Study suggests cancer risk from depleted uranium

James Randerson

Tuesday May 8, 2007
The Guardian

Depleted uranium, which is used in armour-piercing ammunition, causes widespread damage to DNA which could lead to lung cancer, according to a study of the metal's effects on human lung cells. The study adds to growing evidence that DU causes health problems on battlefields long after hostilities have ceased.

DU is a byproduct of uranium refinement for nuclear power. It is much less radioactive than other uranium isotopes, and its high density - twice that of lead - makes it useful for armour and armour piercing shells. It has been used in conflicts including Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq and there have been increasing concerns about the health effects of DU dust left on the battlefield. In November, the Ministry of Defence was forced to counteract claims that apparent increases in cancers and birth defects among Iraqis in southern Iraq were due to DU in weapons.

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Now researchers at the University of Southern Maine have shown that DU damages DNA in human lung cells. The team, led by John Pierce Wise, exposed cultures of the cells to uranium compounds at different concentrations.

The compounds caused breaks in the chromosomes within cells and stopped them from growing and dividing healthily. "These data suggest that exposure to particulate DU may pose a significant [DNA damage] risk and could possibly result in lung cancer," the team wrote in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Previous studies have shown that uranium miners are at higher risk of lung cancer, but this has often been put down to the fact that miners are also exposed to radon, another cancer-causing chemical.

Prof Wise said it is too early to say whether DU causes lung cancer in people exposed on the battlefield because the disease takes several decades to develop.

"Our data suggest that it should be monitored as the potential risk is there," he said.

Prof Wise and his team believe that microscopic particles of dust created during the explosion of a DU weapon stay on the battlefield and can be breathed in by soldiers and people returning after the conflict.

Once they are lodged in the lung even low levels of radioactivity would damage DNA in cells close by. "The real question is whether the level of exposure is sufficient to cause health effects. The answer to that question is still unclear," he said, adding that there has as yet been little research on the effects of DU on civilians in combat zones. "Funding for DU studies is very sparse and so defining the disadvantages is hard," he added.

Thwarted Warrior: Depleted uranium and the mystery of sick and dying Gulf War vets

By ROBERT C. KOEHLER

Tribune Media Services

April 12, 2007

“It’s not about me,” Doug Rokke said, and only reluctantly rattled off his laundry list of symptoms: fibromyalgia, broken teeth, radiation-induced cataracts, gastrointestinal pain.

And I know it’s not about him, any more than it’s about you or me. “It.” The war, the consequences. The environmental consequences are beyond calculation, and perhaps for that reason little discussed, never “debated.” What does it matter that we went into Iraq on lies, faulty intelligence, whatever? Surely the most elaborately justified of invasions would not have been worth, well . . .

We know about the VA scandal, the great betrayal, but what almost no one talks about are the numbers. According to Veterans Administration figures from last November, 205,000 GIs who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, a third of the total, have sought medical care, for such problems as malignant tumors (1,584), endocrinal and metabolic diseases (36,409), nervous system diseases (61,524), digestive system diseases (63,002), musculoskeletal diseases (87,590), and mental disorders (73,157), among many other conditions. One of the largest categories is “ill defined,” a.k.a. mystery conditions (67,743). In comparison, a relatively small number (35,765) have sought VA care for injuries.

The staggeringly backlogged Veterans Administration, which takes on average six months to process a claim and two years to process an appeal, cannot begin to cope with this onslaught of need and misery, but in contemplating the unconscionable lack of planning that resulted in this disaster, let’s not forget to ask a more basic question: Why are all these GIs getting sick? And with even more urgent moral imperative, especially in the context of the invasion’s justification, we must also ask: What about the Iraqis? Count on it, if our vets are sick, so are the Iraqis’ children, their elderly, and they’re making do with a shattered health-care infrastructure that makes our own look positively First World.

While obviously this is bigger than Doug Rokke, who is, finally, just another sick, outspoken vet, when I visited him recently on his farm in central Illinois — sat for six hours with him in front of his computer, looking at data, on the day before Easter — I could feel the enormity of the disaster get very, very personal.

Rokke, who spent 40 years in the military, retiring with the rank of major, is a veteran of both Vietnam (two tours of duty, serving as a B-52 crew member) and Gulf War 1. By then he had his Ph.D. and, as a specialist in preventive medicine, was tapped to head a crew that cleaned up the aftermath of Desert Storm. Their mission included readying U.S. tanks and troop transports destroyed by friendly fire to be sent back to the States, which meant, inevitably, breathing the toxic detritus of war, in particular the ultra-fine dust of exploded depleted-uranium munitions. Today, his entire crew is either sick or dead.

But the illnesses came later. Before that, a few years after his service in the Gulf, Rokke was called to military duty again, as director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project. In this capacity, he became one of the world’s leading experts on DU and, ultimately, one of the most outspoken critics of its use. This made him persona non grata to the war machine he once served with the last full measure of devotion, you might say. Rokke the idealistic warrior — a man steeped in military tradition and national service, named after his father’s hero, Gen. Douglas MacArthur — began rethinking U.S. militarism and turned against it.

“When did it really break? 1997-98,” he said. “My guys were sick and dying and I couldn’t get medical care. They denied me medical care. I was sold down the river with the rest of my guys.”

Later in our conversation, he revised that thought: “You asked what turned me? I was never turned. I’m finishing the job.” The job is taking care of people. “There isn’t a day that goes by,” he went on, “when I don’t get a phone call, letter, e-mail or knock on the door from (a vet) needing help — medical care.”

Think about those numbers again. Several hundred thousand sick from the current wars, another several hundred thousand Gulf War 1 vets ailing and dying.

Referring to his namesake’s last hurrah speech at West Point, Rokke added, “I’m an old soldier that ain’t going to fade away till medical care is given to everyone and the environment is cleaned up.

“Tomorrow’s Easter, Bob,” he said, looking at me. “Love thy neighbor. Do unto others. I believed them, too. Then I learned. Every single one of us, if we had to, (would) defend our nation against a viable enemy. On the other hand, sometimes you gotta speak up.”

These are the words of a thwarted warrior, a betrayed warrior, driven by what he has seen and understood to turn around and stand up to the real threat: the friendly (or fratricidal) fire behind him. The best of America is serving the worst.


Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com.

DU dust clouds climate crisis

Global Action Day of Another Sort

22 March 2007

There’s nothing like participating in a rally on the Capitol lawn in Washington, DC to exhaust you and make you want to vomit. While it was a sunny day in the nation’s capital with a high in the mid-50’s, the nausea can’t be explained away by heatstroke. And since I didn’t sample any of the DC street vendors’ delicacies, we can’t blame it on bad food.

I didn’t get any lunch at all for that matter, come to think of it. And it’s so not like me to ever miss a meal. So when I’m that steamed about something that I give no thought whatsoever to stuffing my face come lunchtime? Sure as hell, you can just know that whatever I’m doing, it’s something that really matters to me.

So if it wasn’t the heat or the lunch (or rather, lack thereof) that caused me to want to lose my half bran muffin for breakfast on Global Climate Crisis Day, then what was it? In all candor, the thing that predictably makes me nauseous at these rallies is the presence of politicians who have the audacity to ruin the day just by showing up.

The slimy Puppet President-wanna-be's have a habit of appearing at these actions, like the shameless self-promoters they are, climbing up onto makeshift stages at the drop of a hat. Any time there’s a liberal audience gathered in a bunch on the Mall in DC, the lure of public display is far too great for legislators with reputations-to-build (or in Kerry’s case, reputations to try to turn around) to pass up. Quite predictably, they rarely, if ever, offer any words of any significance at these rah-rah, feel-good “progressive” affairs.

So while these “celebrities” were supposed to be the draw to yesterday’s event? I went simply in search of a listening crowd - quite *despite* the fact that members of Congress were going to be present in all their egotistical glory - coming to shoot off their mouths and get their mugs on nighttime TV news.

Just once I would like to see something different for a change. I want to see some politician - any politician - say something that was real, true, or important. Can you imagine a Senator Kerry - or a Boxer, for that matter - standing up on Global Climate Crisis Day and telling the crowd the truth, the whole truth and nothing’ but? What would happen if someone from Congress actually told us anything that would not cause their noses to grow, Pinocchio-style… such as, just for starters, the fact that nanoparticles of metallic aerosols are polluting our atmosphere, having been placed up there, courtesy of US taxpayers’ dollars?

How our mouths would drop if, for even just once, a US legislator was to confess in public at one of these crowd-drawing events that his/her own votes on the Capitol floor helped contribute to the global atmospheric warming through his/her undying support of war appropriations bills! Imagine for a second if just even once we would hear a War Enabler confess to approving monies that allow the US Ministers of War And Death-By-Radiation to develop, test, and manufacture those Uranium Munitions of Mass Devastation?

Frankly, we should not hold our breath waiting for any such revelation of inconvenient truth. Or, as the saying goes? They’ll admit the truth about manmade Uranium oxides suspended in the atmosphere when hell freezes over. Or, in this case, more to the point? They’ll wait to ’fess up to the aerosol poisoning of the planet the day the Arctic finally melts.

Let’s not kid ourselves. No matter how political strategists may try to frame corporate and military agenda, expecting clean, non-radioactive air for our kids to breathe is *not* a “liberal” value. And with so-called “progressive” politicians doing the job for Empire - like those who appeared on stage, a day that was supposed to be about fighting environmental atmospheric contamination? Sadly, it was apparent to myself and not too many others that the performance up on stage was not really all about the environment at all.

Actions speak louder than words, dear members of Congress. Since 1945 you have voted to fund radioactive weapons of indiscriminate effects … weapons that kill all forms of life, weapons that stay right here in our atmosphere and in our soils, sands, and water - forever. Weapons that, like Leuren Moret, internationally-known geoscientist, environmentalist, and Uranium contaminations expert tells us, are used by our military and Department of [Radiation] Energy and “They are creating billions and billions and billions of superfine particles. These did not settle out by gravity. Gravitational forces do not pull them out of the air. They stay suspended. They act like a radioactive gas.”

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/DU-Leuren-Moret21apr03.htm

Earnestly and genuinely concerned, good people like Nicholas Kelley, intern for the Audobon Society and future environmental law attorney aiming to fight battles on behalf of Mother Earth, apparently didn’t’ get the memo that explained the real agenda of the event. The crowds may not have known it, but yesterday was actually all about giving certain key figures a captive, salivating blue-voting audience.

Unbeknownst to volunteers, interns, and environmentalists assembled to hear (empty) words about “clean” sources of energy, Global Climate Crisis Day was merely a photo op appearance. Tuesday’s DC lunchtime show was just another event staged to give the Capitol vermin a chance to get their mug and carefully chosen-for-that-particular-audience speech in front of several TV cameras.

Politicians in the National District of Slime are fully aware that exposure to liberal audiences makes for superb PR. Events like yesterday’s give Congressional thespians merely one more chance to say virtually nothing at all in their politically-correct and “safe” speeches as opportunistically as turkey vultures on top of deer carcasses on the side of any Maryland country road.

The issue of global warming on the part of the Dems is, when you get right down to it, all about winning elections. Suffice it to say, John Kerry’s lackluster speech on global warming made even some Sierra Clubbers (including this writer who is herself a member) yawn. And while peppy, totally-Cali-gal Barbara Boxer uttered nice-sounding words about making the air cleaner for her unborn grandbaby - and, to her credit, spoke out against nuclear power as a form of energy? I must confess that the urge to scream out: DEPLETED URANIUM, BARBARA! at the top of my lungs in front of about 1,000 global climate crisis enthusiasts was admittedly more than a mere casual consideration.

I did not, in fact, scream out as I had the utmost urge to do. Although not afraid of doing time for creating a public ruckus and disturbing the peace? I was merely concerned about one little particular matter of my potential arrest. My husband kept saying, “Whatever you do, don’t get yourself arrested!” I suspect that he just didn’t feel like schlepping an hour away down to the District of Crime in order to bail me out of jail.

Quite frankly, I eagerly would have done hard time in the slammer if I thought it might focus a spotlight on the well-hidden truth about Deadly Uranium (DU) that we are using both abroad and domestically - Yes, inside the United States. But if the truth be told, it wasn’t doing time that bothered me. No I’ll sleep in a damp, smelly DC jail cell in a minute. My greatest fear was instead that chemicals would be applied to my sensitive private parts by a large militant woman called Max. Hubby said that they don’t do that in the DC holding cells, but I just didn’t want to take any chances of incurring a less-than-lovingly applied pesticide body spray by a woman who, in all likelihood, might enjoy her job just a wee bit too much.

What in the world would a Maryland suburban mom who’s got it relatively easy want to risk incarceration in a smelly DC jail? I guess we could ask the same thing of my personal heroes. You know, gutsy people who stand up for doing the right thing and will wear stripes when warranted. People like Cindy Sheehan and Nelson Mandela. And let’s not forget to ask my pal, Cliff Kindy, of the Christian Peacekeeper Team http://www.cpt.org/archives/summer00.php and fifty-five other brave activists why they were willing to incur incarceration when they crawled under the gate of U.S. Navy's Camp Garcia on DU-contaminated Vieques Island, Puerto Rico in May, 2000.

Whether it’s going to prison for protesting genocidal wars of aggression that violate international laws, or fighting against apartheid, or protesting the permanent wasting of an entire Caribbean island with the military’s radioactive poison weapons (on an inhabited island at that)? Sometimes one has to stand up for one’s right to breathe clean air *minus* radiation, thank-you-very-much.

When I entered Maryland House Rep Elijah Cumming’s office yesterday and started revealing to the crowd of Marylanders the actual truth about Uncle Sam’s “dirtiest” secrets of all - the use of Depleted Uranium inside the United States? Well, I forgot all about the de-lousing for a few minutes and spoke with conviction that poured from my anguished heart.

Nobody in that room that day will ever be quite the same again.

Talking about the subject of radiological weapons of war being used inside Maryland that day in a Congressional legislator’s office, my face turning beet red out of anger, I became light-headed and realized I was on the verge of passing out. I could tell that my deep crimson pallor was horrifying the crowd of mostly retired, citizens-turned-lobbyists-for-a-day who had merely come to Washington to politely ask for better emission controls and more sustainable sources of energy.

I said my piece - and made my peace - at least within my own conscience. I had done my civic duty of ranting upon a legislative aid (who actually looked both shocked and ashamed at the same time). I had informed an un-knowing crowd of Marylanders - who had certainly gotten far, far more of an earful (and a show) than they’d ever bargained for … hearing the most inconvenient truth about the radioactive poison gas activities taking place at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, the Army’s Developmental Test Command and Live-Fire Depleted Uranium “test” site near Baltimore that sits directly on our beloved Chesapeake Bay.

Next time, however, I will, in all certainty, scream a bit more loudly, show somewhat less self-restraint, and, in all likelihood, risk that incarceration. When I hit the Senate offices sometime soon, I vow in advance to brave that Summer’s Eve chemical shower while my fellow inmates - and Max - enjoy a mighty good show.

Practice makes perfect for this woman-on-a-mission to stop the use of radioactive poison gas of innocent Afghanis, Iraqis, and Americans - All.

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Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, antiwar and anti-radiation activist, and a certified personal coach. Living in the shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation’s capital during the Washington, DC, federal work week. Cathy can be contacted at savorsuccesslady3@yahoo.com

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Cathy Garger: http://mytown.ca/garger/
Veterans for 9/11 Truth: www.V911T.org
Scholars for 9/11 Truth: www.ScholarsFor911Truth.org

Index on US Troops

Monday, March 12, 2007

by Sarah Meyer

Photo AFP / David Hurst
US Army soldiers from the 1-68 BCT receive instructions

1. According to Rumsfeld
2. Warning Signs
3. The ‘Surge’
4. Blowback
5. Walter Reed Disaster
6. Scrambling
7. One Day in Iraq
8. Surge II
9. Nero Fiddles
10. What, Exactly, Are We Here For?
11. Future Deaths
12. References

These selected articles focus on the plight of the US troops. The troops are sandwiched between the President Bush’s imperial fantasies and crocodile tears,control by the US Vice President, a rampantly ambitious Pentagon, corporate greed and a Congress that fails to understand the terrifying disaster in Iraq. And lies. The overall picture is of contempt by the US government towards the US troops, towards the American people - and, by extension, to the world.

1. According to Rumsfeld

US to reduce troop numbers in Iraq
23.12.05. ABC. Mr Rumsfeld said the reduction would take place by spring next year, taking the numbers of soldiers to the below the 138,000 that were in Iraq prior to the country's elections last week.

US in quiet U -turn on Iraq troop numbers
28.07.06. Luce / Daniel, FT.com. "The US administration has quietly reversed its goal from whittling down troop numbers in Iraq before the mid-term congressional elections in November. A Pentagon spokesman on Friday confirmed that US troop levels in Iraq rose to 132,000 during the past week – the highest since late May – from 127,000 at the start of the week. ... The rise will prompt fears that the US is becoming increasingly bogged down in an unwinnable conflict."

2. Warning Signs

Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan
20.12.04. Memory Hole.

A Soldier Speaks
04.08.05. C. De Leon, Alternet. Iraq combat veteran talks about his motivations for joining the army, the horrors of war and the anguish of returning home.

War Without End
04.06. J. Ryan, San Francisco Gate. More than 16,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded. Each injury ripples through lives with its own pattern and force. And as two soldiers and their families are discovering, the war will be with them forever.

CNN Reports Progress in Iraq: 100 attacks per day on US troops, Double 2004, Triple 2003
06.11.05. Save the USA.

Pentagon: U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 2,500
15.06.06. NBC.

A Broken, De-Humanized Military in Iraq
30.09.06. Dahr Jamail. “Another report released last weekend from the Veterans Health Administration found that over one third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment are reporting symptoms of stress or other metal disorders. This is a tenfold increase in the last 18 months alone.”

The US Occupation of Iraq: Casualties Not Counted
05.10.06. Dahr Jamail, Truth Out. “Civilian contractors in Iraq, though they are paid handsomely for their time there, are easily lost in a legal no-man's-land if tragedy strikes.” The story of Tim Eysselinck’s suicide.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression in Battle-Injured Soldiers
10.06. Report, American Journal of Psychiatry.
and see accompanying story: PTSD Can Take Months to Strike Wounded Iraq and Afghanistan Vets (06.10.06. Forbes)

VA Takes Nine Months to Locate Data on Disability Claims by Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
10.10.06. National Security Archive. “Report Indicates that 1 in 4 Veterans of the Global War on Terrorism Claim Disabilities. … newly released data suggests official estimates dramatically understate the future cost of the current Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. If the current trend continues, then VA could receive as many as 400,000 disability claims from the 1.6 million deployed active duty and reserve service members in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT).”

• Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among Veterans Deployed to the Global War on Terrorism (PDF document)
See VBA Report 20.07.06.

Montana Guardsmen bring home hidden wounds
16.10.06. E. Newhouse, Great Falls Tribune. "Every one of my guys (patients) except one from the 163rd witnessed IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," said Keli Remus of Chinook Winds Counseling in Great Falls. "All were shot at or have shot others," he said. "All had at least heard of rapes." Meanwhile, “Television images of Americans fighting — and dying — in Iraq are traumatizing Vietnam veterans all over again. See other stories from Montana Great Falls Tribune Newspaper.

Vet Centers see escalating demand for help as troops return
18.10.06. D. Goldstein, McClatchey.

Troops With Stress Disorders Being Redeployed
19.10.06. CBS. The cases of Bryce Syverson and Jason Gunn. Video.

Mind games, part 1: The things they carry
24.10.06. N. Goldstein, Raw Story. PART I, The things they carry: Mental health disorders among returning troops

(And in the UK ... )
One dead, four lives ruined: the true cost of war in Iraq (05.11.06. A. MacMillan, Scotsman) ‘In a tragic and moving illustration of the deep crisis facing Britain's armed services, a Scotland on Sunday investigation has found that four of the six soldiers who bore the coffin of a colleague shot dead in Iraq are either quitting in disgust or are on long-term sick leave and likely to quit.’

Iraq Study Group Report: the Way Forward – A New Approach To 06.12.06.

About Face: Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal
18.12.06. M. Cooper, Nation / ICH. For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

US soldiers' suicide rate in Iraq doubles in 2005
19.12.06. Reuters/NBC. Twenty-two U.S. soldiers in Iraq took their own lives in 2005, a rate of 19.9 per 100,000 soldiers. In 2004, the rate was 10.5 per 100,000 and in 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the figure was 18.8 per 100,000. The figures cover U.S. Army soldiers only. They do not include members of other U.S. military services in Iraq such as the Marine Corps.

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
20.12.06. Washington Post. U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health.

Iraq Vets Falling Through Health-Care Cracks
20.12.06. Forbes

Experts: Iraq vets wrongly diagnosed
24.12.06. Austin American Statesman.fairuse. Soldiers suffering from the stress of combat in Iraq are being misdiagnosed by military doctors as having a personality disorder, lawyers and psychologists say, which allows them to be quickly and honorably discharged but stigmatizes them with a label that is hard to dislodge and can hurt them financially.

US soldiers exiting UH 60 Black Hawk

Soldiers and Imperial Presidents
03.01.06. Charles Sullivan, ICH. The vast majority of those who serve in the United States military probably do so with the best of intentions and with honor. The belief that they are defending their country from foreign attackers and doing their patriotic duty as citizens is persistently reinforced. Military service is one of America’s sacred cows; it is something that is rarely questioned and is surrounded by an invisible aura of nobility. No one, especially those who serve, wants to think of their time in the military as anything less than honorable and worthy of glorification.

But the trouble with sacred cows is that they tend to preclude critical examination and often escape the scrutiny of rational thinking and moral judgments. … Anyone considering military service should deliberate upon the promises proffered by recruiters with extreme skepticism. Recruiters are trained to exalt war as the highest expression of patriotism and love of country; when, in fact, it is often the most debasing expression of our humanity that makes a shallow mockery of real service to god and country. The war resister and the conscientious objector may be the true patriot. … Marketing militarism and war to society at large is no different than selling potato chips laced with trans-fats or carcinogenic chemicals

Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered
04.01.07. Aaron Glantz, anti-war. According to documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, 25 percent of veterans of the "global war on terror" have filed disability compensation and pension benefit claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration. … According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, service members with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder as a "treatable" problem.

Terrified Soldiers Terrifying People
09.01.07. D. Jamail, anti-war.com. "Dr. Dyni said disturbed soldiers were behind the worst atrocities. "Most murders committed by US soldiers resulted from the soldiers' fears."

About Face: Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal
18.12.06. M. Cooper, The nation / ICH.

Iraq Vets Falling Through Health-Care Cracks
20.12.06. Forbes.

Poll: US Troops lose confidence in Bush
02.01.07. Washington Times.

3. The ‘Surge’

"Surge: (OED) A high rolling swell of water, esp. on the sea; a large, heavy or violent wave … “

Rattled America will find it can't spin itself out of this one
05.01.07. Bob Ellis, The Age. GEORGE Bush will be hard put persuading three, four or five thousand American soldiers, marines and reservists who have already been there to go back to Iraq this year, to face 4 million Sunnis displeased by the Saddam hanging. Hard put too to persuade Nuri al-Maliki to stay in office, and stay alive, till they get there.

Presidents Address to the Nation
10.01.07. The New Way Forward in Iraq. Speech given on Troop Surge on national television. “America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.”

Pentagon Abandonning Its Limit on Total Active-Duty Time Required of Guard and Reserve
12.01.07. AP / ABC.

US Forces Order of Battle
Global Security (no date) Initial war plans for Iraq had an initial American invasion force of about 130,000 soldiers and Marines, which would drop quickly to as few as 30,000 to 50,000 by the end of 2003. … As of 01 March 2006 there were 133,000 US troops in Iraq, down from about 160,000 in December 2005. … By June 2006 the US had 14 combat brigades in Iraq, and a total of 127,000 troops. … According to a 25 June 2006 report in the New York Times, a draft plan calls for significant reductions in the American military presence in Iraq by the end of 2007. … There were about 152,000 US troops in Iraq as of early October 2005. As of mid-November 2006, there were approximately 152,000 US troops deployed to Iraq. … On January 11, 2007, the Department of Defense announced, as part of President Bush's new strategy for Iraq, the following force adjustments which would result building the capacity available to commanders to 20 brigade or regimental combat teams.

Steve Bell, Guardian (11.01.07)

At Fort Benning, a Quiet Response to a Presidential Visit
11.01.07. AP/Washington Post. 'To ensure that there would be no discordant notes here, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, the base commander, prohibited the 300 soldiers who had lunch with the president from talking with reporters.’

What the surge means
12.01.07. Boston Globe. Interview with (retired) Brig Gen. K. Ryan

Video.
Sacrifice. Keith Oberman. The “new” Bush policy of ‘sacrifice,’ is the work of neo-conservatives Jack Keane and Frederic W. Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute – another Israeli lobby. An American senator called the plan “Alice in Wonderland,” according to an article by Paul Craig Roberts in Counterpunch.


Symbolically, Baghdad plunges into darkness (10.01.07. Ali al-Mawsawi, Azzaman, uruk) “There is no electricity in Baghdad and the city of nearly 6 million people spends its nights in total darkness. … Nearly four years after the U.S. invasion, the country still has less electricity than under the former leader Saddam Hussein who was executed last month. It is not only Baghdad that is plunged into darkness. The national grid is so rickety that no province in the country now enjoys non-interrupted supplies.”

4. Blowback

Iraq war vets take their opposition to escalation to the airwaves
Wavy.com.

AN APPEAL FOR REDRESS
1341 Active Duty, Reserve, and Guard personnel have now signed the appeal! Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The first Appeal signatures messages will be were delivered to members of Congress on January 16, to coincide with at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007. The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and simple. It is patriotic and respectful in tone. As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

Iraq vets' suicide rate soars. Video and Report. (15.01.07. Channel 4 news report)

Johnny Got His Gun
15.01.07. William Blum, Counterpunch. A report on how US govn. uses soldiers as Death Fodder.

The True Face Of This Administration Fully Revealed
16.01.07. Daily Kos. in the middle of the NYT article headed "Pressure Builds Over Plan for Troop Increase" is the following report … The article quoted a comment by a senior administration official that was outrageous. So appalling was it, and so revealing about the mindset behind the White House political tactics, that I cannot imagine in any other democracy that the person who made this statement would not immediately be told to resign from his non-elected high office of influence.

Bush Vs. War Powers Act
17.01.07. C. Nelson, Oh My News. ‘War Powers Act .. is very precise in the conditions it sets out for military deployments. Section 5 (b) puts a time limit of no longer than 90 days for the use of United States Armed Forces in a foreign nation without a declaration of war or a joint resolution of Congress otherwise authorizing the use of force.

"On the question as to who has ultimate say so, Section 5(c) of the War Power Resolution makes this crystal clear, stating, "Notwithstanding subsection (b), at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution." In other words, Congress can mandate the removal of troops at anytime, if there has not been a formal declaration of war. The required formal resolution to allow the use of Armed Forces to into Iraq was Public Law 107-243, passed by the 107th Congress on Oct. 16, 2002. The resolution accused Iraq of harboring people responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Congress also concluded that "Iraq's continuing weapons of mass destruction programs threatened vital United States interests and international peace and security," and declared Iraq to be in "material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations" and urged the President “to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations."

In short, the authorization of force was based on the Weapons of Mass destruction theory, which was proven to be a lie based on old intelligence and Iraqi defectors. …

Once the justification for the Iraq resolution was found to be inaccurate and unsubstantiated, a new resolution for the immediate removal of our troops should have been issued by Congress, and a congressional hearing and investigation for gross misconduct and even possible criminal charges against Rumsfeld, Powell, Cheney and Bush himself should have been started.

The framers of the Constitution made clear that the United States Congress has the ultimate say so, and the War Powers Act merely reinforces that authority."

June 2006 Photo : Time
Double amputee Sgt. Christian Bagge prepares to jog with President Bush

A Grim Milestone: 500 Amputees
18.01.07. Time.com. The giant transport planes unload their sad cargo at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, the first stop home for the most seriously injured Americans of the Iraq war. Arriving virtually every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday nights for the past four years, the parade of wounded warriors may be one of the most predictable events in an otherwise unruly conflict.

Sick, Literally, of Fighting in Iraq
Aaron Glanz. ‘I don't know what happened to him in Iraq, but he came home very distressed," Tileston told Inter Press Service (IPS) from her home in Stanford, Kentucky. Tileston said her son had scars on the back of his head that he refused to talk about. When he was supposed to return to nearby Fort Campbell on Jan. 31 for a second tour in Iraq, he disappeared.’

Iraq Vets Come Home Physically, Mentally Butchered
Aaron Glanz. “New guidelines released by the Pentagon released last month allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, servicemembers with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder as a "treatable" problem.

Tomgram: Adam Hochschild, Over the Top in Iraq
21.01.07. Hochschild, Tomgram. The longer the war in Iraq goes on, and the more American troops are planted by Big Pushes in a highly combustible part of the world, the more we will continue to stoke a widespread humiliation and anger whose consequences are already guaranteed to haunt us for decades to come.

The first batch of US troops to Baghdad arrives
22.01.07. KBC

Soldiers Against Iraq Desert To Canada
25.01.07. CBS News

Head of Iraqi army: U.S. troops will be able to withdraw by 2008
26.01.07. IHT. ‘MOST” Troops, he said.

Warrior's Walk

‘Warriors Walk’ out of room
26.01.07. ASP / Army Times.

Unstable Gulf war veteran killed family
30.01.07. M. Wainwright, Guardian. UK horror.

Young Marine Dies of PTSD – and neglect
31.01.07. Bob Geiger, Alternet. ‘He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.’ Sere also comments.

Judge: Doctor Can't Treat Terrorists
31.01.07. AP / Guardian. Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, an Ivy League-educated doctor, had argued it was unconstitutional to prosecute a doctor for providing medical services.

He was arrested in May 2005 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., accused in a plot to assist terrorist organizations along with a New York jazz musician, a Brooklyn bookstore owner and a former Washington, D.C., cabdriver.

SENATOR ASKS VA TO EXPLAIN MARINE SUICIDE
01.02.07. Air Force Times.

Care for U.S. veterans could cost $662 bln: study
02.02.07. Reuters / Boston.com. Medical costs for U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could range from $350 billion to $662 billion over the next 40 years, as soldiers survive injuries that would have killed them in past conflicts, according to a Harvard University study.

Cost of troop surge already higher
01.02.07. McClatctchy. President Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq will cost as much as $10 billion this year, triple the administration's price tag, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. A CBO report requested by three House committee chairmen said the Bush administration's estimated cost of $3.2 billion doesn't take into account a complement of 15,000 to 28,000 support troops and other personnel, which it said will boost the cost significantly. … The troop increase will cost an extra $7 billion to $10 billion this year alone, with the price tag reaching $49 billion if the added forces remain in Iraq for two years, according to the CBO analysis.

Army division orders departing soldiers to stay put
01.02.07. Savannah now.

US troops will stay in Iraq, and the war will get worse
01.02.07. Harriman, Guardian. Bush and Baker agree that the country is much too important to American interests (oil?) to be left to its own devices

Surge could actually total 50,000
02.02.07. Army Times.

More IRR marines face involuntary call up
02.02.07. Marine Corps Times.

US Reconfigures the way casualty totals are given
02.02.07. DENISE GRADY, NY Times.

Soldiers in Iraq view troop surge as a lost cause
03.02.07. T. LASSSETER, MCCLATCHY/Common Dreams.

Bush: Military Commitment In Iraq Not Open-Ended
03.02.07. CBS.

Troops return to painful wait for needed help
05.02.07. Weaver / McGovern, ICH Blog. The California Nurses Association reported that in the first quarter of 2006, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "treated 20,638 Iraq veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, and they have a backlog of 400,000 cases." A returning soldier has to wait an average of 165 days for a VA decision on initial disability benefits, and an appeal can take up to three years.

Cost of troop buildup not in budget
06.02.07. Peter Spiegel, LA Times.

Why I fled George Bush's war
07.02.07. J. Key, Macleans. What happened to make a patriotic, gung-ho soldier desert the U.S. army, and turn against the war in Iraq. EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

Boston Globe

Told to wait, a Marine dies
11.02.07. Boston.Globe. VA care in spotlight

VA comes up short for Iraq vets
11.02.07. McClatchy / Seattle Times. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing a wave of returning veterans such as Bowman who are struggling with memories of a war where it's hard to distinguish innocent civilians from enemy fighters and where the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombs haunts the most routine mission. Since 2001, about 1.4 million Americans have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations in the war on terror.
The VA counts post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as the most prevalent mental-health malady to emerge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story itemises the failures of the Dept of Vet Affairs in helping returning soldiers

Waivers to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds double from 2003 to 2006
13.02.07. Raw Story / Global Research. ‘In Wednesday's New York Times, Lizette Alvarez notes that "the number of waivers the military granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has nearly doubled in the past three years, jumping to more than 8,000 in 2006 from about 4,900 in 2003, Department of Defense records show."

U.S. to pay long-term price of war wounds Estimate pegs costs at $350 billion
14.02.07. Dogen Hannah, MEDIANEWS STAFF.

41% Percent of Your (US) 2006 Taxes Go to War
15.02.07. Friends Committee on National Legislation

US Ill-Equipped to Deal With Wave of Troubled Vets
15.02.07. Aaron Glantz.

The Forgotten Families
16.02.07. D. St. George, Washington Post. Grandparents Raising Slain Soldiers' Children Are Denied A Government Benefit Intended to Sustain the Bereaved.

Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded
16.02.07. Washington Post. Department of Veterans Affairs doctors are furious over a recent decision by the Pentagon to block their access to medical information needed to treat severely injured troops arriving at VA hospitals from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA physicians handle troops with serious brain injuries and other major health problems. They, rely on digital medical records that track the care given wounded troops from the moment of their arrival at a field hospital through their evacuation to the United States.

US Army to send unit to Iraq 3 months early
16.02.07. alertnet. Iraq Troop Boost Erodes Readiness, General Says.

Iraq Troop Boost Erodes Readiness, General Says
16.02.07. A. Scott Tyson, Washington Post. 'Outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said yesterday that the increase of 17,500 Army combat troops in Iraq represents only the "tip of the iceberg" and will potentially require thousands of additional support troops and trainers, as well as equipment - further eroding the Army's readiness to respond to other world contingencies.

Wounded and Waiting
17.02.07. K. Kennedy, Marine Times. A slow medical evaluation leaves many injured troops in limbo.

Long Iraq Tours Can Make Home a Trying Front
23.02.07. L. Alvarez, New York Times.

Battle Worn
25.02.07. P. Span, Washington Post. After he was injured in Iraq, Richard Twohig found himself fighting an unexpected foe: the U.S. Army.

IG Report
IG finds 87 problems with medical retirement
26.02.07. Army Times.

Critics: Army holding down disability ratings
27.02.07. Army Times.

Report: Mental health system overwhelmed
27.02.07. Army Times. 40% of Army, Navy psych jobs vacant.

In Iraq, a head wound isn't always a trip home
27.02.07. MSNBC. Military personnel with brain injuries pressured to return quickly to duty

How the war on terror made the world a more terrifying place
28.02.07. Sengupta / Cockburn, Independent / ICH. 'An authoritative US study of terrorist attacks after the invasion in 2003 contradicts the repeated denials of George Bush and Tony Blair that the war is not to blame for an upsurge in fundamentalist violence worldwide. The research is said to be the first to attempt to measure the "Iraq effect" on global terrorism. It found that the number killed in jihadist attacks around the world has risen dramatically since the Iraq war began in March 2003.'

5. Walter Reed Disaster

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
18.02.07. D. Priest / A. Hull, Washington Post.

This Is No Way to Treat a Wounded Warrior
24.02.07. A. McFeeters, Boston Herald / Truth Out. Walter Reed Hospital's flaws are indefensible. A day at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is an eye-opener - about our soldiers, our government generally and the Bush administration. . I visited the renowned hospital after The , ashington Post exposed serious problems at the center, where as many as one-fourth of our injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan are treated.

Administrative Issues Cited at Walter Reed
25.02.07. S. Vogel, Washington Post. Report From Long-Running Army Probe Notes Problems; Official Orders Fixes.

A Firsthand Report on the Wounds of War
27.02.07. H. Kurtz, Washington Post. Bob Woodruff Indicts Military For Its Response to Veteran.

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet
28.02.07. Army Times/democratic underground

Military press Crackdown Extends Further Than Walter Reed
28.02.07. Editor and Publisher.


Supporting the Troops: "Shut Up and Suffer"
28.02.07. Chris Floyd, uruknet. 'Because some soldiers were ballsy enough to tell the press about the callous way the Bush gang treats the cannon fodder it sends off to die, kill, maim and be maimed in a useless, pointless, illegal, corrupt, immoral, murderous, mismanaged war, now all the soldiers in Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit are being subjected to a punishment regimen – and banished to an area where they will be inaccessible to the press.'

Troops Defy Orders To Shut Up
28.02.07. Thomas Barton, GI Special 5B28.

Top officials knew of neglect at Walter Reed
01.03.07. MSNBC. Complaints about medical center were voiced for years.

Army denies patients face daily inspections
01.03.07. Army Times/Democratic Underground

US army hospital chief removed from post
02.03.07. New Zealand Herald. r General George Weightman, head of the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, was informed that Army leaders had lost confidence "in his abilities to address needed solutions for soldier outpatient care," an Army statement said.

Notes on our 'family and friends' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
01.03.07. Kentucky Courier Journal. Hundreds of soldiers maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing average stays of 10 months at Walter Reed, but some have been there for as long as two years. They're all struggling to recover from brain

ARMY CASUALTY PROGRAM
02.03.07. Secrecy News. The somber duties associated with official reporting of U.S. Army casualties, including notification of survivors, are spelled out in exhaustive detail in a new Army regulation. See Army Casualty Program,"Army Regulation AR 600-8-1 (February 28, 2007)

Switch to private maintenance company may have left Walter Reed Army Medical Center understaffed
11.03.07. Washington Post /amny. The scandal over dilapidated housing for outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has focused attention on the decision to replace Army employees who maintained the hospital with a contractor connected to the Bush administration and to a Halliburton subsidiary. ... Some Democratic lawmakers have questioned hiring IAP Worldwide Services, which won a $120-million contract last year to maintain and operate Walter Reed facilities.

VA ordering review of 1,400 clinics after Walter Reed controversy
12.03.07. H. Yen, AP . boston com. 'Meanwhile, a new Army inspector general's report released Monday blamed poor training and conflicting policies among the Army and the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments for problems in how injured soldiers are evaluated for their return to military service or retirement.'

Photo Eric Gray
Seargant F. Fields and Staff Sgt. B. Alexander at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas (01.03.07)

And in the UK?
Scandal of treatment for wounded Iraq veterans
11.03.07. N. Temko / M. Townsend, 11.03.07. Observer. · Soldiers 'denied proper hospital care' · Letters reveal anguish of families See also: The fresh agonies of our returning soldiers (Observer 11.03.07). Following, there was anger of the maimed Iraq heroes forced to pay for medical care

UPDATE:
3rd Official Out in Walter Reed Scandal
13.03.07. NBC. Army surgeon general Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is under fire in the controversy over care of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, will resign.

UPDATE
Where Walter Reed Looks Pretty Good
13.03.07. Tom Paine. But I’d like to point out that there are thousands of casualties of the Iraq War who would be grateful to be in Building 18 and receiving even second-rate medical care. Those are Iraqi civilians—the collateral damage of a vengeful, brainless military venture. These are people who didn’t volunteer to invade another country, and who have had no way to avoid the consequences of war. . While 90 percent of American battlefield casualties are being saved by a combination of organization and the very best trauma equipment and training, local Iraqis have no such advantage. Iraqi civilians are not in constant contact with helicopter-borne medical teams, field hospitals and a chain of treatment, airlifts and follow-up care.

6. Scrambling The Surge

Mercenaries to fill Iraq troop gap
24.02.07. B. Brady, Scotsman.

Rice Says Bush Won't Abide By Legislation To Limit Iraq War
25.02.07. kotv.

Two Army Units Will Forgo Desert Training
27.02.07. R. Burns, AP / Truth Out. 'Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases.

Military chiefs give US six months to win Iraq war
28.02.07. S. Tisdall, The Guardian. Violence expected to rise after UK withdrawal · Troop numbers too low · Coalition is 'disintegrating'

Snow: Troops 'rushed' to Iraq due to Bush 'surge' can get their desert training 'in theater'
28.02.07. Ron Brynaert, Raw Story. Earlier today, AP military writer Robert Burns reported that "[r]ushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases."

U.S. builds Baghdad garrisons to fight violence
05.03.07. Reuters / Sign On San Diego. Petraeus brainstorm. Troops are being moved from ‘sprawling bases’ (sic) to small outposts. More than a dozen have opened. ( Brill. And all that money given to Halliburton, KBR, Parsons ad nauseum for ZILCH?). Barry Lando picks up on this irony in his article, Total Withdrawal, Who Are You Kidding?

7. One Day in Iraq: March 6 2007

Attacks kill 112 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq 06.03.07. Habib al Zubaidi, Reuters Factbox: Security developments in Iraq, March 6 06.03.07. Another 73 killed as U.S. occupation grinds on: total of 25 bodies were found shot dead on Monday in different districts of Baghdad, police said. Mosul: Car bombs killing 5, wounding 18. … the story goes mercilessly on … Fear for Iraq crackdown as 12 U.S. soldiers die 06.03.07. Daily Mail. Afghan children die as US drops one-tonne bombs 06.03.07. J. Huggler, Independent. Nine civilians, including four children, were killed in Afghanistan when US planes dropped two 2,000lb bombs on their mud home. Their deaths came after at least eight civilians were killed by US Marines a day earlier. It has been a disastrous two days for the Americans in Afghanistan. Marines trying to get to safety after being ambushed by a suicide bomber sprayed gunfire wildly across one of the busiest roads in the country, killing passers-by. 9 GIs Killed By Roadside Bombs In Iraq 06.03.07. CBS. Elsewhere: 30 Bodies Found Around Baghdad; 38 Dead In Book Market Blast; Dozens Of Shiite Pilgrims Bush says gradual progress in Iraq despite violence 06.03.07. R. Cowen, Reuters/Washington Post.

8. ‘Surge’ II?

'Surge' needs up to 7,000 more troops
02.03.07. USA Today/ICH.

Shortages Threaten Guard's Capability
02.03.07. A.S. Tyson, Washington Post. 88 Percent of Units Rated 'Not Ready'

The Last Hot-Button Issue for the Bush Administration
06.03.07. Tom Engelhardt. Hostages to Policy.Tom Engelhardt writes: ‘According to a congressional staffer quoted in human-rights lawyer Scott Horton's No Comment newsletter, "This is Hurricane Katrina all over again. Grossly incompetent management and sweetheart contracts given to contractors with tight GOP connections. There will be enough blame to go around, but the core of the problem is increasingly clear: it's political appointees near the center of power in the Pentagon who have spun the system for partisan and personal benefit. But they'll make a brigade of soldiers and officers walk the plank to try to throw us off the scent."

Vermont: 36 towns call for impeachment probe of president
06.03.07. Vermont Guardian.

Pentagon will likely shift funds to pay for more troops
06.03.07. McClatchy / antiwar.com

When a Leader Missteps, a World Can Go Astray
06.03.07. Michiko Kakytani, NY Times / ICH. Mr. Brzezinski’s verdict on the current president’s record — “catastrophic,” he calls it — is nothing short of devastating. And his overall assessment of America’s current plight is worrying as well: - Fifteen years after its coronation as global leader, America is becoming a fearful and lonely democracy in a politically antagonistic world.”

Pentagon raises estimate of troops for Iraq
07.03.07. Reuters/smh.

At least 110 pilgrims die in suicide attacks as US admits extra 7,000 troops may go to Iraq
07.03.07. I. Black, Guardian. · Army says more soldiers needed for Baghdad surge · Latest assault echoes attack on Samarra shrine

Paul Craig Roberts asks: How Much More Harm Can Bush Do? (07.03.07, anti-war.com)

Buildup in Iraq Needed Into ’08, U.S. General Says
08.03.07. D. Cloud, NY Times / antiwar.com

Beyond Quagmire
09.03.07. T. Dickenson, Rolling Stone / ICH. A panel of experts convened by Rolling Stone agree that the war in Iraq is lost. The only question now is: How bad will the coming explosion be? "The war in Iraq isn't over yet, but -- surge or no surge -- the United States has already lost. That's the grim consensus of a panel of experts assembled by Rolling Stone to assess the future of Iraq. "Even if we had a million men to go in, it's too late now," says retired four-star Gen. Tony McPeak, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. "Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again."

Bush sends new Iraq budget request to US Congress
10.03.07. Reuters / Washington Post. It will cost about $3 billion to send extra U.S. troops to Iraq in support of the 21,500 already being deployed under President George W. Bush's reworked war strategy, the White House said on Saturday.

Pentagon Struggles to Find Fresh Troops
10.03.07. L. Baldor, AP . Huffington Post.

Bush: 8,200 More Troops Needed for Wars
11.03.07. D. Riechmann, AP /Guardian. President Bush asked Congress on Saturday for $3.2 billion to pay for 8,200 more U.S. troops needed in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of the 21,500-troop buildup he announced in January

Video
09.02.07. Channel 4 - News - On patrol with the 'surge'

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq
11.03.07. M. Benjamin, Salon.com. At Fort Benning, soldiers who were classified as medically unfit to fight are now being sent to war. Is this an isolated event or ia trend?

Bush asks Congress for even more Iraq troops
12.03.07. E. MacAskill, Guardian. President George Bush has asked Congress for an extra 8,000 troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the 21,500 reinforcements announced two months ago.

Netanyahu: Attack on Iran 'last resort'
12.03.07. Jerusalem Post. At an AIPAC speech, Cheney said that failure in Iraq would endanger Israel. .. Cheney warned of "chaos and mounting danger," as well as a strengthened Iran and emboldened terrorists - in the case of an early American withdrawal from Iraq.

Fallback strategy for Iraq: Train locals, draw down forces
12.03.07. Barnes / Spiegal, LA Times. From legitgov newsletter : 'If the current 'surge' fails, planners suggest relying on 'advisors' [death squads] as the U.S. did in El Salvador in the 1980s. By Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel 12 Mar 2007 American military planners have begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq in case the current troop buildup fails or is derailed by Congress. Such a strategy is based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s [...], according to military officials and Pentagon consultants who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing future plans. Years after, the U.S. role in El Salvador remains controversial. Some academics have argued that the U.S. military turned a blind eye to government-backed death squads, or even aided them.' Now see Time magazine story, The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq and researched articles on such 'teams' at The BRussels Tribunal

A Quarter of US War Vets Diagnosed With Mental Disorder: Study
12.03.07. Agence France / Truth Out. Has Anyone Done a Study on the Mental Disorder in the White House and US government - and perhaps On The Hill as well?

9. Nero Fiddles

Bush Suffers First Iraq Defeat in Congress
17.02.07. J. Lobe, anti-war. 'In a significant defeat for President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives Friday voted 246 to 182 to "disapprove" his plan to add an estimated 30,000 U.S. troops to the 140,000 marines and soldiers already deployed in Iraq. Seventeen Republicans voted with the majority Democrats to approve the nonbinding resolution.

Baghdad on the Potomac?
20.02.07. Townhall. 'Both houses of Congress have now gone on record opposing Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Yet neither house is willing to end U.S. involvement by cutting off funding for the war.'

Contempt (Oxford English Dictionary): ‘The action of despising; the mential action in which a thing is of little account, or as vile and worthless; dishonour, disgrace. Object of contempt: disobedience or open disrespect to the authority or lawful commands of the sovereign, the priviledges of (the) legislative body; and especially action of any kind that interferes with the proper administration of justice by the various courts of law.

V.P Dick Cheney

Does Cheney ‘Validate’ al-Qaeda?
01.03.07. Consortium. Vice President Dick Cheney says he stands by his accusation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq would “validate the al-Qaeda strategy.” And he apparently thinks he got the better of this latest war of words. Cheney has another undemocratic rant whilst speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Here is an example of US/Cheney 'take' on patriotism: "Anyone can say they support the troops and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it's time to provide the money."

Waxman to Force Walter Reed Ex-Chief to Talk About problems
02.03.07. Rood / Schechter, ABC/LEGITGOV. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wants to ask Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman about a contract to manage the medical center awarded to a company that had documented troubles fulfilling a government contract to deliver ice to victims of Hurricane Katrina. According to a letter from Waxman to Weightman posted today on the committee's Web site, the chairman believes the Walter Reed contract may have pushed dozens of health care workers to leave jobs at the troubled medical center, which he says in turn threatened the quality of care for hundreds of military personnel receiving treatment there. In the letter, Waxman charged that the Army used an unusual process to award a five-year, $120 million contract to manage the center to a company owned by a former executive of Halliburton.

Democrats Alter Plan To Restrict Iraq War
06.03.07. J. Weisman, Washington Post / ICH. Senior House Democrats, seeking to placate members of their party from Republican-leaning districts, are pushing a plan that would place restrictions on President Bush's ability to wage the war in Iraq but would allow him to waive them if he publicly justifies his position.

Democrats demand troops out of Iraq by 2008
08.03.07. MacAskill / Borger, Guardian. · Bold new strategy would veto war funding · Bush faces dilemma over withdrawal timetable

Iraq: Pulled Out Or Pushed Out
09.03.07. R. Dreyfuss, Tome Paine. Two parliaments, half a world away from each other, struggled with calls to end the war in Iraq yesterday. In Washington, Democrats in the U.S. Congress ended weeks of squabbling to settle on the outlines of a legislative plan to end the war no later than August, 2008, and perhaps sooner. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, a new constellation of political parties is beginning to take shape in the Iraqi parliament, united around the idea of asking U.S. forces to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Tremendous obstacles stand in the way of pro-peace forces both in Congress and in Iraq’s parliament, but if I had to guess, I’d bet that the Iraqis will ask the United States to get out of Iraq long before Congress can force the issue.

Pelosi Cautions Bush Not to Veto an Iraq Bill
11.03.07. C. Hulse, NY Times.

10. What, Exactly, Are We Dying For?

Further Contempt?

Life Distilled
"The Defense Department made the photos public with few dates or locations and little context, making it unclear whether the individuals in any of the hundreds of pictures died in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere. The faces of soldiers accompanying the coffins were blacked out."

Return of the Fallen
28.04.05. National Security Archive. PENTAGON RELEASES HUNDREDS MORE WAR CASUALTY HOMECOMING IMAGES. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT FORCES OPENING OF 360 NEW PHOTOS

What, Exactly, Are We Dying For?
26.10.06. Ronn Cantu, IVAW. ‘I think it was after my first firefight in Iraq, I've forgotten the exact time and date but it was after midnight one day in April 2004, that I first asked myself, “What, exactly, did we almost die for?” It seemed to me at the time that there was never a plan. What was our mission exactly? What was our goal? What, exactly, were we there to accomplish? Why were soldiers dying?’

Pentagon alters how wounded are calculated
02.02.07. D. Grady, NY Times/ICH. Statistics on a Pentagon Web site have been reorganized in a way that lowers the published totals of American nonfatal casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An Open Letter to America's Soldiers from the Ranks The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg
07.02.07. TONY SWINDELL, Counterpunch. Crimes Listed by the Nuremberg Standard of 1947: a war of aggression, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for its accomplishment; murder or ill-treatment of civilian populations in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war; plunder of public or private property; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; c! rimes against humanity such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war. Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah, the rape of Lebanon, the concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza, clandestine prisons, the Iraq embargo of the 1990s, Halliburton, and Black Water. There are more, but these will suffice to compare against the Nuremberg Standard. It will not be a difficult task. For example, start with Halliburton and the plunder of public (American taxpayers') property.

Pentagon Lies with Stats
10.02.07. Boston Herald, Editorial. Archive. 'The Pentagon is playing a shameful numbers game and this week in Washington Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) blew the whistle on it. . One set of “official” numbers for troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq lists the figure at about 23,000. But the actual number of those injured in those two theaters of operation is more than double that - around 53,000.' For NY Times Abstract, see here

Number of US troops killed in Iraq breaks record
11.02.07. The Int. News. ‘More US troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months, at least 334 through Jan 31, than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records. Not since the bloody battle for Fallujah in 2004 has the death toll spiked so high. It is not possible to fully track the trend in bomb-caused deaths by month. The US military considers such information secret because it is considered potentially useful to the insurgents and their backers.… Now, under a new approach announced by Bush on Jan 10, US troops will be paired up with Iraqi brigades in each of nine districts across Baghdad, rather than operating mainly from large US bases.’ some further interesting details given.

U.S. deaths in Afghanistan, region
21.02.07. AP / Boston. As of Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007, at least 305 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. TheDefense Department last updated its figures Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007. . Of those, the military reports 193 were killed by hostile action.

Unacceptable death toll in Iraq, say Americans
28.02.07. Angus Reid. 77% of respondents believe the number of U.S. military casualties and Iraqi civilian casualties has been unacceptable.

US commanders admit: we face a Vietnam-style collapse
01.03.07. Simon Tisdall, Guardian/uruk.net. Elite officers in Iraq fear low morale, lack of troops and loss of political will.

The Mother of an Iraq War Vet Responds
01.03.07. T. Richards, Counterpunch. Demoralizing the troops.
Those were the words that inspired me to challenge Orin Hatch (R-UT) in the Senate hearing a few weeks ago. Those were the words that echoed so loudly in my mind I couldn't, no, I wouldn't stay silent.

Operation Iraq Freedom US Casualty Status (02.03.07)

Malaise from Iraq spreads
03.03.07. FT.

From Serving in Iraq To Living on the Streets
05.03.07. C. Davenport, Washington Post. Homeless Vet Numbers Expected to Grow.

How Many More Americans Must Die?
06.03.07. D. Thompson, Capitol Hill Blue/ VAIW. Nine more U.S. soldiers died in Iraq today: Nine too many in a war that should never have been launched by a President who lied with the approval of a Congress that failed to do its due diligence because both Democrats and Republicans abandoned their oath to the Constitution of the United States.

REPORT: 72 Percent Of Army Brigades Have Served Multiple Tours of Duty
07.03.07. Think Progress.

Not Found
"The requested URL /4 n/US Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,168 Soldiers Killed Directly, But 3,968 When Adding Pentagon Contractors.htm was not found on this server."

Number of US troops killed in Iraq breaks record
09.03.07. The Int. News. ‘More US troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months, at least 334 through Jan 31, than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records. Not since the bloody battle for Fallujah in 2004 has the death toll spiked so high. It is not possible to fully track the trend in bomb-caused deaths by month. The US military considers such information secret because it is considered potentially useful to the insurgents and their backers.… Now, under a new approach announced by Bush on Jan 10, US troops will be paired up with Iraqi brigades in each of nine districts across Baghdad, rather than operating mainly from large US bases.’ some further interesting details given.

Iraq: The Hidden Cost of The War
09.03.07. New Statesman / ICHblog. America won't simply be paying with its dead. The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion.

Lift the Curtain
10.03.07. B. Herbert, NYTimes / ICH. Neglect, incompetence, indifference, lies. Why in the world is anyone surprised that the Bush administration has not been taking good care of wounded and disabled American troops?

Volunteer Soldiers Devastated by iraq Weren't 'Asking For It'
10.03.07. S. Bannerman, Alternet. "They volunteered, didn't they?" is a common sneering response to the stories about National Guardsmen whose lives were destroyed by Iraq -- the truth is that going to war is not what they signed up for.

How the US is Courting Disaster in Iraq
10.03.07. P. Bidwai, Khalee Taimes. THE United States’ political-military failure in Iraq will have terrible consequences for the entire world. And the US seems to be failing-badly. . While its occupation forces continue their anti-insurgent offensive, Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s government appears shaky. Its collapse will signify the US’s greatest political failure in Iraq. This could happen if Al Maliki yields to US pressure to end his dependence on Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr. . The recent raid by coalition troops on the interior Ministry’s intelligence headquarters has further embarrassed the embattled Prime Minister. Their "security sweep" in Baghdad and Anbar province has had extremely limited success.

41% Percent of Your 2006 Taxes Go to War

11. Future Deaths: Radiation & DU

Iraqi children born deformed

DU Death Toll Tops 11,000
29.10.06. James Tucker, American Free Press. Nationwide Media Blackout Keeps U.S. Public Ignorant About This Important Story. The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 soldiers.

Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq
05.11.06. Scott Peterson, Global Research.

Is Depleted Uranium the suspect behind Military Suicides?
19.11.06. G. Mitchell, uruknet. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become an epidemic amongst soldiers/sailors serving and veterans who have returned from the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reasons are being depicted as purely psychological, but this seems to be very misleading.

Army made video warning about dangers of depleted uranium but never showed it to troops
06.02.07. David Edwards, Raw Story.

IRAQ WAR LIES AND MENDACIOUS JOURNALISTS
(UNSIGNED, 14.02.07. Free Market News. Here is an ignorant and irresponsible article by the 'right-wing' press.

Depleted Uranium: Pernicious Killer Keeps on Killing
19.02.07. Craig Etchison, Truth Out. Discusses The Questions; What is DU and why is it a problem; Assessing the effects of DU; International Condemnation; Why Ignore the Evidence?. Following are 2 paragraphs from The Conclusions: 'I suspect the military-industrial complex will stonewall admitting the effects of DU for as long as possible to avoid accepting responsibility, not to mention liability, for their reckless actions. When John Hanchette, a founding editor of USA Today tried to publish stories about DU, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him to desist. He was later replaced at USA Today. The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health had his report on DU suppressed. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then a colonel in the U.S. Army, was asked to lie about the risks of DU to humans. So the stonewalling will continue, even as cancers rage among our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, even as our soldiers die, or commit suicide to escape the horrific pain, even as birth defects proliferate across Iraq and among our veterans.

But what of that? DU is a moneymaker for corporations like ATK. And turning DU into munitions helps the government solve a big problem-what to do with mountains of DU it must store and, by law, keep out of the environment. What better solution than giving it free to the munitions makers, who then sell the munitions back to Uncle Sam at a handsome profit? Everyone wins.

Nuclear Test Facility Avoids Penalties for Radiation Exposure
28.02.07. Daily Nexus.

See letter by Dai Williams in Camp Falcon: What Really Happened?

VIDEO POISON DUST. Poison DUst tells the story of young soldiers who thought they came home safely from the war, but didn't. Of a veteran's young daughter whose birth defect is strikingly similar to birth defects suffered by many Iraqi children. … Is there a cover-up?

Photo 1952

Livermore may lead labs in building new H-bomb
02.03.07. Inside Bay Area. First new 'replacement warhead' in 20 years to be announced today. See also article by Ralph Vartabebian

Feds Tried to Cut Aid
10.03.07. Rocky Mountain News / ICH. Federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from the Rocky Flats plant outside Denver, newly released documents show.

MEANWHILE

VIDEO. We Have Been Abandoned by Our Own Country. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. " ICH: ‘ You have to watch this video to understand, how little regard our government has for the welfare of its own citizens.’

Pack and pray. That's what they told us.'
Katrina victims evacuate FEMA park
05 Mar 2007. Time. legitgov writes: Dozens of families evacuated from a FEMA trailer park that had been plagued by sewage leaks and power outages [as in Iraq] were in temporary homes Monday, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had requested work permits to dismantle the site this week. Allsee Tobias lost his New Orleans home in Katrina's flooding and then was told to leave his Hammond trailer over the weekend. He and about 20 relatives, including 10 children, lived in four trailers, and were anxious about being split up. "Pack and pray. That's what they told us," he said. [ Lori writes: Katrina victims can 'pack and pray' while Bush's private contractors at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq can enjoy, at a budget of $923M per year, 'an ornate former Saddam Hussein palace with soaring ceilings and its own espresso bar.'

Ark. gov. 'frustrated' with tornado response
06.03.07. USA Today / legitgov. Beebe told reporters he did not understand why a federal declaration had not been made for Dumas, where a tornado wiped out dozens of homes and businesses last month.

World in Crisis; Candidates in Denial
06.03.07. S. Landau. Monkey Politics. Bush (is) spending $600 billion to prosecute his Iraq War, exceeding the amount spent on the Vietnam War. Bush says it (the prosecution of the Iraq War) is for security. He excludes national health from security, however. His proposed budget would slash almost $80 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over five years. Obviously, the long-range value of Middle East adventures outweighs health care for America's grandparents and its 50 million poor.

12. References

Aaron Glanz, How America Lost Iraq, Tarcher (Reprint), March 2006

The Deserter's Tale
Audio, ICH. US Soldier Joshua Key has told Tony Jones about his new book, which concludes that American soldiers were behaving like terrorists in the Iraq war, as a result of their training.

IRAQ WAR LIES AND MENDACIOUS JOURNALISTS
UNSIGNED, Free Market News, 14.02.07. An irresponsible and uneducated article by a person who should have had the courage to print their name.

Iraq veteran groups in the US
See left column.


PHOTOS AND ARTICLES

Armed Forces and Hadji Girl

UNSPEAKABLE GRIEF AND HORROR


VIDEOS / FILMS

How GI Resistance Altered the Course of History
03.04.06. P. Rockwell, In Motion Magazine. "Sir, No Sir," A timely film, premiers week of 4/3/2006.

Video Sir No Sir!

Video.
No Bravery. (4 min.)

Video Service members rally against the war in Iraq
15.01.07. McMicchale, Navy Times / Truth out. . Appeal for Redress.

Videos show Iraq war through troops' eyes.
20.02.06. L. Pulkkinen. Videos / urls for: may God have mercy on our soul; Kauder's video that he made for his fallen squad mate; G. Algozzini videos; iron pony express; Others. Good story.!!!

Video.
US_Soldiers_Run_an_Iraqi_Off_the_Road. It would probably be nice to check on the guy that you just caused to roll his truck. To see if he's, you know, dead or something.

Video. Support our Troops? Michael Parenti.

Video. On patrol with the ‘surge’ in Baghdad. Channel 4 News (09.02.07)

Video Women soldiers have died of dehydration to avoid late night trips to toilet. (10.03.05, Amy Goodman.

Video. The Deserter's Tale US Soldier Joshua Key has told Tony Jones about his new book, which concludes that American soldiers were behaving like terrorists in the Iraq war, as a result of their training.

Video.The Century of the Self. Part II, The Engineering of Consent


Video. Can you spell Impeachment?

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This article will also be seen at http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Meyer/UStroops.htm.

The url to Index on US Troops is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/03/index-on-us-troops.html or you can use http://tinyurl.com/23j8ea

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Other Iraq articles on Index Research:

US Bases in Iraq. Part I: Baghdad

US/UK Bases in Iraq. Part II. The South: Falcon-al-Sarq, Tallil, Shaibah

Iraqs US/UK Permanent Bases: Intentional Obfuscation

Iraq: The Occupation is the Disease

Iraq: Assassination of Academics: The Jalili Report

Prisons and Torture in Iraq

Victims of Violence

Iraq: Security Companies and Training Camps

See also:

Totalitarianism and Obedience
13.02.07. Sarah Meyer, Index Research. Updated.

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Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the UK

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Tags: Index Research, US Troops, trauma, Walter Reed, Congress, Iraq, DU, news and politics,