conducted by this President and his administration. It is not an abstract issue for the families with deployed loved ones. It is not an abstract issue for the new young being aggressively and sometimes deceptively recruited into military rank and file. It is not an abstract issue for parents who have pre-teen and teen age youngsters being courted with military recruitment ads on television, and on internet in active campaigns to program their thinking towards offering up themselves in sacrifice at the altar of the Iraq war.



It is not an abstract issue for the families of the returning veterans terribly mutilated, torn of the body by IEDs or torn of the mind by traumatic brain injury or torn of the soul by trauma of carnage, killing and destruction. And it most certainly is not an abstract issue for families of the fallen, ask Cindy Sheehan how abstract it is for her family.







The 5 Rs for military families and the troops; Retention, Recruitment, Recovery, Replenish, Repolitics

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The Battle After The Battle

The below is a lenghty article published in local newspaper in area where we live. Posting in entirety as it points to the gruesome realities for military families.

The battle after the battle

Soldiers say military pushes them to discharge before medical needs are met

LES BLUMENTHAL; The News Tribune
Last updated: July 11th, 2005 08:44 AM (PDT)
The day before his 22nd birthday, a bomb hanging from a tree along a road near Fallujah exploded above Rory Dunn’s Humvee.

Dunn’s forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel; the left eye nearly so. His hearing was severely damaged.

“I remember a bright flash. The trees lit up, and the Humvee was shaking,” Dunn recalled during a recent interview while curled up in an easy chair in the living room of his mother’s Renton home.

Within minutes of the May 2004 explosion, he was strapped on a stretcher and flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad – the first step in his 10-month struggle to recover.

Yet, even as Dunn fought to overcome his traumatic brain injury and other wounds, his mother, Cynthia Lefever, fought the Army to ensure her son continued to receive critical care from Army specialists. Lefever said the Army tried to pressure her son into accepting a discharge before he was ready – pressure other severely wounded soldiers say they’ve experienced, too.

Lefever and other critics say the Army’s medical system, particularly Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has been overwhelmed by the number of wounded returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. They accuse the Army of attempting to discharge wounded soldiers before their essential medical needs are met and transfer them to Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

“The Army tried to get rid of him,” Lefever said. “It was immoral and unethical. The Army owes these kids.”

Army officials deny they’re taking advantage of wounded soldiers.

“There are no efforts to ‘rush’ anyone out of the Army or through medical treatment and the disability system,” Col. Dan Garvey, deputy commanding officer of the Army’s Physical Disability Agency, said in an interview via e-mail.

Soldiers are discharged if they no longer can “adequately perform” their assigned duties and have received “optimum medical care,” Garvey said. The process is subjective and can last months or more than year, he said, but soldiers are informed of their rights and can appeal.

“There must be a balancing act, and the system tries very hard to maintain that,” Garvey said.

The issue has attracted attention in Congress and among veterans groups.

John Fernandez, a 27-year-old retired 1st lieutenant from New York who lost part of each leg in Iraq, told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee this spring the Army tried to discharge him before he received the medical care he was entitled to.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle), a member of the committee, said she heard similar stories from other wounded soldiers and their families.

“I think (the Army) underestimated the number of wounded. No one predicted this,” Murray said. “I don’t know whether they are overcrowded or just trying to cut costs. No one is talking about it.”

Clinging to life

Doctors initially gave Rory Dunn little chance of survival.

As he clung to life in the Baghdad hospital, they glued his left eye back into its socket and placed him in a deep medical coma to ease brain swelling. Five days later, Dunn was flown to a hospital in Germany, where his family had gone on “imminent death orders” to say their goodbyes. If he lived, they were told, he might need full-time care for the rest of his life.

Almost six weeks after he was wounded, Dunn emerged from his coma at Walter Reed, where he had been transferred. Days later, Lefever said, the Army asked her son to begin the discharge process. She objected.

During the coming months, before his skull was rebuilt, before a cornea transplant, before speech and physical therapy, the Army made at least three attempts to get her son to accept a discharge, Lefever said. In one instance, she said a top medical officer showed up in her son’s room in Ward 58, the neuroscience ward at Walter Reed, and said Dunn needed to immediately sign papers formally starting the discharge process.

“We all understood he couldn’t return to the Army, but he hadn’t even started his treatment,” Lefever said, adding that her son had just emerged from his coma.

In the fall of 2004, roughly five months after he was wounded, Lefever said her son was told to attend a meeting without his mother. During the meeting , which Lefever insisted on attending, Dunn was given three days to sign papers starting the discharge process or the Army would do it without his authorization. At that point, Dunn had not received the surgery that would rebuild his forehead.

“I felt bullied,” Lefever said.

During a six-week period stretching into February, Lefever said the Army stepped up the pressure, at one point offering to send her son to a hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., that specializes in traumatic brain injuries – but only if he first agreed to a discharge.

“I was disgusted,” Lefever said.

Though Dunn wanted out, Lefever said he wasn’t ready and felt the Army was trying to play her son off against her. In phone calls and in meetings, Lefever said her son was repeatedly told that his discharge was “none of his mom’s business.”

“Rory left his right eye, his forehead and his blood in the dirt in Iraq because the Army sent him there,” Lefever said in one e-mail to medical officials at Walter Reed. “Rory went and did his job as ordered by the Army, and deserves so much better than to sit and wait … depressed, angry, frustrated and contemplating suicide. Rory deserves the opportunity to ‘come back’ 100 percent both physically and mentally.”

Feeling overwhelmed, Lefever said she sought assistance from a veterans group, Disabled Veterans of America, as well as Sen. Murray’s office. The veterans group assigned an advocate named Danny Soto to Dunn’s case.

Soto said lots of soldiers feel they’re being “pushed out the door.” He blames the military for failing to adequately explain to the families of wounded soldiers that there will be a “continuity” of medical care after discharge.

After a series of meetings involving Dunn, Soto, a Murray aide, Lefever and Army officials, an agreement was reached that allowed Dunn to be sent to Palo Alto for treatment, then accept a discharge.

“All I wanted was the best for my son,” said Lefever, who made her feelings known to a string of Army officials, including generals at the Pentagon and then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

Lefever’s fight wasn’t unique.

‘I felt I was being rushed’

Fernandez, the retired 1st lieutenant, was injured in a friendly fire incident in Iraq in April 2003. His right leg was amputated below the knee, as was his left foot. He was fitted with eight prosthetics before he found ones that were comfortable.

A graduate of West Point, where he captained the academy’s lacrosse team, Fernandez studied the regulations and was able to “push back” and fend off the discharge for months.

“I had to fight to stay on duty,” Fernandez said, adding he didn’t want to be discharged until the Army provided him with the care he felt he deserved.

“A private just out of high school who doesn’t know his rights might just go with the flow,” he said. “You are dealing with injuries that will affect you and your family for the rest of your life. It’s an emotional time. Then you get overwhelmed with all this information.”

Former Staff Sgt. Jessica Clements of Canton, Ohio, suffered a traumatic brain injury when a bomb – the military calls them “improvised explosive devices” – detonated while she was riding in a convoy near the Baghdad airport. To relieve brain swelling, Clements said, a neurosurgeon at the Baghdad hospital clipped off a piece of her skull and temporarily inserted it into her belly for safe keeping.

“I could feel it,” said Clements of the piece of skull stored in her belly for four months before it was removed and reattached.

As she lay in a bed at Walter Reed, Clements said, she received repeated telephone calls from an Army official telling her she needed to start the discharge process.

“I had no idea what was going on,” she said in an interview. “It was only two months after I was injured. I felt I was being rushed. My skull was in my stomach, and I was doing eight hours of therapy a day. It was very frustrating.”

Panel reviews each case

Army officials won’t comment on individual medical cases, but they say they try to be sensitive when discharging seriously wounded soldiers.

“We get complaints and criticisms of the process not infrequently,” said Col. James Gilman, head of the Walter Reed Health Care System. “We get complaints it takes too long and we get complaints it goes too quickly. Our goal is to take care of the soldiers.”

When it becomes apparent a wounded soldier won’t be able to return to active duty, a medical board made up of Army physicians reviews the case. The medical board review can’t be completed until it’s decided the wounded soldier has received “optimal medical care,” said Gilman. And that’s the tricky part.

“It can be very subjective,” Gilman said, adding the medical boards have some flexibility. “We don’t just follow the regulations blindly. It’s not a one-way street.”

The findings of a medical board are turned over to a Physical Evaluation Board, part of the Army’s Human Resources Command, which ultimately decides whether a soldier stays on active duty or is discharged, and what percentage of disability a soldier receives.

Some 11,300 U.S. military personnel have been evacuated due to injuries or illness since hostilities began in Afghanistan and Iraq in October 2001. Of those, 740 had been discharged as of last week, according to the Army.

Medical advances help reduce the number of deaths in wars. With more soldiers surviving near-fatal wounds, hospitals are overburdened.

Gilman said Walter Reed, where many of the wounded are initially treated when they return to the United States, has been swamped at times.

“The installation was not built to handle all the outpatients we have now,” Gilman said.

A hotel on the hospital grounds for soldiers receiving outpatient care and their families is mostly full. Some outpatients are housed at nearby hotels or government-leased apartments.

Other Army medical facilities also feel the strain, including those in the South Sound.

Barracks at Fort Lewis have been upgraded to include, among other things, wheelchair-accessible quarters to house wounded soldiers treated as outpatients at Madigan Army Hospital, the General Accountability Office told Congress earlier this year.

Veterans organizations say they are aware that the military medical system is stretched.

“It’s obvious when you go to Walter Reed,” said Cathy Wiblemo, the American Legion’s deputy director for health care. “They are running out of room.”

Wiblemo said she has no specific knowledge that the Army has moved to discharge wounded soldiers too quickly. But she said she wouldn’t be surprised.

“The Army’s medical bills are going up, and it’s encroaching on other things they have to pay for,” she said.

Murray: Dunn’s case ‘one of many’

Dunn, Fernandez and Clements have been discharged and are being treated at VA facilities or through the military’s Tri-Care System, a health plan that covers military personnel, dependents and retirees.

Murray, who has taken a personal interest in Dunn’s case and awarded him his Purple Heart in June, said she has talked with soldiers who feel the Army has tried to “push them out.”

“Rory Dunn is just one of many,” Murray said. “It strikes me as amazing that Rory needs an advocate in the U.S. Senate. He shouldn’t have to go through this.”

As Dunn’s physical scars fade, the emotional ones linger, as do the memories of that day outside Fallujah a year ago.

“It got me, boy did it get me,” Dunn said of the explosion. “The last thing I remember was stumbling around shouting, ‘Charge, charge,’ and my buddies trying to get me to sit down.”

Though his forehead has been rebuilt, Dunn covers it with a purple baseball cap that says “Combat Wounded” and has the symbol of a purple heart. With thick glasses, he can see out of his left eye. With hearing aides, he can hear.

Lefever said she was surprised when her son joined the Army about a year after high school. She remembers him as a good student who played football and basketball. She said he also had a rebellious streak and was sort of a “cowboy.”

Dunn just shrugs when asked why he joined and later volunteered for duty in Iraq.

“It was a terrible, terrible mistake,” he said. “I was a fool.”

Dunn fidgets as he talks. His attention span is short. He ducks out for a cigarette and to play with his dog Duke, a 6-month-old German shorthair. His memory is intact, as is his sense of humor. He remembers the name of the girl he took to the senior prom. He’s looking forward to getting his own apartment and a driver’s license.

He’s also angry and impatient.

“I feel better, but I wish I could get on with my life,” he said. “I lived in hospitals and rehab for a year. It was the worst thing I ever had to go through.”

Lefever said she refused to give up until her son received the care that she says Army regulations require.

“I remain angry and disgusted with them for certain things, but I am eternally grateful to them for other things,” she said.

Col. Gilman of Walter Reed said he remembers spending a lot of time with Lefever and her son.

“We are grateful for the families who are interested. The mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters,” he said. “The ones who worry me the most are the ones whose families aren’t involved.”

Originally published: July 10th, 2005 12:01 AM (PDT)
© Copyright 2005 Tacoma News, Inc.

The News Tribune - The battle after the battle (print): "� Copyright 2005 Tacoma News, Inc."

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40,000 wounded troops; while we hear reports of 15, 000.

from Stories in America blogger; Rose Aguilar
I'm an independent journalist living and working in San Francisco. After the election, I decided it was time to leave my liberal bubble and travel to the so-called Red States to find out why people vote the way they do and what they think about politics.


a snippet of Interview with Jack Robinson, legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America of Dallas, Texas.

What is the process involved when someone is badly injured in Baghdad?

They get processed. Then from Baghdad, they usually go to Germany and get transferred to another aircraft. Then they go to Walter Reed. From there, they are processed out to all 50 states in different hospitals and bases. When I was up in Washington, I asked Congressman Chet Edwards how many wounded they had so far because the count I got the year before was over 15,000 wounded and maimed. He said it was into the 40 thousands. Now this is accidents, trucks, everything. That includes mortars and roadside bombs.

read more; Who Supports the Troops, Part 1 and Part 2 at her blog
Stories in America

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103,000 Iraq Afghan Veterans will need VA care; War injured toll soars, hits veterans health costs

Think on it, 103,000 new veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan will require care and services of VA. Think on that number and weigh it against the 13,190 wounded reported as of today. Think of that number and weigh it against President Bush speech tonight. That number would be the troops we already have in combat; and President makes a plea for more to enlist.



Reuters; June 28, 2005



As the numbers of U.S. war injured in

Iraq and Afghanistan soared, the Bush administration admitted to lawmakers on Tuesday it had underestimated funds to cover health care costs for veterans and Congress would have to plug a $2.6 billion hole.



"The bottom line is there is a surge in demand in VA (health) services across the board," said Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson.



The Veterans Administration assumed it would have to take care of 23,553 patients who are veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but that number had been revised upward to 103,000, Nicholson told a House of Representatives panel.



read more at War injured toll soars, hits veterans health costs - Yahoo! News

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When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call

A recruitment story that exemplifies the relentless 'wearing down' tactics used by military recruiters. More the 'emotional manipulation' used on the young adults of 17 yrs, 18 yrs who have not yet the maturity of many adult years to recognize the ploys. Exploiting vulnerabilities is not, imo, the proud act and in keeping with the proud honor the marines like to be remembered and known for and shows desperation, not dignity or honor





Wednesday, June 8, 2005

By SUSAN PAYNTER

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST



For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC on their caller ID soon spelled, "Don't answer the phone!"



Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel as soon as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his 17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the seekers of a few good men off the line.



With early and late calls ringing in their ears, Marcia tried using call blocking. And that's when she learned her first hard lesson. You can't block calls from the government, her server said. So, after pleas to "Please stop calling" went unanswered, the family's "do not answer" order ensued.



But warnings and liquid crystal lettering can fade. So, two weeks ago when Marcia was cooking dinner Axel goofed and answered the call. And, faster than you can say "semper fi," an odyssey kicked into action that illustrates just how desperate some of the recruiters we've read about really are to fill severely sagging quotas.



Let what we learned serve as a warning to other moms, dads and teens, the Cobbs now say. Even if your kids actually may want to join the military, if they hope to do it on their own terms, after a deep breath and due consideration, repeat these words after them: "No," "Not now" and "Back off!"



"I've been trained to be pretty friendly. I guess you might even say I'm kind of passive," Axel told me last week, just after his mother and older sister had tracked him to a Seattle testing center and sprung him on a ruse.



The next step of Axel's misadventure came when he heard about a cool "chin-ups" contest in Bellingham, where the prize was a free Xbox. The now 18-year-old Skagit Valley Community College student dragged his tail feathers home uncharacteristically late that night. And, in the morning, Marcia learned the Marines had hosted the event and "then had him out all night, drilling him to join."



A single mom with a meager income, Marcia raised her kids on the farm where, until recently, she grew salad greens for restaurants.



Axel's father, a Marine Corps vet who served in Vietnam, died when Axel was 4.



Clearly the recruiters knew all that and more.



"You don't want to be a burden to your mom," they told him. "Be a man." "Make your father proud." Never mind that, because of his own experience in the service, Marcia says enlistment for his son is the last thing Axel's dad would have wanted.



The next weekend, when Marcia went to Seattle for the Folklife Festival and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the door.



Axel repeated the family mantra, but he was feeling frazzled and worn down by then. The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time, aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested," the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping) mistake!"



Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.



"They said we were going somewhere but I didn't know we were going all the way to Seattle," Axel said.



Just a few tests. And so many free opportunities, the recruiters told him.



He could pursue his love of chemistry. He could serve anywhere he chose and leave any time he wanted on an "apathy discharge" if he didn't like it. And he wouldn't have to go to Iraq if he didn't want to.



At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed a little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or food, he had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he hadn't gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told. "Sign here. And here. Nothing to worry about."



By then Marcia had "freaked out."



She went to the Burlington recruiting center where the door was open but no one was home. So she grabbed all the cards and numbers she could find, including the address of the Seattle-area testing center.



Then, with her grown daughter in tow, she high-tailed it south, frantically phoning Axel whose cell phone had been confiscated "so he wouldn't be distracted during tests."



Axel's grandfather was in the hospital dying, she told the people at the desk. He needed to come home right away. She would have said just about anything.



But, even after being told her son would be brought right out, her daughter spied him being taken down a separate hall and into another room. So she dashed down the hall and grabbed him by the arm.



"They were telling me I needed to 'be a man' and stand up to my family," Axel said.



What he needed, it turned out, was a lawyer.



Five minutes and $250 after an attorney called the recruiters, Axel's signed papers and his cell phone were in the mail.



My request to speak with the sergeant who recruited Axel and with the Burlington office about recruitment procedures went unanswered.



And so should your phone, Marcia Cobb advised. Take your own sweet time. Keep your own counsel. And, if you see USMC on caller ID, remember what answering the call could mean.



When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call

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National Security Archives photos of recently released Pentagon photos of the fallen soldiers

(out-take from article at National Security Archives website)
Begleiter said, "Hiding these images from the public - or, worse, failing even to record these respectful moments - deprives all Americans of the opportunity to recognize their contribution to our democracy, and hinders policymakers and historians in the future from making informed judgments about public opinion and war." He called on the Pentagon to resume fully documenting the return of American casualties.

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newly released photo, fallen soldier with attending honor guard.  

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photos at National Security Archives

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Pentagon releases hundred more photos

PENTAGON RELEASES HUNDREDS MORE WAR CASUALTY HOMECOMING IMAGES. Defense Department redactions obscure the faces and insignia of honor guard members in many of the war casualty images.

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Wounded Iraq Veterans Generate New 'Traumatic Injury' Legislation

By Terri Lukach

American Forces Press Service



WASHINGTON, April 20, 2005 – Three soldiers wounded in Iraq sparked new legislation to provide low-cost “traumatic injury” insurance for members of America’s armed forces.



The legislation was announced April 19 at a Capitol Hill press conference by its sponsor, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig.



The three soldiers, Staff Sgts. Heath Calhoun and Ryan Kelly and Sgt. Jeremy Feldbusch, were all seriously wounded in Iraq. They each underwent extensive medical treatments and periods of recuperation that resulted in severe financial hardships for their families. All wanted to do something to help alleviate similar hardships for those wounded in the future.



Craig said the soldiers visited his Senate office last week to discuss the need for this type of benefit. “It was their idea,” he said.



The legislation will be offered as both an amendment to Emergency Supplemental legislation currently being debated in the Senate and a stand-alone bill. It would add a low-cost traumatic injury insurance benefit to the Servicemembers Group Life Insurance now provided to military members. In the event of traumatic injury, the benefit would provide an “immediate” lump-sum payment of $25,000 to $100,000 for certain catastrophic injuries incurred on active duty.



Traumatic injuries covered will include blindness; loss of limbs, speech or hearing; paralysis; burns greater than second degree covering 30 percent of the body or face; and certain traumatic brain injuries, according to a press release from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.



The cost of the benefit would be covered by an insurance premium of about $1 per month for each servicemember. The coverage would also be available to members of the National Guard and Reserve. Family members would not be included in the benefit.



During the press conference, David S. C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, expressed the Defense Department’s support for the legislation and praised the soldiers for their efforts to make the legislation a reality.



“These young men and their families have already nobly served their country in the theater of operations in the global war on terror,” Chu said. “And they serve us again by bringing forward an important effort to help ensure that the transition back to civilian life will be as smooth as it can be.”



Chu said the department recognizes there is no way to anticipate every expense, every challenge severely wounded veterans will face as they recuperate. “That is why we support this legislation and hope it will go on to a successful conclusion and become the law of the land,” he said.



The three soldiers responsible for the legislation were also present at the press conference to lend their support for the bill. Feldbusch, an Army Ranger, was severely wounded when a piece of shrapnel entered his brain during an intense Iraqi artillery barrage, leaving him blind in both eyes. Calhoun lost both legs in a rocket-propelled-grenade attack, and Kelly lost his right leg to a roadside bomb.



“It was during my recovery process that I noticed there were some gaps in the financial coverage,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t a lack of support by DoD or the (Department of Veterans Affairs), but just a gap in the system.



“I can’t stress enough the effect this will have on our brothers and sisters in the services,” he said. “The difference it will make on the family unit during covalence is tremendous. The financial stress far outweighs the physical stress.”



He said a soldier learning to walk on a prosthetic leg shouldn’t be “wondering how long they can continue to make a payment on their home or how long their family can continue to visit.”



Kelly urged the Senate to pass the legislation quickly. “Every day we wait,” he said, “is a day another soldier and his family will have to deal with the recovery process without this insurance.”





DefenseLINK News: Wounded Iraq Veterans Generate New 'Traumatic Injury' Legislation

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Conversations with U.S. Wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital; C-Span

Last night I watched a C-Span special; Conversations with U.S. Wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital. A reporter was given permission to interview 4 amputee soldiers in rehabilitation treatment services at the hospital. The interviews were conversational and permitted adequate time for the soldiers to expand on their answers, which included how were you wounded; how were you treated; how is it going with the prosthetic and rehabilitation; are you angry; what will you do next.

I don't know the background in how the reporter was given access to interview inside the hospital, nor the process for which soldiers the reporter was permitted to interview. However, the 4 soldiers that were interviewed suffered devastating injuries and all 4 are amputees with loss of limbs; Cpl. Michael Oreskovic, Major Tammy Duckworth, First Lt. Erasmos Valles, and Sgt. Manuel Mendoza Valencia in their own words, provide a good cross-section of thoughts and opinions about the war, their injuries, their experience, their recuperation and rehabilitation, their comrades, their hopes for their own futures.

I don't want to add my opinion, more wanted to point out that these poignant conversations are available at C-Span in streaming video with audio. Recommending.

see and hear streaming video at C-SPAN

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Rebels Wound 44 U.S. Troops in Attack on Abu Ghraib Prison

BAGHDAD — More than three dozen insurgents launched an audacious strike Saturday against the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, wounding 44 U.S. troops and 13 Iraqi detainees.



The large-scale attack represented a rare direct assault against a well-fortified U.S. position. It was also one of the more sophisticated strikes against American troops since President Saddam Hussein was toppled from power two years ago.



read more at Rebels Wound 44 U.S. Troops in Attack on Abu Ghraib Prison

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At Least 20 U.S. Troops Wounded in Iraq Jail Attack

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Dozens of insurgents attacked Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad on Saturday, detonating two suicide car bombs and firing rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. forces before the assault was repelled, the U.S. military said.



At least 20 U.S. soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which lasted around an hour, a U.S. officer said. At least 12 detainees were also wounded, some severely. It was not known how many insurgents were wounded or killed.

Top News Article | Reuters.com

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