GI SPECIAL 4D2:
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Do you
have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this
E-MAIL 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, at home and inside the armed
services.
Send requests to address up top.
NEED SOME
TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER
Telling
the truth - about the occupation or the criminals
running the government in Washington - is the first
reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more
than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance
- whether it's in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or
inside the armed forces.
Our
goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that
ties working-class people inside the armed services
together.
We want
this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize
resistance within the armed forces. If you like what
you've read, we hope that you'll join with us in
building a network of active duty organizers.
http://www.traveling-soldier.org/
And join
with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and
bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)
“They Spend
Billions To Send Us To War”
“Why Can’t
They Spend A Couple Billion To Get Us Back Into Society?”
March 31, 2006 By Paula
Vogler, Correspondent, Herald Interactive [Excerpts]
Although First Sergeant
Russell Anderson returned from Iraq to his Norton home in
February 2005, the battle still rages for him as he seeks to
return to the life he knew before his deployment.
One of many soldiers suffering
from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but one of the
few speaking out about it, Anderson, 55, speaks proudly of
his service to his country.
Anderson spent a year in Iraq
with the Army Reserves at FOB Speicher, a base 18 miles
north of Tikrit, running convoys of fuel and other supplies
to various areas.
"The biggest adjustment was
that ’you’re not in Kansas anymore Toto,’" said Anderson.
"The second day I was there the camp got mortared."
Proud of the fact that all
soldiers under his command returned home alive, Anderson
nevertheless returned with something he had not anticipated
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
At first he was quiet and
withdrawn. His first nightmare came two months after
returning home. He lashed out at those closest to him,
especially longtime girlfriend Cathy Colon. "She took the
brunt of everything," said Anderson.
His relationship with Colon
was falling apart, he said he was having problems at work,
and he turned to drinking to help deal with mounting
feelings of anger and frustration.
Anderson said the final straw
came when he was watching fireworks in Virginia Beach,
Virginia over the July 4th holiday. He was jumpy every time
the fireworks exploded even though he could see and
recognize them.
Colon also gave him an
ultimatum - get help or their relationship was over.
Trying to
get assistance, Anderson was first given an appointment with
a psychiatrist through the Veteran’s Administration for
Sept. 9.
After that
appointment was cancelled because the psychiatrist was not
available, his next appointment was scheduled for the day
after Thanksgiving when he would have been out of town.
Anderson
would have had to wait until January 2006 for his first
appointment, close to a year after he had returned home, if
not for the intervention of a friend who was a psychiatric
nurse with the Army.
His friend was able to work
around the system to get him an appointment at the end of
October and he said he began to heal. He has been
undergoing counseling and taking medication for the problem
since then. He said he has not yet been able to reconcile
his feelings of what he sees as a character flaw in himself.
"PTSD, it’s a stigma," said
Anderson. "It’s seen as a weakness. You are a weak person
because you can’t suck it up."
Anderson
said he is frustrated with the services available to
returning servicemen and women through the Veteran’s
Administration.
He blames the lack of funding
for the problem.
"It’s not
the people there; they are doing the best they can," said
Anderson. "They spend billions to send us to war. Why can’t
they spend a couple billion to get us back into society?"
[Short
answer: because “they” see no reason to.
[Why waste
the money? The purpose of the armed forces is to defend the
interests of the predators who own and operate the U.S. army
for their own private profit.
[This is
not exactly a big secret.
[Hurt
troops are expensive, and, from “their” point of view, an
annoying drain on money better spent invading and looting
other people’s countries so the corporate interests who buy
the politicians in DC can stuff their own pockets. That’s
what the armed forces are for.
[All the
bullshit about noble causes and defending democracy is just
so much advertising hype. “They” are in the looting
business and, as far as the troops are concerned, “they” are
in the betrayal business.
[How much
longer the troops will put up with these traitors is an open
question, but the clock is running. T]
LIAR
TRAITOR
SOLDIER-KILLER
DOMESTIC
ENEMY
UNFIT FOR
COMMAND
March 29, 2006. REUTERS/Larry Downing
MORE:
Dead?
No PTSD
Diagnosis?
Tough Shit
3/29/2006 By OLGA
PIERCE, UPI Health Business Correspondent [Excerpt]
Stefanie Pelkey
described the ordeal of her husband Michael, who began
displaying symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
after he returned from fighting in Iraq.
He had trouble accessing military mental health services,
and his officers and wife -- who was also in the army -- did
not realize the severity of his symptoms.
He ultimately committed suicide by shooting himself in the
chest, leaving behind his wife and a baby son.
After her husband's death, Pelkey said she had trouble
accessing benefits because her husband had not been
diagnosed with PTSD by an official military psychiatrist.
IRAQ WAR
REPORTS
U.S. Marine
Killed In Anbar
Apr 1, 2006 By QASSIM
ABDUL-ZAHRA, The Associated Press
The U.S.
command said a Marine was killed Friday during combat
operations in Anbar province west of the capital.
The
Marine's death brought to at least 2,328 the number of
members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq
war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press
count.
Soldier
With Ties To Valley Dies
March 23, 2006 By PAT MUIR,
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
A soldier with family members
and a fiancee in the Yakima Valley died in Iraq on Saturday,
killed by enemy fire during a combat mission.
Army Ranger Ricardo Barraza,
24, attended high school and lived in Shafter, Calif., but
has a brother and sister in Sunnyside and was engaged to a
Yakima woman, according to an Army news release.
Barraza, who graduated from
Shafter High School and enlisted in 1999, was heavily
decorated during three deployments in Afghanistan and three
in Iraq as a member of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger
Regiment. He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously.
News of his death hit the town
of Shafter hard.
"It was the topic of
conversation at the City Council meeting last night,"
Shafter police Chief John Zrofsky said. "It was the topic
of conversation at the high school this morning. It was the
topic of conversation at the Kiwanis meeting at lunch."
The town of about 14,000 knew
Barraza as the three-sport athlete who became a local hero
for his touchdowns against archrival Garces Memorial High
School, said Zrofsky, who has functioned as a news liaison
for the Barraza family in Shafter.
They learned of the death
Sunday. Barraza was close with his family, said Arlie Smith,
who coached Barraza during his freshman football season at
Shafter. Smith said the young man was widely respected for
rising from a poor neighborhood to become a solid citizen.
"He was very dedicated to his
mom, and I know he sent most of his money home to her,"
Smith said.
Barraza is survived by his
parents, Francisco and Nina Barraza, and sisters, Amanda and
Rachael, of Shafter; his fiancee, Maghan K. Herrington of
Yakima; a sister, Jamie Barraza of Sunnyside; and a brother,
Frankie Barraza of Sunnyside.
He is the
seventh soldier or Marine killed in Iraq who lived in or had
ties to the Yakima Valley.
Yusufiya
Resistance Shoots Down Apache:
“No Sign Of
Survivors”
4.1.06 CNN & By Mariam
Karouny, Reuters &
A U.S. military helicopter
crashed Saturday southwest of Baghdad, the military said in
a statement.
"The status of the crew is
unknown," the brief statement said.
Residents
saw a two-seater Apache gunship take fire and crash.
Officials said the helicopter
was on a "combat air patrol" and came down at about 5:30
p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET).
A militant group said it shot
down a helicopter in the same area and residents said they
heard gunfire.
In an
Internet posting, a group calling itself the Rashedeen Army
said it had shot down a U.S. helicopter near the town of
Yusufiya, an area that sees considerable Sunni insurgent
activity just southwest of the capital.
"The lions of Islam from the
Rashedeen Army succeeded in downing a helicopter that
belongs to the U.S. occupation forces in the Yusufiya
district," the little known group said in a statement posted
on a Web site often used by militants.
The posting
came some time before the military statement.
A local government official in
Yusufiya said an Apache helicopter, which carry a crew of
two, was shot at and came down between Yusufiya and Falluja.
Residents in Yusufiya said
they heard shooting in the area at the time, shortly before
dusk.
Others said they saw smoke
coming from the wreckage and no sign of survivors.
U.S.
Casualties Drop As Offensive Action Cut Back;
But Ongoing
High Level Of Resistance Attacks On Collaborators
“Worrisome,” U.S. Official Says
Top
American officials are concerned that despite the
growing number of trained and equipped Iraqi security
forces being fielded, and the large number of insurgents
killed or captured in the past six months, the number of
overall attacks has not declined, the Defense Department
official said.
"It
should be worrisome to us that it's still at the same
level," said the official, who was not authorized to
speak publicly on the trend.
April 2, 2006 By EDWARD WONG
and KIRK SEMPLE, The New York Times Company
American
commanders have decreased the number of their patrols and
have tried to push the Iraqi security forces into a more
visible role.
That shift,
along with improved armor and bomb detection, may partly
explain the drop in casualties.
Last October, 96 American
troops died. That number has decreased every month since
then, but fell most sharply between February and March — to
29 in March from 55 in February.
A senior Pentagon official
said that attacks on Americans, Iraqi forces and Iraqi
civilians had remained at about 600 per week since last
September but that the focus of the attacks have changed. In
September, 82 percent of attacks were against American-led
forces and 18 percent against Iraqis; in February, 65
percent were against the foreigners and 35 percent against
Iraqis.
Top
American officials are concerned that despite the growing
number of trained and equipped Iraqi security forces being
fielded, and the large number of insurgents killed or
captured in the past six months, the number of overall
attacks has not declined, the Defense Department official
said.
"It should
be worrisome to us that it's still at the same level," said
the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on
the trend.
"With the
number of operations that are occurring and the number of
people we are detaining growing, and truly with the number
of tactical successes that we're having, you would expect to
see a reduction in the trend."
“They Don't
Have Horses Either So It Comes Out Even”
From: Don Bacon
smedleybutlersociety@msn.com
To: GI Special
Sent: April 01, 2006
Subject: Convoy story
I had a
different take on the convoy story:
Convoys now
being completely stopped by occupation resistance.
Convoy
troops will now have to stand and fight when attacked in
Iraq.
Convoy
personnel in Iraq are being forced to change tactics because
increased resistance is stopping convoys and rendering them
unable to continue.
U.S.
soldiers will now have to stand and fight instead of
shooting and pressing on when their convoys are attacked and
stopped on Iraqi roads
"They know
our reactions to certain things. Two years ago, they would
never try and stop us," one trooper said. "But now IEDs
(improvised explosive devices) are becoming more prevalent
on the battlefield, and they are doing anything they can to
try and stop the convoys.
“So what we are trying to do
is plan for any type of contingency or scenario that
insurgents might throw at us.
“The
objective is not to chase them down. Just protect yourself
and neutralize the threat that is immediate to your convoy."
"Unfortunately because we're
on a highway we can't circle the trucks against these
savages," another trooper reportedly said, "but they don't
have horses either so it comes out even."
THERE IS
ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY
HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A CROOKED
POLITICIAN WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE, SO
HE WILL LOOK GOOD.
That is not
a good enough reason.
A U.S.
soldier facing angry Iraqi citizens condemning the
occupation in Hilla, Iraq, March 19, 2006.
(Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)
AFGHANISTAN
WAR REPORTS
Occupation
Command Airbase Hit By Repeated Rocket Attacks:
Two
Canadian Soldiers Wounded
March 31, 2006 By MURRAY
BREWSTER, The London Free Press & Robert Birsel, Reuters
Canadian troops came under
fire early today as three loud explosions shook Kandahar
airfield.
The blasts, which occurred
shortly after 3 a.m. local time, were believed to have been
caused by rockets, said a statement from the Defence
Department in Ottawa.
The attack
also injured a Canadian soldier, whose injuries were not
considered life-threatening.
The
explosions sounded louder and sharper than the ones Tuesday,
when three rockets hit a remote area of the sprawling
airfield.
The blasts were followed by an
air raid siren, which sent everyone scrambling for their
nearest concrete shelter, hundreds of which are
strategically placed all over this sprawling U.S.-run
facility.
Most of the Canadian
contingent of about 2,200 soldiers is based at the air
strip.
Shortly after the blasts, U.S.
attack helicopters criss-crossed the base and swept the
perimeter, looking for any sign of who might have launched
the attack on the base.
Several armoured vehicles
rumbled along the dusty roadways of the desert station,
followed by the occasional foot patrol by camouflage-clad
troops. The heightened vigilance continued until well after
dawn.
A Canadian
soldier was wounded on Thursday when a car-bomber attacked a
Canadian patrol in Kandahar city.
Nearly 60
Americans were killed in Afghan fighting last year, the
worst for U.S. forces since they invaded in 2001 to oust the
Taliban from power. Eleven Canadian soldiers and a diplomat
have been killed and 36 soldiers wounded.
Resistance
Controls 3 Villages After Clashes Kill Six
April, 2006 Arab News
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, 1 April
2006
Taleban
insurgents took control of three villages in southern
Afghanistan after security forces retreated following a
battle in which six militants were killed, an official said.
Taleban attacked a police post
in Kajaki district of volatile Helmand province at around
noon, sparking the deadly battle, deputy provincial governor
Mohammad Amir Akhund said. “In the couple-of-hours exchange
of fire, six Taleban were killed and three were wounded,”
Akhund said.
“Taleban
have control of three villages in the district now. The
government forces have not started any operation in these
three villages so far,” he said.
Helmand is one of the
provinces worst affected by attacks blamed on a Taleban-led
insurgency.
TROOP NEWS
After First
Deployment, They Don’t Give A Shit About Your Family
March 30, 2006 Mideast Stars
and Stripes
Families of
troops facing a second or third deployment are less likely
to receive support services they need than during the first
tour of duty, a new survey of military families found.
IRAQ
RESISTANCE ROUNDUP
Sunni,
Shiite, Christian, Kurdish Iraqi Religious Leaders Agree:
“Any
Military Action Against An Occupying Force Is A Legitimate
Act”
Just Like The USA In 1776
[Thanks to Don Bacon, The
Smedley Butler Society, for sending this in.]
Sheik al-Hafeed and others took issue with Western
characterizations of attacks on coalition troops as
terrorism, citing the U.S. war of independence from
Britain as one example of citizens taking up arms to
eject foreign occupiers.
March 31, 2006 Tod Robberson,
The Dallas Morning News
LONDON:
Two years after U.S. authorities ceremoniously declared
Iraq to be sovereign again, top religious leaders say Iraqis
still don't govern themselves, remain under military
occupation and have a right to fight foreign troops.
Their
statements, made at the conclusion of a peace conference in
London on Tuesday, provided a stamp of approval from Iraq's
most influential Sunni and Shiite Muslim clerics for their
countrymen to step up attacks aimed at hastening the
withdrawal of
