GI Special:

thomasfbarton@earthlink.net

2.12.06

Print it out: color best.  Pass it on.

 

GI SPECIAL 4B11:

 

 

www.willthomas.net/ images/Mutiny-In-The-Ranks

 

 

Mutiny In The Ranks:

One Platoon Guide Says That 40% Of His Platoon “Don’t Want To Be There”

 

 

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

 

 

Willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly [Excerpts]

 

Mutiny In The Ranks is an inside look at the war in Iraq and growing resistance in the ranks by William Thomas.

 

After resigning his US Navy Reserve commission in protest during the Vietnam War, the author of Scorched Earth and Bringing The War Home details the disillusion and disgruntlement of today’s GIs in yet another bogus war based on lies and hidden agendas.

 

Told in their own words, this compelling story reveals the disastrous consequences for GIs and Iraqis alike when armchair generals overruled the professionals to launch a war many real generals opposed.

 

A growing mutiny in the ranks is seeing desertions and refusals to reenlist, combined with a drastic drop in enlistments across the USA, stretching the army to the breaking point.

 

Will the grunts finally stop America’s latest war, just as their counterparts stopped the war in Vietnam?  Read this book and find out.

 

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

 

They told you, you would be welcomed by a grateful people.  They said you would be protecting your homeland from horrific weapons of indiscriminate terror.  Your superiors offered payback, a chance to smash al Qaeda and get the mustachioed bastard responsible for Sept. 11, before he could carry out even more fiendish attacks against Americans.

 

Most of all, they promised the quickest way home was through Baghdad.

 

All lies.

 

You wanted to belong.  You wanted to serve your country.  You wanted direction in your life, and the army seemed to offer it.  A paid-for university degree seemed a fair trade for a few years deducted from a future ripe with possibility.

 

Now your life reeks of unchanged socks, unwashed sweat and the uncertainties of indefinite deployment in a place of unpronounceable names where you can get shot while buying a Coke.

 

Welcome to Iraq.

 

When does it end?

 

The only light at the end of this particular tunnel is the explosion that derails your life. Even if you get back to CONUS without some weird disease, and with all your arms and legs intact, you will never really be able to go home again.  Not after what you’ve seen and done.

 

“Can’t sleep for shit and I have horrible nightmares when I do sleep.  I might be lucky to catch an hour at a time before the nightmares wake me up,” a Non-Commissioned Officer with over 20 years of service told a reporter after returning home.

 

One platoon guide says that 40% of his platoon “Don’t want to be there.”

 

“Man, they can’t pay me enough to stay here,” a 23-year-old 4th Infantry Division specialist manning a checkpoint in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, told the Associated Press.  “There’s not enough money in the world to make me stay a month longer.”

 

At least one in 10 of the 135,000 troops then in Iraq have been evacuated back to the USA.

 

Frustrated officers often hold “rants about Halliburton, Bechtel, DynCorp, Fluor, and the rest of the contracting mess,” says an NCO.

 

“It has nothing to do with liberation or ensuring a free election in Iraq.  No way that will ever really happen.  If you could see how they are parceling out the Iraq resources to the contractors there right now, you would understand what I mean.  

 

“I have seen the profiteering on a first hand basis.  I have never seen that level of outright greed even around the Pentagon at budget time.  It makes you nauseous.”

 

These aren’t just a few grunts grumbling.  These are patriotic Americans walking away from the senseless waste of Washington’s endless wars.

 

 

 

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

 

 

Killed In Iraq, Marine Won Hearts At Home

 

February 10, 2006 By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN, Associated Press Writer

 

TUCSON - The terse Pentagon announcement simply said that Marine Cpl. Brandon S. Schuck died Feb. 6 from an improvised explosive device during combat operations in Baghdad, Iraq.

 

That hardly tells the story of an up-by-the-bootstraps young man, a husband and father, whose legacy cut a large swath through the small, close-knit eastern Arizona community of Safford.

 

Brandon Schuck became the first known military casualty of the Iraq war from the town of about 10,000.

 

 A combat engineer who had received his corporal's stripe on Feb. 1, the day his son Gavin turned a year old, Schuck died five days later, shortly after a roadside bomb exploded beneath the vehicle he was in.  Two fellow Marines died instantly.

 

Their job with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, part of the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was to sweep roads ahead of supply convoys for land mines.

 

About a week before he died, he had received a video from his wife and high school sweetheart, Megan, showing Gavin walking.  "Brandon called me very excited," said Megan.  "His son was the No. 1 person in his life."

 

The couple met four years ago, "during our sophomore year, during basketball season," and were married in September 2004, about three months after they had graduated and he enlisted, she said.  Megan described her husband as "very outgoing and funny. He had his own little sense of humor.  Everybody was just in love with him."

 

He left for Iraq on Aug. 28. 

 

"It's kind of set us back," said Rich Deridder, principal of Safford High School, where Brandon S. Schuck had graduated in 2004.  "It brings Baghdad and Iraq right here.  We hear 'Marines were injured or killed by roadside bombs' and it doesn't affect us.  Now it's going to affect us, because it brings it home."

 

Schuck had a difficult home life and moved to Safford from Phoenix in 2001 as a high school sophomore because there were relatives in the area, those who knew him best said in interviews Thursday.

 

"He was a wonderful, happy-go-lucky kid," said E.J. Romero, a government teacher and football coach at the school who befriended Schuck.  "He was a typical high school male; he loved sports, his basketball.  Academically, he did what he had to do to get by. Eligibility was never an issue for him.  He had to work hard to stay eligible, and he did. He smiled, laughed a lot, was well-liked by a lot of students.  "He could make me angry too.  But he had a heart of gold.  He had a hard life." Romero said "there were definitely family issues" in Schuck's past, "but you wouldn't be able to tell that by looking at him. He didn't let it show."

 

Schuck's heart and perseverance made up for being undersized, Romero said:

 

"He ended up about 5-9, 145 or 155 pounds; he was a fast kid." Schuck played wide receiver and defensive back, but at one point agreed to move to defensive end to take advantage of his speed. "He said, 'If it means I will get to play, and if it will help the team, I will do it,"' Romero recalled.

 

He also played basketball and was a passionate golfer, said Joe Burnside, the school's athletic director, who with his wife Cece took Schuck into their home during his junior year after he told Burnside he had no place to go.

 

"He was here about a year before he moved in with me, and we were the sixth actual house he'd been in in a year's time," Burnside said.

 

Burnside recalled Schuck came to see him as a sophomore wanting to play sports.  "So I just started helping him."

 

Burnside called Schuck a decent student who stayed up-to-date in his course work despite designation as a special education student.

 

Schuck also loved to cook, and worked as an aide to the school's culinary arts instructor. "The golf coach used to think he had a tapeworm," Burnside said. "He loved rice.  He had favorite cookies that my wife always made him; he loved white chocolate chips."

 

He said Schuck made the varsity basketball, football and golf teams.

 

More significantly, "he was a great kid around our house. He literally became a member of our family."

 

Marine From Western Michigan Killed

 

February 11, 2006 The Detroit News

 

WYOMING:  A Marine from western Michigan who was on his third tour in Iraq and was months away from finishing his four-year obligation to the armed forces has been killed, his family said.

 

The parents of Cpl. Ross Smith, 21, of Wyoming, said they were notified of his death at their home near Grand Rapids on Thursday.

 

"I don't have any tears left," Smith's mother, Sue, told The Grand Rapids Press.

 

Smith was a graduate of Wyoming Park High School. His family sometimes jokingly called him "little GI Joe."

 

Smith was a June 2002 graduate of Wyoming Park High School who enlisted in the Marines before his senior year.

 

The school held a moment of silence in his honor Friday, said Principal Stewart Schofield, who described Smith as a good student who was well-liked by classmates. Classmates followed his military career after graduation, he said.

 

When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Sue Smith asked her son to reconsider enlistment in the Marines, which he had done just a month earlier, she said. But he wouldn't hear of it, she said.

 

"He said that they needed him even more now than before," his mother said.  "That was the type of kid he was, committed, dedicated, never taking the easy way out.

 

"I don't know how I'll continue without him.  I can't even imagine him not being around."

 

The Smith family was awaiting specifics from the Department of Defense on how and where he died.

 

Smith was first deployed to Iraq in February of 2003.

 

Iraq Roadside Bombing Kills Dillon Native

 

Feb 2, 2006 By ANDY COLE and CHRIS HUFFMAN, Morning News and WBTW News13

 

AYNOR: A local family is grieving the loss of a soldier who died in Iraq on Wednesday.

 

Specialist Anthony Chad Owens, 21, died along with two other soldiers when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, according to his father, Ronnie Owens.  He said the family was informed early Thursday afternoon.

 

Owens spent most of his life in Dillon before his family moved to Conway when he was a teenager, his father said.  He had been in the Army for about two years.

 

"He was in ROTC from the time he was able to join," Owens said of his son. "All he ever wanted, growing up, was to join the Army."

 

Soldier With Family In Bossier Is Killed

 

01-23-2006 KTBS 3

 

One of the four soldiers killed by an insurgents' bomb in Iraq has a son in Bossier City, the Army said today.

 

Killed were Staff Sgt. Rickey Scott, who has a son, Jateline Scott, in Bossier City and two daughters in Leesville, as well as Sgt. Dennis Flanagan, Sgt. Clifton Yazzie and Spec. Matthew Frantz, all of the 101st Airborne.

 

The deaths were the most in a single incident involving Fort Campbell soldiers since four were killed in November by a roadside bomb.

 

Scott, of Columbus, Ga., joined the Army in November 1996.  He is also survived by his wife Niki and stepdaughter, Keriston Reddick, and daughters Diamond and Karlecia Scott, both of Leesville.

 

Fallen Soldier

 

1.24.06 Kelly Bryan, NEWS9

 

Sunday family and friends of Sgt. Matthew Hunter of Wheeling, came together to pay their respects to the fallen soldier.  So many people came out to Sgt. Hunter's funeral they all couldn't fit in the main room of worship, the church had to open a second room, downstairs, so people could say goodbye.

 

A friend, a son, a soldier, that's how Sgt. Matthew Hunter was remembered at his funeral Saturday, at West Alexander Presbyterian church.  In January a road side bomb exploded and killed Sgt. Hunter during a combat operation in Iraq.

 

At Saturday's funeral a man who served with the 31 year old medical specialist said Hunter was living his dream. Edward Gunter explained, "I'm weeping not for Matt, I'm weeping for my grief, because Matt was doing what he loved to do."

 

Hunter attended Wheeling Park High School.  A longtime friend and classmate spoke at the service.  Matt Paree described Matt as, "being genuine.  Matt was one of the first upper classman I can remember talking to me."

 

From the church a motorcade traveled to West Alexander Cemetery for burial.

 

Catoosa Marine Killed

 

1.25.06 Reported by Amy Morrow, Sarkes Tarzian Inc

 

A Catoosa County family faces their worst fears.  A son, a brother, a husband and a father has died while serving our country in Iraq.

 

Marine Lance Corporal Josh Scott was expected to return to the States from his four month stint in Iraq by early March.

 

Yesterday, the Teresa and James Scott found out Josh died in an accident when his convoy went through a sand storm.

 

Josh called to talk to his parents, his wife, and six month old daughter Carmien just hours before he died.  Mendy Scott, his wife, says, "He told me I love you and I told him I love you more than anything and can't wait for you to come home."

 

Josh Scott graduated from Ringgold High School in 2001.  That's where he met his wife Mendy.  He was a wrestler in school and loved to go fishing.

 

IEDs:

“The Worst Car Crash Is Nothing In Terms Of What We See Here”

 

February 12, 2006 By JULIET MACUR, New York Times Company [Excerpt]

 

The bombs could be anywhere: in piles of garbage, potholes or dead dogs, molded to look like curbs, or covered with papier-mâché to look like rocks. They could be made from artillery shells, C4 plastic explosive or TNT. Insurgents sometimes add a mixture of diesel fuel and gel, their version of napalm.

 

The blast causes a violent change in air pressure that can rupture lungs and eardrums or burst blood vessels in the spinal cord and brain.  It can fracture bones in the middle ear, causing permanent hearing loss.

 

"The worst car crash is nothing in terms of what we see here," said Lt. Col. Brian Perry, an Air Force surgeon at an American military base in Balad, Iraq.

 

The Baghdad Sniper:

“This Is Not A Zealot; This Is A Calculated Shooter”

 

Feb. 10, 2006 By ABC News' David Wright, ABC News Internet Ventures

 

An insurgent videotape obtained by ABC News shows nearly a dozen sniper attacks targeting American troops.

 

"He definitely knows what to do with a rifle," said Maj. John Plaster, a retired Green Beret sniper instructor and author of "The Ultimate Sniper."  "And he has the judgment and discipline to take a shot, wisely choose an escape route, and immediately depart to avoid capture.  This is not a zealot; this is a calculated shooter."

 

The video, distributed on the Internet and on DVDs sold in Baghdad, credits a lone gunman who calls himself "Juba the Baghdad Sniper."  He claims to have killed 143 U.S. service members.  It is impossible to verify that claim.

 

Since the U.S. invasion, more than 370 U.S. troops have been killed by gunshot wounds, and more than 1,000 have been injured.  But those figures also include ordinary gun battles.

 

The U.S. military said Juba does not exist.  They claim he's an urban legend, perhaps a composite of several snipers.

 

But the video makes the threat crystal clear: even with a flak jacket, helmet, or armor plating, the marksman finds the weak spot.

 

"The big concern," said Plaster, "is that there's a school somewhere that's ready to turn out more of these people."  [And there you have the classic Imperial mentality.  The Iraq Army numbered in the hundreds of thousands, relatively modern, except for the quality of their complex weapons, and he’s worried about “a school” to “turn out more”?   What for?  The resistance has plenty right now, but he just doesn’t get it.]

 

U.S. Adviser Teams Takes 20% Casualties In Five Months

 

February 10, 2006 By Antonio Castaneda, Associated Press [Excerpt]

 

KHALDIYAH, Iraq:  As a patrol of Iraqi soldiers snakes down the dirt and gravel streets, the line of bearded and mustached faces is interrupted by a clean-shaven foreigner, monitoring the troops, then peering down narrow alleys.

 

Staff Sgt. Christopher Watson is among three U.S. advisers with the Iraqi patrol.  He marches alongside the Iraqis, sometimes watching the soldiers interact with residents and other times urging the Iraqi commander to be more aggressive.

 

His is among the most dangerous jobs in Iraq.

 

And, as insurgents fought back against the new Iraqi troops this fall, the advisers’ increased exposure to danger was evident.  The team in Khaldiyah and the outlying districts suffered a 20 percent casualty rate after five months in the area.

 

Notes From A Lost War:

Besieged In Ramadi:

“The People In Ramadi Think Anyone Who Works With The Americans Is A Traitor”

(AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)  Lance Cpl. Cory Mince, left, of Simi Valley, California and Pfc. Ruben Almaraz, of Surprise, Arizona, scan rooftops for insurgents from their position in the open back of a humvee in Ramadi Feb. 10, 2006. Violence in parts of this insurgent stronghold is so intense that U.S. forces rarely venture out on foot.

 

 

 

01/24/2006 BY: Michael M. Phillips, Wall Street Journal [Excerpt]

 

Ramadi continues to be an extremely hazardous place for both American and Iraqi troops.

 

Col. Gronski's brigade has lost 46 soldiers, Marines and sailors since it arrived in July, with another 140 wounded badly enough that they could not return to duty.  "Any day can go from a good day to a bad day in seconds around here," says Col. Gronski.

 

That has been particularly true at Observation Post Horea.  The two-story former immigration office, which takes its code name from the Arabic word for freedom, sits on the main road through Ramadi.

 

At some point, U.S. aircraft apparently bombed the building, buckling the concrete roof over the staircase, sending deep cracks through the walls and exposing twisted metal reinforcing bars.  Now the windows are filled with sandbags and shrapnel-resistant plates, casting a perpetual gloom over the interior.

 

Upstairs, the Marines subsist on packaged ready-to-eat meals and sleep on cots far from exterior walls because of the threat of shrapnel. 

 

Between shifts, the grunts give each other haircuts, play basketball videogames, watch pirated DVDs such as "King Kong" and "Super Troopers," and roast marshmallows over cigarette lighters.

 

Downstairs the soldiers in the Iraqi platoon brew sweet tea, listen to Arabic music cassettes, play dominoes and kneel on their prayer rugs.  The Iraqis use a plywood outhouse.  The Marines use camp toilets.

 

On each corner of the rooftop, engineers have built wooden security posts, reinforcing them with green sandbags and bullet-proof Humvee windshields.  Each post is manned by one Marine and one Iraqi soldier, or jundi.  They have found snipers to be unnervingly accurate, so they are careful not to raise their heads above the glass.

 

The Marines set up the outpost in November in a bid to prevent insurgents from planting bombs on the main road from the Saddam Mosque to the Anbar provincial government complex, a favorite insurgent target.  A bend in the road, called Route Michigan by the U.S. troops, had previously given cover to insurgents.  The hidden bombs "were just killing us," says Second Lt. Anthony Atler of Renton, Wash., a 24-year-old platoon commander in Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, the unit responsible for the hazardous center of Ramadi.

 

 

"This is where the action is," says Cpl. Mark Dean, a 23-year-old squad leader from Owasso, Okla.

 

Inside, the Marines and Iraqis share a radio command room, a former bathroom with walls of cracked, white tile.  The Marine radio watch sits in front of his olive-colored apparatus; the Iraqi sits at his smaller radio set.  Behind them, taped to the wall, is a satellite photo of the outpost, with expanding circles showing distances to likely target buildings.  When gunfire breaks out, both radios crackle with reports from guard posts around the building.

 

The first time Lt. Atler was in the radio room, an Iraqi wearing a black ski mask burst through the door brandishing an automatic rifle and screaming in Arabic.  Lt. Atler reached for his pistol, but realized before any shots were fired that the masked man was an Iraqi ally shouting to a fellow soldier. The Marines keep a translator at the outpost to avoid such confusion and to ensure that the Iraqis know when American units are patrolling the streets below.

 

"The Marines try to step back and let them do the fighting," says Cpl. Jeff Hyatt, a 21-year-old squad leader from Helena, Mont.  So far, however, the Marines continue to do most of the firing.

 

At sundown on Jan. 13, a Marine using heat-sensing equipment detected two people inside a derelict, seven-story building across Route Michigan.  The two were pointing a light at the outpost.  Insurgents sometimes aim improvised rocket launchers by shining lights down their tubes.

 

The Marines at the front gate opened fire with a heavy machine gun, while another grunt launched dozens of grenades from the rooftop. Insurgents opened fire from the opposite side.  Their shots slammed against the outpost walls.  This time the Iraqi soldiers took charge, firing back with a Soviet-made machine gun through an opening in the sandbags.  The exchange was over in a few minutes.  Nobody at the outpost was wounded.  It was unclear whether any insurgents were hit.

 

Pvt. Sa'ad, who shared the rooftop post with Cpl. Titzer, says the Iraqi army is well-trained and ready to fight.  As he ate lentils and sipped boxed orange juice with his fellow Iraqi soldiers one recent evening, he argued that Iraqi troops already have the skills to take on the insurgency alone.  What they lack, he said, is the necessary equipment, such as air power, hospitals and armored vehicles.  U.S. commanders say armored Humvees should begin arriving in Ramadi for the Iraqi troops soon.  Until then, says one U.S. officer, the Marines will have to "soccer mom" the Iraqi soldiers around the city.

 

Another problem, some Iraqi soldiers say, is that Ramadi residents don't trust the Iraqi army much more than they do the American military.  "The people in Ramadi think anyone who works with the Americans is a traitor," says Cpl. Zuher Jasim Auda, a 31-year-old from the Shiite holy city of Karbala. 

 

The critical question is what will happen when the U.S. military withdraws.  Will the suspicious people of Anbar simply view the Shiite-heavy Iraqi army as a new occupying force?

 

Of the 40 Iraqi soldiers posted at Outpost Horea recently, 36 were Shiites, and none of the four Sunni soldiers was from Ramadi.  The soldiers say they frequently see graffiti in town that reads: "God bless the mujahedeen. Death to the Americans, the Iraqi army and the Shiites."

 

NO HONORABLE MISSION:

FUTILE EXERCISE:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

A U.S. Marine from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) outside the village of Abu Tiban February 5, 2006.  REUTERS/Bob Strong

 

 

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

 

 

U.S. Service Member Killed Near Jalalabad

 

February 10, 2006 Associated Press

 

KABUL, Afghanistan: An American serviceman died while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in rolled over, the U.S. military said Friday.  No other people in the vehicle were injured in the crash northwest of Jalalabad in Nangarhar Province.

 

Four Canadian Soldiers Wounded

 

February 11, 2006 Reuters

 

ASADABAD: Roadside bombs killed eight Afghan soldiers on Friday, a provincial governor said.  Seven soldiers were wounded in two separate blasts in Kunar province, on the Pakistani border, said the province’s governor, Assadullah Wafa.

 

“The soldiers were travelling in convoys when the enemies of Afghanistan set off bombs planted on the roads,” Wafa told Reuters.  [The enemies of Afghanistan are in Washington DC, and it seems very unlikely they were involved.]

 

Six soldiers were killed in one of the blasts and two were killed in the other, he said. 

 

In a separate incident, four Canadian soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their armoured vehicle in the Kandahar province on Thursday, a spokesman for Canadian troops said.  A Taliban commander claimed responsibility.

 

 

TROOP NEWS

 

 

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

Philippine Army soldiers carry the American flag wrapped coffin of U.S. Army Sgt. Myla Maravillosa prior to a mass Jan. 19, 2006 in Inabanga, in Bohol province in central Philippines.  Sgt. Maravillosa, a native of the country was the first female Filipino American killed in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)

 

“There Are Two Simultaneous Crimes And We're Going To Highlight The Single Perpetrator”

Veterans Will March Against War And For Katrina Aid

 

February 13, 2006 VFP, 216 South Meramec Ave. St. Louis, MO 63105

 

Veterans For Peace, the turbulent new Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Gold Star Families for Peace, all national organizations demanding a US withdrawal from Iraq, will march with hurricane survivors, beginning March 14, 2006, from the historic Stone Street Baptist Church in Mobile for five days, through three states down coastal Highway 90, and arrive in New Orleans on March 19, the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. 

 

They are demanding not only an end to the Iraq war, but a large increase in resources to the Gulf Coast, with those resources being placed under "democratic control by the actual survivors, along with an unconditional 'right of return'."

 

"If we can build cities in the desert to wage war on foreigners, why can’t we rebuild the cities of the Gulf Coast for justice?" asks Paul Robinson, president of the Mobile, Alabama Chapter (#130) of Veterans For Peace.

 

For months now, since Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, Robinson has been heavily involved in relief and reconstruction efforts, with little response from the federal government.   So Robinson put out a call for national antiwar organizations to come to the Gulf Coast to "make the connection between a $2 trillion war and the negligence of the same administration in addressing the needs of disaster victims."

 

"Dr. King once said that every bomb dropped over Vietnam explodes in Harlem," says Vivian Felts, director of the Mobile-based hurricane relief organization Saving Ourselves (SOS).  "We are saying that every bomb released over Iraq is exploding from Mobile to New Orleans.  And that’s where we will walk."

 

On February 2, 2006, the Bush administration indicated it would ask Congress for an additional $120 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but only $18 billion for hurricane relief.  

 

This request came on the heels of a respected report from Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz (former chief economist of the World Bank) and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes that estimated the ultimate cost of the Iraq war would be in excess of $2 trillion.  At the same time, all recent polls show that the majority of Americans now want the US to withdraw from Iraq.

 

The "Walkin' to New Orleans" coalition that is planning the five-day march, which will be exclusively veterans, military families, and hurricane survivors, estimates that over 100 people will walk the entire march, with hundreds more from surrounding communities walking sections of it.  They have even set up a web site explaining "the connection to spending on an illegal war and the destruction of social services and disaster relief at home," at www.vetgulfmarch.org. 

 

"There are two simultaneous crimes being committed here," says Dave Cline, president of national Veterans For Peace, "and we're going to highlight the single perpetrator."

 

Demanding “An Immediate Troop Withdrawal From Iraq”

Marchers during a rally at the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., Feb. 11, 2006.  Citizens converged on Montpelier for a march from City Hall to the Statehouse, where they called on Vermont officials to demand an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.  (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

 

At Least 94 Deserters In Canada, So Far

 

February 8, 2006 By YOCHI J. DREAZEN, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL [Excerpts]

 

TORONTO:  Attorney Jeffry House has a simple message for the dozens of young American soldiers and Marines seeking his help staying out of Iraq: He understands exactly where they are coming from.

 

Mr. House had graduated from the University of Wisconsin and was working at a bank in that state when he received a draft notice for Vietnam. It was December 1969, he was 23 years old, and with a war he abhorred showing every sign of accelerating, he made his mind up quickly.  Packing all his possessions into a Volkswagen Beetle, he fled to Canada, joining the thousands of young Americans streaming into the country to avoid fighting in Vietnam.

 

Mr. House, who considers the Iraq war to be unlawful, because it was started without the United Nations' sanction, and immoral, is at the intersection of both generations of American war resisters.

 

He represents 11 other military-service people with cases similar to that of Mr. Hinzman and has met with a total of 94 deserters who were steered to him by Quaker churches and other groups.  He sees an increase in phone calls and emails whenever a U.S. military unit gets a call-up notice for Iraq, and says jittery soldiers sometimes fly to Canada to talk to him about asylum.

 

MORE:

 

Deserter Processing: IG

Is This A Case Of “Turn Yourself In And Be Separated?”

 

February 10, 2006 From Mark Shapiro

 

Received from a friend in Sweden: open link and scroll down to 'AWOL/DESERTER PROCESSING' section

 

Is this a case of 'turn yourself in and be separated'?

 

Interesting!

 

The IG Quarterly                                                    1 April 05

 

 

From the Principal Inspector General, COL McDonough... 

 

AWOL / DESERTER PROCESSING

 

By MSgt Proietti, Assistant Inspector General

 

Did you know Fort Hamilton is the main processing location for AWOL / Deserters in the NYC Metro area?  Well if you didn’t, you do now.

 

Fort Hamilton processes all service members (SM) classified as AWOL / Deserters who are stationed or have a Home of Record (HOR) in New York City or the surrounding counties.  In fact, the Fort Hamilton Military Police Investigators (MPI) process all AWOL / Deserters for all branches of the military. 

 

Why are we bringing this information to your attention? 

 

First of all, it is a commander’s responsibility to properly process AWOL / Deserters for separation from the Army. 

 

The Inspectors General Office recently worked a case involving an alleged AWOL soldier on Title-10 who wanted to turn himself in but didn’t know how to do so. 

 

The same can be said for the soldier’s unit; the chain of command didn’t know the process to separate the soldier. 

 

This soldier reportedly had been in and out of the unit’s armory on several occasions but the chain of command didn’t know how to properly process the soldier for AWOL and separation.  Working with the chain of command, the Inspector General advised the soldier to turn himself in while the requisite administrative paperwork was gathered to properly account for the soldier. 

 

One last note: Title-10 soldiers classified by their chain of command as AWOL / Deserter are handled IAW the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for disciplinary purposes, as determined by the appropriate commander.

 

Here are the steps to follow when you’re dealing with one of these cases:

 

First, contact your servicing SJA for legal advice

 

Gather the necessary documents (see below) to support separation actions

 

Direct the SM to report to Ft Hamilton MPI Monday through Friday. 

 

Advise the SM to bring their military ID and any supporting documents (i.e. personnel, medical) and enough clothes for one week of travel. 

The SM will initially process through Ft Hamilton and then fly to Ft Knox, KY, home of the Army’s central AWOL / Deserter separation point.  While at Ft Knox, the Soldier’s discharge action is completed and the SM separated accordingly.

 

Follow up with Fort Hamilton MPI to ensure the process followed is complete and the soldier separated.

 

Once completed, ensure all unit records properly reflect the soldier’s status

 

Required Documents:

 

DA Form 4187 Personnel Action

DD Form 458 Charge Sheet

DD Form 553 Deserter/Absentee Wanted by the Armed Forces

 

Ft Hamilton MPI

Comm. Phone: (718) 630-4127 DSN: 232-4127

Comm. Fax:     (718) 630-4895 DSN: 232-4895

 

SJFHQ SJA

Comm. Phone: (518) 786-4528

 

 

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

 

 

Collaborator Officer Who Set Up Raids Killed In Basra

 

Feb. 11, 2006 QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press

 

Iraqi army spokesman Capt. Makram al-Abbasi was killed in a hail of gunfire from a civilian car accompanied by a police vehicle Saturday in Basra, army Capt. Firas al-Tamimi said.

 

The British-controlled southern city also had been noted for its relative stability but has seen renewed violence, in part fueled by rival Shiite militias and local opposition to the coalition troop presence.

 

Al-Abbasi had been coordinating media coverage of raids conducted in the city, which largely target suspected Shiite militiamen that have infiltrated the Iraqi police force.

 

The most recent such operation for which al-Abbasi arranged coverage was last week when troops detained 22 people before all were mysteriously freed, al-Tamimi said.

 

Assorted Resistance Action

 

Feb. 11, 2006 QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press

 

In Fallujah, gunmen in a red sedan shot dead a policeman Saturday as he was heading to work, police said.

 

 

In Baghdad's southern neighborhood of Dora, guerrillas killed traffic policeman Ahmed Majeed Obaid as he left his home at midday, Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.

 

Armed men also killed police Sgt. Bassem al-Rikabi while he patrolled in the southeastern Jisr Diyala area of the capital at about 11:30 p.m. Friday, police said.

 

Guerrillas killed two policemen in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles north of Baghdad, police said. The attackers approached their car and shot them in the head.

 

An army officer was killed by a roadside bomb in Dujail, north of Baghdad, police said.

 

 

 

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

 

 

“Maybe They Should Be Thinking About Setting Their Own ‘Limits’ As A Serving Soldier”

 

From: Alycia A. Barr, Iraq veterans’ mom.

Sent: Feb 10, 2006

To: GI Special

Subject: Limiting Veterans Benefits

 

My ire was raised after reading the comment Sen. Larry Craig made, "There is a limit to taxpayers funding," referencing Vets benefits.

 

Maybe the Vets affected by these unreasonable increases should let our troops serving now know that this will be their fate, and maybe they should be thinking about setting their own "limits" as a serving soldier to be implemented against these over stretched taxpayers.

 

Possible suggestion:

 

OK, I served (at least) 1 tour already.  Before I even consider another deployment an up front increase in pay...double what it is now...as well as a hefty enrollment fee for my continued service will be required.  Oh, and an additional $15.00 per "kill" made will be paid upon my remittance of a daily tally (including civilians; men, women, children and detainees.)

 

Lets see how Congress and those taxpayer who buy into the administrations 07 budget feel about that!

 

It’s Not Just A Scandal About Religious Symbols

 

 

February 11, 2006 By Ibrahim Alloush (translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr), Albasrah.net [Excerpts]

 

Perhaps the worst way to oppose the European media’s publication of drawings derogatory of the standing of the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, is to make it look as though the whole thing is just a matter of insulting religious symbols.

 

Some people seem to believe that defending Islam demands that we limit ourselves to considering only the religious dimension, taking this as an attack on Islam.  But presenting the battle only in this way actually drains it of its real essential content. 

 

The latest attack on Islam cannot be understood outside the framework of the earthly struggle going on between us and external hegemonists, that is, our struggle as a nation, as the oppressed of the world, here and now, against the structure of subjugation, fragmentation, and violation; our struggle, first and foremost, as a nation against occupation in all its forms, and then against the racism that oozes from the pores of the west.

 

If we set the issue of the occupation aside, that is the earthly dimension, the Arab national dimension of our struggle, if we set that aside, it makes it easy for Washington and London to join in condemning the Danish caricatures, as they have done, allowing them to win some easy political points at the expense of a secondary country.  Then they can laugh at us as they denounce the insulting cartoons while they continue to control the fates of the world and the Arabs.

 

No.  We must not let this issue be turned into a clash over how to treat religious symbols in a western society that doesn’t care about anything sacred anyway.  Long ago, Hollywood already made The Last Temptation of Christ featuring licentious scenes.

 

If the problem is reduced to a matter of religious symbols only, an isolated issue with no background, no ramifications, no history; if no questions are raised about the political and social struggle such as: Who’s in control of the land?  Who’s making all the political decisions?  Who is controlling and benefiting from the resources of the Arabs and Muslims? 

 

If the matter is reduced to a question of how to treat religious symbols in isolation from everything else, then it will be easy for those who are playing host to American military bases or to "Israeli" diplomatic missions in Muslim countries to act as though they were protectors of the honor of Islam, as good as Khalid ibn al-Walid or Salah ad-Din in confronting the Danish affront.

 

It is incomprehensible how those who normalize and foster relations with the Zionist enemy and American imperialism, who establish political, cultural, commercial, military, and security coordination with them can wash all that away by calling for a boycott of Denmark!!!! 

 

It is not logical for the matter of the caricatures, brought up five months after they were published, to become the hook on which the Arab regimes, America, and Britain can hang up all their political infamy and come away with their credibility intact. 

 

It is indeed funny when those people who grumble about calls for a boycott of American and "Israeli" goods suddenly rush around proclaiming a boycott of Denmark, when we all know that Hollywood is a veritable factory for distortion and slander of the Arabs and the Muslims, not only in a few cartoons but in feature films. 

 

If our boycott were commensurate with the crimes and violations we have suffered, then we would have to boycott the Zionist entity and America first, as well as their ally Britain, for the many decades of crimes they have committed against us, the number of which is far too high to count.

 

For the sake of clarity, let it be noted that Denmark sent its military to take part in the aggression against Iraq and Danish forces are still squatting on Iraqi soil.  The Danish parliament has just extended their stay until July 2006.  Danish investigators have taken part in the torture in Iraqi prisons. 

 

So it is clear that the caricatures are an _expression of the colonialist’s scorn for the colonized more than anything else. 

 

But it will appear strange to some westerners that some of us sat silent in the face of what happened in the mosques of ar-Ramadi, al-Fallujah, in the al-Aqsa Mosque, and in Guantanamo, but now pretend to be such passionate defenders of Islam today.  Would our Prophet Muhammad accept this?

 

“If The Bureaucrats Can't Halt The Onslaught Against Humanity, That The People Will Rise To Defend Themselves!”

 

From: G

To: GI Special

Sent:, February 11, 2006

Subject: mobilization

 

I know there's a big anti-war gathering planned for April, and that's good but, you know more has to be done than just that. 

 

You know that there might be some increased exposure of vets during the April get-together too, so they can get the real word out, and that's good but, you also know that such increases are likely to be incremental; and not increasing at a rate fast enough to do anything other than delight the pro-death people.

 

Yeah, the scared bush regime and their lackeys actually do care about death and destruction, when they have to look straight at it or hear about it in the news, or if the possibility arises that they might actually have to experience it but, when it comes right down to somebody else's life, other people are obviously just numbers to them and they really don't give shit about who's dying, as long as they don't have to be affected by it. And the McPeace groups are sadly pandering to these 'somebody-else's-child' people, when they reduce themselves to being strict Numberists too.

 

I'm not knocking numbers as they can shed light on very important indicators however, there is way more to the human experience than just math. You cannot put a price tag on human life and you can't quantify human experience in the amount of people who are doing something.

&nb