Iraq

By Benjamin Lewis and Brandon Neely, Corvallis Gazette Times

On this day, Veterans Day, we would like to express to the American public why we, veterans of the Global War on Terror, have chosen to refuse orders to reactivate into military service. We are direct witnesses to the horrors of this war, having experienced its atrocities at their source, and we have decided that we can no longer carry out these illegal and immoral policies.  read more »

Troops say chemicals and medical waste burned at base are making them sick, but officials deny risk

An open-air “burn pit” at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste, documentation gathered by Military Times shows.  read more »

(note: if you are a servicemember who is being deployed despite medical problems that will impair your ability to do your job, contact the G.I. Rights Hotline to talk to a trained civillian counselor about steps you can take to stop that deployment and get your medical problem treated.  Call 877-447-4487 or email girights@girightshotline.org)

Stretched Thin, Army Puts Some Vulnerable Soldiers Back on the Frontlines

By BOB WOODRUFF, JAMES HILL and JAIME HENNESSEY, ABC News

Two weeks before his second deployment to Iraq last September, Army Specialist Michael DeVlieger broke down.

"At first, I thought it was something that everybody experienced," DeVlieger told ABC's Bob Woodruff, "and just through time and perseverance I guess it would pass." It didn't pass.

After an 11-day hospitalization, DeVlieger was given a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, three psychiatric prescriptions -- and deployment orders.

"Eighteen hours after he got out of the hospital, he deployed to Iraq," DeVlieger's wife, Christine DeVlieger, recalled. He left for Iraq despite Pentagon policy requiring that service members establish three months of "stability without significant symptoms" before deploying.  read more »

  
  Friday November 7th at First United Methodist Church
  621 Tacoma Ave S in Tacoma
  7pm to 9pm, doors open at 6:30

$8 in advance, $10 at the door.  No one turned away for lack of funds.

Click here for an event flyer: full page  quarter page  read more »

Sunday, October 19th at University Lutheran Church
1604 NE 50th Street in Seattle
2pm to 4pm, doors open at 1:30

Click here to download an event flyer: full page quarter page

Suggested donation of $10 at the door.  No one turned away for lack of funds.  read more »

(editors note: learn about the warning signs for suicide at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's website, or click here to download a card you can print out.  The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's 24 hour toll free hotline number is 1-800-273-TALK)

Army: Number of suicides per 100,000 could pass that of civilian population

WASHINGTON - Soldier suicides this year could surpass the record rate of last year, Army officials said Thursday, urging military leaders at all levels to redouble prevention efforts for a force strained by two wars.  read more »

by Aaron Glantz for oneworld.net

WASHINGTON - Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their souls with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture, and wrongful detentions.

On several occasions our convoys came upon bodies that had been lying on the road, sometimes for weeks, said Marine Corps veteran Vincent Emanuele, who served in al-Qaim near the Syrian border in 2004 and 2005.

"When encountering these bodies standard procedure was to run over the corpses, sometimes even stopping and taking pictures, which was also standard practice when encountering the dead in Iraq," he told the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which organized the hearing.  read more »

By William E. Odom, lieutenant general, USA (retired)

Wednesday 02 April 2008

Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq.

Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. It is an honor to appear before you again. The last occasion was in January 2007, when the topic was the troop surge. Today you are asking if it has worked. Last year I rejected the claim that it was a new strategy. Rather, I said, it is a new tactic used to achieve the same old strategic aim, political stability. And I foresaw no serious prospects for success.

I see no reason to change my judgment now. The surge is prolonging instability, not creating the conditions for unity as the president claims.  read more »

By THOM SHANKER, New York Times

WASHINGTON — Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond.

Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers’ mental health.  read more »

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press March 24, 2008

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on
Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in
the five-year war to at least 4,000. The grim milestone came on a day
when at least 61 people were killed across the country.

Rockets
and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the
fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite
extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.  read more »