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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
In a couple of months, the Washington Post will run a groundbreaking new series exposing the shameful practice of sending injured troops back to Iraq.
"Been there, done that" has to be cold comfort for Salon.
I'm almost 100% sure that it doesn't matter what color of magnetic ribbon-shaped decal you put on the back of your car.
There are tangible things we all can be doing if we want to do our small part in ending the war. A bumper sticker isn't helping anybody.
5000. - N.
Dispensing with the expenses for
injured soldiers in sending them back to Iraq reveals the hidden face of warfare - let alone that the civilians of Iraq have to face the mortal danger of such politics.
Also because of the implications of the Iraq war it is not possible to publish in the US the one book existing on how American military tribunals dealt with the madness of soldiers as far back as during WW II built entirely on totally neglected records in the War archives. Which means the tip of the iceberg.
Written by the wonderfully courageous American criminologist, J Robert Lilly of Northern Kentucky University and the UK Durham University,this harrowing portrait of the hidden face of war has the ominous title Taken by Force: Rape and American Soldiers in the European Theater of Operations during World War II (England France Germany) 1942-1945.
Books exists so far only in a French translation as "La Face cachée des GI´s" published in 2003 by Payot in Paris with an excellent foreword by Fabrice Virgili. He stresses rightfully that no other country has had the courage to dig in their own archives to tell the truth on the behaviour of their troops sent to war.
When will the criminality of this war result in criminal charges? At what point?
The Iraq war of choice has brought so much death and injury to America's dedicated young men and women in uniform and a great erosion of America's moral, political and economic standing in the world, not to mention the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis with millions turned into refugees.
What I find truly amazing is how unrepentent the Neocons and the Israel Lobby - who brought about this war under false pretenses- are!
Not only are they unrepentent, they have the nerve to continue to tirelessly push for a new war with Iran using the same tactics.
This is another example of the Bush administration doing what it does best: taking advantage of disadvantaged people. First it creates an economy of more have-nots than ever before, then it invades a country for reasons it makes up, pressures disadvantaged kids into volunteering because they have few other choices, sends them into a war that creates huge profits for big businesses that defraud the American taxpayers out of billions of dollars, either gets those volunteers killed, injured, or redeployed until they get killed or injured, then "supports" them by ignoring them after surgery or sending them back to the Middle East because the government "needs the numbers."
We desperately need an administration that cares about people who aren't in the top 10% of income and wealth in this country.
Hi Everyone,
First--I don't mean to minimize this ariticle. It's important and the criminals that started this horror are just that--criminals.
With that said...
As a former light infantry (dirty nasty grunt '89-93'), and Military Police officer ('87-'89)--I can personally attest to this as day-to-day practice.
It happens all the time--I've seen guys with full leg casts stumbling around in the dirt with spiral, green-stick fractures--you name it.
I followed a guy on a 12 mile road march--the last three he had a broken foot. He told his squad leader, but ya know--when your 40Kms from the nearest road--what choice do you have but to hump, hump and hump....
Short of dead--you're going back to the line.
I personally had severed hand tendons, was walking around with this 'Curse of the Mummy' gauzey mess, and rubber-band contraption in the wet and the muck--yet was deployed (the injury was the product of a bad window smash and climb through on an assault--still can't give anyone the finger--but that's probably a good thing)...
Now before anyone gets all frothy--these guys are mostly kept with the company's First Sgt. (the Sr. mean bastard of the unit) to help lug chow, support the patrols with weapons and ammo runs, the Walking Wounded (as they are known) keep the RTOs and thier radios up, clean the AO and such....(in the rear with the gear)...
So--let's not get carried away too badly...it's not like Johnny had his hand blown off and is now trying to frag an Ivan with one dick beater (vulgar--yessss, but welcome to the trench)...
On the other side--it doesn't make it right by any means, but on the ground--at the level that NONE of us see--not the embedded reporters, not McCain and his rug buying buddies--and certainly not his Highness Lord Bush and Iago Cheney--is that even though the Sr. Mean Bastard of the company is just that--one nasty SOB--he does get those guys off the FRONT line.
It ain't right--it ain't pretty, but it's not like we are pressing old men and boys into defending Stalingrad with sticks and mop handles...
So, take a grain of salt and remember that context and perspective are everything while we sit here as spoiled civilians in our pjs sipping coffee. Hell when you look at it like that a wrinkled shirt is a friggin' crisis....
One of the issues which irked colonials before they revolted was the issue of involuntary conscrpition and press gangs. They don't teach about that much anymore I suppose.
If joining the military was about defending your country then it wouldn't be bad to sign right up but they haven't defended this country since world war 2. anyone who voluntarilly signs up either actually believes all the commercials, gung ho war movies and propaganda or else they are doing it for purely economic reasons due to lack of jobs, opportunity and education.
We have a mercenary army that doesn't defend this country, but defends corporate interests and imprerial ambitions.
Should they expected to be dealt with honourably and fairly by the system they have joined?
Should we care what happens to them?
The more the politicians, the media and those commericials praise our troops the less they respect them. Lip service is a cheap price for death and crippling injuries are the real product of war. If anyone cared about the troops, THEY WOULDN'T BE THERE.
They lost their lives when they enlisted. Didn't they know bush was in the white house? Didn't they know about war? Didn't they know any history?
Our public school system has failed the kids and given a free pass to the military. People are still signing up. When people stop siging up and they have to draft people, then maybe someone will care about what happens to the troops.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
