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Wednesday, October 22, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
When I, the people, learn to remember, when I, the People use the lessons of yesterday & no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool--then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: "The People", with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far off smile of derision. The mob-The crowd-The mass-will arrive then.
- - Carl Sandburg
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - OCTOBER 22nd
1951 -- US: 5,000 U.S. soldiers were deliberately exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests in Nevada for study purposes.
1962 -- High Seas: Cuban Missile Crisis: US blockade in response to Soviet missiles in Cuba, from the 22nd through the 28th. President Kennedy was intent on proving his anti-communist bona fides. Having been out of the White House two terms, Democrats were intent on proving themselves more anti-Red than the right wing Republicans. (See Halberstam, The Fifties)
RHINO HERE:
Word has it The Pentagon has banned the taking or publication of any coffins bearing US soldiers back from Iraq. They apparently don't want US citizens being reminded of the greatest cost of their war . But then there are so many costs that cant be captured in photos.
Young men & women who experience the darkness of war are immediately changed, never to be quite the same. Some seem to solidify, to get serious & rise to the level of competency it takes to maintain some sanity & stay alive. Many get various shades of crazy and do things they are likely to regret for the rest of their lives. It saddened me to read in the article below that human rights organizations investigating in Iraq have found dozens of cases of U.S. forces killing Iraqi civilians in questionable circumstances.
It then angered me to read the powerful interview that is today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE by Jay Shaft of The Coalition For Free Thought In Media. Shaft spoke with a reservist soldier just back from Iraq, someone high up in the enlisted ranks, with over 20 years of military service. The writer promised not to reveal the soldier's identity since the Army put a gag order on him while he was home, telling him they'd give him 20 years in prison if he spoke out in any manner against the US government. He did so anyway, & eloquently, asking to be referred to only as "USA."
Coalition For Free Thought In Media
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/
Human Rights Watch Documents 20 Civilian Deaths
in Postwar Baghdad; Dozens More Reported
by Karen Matthews, Associated Press, 10/21/03
NEW YORK -- A human rights organization says it has confirmed 20 civilian deaths under questionable circumstances in Baghdad since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, and has received credible reports of dozens more. In a report released late Monday, Human Rights Watch also accused the U.S. military of failing to conduct proper investigations into excessive or indiscriminate use of force in the Iraqi capital.
''It's a tragedy that U.S. soldiers have killed so many civilians in Baghdad,'' said Joe Stork, acting executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of the New York-based group, which monitors human rights abuses around the world. ''But it's really incredible that the U.S. military does not even count these deaths,'' Stork said. ''Any time U.S. forces kill an Iraqi civilian in questionable circumstances, they should investigate the incident.''...
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1021-01.htm
7:20:37 AM 
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US Soldiers to America: Bring Us Home Now (Part 1 in a 5 part series)
By Jay Shaft, The Coalition For Free Thought In Media, 10/13/03
(Excerpted from the middle of the interview)
CFTM -- -"I just have to get this straight for the public, you are well educated are you not? I mean you have had years of leadership training and schools right? You sound very well informed and aware of the current lies and manipulations, which I have not found in some other soldiers."
USA -- -"I have a four year degree in the economics field and I am not a soldier all the time. I am Reservist who just keeps getting caught on long duty assignments. Believe it or not I read authors like Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, and Jim Hightower, and went through three copies of 'Stupid White Men' by Michael Moore while I was over there. I let people read parts of Mike's book and they were irate that Bush had screwed us so hard. I had parts of 'Best Democracy Money Can Buy' mailed to me because I knew if I had the whole book it would get stolen in a heartbeat."
CFTM -- -"So you might be quite a bit more aware and well informed about the real reasons for the war that others did not know. I don't know of many line soldiers reading Greg Palast or Noam Chomsky."
USA -- -"I guess you're right and that might be why I am trying to speak out and let the Americans know that they are sending us to be slaughtered. If you don't mind I am going to cut through all the niceties and get down to why I am going against every oath I took and giving you this interview. I am doing it for the guys still over there and for the ones who are going. If I'm not careful I'll end up back there for another six months."
CFTM -- -"Alright tell me what it was really like and don't skip the gory details. I want people to be shocked and offended enough to realize why you spoke out and what it is doing to our military by sending them over there with blind flag waving and cheers of false victory"
USA -- -"Well the first thing I would like to thank Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Congress for is that nice huge cut they made to Veterans Benefits as soon as the war started. I am in the Reserves after years of active duty and now I cannot get PTSD counseling or many medical benefits I used to take for granted. I knew I would have the benefits because I was laying my life down for my country. Now my benefits are cut by around 2/3 and I have to go to either group therapy or pay for a private counselor out of my own pocket. What happens when someone like me has been through enormous battle stress and combat fatigue and then comes home to no counseling?"
"I'll tell you what is going to happen, he will either kill himself or take a bunch of people with him. Some of the guys coming back are going to have gone through the worst time of their lives with their buddies dying and getting hurt, and then they'll find out they got screwed out of any counseling. It is the greatest disservice America is committing against soldiers who fought for this country and may come back wounded or horribly scarred. Medical services, school aid to dependents, school aid for the vets, all slashed to the bare bones; mental health and drug and alcohol counseling are being eliminated or the waiting lists will be years long for whatever services manage to survive."
"That is one thing the American people still have not really caught on to is the fact that while they were screaming out 'Support Our Troops' the current regime makers were fu..ing the military and veterans out of almost every social program and non essential service that would make life easier."
"Bush really fu..ked us while we were gone. We found out about after being in the middle of heavy fighting for several weeks. It was one of the first things I read in Stars and Stripes, and I thought it was a joke because it was just to hard to believe Congress and our leaders would screw us that bad while we were fighting and dying."...
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6:20:52 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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