If ever there was a compelling argument for the return of the military draft, the Pentagon just released figures indicating 74 percent of the 155,000 Army soldiers in Iraq have served two or more tours in Iraq.
The Iraq Quagmire: Numbers to Date
Internally displaced refugees in Iraq:
3.4 millionIraqi refugees living abroad:
2.2-2.4 millionIraqi refugees admitted to the U.S.:
Number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq:155,000
Number of "Coalition of the Willing" soldiers in Iraq:February 2008: 9,895
September 2006: 18,000
November 2004: 25,595
Army soldiers in Iraq who have served two or more tours: 74%
Number of Private Military Contractors in Iraq: 180,000
Number of Private Military Contractors criminally prosecuted by the U.S. government for violence or abuse in Iraq: 1
Number of contract workers killed: 917
Friday, March 7, 2008
74 PERCENT OF ARMY SOLDIERS IN IRAQ HAVE SERVED TWO OR MORE TOURS
BAQUBA: ANOTHER IRAQI CITY DESTROYED BY U.S. OCCUPATION
IRAQ: Where Happiness Has Gone
By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41494
BAQUBA, Mar 7 (IPS) - After losing sight of what they knew to be normal life, residents across Baquba seem to have fallen into a depression.Close to the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, March 19, Iraqis today say they feel humiliated in their own country.
"People have forgotten how to be happy," says resident Bashar Ameen. "Each day, we have only more suffering." On the two main Islamic festivals through a year, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, people customarily buy new clothes and decorate their homes. It is meant to be a time of happiness and reconciliation. Now it is on these days that depression is most apparent.
"We did not prepare for the recent festival because we do not feel it is the joyous occasion it used to be," Aiman Nory, an employee at the directorate-general of education told IPS. Children are forgetting the joy of what were the big days for them. "Before the invasion, streets were full on festival days with children playing and families walking about," Abdul-Kareem Faraj, a 44-year-old who once owned a sweets shop told IPS.
"This occupation has killed the happiness of children. "We need to be happy for the sake of our children. Families used to buy large amounts of sweets for the festivals, and we used to prepare the shop to receive a large number of customers, but now I have closed my shop because people quit buying sweets." For a start, festivals are days people visit one another, and feast. Over the last three years, it has become close to impossible to just move. Feasting has always been a strong Iraqi tradition. Even during the economic sanctions of the 1990s, when food was scarce, Iraqis kept up this tradition, particularly on Fridays. "Now, such traditions have been reduced to a minimum because of the bad security situation, high living expenses, and curfews," Diya Imad, a 43-year-old resident of the city told IPS.
Click on link to read full story.
TWO VETS BATTLE-SCARRED BY BULLETS AND VA BENEFITS
Every single day we hear about another tragic case of how our wounded military veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan war are caught up in a maize of red tape when they go to apply for the Veterans Administration benefits they so richly deserve after several tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Here is a shocking account of two such veterans from Wisconsin who have found dealing with the VA can be worse than dealing with the Taliban or Al Qaeda.
Battle-scarred by bullets, benefits
by Alec Luhn
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/03/04/battlescarred_by_bul.php
Juniors Joe Dillenburg and Zach Jones both began attending the University of Wisconsin after serving in the U.S. Army. While Dillenburg fought in Iraq and Jones served in Afghanistan, they both have dealt with physical and mental health problems resulting from their deployments.
But Dillenburg receives well over twice as much veterans’ aid money as Jones — $1,763 compared to $660 each month.
Despite his prior service in the Army and tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan, Jones isn’t eligible for the higher amount of federal education funding Dillenburg receives through the Montgomery GI Bill for Active Duty veterans, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The hang-up is due to Jones’ stint at the U.S. Military Academy, which interrupted the bill’s requirement of three years of continuous active duty.
“I identify that they’ve got me on a technicality,” Jones said. “But it’s against the intent and overall purpose of the GI Bill, and the VA likes to use bureaucratic technicalities to deny veterans benefits.”
UW’s estimated cost of attendance for Wisconsin residents during the 2007-08 school year was $18,010, which averages out to $2,118 per month between September and mid-May.
Click on link to read full story.
ARMY: PSYCHIATRISTS NEEDED ON WARFRONT
A report the Army released Thursday recommends sending civilian psychiatrists to the warfront, supplementing members of the uniformed mental health corps.
Surveying a force strained by its seventh year of war, officials found that more than one in four soldiers on repeat tours of duty screened positive for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. That was comparable to the previous year.
By PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TROOPS_MENTAL_HEALTH?SITE=NJMOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. troops on the battlefield found it harder to get the mental health care they needed last year, when violence rose in Afghanistan and new tactics pushed soldiers in Iraq farther from their operating bases.
A report the Army released Thursday recommends sending civilian psychiatrists to the warfront, supplementing members of the uniformed mental health corps.
Surveying a force strained by its seventh year of war, officials found that more than one in four soldiers on repeat tours of duty screened positive for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. That was comparable to the previous year.
The report found more troops reported marital problems, an increased suicide rate, higher morale in Iraq, but a greater percentage of depression among soldiers in Afghanistan.
"They do show the effects of a long war," said Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatry consultant to Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker.
Added Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, a deputy surgeon general: "I think the fact that they are doing as well as they are with the demands they are under speaks to a strength and resiliency of the men and women of America."
The report was drawn from the work of a team of mental health experts who traveled to the wars last fall. The experts surveyed more than 2,200 soldiers in Iraq and nearly 900 in Afghanistan.
In the fifth such effort, the team also gathered information from more than 400 medical professionals, chaplains, psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health workers deployed there.
The recommendation of civilian mental health professionals for battlefield duty is unusual. But civilian contract employees are doing many other jobs in Iraq, from security to providing food service.
Click on link to read full story.
VA PREDICTS 330,000 VETS FROM iRAQ AND AGHANISTAN WILL BE TREATED BY 2009 AT A COST OF NEARLY $1.3 BILLION
We occasionally hear about the KIA (Killed in Action) from the Iraq war, but seldom do we hear about the number of injured from the war.
The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1.
It is also important to note the Pentagon, or Department of Defense (DoD), keeps two sets of books for the killed and injured from the Iraq war. The way the DoD juggles the figures is explained in a new book by Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
This blogger has been reporting for two months how the DoD manipulates the KIA and wounded figures to make it appear not as bad as it really has been in Iraq.
Adding to the hell returning veterans of the war in Iraq are going through is the fact that many vets have to wait for months to get treatment from the Veterans Administration as their claims become stalled in bureaucratic red tape.
As we reported in another story Thursday, 60,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are suffering with PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.
Care for Injured Vets Raises Questions
By BRADLEY BROOKS – 20 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j2oUYYnB7xtpN6eyOV0lmnjkTScwD8V83JFG1
BAGHDAD (AP) — The number of wounded soldiers has become a hallmark of the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war, pointing to both the use of roadside bombs as the extremists' weapon of choice and advances in battlefield medicine to save lives.
About 15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality, compared with 2.6 per death in Vietnam and 2.8 in Korea.
But with those saved soldiers comes a financial price — one veterans groups and others claim the government is unwilling to pay.
Those critics also say that the tens of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq are part of a political numbers game, one they say undermines the medical system meant to care for them.
The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1.
"The Pentagon keeps two sets of books," said Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
"It is important to understand the full number of casualties because the U.S. government is responsible for paying disability compensation and medical care for all our troops, regardless of how they were injured," Bilmes said.
Veterans Affairs predicts it will treat 330,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 — a 14 percent increase over the 2008 estimate of 263,000 — at a cost of nearly $1.3 billion.
Click on link to read the full story.
THE GROUND TRUTH: THE HUMAN COST OF WAR (SEE VIDEO HERE)
Seldom has a documentary been so true to life in the military as "The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War."
For anyone who cares about the 160,000 brave young Americans in Iraq and another 30,000 in Afghanistan, this powerful documentary should be seen.
Perhaps after seeing this documentary, people who have never been in the military will better understand what life is like for the average "grunt" who goes through basic training learning to do only one thing and that is KILL the enemy.
The footage is graphic and at times disturbing, but it is a true depiction of what life is like in the military, especially in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Every American should see this documentary.
Here is the link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5188599301918606321
IS TERRORIST THREAT REAL OR POLITICS?
You can tell the election process is heating up because here comes the first of what will probably be a long list of possible terrorist attacks on the United States.
The Bush administration and their mouthpiece FOX NEWS always rollout the scare tactics when an election is about to be held and this election cycle is no different.
Whether the terrorist threat is plausible or just election hype has not been established, but the mainstream media will run with the story because the mainstream press loves to scare the hell out of Americans.
Commander warns of al-Qaida threat to US
By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer
http://tinyurl.com/2sny7q
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al-Qaida terrorists may be plotting more urgently to attack the United States to maintain their credibility and ability to recruit followers, the U.S. military commander in charge of domestic defense said.
Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, also told reporters Thursday he has not seen any direct threats tied to the U.S. presidential elections. But he said it would be rash to think that such threats are not there.
"We need only to look at Spain and see that they're certainly willing to try to do something that is significant that could affect an election process," Renuart said. "I think it would be imprudent of us to let down our guard believing that if there's no credible threat that you know of today, there won't be something tomorrow."
While he said that U.S. authorities have thwarted attacks on a number of occasions, he said terrorist cells may be working harder than ever to plot high-impact events. He did not point to any specific intelligence that authorities have received but said the "chatter" they are hearing "gives me no reason to believe they're going to slow down" in their efforts to target the U.S.
Click on link to read full story.
VETS BREAK SILENCE ON WAR CRIMES
Iraq and Afghan vets will tell all about war crimes before Congress starting March 13.
By Aaron Glantz, IPS NewsPosted on March 7, 2008, Printed on March 7, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/78352/
U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are planning to descend on Washington from Mar. 13-16 to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in those countries.
"The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like."
Iraq Veterans Against the War argues that well-publicized incidents of U.S. brutality like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha are not the isolated incidents perpetrated by "a few bad apples," as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the group says, of "an increasingly bloody occupation."
"The problem that we face in Iraq is that policymakers in leadership have set a precedent of lawlessness where we don't abide by the rule of law, we don't respect international treaties, so when that atmosphere exists it lends itself to criminal activity," argues former U.S. Army Sergeant Logan Laituri, who served a tour in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 before being discharged as a conscientious objector.
Laituri told IPS that precedent of lawlessness makes itself felt in the rules of engagement handed down by commanders to soldiers on the front lines. When he was stationed in Samarra, for example, he said one of his fellow soldiers shot an unarmed man while he walked down the street.
Click on link to read full story.
