CHAPLAINS IN AFGHANISTAN (VIDEO)

A Canadian military chaplain explains the role of what chaplains do in a war zone like Afghanistan.

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HUFFINGTON POST REPORTS: TOP DEFENSE CONTRACTORS SPENT $27 MILLION LOBBYING GOVERNMENT AT TIME OF AFGHAN SURGE

Top Defense Contractors Spent $27 Million Lobbying At Time Of Afghan Surge Announcement

With Reporting By Julian Hattem

The ten largest defense contractors in the nation spent more than $27 million lobbying the federal government in the last quarter of 2009, according to a review of recently-filed lobbying records.

The massive amount of money used to influence the legislative process came as the White House announced it would ramp up military activity in Afghanistan and Congress considered appropriations bills to pay for that buildup. All told, these ten companies, the largest revenue earners in the industry, spent roughly $7.2 million more lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2009 (October through December) than in the three months prior.

Such an increase in lobbying expenditures is partly a reflection of just how profitable the business of waging war can be. Each of these companies earned billions of dollars in defense contracts this past year. As the U.S. ramps up its military activities overseas, and the army is stretched thin by other ventures, it stands to reason that the contracts won't dry up any time soon.

In mid-December, Congress passed a defense appropriations bill that totaled more than $635 billion. Shortly thereafter, the firm Northrop Grumman moved its corporate office to the Washington D.C. region to be closer to the heart of legislative action. Among the issues on which these ten firms lobbied, "appropriations" was the most frequently cited in lobbying forms.
"We've built Rome," one longtime good-government official said of the symbiosis between contractors and the government.

On a related note, the Congressional Research Service released a report on Thursday, which showed that the number of private security contractors has bulged in the wake of Obama's Afghanistan-surge announcement. Currently, contractors in Afghanistan make up between 22 percent and 30 percent of armed U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

SHOCKING NEWS: SOLDIERS ARE BEING FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THEIR CHILDREN AND THE MILITARY, AND THEY'RE PAYING THE PRICE IN JAILTIME

In January, U.S. Army officials announced four separate court-martial charges against Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother who missed her deployment to Afghanistan in early November 2009 when her childcare plans for her infant son, Kamani, fell through at the last minute. Hutchinson was jailed and threatened with a court-martial if she did not agree to deploy to Afghanistan. Kamani was placed into a county foster care system.

By Dahr Jamail, AlterNetPosted on January 26, 2010, Printed on January 27, 2010

http://www.alternet.org/story/145397/

Hutchinson, in accordance with the family care plan of the U.S. Army, had been allowed to fly to Oakland, California to leave her son with her mother, Angelique Hughes. However, after a week, Hughes realized she couldn't care for Kamani along with her other duties of caring for a daughter with special needs, her ailing mother, and an ailing sister. She told Hutchinson and her commander, Captain Gassant and the Army granted a Hutchinson an extension so that she could find someone else to care for Kamani.

In the meantime, the boy came back to Georgia to be with his mother.But only a few days before Hutchinson's original deployment date, she was told by the Army she would not get the time extension after all, and would have to deploy despite the fact that her son had nowhere to go.

Faced with this choice, Specialist Hutchinson chose not to show up for her plane to Afghanistan. The military arrested her and placed her child in the county foster care system."I think they didn't believe her that she was unable to find someone to care for her infant," Hutchinson's civilian lawyer, Rai Sue Sussman, said at the time.

Continue reading here: http://www.alternet.org/story/145397/

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, and The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight In Iraq and Afghanistan.

YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO WATCH THIS VIDEO OF OUR TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

The sub-titles on this video say it all. You really owe it to yourself to watch this video. It is beautifully produced.

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http://www.youtube.com/v/iyXYot6wHuE&hl=en_US&fs=1

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TAKE A RIDE WITH US MEDICS IN AFGHANISTAN (RAW VIDEO)

This video shows a team of U.S. medics on board a Blackhawk helicopter as they go into hostile territory to pickup wounded American GIs in Afghanistan.

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NEWS ALERT: US/UK TROOPS FACE FIVE MORE YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN

After meetings were held in Kabul, Afghanistan, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has announced US and UK troops will face at least five more years in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Army is in shambles and it is going to take years to train them to takeover security in their homeland.

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