| January 28, 2007 | ||
| Sunday: 404 Iraqis, 5 GIs Killed; 173 Iraqis Injured; US Helicopter Shot Down | ||
| Updated at 10:15 p.m. EST, Jan. 28, 2007 In Iraq, at least 404 Iraqis were killed or found dead today and another 173 were injured in various attacks during the festival of Ashura. Three more American servicemembers were killed in separate incidents, and a U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two more soldiers as well. The U.S. military reported that a Marine died from wounds he received during combat in Anbar province. Roadside bombs killed a soldier and an MP in separate incidents north of Baghdad as well. Also, a U.S. helicopter was shot down near Najaf; no details about casualties were released. In Najaf, several clashes are taking place. Police are reporting that about at least 250 gunmen and three Iraqi soldiers have been killed and 21 soldiers have been injured. Six police officers were killed in the initial fighting. As many as 300 gunmen may have been killed in the clashes. Also, a U.S. helicopter supporting Iraqi forces was shot down as well. Many pilgrims heading to Karbala for the holy festival of Ashura are in the area. The holy festival of Ashura culminates on Tuesday. It marks several historical events, in particular the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson at Karbala. The last few years have seen increased violence associated with the holiday, which Shi'ite Muslims consider a solemn day of mourning. It also marks one of the divisions that separate Shi'ite Muslims from their Sunni brethren. In Baghdad, 54 unidentified bodies were found dumped in several locations. Five girls were killed and 21 others wounded when mortars fell on the Khalid secondary school in the Adil area; Adil has been the target of dozens of mortars rounds since Friday morning. In Sadr City, a car bomb near a market killed four people and injured 39 others; women were among the casualties. A bomb in a minibus killed one and wounded seven in an eastern neighborhood. At a Bayaa outdoor market, a bomb in a bag killed five and wounded 20, including children. A car bomb in the Qahira area killed two and wounded four others. At least eight other people were killed by a car bombs today. Also in the capital, an advisor to the Minister of Industry, Adel Abdel-Mohsen, two daughters and three companions were gunned down in the Yarmouk district. Earlier, an adviser for the Agriculture Ministry was also killed in the same area; four others in the vehicle also died. On a road south of the capital, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and four injured when gunmen attacked their patrol. At a busy market in Kirkuk, a car bomb killed eight and wounded 15 in a mixed Shi’ite-Kurd neighborhood. A suicide car bomber killed eight more and injured 19 near a warehouse in a mostly Kurd area. Two more people were killed by a roadside bomb. A bullet-riddled body was found outside of town. Two civilians were killed and four wounded in Fallujah when a bomb was exploded near a mosque. A roadside bomb injured three policemen. In Suwayra, three Iraqi soldiers were killed, four soldiers wounded and a militant injured during clashes. Three gunmen were killed in Ramadi, according to local tribal leaders. Two Iraqi children were killed when a mortar hit their school. In Iskandariya, two soldiers were killed and two injured when a taxi they were in was sprayed with gunfire. Two police officers received head injuries during a robbery in Duluiya that netted the thieves over 400 million dinars (US $300,000). Six gunmen were killed and four police officers were wounded during clashes in Mosul. A college student was killed and another person kidnapped. Mortars fell on Hilla where they killed ten people, mostly women and children. | ||
Monday, January 29, 2007
Another Deadly Day: 404 Iraqis, 5 GIs Die
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
What Is A Peace Voter To Do?
Jan 10, 2006
By Kevin Zeese
Interviews with Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson on next steps for the anti-war movement
The Iraq War and occupation is at a critical moment. The peace movement needs to be focused to face the challenges before us. This article will be the first in a series reporting on interviews of anti-war activists in order to develop a common agenda, strategy and tactics for the peace movement. This article summarizes interviews with Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson. (A link to the videos is at the bottom of this article.)
The anti-war movement has come a long way since its low point – the re-election of President Bush in 2004. Peace voters dominated the electorate in 2006 with the defeat of some leading Iraq War hawks, e.g., Sen. George Allen (VA) and Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) who were formerly talking about running for president. And, the leadership of the Congress changed hands from the Republicans to the Democrats. But now, there is talk of escalation in Iraq and the Democrats have taken the power of the purse – the only way they can end the war – off the table.
What is a peace voter to do?
Cindy Sheehan woke up the peace movement after the 2004 presidential election year when the movement went adrift quietly and in some cases aggressively supporting the “I can manage the war better” Kerry campaign. When she camped in a ditch outside of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford she awoke the peace movement and gave it direction, visibility and energy. I asked Cindy what peace activists should be doing now? Her response emphasized that we have the power – citizens opposed to the war must continue to lead the government out of Iraq. Rather than “building a movement” we should focus on taking action now – as successful actions result in expansion of the movement.
She also talked about the mistake she made of supporting a pro-war candidate like Sen. John Kerry and how she would not make that mistake again. She now believes that in order to get the government we want we need to vote for people who represent our views. She is supportive of Rep. Kucinich’s campaign and hopes he runs independently if he does not win the Democratic nomination. In the general election she will support the anti-war candidate and urged a third party challenge if Hillary Clinton, John McCain or other hawkish candidates.
Sheehan emphasized that it was time to make it clear to the Democrats that they would not be given a free ride. It is well and good to focus on health care, salaries and social programs but we cannot pay for such programs if we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Iraq. To ensure ending the Iraq war is a priority the peace movement needs to escalate our efforts against politicians from either party who continue to support the war. The key test is not opposing the escalation, that is not enough, elected officials must stop funding the war and bring the troops home. She urged visiting your elected representatives and sitting in their office until they agreed to end the war – occupy the offices of those who favor occupation of Iraq.
Cindy urged a “peace escalation” in response to talk by the administration about increasing the number of troops in Iraq. She began the peace surge on the opening day of Congress by taking over a press conference where Majority Leader Rahm Emanuel was speaking.
My second interview was with David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org. We talked at sunset outside of the White House as a demonstration was just getting started behind us. David is an untiring activist who has worked on both the Iraq War and impeachment of President Bush among other issues. While he urged activists to insist their elected representatives oppose the so-called surge, he said that was not enough and lets them off too easily. Elected officials need to stop the war and withdraw the troops. He talked about the need to withdraw the troops in ways that give Iraq a chance, i.e. funding the reconstruction, urging Iraqi’s to return home and underwrite the cost of a peace keeping or security force.
David described the demands the peace movement should make on Congress as falling in to two broad categories: stop the funding and begin withdrawal; investigate the misuse and manipulation of intelligence and other crimes.
David also talked about the “peace surge” and Cindy Sheehan’s takeover of a Democratic leadership press conference. He first described the effort by Capitol Hill police to keep anti-war activists from being information into the House office building. But, after going up the chain of command activists were allowed to bring in materials for Members and their staff. He then described the takeover of the press conference with Cindy leading a chant of “de-escalate, investigate, troops home now.” After a handful of chants Majority Leader Rahm Emanuel ran from the room and the media asked Cindy to take the podium and she responded to questions.
We are at a critical time in the Iraq War. There is a new Congress that knows the voters want the Iraq War to end. We sent a message that careers will be ended over the Iraq War. Politicians up for re-election don’t want to suffer the fate of Senators Allen and Santorum (there are 22 Republican Senators up for re-election in 2008 and 12 Democrats). Not only are President Bush, and some key senators (e.g., Senators McCain, Graham and Lieberman) calling for an increase of troops but there is also a lot of talk in the media about an attack on Iran.
The anti-war movement has shown it has political muscle, now it must work in a coordinated way to achieve our goals – end the Iraq War, prevent an attack on Iran and investigate those responsible for getting the U.S. into this mistaken quagmire.
You can see the full video interviews at: http://democracyrising.us/content/view/708/164/
Kevin Zeese is director of DemocracyRising.US and a co-founder of VotersForPeace.US.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Video: Kennedy speaks on his stop the surge bill
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) speaks at the National Press Club about his legislation to require congressional approval before President Bush can escalate the war in Iraq.
Surging Towards Bethlehem: How to Stop the Madness
Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers
January 9, 2007
...Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
W. B. Yeats, "The Second Coming"
In the Vietnam-War era, which was the crucible of activism for my generation, we had a devil of a time trying to get the Democratic Party to recognize the necessity for withdrawing our troops from that ill-advised, unwinnable war. With regard to Bush's misadventure in Iraq, it turns out not all that much has changed.
The midterm election and many polls since have clearly demonstrated that Americans recognize that Bush's Iraq policy is and has been a thoroughgoing disaster -- from taking us into war based on lies and deceptions to the way the Occupation has been totally mismanaged. Our troops are now caught in the middle of a brutal sectarian civil war. But the Democrats appear to be divided about how to proceed: give Bush one last chance to "win," whatever that may mean, or start pulling out our troops while we still can with at least a shred of dignity.
Given this situation, the time for politeness, for speaking around the truth, is gone. Civility yes, holding one's tongue, no.
Not while more and more young Americans are dying in Iraq, 3000 to date, with an estimated 25,000 maimed; not while up to 3000 innocent Iraqi civilians are being slaughtered every month; not while billions of dollars each month (half-a-trillion! total so far) are being siphoned from the U.S. treasury, and vital social programs, to pay for this moral monstrosity of a war.
And definitely not while CheneyBush are determined to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops into Iraq's civil-war hellhole.
The "surge" scenario is one written to satisfy the Administration's political goals, not one expected to change much on the ground in Iraq, which is why so many military leaders are opposed to it. Clearly, the "surge" is a public-relations, fig-leaf operation to cover Bush's embarrassing exposure of mendacity and fecklessness.
REPUBS ARE NERVOUS ABOUT BUSH'S "SURGE"
--MORE--
Friday, December 22, 2006
Selective Service to test draft machinery; Selective Service to test draft machinery
Related
VA head: 'Society would benefit' from re-instating the draft
---
Selective Service to test draft machinery
By KASIE HUNT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn't want to bring back the draft.
The agency is planning a comprehensive test - not run since 1998 - of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.
Scott Campbell, the service's director for operations and chief information officer, cautioned that the "readiness exercise" does not mean the agency is gearing up to resume the draft.
"We're kind of like a fire extinguisher. We sit on a shelf," Campbell told The Associated Press. "Unless the president and Congress get together and say, 'Turn the machine on' ... we're still on the shelf."
Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson prompted speculation about the draft Thursday when he told reporters in New York that "society would benefit" if the U.S. were to bring back the draft. Later he issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft.
The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that policy has not changed and no proposal to reinstate the draft is being considered.
The "readiness exercise" would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and its network of appeal boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, Campbell said.
The Selective Service will start planning for the 2009 tests next June or July, although budget cuts could force the agency to cancel them, Campbell said.
President Bush said this week he is considering sending more troops to Iraq and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look into adding more troops to the nearly 1.4 million uniformed personnel on active duty.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the Army by 40,000 troops would cost as much as $2.6 billion the first year and $4 billion after that. Military officials have said the Army and Marine Corps want to add as many as 35,000 more troops.
Recruiting new forces and retaining current troops is more complicated because of the unpopular war in Iraq. In recent years, the Army has accepted recruits with lower aptitude test scores.
In remarks to reporters, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels "in the common purpose of serving."
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said such a proposal would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list.
Hearst Newspapers first reported the planned test for a story sent to its subscribers for weekend use.
The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. Reincorporated in 1980, the Selective Service System maintains a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.
---
Associated Press writers Sara Kugler in New York and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Time to leave Iraq
Outside View
By Douglas a. Macgregor
Dec 7, 2006, 14:41 GMT
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- More than two thousand years ago, a Spartan king resisted pressure to go to war saying, 'I am less afraid of the enemy`s strategy than I am of the mistakes we will make.' Today, no one in the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group would question the Spartan King`s wisdom. It is painfully obvious that in Iraq, American power defeated itself.
The notion that a Muslim Arab country with no middle class or a culture that supports the rule of law could be transformed by Westerners in short order into anything resembling an Anglo-Saxon Democracy was fundamentally flawed. But applying the 'if we break it, we fix it' paradigm to Iraq, occupying and governing it directly with thousands of conventional U.S. combat troops under generals whose only strategy was brute force was even more disastrous. No nation wants foreign troops to police their country and Muslim Arabs loathe occupying Christian armies, especially brutal ones.
Any Arab, Sunni or Shiite, rebelling against such an occupation would always be able to cloak himself in nationalism, patriotism, and traditional religious values -- even if they were no better than criminals. And this is precisely what happened in Arab Iraq.
But this problem shrinks to insignificance next to the strategic blunder of defaulting to 'the Shiite strategy,' establishing with American military power in less than three years what the Iranian armed forces could not achieve in nearly a decade of war with Iraq: Shiite domination of Iraq`s army, police and administration.
Fearing the consequences of an Iranian-backed government in Baghdad, the Bush administration is turning to the Sunni Arab states that fear Iranian power. It makes sense. Sunni Arab leaders in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh understand that Iran aspires to be the core state of Islam, something Islam has lacked since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. For them, Shiite-dominated Iraq is a regional Frankenstein`s monster.
Unfortunately, it`s also a waste of time. Though Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt have a stake in curbing Iranian influence inside Iraq, they have no interest in allying themselves with an American military occupation that is illegitimate in the eyes of the whole Muslim World. Until U.S. forces leave Iraq, cooperation with them is a non-starter.
Given these developments, disengaging from Iraq would seem imperative. But the desire on both sides of the political divide, Democratic and Republican, to conceal the true scale of the disaster created by the American military occupation of Central Iraq makes immediate withdrawal unpalatable.
Instead, politicians of all persuasions insist that for U.S. forces to simply leave Iraq and turn it over to the Arabs who live there would be a disaster for all kinds of reasons -- terrorism, regional instability and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Disengaging from Iraq, the argument goes, could lead to a replay of an August 1914-style slide into regional war.
Whether true or not, an American military force that cannot stop firefights or kidnappings on the streets of Baghdad, a force that is increasingly under attack from all sides, can do little to prevent a regional war, especially a conflict whose real issue is the Shia-Sunni struggle for control of Mecca and Medina and leadership of an Islamic movement that both Sunni and Shia Islamists believe will, once unified and purified, conquer the world.
Of course, if this is the regional war that is likely to occur, the real question is not how to stop it, but why U.S. forces should participate in it? Unless, America`s regional Sunni Arab partners ask for assistance, how would American involvement in such a conflict advance American security interests?
The answer is simple. It would not.
While Washington policymakers look for political cover on their way out of Iraq, the myth of American military omniscience and omnipotence, of limitless economic resources harnessed to a perpetual 'Wilsonian crusade for democracy,' is dying in Iraq along with American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
Meanwhile, knowing that nothing with American fingerprints will survive the withdrawal of U.S. forces including Iraq`s corrupt and ineffective government, the most vexing question for the Iraq Study Group is not whether anything can be done to prevent the United States from looking ridiculous when the 'Green Zone' is overrun, looted and destroyed by enraged Arabs. It`s how fast we can end the U.S. and British military occupation of Iraq, an occupation that is both an enormous strategic benefit to Iran and a liability to the West and the Arab World.
(Retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas A. Macgregor, PhD is lead partner in Potomac League, LLC. He is the author of 'Breaking the Phalanx.' Macgregor served in the first Gulf War and at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe during the Kosovo Air Campaign. he was an adviser to the Department of Defense on initial Second Gulf War plans and is an expert on defense policy issues of organization and transformation.)
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish
Soldiers Face Obstacles to Mental Health Services
Morning Edition, December 4, 2006 · The military promises to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with emotional problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But an NPR investigation at one base in Colorado finds that soldiers aren't getting the services they need.
Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish
Medical records show that when Tyler Jennings returned from Iraq last year, he was severely depressed and used drugs to cope. When the sergeants who ran his platoon found out, they started to haze him. He came close to hanging himself after officials said they would kick him out of the Army.
Share Your Thoughts
Share your comments about this report, or tell us your own story about coping with mental-health problems related to your military service. Don't forget to tell us your full name and how to pronounce it, and your city and state. Tell us if you wish to share your thoughts only with NPR's editors. Send us your thoughts.
-- Read some of the letters we've received so far.
Enlarge Corey Davis was a machine gunner in Iraq. He says he began "freaking out" after he returned to Ft. Carson; he had constant nightmares and began using drugs. When he sought help at the base hospital one day, he says he was told he'd have to wait more than a month to be seen. Courtesy Corey Davis
Jason Harvey was diagnosed with PTSD. In May, he slashed his wrists and arms in a cry for help. Officials at Ft. Carson expelled Harvey from the Army a few months ago for "patterns of misconduct." Harvey had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Mental-Health Questionnaire: 'I am so sad or unhappy that I can't stand it.'
- Doctor's Diagnosis: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- 'Counseling' Form: Officials used disciplinary forms like this to cite Harvey for such infractions as "depression" and poor personal hygiene
Alex Orum, pictured with his wife Donna, was diagnosed with PTSD. He was dismissed from the Army earlier this year for "patterns of misconduct" -- such as showing up late to formation and coming to work unwashed. Psychiatrists say such behaviors are consistent with PTSD.
Referring to soldiers with PTSD, recently retired sergeant Nathan Towsley told NPR that "I don't like people who are weak-minded." He said he'd never be caught going to a therapist. Since that interview, he's acknowledged that he's depressed and has trouble controlling his anger. He has just started therapy.
Corey Davis, Tyler Jennings and Sgts. Drew Preston and Gabriel Temples all served in the same platoon in Iraq. Preston and Temples say Davis and Jennings were great soldiers in Iraq. But the sergeants think they've been "faking" their mental-health problems to avoid returning to war. Courtesy Corey Davis
Web Extra: A Family's Story
After Liz Kaplan's son, Adam, returned to Ft. Carson from Iraq in late 2004, therapists diagnosed him with PTSD. They said his illness was triggered partly by an incident in Iraq: He accidentally caused the death of a fellow soldier as he blew up the doors of a suspected weapons cache.
But Liz and her husband say that after their son started doing drugs -- which studies show is common among soldiers with PTSD -- officials at Ft. Carson failed to give him the help he needed. Liz threatened to chain herself to a statue at the base's entrance until officials answered her family's pleas to help her son. (In the end, she didn't.) Adam Kaplan was eventually court-martialed on drug charges and sentenced to 15 months in military prison.
Web Extra: Silenced in Therapy
Military officials say that soldiers diagnosed with PTSD or other serious mental-health disorders can attend group therapy sessions at their Army bases. But soldiers at Ft. Carson said that in some cases, the group sessions make them feel more upset, not better.
Soldier Michael Lemke attended those sessions before he was discharged from the Army because of PTSD and other medical disabilities. As Lemke and others told NPR, Army therapists told soldiers they were not permitted to criticize Army officers during the therapy sessions -- even though officers were allegedly harassing and punishing them for being emotionally "weak."
Part 1 of This Report
Army studies show that at least 20 percent to 25 percent of the soldiers who have served in Iraq display symptoms of serious mental-health problems, including depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Administration officials say there are extensive programs to heal soldiers both at home and in Iraq.
But an NPR investigation at Colorado's Ft. Carson has found that even those who feel desperate can have trouble getting the help they need. In fact, evidence suggests that officers at Ft. Carson punish soldiers who need help, and even kick them out of the Army.
Soldier Tyler Jennings says that when he came home from Iraq last year, he felt so depressed and desperate that he decided to kill himself. Late one night in the middle of May, his wife was out of town, and he felt more scared than he'd felt in gunfights in Iraq. Jennings says he opened the window, tied a noose around his neck and started drinking vodka, "trying to get drunk enough to either slip or just make that decision."
Five months before, Jennings had gone to the medical center at Ft. Carson, where a staff member typed up his symptoms: "Crying spells... hopelessness... helplessness... worthlessness." Jennings says that when the sergeants who ran his platoon found out he was having a breakdown and taking drugs, they started to haze him. He decided to attempt suicide when they said that they would eject him from the Army.
"You know, there were many times I've told my wife -- in just a state of panic, and just being so upset -- that I really wished I just died over there [in Iraq]," he said. "Cause if you just die over there, everyone writes you off as a hero."
Services Out of Reach for Soldiers
Jennings isn't alone. Other soldiers who've returned to Ft. Carson from Iraq say they feel betrayed by the way officials have treated them. Army files show that these were soldiers in good standing before they went to Iraq, and that they started spinning out of control upon their return.
Since the war in Vietnam, military leaders have said that soldiers who are wounded emotionally need help, just like soldiers missing limbs.
"The goal, first and foremost, is to identify who's having a problem," says William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. "Secondly, it's to provide immediate support. And finally, our goal is to restore good mental health."
The Army boasts of having great programs to care for soldiers. The Pentagon has sent therapists to Iraq to work with soldiers in the field. And at Army bases in the United States, mental-health units offer individual and group therapy, and counseling for substance abuse. But soldiers say that in practice, the mental-health programs at Ft. Carson don’t work the way they should.
For instance, soldiers fill out questionnaires when they return from Iraq that are supposed to warn officials if they might be getting depressed, or suffering from PTSD, or abusing alcohol or drugs. But many soldiers at Ft. Carson say that even though they acknowledged on the questionnaires that they were having disturbing symptoms, nobody at the base followed up to make sure they got appropriate support. A study by the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, suggests it's a national problem: GAO found that about 80 percent of the soldiers who showed potential signs of PTSD were not referred for mental health follow-ups. The Pentagon disagrees with the GAO's findings.
Soldiers at Ft. Carson also say that even when they request support, the mental-health unit is so overwhelmed that they can't get the help they need. Corey Davis, who was a machine gunner in Iraq, says he began "freaking out" after he came back to Ft. Carson; he had constant nightmares and began using drugs. He says he finally got up the courage to go to the Army hospital to beg for help.
"They said I had to wait a month and a half before I'd be seen," Davis said. "I almost started crying right there."
Intimidated by Superiors
Almost all of the soldiers said that their worst problem is that their supervisors and friends turned them into pariahs when they learned that they were having an emotional crisis. Supervisors said it's true: They are giving some soldiers with problems a hard time, because they don't belong in the Army.
Jennings called a supervisor at Ft. Carson to say that he had almost killed himself, so he was going to skip formation to check into a psychiatric ward. The Defense Department's clinical guidelines say that when a soldier has been planning suicide, one of the main ways to help is to put him in the hospital. Instead, officers sent a team of soldiers to his house to put him in jail, saying that Jennings was AWOL for missing work.
"I had them pounding on my door out there. They're saying 'Jennings, you're AWOL. The police are going to come get you. You've got 10 seconds to open up this door,'" Jennings said. "I was really scared about it. But finally, I opened the door up for them, and I was like 'I'm going to the hospital.'"
A supervisor in Jennings' platoon corroborated Jennings' account of the incident.
Disciplined, Then Purged from the Ranks
Evidence suggests that officials are kicking soldiers with PTSD out of the Army in a manner that masks the problem.
Richard Travis, formerly the Army's senior prosecutor at Ft. Carson, is now in private practice. He says that the Army has to pay special mental-health benefits to soldiers discharged due to PTSD. But soldiers discharged for breaking the rules receive fewer or even no benefits, he says.
Alex Orum's medical records showed that he had PTSD, but his officers expelled him from the Army earlier this year for "patterns of misconduct," repeatedly citing him on disciplinary grounds. In Orum's case, he was cited for such infractions as showing up late to formation, coming to work unwashed, mishandling his personal finances and lying to supervisors -- behaviors which psychiatrists say are consistent with PTSD.
Sergeant Nathan Towsley told NPR, "When I'm dealing with Alex Orum's personal problems on a daily basis, I don't have time to train soldiers to fight in Iraq. I have to get rid of him, because he is a detriment to the rest of the soldiers."
Doctors diagnosed another soldier named Jason Harvey with PTSD. At the end of May this year, Harvey slashed his wrists in a cry for help. Officials also kicked Harvey out a few months ago for "patterns of misconduct."
A therapist diagnosed Tyler Jennings with PTSD in May, but the Army's records show he is being tossed out because he used drugs and missed formations. Files on other soldiers suggest the same pattern: Those who seek mental-health help are repeatedly cited for misconduct, then purged from the ranks.
Most of these soldiers are leaving the Army with less than an "honorable discharge" -- which an Army document warns "can result in substantial prejudice in your civilian life." In other words, the Army is pushing them out in disgrace.
Anne Hawke produced this report for broadcast.
Related NPR Stories
- May 31, 2006Post-Traumatic Stress Treatment Costs Soar
- Nov. 23, 2005Iraq Soldier Ponders Life with PTSD
- Aug. 19, 2005Virtual Reality Therapy for Combat Stress
- July 8, 2005Returning Soldier Finds Role as Advocate
- July 7, 2005PTSD Among Poor Soldiers: Herold's Story
- June 2, 2005A Woman Guard Member's Struggle with PTSD
Related NPR Stories
- May 31, 2006Post-Traumatic Stress Treatment Costs Soar
- July 8, 2005Returning Soldier Finds Role as Advocate
- March 31, 2005Soldier Says Army Ignored His Mental Health Concerns
- April 25, 2003Post Traumatic Stress Prevention
- April 25, 2003Gulf War Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
by LINK
Sunday, December 3, 2006
'About Five Minutes Into It, We Had to Take Over'
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 3, 2006; A20
BAGHDAD, Dec. 2 -- The bullets flew from every direction -- from rooftops, windows, alleys and doorways.
Soldiers from the Iraqi army's 9th Division were pinned against a wall. They were under a covered sidewalk. According to accounts from U.S. forces who were with them on Friday, a suspected insurgent with an AK-47 assault rifle aimed at them from a doorway. Pieces of concrete fell as the insurgent's fire ripped into the wall above the Iraqi soldiers.
That's when they froze.
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Kent McQueen, 37, arrived to help. As he tried to get them out, he was hit. The night-vision goggles perched on his helmet fell down his face. They were dented. He had been shot in the head. "God was definitely on my side," McQueen said Saturday.
The scene played out during Operation Lion Strike, the U.S. soldiers recalled. The goal was to capture insurgents in the Fadhil district of central Baghdad. It was the first time the Iraqi army's 9th Division was to be in complete control of an operation in the two years it has been training under the Americans. Teams of U.S. advisers remained close, but planned to leave the fighting to the Iraqis.
"It started out that way. But about five minutes into it, we had to take over," Staff Sgt. Michael Baxter, 35, said.
While the battle was in progress, U.S. military leaders had called it an "outstanding" example of Iraqi forces taking charge. They said the Iraqis captured 43 insurgents while suffering few casualties.
But interviews the following day with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers at Camp al-Rashid in Rustimayah, where they are based, painted a more complex picture.
Strengthening Iraq's police and army is the key to the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, American commanders say. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, in its report due to be released next week, is expected to recommend pulling out nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 and leaving behind troops such as those involved in Friday's fight in Fadhil to train, advise and support Iraqi forces.
Although the Iraqis in the 9th Division have become more effective in the two years since they formed, American soldiers and some Iraqi leaders at Camp al-Rashid said they are not yet ready to operate on their own.
"They're basically a baby army," Baxter said. "They're just now starting up. It's going to take them a while to get the experience."
The unit, the only mechanized division in the Iraqi army, has about 4,000 soldiers.
They are typically older soldiers, recruited from across the country, said Col. Douglass S. Heckman, the senior adviser for the 9th Division Military Transition Team, whose members are part of the 1st Cavalry Division. When U.S. troops first began rebuilding the Iraqi army after the 2003 invasion, recruits would drop out if they were deployed away from their homes, Heckman said. "These guys are not afraid to go anywhere," he said.
The U.S. military is increasingly ceding more authority to Iraqi leaders, Heckman said. For example, personnel decisions are now up to Iraqi leaders. "It inspires a lot of confidence to have Iraqi units with Iraqi flags," he said.
That confidence appeared to have been shaken on Friday. In one three-block section of Fadhil in a neighborhood known as Jumhuriya, 35 Iraqi soldiers came under fire as soon as they arrived at 6 a.m., their American advisers recalled.
For any army, however well trained, the Jumhuriya battle would have been a difficult one. There were empty shops and tall buildings where snipers could easily hide. The streets were narrow, preventing easy movement of tanks.
The Iraqis knew little about their enemy. They could not quantify them. They couldn't distinguish between a civilian and an insurgent because everyone dressed alike, the Americans and Iraqis said.
Their enemy, however, appeared to know a lot about them. Somehow, they knew where the Americans and Iraqis had set up one of two field headquarters and fired mortar shells at it, said Maj. Thomas J. Boczar.
The Jumhuriya battle was just one small part of Friday's operation, which involved about 500 Iraqis conducting searches and 60 Americans advising them. Other parts of the operation ran smoothly, high-ranking American officers said.
But it was a window on the challenges U.S. forces face in training the Iraqis.
Sitting in a conference room at Camp al-Rashid, American soldiers described Iraqi troops with inadequate training, resources or motivation. When they shoot, they "pray and spray" and do not aim for targets, the soldiers said. They either lack equipment or are not well trained in new equipment. On the battlefield on Friday, the Iraqis communicated by cellphone because their walkie-talkies did not work, the U.S. soldiers said.
The way the Americans see it, the Iraqis are fierce fighters. But they have been depleted of their energy after so many years of war, first against Iran in the 1980s, then against the United States during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the American soldiers said.
By about 11 a.m. on Friday, the Americans decided it was time to pull out of that part of Jumhuriya.
The sniper bullets kept flying, not just from the rooftops, but from the second and third floors of apartment buildings, they recalled. Grenades flew out the windows. Machine guns fired. It was an all-out ambush, unusual in that it was such a coordinated effort by the insurgents, the Americans said.
While some Iraqis froze in indecision, others fired wildly as they ran across streets. Hollywood heroics, one soldier called it.
"I'm just thinking to myself, oh God, get me out of this because these guys are going to get me killed if we stay here," Baxter said.
The Americans called in helicopters to shoot at the snipers, but it was too chaotic of a scene for the aircraft to make clear shots, they said.
Still pinned against the wall underneath the covered sidewalk, McQueen decided it was time to make a run for his Humvee, he recalled. In Arabic, he told the Iraqis to go.
They gave him a puzzled look. Follow me, he told them. This time they complied.
McQueen got into the Humvee first, then opened the back door. Bullets whizzed by. He pulled the soldiers inside as the Humvee drove away. They squeezed in under the gunner. They jumped on top of one another. "It looked like Twister," McQueen said.
Top Iraqi leaders at the base said the mission proved that they can someday secure their own country without interference from American forces. What they lack is not training, not motivation, not confidence, but equipment, they said. They need better tanks and spare parts, Iraqi officials said. And they really need aircraft.
"Give us the aviation and leave us alone," Brig. Gen. Kasim Maliki, a 25-year veteran of the army, said through an interpreter.
Friday's operation was planned over the course of 48 hours, in consultation with the Defense Ministry, Maliki said.
He scoffed at the idea that the Iraqi army needs better training to carry out such missions. "We have been through wars," he said over a cup of sweet tea.
Lt. Col. Bassim Mohammed, who joined the Iraqi army in 1987, said he did not believe his men were prepared for Friday's operation because they had so little notice. He said he found out about the mission at midnight, and they left at 3:30 a.m. That was not enough time to secure the perimeter, he said.
They encountered more than 100 insurgents, he said, and killed or wounded about 20 of them. He said he believes his soldiers could have better handled so many insurgents with more notice.
"We've never suffered the way we did yesterday," he said.