GI SPECIAL 2#B77
“Moving Wall”
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
August 2004
Repeat!
As the wall moves to Iraq
Photo from the I-R-A-Q ( I Remember Another Quagmire ) portfolio of Mike Hastie, U.S. Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71
(Please contact at: () for more examples of his outstanding work. T)
“Souls, Friends And Conspirators”
The two letters below are among many posted at Bring Them Home Now:
http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/sound/main.html Check it out!
September 15, 2004
Souls, Friends, and Conspirators,
The temperature dropped to sixty degrees last night while I huddled in a ditch near Diyala Bridge.
The breeze off the river crawled into my heart and the sudden chill reflects my current mood. I found out earlier that night that I had been extended an additional two months on top of my previous stretch.
It now appears that I will be in the service until July and my original date of release is coming up next month. All this and my recent two week taste of the civilian world on leave is leaving me empty and detached. It is so much easier to live in slavery if you had willingly accepted your fate. I am not sure if my mental fortitude is prepared for a whole extra year in oppression. And, I still don't have a certain time when I will be finished with this war.
Three soldiers in out unit have been hurt in the last four days and the true amount of casualties leaving Iraq are unknown. The figures are much higher than what is reported.
We get awards and medals that are supposed to make us feel proud about our wicked assignment. We feel privileged when we are given the smallest perk. Like a dog that is beaten everyday and than thankfully adores it's owner when he skips a day of punishment.
I have more trust with some of the Iraqi locals than my own command sometimes and I know that my higher chain of command hates me for my political opinions and my moral views.
I am called a "faggot pink-o" or a "bleeding heart traitor."
It doesn't take a liberal to realize the moral wrongs involved with this or any war. Why should I feel ashamed of caring about all of humanity even the people that ignorantly hate me? Is wanting a better standard of living for all the world so negative? In a way, deeper than sexuality, I love my friends and brothers and for that I am a deviant of some kind. Does every one buy into this Arnold ideal of fear that they are not strong enough so they have to over compensate and become an asshole?
I believe that all weapons should be laid down by choice of the individual. It is the same fear I have of my bigot neighbor that causes Americans to support a war against a possible US threat. If we are all responsible enough to handle firearms, is it not sensible to allow countries like Iran and N. Korea nuclear weapons? If we think these countries are less responsible than the drunk-driving redneck or the crack-dealing gangster, I think we need to take a longer look at American society.
Sure a nuke can destroy the world, but a automatic weapon can kill my daughter and she is the world to me. I don't believe that taking away people's rights is the proper step to world peace, but we overspend on national defense and cut education when we need to be more concerned about raising a generation of problem solvers instead of mindless warriors.
So I finally find the drive to get out and try to make a difference in the world, and I am stuck freezing in a middle eastern desert.
What state will the earth be in if I ever escape this combat zone?
What little changes I can make I do through the networks I have built up with my close friends?
The Bouncing Souls have given us soldiers a voice and forum to express the hardships and our feelings on the Iraq occupation.
All my friends, some new and some old, listen and support our efforts and they have my deepest respect and thanks. I could not survive this in any sane manner without the backing of all of you.
I can not promise that I will have a positive effect on current issues that plague our planet, but I can promise I will never give up if you never give up on me.
PEACE,
Heretic
near Baqubah, Iraq
Ass-Kissing Shit-Eating Lt. Col. Sending Untrained, Un-Equipped Troops To Iraq:
He Abandons Them And Moves On Elsewhere
September 24, 2004
I have a good one for you. Currently my husband and I are stationed at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska 4/123rd Aviation Regiment, me being a veteran and my husband still in. The commander of my husband's unit, Lt. Colonel Randy Rotte, is currently setting his career up by volunteering my husband's entire unit to deploy from Fairbanks, Alaska (mind you, that's just 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle) to Afghanistan.
If that's not bad enough, he has done virtually no form of desert combat training for the soldiers he's about to send to war. And I know this because I was deployed to Kosovo/Macedonia in 2000/2001 and received more training for a 1 month deployment than my husband's unit has received for a deployment planned for over a year!
The colonel has also denied the purchase of items such as body armor for the soldiers, armor plating for humvees, and replacement parts for equipment. Mind you the equipment up here is used to conditions of -60 degrees or lower, yet is expected to work 100% operational in conditions of +120 degrees.
And for the kicker, Lt. Colonel Rotte isn't even planning on deploying with his soldiers! Even though he has stop-lossed everyone else, he himself will be moving to another command and not be deploying.
My husband and I have asked the State Senator to become involved and currently we do have a Congressional investigation happening, but fear little will come out of it. We are attempting to do whatever we can to bring the blatant disregard and safety of soldiers' lives and lack of responsibility of a commanding officer to the limelight.
Thank you for giving me a place to vent my anger and let other people see the trickle down affect the Bush administration has on "leaders" of the military.
Katherine Albers
Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and 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 information about other social protest movements here in the USA. Send requests to address up top.
IRAQ WAR REPORTS:
Two U.S. Troops, Iraqi Cops Killed By Car Bomb In Mosul
September 29, 2004 News World Communications, Inc. & Al Bawaba
In the northern city of Mosul, an explosive charge blew up near a checkpoint manned by U.S. forces and Iraqi police.
A car bomb went off as a U.S. military convoy was passing by, killing two and injuring four US troops, it was reported Wednesday.
According to The AP, witnesses said the attack late Tuesday wrecked a vehicle and that American troops sealed off the area.
Witnesses said at least two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi policemen were killed in the blast, but there was no official confirmation.
Al-Bawaba
Carmichaels Man Killed
9.29.04 Observer-Reporter
A grieving mother confirmed Tuesday that her 22-year-old son was killed in Iraq.
Mary Anne Cox of Ceyon Road, Carmichaels, declined to provide more details in a telephone interview, but did say her son, Gregory, died Monday.
Cox graduated in 2001 from Geibel Catholic High School in Connellsville. He is the first Greene County serviceman to die in the Iraq war.
Marine Dead In “Incident;”
Corps Doesn’t Say What “Incident”
September 29, 2004 U.S. Department of Defense News Release No. 968-04
Pfc. Kenneth L. Sickels, 20, of Apple Valley, Calif., died Sept. 27 due to a non-combat related incident in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif.
High Ranking Ukrainian Officer Killed;
Two Soldiers Injured in Accident
09/29/2004 Ukrainian News
One Ukrainian peacekeeper was killed, and two were injured in a road accident in Iraq.
At around 6:00 Kyiv time, Oleh Tikhonov, commander of the 73rd separate motorized battalion of the 7th separate motorized brigade of the Armed Forces, perished in a road accident, the press service reported.
Two more Ukrainian peacekeepers, Colonel Volodymyr Kravchenko, commander of the 63rd separate motorized battalion of the 6th separate motorized brigade of the Armed Forces, and Heorhii Rohozhyn, senior officer of the 6th brigade's command coordination department, sustained injuries.
The officers were driving in a Chevrolet car around the posts and observation points of the 6th and 7th brigades, the press service reported.
As a result of the violation of driving rules, the car overturned on the road sector between block-posts No. 2 and No. 3.
Criminal proceedings were launched into the accident, and investigation started.
Urban Warfare Needs A Tank Like A Fish Needs A Bicycle:
Note Terrified Bystanders
U.S. soldiers enter a poor neighborhood during a raid at Haifa street in Baghdad, Iraq Sept. 29, 2004. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
Four U.S. Soldiers Wounded Near Riyadh
Sep. 29, 2004 ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press & AFPS
Four U.S. soldiers were wounded when a homemade bomb went off near Riyadh, northwest of the capital, the U.S. command said. The soldiers were taken to a coalition medical facility for treatment. All were reported to be in stable condition.
Attacks Show Growing Insurgency:
“Senior U.S. Military” Idiot Doesn’t Get It;
2,300 Resistance Attacks In Past Month
Sep. 29, 2004 By James Glanz and Thom Shanker, NEW YORK TIMES
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Over the past 30 days, more than 2,300 attacks have been directed against civilians and military targets in Iraq, in a pattern that sprawls over nearly every major population center outside the Kurdish north, according to comprehensive data compiled by a private security company with access to military intelligence reports and its own network of Iraqi informants
The sweeping geographical reach of the attacks, from Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces in the northwest to Babylon and Diyala in the center and Basra in the south, suggest a more widespread resistance than the isolated pockets of insurgency described by Iraqi government officials. [Duh.]
The type of attacks ran the gamut: car bombs, time bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, small-arms fire, mortar attacks and land mines.
"If you look at incident data and you put incident data on the map, it's not a few provinces," said Adam Collins, a security expert and the chief intelligence official in Iraq for Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group Inc., which compiles and analyzes the data as a regular part of its operations in the country.
Military officers argue that despite the rise in bloody attacks over the past 30 days, the insurgents have yet to win a single battle.
"We have had zero tactical losses; we have lost no battles," said one senior U.S. military officer. [In Vietnam, this statement applied perfectly. The U.S. occupation there only lost one battle: the last one. Which is all that counts.]
MORE:
Security Deteriorating;
The Situation Is Grim
(USA Today, September 29, 2004, Pg. 11)
Attacks by Iraqi insurgents have increased through the summer and into fall, sometimes reaching 100 a day against U.S. and allied forces. Kroll Security International, which provides analysis for the U.S. government and others, said the average now is about 70 per day, compared with fewer than 50 before the interim government took in June. The death toll for U.S. troops, which passed 1,000 earlier this month, continues to rise.
GUESS WHO’S WORRIED AND WHO’S NOT:
TIME TO COME HOME, NOW!
Two Iraqi men sit in the shade of a building during clashes between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents at Haifa street in central Baghdad, September 29, 2004. Photo by Akram Saleh/Reuters
Even U.S. Picked Puppet Condemns Terror Air Raids:
But If Iraq Is “Sovereign” How Can They Happen??
29 September 2004 By Ashraf Khalil, The Los Angeles Times
Baghdad - U.S. forces launched air strikes Tuesday on the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City for the second consecutive day. Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim-dominated area in the eastern part of the capital, is a stronghold of the Al Mahdi militia led by radical cleric Muqtada Sadr.
U.S. forces have launched multiple offensives targeting Shiite rebels in the densely populated district. U.S. forces said a "precision strike" Monday killed four insurgents, but hospital officials said 10 people, including civilians, were killed.