Toxic Care

Toxic Care

I spoke with a mom yesterday who told me her son who served as a combat medic in Iraq is having his PTSD diagnosis revoked until he can produce three witnesses to corroborate his traumatic events. The soldier was in Iraq two years ago. He was transferred from his unit in Iraq to work as a medic in Walter Reed’s traumatic brain injury unit.
He became so agitated and disturbed with Walter Reed he requested a transfer back to a combat unit and was sent to a unit about to deploy to Afghanistan. He didn’t redeploy because of a physical injury sustained in Iraq that required surgical repair.
As he was rehabilitating, the soldier began to self medicate and was having combat nightmares. He was constantly depressed and having suicidal thinking at times. He resisted seeking mental health care because he felt it would adversely affect him if he did have to redeploy. He feared others in his unit wouldn’t trust him if he was considered a “nut case”.
Finally with continuing urging from his family and friends outside the military, the soldier did seek mental health care. He also turned against the war and joined anti-war veterans to oppose the war when he wasn’t on duty.
The soldier was diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Depression. He also entered a drug rehab program to help with his self-medicating. The Army came to the conclusion the soldier couldn’t be successfully rehabilitated while in the service. He’s to receive a medical discharge in the near future.
The parting gift of the Army for the young man who served as a combat medic is to demand he find three fellow soldiers to verify he witnessed the traumatic events of war that has led him to be suicidal, depressed, insomniac, hyper-vigilant and paranoid and driven him to using too much alcohol.
The Army says the soldier can go to the VA to regain his diagnosis of PTSD once discharged. His mom rightfully worries it will be a long time before he can be seen at the VA to determine he has PTSD that has already once been diagnosed. She worries he’ll be without treatment and his symptoms and problems will worsen.
I also recently spoke with a soldier who was about to be redeployed even though he’d been diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Major Depression. The young soldier had attempted to harm himself but a fellow soldier had intervened.
Another soldier, the combat medic mentioned above, had called me because he was worried this soldier would harm himself before he deployed or once back in Iraq. He asked that I call his friend to advise him about his mental health issues.
I called and began a lengthy evaluation of the soldier’s situation over the phone. I have several years experience working with psychiatric emergency teams or in a psychiatric emergency room.
The soldier was very polite, using the word, “Sir”, often in our discussion. He told me he was worried he couldn’t perform the duties he would be asked to do if he were in Iraq because he was having daily panic attacks. The attacks were increasing in numbers and duration.
The soldier also had an eighteen year old wife who had taken a restraining order out against him. There hadn’t been violence but the soldier had become involved in verbal altercations with his wife and she was frightened he might act out against her.
He also has a three month old daughter he hasn’t been able to see since the restraining order. He worries about the care of the daughter because he found out his wife is going out with friends every weekend while leaving the daughter with the wife’s mother. The wife was spending late hours in bars with high school friends.
He reported having suicidal thoughts almost daily. He says he’s had thoughts of killing his squad leader who has been petty and harassing toward him since his return from Iraq.
The soldier was seen by an Army psychologist recently and diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Major Depression. The psychologist arranged an appointment with an Army psychiatrist for the soldier to be evaluated for medication treatment.
The appointment date with the doctor just happened to be one day after the soldier was to redeploy to Iraq. His command told him mental health treatment would be available for him once he got settled in his base at Iraq.
The Combat Stress Team wasn’t based at the camp the soldier was to be assigned to, however. The soldier would have to be taken by convoy to the base the stress team was located. Fellow soldiers would have to accompany him to go to the appointments for his treatment.
The soldier adamantly told me he’d never put fellow soldiers at risk for possible IED and roadside bomb attacks to transport him to have treatment. He was also clear he felt he’d be unable to be as reactive and alert as he would need to be in a combat situation because his panic attacks were unpredictable and made him “freeze up”.
The soldier asked me if I felt he should be treated before returning to Iraq. I reviewed his risk factors with him. He had panic attacks with increasing regularity and intensity. He had suicidal thinking. He was having domestic problems. He had homicidal thinking. He faced a return to combat and he was untreated for any of his emotional problems.
The soldier was sure he couldn’t get the help he wanted through the military healthcare system because he’d already tried and they dismissed his symptoms as normal. He didn’t feel they were “normal”.
My assessment from our discussion was the soldier had significant risks that would make him a danger to himself or others. I felt his risks would be especially debilitating should he be in a combat zone trying to perform the duties of a combat infantryman.
I told him that I wouldn’t want him to be covering my back in the condition he described. I felt I had a certain expertise from my own combat experiences as a Marine infantryman in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the following eleven months.
I suggested the soldier could use a civilian hospital emergency room to get a full psychiatric evaluation since he felt sure the Army hospital on base wouldn’t address his mental health issues. The soldier told me he’d consider taking such action.
I found out the soldier did go to a local hospital ED the following day with two active duty soldiers accompanying him. He was placed on a mental health hold and admitted to the hospital’s psychiatric unit. The hospital kept the soldier hospitalized over a week before discharging him back to the military.
In today’s healthcare system being admitted to a psychiatric unit requires an individual be an extreme risk to themselves or others or be gravely disabled. The fact this soldier was hospitalized verified what I feared when I spoke with him.
The soldier was medically discharged from the Army under honorable conditions about a week after he left the civilian hospital. Now he faces getting his treatment expedited at the VA.
The good news in his story would be he didn’t go to Iraq and possibly endanger his own life or the lives of his fellow soldiers. Had the soldier gone along with the military in seeking help for his PTSD condition he’d be in Iraq with his symptoms worsening every day he was in country. And, he’d be without treatment.
Another mom called a friend of mine seeking help for her son stationed in Iraq. My friend works with local military families who are opposed to the war. Her son is the combat medic I first wrote about.
The mom with her son in Iraq was frantic because her son had gotten in trouble with his command. He was facing a Summary Court Martial for threatening the life of his 1st Sergeant, failing to carry out several normal duties expected of him and missing several formations.
The soldier had seen some of his fellow troops killed during his tour in Iraq and had been shot himself but his Kevlar vest had prevented him being wounded. He was also suicidal as well as homicidal.
His command placed the soldier on suicide watch in a closet which was situated next door to the quarters of his 1st Sergeant. The closet was full of potential weapons or implements the soldier could harm himself or someone else with if he wasn’t closely watched.
This soldier enlisted in Colorado despite his mom’s objection. His mom was terribly worried about him enlisting because he’d been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder when he was eight years old.
He’d been treated with medications with only partial effectiveness up until the time of his enlistment. His psychiatrist, who testified by phone at his Summary Court Martial, stated he would be unable to function in the Army if he stopped taking his medication and in all likelihood even if medicated he’d be unable to withstand military life.
The soldier’s recruiter in Colorado was informed of his ADD by the mother. The recruiter told the mom he’d “note” it on the recruit’s record. During an Inspector General’s investigation the soldier asked for, there was no record of the recruiter “noting” the ADD diagnosis.
The soldier says the recruiter had advised him not to mention the diagnosis because plenty of soldiers had the ADD diagnosis. The recruiter denied doing this during the IG inspection. The IG found no basis for the recruiter falsely enlisting the soldier. They did find basis for the soldier being prosecuted for fraudulent enlistment under federal law. If convicted of that charge the soldier could be sentenced up to ten years in federal prison.
The soldier’s mom went to her congressman’s office for help. She was patronized by the military liaison. He told her the soldier should just go along with “the program” to avoid problems. He said the soldier reminded him of himself when he was a young rebellious soldier.
The mom then went to her Senator’s office. They told her it would take up to three weeks to do a welfare check. They also told her the soldier faced “big trouble” for his fraudulent enlistment and should just accept the Summary Court Martial and move on with his military service.
Finally the mom became frantic and called my friend who works with military families. She had some previous contact with the Senator’s military liaison. My friend was able to cajole the liaison to make an inquiry faster than the three weeks the mom had been told it would take.
The mom was also advised to seek legal assistance. She hired a local attorney who had military law experience. The attorney contacted a friend in the Green Zone to request he make inquiries about the soldier’s case.
The attorney in the Green Zone told the local attorney the commanding officer of the soldier planned on making an “example” of the soldier because he’d made a threat against the 1st Sergeant.
He also said the Combat Stress Team refused to become involved while the soldier was under indictment for a Summary Court Martial. Only the soldier’s civilian psychiatrist would testify about his mental health problems.
The soldier was convicted and sentenced to 15 days in the stockade in Kuwait and another 15 days in a Baghdad stockade. After his Baghdad incarceration the soldier is to return to his unit under the same command of the 1st Sergeant and commanding officer.
Currently there has been conflicting reports the Army plans on mustering the soldier out with a medical discharge based on his preexisting condition of ADD or that he will have to make up the time spent in the stockade and finish his tour in Iraq.
If the soldier is discharged for the preexisting condition he’ll be ineligible for VA benefits and all other veteran benefits. He’ll be without benefits despite being shot and spending time in combat.
The last time the mom heard from her son he told her he’d still not been given medications despite the psychiatrist’s testimony. In fact, the soldier hasn’t had medications since he joined the military.
There is some research that shows the regimentation of the military is beneficial to individuals diagnosed with ADD. The military does give waivers for individuals with ADD but their regulations state the person must have a stage of ADD that is controllable.
This soldier’s psychiatrist stated the soldier has never been fully controlled even with a higher dose of medications. He functioned poorly in school and in his attempts to go to college. And still the military seems to hold on to the need to not only punish the soldier but to further exacerbate his condition by returning him to a combat condition.
And a mother continues to frantically try saving her son from the possible horrible consequences of a toxic military healthcare system that seems to lack all standards of care normally expected in the treatment of mental health problems.
And we have to wonder just how many more mothers and fathers face such horrors for their children. How many parents have gone along with the suggested chain of command “ways” and lost a child because of it?
The latest news about the care of returning soldiers with both physical and mental health problems remains much the same as before the Walter Reed story came to light.
Now it’s coming to light that many of the troops who have lost limbs or are disabled because of mental health problems also face bankruptcy, loss of homes and poverty because of a system wide failure to provide the needed care and to compensate at a level above impoverishment when a disability is given a veteran.
The American support of troops obviously stops once the troops have done the bidding of their military masters. We fail to remember what was asked of the young men and women who sought to serve their country once they return.
We’ve become a disposable society to such an extent we aren’t troubled with the disposal of our young troops. Just as we marginalize the communities of color and poverty, we’ve come to do the same with the veteran.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Psychiatric RN
USMC combat infantry veteran
RVN 1967-69

Dave Cline, Be At Peace Brother

Dave Cline, VVAW and VFP activist, died September 15, 07 after a long struggle with illness. Dave was a combat veteran severely wounded in Vietnam. His health was never that of the young man he was on his return from Vietnam.

But Dave knew there was something terribly wrong with his country's leadership and the path it had taken in Vietnam.

Dave Cline never stopped being a patriotic American. He just came to realize patriotism wasn't blind acceptance of policies that fostered injustice and oppression.

Dave Cline had a better vision for his country. He saw a country that lived up to the words of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

He was a "winter soldier" that stayed the course of patriotic citizenship even in the dark times of our country.

He was rejected by those who failed to understand the responsibiltiy of being human, being citizens of the world and being patriotic. He demonstrated that the ultimate responsibilty of citizens was overseeing the actions of their government to prevent tyranny, immoral violence and injustice and oppression.

Stan Goff (The Feral Scholar) wrote an eloquent article about Dave on his website. Many who knew Dave or had been fortunate to be around him have left comments about this brother that we all knew as a true American hero.

I'm going to post my comments to Stan about Dave on my site because I want as many of you as possible who didn't know Dave to know about him and his values.

Peace to all on this day we come to accept the loss of a man who cared so passionately for justice and peace and walked the walk.

His legacy and the struggle will carry on.

Stan,
I marched with Dave without knowing him during Dewey Canyon III, I marched with him in D.C. following Camp Casey (Sept 05) and I marched with him during the march from Mobile to New Orleans in the Veterans and Survivors March.

I feel blessed to have been in the company of one of our true American heroes; a man willing to stand up in the face of his country's misguided and immoral actions.

Dave personified the "winter soldier" unwilling to give up his country to the evil of racism, imperialism, misogyny and the many tyrannical forces attempting to usurp "the people".

I have photos I was fortunate enough to take that caught the passion and the joy that resided in the heart of Dave. His smile was one that lighted up a room or a field he was standing in with a circle of comrades just wanting to be near him.

Besides the powerful words Dave spoke about ending the oppression he clearly saw in the actions of his country's "leaders", my lasting memory of Dave will be on the march to New Orleans near the Vietnamese section we stayed at before going to Congo Square.

A young woman had a small harmonica on a key ring which Dave happened to notice as we were taking a break on the roadside leading into NOLA. Dave asked her if he could see the harp and when she gave it to him he broke into a blues riff and seemed to almost be dancing as he played.

After Dave stopped playing with those of us standing around him laughing and amazed, he flashed a big grin at us.

I know there are so many that knew Dave much better than I did but the short time I did have being around him gave me reason to know I was in the presence of a brother who cared about people, cared about injustice and cared about more young brothers and sisters being exposed to the horrors of war once again for no legitimate reason.

I also know Dave cared about the people of the world that became victims of our aggression and insane dependence on violence by means of an arsenal of weapons capable of killing in every gruesome way imaginable.

Dave's advocacy for not only veterans but the Vietnamese people afflicted by the American use of Agent Orange was testimony of his belief we are citizens of the world before anything else.

I thank Dave and Stan for emphasizing that citizenship throughout the march to New Orleans.

I got word in the darkness of the night which my own personal insomnia often takes me to that Dave had passed.

Despite the few times I had to be around him, I felt I'd lost a member of my family...a brother. I realize today that's exactly what Dave was. He was our family.

I woke this morning and looked at the headlines of the mainstream newspaper and the idea the passing of the American hero, Dave Cline, was missing in the pages of that paper stung me like a slap in the face.

We are the keepers of the light of freedom Dave Cline kept burning. We have his example of perseverance and enduring passion for justice to honor and keep alive.

If there is any monument Dave Cline would want most, it seems it would be a unified movement carrying on the struggle he so righteously exemplified.

As I remember Dave yelling in a church we visited during the veterans and survivors march...."Can I get a witness!!".

Be at rest, Brother Dave. Let us take it from here.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC combat veteran ‘67-68 (RVN)

Why Marches and Rallies May Not Work

I just read an article by Catherine Fenton of Long Island’s CodePink chapter why she will go to the September 15th rally in Washington, D.C.. She has many legitimate reasons for attending but there are some of us who won’t go for legitimate reasons. Ms. Fenton says:
You know who not only won't stop the war that week, but who won't scare,
or change the vote of, one Congressperson? You who stay home, because
it's "hopeless." Because it's "just another protest." Because many
protesters will "go back to business as usual on Monday

I think this statement assumes too much about those who don’t attend the rallies and marches. I have no plans to go to this rally or any other rally in the near future as long as the peace coalition is predominately white and fails the communities of color and those marginalized.

I’m not taking a hopeless position but a realistic position of believing my time and energy are best served working at a grass roots level to help bring new people into the movement against the injustice and the imperialistic wars of our nation.
I’ve been to rallies and marches, dating back to the 70’s, and in all honesty feel they have no effect on the politics and policies of this nation. The money and time spent organizing and getting people to these national marches and rallies seems incongruent with the effects.

The mainstream media, which is the true indicator of whether the message gets out to all Americans and not just the “choir” of activists that predictably show up at the rallies and marches, seldom mentions the actions.
Getting arrested for the cause is an expensive proposition in emotional and monetary ways but, again, few people other than the activist community know or care about these arrests and the following court cases.

I don’t make this argument to discourage others from doing what their heart tells them to do. I do want to point out; however, the endless marches and rallies have done little to discourage the tyrants from doing exactly what they planned on doing. It seems new tactics and new measures are called for.

It seems new faces in a true “rainbow coalition” of American citizens must be gathered to confront these tyrants.

Where are the young and the black faces of this coalition?

Where are the Hispanic, Latino/Latina, Mexican and Chicano faces of the movement standing on the speaker’s podium?

Where are the clergy from all faiths?

Where are the labor unions besides those who are speaking from a Marxist mindset (and I do respect the Marxist philosophy)?

Where are the healers such as doctors and nurses declaring, as groups of professionals, the sickness of what occurs?

Where are the educators who must endure erosion of truly effective ways to educate for the sake of teaching young people false information and imperialistic motivation?

Where are our feminist sisters who may not desire to wear pink but have endured the misogyny and inequality of their nation since birth?

Where are the GLBT communities standing proud and equal next to all the other brothers and sisters of the activist community?

Where are Hip-Hop Nation and the youth movement they represent?

And the ultimate question must be why so many of the brothers and sisters mentioned haven’t joined in the marches and actions as groups of outraged citizens that have endured the neglect and outright oppression our government imposes?

This may be the failure of the activist community that seems stuck in reruns of the 60’s and 70’s but only has a portion of the coalition that existed at that time to go against the Orwellian tactics of a regime that has taken control of all branches of government, the media and the means to making a living.

Some in the movement talk about electoral process as if it’s a magic cure for the loss of all semblances of democracy in our country.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are on life support and their existence is expected to end at any time.

I don’t say this as a hopeless citizen of the U.S. but as an outraged citizen who doesn’t feel marching and rallying is enough. And continuing with the charade of elections that can never bring change doesn’t meet the criteria of urgency needed.

Even should we stop the war tomorrow, what then? Does the oppression and injustice go away or just hide out until the masses go back to the “American dream” of watching the tube and hoping to stay employed in order to make a house payment?

It seems unless we become creative enough to bring the true face of the American people to the doors of Congress and the steps of the White House there is no fear by the tyrants oppressing the many.

Not only does it seem emergent to end the wars but we must begin to end the tyrannical grip of Democrats and Republicans on the governing of this nation.

When the true “rainbow coalition” of all Americans rallies in numbers far exceeding anything seen so far in this generation of wars, the tyrants will take notice and become fearful of losing power.

Right now the numbers of activists marching and taking part in rallies only brings smirks and laughter from the bastards who have co-opted the world’s justice and peace.

They see the divisions they’ve created among the large number of different groups making up the population of this nation.

They see their successes in fomenting racism, sexism, homophobia, sectarian hatred, social castes and militarism in the wedges driven between the many they’ve oppressed.

They don’t fear a large number of people in the streets because so many are the same people isolated from the rest of the oppressed of the nation.

Professional and dedicated activists are isolated from the men and women who can’t afford to take days off to march and rally for fear they’ll lose jobs and fail to feed children.

These activists don’t necessarily speak for the poor, the black or others unable to march and rally.

The movement presumes to know what the marginalized need and want but fail to lure enough of the actual people who are marginalized to the streets to demonstrate their outrage.

It saddens me to think of the money spent to do the repetitive actions the movement sticks with. It seems this money could do so much more in building a greatly diverse coalition of people demanding peace and justice.

It seems we need only look at the 9th Ward of New Orleans to see the possibilities of demonstrating our desire to bring those without voices into the movement.

It seems visiting churches and synagogues to question the spiritual leaders of this nation about their inaction in the face of such evil would be far more useful than a visit to a member of Congress bought and paid for by corporate interests.

It seems embracing Hip-Hop Nation as the powerful voice of the young it has become would be better than endless petitions that are ignored by the “selected” members of the Congressional tyranny.

I won’t go to the rallies and marches until we change ourselves into a movement to represent all people who are oppressed.

I won’t be arrested for symbolic reasons that won’t effect changes.

This is not a helpless position but one that recognizes the work to be done isn’t in marching but in networking and growing the movement into a healthy and diverse coalition that will strike fear in the hearts of the beasts.

The urgency to stop the wars is clear and palpable but we fail our future if we don’t stop the reasons we are continuously at war.

The military-industrial complex must be transformed into the peaceful-cooperative complex.

The wealth and power of this nation must be equally and justly distributed to all who contribute to it.

The social classes that have become caste systems and fiefdoms must end and a true democratic nation that truly practices “all men and women are created equal” must evolve.

Living wages, health benefits and adequate education must become the right of all citizens to have rather than a luxury given by the rich to the oppressed.

Marches and rallies, arrests and petitions have become weak tools to do this until we are truly representative of all the people of our nation.

So, I’m staying home to talk with people about the need we have for them to join us in a movement they can count on having a voice in.

I’m staying home trying to tell people about the horrible effects the wars have had on our young people and our entire nation.

God bless the peacemakers, however they choose to express the cause of peace and justice.
It doesn’t have to be in a march or rally, however. And the impact can be just as important.

Peace and solidarity,

William Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW member –Denver
USMC combat veteran

Evil Residing in the Bushes

“Because contractors were paid on cost-plus arrangements, they had a powerful incentive to spend to the hilt. The undisputed master of milking the system is KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary so ubiquitous in Iraq that soldiers even encounter its customer-survey sheets in outhouses. The company has been exposed by whistle-blowers in numerous Senate hearings for everything from double-charging taxpayers for $617,000 worth of sodas to overcharging the government 600 percent for fuel shipments. When things went wrong, KBR simply scrapped expensive gear: The company dumped 50,000 pounds of nails in the desert because they were too short, and left the Army no choice but to set fire to a supply truck that had a flat tire. "They did not have the proper wrench to change the tire," an Iraq vet named Richard Murphy told investigators, "so the decision was made to torch the truck."
“In perhaps the ultimate example of military capitalism, KBR reportedly ran convoys of empty trucks back and forth across the insurgent-laden desert, pointlessly risking the lives of soldiers and drivers so the company could charge the taxpayer for its phantom deliveries. Truckers for KBR, knowing full well that the trips were bullshit, derisively referred to their cargo as "sailboat fuel."

Matt Taibbi’s column,The Great Iraq Swindle, in the August Rolling Stone magazine makes it clear how evil the Bush Administration really is. Even the more cynical can’t comprehend the deliberate use of American troops to further the greediness of Bush and his friends.
It’s become increasingly clear Bush has no empathy or compassion for the young men and women he has carelessly sent off to war. It’s clear the use of “patriotism” is really only a ruse to dupe young troops to believe their cause is just and for the ideal of democracy. The truth is wars started by George Bush and his cronies are about greed and capitalism at its very worst
Of course war profiteering is nothing new because ultimately war is not about national security or honor. Modern war has always been about economics. Smedley Butler categorized the profits of major corporations before and after WWI in his blistering treatise “War is a Racket”. Friends of the President such as Du Pont (the earlier form of KBR and Halliburton) had huge profits once war was started.
Dwight Eisenhower warned the “military-industrial complex” would exert a dangerous influence on the politics of this nation. While he seemed genuinely concerned of this danger, he still yielded to the British greed in deposing the elected Iranian government with the Shah of Iran when the legal government demanded equal compensation for the oil being stolen by British oil companies. The recent documentary “Why We Fight” does a great job in describing the takeover of the American government by special interests such as Halliburton and KBR.
What we don’t see on mainstream television or in the mainstream media is the total disregard our chicken-hawk President and cabinet have for the troops and the honest over-seers of government contracts and policy. Bush can tell the residents of New Orleans, "We're still paying attention. We understand.” two years after Katrina but his administration’s inaction and neglect along with the profiteering of companies tells the displaced and decimated the real truth about Mr. Bush.
The same companies plundering the treasury in Iraq have descended on the Gulf region to pick at the bodies and bones of the citizens devastated by Katrina. They unabashedly do nothing but reap profits while more than half the city of New Orleans lies in ruin and a large majority of the displaced have yet to return to their city. It’s no mistake or accident most of the displaced who haven’t returned are poor and people of color.
The very idea Bush and his cronies care about troops is refuted time and again by the actions of those given contracts in Iraq and places such as New Orleans. Another example of the patriotic caring of KBR is detailed by Taibbi in his article when he reports their efforts to provide a recreation center for troops in the Fallujah area.
“…for all the money KBR charged taxpayers for the rec center, it didn't provide much in the way of services to the soldiers engaged in the heaviest fighting of the war. When Warren ordered a karaoke machine, the company gave her a cardboard box stuffed with jumbled-up electronic components. "We had to borrow laptops from the troops to set up a music night," says Warren, who had a son serving in Fallujah at the time. "These boys needed R&R more than anything, but the company wouldn't spend a dime."
It’s become clear the only patriotism to be found in our Presidency is rewarding the incompetent and corrupt friends given sweetheart deals in a time young men and women were being asked to sacrifice their lives for reasons of noble purpose. The only nobility to be found has been young troops coming back to expose the lies and betrayal of the Bush empire.
Taibbi’s article (The Great Iraq Swindle) expose the Bushes for their betrayal and the traitors they are. How else can we explain a government that so callously allows war to happen as a means to profit? How can we avoid the word traitor when we understand the manipulations of a President and his cabinet to start a war, continue a war and profit so hugely from the war? This is pure evil by men and women claiming to be moral and religious but acting with such total disregard for life.
Taibbi’s words should cause outrage but the only media printing his story is a magazine focused on music of our time. Only the rock and roll crowd is brave enough to tell the truth.
“Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam ¬Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.”

“According to the most reliable ¬estimates, we have doled out more than $500 billion for the war, as well as $44 billion for the Iraqi reconstruction effort. And what did America's contractors give us for that money? They built big steaming shit piles, set brand-new trucks on fire, drove back and forth across the desert for no reason at all and dumped bags of nails in ditches. For the most part, nobody at home cared, because war on some level is always a waste. But what happened in Iraq went beyond inefficiency, beyond fraud even. This was about the business of government being corrupted by the profit motive to such an extraordinary degree that now we all have to wonder how we will ever be able to depend on the state to do its job in the future. If catastrophic failure is worth billions, where's the incentive to deliver success? There's no profit in patriotism, no cost-plus angle on common decency. Sixty years after America liberated Europe, those are just words, and words don't pay the bills.”
Read the Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi in Edition 1034 (Aug 22, 07).

Why The American Peace Movement is Bound to Fail

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the sick, the so-called incurables, and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't mentally ill.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left
to speak up for me
Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

The Disposables and Left Behind

The words of Pastor Niemoller alluded to the German intellectuals who failed to speak out against the tyranny of Adolf Hitler even when it was abundantly clear what was happening.
While there is some dispute about the actual wording of his poem, Niemoller’s meaning was clear. I happened to have chosen the version that mentions the mentally ill because I work with men and women diagnosed with major mental illnesses and always see the neglect and disregard our society has for them.
Instead of coming for groups like the mentally ill and the poor of our nation, the tyranny of George W. Bush has left them behind. Like the poor blacks of New Orleans left behind after Hurricane Katrina, Bush has continued to leave the marginalized behind in all areas of this nation.
Children trying to learn with empty stomachs aren’t included in Bush’s No Child Left Behind program because his regime can’t afford to feed them and carry out a war.
Even the children of the former “middle class” of America are beginning to find getting educated is more difficult and often still equate to lower paying employment. The gap between the rich and the rest of the people in the U.S. grows ever wider each year of the Bush empire.
A childhood insurance program for some of the country’s poorest or most in need families has recently been gutted by the Administration in an obvious cave-in to the insurance industry.
Housing promised to the poorest of families can’t be given by the regime of Bush, Cheney and Rove because corporate profit(eering) hasn’t reached a high enough record level yet. (And let’s not be fooled by Rove leaving the White House Staff; he remains very much the dark shadow he’s always been)
Poor immigrants have become the all too convenient whipping boys and girls of the group of ultra conservative, self righteous, Bible-thumping, so-called Christians that has seized freedom and rights from the American people.
The ever growing list of “left behinds” or “disposables” continues and the great majority of American people sit in a stupor watching the corporate controlled media mesmerized by “reality” programs.
Their kids play simulated games indoors in front of the other big screens of the homes now resembling castles instead of actually going outside to play real games that include exercise and movement.

The Myth of Democracy and Electoral Change

The tyranny grows larger and more menacing every day as the American intellectuals, progressives and liberals still try to promote the delusional idea the United States is a democracy. They claim it only takes electing the “right” people to make the needed changes to regain our nation.
The same groups have been claiming electoral processes will make things right dating back to the days of the first American government. The ugly little truth they fail to acknowledge is there never has been democracy in this nation.
But today, in this year, 2007, the regime of Bush, Cheney, Rove and others is closing in on taking away all pretenses of democracy, freedom and equal rights for the citizens of this country.
Today, 70-80% of the intelligence gathered around the world for this government is done by non-governmental private corporations such as Raytheon. Add that fact to the recent extension and increase of Presidential powers to spy on American citizens passed by an allegedly confused Congress and the implications are staggering.
Include the ghost armies such as Black Water now numbering as many or more than the number of American troops in Iraq and there is something obviously dark and ghoulish in the future of this nation’s “armed forces”.
Ghost armies inside the borders of our nation also grow as does the camps they now build in strategic areas of the country.
Failure of mass media to inform the citizens and corporate ownership that fosters stealth for wealth grows. The Comcasts and Qwests of the world now control a majority of the communication services used by Americans from television and internet to phone service.
Rupert Murdoch controls huge numbers of outlets to provide information to the masses around the world. If we think his agenda and the agenda of the rich and powerful won’t be insidiously and overtly passed on in the media we fool ourselves and allow the propaganda to continue to influence the actions of our nation.
The barbarians are past the gates and taking over the lives of a sleeping, narcotized populous. Fear is a commodity that freezes the average citizen as the tyrants come for more and more of them to do their cheap labor, fight their senseless wars and consume without social conscience.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”- Joseph Goebbels
The peace and justice groups of America claim to want change but were duped in 2006 by an election that changed only party names but did little to change the power structure of the “inner circle” of the tyrants.
Almost a year later the liberals and progressives, the so-called radicals and the moderates still wait for Congress to listen to their mandate of the 2006 election. They still believe visiting congressional offices to demand change or plead for morality is an effective tactic of change.
The peace and justice movements still believe we must remain kind and sensitive without upsetting people. Too many still believe upsetting the powerful will backfire with negative results.
I keep wondering if I’m on the same planet as some who think being arrested at a Congressional office while reading the names of the dead of the war will bring change. A wonderful peace activist friend will spend a month in jail for such an action because she was arrested for the fifth or sixth time.
The staff of the Congressman chided the activist for inconveniencing their work. Apparently their work didn’t include carrying out the promises of ending the war thought to be gained in Election 2006.
And very few besides the activist community even know or care this peaceful woman will do time in jail for doing something moral. Perhaps there would have been more attention paid if the Congressman had done something moral but that’s clearly an unlikely thing to happen.
The peace-mom, Cindy Sheehan, has retired from her previous retirement saying she’s contemplating a run for Congress. She was very unhappy with the movement’s lack of action during her almost two month retirement. Even less happy with the Congress she thought would be moved by her and other parents of men and women killed or serving in the two wars.
I can’t help but think one person out of a group of 435 in the House of Representatives is like a grain of sand on the beach. I know there’s a saying by Margaret Mead addressing what groups of people can accomplish but I doubt she was thinking of Congress when she said those words. (“Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.” Margaret Mead)
I know some will despise me for what I’m about to say but I believe Cindy Sheehan and other individual celebrities leading a peace and justice movement are ultimately bound to fail. Too often personal attacks on the individuals can cause irreparable harm. Too often individual ambition distracts from the more urgent needs a movement must address.
Electing Cindy will take time and money as well as the energy of many activists. With the tyrants consolidating more power every day, I wonder if we have much time or if our energy truly needs to be focused on growing an ever larger movement with diversity.
Margaret Mead was profoundly wise in her statements of what a few caring people can achieve. I think, however, she was a pragmatic woman who knew the energy of those people had to be focused on the more urgent needs of the world around them.
Does it sound apocalyptic to think this way? Perhaps, but the electoral process Democrats, progressives, Republicans, liberals, social activists and others want us to trust has shown nothing but contempt for the will of the people.
The erosion of freedom in the United States didn’t begin with the election of 2000. Big money, big corporations and elitist families have constantly had more sway than the people in the electoral process. Elections have been the bone thrown to the teeming masses while the special interest groups have continued to control the three branches of government.
Having grass roots candidates run, and even elected, has failed to change the tide of the oligarchy. Until the electoral process is free of huge sums of money to influence elections, control media and buy out men and women who ran with good intentions elections will continue to be a sham.
The great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, famously remarked, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has. Never will."
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters."
Until the politicians are more afraid of the masses than the wealthy power brokers the electoral process will remain tainted and illegitimate. And the numbers of citizens going to the polls will continue to run at fifty percent or less.
There’s a group of thinkers who will tell us the real power of the people begins with local elections. This thinking assumes city council members, mayors and state legislators haven’t been influenced by the wealthy powers of the local scene.
Building the New Movement – Time for Different Lyrics
So what’s my answer if I have so much disdain for the electoral process critics ask? I consistently answer a mass movement that will send a chill down the spines of the powerful is the movement that brings the greatest diversity ever witnessed in the history of this nation.
Building a diverse movement is something all the white dominated peace and justice groups profess to want but fail to get. They fail to get diverse groups because they fail to understand or care about the issues of the marginalized enough to actually enter those communities in a proactive attempt to help, not direct, in solving problems these communities face.
Instead, since 2003 the peace and justice movements have held rally after rally, march after march and convention after convention to state the obvious about the immorality and illegality of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The same speakers, same organizers and same themes have emerged time after time. Tokenism toward communities of color and the marginalized has reigned as the “movement” has refused to step up for the likes of Mumia Abu Jamal, the Palestinians and the gulags of American justice systems putting 15% of black males between ages 20-29 in prisons.
Forgotten is the 30-50 age group tarred by felonies and prison records unable to get work providing a living wage and benefits.
Unpopular issues such as prison reform, decriminalization of drug possession, release of drug offenders from prison to be able to find treatment as needed, true reform of public education or true reform of healthcare systems have failed to get a hearing on the stages of the marches, rallies and conventions.
I attended a large rally in D.C. in 2005 that allowed some speakers to address some of these issues and later heard complaints the focus didn’t remain on the war in Iraq.
By extension the war in Iraq results in the increased poverty, increased crime and increased drug offenses because the huge sums of money sent to kill are stripped from programs of prevention, empowerment (not entitlement as some racists would insinuate) and education.
By extension the war in Iraq strips money from safety net programs that help the weakest population in day to day survival, housing, food and clothing. And the impact is greatest in communities of color and communities of marginalized citizens.

Hip-Hop Nation is Real and Powerful

I’m still waiting to hear the voices of the Hip-Hop Nation vilified by racist media who seem willing to tolerate the misogyny of shock jocks like Imus and Howard Stern, who is hailed as a defender of free speech.
It seems when Stern is asking women to show their “tits” on his show it’s an acceptable, if unsavory, allowance to protect free speech. But let some young black males start rapping something of social discord or outright revolution and suddenly we’re supposed to have standards and ratings.
When Imus calls a successful coach and her finalist team a bunch of “nappy-haired hoes” because they’re athletic he gets fired only after much protest and a challenge from the coach. Once fired Imus becomes a martyred icon of free speech rather than the outright racist misogynist he should be thought of being.
Gangsta rap has become the way to define hip-hop but that characterization is like calling all fusion the defining music of jazz. Tupac Shakur, Mos Def, Chuck D, Ice Tea, early Michael Franti, NWA, Last Poets, KRS-One, Queen Latifah, god-father Gil Scott-Heron and the other pioneers of hip hop/ rap rhymed about more than tits, ass and fucking.
Hip Hop Nation has become a national forum for young people around the world. Hip genres run the gamut from abstract to urban. There are conscious and gangsta genres. Nations all over the globe have their own forms of hip hop.
It would seem such an important form of communication might have more than Russell Simmons’ cable program as a stage to get their message of social importance out. Though born in the United States by African Americans, the reach of hip hop is global. Youth culture and opinion is meted out in both Israeli hip hop and Palestinian hip hop, while France, Germany, the U.K., Africa and the Caribbean have long-established hip hop followings. According to the U.S. Department of State, hip hop is "now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world," that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines.[6] National Geographic recognizes hip hop as "the world's favorite youth culture" in which "just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene."[7]
The ironic fact about gangsta is the labels are white owned and directed. White corporate leaders often dictate the type of rap and rhymes that are marketed. The biggest market happens to be young white males. Very few rappers have full control of their art.
Just as the blues and jazz were often controlled by white corporations, hip-hop is also heavily influenced by white financiers.
The very music that the righteously outraged Christian cracker decries is white owned and white bought. But it’s the kids of color who will draw the heat for providing what the white owners want (see interview with activist Kevin Powell).

What’s Marriage Got to Do With War and Genocide?

I’m still waiting to hear from the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered) communities about the continued discrimination of a nation against a group of people because of sexuality. Homosexual marriage is held up as a vile and evil threat to the family and the institution of marriage. Adultery, refusal to honor vows and Las Vegas marriages and divorces is hardly mentioned.
I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how two men or two women married to their same sex partner affect my marriage or family. What are we running out of heterosexual men and women and need the homo’s to convert so we have the continuation of hetero marriage and family?
I’m still wondering if the outcries against gay rights have more to do with creating divisions than it does about gays having equal footing with straights.
The most ruthless and vilifying homophobia comes from the churches; especially the Catholic Church. The same Catholic Church that had covered up priests molesting little boys and sometimes girls for years has the audacity to screech about gays having equal rights under the law and in domestic issues.
The same church that fails to adequately compensate the victims of molesting priests years after the cover up is discovered wants to dictate moral values to men and women who were usually born with their sexual identity preordained by their DNA.
Why should the peace and justice movement include the GLBT communities in their movement?
It could be the movement needs to remember when the “negro” was supposed to sit at the back of buses, drink at “colored” fountains and accept the scraps and leftovers of the former slave holders.
It could be the movement needs to remember the GLBT communities as the victims of Nazis because they didn’t meet the definition of the current accepted “morality”.
Gay bashing was sport not so long ago at the high school I attended here in Denver. I don’t mean verbal abuse either. I mean homophobic high school males would cruise in groups at Cheesman Park and Cap Hill to pick up a gay man they could brutally attack as a group.
Denver police often turned a blind eye if victims of assault were gay. The thugs from high school would return to school the following school day to revel in their deeds of gay bashing. And we turned a blind eye because we’d been told “those people” were evil the same as we’d been told “those blacks” are uppity trouble makers deserving the fire hoses and beatings from the likes of Bull Connor.
Justice is for all people and the movement needs to honor that ideal and at the same time recruit yet another marginalized group to its numbers.
But, if we had gays in the forefront of a movement for peace and justice it could upset the people who have power in D.C. and the movement could be called to task for wanting justice for a bunch “that kind”.
How does adding gays help end the war in Iraq? Ending the war is about ending the occupation of a nation and its people. It’s about the struggle of justice for Iraqis. The GLBT communities continue to be part of a broader struggle for human justice. There is a connection in that quest of justice for all people.

The Young Shall Lead

Michael Franti sings “I don’t need a passport to walk on this earth anywhere I go cause I was made of this earth. I breathe of this earth and even with the pain I believe in this earth…..cause every bit of land is a holy land and every drop of water is a holy water and every single child is son or a daughter of the One Earth Mama and the One Earth Papa…so don’t tell a man that he can’t come here cause he got brown eyes and a wavy kind of hair. Don’t tell a woman that she can’t go there because she prays a little different to a God up above. You say you’re a Christian because God made you and you say you’re a Muslim cause God made you. You say you’re a Hindu and the next man a Jew. Then we all kill each other cause God told us to! Nah!”The young brother, singer of hip hop and folk, sees the world a lot more clearly than men and women elected to lead this nation. He sees it a lot more loving than the religious leaders telling us they believe in justice but willing to allow acceptable wars.
I keep wondering why men and women like Franti aren’t mainstream parts of the movement. They are the new poets of the age who connect with young and old world wide.
Maybe Joan Baez and Bob Dylan render up some good memories of the movement back in the sixties and seventies but it’s time for them to give it up to the new voices of protest.
As a combat veteran of Vietnam I believe it’s also time for the elders of the veteran community to change the front ranks of the veteran movement.
Iraq Veterans Against the War need support and need the microphone. The Courage to Resist movement needs support and needs to be heard. Leaders know when to give over the reins to the next generation in a smooth transition.
Unfortunately I see older veterans unwilling to give up their spotlight however dim it may be. They want to sit in the meetings of the younger vets. They want to forget how they were when they returned huddling together with other Vietnam vets because only those brothers and sisters understood.
The Cindy Sheehan movement was amazing but now is the time it steps aside to let the young men and women who were at war take the front of the stage to appeal to their peers “not to do what I’ve done”.
Following the young veterans should be the families who have had their sons and daughters ripped from their lives. Too many Casey Sheehans have perished for an illegal and immoral occupation that is really about greed and power.
And like good parents, these parents should give their children the voices to change the world they will have to take responsibility for; a world they will have to pay for.
We can’t grow a movement with the old folks harboring the idea they know best and should have the controls. They need to share the controls with the eloquence of Kelly Daugherty, Garret Reppenhagen, Charlie Anderson and so many more returned veterans who need to tell their stories.
The voices of young radicals calling themselves anarchists and Marxists are needed because they are the future of our nation, also, whether we believe in their ideals or not. Sitting down to listen to them is often a revelation of concerned individuals with brilliant minds wanting a voice in changing this world from the militaristic and violent world to one more mindful of others and the planet itself.
Food Not Bombs has been a constant in the movement to help feed the homeless and impoverished. They also provide food for many of the movement's rallies and events. And still the ideal of FNB is seldom mentioned in the politics of the movement. Too radical. Too anarchist.
Too often these voices are discounted even if they do come to a meeting to show solidarity. Too often the solidarity is a one way street from them to the hierarchal group they disdain. And too often the older groups with control gripe and grumble the young people “don’t show up”.
The young people who see the discounting and see the lack of diversity have a clear reason not to show up. They have heard enough “we shall overcome” and “imagine”. When the music and words of the new poets and singers are embraced by the movement the young will have proof they are valued.

I Am Jaquin and Outsourced Jobs

I still wait for the young Latino and Latina to bring the words of Corky Gonzales and Cesar Chavez to the stage. And then to bring their more recent struggles to the ears of those who have oppressed them.
I wait for the acceptance of the Spanish speaking man and woman into the movement as equals in the human struggle not as tokens to add to our numbers.
The fastest growing segment of the American population is still made to hide and become criminalized for coming to a nation that allows them a living wage.
They are the janitors and service industry people so easy to overlook. They build the million dollar castles of the rich and powerful. They see the excesses of this nation’s pampered and entitled.
Family and security is as meaningful to this part of America as others but all some hateful racists see is too many cars and lawns not meticulously groomed. They speak in their native language and that means they disrespect American values say the racists.
I wish these brothers and sisters were in the peace movement. I have no question why they don’t feel comfortable “showing up” for the movement’s events. They’ve become targets of racist policies meant to exclude them from having what all people should have; security of a job that supports a family, health benefits and most of all, hope.

Zionism Ain’t Judaism and Islam Ain’t Terrorism

I still wait for Arab-Americans, Muslims and other brothers and sisters with roots in the Middle East to be part of the movement’s concern for justice. Many in the movement shy away from these communities fearing the retaliation of hate and fear mongers who claim support for the communities is support for terrorism.
Too many Americans fail to challenge Zionism fearing it will cause a taint of anti-Semitism to be cast upon them. They fail to point out Zionism isn’t the Jewish religion and Semites include Arabic peoples.
AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)has exerted extreme pressure on a large majority of Congress. It's been political suicide to challenge or go against the wishes of this lobby.
Too often fear of doing what may be right because it may be perceived adversely by our opponents cause the movement to become passive. Too often fearing we might upset others causes us to fail to act at all.

Unionism Sold Out By Government and Labor Leaders

I wonder where the unions are in this movement. Unionism has been dying on the vine for decades now because of a calculated attack on them by rich owners of multi-national corporations. Their leadership has sold out in many cases and spends much of their time distanced from the rank and file in their own corporate style offices.
Now, more than ever, Americans need to organize against the deliberate attempt to enslave them with dependency on poor paying jobs and ever increasing debt. Mothers have to choose to stay on the job or go home to a sick child sent home by a school nurse. If they logically choose to attend to their child they lose a job.
Health benefits have become obsolete on some jobs and too expensive for workers on other jobs. Corporate owners know full well the benefits they offer are often out of the reach of workers. Approximately 40 per cent of Americans are now medically indigent. They are forced to use emergency rooms as a doctor’s visit.
Unsafe working conditions are overlooked by the corporations and employees complaining are terminated. American workers are given less leave than any other developed nation. There is no federal law stating an employee should even receive paid leave. The employer determines leave at their discretion.
Loss of adequately paying jobs to third world nations has gutted many areas of employment in the U.S.. We’re led by some to target the slave laborers of the third world nations rather than place the proper blame on the doorsteps of corporate slave masters. A world wide union movement is something American workers should endorse. Instead the leaders of the corporations and the government keep the American worker in the blame game against fellow brothers and sister merely trying to feed their families.
I keep waiting for the movement to start working with the viable unions to endorse their efforts and support their causes. I walked a picket line recently and had asked members of the movement to join me in the cause of the workers. A union organizer and I were the only activists from the local peace movement to join the workers.
Major national corporations have gone offshore and pay a disproportinately small amount of taxes based on the huge profits they gain by selling their products to the U.S. consumer. Americans consume at a greater rate than all of the third world nations combined.
World wide cartels of multinationals have created sweat-shops in the third world nations and China to produce products using slave labor. Free trade pacts such as NAFTA are in fact pacts to continue cheap labor and diminish the American labor movement.

Where’s the Religions??

I keep waiting for the religious brothers and sisters to be part of the movement. Surely there must be a counter point to the Zionists and the evangelicals so hateful they endorse wars and often are key leaders in starting and perpetuating them.
I wonder where the followers of Christ are in this movement. Where are the Martin Luther King type leaders opposed to the killing and insanity of war? Where are the mindful Buddhists who call for peace and are willing to go to the streets to demand it? Where are the William Sloane Coffins of this generation?
The religious community has been shamefully missing and the peace movement has failed to seek them out to remind them of their true values.
Too often there are activists wanting to blame people of religion for the wars and violence rather than accept there are always men and women who misuse and misinterpret the true meanings of their spiritual leaders such as Christ.
I repeat the lyrics of Michael Franti and Spearhead: “You say you’re a Christian because God made you and you say you’re a Muslim cause God made you. You say you’re a Hindu and the next man a Jew. Then we all kill each other cause God told us to!”
Franti calls people of religions out for their hypocrisy. Too often the movement fails to approach them or to chide them to do what is righteously their duty to be doing. No religion of note has a doctrine of starting wars illegally or for immoral purposes. None fail to mention peace as the ideal.

Environmental Peace and Justice Includes All of Us

I wonder why the protectors of the Earth’s natural resources and environment have not become headline speakers of the movement. And I mean besides a self-serving politician like Al Gore.
The wars of the 20th and 21st centuries have created huge environmental dangers that could well kill the human race before the actual wars manage to do it.
Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium are two examples of the leftovers of war that will continue to kill and harm humans. The atmosphere of Earth may very well carry DU around the world in the jet-streams causing radiation poisoning in epidemic numbers.
Environmentalists have a stake in ending the pollutants of war, the wastes of even the peace activists and the dangers we people pose to the planet that supports our lives.
And still the movement gets glassy-eyed and quits listening because the scientific concepts need to be listened to carefully. It seems to ask too much for helpless and hopeless humans to push for environmental revolution as well as political revolution.

What’s the Educational Value of War?

I keep waiting for educators of the children to speak out against the forces that kill the children once they get past high school. I wonder how the teachers of public schools can bear the neglect of the governments toward the children they teach. I wonder how they can bear to have their students made to take endless test after test that has little educational value and is Euro-centrically biased.
Educators surely see the ever growing gap of student able to go to college and those unable because of finances and poor educational environments in the inner city schools and the rural schools.
I know many educators who are activists but I seldom hear about educational groups speaking out against the travesty of American education and tying it into the drain of needed funds to wars.
The recruitment and nurturing of educators and other groups I mention should be the responsibility of the movement that claims to want diversity and have power to effect change.

War is A Disease – Healers Needed

I look to the medical professions and wonder why my colleagues fail to condemn the slaughters that continue to occur. Saving lives takes a large role in the American culture but it always seems to be in the context of saving lives in crisis.
I fail to understand why professionals dedicating their lives to the health of humans fail to denounce one of the largest health care crises we have in the world today: war.
I have to wonder why we in healthcare haven’t joined the movement in demanding an end to war and a right to healthcare for all humans. We must demand preventive healthcare for all humans that includes the prevention of wars that drain the funding for health clinics and healthcare programs.
Gino Strada and his NGO group, EMERGENCY, is one of the few groups that has kept politics separate from the simple acts of humanity needed by so many harmed in wars of imperialism and genocide.

Do You Want This For Your Daughters?

I wait for the feminists I remember from the 70’s to reappear in the form of young women who care just as much. While Code Pink has stayed the course in promoting feminist issues there are others who we’ve failed to attract to the movement.
Too often there is the same male hierarchy in control of the movement as in the board rooms. Women still make approximately 78 cents to a male’s dollar in wages. Misogyny still seems acceptable in all areas of the American society.
And yet, I see heroic and strong women standing up against the madness. Kathy Kelly, Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, Cindy Sheehan, Dahlia Wasfi, Kelly Dougherty, Ann Wright, Medea Benjamin and so many others have demonstrated the power and courage of feminism in this nation. But too often I see women’s issues take a back seat.
The women of Iraq and Afghanistan have seen their lives go from bad to very much worse since the occupation of the two countries. I have to believe strong American feminists in solidarity with their sisters in the Middle East are an absolute necessity.
Sexual assaults, date rapes, sexual harassment, unequal pay, body mutilation, continued questions of who controls a woman’s body in pregnancy and birth control, objectification of women by porn and mainstream press and the continued lack of women representatives in Congress and state legislatures are serious issues needing to be part of the search for justice.
Returning female veterans are all too familiar with sexual assault and harassment by male troops in their own units. While veterans have become a stronger voice in the antiwar movement, too often the stories of the female veterans being abused by their own unit members go untold.

Let’s Revisit The Black Panthers

I’ve gone on at great length to demonstrate why the American peace movement will fail. There is an endless list of affinity groups, communities and professional groups that haven’t been brought into to the movement. They haven’t been recruited.
Instead, we have professional peace activists who seem unwilling to share the power with marginalized people and professionals who may be more mainstream but still work for peaceful solutions. These groups can infuse new ideas, new thought and new tactics into a dormant and redundant movement.
I’ve always harkened back to the Black Panthers as an organization with an ideal and a plan to change the face of America. Others wince about the reputation of violence the Panthers are charged with having. Still others dismiss the Panthers as too radical.
I believe the Panthers were thoughtful and insightful about what it took to change the lives of Americans. They were no doubt flawed in some things. Their treatment of women wasn’t exactly stellar but the plan they offered extended to all in need.
Radical ideals are needed to change America. Radical action must be taken if we’re to survive as a nation and more importantly as a world.
The time to end the tyranny has already passed us by and now we must take whatever action we can to catch up. We must challenge and confront the tyranny.
We must demand the rights and freedoms stolen or never implemented are restored and implemented.
To catch up and to truly bring about the needed changes takes a true diverse and strong movement of concerned citizens. We don’t have to be in agreement with all the beliefs of others but we do need to recognize the urgency to save our nation and save the world from our country’s tyranny.

"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY."
Herman Goering


dem come for de rasta and you say nothing
dem come from the Muslims you say nothing
dem come for the anti-globalist you say nothing
dem even come for the liberals and you say nothing
dem come for you and who will speak for you? who will speak for you, who ? Asian Dub Foundation - Round Up" on the album "Tank" (2005)



William Terry Leichner, RN

VFW, Pimps for the Gangsters

So, finally George W. wants to draw a comparison with Iraq and Vietnam and has the audacity to do so before a group of Vietnam veterans. Of course the veterans are the lock step, revisionist, mindless assholes of the VFW who would have us believe Vietnam was some damn honorable action of a nation only wanting to come to the aid of the poor underdog.
Instead of calling out the Chicken-hawk-in Chief, the VFW crew applauds the sorry SOB when he calls for more men and women to sacrifice their lives for an endless and fruitless war. And they think they’re supporting the troops.
Sorry, assholes, but you’re living in the past thinking you can win this counter-insurgency conflict using your sons, daughters and grandchildren as sacrificial lambs.
I suggest the VFW crew quit sitting around the bar and telling war stories about their past glories and take the place of the young folks in the military who detest what they’re being asked to do in Iraq. For once in this nation’s history, let’s send the old war mongering hawks out to be killed and kill.
Paraphrasing Dick Lamm’s remarks about old people many years ago…”we have a duty to die”. Lamm was talking about elderly folks trying to live forever and overburdening the healthcare system but why not send the old bastards who sit around saying we should have stuck it out in Vietnam or if only we’d had more of this or that, we could have won?
Dubya’s stunt is less reprehensible than veterans who applaud him as he says “more, more, more...” like the “fortunate son” he’s always been. It just boggles this old grunt’s mind to think anybody who bled in and endured the fiasco and slaughter of Vietnam could applaud a bastard that did everything he could to avoid going and got away with it.
It demonstrates how the rich and powerful not only use privilege to avoid sacrificing as much as the poor or middle class for this nation but also dupe the dumb bastards into believing another war is needed. Just don’t ask the rich and powerful to sacrifice in this one either because “it is a volunteer army”. And the troops chose to be part of the slaughter.
The rich “fortunate sons” are needed to run the “democracy” at home and take advantage of college education given them on a platter because mom and dad are alumni and donors. The rich can’t be bothered with the dying when they are needed to plan the bloodshed.
Bob Dylan called them the “masters of war” and said “even Jesus can’t forgive what you did”. Michael Franti says “those that start wars never fight them, those that fight wars never like them”.
The sickening realization I’ve come to is too many that fight wars forget them when it comes time to make another sacrifice to a senseless and immoral war machine that eats generation after generation. I see the VFW and American Legion as the feeder system to the meat-grinder killing American kids and kids in the nations we occupy and destroy.
I shouldn’t be surprised Vietnam veterans would divide up on this war just as they have on the legacy of Vietnam. Revisionists like the Swift Boaters and the flag flyers joining the groups like VFW and the Legion want the bloodshed to have meant something other than a failed foreign policy and imperialistic designs of the rich. They can’t accept the truth. They can’t believe their nation’s leaders would send them to war without a true threat to the national good.
What surprises me is the same flag flyers would join ranks with the lying lowlife who did everything he could to avoid going to Vietnam. He and his entire cabinet have thumbed their noses at the lowly grunt and the veterans. And yet these groups of veterans that include many Vietnam veterans applaud the bastard chicken-hawk.
Bush has long turned my stomach with his total disregard toward the poor, the middle class and the working person. He’s consistently shown his administration will only do the right thing for veterans when the veterans and family demand it and not before.
At the start of the war the body armor and armored vehicles were missing but they sent the troops anyway. Bush has yet to go to one single funeral of a dead troop killed in the two wars. Walter Reed and most of the other hospitals meant to treat the returning veterans for physical and emotional problems have been substandard. Several attempts have been made to thwart treatment of PTSD and TBI by this group of cowardly men and women.
The list goes on and on as documented by several reports and several watchdog groups.
Apparently the VFW on August 22, 2007 overlooked the lies and disregard of Bush and trust his management of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Apparently they don’t give one damn bit about the welfare of the troops on the ground or returned from several tours of duty.
Apparently all that matters to them is some concept of winning a war that can never be won.
Apparently the VFW has seen too many John Wayne movies and think war is like some damn video game where there has to be a winner. Apparently they forget there are no winners in war.
I would expect such an attitude from George W. but I can’t believe these guys would fall for the same bullshit all over again.
Some will say veterans are brothers in arms but I will categorically say veterans who refuse to accept the truth and will voluntarily put another generation at risk for the benefit of the rich could never be my brothers.
Veterans living in the past and failing to learn are fools. It doesn’t matter how many medals or how many battles they’ve fought if they didn’t learn from the violence.
Veterans subjecting another generation of young people to war without absolute need for war are as culpable as the “masters of war” perpetrating the wars. They rally the cannon fodder for the bidding of the gangsters Smedley Butler so eloquently talked about in his article “War is A Racket”.
No matter how many alleged services organizations like VFW and American Legion claim they perform, the deaths they take part in promoting can never be forgiven…even by Jesus.

William T. Leichner
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam December 31, 1968 – February 12, 1969

Independence Day Post Mortem

2007 Independence Day (4th of July for those lacking such knowledge as the meaning of the date) has now passed in a cloud of gun powder, alcohol, littering, cookouts and lack of awareness. I listened to the rockets red glare until about 2 a.m. this morning as the neighborhood erupted in the usual thousands of dollars spent on fireworks each year just on my block. Each explosion and each mortar like sound caused my mind to wander back to that greatest of all fireworks show, War.
Yeah, War. War is what the day is all about and yet most Americans out waving their flags and blowing up their neighborhoods gave little or no thought American, Iraqi and Afghan kids were getting killed and maimed in the continuation of War that has touched almost every American generation.
Then there were the typical memorials to War done by the local members of the Armed Services either active duty or reservists. Or by the veterans of previous years of War. The usual protocol for the ceremony was the glorification of the “sacrifice” to protect American life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Here in Denver a special ceremony took place to honor a Navy Seals combat veteran of War in Afghanistan. The Seal was killed in action during his tour and awarded The Navy Cross, the second highest award for valor in the Navy.
A statue of the man in full battle gear, holding his weapon and hand grenades clipped to his body armor was unveiled in a local park near his childhood home. It also resides along the path of school children of two different schools in the area. Grade school and middle school kids will see the statute of the “warrior” each day on their way to school.
One group of parents took exception to the statue. They felt it glorified violence and War. A statue of a young man in full combat gear holding a weapon seemed to connote a message of approval for war the group reasoned.
The “peaceniks” were met with a howl of anger and abuse by the "forever veterans" groups and the family and friends of the Navy Seal. How dare someone question a monument to a fallen “hero” of the war against terrorism seemed to be their theme of angst and angry remarks.
Danny Dietz, the Navy Seal, didn’t deserve to die in a foreign land at such a young age. He didn’t deserve to be manipulated and duped as his government has done to so many young Americans. He didn’t deserve to enter into the violence of War which was based on lies and distortions of the truth.
This young man was the victim of a culture that seems only capable of solving problems between nations with violence. He and so many of his generation are victims of a military industrial complex that has made War a major industry in this nation.
Five hundred billion dollars and counting has gone to the War in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over 700,000 dead Iraqis have been victims of an illegal and immoral War. In case someone has missed it; 90% of the dead of War since the period call World War II have been innocent civilians. 30% of that number is children.
Smart bombs, artillery, aerial bombs, cluster bombs, deviated forms of napalm and white phosphorous bombs and all the extensive and expensive arsenal of the Great American War Machine are in truth instruments of terror and horror used against a mostly innocent population of men, women and children.
Smedley Butler, the much decorated War hero of the Marines, lamented his “service” to the military industrial complex. At the end of his career, Butler knew he’d been used to only further the interests of rich and powerful factions of the American society. Butler realized the sacrifice of the men he led in War and the pain and grief he endured was done only to further the elite oligarchy posing as democracy.
I listen to the continued assault in my neighborhood from fireworks representing the implements of War and blanch and startle often. I grit my teeth in anger because young children are being allowed to be groomed for War by parents unwilling to educate themselves on the reality.
Parents of the American soldier and Marine have often bought in to the bull shit of the cartoon action figures or the video game heroes. They watch the tube controlled by huge corporations who benefit greatly from War and believe their way of life is in danger from radical extremists.
The true radical extreme terrorists reside within the borders of American soil based in Washington D.C. Proponents of death and destruction are allowed to run amuck in form of politicians, lobbyists for huge business conglomerates and Zionists and zealots claiming to have the ear of God.
Holidays like Memorial Day and Independence Day are nothing but an exercise in flaunting American materialistic superiority. Perfect examples of the culture are “hot dog eating sports” and huge consumption of alcohol. Any mention of young men and women dying in a foreign land is looked upon as an intrusion of the party that takes place.
On the other extreme are the fat old men and women dressed in the colors of the American flag, the noise polluting Harley honor guards and the America, Love it Or Leave it faction who see it as their duty to glorify and deify War.
Of course there are liberals and progressives who swear they can right the sinking American oil tanker by legislative process. They show up dutifully at the offices of congress people to ask them to take a moral stand. But they don’t usually phrase it like that. They nicely point out the bills before Congress that almost represent their views they’d like the Congressmen and women to support.
The key attitude of liberals and progressives is tolerance. They ask the oppressed to continue tolerance toward the oppressor. They ask the troops and their families to tolerate continued stop losses and extended tours in combat while they attempt to persuade the lawmakers to bring them all home.
The last national election in 2006 seemed a clear mandate to bring an end to the war in Iraq and to bring the troops home. Besides some lame non-binding resolutions and votes that will clearly be vetoed without power to overturn the veto, there has been no true movement to bring troops home.
There have been extended times of tours, a “surge” that increased the number of troops in harm’s way, decreased availability to mental health treatment, inadequate treatment of traumatic brain injuries and overt attempts to take away benefits from returned vets by labeling them with psychiatric diagnoses termed pre-existing (e.g. personality disorders).
Meanwhile there are ever increasing declines in social programs. Poor families seeking rent aid will wait well past the time of eviction, mental health programs will continue to fall short of the needed funding to actually treat clients within minimal standards, jails have become the new mental health treatment centers and prisons continue to incarcerate more and more marginalized citizens for non-violent offenses. Self medicating in impoverished and helpless neighborhoods continues to be common and the system continues to criminalize the victims of the system meant to keep the elite and rich in power and the have-nots helpless.
Liberals and progressives want us to believe the oligarchy is really a democracy even after they watch Michael Moore demonstrate through this nation’s healthcare system just what oligarchy means. Moore, to his credit, shows healthcare’s despicable history in the United States in his movie “Sicko” and also, using comparisons with Canada, Great Britain and France, shows nations that have at least limited democracy while the U.S. continues to discourage and strangle the citizens who attempt to make changes.
I keep asking if the Patriot Act has been repealed, the constant spying on citizens stopped and the criminal actions of the Executive Branch stopped. It seems we’re no closer today than at the beginning of the Bush Administration’s first inauguration. In truth, we continue to plummet into the abyss of totalitarian rule.
Reports of secret, but not really secret, ghost armies like Blackwater Security are they now outnumber the number of troops in Iraq. At home the ghost armies are building bases for themselves in key areas of the nation. Conspiracy theorists posit the bases are really camps that will be used when martial law is declared following a manufactured crisis like that of September 11, 2001.
Whatever the outcome, the ghost armies will remain for the next regime elected in 2008. They will consist of the most highly trained and indoctrinated troops that have retired to six figure jobs. Their loyalty belongs to the true American flag; the green paper of the American monetary system.
Friends and acquaintances tell me I need to be more positive and try to take a less angry stance in my writings and actions. Others have tried to turn me on to new age philosophy of meditation that is supposed to help bring peace to our world. Thich Nhat Hanh would have me become “mindful” in my actions.
I wish I could let go of the dead bodies of soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen that die in these illegal and immoral wars. I wish I could put the thought of bombs dropping onto children into the recesses of my mind that aren’t constantly being used. I wish I could not feel rage toward those who stand in the way of ending the war and bringing the troops home.
The problem with all that I wish is facing Iraq vets with the thousand yard stares or mothers unable to reconcile the death of their babies. The problem is every day the insanity of war continues a son or daughter is going to die. It may be an American, an Iraqi or an Afghan child but children will die each day.
Continued rallies of the same people, continued meetings without different tactics and continued preening and pimping toward the mainstream press obviously hasn’t worked. Good people with good hearts aren’t enough to end this war and this tyranny consuming this nation. Real action must be taken.
So, in the words of one of my favorite people, William Sloane Coffin, I will remain outraged. If folks aren’t outraged then I’m going to consider there’s something wrong with them. If I insult them with my rage, I guess that’s what Independence Day really means for the individual in America….it’s allowed.

Wm. Terry Leichner,RN
Denver VVAW member
combat veteran of Vietnam