Monday, May 26, 2008

April Somdahl: A Sister Mourns Her Brother and an Unjust War. On February 20, 2007 , my brother, Sgt. Brian Rand, shot himself on the banks of the Cumberland River near Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was 26 years old, just back from Iraq, and about to become a father. Last Memorial day my family and I mourned my brother, quietly and alone. This will be the second Memorial Day since Brian's death. I have a Memorial Tattoo event planned at my business, Alien Art Studio located outside Camp LeJeune Marine Corps base main gate, in North Carolina. I will be spending the day with Iraq war veterans, active duty soldiers, Iraq Veterans Against War members, and military families, honoring the memory of those killed in this war -- both the 4,080 killed in combat and the many more, as yet uncounted, who died because they couldn't live with the horrors they had witnessed. We need this event to join together and to heal together. At this event I will be presenting the rose that I plucked from my brother's grave site one year, three months, and six days earlier, to the Iraq Veterans Against War Washington D.C. chapter. You'd never know it by looking at the rose now, but it used to be colorful and full of life. Brian was one of more than a hundred active duty soldiers to commit suicide last year. The Veterans Administration now admits that 1,000 veterans are attempting suicide every month. The Army is trying to blame these deaths on personal problems and failed relationships. Earlier this year, their top suicide expert, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, even put some of the blame on military families, telling a reporter that "Families are getting tired. Therefore, sometimes they're more irritable, sometimes they don't take care of each other the way they should, are not as nurturing as they should be." But the families who Col. Ritchie wants to blame for the rising suicide rate are the very families that built our soldiers strong. It was the families that took great pride in their boys and girls for the entirety of the soldiers' lives. These people were strong, loving, American families long before they even became a soldier. It was the war experience that broke them down. Our sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters wouldn't have killed themselves without the sadness and trauma stemming from this unjust war. During his first deployment to Iraq , Brian started having recurring dreams about an Iraqi man he killed. He told me "I saw him standing over me when I was in bed. He's mad at me. He looks like an angry shadow. I think he's been following me around." I talked my brother to sleep every night for the rest of that deployment. Speaking in a very quiet voice, careful not to make any sudden noises, I would tell him "The grass is still green over here. The sky is still blue. Just close your eyes and picture the lawn that we laid on staring up at that sky. And it's still there. When you get back, when your job is done, when you do everything that they ask you to do, come back to me and we'll lay on the grass and we'll stare at the sky and we don't have to talk about anything. Just simply exist." I gave Brian my love often by giving him my undivided attention and reassuring him that the family and I are so proud. I couldn't wait until we could lay on the grass together. But we never got to do that. By the time Brian got home from Iraq, he was being haunted night and day. His moods began to swing from one extreme, to the other without warning. He went to an Army psychologist for an examination in which he showed all the worst symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But instead of giving him treatment, the Army ordered him back to Iraq three days after the exam. Brian called his family the night before being sent back to Iraq. He sounded subdued, like he was in a cold, robotic calm. He said that he had no choice. I begged Brian pathetically to bring the psychological exam papers to the commander of his unit. He informed me, "That is not an option." In Iraq, Brian's PTSD kept getting worse. Lost in a delusion, he stabbed one of his fellow soldiers and got sent back to Fort Campbell. But he still never got the help he needed. There are a lot of 'should haves' and 'could haves' on the Army's behalf that could have prevented my brother's death. The Army should have concentrated on healing him. They broke him, they fix him. The Army could have placed him in a safe place with safe people to understand him while he was in his darkest times. The Army should have invested a little time and money into research on how they could prepare for the distressed men and women that are coming home after witnessing the horrors of war, long before they were sent to the war. The Army should have the most updated psychological approaches and treatments to offer our loved ones, our troops. Our troops have been pushed to their limit. There are thousands of Americans like me who are living in agony over the self murder of a dear loved one. For me, it was my brother that broke my heart, for others it was a son that was lost. Still others, a daughter, a husband, a daddy, a mommy... lost to the senseless occupation in Iraq. Our troops are suffering. Their families are grieving. Their friends are feeling helpless. The Army continues to deny soldiers like my brother the help they need. Too many are being sent back to Iraq while they are still struggling with PTSD. I don't think the military knows how to heal these invisible wounds to the hearts, minds, and spirits the troops that they send out to Iraq, repeatedly. The Iraq war is not going to be won by throwing our blood and money at it. Our soldiers don't want to watch their friends die anymore. The funny thing about American families is that we don't want to lose a single member. That is just not all right with us. Losing my younger brother was not worth whatever the current administration is selling. The only effective way to address the epidemic of military suicides is to stop the trauma that makes our strong and loving troops want to take their own lives: Prevent the scars, prevent the external mutilations, prevent the internal spiraling depressions by bringing our troops home, now. April Somdahl has been an active member of Military Families Speak Out since June 2007, inspired by her beloved brother's suicide. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 12:56:35 PM    comment []

‘Everybody hates George Bush.’. Via Atrios, the Dallas Morning News reports that “even Texas Republicans such as Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions are distancing themselves from President Bush”: The president, Mr. Sessions told a group of eighth-graders visiting the Capitol last week from Akiba Academy in Dallas, “is doing everything he thinks is correct,” and yet “the American people are fed up…. we’ve lost the House and Senate, and everybody hates George Bush.” [Think Progress] 12:20:28 PM    comment []

Harry Shearer: Connecting the Absence of Dots. It's probably not escaped your attention that the Administration has Iran in its sights. The President, while denying in his Richard Engel interview that the Iraq adventure had strengthened Iran"s position in the Middle East, keeps hammering on the idea that the Iranians are "meddling" in the affairs of their neighbor--unlike the U.S., which is just helping out thousands of miles from home. Aside from the issue of Iran's nuclear ambitions, the primary focus of the Administration has been on the idea that Iran was training militia members and supplying weapons to insurgents in Iraq. So it was doubly curious that this item appeared on an L.A. Times blog early this month: curious because of its content, that a briefing called to publicize the weapons found in Basra made no mention of Iran, and because of its appearance, only on the online edition of the paper, not in print. Yet it did seem kiind of newsworthy: ...neither the United States nor Iraq has displayed any of the alleged arms to the public or press, and lately it is looking less likely they will. U.S. military officials said it was up to the Iraqis to show the items; Iraqi officials lately have backed off the accusations against Iran. A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran Now, at the end of the month, the online site Asia Times has fleshed out the story, with a detailed report on the weapons turning up in Iraq. A sample: Reports by the US command in Iraq over the past 15 months cited only a handful of Iranian weapons out of hundreds counted in caches found in Shi'ite areas. Nearly 700 mortars and rockets were reported by specific caliber size, along with a handful of RPGs, in nearly two dozen caches. Of that total, only four rockets were reported as being of Iranian origin, and another 15 were listed as possibly being Iranian. Could it possibly be that the Administration's conclusions were reached in advance of, or even iin the absence of, supporting facts? And could it be that the major media don't think of this as a significant story? [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 12:17:05 PM    comment []

I HAVE ONE DISAGREEMENT WITH THIS POST - AND THAT IS THAT THOSE SOLDIERS ARE NOT SACRIFICING THEMSELVES SO WE CAN GO ON CHILLIN AND GRILLIN - THEY ARE SACRIFICING THEMSELVES BECAUSE THIS GOVERNMENT TOOK THEM TO WAR ILLEGALLY AND UNNECESSARILY. I AGREE WITH VINCENT BUGLIOSI - THEY SHOULD FACE MURDER CHARGES, MASS MURDER CHARGES. PT Kerry Trueman: Sacrificial Limbs. Take a moment, today, while you're grilling up those ribs or thighs, to consider some other charred body parts--the arms, legs, and other limbs our soldiers have left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our troops have come home maimed, or in a flag-wrapped box, so that we could go on grillin,' chillin', and fillin' our tanks and tummies with cheap fuel and food. Good luck with that; according to a report in today's New York Times, most Americans are too busy struggling to feed their families, fuel their cars, and cling to the roof over their heads to spend much time thinking about the sacrifices our soldiers are making on our behalf. Apparently, we'd rather tune out the war, and our news media is happy to oblige, as David Carr reports: <div style="border-style: double; padding: 5px; background-color: #cccc99">"...coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has slipped to 3 percent of all American print and broadcast news as of last week, falling from 25 percent as recently as last September." Carr asked Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, how the media could largely ignore a war that has cost us thousands of lives and over $1 trillion. Keller e-mailed back: There is a cold and sad calculation that readers/viewers aren't that interested in the war, whether because they are preoccupied with paying $4 for a gallon of gas and avoiding foreclosure, or because they have Iraq fatigue. Over on the Time's op-ed page, today, though, in that reality-free zone occupied by hack-to-the-hawks Bill Kristol, the analysis is that we do care--in fact, we care a lot. Sure, Kristol notes, most Americans won't be taking part in any Memorial Day services or commemorations, but: <div style="border-style: double; padding: 5px; background-color: #cccc99">This doesn't mean Americans are indifferent to the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. In fact, I suspect that many of us feel so much in debt to our servicemen and women, and so much in awe of the ultimate sacrifice some of them have made and all of them are willing to make, that we worry any effort to honor them wouldn't be commensurate with their deeds. See? We care so much that we can't even show how much we care, because we're paralyzed by the fear that those "Support the Troops" bumper stickers don't adequately convey our appreciation. We are, in fact, eternally indebted to all the men and women who choose to voluntarily serve our country because they: (a) believe it is their patriotic duty; (b) have limited economic opportunities; (c) cannot afford to attend college (see b); or, (d) all of the above. The fact is that financial necessity compels many of our soldiers to enlist as much as patriotism. As Robert Frank noted in his review in Sunday's Times of Steven Greenhouse's new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker: ... no economic system can prosper in the long run if people who work hard and play by the rules cannot meet their basic needs. The workers profiled in "The Big Squeeze" cannot afford to pay for health care or to send their children to decent schools. And precisely because of their precarious economic position, their sons and daughters are far more likely than others to go into the military. If, on the other hand, you're fortunate enough to land yourself a spot in an ivy league school, you've got a great shot at never having to worry about getting shot at. Better still, that coveted diploma might get you a seat on the military-industrial gravy train, where, contrary to the wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill, it's always better to war-war than to jaw-jaw. The war may be costing a few thousand lives, and costing our nation a fortune, but it's making a handful of folks a handsome profit, too. The rest of us, evidently, are content to gnaw on a bar-b-qued bone this Memorial Day. Just don't forget, as Bill Kristol helpfully reminds us, to "remember to remember" our troops today. Message: you care. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 11:17:33 AM    comment []

Max and the Marginalized: South Dakota Abortion Ban, Round 2. Cartoon by Scott L. Ehrisman, SouthDaCola.com Like in 2006, South Dakota has an abortion ban on the ballot in November. The '06 version allowed no exceptions even to save the life of the mother and would've prevented Sigourney Weaver in Alien 3 from getting an abortion - it failed 56% to 44%. The new one has exceptions for rape and incest victims who report the crime to police, or in cases where the woman is "at serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system." If a ban that didn't even have these paltry loopholes can lose by such a narrow margin, it's going to take a lot more than us ripping off The Kinks to help stop this one, especially with a complete lack of a national movement against this initiative. If you have second, go help fight this by signing the petition and donating at South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a bipartisan group that is fighting the ballot measure, and enjoy our song "When Dakota Goes South" by clicking the play button below: <script src="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/include/audio_player.php?audio_file= http://www.theactualsounds.com/marginalized/official/When%20Dakota%20Goes%20South.mp3"type="text/javascript"></script> When Dakota Goes South When Dakota goes south and takes the whole world with her I will open my mouth and beg her to stay where she belongs When Dakota goes south I'll try my best to forgive her When she begs and she pouts for the robes to rule out wrong She drives around in her Winnebago From the Black Hills down to the River Sioux Like a time machine wrapped inside a tornado That will blow us back to 1972 What to do? I hope you figure it out, yeah I do When Dakota goes south and takes the whole world with her I will open my mouth and tell her to stay right where she is When Dakota goes south I'll try my best to forgive her Until she figures it out, that it's not for her to insist She'll kick the other girls in the stomach And wait with tapping toes as they bleed For the man in the robe to kick in the bucket And she'll come jumping out of the weeds With sunflower seeds, she knows not what she needs When Dakota goes south and takes the whole world with her I will open my mouth and tell her to stay where she belongs When Dakota goes south I'll try my best to forgive her Until she figures it out, that she's got this thing all wrong Max and the Marginalized are a band and a blog. They do a song every week on the Huffington Post, all of which are available for download here. Add them on Facebook. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 11:13:05 AM    comment []