GI Special C/o: 5.3.03
GI SPECIAL 11#
Iraqi demonstrators carry anti-American military messages as they march after Friday prayers at the Abu-Hanifa mosque in Baghdad Friday, April 18, 2003. Thousands of Muslim demostrators, both Sunni and Shiite, marched in Baghdad outside the mosque calling for the expulsion of American forces from Iraq (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)------TROOP NEWS------
“I’m pissed off at my chain of command, I want to choke somebody ... constantly.”
By Mike Taibbi, NBC NEWS, Tuesday 29 April 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 28 — The war in Iraq may be over, but the memories of that conflict are recurring nightmares for some U.S. troops who witnessed horrific scenes of violence. In debriefing sessions in Baghdad, they are voicing anger and grief at what they saw.
We were allowed inside one session, for soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. What we saw — and heard — was extraordinary.
AT FIRST, WISECRACKS
There were the typical GI wisecracks at first, some awkward silences as the first questions went around the room and then some of the usual war stories. But the process wasn’t about war stories. It was about horror-of-war stories, those seconds in the cauldron of battle that leave an indelible imprint.
And gradually, as the room seemed to get smaller, the stories came out: The tough young recruit frothing in anger as he recalled a lieutenant’s command to leave a dead brother soldier on the road — another crew would retrieve him, “Keep that vehicle moving!”
THE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS
And finally, from nearly every one of the 16 soldiers in the room, heartbreaking details about the death of innocents at their hands. The killings occurred April 9.
Amid a series of suicide bombings, soldiers at a checkpoint near the entrance to one of Saddam’s palaces had been ordered to take out any vehicle that ignored instructions to stop and a volley of warning shots.
An Iraqi soldier had barreled through, dressed as a civilian in a car full of weapons, and he’d been cut down by these soldiers hunkered down in ambush position. Then came another car, whose driver also ignored warning shots, and the soldiers opened fire with deadly purpose. A father and his daughter were killed. The mother, who emerged from the burning car unhurt, spent the next four hours in the faces of the men who had just wiped out her family.
“That was the worst thing of the whole war,” one soldier said. From another: “Having to listen to her cry and scream that whole time, that she and her family were just coming home from church services (they were Christians, not Muslims), I’ll never forget it.”
Another voice added that he saw the terrible accident unfolding as though in slow motion and knew at the outset, when he saw who was in the car, “all it would take is one guy to start firing” and then he’d have to decide — shoot a brother soldier to try to prevent a tragedy, or.... But everything happened so fast, there was no time for that decision.
A young soldier nodded his head, listening, thinking the thoughts he then spoke: “I just hope that these people can find it in their hearts to forgive us, and that they know it was an accident.”
Then Spc. 1st Class Bill Scates of Oklahoma City spoke. “I had to look that woman right in the eyes,” he said, “and I felt so horrible for her. I’ve got a little girl.”
His rage began to boil. “I’m fucking constantly angry over what happened with that family. ... I’m pissed off at my chain of command for not putting up signs in every language (at that checkpoint), to warn ‘em. Normally I’m a talkative guy, a happy person, … but I’ve been real quiet lately, because I’m so pissed off. I’m thinking more and more I’m so frustrated, so angry, I want to choke somebody ... constantly.”
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Troops Want To Go Home
Army Times, 4.21.03
“I don’t think I’m upset that we didn’t go into downtown Baghdad,” said Staff Sgt. Brian Borden, Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cav. Besides, if his squadron gets sent into Baghdad “They’ll probably keep us here longer if we do that.”
Evidently not having heard General Myers talk about how the army would have to stay in Iraq for years, Cpl. Rick Bagley, 1st Brigade, 1st Battalion, 327 Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne hadn’t had his dream shattered yet: “Eventually we’ll get there only to fly us out to the United States.”
Staff Sgt. Pablo Cadena, 28, said he was not too disappointed, because the sooner the war is over, the sooner he can go home to his wife and daughter in Cadiz, Ky.
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OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION;
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOMENOW
RUMSFELD’S NEW PLAN; FORCE GI’S FAMILIES TO LEAVE THEM
By Esther Schrader
Los Angeles Times May 01, 2003
Fueled by resentment over the opposition of “Old Europe” to the war in Iraq, the Pentagon is accelerating plans to move tens of thousands of U.S. troops out of Germany and to establish new bases in the former East Bloc countries of Hungary, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
One key issue within the Army is whether the tradition of families accompanying troops overseas — a costly perk that is good for morale — will continue.
Under the original “lily pad” vision of Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. James L. Jones, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, the new bases, ports, airfields and training grounds would be staffed with limited numbers of highly mobile units that would be deployed without their families for six-month rotations.
That proposal aroused the ire of Army officials, whose Europe-based troops and their families now stay for two years. Although the lily pad plan hasn’t been rejected, a revised proposal, still under discussion, would staff the new bases with skeleton crews and pre-position equipment there. The bases would be used periodically for military exercises by troops based permanently in the United States.
“I don’t think we’re talking about building another Ramstein or another ... large installation where you have the small-town USA come with it, like families and schools and everything else,” Jones said in Washington this week. “But what we’re trying to do is develop a family of bases that ... can go from being cold to warm to hot if you need them, to be very efficiently and economically built.”
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VA Hospitals Ordered To Stop Killing Patients;
Review Finds Massive Fraud, Incompetence and Deaths from Human Experiments
From Army Times, May 5, 2003:VA bosses have cracked down on VA Hospital managers after two patients died last year during “research studies” on them. The research assistant on the study had previously convicted of mail fraud.
Carl Steubing, a World War II vet, died after participating in a cancer-treatment study at Straton VA Med Center “for which he was never eligible.” Researchers had falsified his medical records, ignoring his medical history to include him in the research. “A Food and Drug Administration investigation found numerous altered or conflicting data on other participants as well.” Another patient died of a drug overdose from a VA “prescribing error.”
Come To The VA and Die Sooner
Another study by Harvard U. of care received by VA heart patients found VA patients died sooner and got less treatment than cardiac patients at other hospitals.
VA patients:
“Received fewer intervention procedures such as angioplasty, cardiac catherization and by pass surgery.
“Were readmitted more often.
“Died more often after a heart attack.
“Traveled nearly twice as far to reach the hospital.”
Thank the politicians for killing the Vets: The study found the cause was simple: lack of money for VA staff and equipment. Fewer than half of the 80 VA facilities that could perform invasive heart procedures were functioning at full capacity. “If these facilities are lacking personnel, they are obviously not being provided the funding needed,” said Peter Gaytan, Principal Deputy Director For Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation.
(Comment: No shit. Maybe more money should go for treatment, and less for “Principal Deputy Directors.)
______Do You have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wishand we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and in Iraq, and of other social protest movements here in the USA. Send requests to address above.
______DANGER; POLITICIANS AT WORK______
BLIND AND STUPID, GARNER’S IRAQ “GOVERNMENT”
FUMBLES WHILE IRAQIS ORGANIZE THEMSELVES
By Michael Slackman
Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2003: The problem is that while the agency is getting up to speed, Iraqis are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. Many cities are appointing, or electing, councils. Religious leaders are providing municipal services, running hospitals, even providing protection to neighborhoods.
The more entrenched these systems become, the more likely it is that when the reconstruction agency is ready to move in, it will find itself in a confrontation with those who have assumed authority.
The agency is headed by retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner and staffed by a team of American and British technocrats charged with helping rebuild the infrastructure
Staffers are so isolated by infrastructure difficulties and security concerns that a senior officialhad not heard about the events Monday night in Fallouja, a city west of Baghdad, where U.S.forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters. The Iraqis said they were unarmed and that 14 people were killed and 75 injured. “I am in a complete news void here,” the senior official said. “What happened in Fallouja? I didn’t know about it.”
RUMSFELD AND GENERAL BRIMS DRINK TEA AND FRET ABOUT “FORCESOF BADNESS”
“I assume the forces of badness will try to use infrastructure as a means of discrediting what we are trying to do to make things better,” said Maj. Gen. Robin Brims, the commander of British forces in the southern city of Basra. Rumsfeld had tea with Brims in Basra’s airport before flying to Baghdad. (AP 5.1.03)
WHICH ONE DO YOU BELIEVE????????
1. DEFENSE ANALYST BRAGS ABOUT U.S. “EMPIRE”
“If you want to talk about suns not setting on empires, you know, the Brits had nothing compared to this,” said John Pike, a defense analyst with Global Security.org, an intelligence and military policy think tank based in Alexandria, Va.
OR
2. Rumsfeld Says “Iraq Belongs To You”
By Matt Kelley Associated Press May 01, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq — In the heart of Iraq’s capital, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld walked through the massive doorway of one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces to record a reassuring message to the Iraqi people. “Iraq belongs to you,” he said, his words broadcast on radio and television. “The coalition has no intention of owning or running Iraq.”
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While GI’s Die…..
Defense CEOs Are Big Winners of Iraq War
Derrick Z. Johnson, April 30, 2003 by the Boston Globe
MORE THAN 130 American soldiers died in a dubious war in a dusty, oil-rich land. In dust-free boardrooms, the CEOs behind our bombs, missiles, tanks, and planes went to corporate heaven. On the dust, 12 teenagers paid the ultimate sacrifice. In the boardroom, men in their 50s and 60s filled their sacks with cash.Twelve soldiers will never see 20. At least 13 weapons executives took home more than $20 million incompensation since 2000.
The young paid dearly. Middle-aged and graying CEOs were dearly paid. Neither the clouds of dust nor the closed doors of the boardroom can hide the bankruptcy. The Boston-based watchdog group United for a Fair Economy, known in general for its reports on the vast pay gap between CEOs and workers, this week publisheda report on the even more insane gap between soldiers and weapons CEOs. Using federal, corporate, and think tank data, the group found that while the average army private in Iraq earns about $20,000 a year, the average CEO among the 37 largest publicly traded defense contractors made 577 times more money in 2002, $11.3 million.
Since 2000, the 37 defense contractor CEOs have taken home $1.35 billion. That may not be Bill Gates, but it still means that just 37 men have made enough money in the last three years to, for instance, pay for two years of running the Boston public schools. Meanwhile, everyone knows how the budget cuts have turned public school systems into
their own little Baghdads because our governments say there is no more money after war, tax cuts, corporate giveaways, and sports stadiums.
CEO pay at Lockheed Martin went up from $5.8 million in 2000 to $25.3 million in 2002. It went up at General Dynamics (tanks and submarines) from $5.7 million in 2001 to $15.2 million in 2002. It went up at Honeywell (aircraft systems) from $12.9 million in 2000 to $45 million in 2002. It went up at Northrop Grumman from $7.3 million in 2000 to $9.2 million in 2002.
Pay went up at Alliant (bullets and bombs) from $1.4 million in 2000 to $10.5 million in 2002. It went up at Cardinal Health (medical supplies) from $2.9 million in 2001 to $17.7 million in 2002. It went up at United Defense Industries (guns and cannons) from $794,000 in 2000 to $2.7 million in 2002. At Raytheon (missiles and bombs), it went from $8 million in 2000 down to $2.6 million in 2001 and back up to $8.9 million in 2002.
War millionaires run the country, whether that be Vice President Dick Cheney's old connections to Halliburton to the $13.6 million that Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and United Technologies have given in political contributions since 2000. Military spending, after falling from $320 billion in 1991 to $266 billion in 1996, has soared to the $400 billion level.
As the war millionaires soar, using the majestic patriotic masks of eagles to disguise the ugly vulture waiting for a handout, the United States is creating a new definition of friendly fire for the budget broadsides in schools, health care, and city and state services of every kind. A new group of war millionaires came into being both as a result of America's struggles abroad and its abandonment of the struggle at home.
______IRAQ: RESISTANCE ROUNDUP______
GARNER SCREWS UP AGAIN
“General Garner said on Thursday that an interim Iraqi authority would be in place next week, but other senior American officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said the general’s comments had been misinterpreted.” NY Times 4.26.03
Iraqis Emulate Palestinians by Stoning Troops
By Phil Reeves in Baghdad; 27 April 2003, The Independent
A tactic of the Palestinian intifada has spread ominously to Iraq, less than three weeks after US tanks rolled into the middle of Baghdad.American troops are coming under attack from Iraqi children throwing stones, replaying scenes from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
News reports said that children – who at first flocked around the American forces, and were given sweets by the soldiers – have begun hurling rocks in Mosul and the Shia city of Najaf. In one incident this weekend, a group of youths threw stones at a group of soldiers moving through Mosul on foot.
"They were throwing them like they were pitching a baseball," said Sgt John McLean, who was hit on the helmet, in the back and on the heel. The crowd was only dispersed when the Americans fired a warning shot over their heads. Crowds of 250-300 Iraqi teenagers hurled stones at American marines patrolling Najaf on Thursday and Friday, US officers said.
Although this phenomenon represents no serious threat to the US forces, it is a highly symbolic gesture in the Middle East, where it is seen by Arabs as a heroic form of resistance to an illegal occupying force. It also disrupts the US military's efforts to adopt a more relaxed posture on the streets – part of the larger American and British drive to win support from the 24 million Iraqi population.
US troops are still being fired on, including those guarding the headquarters of Jay Garner, the retired US general heading the coalition reconstruction team.
To the disapproval of some Iraqis and aid agencies, Mr. Garner has established his headquarters inside a palace compound once lorded over by Saddam Hussein. Some here say that the choice of a palace, ringed now by razor wire and protected by tanks, sends entirely the wrong message to the Iraqi people.
General McKiernan Told Where To Shove It
After threatening to “punish” Iraqis who resist Bush’s Military Dictatorship in Iraq, and telling them to get back to work, he got his answer from the street. Said Mohammed al Tokat, a street vendor in Mosul, “The Americans are the criminals, so who are they to tell us anything.?”
‘America Can’t Rule’:
Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi has the backing of the Pentagon, but doesn’t want to be ‘America’s candidate’
[Newsweek, May 5, 2003]
Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, said anyone who thinks the U.S. can rule Iraq is sadly mistaken. Chalabi is happy to have U.S. support but doesn’t want to be seen as “a candidate imposed by America.”
For more see the article “ Iraq’s New Dictators” at
Wed Apr 30, 1:17 PM ETIraqi protestors taunt an American soldier in the street in Fallujah, Iraq Wednesday April 30, 2003, angry after American soldiers opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators. Demonstrators were fired on for the second time this week as Iraqis marched Wednesday to protest the previous shooting. The mayor said two people were killed, and a hospital administrator said 18 were wounded. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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MAILBAG:
1. Thanks to M for contacting us. Further information will be welcome.
2. THANKS TO PB WHO E MAILED THIS IN