GI Special:

thomasfbarton@earthlink.net

10.31.04

Print it out (color best).  Pass it on.

 

GI SPECIAL 2#C8

 

 

 

Support the troops --- until death do us part.

 

Mike Hastie

U.S. Army Medic

Vietnam  1970-71

 

 

 

“Thank You Brother!”

Check Out Traveling Soldier?

Here’s Why!

 

From: M

To: GI Special

Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 3:26 AM

Subject:

 

Good Morning!

 

I received the latest issue of "Traveling Soldier" in the mail yesterday.  Thank you so very much!  It was a great issue by the way; and right on target!

 

As you already know, my husband is currently enlisted in the Army and he is fast becoming disgruntled and disenchanted.

 

Recently he asked his commander about a promotion that is long overdue and why he keeps getting passed over.  (We both have our suspicions it's because he is not a "yes-man" like his mindlessly obedient co-workers.)

 

His commander's only response was to hand my husband a book titled, Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard (http://www.birdsnest.com/garcia.htm) and he was instructed to read it and then get back to his commander about what he learned from the book.  I was curious enough to read it myself when my husband brought it home and what I found was propaganda at its best.

 

In a nutshell the book makes references to not asking idiotic questions when given an order to do something.  To just DO it and not talk back or ask anything from the authority giving you the mission.

 

My husband and I were both incensed!  Was that what his commander was trying to tell him that he wanted?  A "yes-man"?  Was his commander trying to let my husband know in no uncertain terms that if he only just obediently did what he was told without asking questions or thinking for himself that he would have a better chance of getting promoted?

 

If that's the case, then my husband and I both agreed that the promotion was not important and certainly not worth the price it seems he is being asked to pay.  Mindless obedience.  A robot.

 

 

I love it!

 

Thank you so much for giving us the hope that we are HEARD!

 

Especially when so many of the voices in "Traveling Soldier" sound just like ours!

 

Take care.  Good to know we're in plenty of great company!

 

In solidarity,

M

 

 

Check Out Traveling Soldier?

Here’s Why #2

 

From: Soldier, Iraq

To: GI Special

Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004

Subject: Flowers and Dragons

 

I’ve mailed out all the Traveling Soldiers i had left to (2) other camps in the sunni triangle, the other half i have been leaving around my camp.  i don’t notice any immediate results from the arbitrary distribution, and most of the time i'm afraid that a lifer may have snagged it before a joe.  maybe not, at least i hope not.  keep em coming, plus anything else you might think spread the truth.  I’ll keep distributing, as well as the others.

 

What i really wanted to write to you about was The Flower of the Dragon.

 

i finished it a while ago, but i never had time to contact you on it.  THANKS A TON for the book.  i can’t tell you how much i appreciated it.  the author's story was fucking amazing!  you have no idea how connected i felt to the characters in the story, especially the soldiers.  their feelings and opinions and mentality were almost in direct correlation with mine and my friends, despite the 30 some odd year gap between two completely different wars.

 

Really the wars aren’t too much different, Iraq has all the same ingredients as Vietnam had during its whole charade.  war is war i guess.  anyways, the book really meant a lot to me.  i felt like i was there with those guys, getting fucked just like them.  in Iraq we live a hell of a lot better than they did at firebase Pace,. but it’s just the mentality you know?

 

what’s it going to take before this war escalates into the Neo'Nam?  how long before a countrywide opposition, before more suicide missions, before more combat refusals, before more fraggings, before the end?  perhaps a congress approved draft???  I hate to say it, but a draft may be the only chances of ending this war.  until then, even stop lossed soldiers, for the most part, feel as though it’s their commitment and duty.

 

alright, enough for now.

 

for the cause,

 

 

 

 

IRAQ WAR REPORTS:

 

 

EIGHT MARINES KILLED, NINE WOUNDED AT AL-ANBAR

 

October 30, 2004 HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND Release Number: 04-10-27C & By Michael Georgy, (Reuters)

 

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Eight Marines assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in action and nine others were wounded in action in the Al Anbar Province in the bloodiest attack on U.S. forces in Iraq for months.

 

Witnesses said earlier they had seen three U.S. vehicles burning on a road east of Falluja, in Anbar province.  

 

MORE:

 

Famous Last Words:

 

10.29.04 Reuters “We are gearing up for a major operation,” Brigadier General Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja.  “If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them.”

 

“When we operate close to the (insurgents) they get spooked or aggressive and we take it to them," U.S. marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert told reporters at a base near Falluja.

 

DO NOT FUCK WITH FALLUJA:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

10.30.04 Marine from Charlie Company, second Tank Battalion, far, far too close to Falluja.  (Eliana Aponte/Reuters)

 

One Soldier Killed, One Wounded Near Ramadi

 

30th Oct 2004 BAGHDAD (Reuters)

 

A car bomber killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another near the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, the U.S. military said on Saturday.  A spokesman said the attack on a U.S. army convoy occurred at 8 a.m. on Friday.

 

Local Marine Injured

 

October 30, 2004 Seacoast Newspapers

 

PORTSMOUTH - A U.S. Marine from Portsmouth is recovering stateside from injuries he sustained in Iraq on Oct. 23.

 

Capt. John "Brad" Adams, 33, a member of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, was injured when a roadside bomb "completely totaled his Humvee" in Fallujah, Adams’ mother, Jo-Ann "Jodi" Adams, said Friday.  The Marine captain’s unit is based at Camp Pendleton in California.

 

Marine Corps officials provided transportation Friday for Jo-Ann and her husband, John, to visit their son this weekend while he is recuperating at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

 

"He’s not suffering life-threatening injuries, but they are serious.  He has a lot of shrapnel throughout his body," Jo-Ann Adams said.

 

"Time and patience" are what’s required now to hasten the Marine’s recovery, his mother said.

 

She said the family, who lives on Sagamore Avenue, is grateful for the support of friends throughout the city at this time.

 

Proof Falluja Bombing Justified!

This photo, taken October 28, 2004 in Falluja, shows Jordanian terrorist chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (right) and two of his terrorist commanders fleeing for their lives after a precision bombing attack by U.S. warplanes.

 

U.S. command pointed out that Zarqawi and his terrorists fiendishly disguised themselves as children on this occasion, but warned that the terrorists have also concealed themselves by pretending to be old women, babies, donkeys, houses, hospitals, water treatment plants, markets, dogs, cats, and ambulances, and that, in fact, anything moving or standing still in Falluja is a terrorist in disguise.  “Since anytime we drop a bomb on Falluja we hit at least one thing, that’s why we call it ‘precision’ bombing,” Air Force Lt. Col. A. Hole Chithed told a Baghdad press conference.  (Reuters photo)

 

 

Karbala Polish Camp Under Mortar Attack

 

30 October 2004 Focus 1 News

 

Karbala: Polish camp in Karbala has suffered a mortar attack at 17,45 local time, spokesperson of the Multinational division under Polish command Center-South in Babylon Artur Domanski said for Focus News Agency.  Three shells have exploded outside the camp.  There is no information about demolitions or injured people.

 

A U.S. Marine (C) from Charlie Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, dressed as Spiderman talks with other soldiers during a Halloween event near Falluja October 30, 2004.  [THANKS TO B WHO E-MAILED THIS IN:  B WRITES He’s safer in that than in his uniform.]  

 

 

TROOP NEWS

 

 

Betrayed Again!

Army Extends Iraq Tours for 6,500 Troops

 

Oct 30, 2004 By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

 

WASHINGTON - The Army has extended by two months the Iraq tours of about 6,500 soldiers.

 

No official statement was released, but the Pentagon's public affairs office posted an article on its Web site Saturday that said 3,500 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, and 3,000 from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will remain in Iraq at least two months longer than planned.

 

The Army had scheduled those units for 10-month deployments, rather than the usual 12-month tours.

 

 

Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, requested the extensions in late September, and his immediate superior, Army Gen. John Abizaid, made the decision Oct. 16, the Pentagon article said.

 

The decision appeared to mark the second time in recent weeks that soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, have had their Iraq deployments extended.  On Oct. 4 the U.S. military command in Baghdad announced that rather than complete its redeployment to Fort Hood, Texas, in December, the brigade was to begin heading home in January.  On Saturday the Pentagon said these soldiers will begin their return in mid-February, with the last ones due out by mid-March.  [Yeah, right.  Don’t hold your breath.  Lied before, why believe them now?]

 

The 3,000 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division headquarters, based in Wurzburg, Germany, will remain in Iraq until mid-February or mid-March.  They previously were scheduled to have been replaced in January, before the elections, by the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters of the New York National Guard.

 

The Pentagon public affairs article said officials had considered deploying the New York guardsmen to Kuwait before moving them into Iraq, but they decided against that "in light of the high threat level in Kuwait."  It did not elaborate on the threat in Kuwait.  [What the fuck is that about?]

 

The 42nd Infantry will be the first division-level National Guard deployment into combat since World War II, reflecting the extraordinarily heavy reliance the Army is placing on the Guard to provide troops for the Iraq mission. More than 40 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq is Guard or Reserve.

 

 

 

 

Soldiers’ Votes Trashed

 

Oct 29 By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer

 

"Not allowing military members to vote during wartime would be devastating," said Duke University political science professor Peter Feaver.  "They're not sitting in comfortable offices in Germany anymore.  Now they're under mortar attack in Iraq."

 

Many of the problems that marred the military vote in 2000 are cropping up again.

 

More than a dozen states — including those too close to call — missed the recommended deadline to mail ballots overseas.  One of the reasons: legal arguments over whether independent candidate Ralph Nader should be listed on ballots.

 

"There will be thousands of military votes that don't get counted this time," said Samuel Wright, director of the Military Voting Rights Project of the National Defense Committee. "I hope it's not as bad as 2000, but it's going to be a serious problem."

 

 

Since the Florida debacle, the Pentagon has announced a series of steps designed to make every military vote count.  Several have failed.

 

After spending $22 million, the Defense Department abandoned an Internet-based voting system after citing security concerns — leaving regular mail as the main way to vote from abroad.

 

In addition, a Defense Department program that helps Americans vote from overseas blocked access to its Web site for fear of hackers, locking out would-be voters requesting registration cards and absentee ballots.  The site did not reopen until late September, although the department recommends allowing at least 45 days for requesting, receiving and mailing ballots.

 

In Baghdad, exactly one week before Election Day, the Voting Assistance Officer at the military-run Ibn Sina Hospital was on leave.

 

Injured Soldiers At Hatton Ceremony

 

Oct. 29, 2004 Associated Press

 

HATTON, Ala. - Soldiers injured in a convoy ambush in Iraq were awarded Purple Hearts in a high school ceremony in Hatton.

 

Spc. Joe Gibson, 22, a Hatton graduate, was home on convalescence leave for burn and shrapnel injuries he suffered in the Sept. 9 attack. Sgt. John W. Hatton, whose leg was hit by shrapnel, and Staff Sgt. Darren Gross of Tuscumbia, a passenger in the convoy truck with Hatton and Gibson, were awarded the medals.

 

They never saw who detonated the bomb that rocked their truck, leaving a dazed Gibson between a spare tire and a metal box in back of the truck.

 

"I thought I had a dislocated shoulder," he said, but it was the impact from the shrapnel. He noticed that his leg was cold.” I thought it was the diesel from the cans in the back of the truck, but it was (my) blood," Gibson said.

 

He never lost consciousness, and managed to call his mother, Lynn Butler in Hatton, to let her know he was hurt before she got the Army call.

 

NCO’s Worn Out?

“Who Needs This?”

 

November 01, 2004 By Vince Crawley, Army Times staff writer

 

Pat Towell, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said leaders should pay heed to two earlier wars — in Vietnam and Korea — that were entered with initial enthusiasm followed by setbacks large enough that “the country gave up.”

 

Towell noted that “the quality of leadership in Vietnam collapsed” as noncommissioned officers grew frustrated with repeated rotations into the combat zone.

 

Midlevel NCOs were “going back a second, a third time,” Towell said. “And they said, ‘Who needs this?’”

 

Guard: “They Feel We Lied To Them”

 

2004-10-30 PHILIP KNIGHTLEY, khaleejtimes

 

The Guard is in a state of, if not revolt, then of deep discontent. Re-enlistments have plummeted and the Guard is undergoing a major re-think of its mission and how to achieve it. “We trained for the wrong war,” a Marine colonel in public affairs told me earlier this year.

 

“We trained for WW3—big, set-piece artillery and tank battles. Not for hand-to-hand fighting in cities full of civilians. Now we’ve got to retrain and that takes time. And a lot of guys want out. They joined for the dental plan and now they find that they’re away from their families, their jobs, their community and their country for months, maybe years.

 

“They feel we lied to them.”

 

Three out of four doctors in the Army Medical Corps are National Guardsmen. Meanwhile, the situation in Iraq grows worse day by day.

 

Purple Hearts: Back From Iraq

 

Nina Berman Interviewed By Tucker Foehl

 

From an in interview with photographer Nina Berman, whose new book Purple Hearts: Back from Iraq vividly shows that many U.S. soldiers bring the war back home.

 

October 28, 2004 Mother Jones

 

MJ.com: Most of these soldiers are in their late-teens and early twenties. What expectations did they have joining the U.S. Military and what are their future expectations as wounded soldiers?

 

NB: Well that’s interesting because when you spend a long time with them, some bitterness comes out now and again.

 

Almost all of them have had difficult experiences completing their discharges. This is a massive bureaucratic problem for soldiers, and it's critical to make certain they’re compensated fairly.

 

What happens is they get wounded and sent to a hospital, usually to either Walter Reed or Brook Army, and begin the process of trying to get discharged.  If you’re really wounded -- a quadriplegic, a double-amputee or totally blind -- you’re not a deployable soldier and you should be discharged.

 

But I just spoke with a soldier yesterday who’s waited a year to get medically discharged.  This is a major difference for wounded soldiers.  If you’re not medically discharged you still get paid a crappy substandard soldier pay, whereas once you’re medically discharged you become a disabled veteran and begin collecting some actual benefits. 

 

These guys are stuck in the system for months and months and months, and all of them are quite frustrated by this.  If the military were smart they’d get their act together because it leaves a sour taste in soldier’s mouths.

 

MJ.com: That reminds me of what Spc. Robert Acosta, a twenty year-old soldier from Santa Ana, California, said about how Americans “watch action movies and glorify all of this stuff.”

 

NB: Right, Robert Acosta was probably the most articulate in the book. He’s become quite an activist. He recently appeared in an ad working with this group called Operation Truth and this morning, we were on the radio together. Since I met him, he’s made quite a substantial leap in his thinking about the entire war.

 

MJ.com: What influenced that transformation?

 

 

MJ.com: How did the soldiers react when it become known there were never any weapons of mass destruction?

 

NB: It was interesting.  Two soldiers that I talked to seemed to buy into the whole reason for war.  Then I asked them about WMDs, and their entire thinking changed and you could see their brain flip.  Lt. Jordan Johnson, the one woman in the book, said it was a major disappointment because she supposedly had a mission and that mission was based on something that did not exist.  And one soldier, Corey McGee, who had a rough trip stationed in Fallujah, said he bought into the whole 9/11 and Iraq equation.  But when I asked him about WMDs, he said it makes you wonder if everything else they say is even true or not.

 

I felt that, in many ways, I was the first person who talked with these soldiers about the broader issues of the war.  Their whole understanding of the war, and how they process their injuries, depends on how much information they have access to and whom they talk to.

 

Military Families Screwed By Tricare

 

November 01, 2004 By Deborah Funk, Army Times staff writer

 

Karin Markert, the wife of a soldier based at Fort Lewis, Wash., who is deployed in Iraq, has been waiting weeks to get approval to make appointments for her sons who have hearing problems.

 

“I have three little boys, two with special needs. I’m running the show on my own,” Markert said. “I understand there’s supposed to be a transition [period] for Tricare.  Come on now, it’s been a while.”

 

Tricare patients contacting telephone call centers have been put on hold for as long as 30 minutes, depending on the region, and some patients and doctors must wait too long for specialty care referrals.  Some referral requests have had to be resubmitted because of delays — and some have even been lost.

 

Referrals were supposed to be done electronically as part of the transition, but the Pentagon has been unable to get the computer system in place.  Military clinics and hospitals are faxing referrals to the companies whose job it is to manage Tricare and help patients find specialty care.  That is labor intensive and has created delays.

 

 

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

 

 

Iraqi youths gather around the wreckage of a car bomb after it went off as a U.S. military convoy was driving past in Ramadi, October 29.  Check the guy on the right.  He makes the traditional Iraqi hand gesture signaling his deep love for Occupation troops and his hope that the U.S.A. will occupy Iraq forever.  (Ibrahim Naji/Reuters)

 

Military Translator Captured In Ramadi

 

30 October, 2004 BBC News

 

Arab television has shown a video tape of a Sudanese interpreter in Iraq who said he had been kidnapped and called on his US employer to leave Iraq.

 

The man, who identified himself as Noureddin Zakaria of Khartoum, appeared on Al-Arabiya TV flanked by armed men.

 

He said he worked for US firm Titan Corp, and was seized in the rebel stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. 

 

"I hope and call on the company to stop its operations in Iraq to guarantee my release," he said.   [As if they give a shit.  Translators are a dime a dozen, and the Titan Corp. contract is for beaucoup millions.]

 

Behind him was a green banner with the words "The National Islamic Resistance, the 1920 Revolution Brigades", the Associated Press reports.

 

Titan Corp, is based in San Diego, California, and supplies translators and other information and communication services to the US government.

 

“Mouthpiece Of The American Occupation” Attacked:

Three Dead In Baghdad Blast At Al-Arabiya Office

 

Heavy smoke is seen at the office of the Al-Arabiya television network in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 30, 2004.  (AP Photo/Xinhua, Shen Hong)

 

30 October 2004 AFP & Associated Press

 

At least three people were killed and 19 wounded when a car bomb ripped through the streets outside Al-Arabiya television's offices in the central Mansour neighbourhood in Baghdad, a US military officer at the scene said.  The explosion occurred at about 2:10 pm (1110 GMT)

 

A militant group claimed responsibility for the attack on Al-Arabiya's offices.  In a statement posted Saturday on a Web site clearinghouse, the group identifying itself as the "1920 Brigades" said it brought down the building of the "Americanized spies speaking in Arabic tongue."

 

"We have threatened them to no avail that they are the mouthpiece of the American occupation in Iraq," the statement said. It warned of more attacks against this "treacherous network."

 

Al-Arabiya's general manager, Abdulrahman al-Rashed, has been a vocal critic of Islamic militants and terror attacks.

 

Qassem said the blast seriously damaged the network's building, including its broadcast room and sparked a fire.  A giant crater was seen where the bomb exploded.  The blast erupted in front of a car park just across from the channel's offices.

 

The Dubai-based satellite station, said around seven of its staffers were wounded.

 

Al-Arabiya correspondent Najwa Qassem confirmed that one guard and one administration worker were among the dead.

 

The blast collapsed the first floor of the building, where staffers were holding a meeting, said Saad al-Husseini, a correspondent of MBC, a sister channel of Al-Arabiya based in the same building.

 

Employees ``were trapped between fire and the shattering shards of glass,'' he said. That ``led to the high number of casualties.  We were all there.''

 

Fighting In “Pacified” Samarra:

Seven Occupation Guards Wounded

 

[This item from: shailmanman.  He writes: Pacified, right?  Well, if it isn't the ol' guerilla warfare...]

 

Al-Jazeera, 30 October 2004:

 

An attack on a US post in the Iraqi city of Samarra has set off street battles in which a civilian has been killed and seven Iraqi National Guards wounded.   Police said the fighting began around 9pm (1800 GMT) on Friday and continued past midnight.

 

Hysterical Occupation Guards Slaughter Civilians At Haswa For No Reason

 

30 October 2004 The Associated Press

 

South of Baghdad, witnesses said Iraqi forces opened fire randomly and threw handgrenades, hitting three minibuses and three vans, after a U.S. convoy came under attack Saturday.

 

 

Iraqi troops fired wildly on civilian vehicles, killing at least 20 people, witnesses and hospital officials said.

 

Abdul Razzaq al-Janabi, director of Iskandariyah General Hospital, said 20 people were killed and 10 others injured.  More wounded were taken to other hospitals.

 

Footage by Associated Press Television News showed bloody bodies riddled with bullet holes inside the buses and on the street near the town of Haswa, about 25 miles south of the capital.  Blood and gas was trickling underneath the vehicles. Empty bullet cases were also scattered around.

 

An APTN cameraman saw at least 18 bodies, while witnesses said there were more than 20 people killed in the incident.

 

The footage also showed the morgue of the hospital in nearby Iskandariyah packed with bodies stacked on top of each other.

 

The shooting came after an American convoy was attacked early Saturday on the road, witnesses said.  Al-Janabi said some of the victims told him three improvised explosive devices detonated near the U.S. convoy.

 

Witnesses said police also broke into the Osama bin Zayd mosque in the same area and detained its cleric and two guards.

 

In Baghdad Saturday, Mohammed Bashar al-Faydhi, a spokesman for the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, called for a government investigation into ``this massacre, because it is a big disaster that the Iraqi policemen are carrying out such crimes.''

 

Occupation Guards Burned Alive

 

10.30.04 Aljazeera

 

Resistance fighters fired on a police convoy just outside Baghdad, causing one of the vehicles to burst into flames, police said.  Witnesses said they saw three policemen trapped inside the burning vehicle, but officials did not give a casualty toll.

 

Sunni Leader Arrested

 

30 October 2004 The Associated Press & Aljazeera

 

U.S. forces detained an influential Sunni leader in Baghdad in an early morning raid, his family said.  Sheik Hisham al-Duleimi, along with his teenage son and brother-in-law, were arrested at their home, the sheik's brother Samer al-Duleimi said.  The U.S. military had no comment.

 

He has played a role in past negotiations for the release of foreign hostages in Iraq, his brother said.

 

"We don't know why he was detained because he has contacts with the Americans," his brother said.  "They raided the house this morning and broke things.  We don't understand why he was taken in this savage way."

 

[THANKS TO B WHO E-MAILED THIS IN.  B WRITES:  IRAQ: THE ULTIMATE SUICIDE MISSION]

 

A convoy of trucks carrying bottled water for U.S. troops burns after being attacked in the northern city of Mosul Oct. 30, 2004.  Two drivers were killed and two others captured in the attack.  (AP Photo)

 

Bush Or Kerry: Most Iraqis Indifferent:

“We Are A Revolutionary People”

 

10.30.04 BAGHDAD (AFP)

 

Almost 60 percent of Iraqis say they do not care whether incumbent President George W. Bush or his Democratic challenger John Kerry wins the US elections, according to a recent poll by the Iraqi Centre for Research and Strategic Studies.

 

"Today Iraq (news - web sites), tomorrow Syria and then may be Iran," says Khalil, 50, as he dips a brush in a small pot of water and lathers up the face of one of his customers.

 

"It is one big master plan to dominate the Middle East so it does not make a difference who wins the elections."

 

"It has been a freefall into the abyss," says Maki al-Hamdani, 49, seated in Khalil's shop on the west bank of the Tigris.

 

His companion Jaber Karim says that most Iraqis were grateful to America for ridding them of Saddam's totalitarian regime and still hoped things may start improving after the country's own elections in January and the gradual withdrawal of US-led foreign troops.

 

"But we will not wait forever," warned the 51-year-old ice cream vendor.

 

"We are a revolutionary people, even the women and the children will rise. The British got a taste of it in the '20s."

 

Interview With Iraqi Resistance Field General

 

25/10/2004 al Majd Newspaper: Interview With General Abu al Mu'tassim.  He is a field General in the Republican Guard.  Translated by Al-Moharer team

 

After eighteen months of US Occupation, how do appreciate the Military Resistance state of affairs in Iraq?

 

We are very satisfied indeed concerning the reality of the resistance and its results on the terrain. The Resistance in fact has become an every day popular state no one can ignore.

 

We can speak about the Resistance in two terms:  First in Iraqi terms: the Resistance has spread its complete control over a great number of Iraqi towns.   What is happening in Fallujah, Samaraa, Qaem, Baaquba, Hawijah, Tallafar, Heet, Saqlawyia, Ramadi, Anah, Rawa, Haditha, Balad, Beiji, Bahraz, Baladruz, and other cities and towns of Iraq, confirm perfectly this reality.

 

The Resistance also controls totally some areas in Baghdad and its suburbs such as Yusufya, Latifya, Abu Ghraib, and Mahmudya, which shows the political and the security impasse encountered by the Occupiers and their agents.

 

Here we have to mention the widespread popular cover the Resistance enjoys in these areas and elsewhere, rendering all Iraqi resistance fighters in the confrontation moments with the enemy.

 

Secondly in US terms, in fact the US administration is no longer able to conceal its losses, which are growing as days pass by.  Iraqis know the volume of these losses; they are always capable to increase them.

 

Many of the Resistance military operations go unreported by the main media

 

The fact that these Resistance military operations go unreported doesn't influence our morale, because we witness the consequences of these operations on the behavior and the attitude of the Occupying forces.

 

How many military operations the Resistance undertakes in a single day?

 

We are not crazy for numbers.  No one of us has the time to count and to calculate, but I would like to stress here that the valiant heroes of the Resistance undertake their operations around the clock, day and night and on the whole surface of geographical Iraq!

 

We did hear from the Media that these operations average a hundred in one day, I would like here to say that this number is not completely precise.  In fact the number is far much higher.

 

Is there any military cooperation between the Iraqi Resistance factions?

 

I see some kind of doubt through your question!  But I would like to say that what is going on the land of Iraq, as heroic Resistance, can't just be the deed of some people or few angry chaps who have no connections with each other.  It is a highly and very well organized action.

 

There is a unified military leadership, which leads the operations in the terrain in every town of Iraq.  This leadership includes the best officers of the Iraqi Army, the Republican Guard, Saddam's Fidayyins, and the Security and Intelligence services.  What is happening in the Provinces of al Anbar, Diyala, Mosul, and Salah el Din, Babel and elsewhere is a bright sign of what I am telling you.

 

The Military field leadership is directly responsible of all the Resistance factions and their Mujahideen in the area, be they Baathist, Islamist, or other honorable patriots, which compose the military resistant body in Iraq.

 

I don't divulge a secret when I tell you that there is a unified military high command, which supervises the rudder of the Resistance in all Iraq.  This command includes outstandingly qualified military and intelligence people in Iraq, and with them there is a representative of the political branch of the Baath Party connecting the military and the political leadership with each other.

 

Yes there is coordination between factions of the Resistance.  It is a highly responsible, professional, and high quality coordination safeguarding the Resistance ranks from being penetrated by the enemy.

 

We witnessed lately a resurge of hostages taking in Iraq, is the Resistance involved in this? And what does it for?

 

In the beginning we would like to confess that the Resistance is not responsible of every kidnapping in Iraq, but we do not clear ourselves from such operations.

 

We warned many a times the Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners from cooperating with the occupation forces, because this will make them a target.

 

The Resistance in all its factions does confine occupier spies and collaborators.  The Resistance has in this field a clear agenda.  Our demands are political and military ones, which serve the interest of Iraq and its people; few of these demands were met in the past such as the withdrawal of the Philipino forces from Iraq.

 

Also we would like to make it clear to the public opinion that Occupation forces and their agents in Iraq take hostages to strike a blow to the image of the Resistance, they collaborate with criminal gangs for hostages taking and kidnapping.

 

We are confident that our people in Iraq and in the Arab land are able to distinguish between what the Resistance is doing and what is undertaken by the Occupier agents.

 

We never undertake any action unless we have precise information, thus minimizing the errors, and if we find out that somebody has been wrongly captured, he will be freed immediately.  Any way we did free in the various Resistance factions many of the hostages kidnapped by evil gangs and Occupation agents.

 

In this occasion we would like to ask our extended family in Jordan and in the Arab land, through al Majd, to avoid cooperating with the occupation forces, and to limit their cooperation only to help the Iraqi people.

 

Allawi's government and Occupation forces were able to neutralize the Sadr current, taking him out of the battlefield.  How can this influence the continuation and the growing Iraqi resistance?

 

Our Resistance against the occupation started long before what is called the Sadr current, that is why it will not be affected by ousting this current from the battlefield, even though we regret their departure in such a humiliating way.

 

But let me clarify one important thing, which could be unknown to the Arab brothers. What happened between Muatqtada al Sadr and Allawi puppet government is a political deal in the first place, which has been exploited by the occupation forces to kill the personality of al Sadr and his group and those who went to sell their arms are not all Sadr followers.

 

All of Sadr's people don't accept this agreement.  Allawi's puppet government and the dishonorable parties such as the Dawa party and the group of Alhakim mobilized their elements to sell their arms in the name of Sadr group to undermine this current in the Iraqi and Arab public opinion.

 

This of course doesn't prevent us saying that Muqtada al Sadr and the ones who were authorized to speak in his name are a group of morons with no political awareness.  They were drawn to a stinking enterprise to back the occupation, period!

 

We do assert that there are a big proportion of the elements of this Current, which has nothing to do with this game, and they continue in this project of the Resistance, as a patriotic choice.

 

A year and half after the occupation, what are occupation force and weakness points, seen through your experience?

 

The Resistance fighters are the masters of the Iraqi street.  This is a reality well known to everyone in touch with the Iraqi affairs. I don't exaggerate if I say that the Occupations soldiers hope never to leave their fortified positions.

 

They think that they are strong when using their jets, but these jets can’t go everywhere, and with the direct confrontation we feel the cowardice in which the occupiers behave. This has become clear from the shooting at random they excel in with or without reason. As for the traitors who came with the occupiers’ tanks, they also are hiding and never quit their fortified burrows.

 

Do you feel confident concerning the continuation of the Resistance?

 

Everybody must be reassured that we are able to take on the fight for long years, but the occupation will not live that long.  The political and the military command have provided us with enough arms and ammunitions, which you can find all over the land of Iraq.

 

 

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

 

 

Have Some Reality

 

Oct. 28, 2004 Peter Dale Scott "Salon.com"

 

For almost half a century neither America nor any other country has been able to win what was clearly a major offensive occupation in a hostile foreign land.

 

(The last successes were won by the British, against the Chinese in Malaya, 1948-1957, and against the Mau Mau in Kenya, 1952-1956.  Both campaigns were against well-defined ethnic minorities in limited areas.  Meanwhile the French failed spectacularly to maintain their former colonial dominance even in Algeria, which had been governed as part of metropolitan France.)

 

This simple truth -- that an offensive occupation of an unwilling foreign nation is now unwinnable -- can rightly be seen as a subversive one.  For it is at odds with assumptions underlying the Bush national security doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance over the rest of the world. Indeed it calls into question why America has 725 military bases scattered over the world, down from a Cold War peak of 1,700 in about 100 countries.

 

 

 

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

 

 

“Don’t Worry.  You’ll Have Your Chance Too.”

10.29.04 John Kerry stops to reassure children in Orlando, Florida, October 29, 2004.  Kerry told the children that he would keep the war in Iraq going until they were old enough to join the fight for oil and Empire.  He promised an increase in benefits for the maimed and the families of the dead.  “I’m a vet too,” he said.  (Jim Young/Reuters)

 

 

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

 

 

U.S. Soldier Shot In Chicken Street

 

October 30, 2004 Xinhua News Agency (China)

 

KABUL - A US soldier has been injured when attackers opened fire in Kabul's shopping center, ISAF Patrick Poulain spokesman said Saturday.  "I can tell you he is a soldier.  A US member of the quick reaction company based in Kabul was slightly injured last night here," he told reporters here.

 

"The ISAF soldier was injured in the foot during a shooting near Chicken Street," he added, "The soldier was taken to the Camp Warehouse hospital for treatment."

 

Received:

 

The United States Army Could Fuck Up A Wet Dream

 

From: Soldier On Leave From Iraq

To: GI Special

Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004

 

Hello friends, family, and anarchistic cohorts,

 

I am now typing you this email from the confines of a concentration camp called Arcent QA Army Airforce Base, somewhere in the tiny country of Quatar.

 

This is supposed to be a 4 day pass.  i was duped into coming along thinking i would actually escape the melee of a combat zone found in Baquba, Iraq.  in all reality, I’d rather be in Iraq.

 

Of course, as is every time the army moves you someplace, the traveling experience in coming here was atrocious.  it took almost 2 days just to travel a few hundred miles by air.  it involved sleeping on many soiled cots, enduring many hours of dusty-prebaked heat, hurrying then waiting, hurrying then waiting.  finally after much discomfort and miserable boredom, our chalk finally managed to land in this huge, searing, dentist office excitement.

 

For the next four days, i will live in a hangar on the top bunk of a bunk bed.  my bunkmate below me has a body odor problem, and the guy next to him is quite flatulent.  there is an eerie orange glow from the overhead light that kept me up all last night, its simply too bright.

 

There is nothing to do on this base except consume.  after all, it’s the amerikan way.  they have a huge postal exchange here, that sells nothing but garbage.  for those of you who don’t know, it’s called AAFES--Army AirForce Extortion Service.  imagine a Wal-Mart, but far worse.  in addition, this camp has a makeshift pizza hut and burger king for all the fatass gluttons who live here.  i don’t see much of anything else to do.  there is a swimming pool, but as I’m german/irish, it won’t take long till i resemble a baked lobster under this painstakingly powerful Arabian sun.

 

The only redeeming quality of this place is the fact that, because of the friendly alliance we have with Quatar, we can go off post to mingle with the friendly A-rabs, something i would have found quite interesting as I’ve never had the opportunity to do so without getting shot at.

 

BUT WAIT!!!  because of our government's paranoia and utter fear of the unknown, we will not be allowed off post during our stay.

 

All military personnel have been restricted to base until the Islamic holiday Ramadan is over.  for some reason, it appears that every American….thinks that Ramadan is where towel heads cloak their faces, sharpen up their machetes, and run out and chop the heads off any white devil foreigner they can find.

 

In actuality, Ramadan is a very peaceful holiday in observance of the teachings of Mohammad.  the devout will fast during the days, and as the moon rises they will have big merry feasts.  violence is looked down upon during this month of Ramadan.  imagine thanksgiving and x-mas for 30 days, but without the monkey knife fights and vicious arguments with your right winged Christian zealot second cousins.

 

Come to think about it, even in Baquaba, a haven for terrorist plotters against US FORCES; where the insurgency is always hip hoppin' and the jihad fundamentalists are always blowing up our boys, there has not been a major incident against us during this Ramadan.  but in Quatar, a small version of suburbia USA, Ali Babba and his Forty Thieves are running amok, chopping heads and taking names.

 

Be afraid, because paranoia is patriotic.

 

GO USA!!!

 

For now, i am trapped in this confined mental space, this consumerism concentration camp.  this is my fate for the next four days...buy buy buy!!!  the four day's purpose is self defeating.

 

I don’t feel relaxed and rested, I’m even more stressed than ever.  there are more rules to abide by here than in basic training.  for all my army brethren...DON’T COME HERE, STAY AWAY, STAY FAR AWAY!!!  as for the rest of you, well, just don’t join the army.

 

Dazed and morbidly confused,

 

h

 

FTA!!!

 

“It Sort Of Makes A Person Wonder”

 

From: David Honish, Veterans For Peace

To: GI SPECIAL

Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 2:00 AM

 

You sure know how to make a person think T.  Your impact is not as a pebble cast upon the waters of a pond.  It is more like a mountain falling into the ocean.  Keep up the good work!

 

The photo of Jonathan Bartlett in tonite's edition of GI Special caught my eye, and sparked my memory.

 

Jonathan Bartlett at Walter Reed Hospital.   (VICKI CRONIS PHOTOS/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT)

 

The bandage on his right leg is a textbook perfect example of "The Recurrent Of The Stump."  It is one of the tougher test stations on the practical exercises required to pass 91 B school in the Army.  I can still remember the faces of some of the instructors, sergeants barking at us for more symmetry in our wraps, and flunking us if we did not have a perfect "picture window" in our completed bandage.

 

I started thinking of the differences between an EMT course I once took and Army medic training.  EMT school is a lot more positive, as you might expect.  It is based on the idea that you can't save everybody, but you can try.  Safe driving of an ambulance is stressed.  Having to use a tourniquet, or deliver a baby by yourself is about the worst you are led to expect.

 

The Army is of course different.  They are real big on Recurrents Of The Stumps and treating sucking chest wounds.

 

Rather than the pretense of trying to save everybody, the Army teaches triage.  Triage is nothing more than picking who gets to live, and who gets to die, depending on available resources and the tactical situation.  Safe driving is much less of an issue than how to do your job without also getting shot or blown up like your patients did.

 

A person learns creative thinking on the job fast, or they don't last long.  The first time you roll on an ambulance run where the victim is burned over 80% of their body you get creative.

 

The next time you go out your rig now has bedsheets and bath towels in it that you autoclaved to supplement your inventory of too small dressings.

 

 

Wage peace,

David

 

Nursery Rhyme:

 

From: "Ewa Jasiewicz"

To: GI Special

Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 5:54 PM

Subject: Re: Allawi

 

Toota toota toota!  Sharon labess foota!

Ya Tony Blair, ya khanzeer, biddak robbet bil janzeer!

George Bush!  Sabrack Sabrack, bil Fallujah Nahffar Kubrack!

Ya George Bush, ya kharra, rejack jeyshak la-wo-ra!

Ya shebab indammu indammu, min al ehtilall la tinhammu!

 

Translated:

 

Toota toota toota, Sharon wears a nappy!  (Kids love this one. Its the sanitized version, should be Sharon ibin sharmoota (Sharon's a son of a bitch)

 

Ya Tony Blair you pig, I want to roast you on a spit!

 

George Bush, your patience, patience, in Fallujah we're digging your  grave!

 

Ya George Bush, you shit, return your soldiers back!

 

(All of the above can be substituted with the kelb ibin kelb jayzoos -- the dog, son of a dog collaborator --  Allawi.)

 

 

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