GI Special:

thomasfbarton@earthlink.net

4.21.06

Print it out: color best.  Pass it on.

 

GI SPECIAL 4D21:

 

Vietnam:  They Stopped An Imperial War

 

“Sir! No Sir!” Available To People In All Branches Of The Service, Anywhere In The World Including In The U.S.

 

[Yesterday, David Honish, a member of Veterans For Peace, wrote GI Special asking if Sir! No Sir! could be shown to troops before they head off for Iraq.  See his letter, reprinted below.

 

[The producer, David Zeiger, replied immediately.  T]

 

From: David Zeiger, Producer, “Sir! No Sir!” displaced@mindspring.com

To: GI Special

Sent: April 20, 2006

 

Yes, the DVD is actually available to people in all branches of the service, anywhere in the world including in the U.S.

 

That should be clarified.

 

We also are working to get it seen around military bases here, including possibly guerilla screenings if we can set them up.

 

Any suggestions and help along those lines would be quite welcome.

 

David Zeiger, Producer, “Sir! No Sir!”

displaced@mindspring.com

 

[OK brothers and sisters, there’s your answer.  Now it’s up to all of us to make it so.]

 

**********************************************************

 

[Here’s the letter from David Honish:]

 

Let The Troops At Home See “Sir! No Sir!” Too!

 

From: David Honish, Veterans For Peace

To: GI Special

Sent: April 19, 2006

Subject: A Step In The Right Direction

 

The recent announcement in GI Special # 4D19 that 500 DVD's of "Sir, No Sir!" are being made available free to active duty troops in Afghanistan or Iraq by the IVAW and displaced films is a step in the right direction. 

 

My immediate reaction to seeing this film in a showing at the VFP National Convention last AUG was inspired by the Navy Nurse featured in the film who dropped leaflets from a light aircraft over military bases. 

 

I thought that if I was a millionaire, I'd like to buy enough DVD copies of this film to air drop them over every US military base worldwide. 

 

Perhaps a bit of an unrealistic goal?

 

Still, while putting 500 copies of "Sir, No Sir!" in the hands of those already in combat is a good idea, it might be a bit of 'locking the barn after the horse is already out?' 

 

I would hope that the film's producers would not overlook the decimated divisions that are currently back in the USA refitting and training up replacement personnel before yet another deployment to SW Asia?

 

If prevention is better than a cure, perhaps making this film available for showing near US military bases to troops not yet deployed would pay off larger dividends? 

 

While I would not expect the ideal of having the film distributed in the PX theater chains on post to happen, perhaps showings could be arranged off post near Ft. Hood, Ft. Campbell, Ft. Carson, etc.? 

 

Might it not be more effective to encourage dissent of troops before they deploy, instead of once they are already in Iraq?

 

Sir! No Sir!

The Soldiers Who Fought The War:

Film Chronicles The GI Resistance During Vietnam

 

April 21, 2006 Review by Michael Hoffman, Socialist Worker

 

Sir No Sir! The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End the War in Vietnam, produced, directed and written by David Zeigler.

 

**************************************************

 

THERE IS a myth of the “spat upon Vet.”  The tale goes that the soldiers of Vietnam came home to a radical fringe movement that spat on them as they unloaded onto the tarmac.  This myth has served to all but erase the real history of the Vietnam antiwar movement from U.S. consciousness.

 

David Zeigler’s film Sir No Sir! The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End the War In Vietnam lays this myth completely to rest by telling the inspiring story of a movement that shook the very foundations of U.S. military power.

 

Through interviews and stock footage, this powerful documentary tells the story of how thousands of U.S. soldiers, through their first-hand experience on the ground, came to realize that the war in Vietnam was an unjust travesty.

 

The film opens with soldiers who joined the Army ready to “serve their country” but later came to actively oppose the U.S. military endeavor.

 

Starting in 1965, just a few years after the start of the ground assault in Vietnam, a handful of soldiers began refusing orders and seeking conscientious objector status. The response of GIs to the military’s repressive treatment of these early objectors helped to reveal the widespread discontent within the military, foreshadowing the tremendous upsurge to follow.

 

The glaring hypocrisy of U.S. policy in Vietnam became increasingly apparent as the war escalated.

 

By 1968, there were dozens of underground newspapers, antiwar coffeehouses for active GIs, and a variety of antiwar organizations founded specifically for soldiers and veterans.

 

The incident that puts the GI movement into the national spotlight is the emergence of the “Nine for Peace,” nine active-duty officers who released a pamphlet announcing their opposition to the war and their resignation from the military.  In mid-July of 1968, the nine staged a 48-hour protest where they chained themselves to priests and marched to several churches in San Francisco.

 

They were eventually arrested and sent to different military prisons around the country. In San Francisco, one of the Nine for Peace, Bill Mather, was sent to the Presidio Stockade where he faced intensely overcrowded, degrading and unsanitary conditions, laying the basis for the next major upturn in the GI movement.

 

On October 14, 1968, prison guards shot and killed a young mentally disturbed soldier while he was trying to escape.  Outrage swept the prison and the next day 27 prisoners broke ranks and staged a sit-in on the yard.

 

They were afterward dubbed the “Pentagon 27,” and hundreds of protesters showed up in solidarity.

 

This, the first major act of organized resistance inside the military, launched a new wave of GI protest where active and AWOL soldiers began to feel their power and take the lead in a movement to end the war.

 

The naked hypocrisy of the U.S. government is a theme that runs throughout the entire film and is given repeatedly as the reason why the GI movement spread to all branches and ranks of the military.

 

The racism rampant in U.S. society and the confident lead of the Black Power movement gave way to an especially powerful resistance on the part of Black soldiers.

 

As one Black soldier says to a crowd of his comrades, “The only place where a Black man should fight is where he is oppressed.”  In another scene we hear a Black veteran describing how he felt when he realized that the word “gook,” used profusely in the military, was actually a racial slur for the Vietnamese--much like the slurs used against Blacks in the U.S.

 

The disintegration of military discipline on the part of combat troops is exposed in the film as a major cause of the policy shifts taken by the U.S.  “Vietnamization” is seen as a result of this; the U.S. was forced to rely on brutal air strikes to maintain its grip on the region.

 

This only served to deepen the resistance of enlisted personnel as Naval crews and Air Force intelligence officers refused to be a part of the bloodshed.

 

As the crisis for the U.S. deepened, the desperation of their military tactics and the brazenness of their lies was reciprocated by the men and women ordered to carry out the warfare with an increasingly bold resistance.

 

At the opening night of Sir No Sir! in San Francisco, two vets featured in the film addressed the crowd of some 200 people with a call for solidarity.  “We want this film to be seen all over the U.S. and we need your support to make this happen,” said Michael Wong.

 

It’s a must that every person seeking social change go out and see this film.  Its success in its initial showings will determine the length and breadth of its time in theaters.

 

Go to www.sirnosir.com to find local show times.  Posters and T-shirts are also available to support the cause.  Anyone currently in the military can receive a free DVD from the organization Courage to Resist.

 

So, spread the word.

 

It is the job of everyone against the current U.S. war in Iraq to help build a movement that embraces GI resisters and takes a stand against U.S. aggression.

 

 

 

Sir! No Sir! OPENS for one week on Wednesday April 19th at the

IFC Center:

322 Sixth Avenue, at West Third Street,

New York City

 

Advance tickets on sale NOW through the IFC box office

Recording: 212-924-7771

Live box office: 212-924-5246

Online at www.ifccenter.com

 

Check out the trailer at www.sirnosir.com

 

Please contact max@riseup.net or celia@riseup.net for posters, postcards and flyers to help promote this event!

 

“‘Sir! No Sir!’ has become the Trojan Horse of the Iraq War”

[Robert Sharlet, brother of Jeff Sharlet, Editor, Vietnam GI]

 

 

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

 

 

Utah Native Fort Campbell Soldier Killed By Stop-Loss:

“He Never Got To Read My E-Mail Before He Died"

 

April 5^th (AP) FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.

 

A Utah native 101st Airborne Division soldier who had been scheduled to leave the Army last winter until his service time was extended was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Army said.

 

Spc. Ty J. Johnson, 28, of Elk Grove, Calif., died in Kirkuk when an improvised device exploded near the Humvee he was riding in.  Johnson was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team.

 

Johnson entered the Army three years ago and arrived at Fort Campbell a few months later, the post said in a statement Wednesday night.

 

The deployment was Johnson's second to Iraq.  His wife, Corinne Johnson, told The Leaf-Chronicle of Clarksville, Tenn., that he would have gotten out in January but the Army extended his service with a "stop loss" requiring him to remain.

 

Corinne Johnson was visiting her mother-in-law in Elk Grove when someone came to the door Tuesday afternoon with the news Johnson had been killed.

 

"I'd received an e-mail from him the night before," she said.  "He always liked to talk to me before he'd go out on missions. "It made him feel better. He said he'd be back late that night.  He never got to read my e-mail before he died."

 

Johnson's father, Johnny Johnson of West Jordan, Utah, said his son loved his family and his country.  He said his son grew up in Sandy, Utah, and attended Jordan High School.

 

"I had sent him a little Tonka Truck because he loved Hot Wheels (toy cars)," Johnny Johnson told the newspaper.  "The last e-mail I got from him, he was saying he gave it to one of the kids in Iraq.  He loved the kids over there."

 

Corinne Johnson said her husband helped carry ballots for the first election in Iraq and she felt he would go down in history as someone who had a purpose in fighting the war.

 

Besides his wife and father, Johnson is survived by a daughter, Kyrstin, and son, Rand, of Fort Campbell; and his mother, Lisarae Johnson of Elk Grove.

 

Johnson is the 137th member of the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne to be killed in Iraq since the war began.  The sprawling base straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

 

Trafford Native Killed

 

April 06, 2006 AP

 

Staff Sgt. Eric A. McIntosh, a highly decorated Marine from Trafford, died Sunday in combat in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense said.

 

Sgt. McIntosh, 29, joined the Marine Corps in September 1996, after graduating from Penn Trafford High School.

 

A Marine spokesman said yesterday that he was on at least his second tour in Iraq.  He joined his unit in January 2004.

 

Sgt. McIntosh received numerous medals and awards, including the Combat Action Ribbon, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Service Medal and four Sea Service Deployment Ribbons.

 

He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

 

Baghdad IED Destroys Armored Vehicle:

Two U.S. Troops Wounded

U.S. soldiers stand near a burning armored military vehicle after it was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, April 20, 2006. (Ali Jasim/Reuters)

 

4.20.06 AP & REUTERS

 

A U.S. armored vehicle was hit by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Thursday.

 

Iraqi police said two U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blast, which took place on a highway in the south Baghdad district of Sadiya.

 

Panicked Marine Command Trying To Hide Details Of Heavy Losses:

Was Outpost Overrun?

 

April 20, 2006 New York Daily News

 

Two U.S. Marines were killed last Thursday in Iraq's Anbar province in a battle that injured 22 other Marines, one of the highest U.S. casualties from a single attack in recent months.

 

The Marines have refused to release details, but it was the latest evidence that U.S. troops in Anbar, the vast desert area west of Baghdad, are now facing large-scale assaults, with the enemy attempting to overrun outposts.

 

REALLY BAD IDEA:

NO MISSION;

HOPELESS WAR:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

U.S. Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Kilo Company patrol in front of the destroyed Rashid Hotel Monday April 17, 2006 in Ramadi.  Insurgents attacked several U.S. Marine positions with car bombs and rocket propelled grenades during a 90 minute battle Monday.  (AP Photo/Todd Pitman)

 

Four Fiji Mercenaries Killed

 

April 20, 2006 PacNewsService

 

Four Fijian nationals working as security guards for a U.S. company have been shot dead in an ambush while transporting supplies to the U.S. airbase in Kirkuk.

 

While information is still sketchy and cannot be confirmed by Controlled Risks boss, Jonetani Kaukimoce, PACNEWS has established via email from two Fiji nationals in Iraq that the four men were in a convoy of vehicles guarded by American soldiers when they were ambushed.

 

Members of the Fiji security contingent in Kirkuk held a memorial service for the four men last night and their bodies are expected to be flown home by the end of the week.

 

PACNEWS understands that the men had completed their contracts with the U.S. company and were on their way home when they joined a Kuwaiti civilian company that transports supplies to U.S. bases.

 

Their names have not been divulged but it’s believed two are from Naitasiri, one from Ra and one from Tailevu.

 

Another former Fiji soldier also injured in the ambush is recovering at the U.S. army hospital in Kirkuk.

 

Kentucky Family Hears From Wounded Soldier

 

Apr. 20, 2006 Associated Press

 

KEVIL:  It was a phone call she hoped she'd never get, but Makayla Summers said she was luckier than many other soldiers' mothers.

 

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Summers, 22, called home this week to tell his wife and parents that he had been wounded in combat. He suffered slight facial burns when Iraqi insurgents attacked two Humvees in Ramadi, about 50 miles from Baghdad.

 

"It was the first call that we've had like that, but we'd rather have the phone calls than have the military walk up to our door like others have done," Makayla Summers said.

 

"I feel fortunate that Matthew was the least injured of all in his group."

 

Another Kentucky Marine, 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Justin Sims, was killed Saturday in the same region of Ramadi, his father said.  Sims, who lived in Covington, died when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb during combat operations.  He was among four Marines killed in that incident.

 

The attack that injured Summers occurred a few hours before he called his family in Ballard County in western Kentucky.

 

"It was a very short conversation, just that 'I'm OK, mom. We were hit,'" Makayla Summers said.

 

She said he indicated that four or five soldiers were burned, and another was shot in the leg while standing on a rooftop.

 

The family later turned on CNN to see gunfire and explosions in Ramadi.

 

"They showed a Humvee blowing up, and Matt said it could've been his," Makayla Summers said.  "He was in a Humvee, and the one in front got hit first.  He just floored it to try to rush through the fire, and then his truck got hit."

 

 

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

 

 

Afghanistan War In The Toilet:

Resistance Has “Regrouped To A Troubling Extent”

 

April 20, 2006 USA Today

 

Fighting between allied forces and Afghan insurgents has increased.  They have “regrouped to a troubling extent," says Ted Galen Carpenter, a military expert at the Cato Institute.  [That’s like saying New Orleans got flooded “to a troubling extent.”]

 

 

TROOP NEWS

 

 

Marines Not Impressed By Generals’ Cowardice In The Face Of The Enemy

 

April 20, 2006 Los Angeles Times

 

News that six retired generals recently called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign has been slow to reach many of the Marines stationed in Iraq's restive and isolated Al Anbar province.

 

Some of those who had heard about the debate said they were unimpressed with generals who waited until retirement to speak out against their former boss.

 

Rumsfeld’s Micro-Brained Micro-Management

 

April 20, 2006 Christian Science Monitor

 

In their denouncements of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, seven retired generals have directed their criticism mostly toward his handling of the Iraq war.

 

In some respects, however, the issue goes much deeper.

 

It is a matter of the military's distrust of its civilian decision-makers that emerged in Vietnam and has never fully dissipated.

 

It is concern over an administration that has sought not only to ramrod major changes through the military, but also, some say, to micromanage battlefield tactics.

 

The Bloody Handed Traitors Of The U.S. Congress And The Marine Corps Command At It Again:

They Cut Funds To Protect Troops So War Profiteers Can Keep Grabbing Money For A Useless, Deadly, Piece Of Shit