Diatribune - military - Comments

What a sickening article,

epppie — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:56:01 -0600

What a sickening article, It's sickening because it is right about the lack of responsibility most americans have show apart from their endless flags and stickers, and because it's sickening that a presidential debate would ocurr in a church.

Thank God Obama is a man of principle; win at all costs. As for McBush - whatta stiff.

Conyers - Now Is the Time to

jimstaro — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:04:15 -0600

Conyers - Now Is the Time to Impeach - VFP

Veterans For Peace Requests Meeting with Representative John Conyers About Impeachment

The Letter

Eric Hall-Combat PTSD How

jimstaro — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:50:15 -0600

Eric Hall-Combat PTSD

How one Marine's death is prompting a closer look at PTSD
Charlotte Sun-Herald - Charlotte Harbor,FL,USA
The constant state of alertness began to wear on the young Marine. Becky Hall noticed small differences when he returned in September. Eric would sleep ...

Marine recounts war within
Charlotte Sun-Herald - Charlotte Harbor,FL,USA
Shaughnessy turned to the other Marine and instructed him to provide covering fire. Shaughnessy never met Eric Hall, but he knew what the troubled Marine ...

I did a series on Eric as soon as I caught the report he was missing, when visiting a site where my older sister, and her family, lives. Right till his burial after they found his body in a drainage pipe when he ran off having a 'flashback'of his Iraq Tour!

Those 'Supplementals'

jimstaro — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:25:19 -0600

Those 'Supplementals' funding the Occupations....

Aren't going Directly to the Troops, they are greasing the Bottom Lines of the 'Private Contractors' and 'War Profitteers' !!

April 22, VCS Lawsuit in the

jimstaro — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:10:56 -0600

April 22, VCS Lawsuit in the News:

National Broadcast on the Crisis in Veterans' Healthcare

On Tuesday, April 22nd, KPFA/ Pacifica Radio will broadcast a three-hour live national special delving into the crisis in the VA health care system. The special broadcast will include live updates from the San Francisco Federal Courthouse, interviews with veterans’ attorney Gordon Erspamer, advocates from Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for America, as well as interviews with veterans and their families, including Joyce and Kevin Lucey who are suing the VA claiming their son Jeffrey committed suicide after being turned away from the VA.

PTSD, TBI Doctor Tries To

jimstaro — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:03:33 -0600

PTSD, TBI

Doctor Tries To Bring Troops’ Vision Damage Into Traumatic Brain ...
Hartford Courant - United States
Gagnon has spent the last four years trying to draw attention to the visual impairments associated with traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and Pearce is one of ...

Post clinics delayed for 'better outcome'
Clarksville Leaf Chronicle - Clarksville,TN,USA
The post has already done that, by planning a so-called "Mental Health Park" along Indiana Avenue that in addition to the PTSD and TBI clinics, ...

IRAQ: Returning Home Is No

jimstaro — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:26:51 -0600

IRAQ:

Returning Home Is No Easy Solution for Displaced Iraqis

Assessments by Iraq's Ministry for Displacement and Migration (MoDM) and IOM of Iraqis having returned to their original homes from internal displacement or asylum abroad reveal that return has not brought them relief from the humanitarian crisis they suffered during their displacement.

Priority needs among the 5,200 people assessed by IOM monitors out of nearly 78,200 returnees identified so far across the country are food, fuel, non-food items and access to health care and medications.

In the first of IOM reports focusing exclusively on the monitoring and needs assessment of returnees, nearly two-thirds of identified returns were to Baghdad with March 2007 as the peak month for returning.

Almost half of these returnees said they only had an intermittent access to government food rations which were largely insufficient to meet their needs.

For those returning to Baghdad, lack of access to health care was the worst of any region at 70 per cent with the national average still high at 56 per cent. Shortage of health facilities and medications and a lack of finances were the main reasons cited.

Although the vast majority of returnees had returned to their original house (84 per cent), many properties had sustained significant damage and lost or stolen belongings including furniture, highlighting a significant need for property assistance.

In Baghdad, where most property disputes occur over occupied houses, the resettlement of returnees is currently being handled on an ad hoc basis by various authorities. Any future large scale returns would necessitate setting up a comprehensive policy and mechanism in order to avoid renewed tensions.

Although identified returns so far constitute less than one per cent of the total displaced Iraqi population (an estimated five million internally displaced people and refugees), monitors had observed an increase in returns in March prior to the recent violence in Basra, Baghdad and elsewhere that outstripped the capacity of the MoDM and local authorities to identify all locations. Therefore, real figures for returns are likely to be higher.

"The situation for those returning is grim and isn't necessarily an improvement from when they were displaced. Many returnees are unemployed while only a fraction have received any form of humanitarian assistance other than some food rations," said Rafiq Tschannen, IOM's Chief of Mission for Iraq.

"Although efforts are being made to help returnees really get back on their feet, intensifying these efforts is major challenge for all the humanitarian agencies as well as the Iraqi government. IOM is working closely with the MoDM to ensure assistance reaches a much greater number of returnees and our reports on the monitoring and assessment needs of returnees will go a long way to making sure we all get the right kind of help to those who need it."

To access the report in PDF Click Here

Winter Soldier book to be

jimstaro — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:03:34 -0600

Winter Soldier book to be released September 2008

The following link on Amazon.com will allow readers to
pre-order copies of the Winter Soldier book coming
this fall.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations

Both your sites are

Jacob Freeze — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:26:18 -0700

Both your sites are extremely useful. Thanks especially for giving veterans a little more sunshine! Bush/Cheney just want the whole problem of disabled veterans to disappear, and the MSM are enthusiastic partners in the same program. You're fighting a very good fight!

I hope you get all the

Jacob Freeze — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:11:37 -0700

I hope you get all the candidates together for this event, and ask them some really hard questions about what they plan to do for disabled veterans. After the horror stories about Walter Reed Hospital faded off the front pages, nothing much really got fixed, and a lot of disabled vets are still waiting for their first disability payment. Thousands of veterans are homeless, and neither party seems to care.

A message from Carlos

jimstaro — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 08:14:33 -0600

A message from Carlos Arredondo

Carlos Arredondo publicly expresses his grief
Gold Star Father
{The Gold Star Father attacked on Sept 15th in DC by those who call themselves 'Gathering of Eagles'}

After Alex was killed in Iraq, my ex-wife told me that he didn't want to go back. Alex never shared that with me even though I guess I sensed it. I wouldn't have known what to tell him. If I had known about Courage to Resist, Alex might be alive today.

Carlos' son Marine L/Cpl Alex Arredondo was killed in action on August 25, 2004 in An Najaf, Iraq.

Please make a donation to support the work of Courage to Resist.

Yeah, my point

WayneNight — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:15:51 -0600

Yeah, my point exactly.

Forcing people into a position where they have to support a particular war policy in order to "support the troops" isn't exactly my idea of freedom.

It's also a bad way to run things, in general, because it puts waaay too much trust in decisions by the political leadership.

Support the troops = support

epppie — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:09:25 -0600

Support the troops = support what they are doing no matter what? Bull.

i think both issues are

fake consultant — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:48:52 -0600

i think both issues are actually combined here...the desire for all possible information has again manifested itself in a program that will likely, in the end, just be another taxpayer burden.

this is one of many examples (the total information awareness program, and its descendents for another) of the desire for "overreach".

there is an "enabler class" of contractors that encourage this behavior, but that is not surprising. in this case, northrup grumman is the lead contractor.

to be fair, the history of this program extends beyond this administration (jstars, the first air force platform to utilize sar, was deployed in the 1991 gulf war), but it seems this administration is far more obsessed that others with secrecy and information gathering.

My biggest concern isn't how

epppie — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:16:08 -0600

My biggest concern isn't how well spy systems work, but that our government seems to be seeking more and more information, while withholding more and more information. It seeks for us to be completely transparent to it and for it to be completely opaque to us.