Draft?
The Charleston Gazette
September 22nd, 2004

Bush’s war needs troops.

Alarm is spreading that President Bush may seek a military draft, or mobilize more of the National Guard and Army Reserve, to obtain enough combat troops to wage his bogged-down Iraq war.

Two bills pending in Congress would launch a new draft for all young Americans ages 18 to 26, both male and female, with no college exemption. Also, a new border agreement with Canada is designed to prevent young Americans from fleeing northward to elude the draft.
When Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards spoke in Parkersburg last week, he vowed: “There will be no draft when John Kerry is president.” His declaration drew a standing ovation from the crowd.

Meanwhile, President Bush, campaigning in Missouri, promised that there will be no draft. He said improving military pay, housing and medical care will attract enough recruits to supply the needed fighting forces.

However, Bush plans a sneaky “backdoor draft,” Democrats Kerry and Edwards allege. Speaking Friday in Albuquerque, Kerry said Bush secretly intends a major Guard and Reserve mobilization just after the Nov. 2 election. Kerry charged:

“He won’t tell us what congressional leaders are now saying: that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of reservists and Guard units immediately after the election. Hide it from the people, then make the move.”

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Marine veteran of Vietnam, said Pentagon insiders told him of the mobilization plan. A White House spokesman ridiculed the allegation.

Amid all this wrangling, it’s overwhelmingly clear that Bush’s war is draining America of thousands of young people and billions of dollars and the nation is forced to meet both needs.

Tragically, the war is a waste. There never was a necessity for it. Bush’s far-right political clique planned to attack Iraq, even before he attained the White House. The 9/11 terrorist strike provided a “cover”, a surge of patriotism that Bush manipulated into justification for war against Iraq. All his pretexts for the invasion turned out to be false.

Although he declared “Mission Accomplished” last year, the fighting grows constantly uglier and more expensive. More than 1,000 young Americans have been killed. Bush needs more and more replacements.

Before the Nov. 2 election, he should tell the American people candidly how many more young soldiers he plans to order into combat, and how he will obtain them.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Young Republicans Support Iraq War, But Not Willing To Join The Fight
By Adam Smeltz
Knight Ridder Newspapers

September 1st, 2004

NEW YORK - Young Republicans gathered here for their party’s national convention are united in applauding the war in Iraq, supporting the U.S. troops there and calling the U.S. mission a noble cause.

But there’s no such unanimity when they’re asked a more personal question: Would you be willing to put on the uniform and go to fight in Iraq?
In more than a dozen interviews, Republicans in their teens and 20s offered a range of answers. Some have friends in the military in Iraq and are considering enlisting; others said they can better support the war by working politically in the United States; and still others said they think the military doesn’t need them because the U.S. presence in Iraq is sufficient.

“Frankly, I want to be a politician. I’d like to survive to see that,” said Vivian Lee, 17, a war supporter visiting the convention from Los Angeles.

Lee said she supports the war but would volunteer only if the United States faced a dire troop shortage or “if there’s another Sept. 11.”

“As long as there’s a steady stream of volunteers, I don’t see why I necessarily should volunteer,” said Lee, who has a cousin deployed in the Middle East.

In an election season overwhelmed by memories of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military’s newest war ranks supreme among the worries confronting much of Generation Y’ers. Iraq is their war.

“If there was a need presented, I would go,” said Chris Cusmano, a 21-year-old member of the College Republicans organization from Rocky Point, N.Y. But he said he hasn’t really considered volunteering.

At age 16, Chase Carpenter has.

“It’s always in the back of my mind - to enlist,” Carpenter, a self-described moderate Republican visiting Manhattan this week from Santa Monica, Calif., said Wednesday on the convention floor. He said he’s torn over whether he’d join the military if he were 18.

Others said they could contribute on the home front.

“I physically probably couldn’t do a whole lot” in Iraq, said Tiffanee Hokel, 18, of Webster City, Iowa, who called the war a moral imperative. She knows people posted in Iraq, but she didn’t flinch when asked why she wouldn’t go.

“I think I could do more here,” Hokel said, adding that she’s focusing on political action that supports the war and the troops.

“We don’t have to be there physically to fight it,” she said.

Similarly, 20-year-old Jeff Shafer, a University of Pennsylvania student, said vital work needs to be done in the United States. There are Republican policies to maintain and protect and an economy to sustain, Shafer said.

Then there’s Paula Villescaz, a 15-year-old from Carmichael, Calif. who supports Bush and was all ears Wednesday afternoon at the GOP’s Youth Convention in Madison Square Garden. She doesn’t support the war, but she supports the troops and thinks the United States “needs to stay the course” now that it’s immersed.

If Iraq is still a U.S. issue when she’s 18, Villescaz added, she’ll give serious thought to volunteering.

“I’m in college right now, but who knows?” said Matthew Vail, a 25-year-old from Huntsville, Ala., who works with Students for Bush. He said he might consider enlisting after he finishes his degree at the University of North Carolina, but not until then.

“The bug may get me after college,” he said.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Bush Tries To Keep Half Million Vets In The Dark
The Daily Mis-Lead
July 6th, 2004

President Bush celebrated the July 4th holiday by praising veterans, saying “we’re proud of your service, we’re grateful for the example you have set for America.”[1] But a new report shows that more than half a million veterans are going without health care benefits owed to them - and the Bush administration has tried to keep those veterans in the dark.
According to Knight-Ridder newspapers, 572,000 veterans nationwide “are missing out on disability payments from the Veterans Administration”[2] even though they are owed those payments from their service. A large portion of these veterans are not receiving their payments because they do not know about them - a situation the White House has tried to perpetuate. In 2002, VA officials were ordered by the Bush administration “to cease efforts to enroll new patients into its health care system.” The directive said it was “inappropriate” for local VA workers to attend health fairs, open houses and community meetings to educate veterans about what their eligibility and to enroll them in health care programs.[3]

The President’s efforts to prevent veterans from getting the benefits they are owed came at the same time the White House was squeezing veterans programs overall. Specifically, the President has drastically underfunded veterans health care programs, leading to major veterans groups calling his policies a “disgrace” and noting his most recent budget falls $2.6 billion short of what is needed this year alone.[4] The President also raised premiums that veterans pay for their prescription drugs.[5]

Sources:

1. Presidential Remarks, WhiteHouse.gov, 7/04/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1202081&l=44009
2. “Thousands of disabled vets lack disability payments due to poor agency outreach, stigma,” Knight-Ridder, 7/01/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1202081&l=44010
3. “VA says `no’ to new patients - Service,” VFW Magazine, 9/02,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1202081&l=44011
4. “VFW Terms President’s VA Budget Proposal Harmful to Veterans VFW Appeals to Congress for Relief,” VFW.org, 2/02/2004
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1202081&l=44012
5. “Bush calls for electronic medical records,” CNN.com, 4/28/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1202081&l=44013

Visit www.misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

A Failure of Leadership At The Highest Levels
Army Times
May 10th, 2004

Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.

Indeed, the damage done to the U.S. military and the nation as a whole by the horrifying photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is incalculable.

But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons.
There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now-infamous pictures and an even more damning report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Every soldier involved should be ashamed.

But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.

The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes.

In addition to the scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least two of those homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.

How tragically ironic that the American military, which was welcomed to Baghdad by the euphoric Iraqi people a year ago as a liberating force that ended 30 years of tyranny, would today stand guilty of dehumanizing torture in the same Abu Ghraib prison used by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen.

One can only wonder why the prison wasn’t razed in the wake of the invasion as a symbolic stake through the heart of the Baathist regime.

Army commanders in Iraq bear responsibility for running a prison where there was no legal adviser to the commander, and no ultimate responsibility taken for the care and treatment of the prisoners.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also shares in the shame. Myers asked “60 Minutes II” to hold off reporting news of the scandal because it could put U.S. troops at risk. But when the report was aired, a week later, Myers still hadn’t read Taguba’s report, which had been completed in March. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also failed to read the report until after the scandal broke in the media.

By then, of course, it was too late.

Myers, Rumsfeld and their staffs failed to recognize the impact the scandal would have not only in the United States, but around the world.

If their staffs failed to alert Myers and Rumsfeld, shame on them. But shame, too, on the chairman and secretary, who failed to inform even President Bush.

He was left to learn of the explosive scandal from media reports instead of from his own military leaders.

On the battlefield, Myers’ and Rumsfeld’s errors would be called a lack of situational awareness - a failure that amounts to professional negligence.

To date, the Army has moved to court-martial the six soldiers suspected of abusing Iraqi detainees and has reprimanded six others.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the MP brigade that ran Abu Ghraib, has received a letter of admonishment and also faces possible disciplinary action.

That’s good, but not good enough.

This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential - even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Is Military Draft In The Works?
By Andrew Greenley
The Chicago Sun Times

April 23, 2004

There’s a sign on the horizon, no bigger than a man’s hand, that there’s a military draft in the works. The Defense Department has announced that Selective Service is making preparations for another draft, “in case one is needed.” The New York Times in an inane editorial pleads with the president to articulate a goal for the war that if it “was clear and comprehensive and people understood how to reach it, then Mr. Bush could . . . even bolster the desperately straitened military with a draft if Americans understood the need to sacrifice.”
If the editorial writers of the New York Times are talking about a new draft that would send young men and women to die in the deserts of Iraq fighting crazy religious fanatics, then the idea is certainly being whispered about in the upper echelons of American society. A draft would not be proposed before the election — if it were, Bush would be wiped out in a landslide. But a wise person would not bet against the draft being proposed next January.

What in the world is the Times talking about? Why should Americans sacrifice for the Iraq War? Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination can one seriously argue that the war in Iraq is to defend vital American interests. We found that there were no weapons of mass destruction there and no connection with al-Qaida or the Sept. 11 attack. The only issue seems to be whether we can impose democracy on Iraqis who don’t seem seriously to want it or to prevent a civil war that will happen anyway as soon as our army leaves. Americans are supposed to accept the need to sacrifice their unwilling sons and daughters to fight for such absurd goals?

There are many authoritarian liberals who have a kind of illicit romance with the draft. Young people owe their a country a part of their lives, even their lives itself (not their own sons and daughters’ lives, of course). Military service is good for you, some veterans insist. It will make a man out of a drifting late adolescent. What it will do for a young woman remains to be seen — probably teach her how to live in a world where rape is commonplace.

Building up the army with a draft will serve only the needs of the Bush administration to “win” a war. Gen. Eric Shinseki, then-chief of staff of the Army, said that 200,000 would be needed to pacify Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld made fun of him in public. Now the Defense Department seems to be engaged in remote planning for a draft army that will be much larger.

How many men and women, it must be asked, will be required to pacify Iraq and to turn it into a freedom-loving democracy? How long will it take, how many lives must be sacrificed to protect the honor and the legacy of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld and their crowd of imperialists?

Doubtless it will be argued in favor of a draft that we all must make sacrifices for a war on terrorism. It might be better if one sent men and women in their 40s to fight in a foolish, unjust, immoral, criminal war. It would be good for them. They’d have to lose weight and get back in physical condition.

Bush has made “the war on terrorism” a mantra to cover everything his administration has done. But the Iraq war has nothing to do with the war on terrorism, as we now know. It was a plan of Cheney and Rumsfeld and their coterie of “neo-conservative” intellectuals (like Paul Wolfowitz) long before they came to power. It was supposed to make the United States a major power in the Middle East; to provide a democratic alternative to the typical Arab autocracy; to give the United States control of major oil fields; to take pressure off Israel, and to establish that the United States was a superpower that could go anywhere in the world and do anything it wanted. The “war on terror” was only a pretext to implement this plan, as accounts of the early White House reaction to the Sept. 11 attack seem to indicate.

Does one have to say that none of these goals have been achieved or can be achieved?

I wonder why Sen. John Kerry sounds so much like Hubert Humphrey in his support of the continuation of the war. I hope at least he makes opposition to a new draft a major issue in the election.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Letter From An Army Vet
By Terry Dobbelaere
Salon

December 5, 2003

A disabled Vietnam-era vet visits a Minneapolis V.A. hospital and discovers that many fellow vets oppose the Bush administration’s war in Iraq.

I received a letter from the V.A. Administration about a month ago to report on Nov. 24 at 2:20 p.m. for a doctor’s appointment. The “waiting list” for DAVs [disabled American veterans] has taken up to three years to secure a primary physician in the new V.A. Medical Center in Minneapolis, but as the result of private grants, some federal funding and some volunteers, they have imported a few dozen doctors and medical assistants to alleviate this problem.
As I was waiting in the general call area, where you wait as they determine which doctor you will see first, which test to be given, etc., I was with approximately 100-125 other veterans. This was a diverse group ranging from very elderly men in wheelchairs on oxygen and with assistance, to recently returned soldiers from Iraq.

The new facility has much more room and better accommodations than the old facility at Fort Snelling. We had comfortable chairs, and TVs were stationed overhead for everyone to see and hear if they chose to. During my wait, our president, George W. Bush, appeared on the TV for a news conference. It became readily apparent that President Bush was speaking to a large group (apparently) of soldiers from Fort Carson, Colo., and astonishingly to me at least, he was once again wearing a military uniform!

For those that know me it is no surprise and to those that don’t know me, I am no “fan” of President (Shrub) Bush. I want to make this clear so there are no accusations of misrepresentation, and this is primarily why I remained silent as this speech by Bush continued on. Something phenomenal was happening: At each “central table,” where the controls and speakers for the television sets are contained in the remote controls so as not to disturb others, the channels all went to his “speech/send-off” and the volume was turned up to the point that even the most hearing impaired were being moved to hear what was going on.

Then it started. First, a veteran around 50 years old in my area said, “I can’t believe he has the guts to wear that uniform!” Others around the room started making remarks like, “Count the lies!” and “Didn’t he learn anything on that aircraft carrier?” I’ll clean up the language, but not long into Shrub’s obvious photo op there were so many men and a few women veterans either yelling at each other or at the TV that staff members came in thinking someone had a serious health issue, or that perhaps an unstable patient had gone into a rage.

Uniformly and, as best as I could decipher, almost all the men in that room were either angry, disgusted, frustrated or simply insulted. I have held the belief that retired military are abundantly GOP supporters, so I simply couldn’t contain myself anymore. I am, admittedly, an activist and advocate for labor rights and whom they support. Clearly Mr. Bush is not in that crowd so I rose and walked to the middle area and asked if I could have everyone’s attention. I explained my background, my current status both in the civilian world and as a DAV, and said that I wasn’t registered with any political party and that I considered myself independent in order to support candidates that represent my interests and concerns the best.

Surprisingly all but one of the televisions was turned off and we ended up having a town hall sort of meeting. Occasionally someone would get called for his or her appointment and, astonishingly to me, a couple of guys passed their time to the next number as they had things to get off their chests. In brief, out of approximately 100 men that were participating we did hand votes and spoke. The highest-ranking veteran was a “bird” colonel from Silver Bay, and there were 13 commissioned officers, 7 WWII, 14 Korea, 3 Iraq and the rest were, presumably, Vietnam. One after another, veterans spoke of how frustrating it was to have once felt proud and to now watch our group being leached of promised benefits and assistance. The WWII veteran from Owatonna spoke eloquently of marching in over 50 parades with his Legion/VFW Honor Squad with pride, and how he felt no such pride today as he viewed the young men behind the “Joke,” as he put it, that was speaking on the TV.

I did ask how many in the room supported the effort in Iraq: It was a little over half until Greg stood up and said, “Terry, loaded question! What part of the effort do you mean? Should we have gone? Are we there for military reasons or an alternative reason?” He stated he was sure that everyone in the room supported the troops, and would I rephrase my question. At that point I admitted I had a bumper sticker on my vehicle that stated “We Support the Troops” in bold letters and then below in smaller letters “But NOT the unelected residents of the White House!” The room went crazy! Greg reestablished some order and asked how many felt my bumper sticker represented how they felt last winter prior to invading Iraq. Counting me there were only nine of us.

Greg then asked, “How many feel the way the bumper sticker reads today?” We had to explain the question over again to a few of the more disabled or elderly veterans and then he asked for a show of hands. Amazingly, I observed even the staff members at the counter with their hands up! If there were more than a just a few in the room who didn’t have their hands shown, I don’t know where they were.

I then asked, “In order to be fair and considering that the news conference had probably inflamed some, would anyone care to speak, without interruption or argument, in support of the minority in the room?” After another request and an awkward moment passed, a man standing by one of the wheelchair-bound veterans raised his hand. His name was Joseph, from Eden Prairie, and he worked as a volunteer driving vets to their appointments at various places in the metro area. He was hesitant to speak, saying he “wasn’t a patient, wasn’t disabled, but was a veteran.” We asked him to speak up. Joseph explained he had been a lifelong Republican and had voted straight ticket for over two decades. He admired Reagan and thought highly of Bush I, and was disgusted when the late Sen. Wellstone opposed the invasion of Iraq. He felt G.W. Bush was “a decent man, with good intentions” and that he sincerely felt Bush felt terribly about the casualties in Iraq. But he said, “We must respond to 9/11 somehow!” The room went silent, some started to mutter about oil, money, etc., until they were reminded of our agreement not to interrupt or be hostile to a speaker from the minority. I admire Joseph for the courage it took to speak up in an obviously uncomfortable situation.

Later, when I reached my appointment up on 4E and met my doctor, I was amazed to hear that even he was aware of what had taken place! I will not expound on what he said other than he went to school in Texas, medical school in Northern California, and residency in Massachusetts and was being hired, after this temp assignment, to Dallas again. He stated, “I would be very hard put to find a supporter of the Bush administration on the staff,” and that it was “sad” how those were either “uninformed, blatantly biased by the media, or simply refused to believe what was so obvious” in their continued attacks on liberals and support of “men being maimed for profit!”

Interesting day, thought I would share it with you. If you are tempted to believe the “military in support of Bush” propaganda, I suggest you visit your nearest V.A. medical center. People that have “been there, done that” or treat the injuries incurred by those that served aren’t being fooled one bit as far as I observed. A tremendous erosion of support for this administration is well underway among that group.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

A Full Division’s Worth of Casualties
By David Hackworth
January 2004

David Hackworth says that we have taken a full division’s worth of casualties in Iraq so far…

Even I — and I deal with that beleaguered land seven days a week — was staggered when a Pentagon source gave me a copy of a Nov. 30 dispatch showing that since George W. Bush unleashed the dogs of war, our armed forces have taken 14,000 casualties in Iraq — about the number of warriors in a line tank division.
We have the equivalent of five combat divisions plus support for a total of about 135,000 troops deployed in the Iraqi theater of operations, which means we’ve lost the equivalent of a fighting division since March. At least 10 percent of the total number of Joes and Jills available to the theater commander to fight or support the occupation effort have been evacuated back to the USA!

Lt. Col. Scott D. Ross of the U.S. military’s Transportation Command told me that as of Dec. 23, his outfit had evacuated 3,255 battle-injured casualties and 18,717 non-battle injuries. Of the battle casualties, 473 died and 3,255 were wounded by hostile fire. Following are the major categories of the non-battle evacuations:

* Orthopedic surgery — 3,907

* General surgery — 1,995

* Internal medicine — 1,291

* Psychiatric — 1,167

* Neurology — 1,002

* Gynecological — 491

Sources say that most of the gynecological evacuations are pregnancy-related, although the exact figure can’t be confirmed — Pentagon pregnancy counts are kept closer to the vest than the number of nuke warheads in the U.S. arsenal. Ross cautioned that his total of 21,972 evacuees could be higher than other reports because “in some cases, the same service member may be counted more than once.”

The Pentagon has never won prizes for the accuracy of its reporting, but I think it’s safe to say that so far somewhere between 14,000 and 22,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have been medically evacuated from Iraq to the USA…

The scary thing is the 18,000 “non-battle injuries” evacuated out of the theater of operations in seven months. 18000/135000 * 12/7 = .228, which means that in a year 23% of this bunch of guys and gals in their twenties and thirties are having non-war related medical misadventures serious enough to require treatment back in Germany or the USA. That’s an unbelievably large accident/disease rate, and makes me very worried about what might really be going on.

The cream of the U.S. army are not military police. They should not be used as military police. Those in the Pentagon and the White House whose policies have turned them into military police should be… they should be sent to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as undercover agents in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Read More About This Here

The David Hackworth Website

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Vietnam Vet Takes Aim At War
By Kit Miniclier
The Denver Post

Friday 5 December 2003

Purple Heart-winning officer a prominent peace activist in Colorado.

In his youth, Vietnam War veteran Charles Elliston recalls, “I was a conservative. I used to think war protesters were nut cases - agents of the enemy.”
Today, former Chief Warrant Officer Elliston, 55, is an outspoken anti-war activist who proudly wears his Army uniform to give himself credibility.

The uniform is immaculate, as are his Vietnam combat ribbons, his Purple Heart, and the silver wings with wreath and star that identify him as a senior Army aviator.

Elliston also wears pins on his uniform. One reads “NO perpetual war for perpetual peace.” Another reads: “Vietnam Veterans Against the War.”

Fourteen months ago he attended his first anti-war rally in Denver, in full uniform. Another vet handed him a “No Blood for Oil” sign and one reading “Bush Lied. Our Soldiers Died. End of Story.”

Although he is increasingly strident in his opposition to war, Elliston is quick to say “this isn’t about me, or my wound or my story. It’s about the message. I only wear the uniform because I think military service gives me some additional credibility to speak about war and its consequences.

“Without the uniform, I’m just another guy with an opinion. With the uniform I’m a former warrior with an opinion. I think that makes a difference.”

Elliston arrived in Vietnam on April Fools’ Day 1970 and was flown home precisely three weeks later, after his jaw was ripped apart and his teeth torn out by an enemy machine-gun bullet. He was hit on his seventh day of combat flying, in the co-pilot’s seat of a Bell UH-1 series Iroquois, better known as a “Huey,” which eventually became the most widely used military helicopter in the world.

The chopper was third in line to deliver reinforcements to a besieged special-forces team. The landing zone had been carved out of the jungle and, unknown to them, was now ringed by the 57th North Vietnamese Rifle Regiment. Two days earlier they had delivered 400 reinforcements to the same landing zone and met no hostile fire.

The first chopper got in and out safely, but the second one was shot down in a ball of fire, its wreckage blocking the landing zone.

“We were on a final approach when (the second helicopter) went down. They say ‘never fly over enemy guns,’ but we had no choice,” Elliston said.

Hostile fire that hit his chopper killed one crew member and wounded him and another.

By then, after less than a month “in country,” Elliston said, “I had a vague understanding that it makes no difference to the peasants who wins a war. Their lives improve when the fighting stops.”

After his jaw was wired shut at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, he read about the shootings at Kent State University, where a contingent of Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on May 4, 1970, killing four students and wounding nine others.

“I was overwhelmed with the fact I was wounded in combat fighting to preserve democracy while troops (at home) were firing on student protesters who considered Vietnam an illegal, immoral war,” he says.

His rehabilitation at Fitzsimons lasted about two years.

“I lost virtually all my teeth, but I learned to talk with my jaws wired shut. I feared there would be years of speech therapy,” he said. However, he soon knew he wouldn’t need that, after he learned how to say “chrysanthemum.”

“It took another 30 years of studying,” he said, before he concluded “we will have to answer someday for what we did” in Vietnam.

“What is relevant is that I am trying, although I’m not convinced I am having any impact,” he said.

“We as a nation must stop thinking of ourselves as exceptional and worthy of special privileges above other nations and peoples. We must stop glorifying war. We must stop praising institutional murder.”

Elliston, a commercial airline pilot who regularly flies to Asia, the Middle East and South America, said he often speaks out at rallies in this country, and on the Internet, in opposition to war. He is listed on the roster of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

“Only when our nation behaves honorably and honestly with all other nations, giving respect as we wish to be respected, seeking only peace and justice for all nations and peoples, will we be worthy of the rigors our military veterans have endured in our name,” he said. “I wish I was convinced that most, if not all, wars declared and undeclared were not based on false pretenses, as was the case in Vietnam and now Iraq.”

Speaking at a “Support our Troops” peace rally in Colorado Springs earlier this year, he said: “I have come here today to honor our men and women in uniform and to work to prevent them from being sent into harm’s way unnecessarily.

“Truly supporting our troops would mean ensuring that they are guaranteed ample, high-quality medical care,” he said, adding: “We must not conveniently dismiss the psychological trauma many of them have suffered, and will suffer, as a result of their experience with the horror of war.”

He shared the anti-war platform that day with retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Owen Lentz, a 30-year veteran who wore three hats during the 1991 Persian Gulf War as director of intelligence for the U.S. Space Command; the North American American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD; and the Air Force Space Command.

“He is as much of a patriot as I consider myself,” Lentz said of Elliston. “I find it hurtful to the entire national dialogue that people in opposition to war are considered unpatriotic by some. Dialogue is important.”

Stuart Chase, a Boulder mental-health worker who spent 20 months in Vietnam with the Marines, said he met Elliston at an anti-war rally in Denver.

“He was very impressive in his Army officer’s uniform, and he wore peace buttons on his lapels and carried a big American flag,” Chase recalled. He introduced Elliston to other groups “working for peace and justice.”

Elliston said he is alarmed by familiar-sounding pronouncements from the Bush White House. “This is the same pattern of lies disseminated by the White House during Vietnam, ‘Things are really going well.”‘

The Vietnam War, “like most military adventures, was cloaked in altruistic pretenses of disposing of dictators, of liberating oppressed peoples, of empowering democratic rule and of increasing our own nationally security.

“So far, those lofty goals have seldom been the result,” Elliston said, noting that “once again our nation is engaged in an undeclared war.”

As the 62nd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor looms Sunday, Elliston noted that some historians concluded that Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt anticipated an attack but “felt it was necessary to have a catastrophic attack like that to mobilize the American public to get into World War II.”

“There are also implications that Republican President Bush knows more about 9/11,” he said, noting that the White House has been “very secretive” and has refused to release documents, just as FDR did after Dec. 7, 1941.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Bush Pays Lipservice To Vets, Then Slashes Their Health Care The Daily MisLead
December 19th, 2003

Late last week President Bush visited combat veterans at Walter Reed Medical Center. During his visit, he said “We have made a commitment to the troops, and we have made a commitment to their loved ones, and that commitment is that we will provide excellent health care - excellent care - to anybody who is injured on the battlefield.”
His comments stand in stark contrast to the policies he has pushed - and the record he has amassed - as President. Just this year alone, the President “announced his formal opposition to a proposal to give National Guard and Reserve members access to the Pentagon’s health-insurance system”- a slap in the face to thousands of troops, especially considering “a recent General Accounting Office report estimated that one of every five Guard members has no health insurance”. The President also this year proposed to cut $1.5 billion (14%) out of funding for military family housing/medical facilities. This followed his 2002 budget which, according to major veterans groups, “fell $1.5 billion short” of adequately funding veterans care.

This is not the first time the President has staged a photo-op to thank veterans at Walter Reed and then proposed policies that hurt veterans. A little less than a year ago, the President visited the medical hospital , and then on the same day announced his proposal to cut off 164,000 veterans from the VA’s prescription drug discount program.

The result of the President’s harsh treatment of veterans is that “more than 235,000 veterans are currently waiting 6 months or more for initial medical appointments” with “many veterans waiting 2 years just to be seen by a doctor.” At Ft. Stewart, Georgia, UPI reported “hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait - sometimes for months - to see doctors.” And CBS News reports that the administration appears, in some cases, to be denying benefits to soldiers wounded in Iraq. Specifically, many soldiers say they are seeing their pay and health benefits severely reduced after they are badly wounded.

Sources:
President Bush Meets with Wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed, 12/18/2003
Gannett News Service, 10/23/2003
Independent Budget, 01/07/2002
President Bush Meets with Wounded Soldiers at Medical Center, 12/17/2003
“VA Cuts Some Veterans’ Access to Health Care”, Washington Post, 01/17/2003
Independent Budget, Paralyzed Veterans of America
“Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor”, UPI, 10/17/2003
“Wounded Troops Denied Benefits?”, CBS News, 12/18/2003

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

US Soldiers to America: ‘’Bring us home now; we’re dying for oil and corporate greed!'’

Coalition For Free Thought In Media
Interviews by Jay Shaft

12th October 2003

I had the unique opportunity to interview five US military servicemen who just got back from Iraq, or in the case of two men, corresponded with their wives so that I could ask questions of these soldiers by mail. When the two I corresponded with came back just last week, I was able to complete the interviews I started several months ago with some new details on how the war is actually going.
I was shocked and angered when I found out how many of the service men hate being in Iraq and want nothing to do with rebuilding and policing the devastated nation. From the conversations I had, many soldiers never wanted to go over to Iraq and fight, and the ones who had were now convinced of the awful crime that had been committed against Iraq and our own troops. I was told very few soldiers now believe in staying in Iraq, or want to stay in the country and serve any more days.

The following interview was with an enlisted man, but someone very high up in the enlisted ranks, with over 20 years of military service. I have promised not to reveal his identity for reasons that he has a family and has been told not to speak to journalists. He told me the Army had put a gag order on him while he was home, and told him they would give him twenty years in prison if he spoke out in any manner against the US or the government.

I took several weeks to finish this interview because of not being able to safely be seen with this individual out of his fears of being caught speaking out.

He asked me to call him USA in all the transcripts of these interviews. I have followed his wishes and tried to write what he said in the manner it was said so as not to lose any impact. At times the interview was very rough and the grammar is not perfect, but I tried to write this in his voice so that he can tell the world how bad it is in Iraq. I truly want you to feel what he has experienced in some way if possible.

CFTM– How are you today? Resting I hope?

USA– Can’t sleep for sh..t and I have horrible nightmares when I do sleep. I might be lucky to catch an hour at a time before the nightmares wake me up. I slept easier in the combat then now that I’m away from there. Most awful place I’ve ever been or served duty and I didn’t want to leave my guys. That was the hardest part was leaving the guys I had been leading around and trying to keep out of trouble and alive.

CFTM– Did you see a lot of your buddies get killed? How did it affect you?

USA– How the hell do you think it affected me? I saw over 30 of the men I had to keep safe die, and over 100 get wounded and not come back. I still don’t know if some of the wounded men made it or not. I was never told before I came back home.

CFTM– So it really was awful and as bad as some returning troops have claimed?

USA– It was like a long trip to hell that you knew you might return from. Of course it is as bad as the soldiers say it is. Hell it’s even worse if the truth has to come out. It’s a constant fu..ing nightmare trying to figure out where the guerillas are going to hit, how to keep the civilians calm, and also getting enough water and food to eat. That is one thing the media never really told the Americans about, how bad it was when our convoys weren’t getting through. We had to go to some Iraqi people and trade socks and underwear for some food and a little water.

CFTM– You really did get that desperate because I saw it in the foreign media that the Iraqi civilians had stepped in and fed a whole bunch of troops that had been days without food.

USA– Yeah, that ain’t no joke about getting help from the civilians right after the invasion. We had a pretty good laugh about that and how the army owed them some money for reimbursement. We would not have starved probably, but when we got the food from the people it made sure we could still operate as a functioning unit. It was a near thing that several guys almost died of dehydration because we ran out of clean water for a few days.

CFTM– Just keep going, I want to hear more about the hardships the military and Bush made you go through. I want the American people to know what a nightmare this war has become and what it’s doing to our service men over there.

USA– Okay, well I can bitch about the problems like food being short and water going bad, but I want to tell people about how bad the attacks on US and coalition forces have gotten in the last month. In the last two weeks I was there we were attacked at least 20 times a day if you count all the shots we heard from random sniper or opportunity attacks. We were losing at least five men a day to injuries and there was at least one of our unit killed every twenty four hours.

CFTM– So you were getting one a day killed and at least five injured? Did you know many of the guys killed?

USA– That’s a real dumb fu..ing question to ask me. You know what my rank is, of course I knew them, I was the head NCO for years in our unit. I knew most of the guys who died and I held a lot of hands as they were dying. You tell me that’s not gonna to give you nightmares!

I had one guy tell me all he wanted was to see his little daughter; she was born three days after the war started. He died in the sand holding my hand and crying because his daughter would never know him. Tell me that’s fu..ing right. Where was George Bush when this kid was gasping for air and spitting his blood on foreign soil?

CFTM– I talked to you about this the other day. Do you think George Bush is the wrong man to order troops into battle when he ducked it himself?

USA– That asshole went AWOL and never showed up for duty and then he has the nerve to take us into two different wars that will be going on for years. I do not believe he should be president of this country, he’s a complete idiot and he’s controlled by madmen with a drive for only profits and getting oil.

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.

CFTM– Glad you brought that up about counseling because I wasn’t even aware of it. Are you alright to talk about some of the civilian casualties you witnessed and some of the horrifying images you told me about when we first started talking?

USA– I want to talk about some of the children I saw killed for no reason, maybe it will wake someone up who doesn’t believe it was happening, or that it was very bad. I can tell you I will never forget the screams of the wounded or orphaned kids, or the wailing of the parents who lost their kids. The Iraqis and most Muslims have a very vocal way of mourning the dead by lamenting and wailing for the dead. There is no mistaking a mother or father crying out in pain for the loss of a child. They don’t cry like that unless there has been a death. Sometimes after a bombing raid or an artillery attack you could here hundreds of people wiling and weeping.

I have several grown children with grand kids about the age of most of the dead children I saw in Iraq. I also have several kids who are about half grown and I saw a lot of Iraqi children that age wandering around in charge of three or four little ones because their parents were dead.

Let me tell you about the cluster bomb raid we saw wipe out a whole bunch of little kids. It looked like they had already lost their parents and were trying to salvage food from a destroyed Iraqi convoy by the side of the road we were on. The kids were way off to the side about half a mile away by then when we got the word that the Iraqi column was going to be hit with cluster bombs and we had to clear the area. We got on the radio and tried to get the air strike stopped but we were told it was too late to get it stopped.

We could see the body parts flying up into the air after the bombs hit. It was terrible and we could not do a damn thing but watch it happen and scream into the radio at the dumb sh.t pilot that was dropping the bombs. After the strike was over we went to see if there were any survivors and all we found was bits and pieces of little kids and here and there an arm or leg you could still identify.

CFTM– Pretty rough stuff to have to see. Did that kind of thing happen a lot?

USA– More than you can imagine until you’ve seen it over and over again. Man I don’t want to talk about this sh.t anymore. It doesn’t help to talk about it because it just makes me think about it again. I can’t even get any counseling without having to pay for it.

Let all those people who support our troops in on that nice surprise that Bush gave us. That’s how much we really mean to Bush, the Department of Defense and all those other stupid assholes who keep saying how good we’re doing over there. Let those patriotic morons go and fight and die for our country. Let them leave their families behind for months and maybe come back home in a box. I’ll be the first one to salute them or honor them when they die.

It’s just like Nam was in the beginning. I was twelve when my dad got back and I’ll never forget the pain and agony he lived with the rest of his life. Its kind of what I feel now, I suppose. I never thought I would ever serve in some stuff that’s so much like Nam it isn’t funny. Now I really see what my pop went through, and if I could I would go back in the past a few months, I would go AWOL or turn conscientious objector on them, but it’s too late for that now.

I damn sure will not go back over there even if they throw me in Leavenworth. I never could understand how a guy could be a conscientious objector until what I just went through. I wish more guys would stand up and tell Bush and the Pentagon they will not fight their war for oil. We should not have to die for these rich bastards profits and enrichment.

CFTM– Thank you for taking the risk and talking to me. I know there will be other soldiers who can’t speak out who will thank you for having the courage.

USA– It isn’t about courage it’s a matter of what’s right. This war is killing the poor or middle class American men and women who went in the armed forces to have college or some kind of better future. You don’t see the rich kids joining up or any Senator’s kid dying in Iraq. It’s us little guys who are dying over there or getting disabled for life. Where are the leaders that are supposed to be looking out for the little man? They are elected to look after out interests not the interests of Cheney and Halliburton, or any of the rest of the fat cats piling up the profits while the blood of our soldiers flows over their hands.

CFTM– Anything else you want to say to America? Any final thoughts or words?

USA– Yeah! Wake up America! Your sons and daughters are dying for nothing! This war is not about freedom or stopping terrorism. Bring us home now! We are dying for oil and corporate greed!

- Jay Shaft: Editor, Coalition For Free Thought In Media
EMAIL: freethoughtinmedia2@yahoo.com
WEB: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)