GI SPECIAL
5E14:
ENOUGH
BRING
THEM ALL HOME NOW
A wounded U.S. soldier is transferred by a
medevac helicopter to the military hospital in Balad, Iraq, May 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Thomas Wagner)
Acinetobacter:
"Hospital Staff And
Patients In The U.S. Are Dying"
"A Misinformation Campaign By
The Pentagon Regarding The Infection Problems In The Military Medical System"
"They Have Failed To Reduce The
Infection Rate In Their Own Medical System; In Fact It Is Going Up"
From: Marcie Hascall
Clark
To: GI Special
Sent: May 12, 2007
Subject: Misinformation Campaign
MORE ON ACINETOBACTER
This past week was apparently
the beginning of a misinformation campaign by the Pentagon regarding the
infection problems in the military medical system.
In several news articles and
twice on CNN in interviews the Pentagon has implied that the insurgents are
smearing animal feces on the IED’s and that is where
the bacteria is coming from.
This has gone unchallenged by
the MSM.
In fact the MSM
never picked up on Steve Silbermans expose in January
which you posted.
Wired Magazine sent a hard copy
to every member of Congress, the New York Times, The
Washington Post, The LA Times, and more.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/enemy.html
All chose to ignore this.
I almost choked when I caught
the CNN segments on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning but nearly cried when
I heard Bill Maher repeat this lie last night.
Anyone in the military or
anyone who is even thinking at all realizes that biologics cannot withstand the
heat generated by even a small bomb.
Disbursement methods for biologics are much more complicated and use
very small explosive charges.
The military has already proven
to themselves that they are origin and the cause of
the spread of Acinetobacter Baummanni.
Their failure to contain it
despite this knowledge has lead to the spread of this superbug
to hospitals all over our country.
They have failed to reduce the
infection rate in their own medical system, in fact it
is going up.
Hospital staff and patients in
the US are dying from this
I never dreamed 4 years ago
that things would get this bad.
Here are links to the news articles and CNN
Transcripts.
This information is also
available at my new website www.iraqinfections.org
www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/05/07/7troopinfections.htmlorg.
www.columbiatribune.com/2007/May/20070505News001.asp
Thanks for doing the GI Special
Marcie Clark
***************************************************
THE SITUATION ROOM, MAY 8, 2007
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0705/08/sitroom.03.html
Bombs, some laced with poison, are taking a
huge toll among U.S. troops long after the explosions and far from the
battlefield. Let’s go to our Pentagon
correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT:
Wolf, military doctors have a new worry about badly wounded troops.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): Hundreds of wounded troops
from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing a growing threat -- dangerous
and sometimes deadly infections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We’re seeing more of it
now than we did at the beginning of the war.
STARR: As body armor improves, more troops
are surviving the massive injuries caused by IEDs. But those wounds are becoming a breeding
ground for drug-resistant infections.
Researchers say the infections are often so bad troops may require more
surgery or, in some cases, even amputation of arms or legs.
COL. GLENN WORTMANN,
WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: Because they’re surviving with these tremendous wounds that allows an environment for these
bacteria to flourish. And, therefore, I
think our infections are worse than you would see on the civilian side.
STARR: Infections in hospitals are nothing
new, but one of the bacteria now showing up, acinetobacter,
is resistant to almost all antibiotics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you here
between 15 and about 20 percent of patients that come in the door are colonized
or infected with the organism.
STARR: Researchers also say some infections
occur because of natural bacteria in the soil. Wounds are contaminated when
there is an IED attack.
There are also cases where IEDs have been
deliberately filled with chemicals and animal waste, a deadly mix for open
wounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
*********************************************
AMERICAN MORNING, MAY 9, 2007
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0705/09/ltm.01.html
ROBERTS:
I’m just thinking about these stories out
yesterday about these EFPs and other improvised-explosive devices, where
insurgents and terrorists and now coating them with animal excrement and other
bits of awful to try to inflict, you know, greater casualties by, you know,
creating these wounds that just will not heal and become resistant to
antibiotics.
CALDWELL: John, we continue to see them use
any kind of tactic that can -- will, you know, inflict more casualties and
cause more fear and intimidation amongst the people and the security forces,
just like they do with these chlorine tanks that they put on top of their
bombs, so they have a chlorine fume that is caused. I mean, it just shows you
the type of nature the enemy we’re fighting against over here and what we’re up
-- having to deal with.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, General Caldwell,
it’s another troubling development there. And we thank you for your time. We
know your busy. And good luck today at the briefing
today and with the vice president’s visit.
IRAQ WAR REPORTS
IED Kills Soldier Near Al
Iskandariyah
May 12, 2007 Multi National Corps Iraq Public
Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20070512-04
BAGHDAD – An 89TH
Military Police Brigade Soldier was severely wounded by an improvised explosive
device at approximately 7:15 pm Friday south of Al Iskandariyah. The Soldier was evacuated for treatment at
the Coalition medical treatment facility at FOB Kalsu but later died of his
wounds.
THIS ENVIRONMENT IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH;
COME HOME, NOW
Battle at Tarmiyah: On Feb. 19, 35 soldiers faced an attack on
their remote patrol base in Tarmiyah, Iraq.
By the end of the four-hour battle, two of the men were dead and 29 were
wounded. Two soldiers on the roof of the
ruined patrol base fire back at enemy insurgents who attacked the base after
the truck exploded. [U.S. Army Photo]
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
"The Americans Went After One Guerrilla Commander And Created A Hundred More"
"After Burying The Dead,
The Tribe’s Elders Met And Resolved To Fight American Forces If They Returned"
"We Will Stand Against Them, And
We Will Raise The Whole Area Against Them"
May 13, 2007 By
CARLOTTA GALL and DAVID E. SANGER, The New York Times [Excerpts]
ZERKOH,
Afghanistan, May 9 — Scores of civilian deaths over the past months from heavy
American and allied reliance on airstrikes to battle Taliban insurgents are
threatening popular support for the Afghan government and creating severe
strains within the NATO alliance.
The anger is visible here in
this farming village in the largely peaceful western province of Herat, where
American airstrikes left 57 villagers dead, nearly half of them women and
children, on April 27 and 29.
Even the accounts of villagers
bore little resemblance to those of NATO and American officials — and suggested
just how badly things could go astray in an unfamiliar land where cultural
misunderstandings quickly turn violent.
The United States military says it came under
heavy fire from insurgents as it searched for a local tribal commander and
weapons caches and called in airstrikes, killing 136 Taliban fighters.
But the villagers denied that
any Taliban were in the area.
Instead, they said, they rose
up and fought the Americans themselves, after the soldiers raided several
houses, arrested two men and shot dead two old men on a village road.
After burying the dead, the
tribe’s elders met with their chief, Hajji Arbab Daulat Khan, and resolved to fight American forces if they
returned.
"If they come again, we will
stand against them, and we will raise the whole area against them," he warned.
Or in the words of one foreign
official in Afghanistan, the Americans went after one guerrilla commander and
created a hundred more.
On Tuesday, barely 24 hours after American
officials apologized publicly to President Karzai for a previous incident in
which 19 civilians were shot by marines in eastern Afghanistan, reports
surfaced of at least 21 civilians killed in an airstrike in Helmand Province,
though residents reached by phone said the toll could be as high as 80.
While NATO is now in overall command of the
military operations in the country, many of the most serious episodes of
civilian deaths have involved United States counterterrorism and Special
Operations forces that operate separately from the NATO command.
The subject of civilian casualties was the
source of intense discussion on Wednesday in Brussels when the NATO secretary
general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer,
met with the North Atlantic Council, the top representatives of the coalition.
But the conversation was less
about how to reduce casualties, according to participants, than about how to
explain them to European governments, who say their troops are there for
reconstruction, not hunting the Taliban or terrorists.
Since the beginning of March at least 132
civilians have been killed in at least six bombings or shootings, according to
officials. The actual number of civilians killed is probably higher, since the
areas of heaviest fighting, like the southern province of Helmand, are too
unsafe for travel and many deaths go unreported and cannot be verified.
"You have a bag of capital —
that is the good will of the people — and you want to spend that as slow as you
could," said the American military official. "We are spending it at a fearsome
rate."
The episode here in this valley in Shindand district in late April showed just how changeable
the attitudes toward foreign troops can be.
The ethnic Pashtuns who live in the Zerkoh Valley are from a fiercely independent tribe,
surrounded by local enemies, and with a record of fighting all comers. Still,
NATO and United States soldiers were a common — even friendly — sight in this
valley in western Afghanistan. They came
and talked to the tribal leaders, built schools and culverts, and had plans for
a new bridge.
In interviews, villagers, who had cooperated
with NATO before, blamed local rivals for planting false information with the
Americans, to encourage the Americans to attack Zerkoh.
After the Special Forces units
started raiding homes, the villagers were so angered, they said, they fought
the Americans themselves. They insisted
that no Taliban were here, an area that has been mostly calm.
"NATO was coming regularly, and the Afghan
Army and police, and we were cooperating with them," said Muhammad Alef, 35, a farmer who was tending to his wounded cousin in
the provincial hospital in the city of Herat.
"But when the Americans came without
permission, and they came more than once and disturbed the people," he said.
"They searched the houses, and
the second time they arrested people, and the third time the people got angry
and fought them."
The American forces searched the tribal chief’s
house and arrested two of his staff members, the villagers said.
One, a watchman named only Bahadullah, 45, said he had been handcuffed, covered with a
hood and taken to the nearby American base at Shindand.
He said he had been strung up by
his feet for what seemed like an hour and a half as American soldiers swung him
about. When he was let down the soldiers
kicked and beat him, he said. In an
interview this week, he said he was still passing blood and in pain from the
beatings.
A senior American military official who has
looked at what happened in Zerkoh said that some
compounds were bombed but added that the troops were receiving fire from them.
But a villager, Abdul Waheed,
said the Americans had searched his family compound and found no weapons and
certainly must have seen the women and children.
Two days later they bombed the compound,
killing six children, he said.
"The Americans should leave
Afghanistan because this is my own home," he said. "I am sitting here and they
come and just order a bomb to drop."
Villagers said the first
fighting broke out on April 27, as they had gathered at the bazaar in the
central village of Parmakan. Two old men, Adel Shah, 80, who was walking
home with some meat and sugar for his family, and Sarwar,
80, who was harvesting poppies, were shot dead by the Americans, said Abdul Zaher, Mr. Shah’s son.
That night, the first airstrikes were carried
out, mainly on Bakhtabad, the village at the entrance
to the valley, residents said.
On April 29, the Americans
returned, positioning their armored vehicles outside Parmakan.
Villagers said they thought the
Americans were going to raid houses again, and the men gathered to fight. Husi, 35, lives in
a house near the school and on the edge of the village. She was alone with her 10 children, and when
the shooting started they cowered at the entrance of their walled home, she
said.
Then suddenly a plane bombed
the five-room house. "When they bombed I just ran," she recalled as she held
her 1-year-old boy. Women and children were pouring out of the village to the
river to cross it to safety, she said.
In the panic as they fled, Husi was separated from three of her children, Amina, 8, Tote, 5, and Fazli, 3,
who are still missing.
"We ran with bare feet, we left
our shoes," said Sara, a relative and the mother of seven, whose house was also
bombed. "I was running and they were
shooting at us from the plane," she said.
Two uncles and two cousins were
killed when the house was bombed, she said. "We have nothing, it’s all
finished," she said.
The river was chest-high at the
time, and a number of women and children were swept away. Fifty-seven people died over all, including
17 children under 10, 10 women and 14 old men, Hajji Daulat
Khan said. Eight people are still
missing, including a 21-year-old man, and Husi’s
three children.
The bombing of the village so
outraged people that they continued fighting the Americans even after the
airstrikes.
American and Afghan military
officials admitted that they had been surprised at the ferocity of the
response, and said that at one point American soldiers had been forced to call
in the Afghan Army.
"We are not saying that the
foreigners should leave or stay, we are just saying they should not do this,"
said a farmer, Fateh Muhammad, 55, gesturing with his
scythe at an enormous bomb crater and his neighbor’s collapsed house. He showed the place where two of his
neighbors had been killed in a field nearby.
The airstrikes damaged about
100 homes and a new school built by Italian troops.
"This is a big mistake the
Americans are making," said Nasrullah Khan, a younger
brother of the tribal chief, Hajji Daulat Khan. "If the Americans are here for peace, this is
not the way."
"Sometimes You Wonder Whose Side The Americans Are
On," Said A British Official:
"We’ve Left It Too Late. I See It Going The
Same Way As Iraq"
May 13, 2007 Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times
BRITAIN will step up its presence in
Afghanistan this week with the deployment of a high-profile new ambassador as
concern mounts that the toll of civilians killed in the war is setting back the
coalition’s efforts to win Afghan "hearts and minds".
There is growing alarm over a wave of US
bombing raids in which 110 civilians have died in the past two weeks. "Sometimes you wonder whose side the
Americans are on," said a British official.
"I’m not optimistic," said one official. "We’ve
left it too late. I see it going the
same way as Iraq."
TROOP NEWS
THIS IS
HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE
The body of
Lance Coporal Jesse D. Delatorre, 29, at his funeral
in Aurora, Illinois, April 26, 2007. Delatorre died April 16 while conducting
combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. REUTERS/John Gress
[Thanks
to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]
Iraq Veteran Says:
"This Is Not A Black
People’s War. This Is Not A Poor People’s War.
This Is An Oilman’s War"
[Thanks
to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]
May 9, 2007 By
Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe Columnist [Excerpts]
MILITARY SOCIOLOGIST David R. Segal was asked
Monday over the telephone what he hears in his surveys of soldiers.
He quoted an African-American
veteran of the Iraq invasion and occupation: "This is not a black people’s
war. This is not a poor people’s
war. This is an oilman’s war."
Gregory Black, a retired Navy diver who last
year started the website BlackMilitaryWorld.com, said that quote sums up what
he too hears from African-American veterans of Iraq.
"African-Americans detest this war," Black
said yesterday in a phone interview.
"Everybody kind of knows the truth behind
this war. It’s a cash cow for the military defense industry, when you look at
the money these contractors are making. African-Americans saw this at the
beginning of the war and now the rest of the country has figured it out. It’s not benefiting us in the least."
Asked about the reference to an "oilman’s
war," Black said, "It’s basically about oil, basically about money. It’s an
economic war."
He said veterans are saying
they are tired and burned out.
"Guys are saying we’re halfway
around the world fighting people of color under the guise of democracy and we
can’t see how it’s benefited anyone," Black said.
"It’s hard to fight halfway
around the world for people’s freedom when you’re not sure you have it at home."
This war, launched under false pretenses, now
has so little merit that the enrollment of African-Americans in the military
may be at its lowest point since the creation of the all-volunteer military in
1973. In 2000, 23.5 percent of Army recruits were African-American.
By 2005, the percentage dropped to 13.9
percent. National Public Radio this week quoted a Pentagon statistic that said
that African-American propensity to join the military had dropped to 9 percent.
"African-Americans are always more sensitive
to anything that smacks of neocolonialism, which this war did smack of," said
Joint Center political analyst David Bositis.
Pentagon officials largely attribute the drop
in African-American interest in the armed forces to "influencers," parents,
coaches, ministers, and school counselors who urge youth not to enlist.
"I think some of that is true,"
Black said. "But I taught ROTC in high
school, and the kids themselves are a lot smarter about this stuff. They see the news and they can’t justify
going into a fight for something they have no faith in."
Do you have a friend or relative in the
service? Forward GI Special along, or
send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the
USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from
access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, inside the armed
services and at home. Send email requests to address
up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
10025-5657
Military Family Members Condemn Tour Extension To
15 Months:
Asshole Gates Slapped Down For
Saying Extension A "Beneficial" "Favor To Army Families"
She and
other family members have "supported (the war effort) so long and sacrificed so
much," she said. "and I’m wondering how much more they
can possibly ask us to do."
April 23, 2007 By
Gina Cavallaro, Army Times [Excerpts]
Anger, resignation, uncertainty and pride
were just a few of the emotions vented by soldiers and spouses in response to
the news that the war zone rotations had been extended to 15 months, effective
immediately.
A soldier on duty at Camp Bucca near Baghdad
said in an e-mail that he didn’t consider the news of an extension unexpected
but predicted that retaining soldiers will be extremely difficult.
"Asking for flexibility has its limits. Even
rubber bands snap," wrote Spc. Frederick Cutter, who also described a dream in
which he returned home and his 1-year-old daughter asked, "Who is that?"
"My heart cracked. My daughter did not choose
to make these sacrifices," Cutter wrote.
"As a wife of one of the many soldiers
affected by this 15-month extension, I feel hopeless," wrote Jess McClary from Germany. Her husband works in 2nd Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.
"On reflection, I see that planning on 15
months is better than getting the word at 11 months that your husband is going
to be extended," Elizabeth Cherepko said in a phone
interview from her home in Copperas Cove, Texas.
"However, she added, "I just
had a problem with the way Secretary Gates presented it as some favor to Army
families. I was angered by his claim
that it would be beneficial."
Her husband, 1st Lt. Tom Cherepko
of 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, is on his third
trip to Iraq, his first as an officer.
She was an Army truck driver for four years
and now cares for their 15-month-old daughter while teaching high school in
Killeen, Texas.
She and other family members
have "supported (the war effort) so long and sacrificed so much," she said. "and I’m wondering how much more they can possibly ask us to
do."
Gen. Casey Told To Take Stop-Loss And Shove It;
"It Does Nothing More Than
Cause Contempt"
April 23, 2007 By
Matthew Cox, Army Times [Excerpts]
Soldiers have some advice for [Gen. George
Casey] the Army’s new chief of staff — shorten combat tours and get rid of the
black beret.
The issue of tour lengths is intensifying
after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced April 11 that combat deployments
for all active-duty soldiers will now be 15 months instead of 12.
Just four days before the announcement, Sgt.
William Ibrahim’s e-mail to Army Times called on
Casey to shorten deployments.
"It’s difficult for families to deal with
loved ones being gone for a year at a time. One year is too long to be gone," he wrote. "I think the chief of staff of the Army should
work to lessen the length of deployments."
Abolishing stop-loss policies that hold
soldiers in uniform beyond their separation dates was also on the recommended
to-do list for Casey.
"Gen. George Casey should first
end the stop-loss policy," wrote Suzanne Kishel, the
wife of a National Guard sergeant who is being held in the Army under stop-loss
and being deployed to Iraq for a third time.
"This policy amounts to nothing
more than a draft of those who have been fighting for our country over the past
four years or more," she wrote.
"It does nothing more than
cause contempt and greatly decreases the likelihood of a soldier continuing a
career in the military."
Many soldiers were short and to-the-point
about their uniforms, particularly about the black beret.
"Dump the black beret while in
ACUs," Maj. |