We Has Seen the Enemy...

The note below is a response to an article about the Strategic Air Command HQ’ed in Omaha, NE. Since my childhood SAC has been the “first strike” response to any perceived attack or danger to American soil. How they missed the happenings of 9-11 is still a mystery but some say that was a day of “training” which took them away from the NYC and D.C areas. Reassuring.
While it’s true Omaha’s Strategic Air Command is the center of the universe of Hell, the entire mid section of America takes part in the nuclear hell waiting to happen. In an area stretching from Colorado to Montana to North Dakota to Nebraska over 500 hundred nuclear missile sites sit in fields of American farms looking very innocent except for the chain link fences surrounding them.
Every one of those missiles is on “ready alert” even after the fall of the evil empire once known as USSR fell. Communism became terrorism and the aging missile systems have new targets and maintain many of the old targets. One of the 530 missiles is ten times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Despite all attempts to cover up the truth by the military and our “leadership” in D.C. several former service people who had the key of nuclear winter in their hands have talked about the times they witnessed near misses in launching one of those missiles. If you think that number is extremely low, you’re wrong.
Sisters Ardith Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson, Dominican nuns, have been imprisoned for their passionate resistance to these sites. They are now free but face another term in federal prison for their refusal to pay for the chain link fence the military destroyed in arresting the elderly sisters after they had entered a site near Greeley, Colorado by using bolt cutters to open the gate. Their story is documented in the movie, Conviction.
Colorado is also home to several other secret facilities that guide and monitor nuclear sites as well as satellites in space. Every day we have people drive by our missile sites and our secret bases without a clue the end of the planet is one mistake away at any one of the sites. Imagine those who work in these places. How much must a person have to be in denial or totally oblivious to reality? Or totally sold on the propaganda of the liars-in-chief.
One common theme has kept these true “weapons of mass destruction” in place. Fear. The American people have been led to believe their lives were in peril from some evil force outside their borders since the days of the founding fathers. Since World War II that fear has been stoked and manipulated by politicians to feed the omnipresent military-industrial-complex Eisenhower warned about during his Presidency. Before Eisenhower, George Washington warned about the military being too powerful. But fear has festered and Americans have failed to have faith in the very God they claim to believe in. They have failed to have faith in people of other nations and in the process alienated enough people to create powerful enemies.
A professor at our state university in Boulder had the audacity to say 9-11 was a case of the “chickens coming home to roost” in America. He added references to the victims of the twin towers being like little “Eichmanns” because of their participation in carrying out American policies. Unfortunately, the message was lost in the hyperbole of the professor’s choice of analogy. Americans failed to process why we’re hated by others in the world. Instead they allowed the “Madmen of Crawford” to seek revenge. Instead they willingly gave up essential rights and freedoms to be “safe”.
We can put on all the helmets, knee pads and chest protectors we want but we won’t find safety until we begin to participate in the world as responsible citizens of the world. Parents in this country have created “the nanny generation” because the world is perceived as evil and dangerous and fear dominates them. The fear of Americans is cynically orchestrated by the rich and powerful and directed away from the true sources of evil that should elicit fear. As Pogo once said in the comics, “we has seen the enemy and he is us”.
If we look at our state of the union from politics to environment, from human suffering to humanity the genius of Walt Kelly’s comic character rings as true today as it did back in my childhood of the late fifties and early sixties.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
Vietnam combat vet

What's the Difference Between Hillary, Obama or George??

I'm watching as Americans continue to allow the political hacks of both parties to play their electoral games of spend and dodge and can't help but wonder why we allow it and when we'll stop it.
Can anybody say Obama or Hillary will get us out of Iraq anytime soon if elected? Can anybody say if the budget for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will stop draining the life out of the needs of impoverished Americans or impoverished Iraqis? Can anybody say schools will get better, jobs will pay living wages, healthcare will be available for all, housing will improve for the homeless or the average pay check to pay check worker or racism, sexism or ageism will lessen?
Can anybody reveal how much money from AIPAC and other Zionists (for the politically correct please understand Zionist doesn't mean Jewish or all Israelis) goes into the campaign funds of Hillary and Obama either directly or indirectly? When we learn the large sums that are given both these candidates by Zionists and AIPAC, can we seriously think Palestinians will ever have a chance for justice?
While it seems easy to revile George W, Dick and Condi for the criminals they are don’t we have to do the same for those who have been complicit with them in the funding and continuation of their crimes? Doesn’t that group include the spineless Democratic leadership?
It seems every election year there’s a “new” candidate who has charisma and captures a large audience with promises of “change”. As we look back, what happened to those candidates that gave their audience so much hope?
Here in Colorado, Ken Salazar was going to be the new hope for many. One of his first acts was to endorse Alberto Gonzales, the henchman for the Bush torture team.
My good friend praises Hillary Clinton. She believes Hillary will make a “great” President. I agree she would make a “great” President but not in the context my friend thinks of being great. Hillary would be “great” in keeping the status quo just as husband, Bill, was. Can we expect a former board member of Wal-Mart and a Senator beholding to AIPAC to be anything but a figure head for more of the same?
When I hear the enthusiasm for Barrack Obama I think about JFK’s charm and the enthusiasm we had for him. He was articulate and charismatic. He promised great changes but instead gave us Vietnam. Obama plays on his opposition to entering Iraq but where’s his political courage when funding the war comes around? Obama promises change but the question needs to be asked if he can change the incarceration rates for black and brown males aged 25-35? He may want to see all people equal but can he see that it becomes a reality?
In truth, it would be easy to focus our contempt on Bush’s visit to Denver this week but just as appropriate to picket the visits of Obama and Bill Clinton. All of them are part of the oligarchy that poses as democracy. All of them are part of the military- industrial complex responsible for immoral wars and worldwide injustices.
So why do we continue to allow these candidates to avoid the hard questions of how they intend on changing our nation? Why do we allow them to spend billions on their campaigns and think they will have integrity? How in good conscience can men and women claiming to want the best for this nation and our world spend such obscene amounts of money to obtain office?
All across the world we are judged by the men and women we allow to govern our nation. As the world becomes smaller in our ability to communicate with one another can the people of the U.S. truthfully say we are good citizens of our world?

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
Vietnam combat vet

Denver's MLK Day Marade Really a Charade

Yesterday the annual “celebration” of Martin Luther King’s life took place here in Denver, CO. Denver has the largest “celebration” every year calling it a “Marade” which indicates it’s a march and parade combined.
The event draws thousands of community members every year who are given placards and posters with MLK’s image and words on them. Of course the phrase “I have a dream” is prevalent on both the professionally made materials and the personally created ones.
For the past few years there’s been an increasing number of the Denver metropolitan area’s community that has grown disenchanted with the Marade. The name has been changed to “the charade”.
Marade organizers were recently interviewed in the business section of the Denver Post about the group of citizens that have spoken out about the Marade’s corporate sponsorship. The sponsors include State Farm Insurance and the Denver Department of Safety (Denver Police Department and Denver Fire Department).
The organizer spokesperson stated they felt the group challenging the corporate sponsorship was being “divisive” and unrealistic. The Marade couldn’t carry on being as large and successful without corporate sponsorship he said. The ending paragraph of the article quoted the spokesperson saying if Marade organizers could do without the sponsorship, “believe me we would”.
So, the Marade went on as planned with the corporate sponsors having a high profile from the park where it began to the civic center where it ended. Music, speeches and dignitaries were all part of the “celebration”. Both major newspapers in Denver had front page headlines and photos of the Marade. The stories were a series of quotes from local black citizens, liberals and progressives and politicians. They spoke about the frigid weather conditions and touched upon the failure of the American society to achieve the many facets of Martin’s “dream”.
The newspapers failed to mention the small group of “divisive” citizens who felt the Marade failed to honor Dr. King’s legacy by accepting sponsors that have a long history of failing the communities of color. The small group challenged the Marade organizers to speak out against the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They challenged the organizers to make the connection of faltering social programs to the billions spent on the wars. They challenged the organizers to speak out about the incarceration rates of young black and Hispanic males. They challenged the organizers to demand better educational and occupational opportunities for marginalized communities. They challenged the organizers to quit celebrating a “dream” that has continued just that, a dream. Meanwhile the nightmare of poverty and racism continues in this country and this nation.
Yesterday General Motors ran a full page ad in both papers to “honor” Dr. King and in the process advertise itself and contributions made to the “struggle” by GM.
Meanwhile GM continues to outsource jobs to foreign nations using “slave” labor to manufacture many of their parts. Meanwhile GM continues to ignore the overt poverty in the city of Detroit where it has long had corporate headquarters. GM is an example of the charade that has taken place here in Denver’s annual Marade.
I suggest the dissent against the Marade is valid and that it is indeed a charade. We need only look at the sponsors that the organizers would do without if they could. State Farm is one of the major insurers under indictment in the New Orleans area for attempts to deny coverage for Katrina survivors. One of the ways the insurer has attempted to deny coverage has been putting pressure on adjusters and inspectors to determine damages were primarily caused by water.
If the evaluation of destroyed homes was attributed to water, the majority of claims could be denied by State Farm and others since water damage is excluded in most cases.
The memory of black Americans abandoned on highway overpasses and at the Super Dome is still fresh in most minds of the citizens of New Orleans displaced all around the nation and still waiting to return to their devastated homes. State Farm Insurance has not endeared itself in New Orleans more than two years after Hurricane Katrina hit the city and surrounding region.
Maybe State Farm thinks sponsoring the Marade makes up for the callous disregard of Katrina survivors, most who are people of color. Maybe State Farm sponsorship is good enough for Denver Marade organizers to forget the fraudulent behavior in insurance coverage for Katrina survivors. It’s questionable if Dr. King would consider State Farm an ally of black Americans or any marginalized American he so eloquently spoke in support of being part of his dream.
We have to question why Marade organizers would think so.
Sponsorship by the Denver Department of Safety for the Marade is an affront to all marginalized communities that have borne the brunt of police harassment and brutality. Denver Police Department’s record of complaints has been one of the worst in the nation. The Denver Police Department ranks in the top five for shootings of minority citizens. There have been several high profile lethal shootings that in review could have been prevented. Discipline of responsible officers hasn’t included felony charges or time in prison. The harshest disciplinary action has been suspension and pay loss for less than six months time.
We have to question why the Marade organizers would think sponsorship by a police department with such a record of oppressive actions toward the communities of color is appropriate. We have to wonder about the great irony of organizations like the police and fire departments being part of a celebration for Dr. King who constantly faced thug policemen, police dogs and fire hoses. Marade organizers don’t seem to have the same questions.
The final quote of the spokesperson for the Marade seemed to show the organizers do have doubts about the sponsors but chose to accept the money anyway in order to have the “largest” MLK Day event in the nation. It seems questionable whether Dr. King would approve of such a compromise.
One bright light in today’s Rocky Mountain News were the words of State Representative Terrance Carroll of Denver.
I decided this morning while I was marching in the Marade that I would put aside my notes and just speak from the heart, because there are some issues that were raised over the weekend that I didn't include in my talk for today and some issues that came to mind while I was in the Marade that I think are quite important.
"Every year I stand here and I make some vain attempt to try to sound inspirational and try to cajole you and challenge you to be better legislators, for all of us to be a better legislative body in honor of Dr. King's dream, in honor of Dr. King's vision. And each year I come here and I try to do this in a fashion that's challenging and yet non-confrontational. But as I was in the Marade today and as I watched my TV this weekend, I decided that the non-confrontational, slight-challenging, slight-cajoling thing is probably offensive, really, to the memory and to the legacy of Dr. King, especially considering all the challenges that we face in this nation and in this state: from the war in Iraq; to the fact that in this state more than 60 percent of our students of color do not graduate from high school within four years; from the fact that in a state where only four percent of the total population is African American yet 25 percent of our prison population consists of African American men and African American women, it seemed to be improper and inappropriate at this time to stand before you and say that Dr. King's dream has meant a great deal to all of us.
And then I read a story just this weekend about a young woman who survived Hurricane Katrina - a young African American woman. And there's an oral history project that's being conducted right now by the University of Pennsylvania regarding this. And one of the historians questioned this young lady in her new home in Houston Texas and she was asked, 'What are your dreams for your children? What are your dreams for your future?' And her response was, 'I don't dream anymore because I do not want to be disappointed.'
How can we celebrate this holiday in all honesty, and march and get up and shout and sing songs when the truth of the matter is, this woman is not alone. There are far too many people in this country who don't dream anymore. They don't have hopes. They don't have aspirations. They just find despair, they just find apathy, and they just find hatred.
So we're in a situation now, at this particular hour, at this particular time, where I find myself unable to stand here and say, "I have a dream" or to sing We Shall Overcome, or to sing the Negro National Anthem and to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing, because there's too much work for us that has to be done, and that work can't be done when we spend the King holiday based on our own vain need to slap ourselves on our backs and say what a great job we've done in the time since April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated on a balcony of the Lorraine Hotel. In fact, I find it quite offensive that each year during this time that we think that everything's been brushed under the carpet, under the rug and that everything in this country's just hunky-dory. It's not.
We spend $3 billion a week on the war in Iraq. No matter how you feel about the war that's an awful lot of money to spend, period. So I think that as we celebrate this holiday, on this day, we have more a moral obligation to search our souls, to ask ourselves, like the writer of the Book of Micah, in Chapter 6:8, when he asks the rhetorical question, 'What does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord Our God.'"
Terrance Carroll understands the disgruntlement of the “divisive group” who also fail to see the reasoning of the Marade’s organizers to celebrate. I don’t know how he feels about the commercialization of the event but his eloquence seems to indicate he’s probably not much of a fan of it either. Representative Carroll should be commended for his refreshing honesty.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam (’67-’69)
Denver VVAW member

MLK, Nonviolence, Not Passive

While I certainly believe we should all be outraged and demonstrate that outrage in resistance, I don’t believe we can resort to the same actions of the oppressors. Violence may seem a viable option to many of us but what have we gained if we resort to violence? We’ve basically made our case for peace and justice invalid if that’s the path we choose.
Resistance doesn’t mean a passive approach, however. We need to get in the way of the oppression. As we approach Martin Luther King’s day of commemoration we need to recall the actions of the civil rights workers were risky and proactive. I think we must recall such actions and the words of Martin:
“Massive civil disobedience is a strategy for social change which is at least as forceful as an ambulance with its siren on full. In the past ten years, nonviolent civil disobedience has made a great deal of history, especially in the Southern United States. When we and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference went to Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, we had decided to take action on the matter of integrated public accommodations. We went knowing that the Civil Rights Commission had written powerful documents calling for change, calling for the very rights we were demanding. But nobody did anything about the Commission's report. Nothing was done until we acted on these very issues, and demonstrated before the court of world opinion the urgent need for change. It was the same story with voting rights. The Civil Rights Commission, three years before we went to Selma, had recommended the changes we started marching for, but nothing was done until, in 1965, we created a crisis the nation couldn't ignore. Without violence, we totally disrupted the system, the life style of Birmingham, and then of Selma, with their unjust and unconstitutional laws. Our Birmingham struggle came to its dramatic climax when some 3,500 demonstrators virtually filled every jail in that city and surrounding communities and some 4,000 more continued to march and demonstrate nonviolently. The city knew then in terms that were crystal-clear that Birmingham could no longer continue to function until the demands of the Negro community were met. The same kind of dramatic crisis was created in Selma two years later. The result on the national scene was the Civil Rights Bill and the Voting Rights Act, as President and Congress responded to the drama and the creative tension generated by the carefully planned demonstrations.”
Trumpet of Conscience; 1967 – Martin Luther King
We must remember that the civil disobedience enacted by Dr. King and his supporters often resulted in violent reactions by those opposing them. Each time they took to the streets there was a chance of violence and even death. Yet they still continued because they knew they were on the moral high ground.
When Martin spoke out against the Vietnam War I failed to realize how profound his words were. I failed to heed his warning and ended up in Vietnam a year later. I came to realize his voice was one of the few sincere voices of American leaders that truly cared for not only American troops, but the Vietnamese civilians and troops as well. He cared for the awful waste of humanity being carried out in the name of freedom. He saw the need to challenge the lies of a government falsely using concepts of peace and justice to justify murderous acts of aggression and imperialism.
The same words spoken at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 are just as valid and uncannily pertinent today as they were in 1967 when Dr. King spoke out against the war in Vietnam.
“A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. “……….
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. “
Not only are the words Dr. King spoke as relevant today as in 1967, so too are the actions of civil disobedience just as relevant. I believe we must stop playing it “safe” with the cooperative demonstrations of disobedience in which the forces of oppression are included and begin to seize the opportunities to demonstrate moral civil disobedience wherever they are necessary. Doing so will mean taking risks of upsetting our style of living. Doing so will mean chancing violent reactions of the oppressive forces that seek to destroy dissent and the freedoms we still have.
The dogs and fire hoses have never left us. They only change form and become secret imprisonments, water-boarding and intimidating visits by the forces of “homeland security”. The homeland has become far too much like the “fatherland” of other tyrants in the not so distant past.
If not now, when? If not enough, when? When is the time to stop the tyranny? When is oppression enough to make us act in the necessary ways to end it?

Another Betrayal of Troops

While Democrats and Republicans spend billions on running for political office there are these stories of betrayal that seldom go beyond the local level. While neocons wave flags and tell us we must support the troops fighting for us, those troops die of neglect in hidden hospital units across the nation. While peace activists condemn the war while attempting to say they support the troops, they continue to ignore the wide spread emotional and physical problems of the very same troops.
NGO's on both sides spend countless dollars on the corrupted electoral system and ask us to write our congress people but fail to advocate for the failed healthcare of the troops.
For the neocons the troops are the GI Joe heroes of American pride to be paraded around and pointed to as what the U.S. is all about. For the peace movement the troops are either show pieces to adorn rallies and marches or fools who fall for the lies of the government and part of the problem.
What both sides of the political bullshit fail to understand is the troops are the sons and daughters of their nation who had options of poverty and underpaying employment or the lure of bonuses that could give them college and hopes of a better life. They trusted too much in the bullshit and failed to understand they were merely being used as tools.
What I wonder today is whether Hillary, Barack, Mit, John Mc and John E. will manage time in their tours to shed tears for guys like Gerald Cassidy mentioned in this article below. I wonder if any of them will mention the suicides of returned troops who haven't been able to get treatment. I wonder if any of them care about the nightmares, the addiction and depression of the troops and their families.
Every time I read a story like this it makes me more disgusted with Democrats and Republicans and those who think either party is the answer to what is wrong with this nation.
I tire of being told it's the only system we have and we need to make a choice between the best of bad choices. The lies of the campaign trail are an insult to people who believe in freedom, peace and justice.
I hear the lies about change and new directions while being sure the only change that’s really going to occur is a new face of the liar-in-chief. I’m supposed to believe the lies if Hillary tears up like Bill used to or Barack emulates the hopeful rhetoric of JFK that appeals to the young. I’m supposed to believe the question asked Hillary that led to her teary-eyed answer wasn’t as contrived as Bill’s tears in his terms of office. I’m supposed to believe Barack is different because he inspires the young with empty rhetoric.
I don’t believe it! I don’t believe any of them. I won’t write a congress person or sign another petition. I have had a lifetime of lies and betrayal and I refuse to go along any longer.
I refuse to accept the death culture of neocons and the denial culture of progressives and liberals. If there’s to be change people are going to have to be upset and bothered. The timidity of appeasement and getting along won’t get the job done.
Struggle means resistance and fighting back. It means confrontation. It means outrage and indignation. It means fury and righteous anger. It means passion and ferocity. It means an end to trying to cooperate with the oppressor. The Democrats and Republicans as represented by the current group of liars seeking the throne are the oppressors. Why would I want to validate their oppression by giving it my vote in an election that is a sham and an obstacle to real change that will bring peace and justice?
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Vietnam combat veteran (67-69)
Denver, CO

Wounds of War: Shortages, turnover afflict military health care
Fort Knox among army posts affected
December 23, 2007 - Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox devoted to healing the wounds of war.
But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the unit. Only about half of the positions there were filled at the time. The Army is still investigating the death and its cause, and three people in Cassidy's chain of command have lost their jobs.
"By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did," Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. "Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same."
As more wounded soldiers return home from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.
Overall, the Army's Medical Corps has downsized significantly since Desert Storm, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
Warrior Transition Units, created after The Washington Post revealed substandard outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, have struggled to find enough doctors, nurses and squad leaders to serve a growing number of patients. The Defense Department allocated about $1.4 billion in operations, maintenance and construction funds for unit facilities and projects.
Military doctors and nurses at Fort Knox move every three to five years, and some are deployed overseas. For patients, that turnover often results in them being treated by doctors and nurses unfamiliar with their cases.
Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation pushed by Bayh requiring the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to develop a policy on improving care for the wounded. And Army officials say they are already doing better, noting that Warrior Transition Units are approaching or meeting staffing goals across the nation.
"We've progressed quite well" on those units, said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, assistant surgeon general for Warrior Care and Transition. "We've done it while we're at war and really strapped."
But some positions have been filled with workers temporarily borrowed from other areas of the military, and critics say that as the number of returning soldiers grows, the need for more doctors and nurses will grow, too.
Meanwhile, officials said, Army hospitals need more staff now. Fort Knox's Ireland Army Medical Center is struggling to fill more than 100 vacancies. It also lacks certain specialists, including neurologists who treat traumatic brain injury, considered the signature injury of the Iraq War.
"It would be very generous to say we're at the proper staff," said Constance Shaffery, public affairs officer at Fort Knox. "We are not at the staffing levels we want."
Positions unfilled
Cassidy, 32, came to Fort Knox in April, and was eventually assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, which opened in June to handle outpatients who need at least six months of care.
The injured or ill soldiers live in barracks one or two to a room, have medical appointments in a special clinic at the hospital, and are supposed to get three visits a day from squad leaders, Army personnel usually at the rank of staff sergeant. They are told, in posters and by staff, that their mission is to heal.
In Cassidy's case, something went awry.
Bayh said the soldier tried unsuccessfully for five months to get transferred to a specialized private facility in Indianapolis "after receiving substandard care at Fort Knox."
Bayh pointed to a September report from the Government Accountability Office showing that more than half of the Warrior Transition Units nationwide, including those at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, had shortages in key positions at the time. Of 2,410 positions, 1,127 -- or 47 percent -- had not been filled.
Jonathan Swain, Bayh's press secretary, said Cassidy's family is not talking to the press as the military continues to investigate his death. Calls to his wife and mother were not returned.
In response to a reporter's questions about the case, Shaffery said: "There's been nothing to indicate staffing had anything to do with it."
But Bayh disagreed, and Swain said the senator wants to know if problems because of low staffing are occurring in units elsewhere.
At the Senate committee hearing where the case was discussed, Army Secretary Pete Geren pledged that officials would "rectify the situation." Other high-ranking Army officials say they have been filling vacancies among physicians, nurse case managers and squad leaders.
Nationally, Tucker said, the 35 transition units have reached 80 percent to 85 percent staffing and are on target to reach at least 90 percent by Jan. 1.
Lt. Col. Chip Pierce, deputy director of the Warrior Transition Office, said all key positions at the Fort Knox Warrior Transition Unit had been filled as of mid-December and Fort Campbell has met its goals for doctors and squad leaders but still lacks two of 11 nurse managers.
Although the numbers are encouraging, officials acknowledge that needs are always changing. For instance, Fort Campbell's staffing goals were developed based on an estimate of 403 patients, and there are 459. Nationwide, 8,700 soldiers are assigned to the units.
Sgt. Dwight Blackman, a 38-year-old Iraq veteran who suffered a heart attack, is one of 277 in the Fort Knox unit. In the past few months, he said, staffing "has improved a lot" and he has no problem getting the care he needs.
"We've still got a little ways to go," said Unit Commander Lt. Col. Lanier Ward. "It's a work in progress."
Residents asked to apply
Staff shortages at Army hospitals have existed for years.
Nationally, the number of doctors has remained the same since 1999, Army officials said, while the number of nurses has fluctuated from a high of 4,615 in 1992 to a low of 3,381 in 2000.
Some patients at Ireland Medical Center say staff shortages have led to long waits, overworked doctors and visits to private physicians.
Army Staff Sgt. Linda Brashears, who suffered a brain injury in Iraq, sees a private practice neurologist off post, paid for by the military health system, and said that until a couple of months ago she faced three-hour waits as a walk-in patient at Ireland.
Although a new appointment policy has meant shorter waits, "We still need more people," she said. "…There's more patients."
Overall, about 210,000 people are eligible for care at Ireland, officials said, and total hospital staff stands at about 1,100.
Lt. Col. Dawn Erckenbrack, hospital administrator, appealed to Louisville-area residents to apply for their vacancies for doctors, nurses, social workers and others. She said Kentucky's doctor shortage and competition from the civilian world make these vacancies especially difficult to fill.
Despite shortages, Erckenbrack and Col. Rhonda Earls, the hospital commander, said they do all they can to ensure patients see doctors in a timely fashion -- using contracted physicians and referring patients to private-sector providers.
Pvt. Ike Staple, a 39-year-old with high blood pressure assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, said he goes off the post for procedures such as EKGs.
Keeping records
Army officials said they also must compensate for the higher-than-usual level of turnover that has resulted from deployments.
Jessica Torres, who just moved from Louisville to Colorado and whose husband serves in Iraq, said turnover affects the care she and her two children have gotten at military hospitals because new doctors aren't as familiar with their medical histories.
Ireland officials -- who wouldn't say how many staff members have been deployed, citing security concerns -- acknowledged that turnover can hurt patient care. But they said they try to minimize problems with detailed electronic records, good communication between incoming and outgoing doctors and the use of civilian workers.
"We have a core group of civilian physicians who never deploy. Some have been here for 20 years," said Lt. Col. Carolyn Tiffany, deputy commander for clinical services at Fort Knox. "They keep our clinics and services running the same way, providing the continuity of care that our patients deserve and expect."
Still, officials said they'd like to have a more ideal staffing level in line with the demand for care.
"It's sort of like winning the lottery," Shaffery said. "It's something we dream about."
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190
Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003

Racist Beating of Black Activist in Denver

Last week a close friend and fellow activist was a victim of a home invasion. He was beaten and abused by the intruders while his female partner was made to sit and watch the brutal actions of the intruders.
There were six to eight of them coming and going in the couple’s home. They ransacked the place. They dumped drawers and personal belongings on the floor. They even went into their refrigerator.
Larry and Melissa had just returned from a long trip to visit her elderly grandfather and grandmother. They were tired and just wanting to watch the basketball game on the tube. Their evening was interrupted by loud banging on their door.
Shortly after the knocking and someone yelling at Larry to open the door the apartment was full of people abusing Larry and Melissa. They were pushed to the nearby futon couch. Their cats were terrorized with the strangers entering the place. When Melissa asked if the cats could be put in a locked room, there was no response. Larry attempted to stand up to take the cats to the locked rooms and was assaulted by a female in the mob.
He was pushed to the floor; part of his hair was literally pulled out by another thug. Later Larry would be punched and taunted by yet another intruder. His hands were bound. His shirt was nearly ripped from his body.
Melissa was forced to sit and watch as the man she loved was assaulted and terrorized by the group. She kept begging them not to hurt Larry.
Luckily in the end both Larry and Melissa survived the frightening and terror filled attack.
They didn’t call the police, however..
It was the Denver Police Department that committed this crime. They were the thugs entering Larry and Melissa’s home.
Larry has been a longtime activist in several areas of peace and justice here in the Denver area. One area he’s focused on has been police brutality. He and another longtime activist have often observed police arresting people on the streets of Denver and also in Aurora, the large suburb of Denver. They’ve even taken to using their camcorders to document the arrests of the police.
Recently a black brother was shot in the back by the Denver Police in a case of mistaken identity. The brother had a past criminal record that included theft or something of that order but nothing violent.
After the shooting the brother was sent to jail on a parole violation which wasn’t related to the shooting. Larry kept in touch with him and when he came back out on parole offered his apartment as a place for the brother to live.
An arrangement was made over the telephone with the parole officer of the brother coming out of prison. He would be allowed to stay with Larry and Melissa but would be subject to visits and searches of his living area in the apartment. There wasn’t an agreement that Larry and Melissa would be subject to search.
The parolee quickly got himself an evening job which was a godsend considering the difficulty of anybody having a criminal record getting employment. The night of the home invasion the parolee was at his work.
The banging on the door was by the Denver Police Department. They demanded entrance into Larry’s home for a parole visit. Larry explained to them the parolee was at work. They still demanded entry. Once Larry opened the door the ransacking and physical assaults began.
Larry asked to be shown badges and to be given business cards to have a record of who entered his home. In Denver there’s an ordinance the police are to provide business cards to anybody they contact if the card is asked for.
The police didn’t provide the cards asked for and shoved badges quickly into his face before pushing him to the futon.
During the reckless search of Larry’s apartment a bag with some bullets was discovered in a box of private possessions. Larry told the police the bullets were his that he hadn’t disposed of but there was no gun in the house. That admission seemed to only intensify the ransacking of Larry and Melissa’s belongings.
A short time later Larry was pushed to the floor on his stomach when he stood up to rescue the cats. His standing only occurred after several requests by Melissa and Larry to let them secure the cats in a locked area so they couldn’t run away through the door the police kept opening and shutting. He announced to the police he was going to secure the cats.
A policewoman put an arm lock on one of Larry’s arms by twisting it behind his back and pulling it upward toward his shoulders. His other arm was pinned under his body. Two large policemen sat on top of Larry pushing him into the floor face down. One of them began pulling at Larry’s hair and pulled two handfuls out by the roots.
During this time of the assault police were yelling at Larry to quit resisting. Larry weighs less than 150 pounds and wasn’t resisting by his own account. Melissa witnessed the takedown and following actions and also says Larry wasn’t resisting.
The police finally picked Larry up with his hands cuffed behind him. He was in socks only, wearing a ripped tee shirt and a thin flannel pair of trousers. He was pushed out of his apartment and down a set of stairs to the building entrance. He stumbled at the top of the stairs and was dragged by the hand-cuffed arms out into the 30 degree night.
They pushed Larry up against one of the squad cars standing. A policeman came from behind Larry and pushed down on the hand cuffs with great pressure causing circulation problems. Larry asked him to stop the painful tactic. The policeman pushed his face toward Larry and told him “we can do a lot worse”
Larry lost it at that point and called the guy a “pig”. Larry’s head was pushed into the side of the car before he was pushed down into the back seat.
He was taken to an unidentified precinct station. There he was placed in a paddy wagon with three or four other males. All were either black or Latino. One of the other prisoners holding a sweat shirt offered it to Larry when he saw him shivering in the cold wintry night.
From there Larry was taken to city jail and booked for interference. He had been told earlier he would be booked as a “John Doe” so he’d spend at least three days in lock up and possibly be placed on a mental health hold because he’d been observed trying to harm himself during the melee at his apartment.
Meanwhile, Melissa was left behind at the apartment as the ransacking continued. She was handcuffed to a chair during that time. The police eventually left the apartment freeing Melissa from the cuffs. She immediately set about trying to bail Larry out of the jail. The jail only accepts credit cards or cash for bail. Melissa and Larry don’t have credit cards. So, Melissa had to use five hundred dollars intended for the monthly rent to post bail for Larry. He wasn’t set free until the next morning.
He left with bruises and scrapes. He was stiff and aching from being sat on. His wrists were swollen from the tightening of the cuffs.
If it hasn’t become obvious by now, Larry is a black male. He wears dred-locks. He is employed. He doesn’t use drugs, doesn’t drink and doesn’t possess a fire-arm. The bullets had sat around for years.
I can recall having a sock full of rounds for a rifle I no longer own laying in my dresser drawer in my bedroom for many years. I didn’t want to dispose of them carelessly. The thought of a child or even a garbage guy being harmed by one exploding always crossed my mind. So, the presence of bullets isn’t something that would alarm me. Having them isn’t illegal and there wasn’t a gun for them.
Back in the 70’s I used to work with a VVAW member who was also the local director of the Black Panther breakfast program. He was a beautiful soul that always spoke softly and always maintained a sense of great dignity. He always respected other people around him.
The brother had lost part of his foot in Vietnam from a booby-trap. He later lost his leg up to his thigh after poor medical care at an Army hospital resulted in gangrene. He was also given narcotics for his pain and became addicted. He was weaned off the narcotics by his family. The Army and the VA failed to even recognize he’d become addicted.
During the time I knew this brother the Denver Police Department made almost weekly raids of his home. His wife and three kids were usually there when the raids occurred.
His wife was a joyous woman who dearly loved her kids and husband. And she could keep up with the best of us in political activism.
I visited their home on several occasions and saw the aftermath of the police raids. Wall paneling was stripped off to look into the joist spaces. Kitchen equipment was thrown about, drawers emptied, beds overturned and clothing thrown about the rooms following searches.
There was always some “tip” about drugs and weapons that justified the raids in the Denver Police Department’s way of thinking.
On several occasions the brother was thrown to the floor in front of his kids and wife. One time he was raided in the middle of the night. The Vietnam veteran responded as most of us would. He became ready to fight. He was attacked by a number of police, his prosthetic for the amputation stub was kicked out from under him and he was cuffed face down on his bedroom floor as his crying children looked on.
It would have been damn easy for this brother to become bitter and hostile toward my white face coming into his world after the many raids by the police who were always white. Instead this brother never wavered in his kindness toward me. He and I continued to work in VVAW to bring the troops home. Both of us testified at the local Winter Soldier’s Investigation the last weekend of June 1971.
He and his wife also fed me from their organic garden, showed me how to mulch and use different planting methods. My wife often came with me to visit and they came to our home to visit.
I marveled at Butch’s resolve and courage in the face of the harassment and violence the Denver Police inflicted on him because he was black, a Black Panther and a member of a rogue veteran group, VVAW.
This last week all those memories of Butch and his family came back to me when I read Larry’s email describing the police home invasion. Larry reminds me a lot of Butch because he also demonstrates a quiet dignity and great resolve for justice. He may appear slight in stature but his heart is courage personified.
A group of Denver activists appeared in front of Denver Police Headquarters last evening. It was probably the most diverse group I’ve seen in some time here in Denver. We all seemed to think it was a shame it always takes outrageous violence such as that imposed on Larry and Melissa to bring us together.
Here in Denver the brutality of the police is not uncommon. We’re probably second or third in police shootings in the U.S.. There’s been so many cases of brutality and accidental shootings they seem to dilute the responses of the citizenry. And because they’re almost always people of color victimized the outcry is limited.
I’ve grown old and seen the Civil Rights Movement come and then erode over the years. I’ve seen leaders assassinated if they challenged the status quo. I heard the dream of Martin Luther King spoken by Martin. I heard the outrage of Malcolm X spoken by Malcolm. I remember the dogs and fire hoses being shown on television screens from places like Montgomery and Selma. I remember the Watts riots. I remember the death of Martin as I sat in Vietnam wondering what was happening to this nation. Later I heard the report of Robert’s assassination over Armed Forces Radio while in Vietnam. I wasn’t surprised. I wasn’t surprised by the riot of police at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
I quit being surprised at history repeating itself. I look at Iraq and see the veterans coming back and they appear with the same thousand yard stare and weariness Vietnam vets brought back from their war. I hear of police brutality and remember Butch. I remember walking down a Capitol Hill street in the summer of 1970 with another veteran. We crossed an alleyway and looked down the alley to see two Denver policemen “working over” a suspect on the hood of their car. They were beating him with their long metal jacketed flashlights. His face had large welts and bruises. His nose was bleeding. He was drooling blood from his mouth.
My friend and I approached the scene almost running toward the cops. We demanded to know why they were beating the brown skinned man who was obviously subdued. One of them drew his pistol on us, He told us to back “the fuck up” or he’d shoot us. He was clearly serious.
I was sickened by what I’d seen and the lack of power I felt. I was sickened to leave the Chicano brother in the hands of the two thugs. There were no cell phones to call such a thing in to somebody. And it was a wasted call because like today there was no accountability for police brutality.
Let’s not think the attack on Larry and Melissa was a purely racist act. It surely was a racist act but it was also an attack on thoughts and ideas. It was an attack on the freedom to dissent and challenge authority run amuck. It was an attack on all of us. But the black man or the brown man or some other non-white gets to take the physical pounding for us all.
And this is only one form of the attack. The daily rousting of non-whites by white cops is an attack. The daily slurs of the “cowboy” cop against a poor neighborhood are an attack. The daily differential treatment of whites compared to non-whites by cops is an attack. Continued racial profiling is an attack. One look at the prison system is abundant evidence of attack.
Serve and protect means nothing when all that is served is the system that continues to oppress and all that is protected is the status quo of white power. Police want respect but think it comes at the end of a baton or from the barrel of a gun. That same attitude is the attitude of occupation being used in Iraq. The “thin blue line” of police covering each other’s ass even when brutality occurs is the same mindset of the military covering up the atrocities of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The “movement” is splintered and the attacks will continue until there are ten or twenty activists standing behind activists like Larry and Melissa. Every time a beating goes down by rogue cops the numbers of the movement should grow.
Will we confront the new “dogs and fire hoses” of this day and age as Martin and his brothers and sisters did? Or will we allow Larry and Melissa and all the other brothers and sisters beaten to go it alone?

Wm Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat vet (Vietnam ’67-’69)

Losing the Battles at Home

I checked my email in the middle of the night as I’m prone to do and found a note from a friend informing me of the death of another Iraq veteran. She had killed herself. She had returned home from the horrors of war but couldn’t endure staying alive once home.

I didn’t know who the vet was until a day or so later. I kept remembering the faces of the Iraq veterans I marched with from Mobile to New Orleans back in 2006 and prayed it hadn’t been one of them. But that made no sense, either. It was still another young life stolen from this country by the masters of war who have betrayed all the young troops they sent to their illegal and immoral war.

The suicide of veterans hasn’t been a well hidden secret by the war-mongers. The secondary body count of war stacks up by the month and mental health experts voice an alarm they failed to voice when this war first began.

After multiple deployments and separations from family and friends the American military has reached a crisis of fatigue and disillusionment not known since Vietnam. Only this crisis exceeds the one seen in the troops of Vietnam. PTSD, traumatic brain injury and suicides are coming at a far greater rate than seen in Vietnam. The VA and the military healthcare systems have failed to keep up following years of cuts from a Congress and Executive Branch long ago out of touch with the real people they send to die.

The sons and daughters of America dying in the dirty little war for oil and profit aren’t the sons and daughters of the American “elite” and rich. They are the sons and daughters of the urban centers of America, the farmlands of America and the disappearing middle-class of America.

The ultimate betrayal of the American young is that few of the old cynical bastards in government have ever put their lives on the line for the “homeland” they constantly claim to protect. The regime of the Bush administration has fomented fear and hysteria but a closer look at the architects of war will show they “were too busy” or had other reasons not to serve in the military they so easily send to die.

The voluntary military created to avoid the resistance caused by the draft in Vietnam has allowed most Americans to “go shopping at the mall” while soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen and women soak the desert sands with their blood.

Yellow ribbons adorn the SUV’s and ever larger oil and gas consuming trucks and cars of this nation while the forgotten volunteers die to protect the continued gluttony and consumption by the drivers claiming to “support” the troops.

The silence of the American public is the greatest betrayal to these troops. They still allow the Bush regime to commit their criminal acts and steal their Constitutional rights. They still continue to allow sleazy politicians of both parties to sell their souls and influence to the corporate masters of war without holding them accountable. They still allow fear and jingoistic hysteria to immobilize them. They still allow corporations to steal their wages and benefits while the corporate profit margins reach the highest levels in history.

The silence of the moral leaders of this nation is a compelling repudiation of their morality. Church leaders fall in line with Bush and his group of evangelical fanatics in apparent attempt to gain advantage against the Islamic world and to reap profit from a voucher system for the failing public schools. They fail to lead against a corrupted government that time and again has allowed injustice and oppression to flourish. They fail to implicate the Bush administration for their neglect of the poor, the hungry and homeless.

Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel and Blackwater will forever be known as the beneficiaries of American tax payer dollars going down the drain. A trillion dollars later, Iraq still remains a country without an infrastructure and worse off than it was before the great boondoggle of “shock and awe”. 8 billion dollars left in the hands of Paul Bremer somehow came up missing and unaccounted for. Blackwater bullies start a riot in Fallujah, get killed and the entire city is bombed back to the Stone Age. Halliburton/KBR are given no bid contracts, hire slave labor and skim millions if not billions by charging two to three times to haul oil as the local Iraqi oil company. Empty tankers escorted by American troops are sent out onto roads full of IED’s and possible ambushes simply to justify billing millions of dollars for work not done.

Meanwhile young American troops are getting head injuries, amputations and mental trauma in an unjustified war and return home to shallow promises of care. Many present with classic signs of PTSD and are court-martialed for bad conduct or given personality disorder diagnoses. Instead of treatment they are discharged and made ineligible for benefits.

The abuses of troops following wars are nothing new. From WWI to Iraq the American people have promised their war veterans they would be taken care of when they returned. Following every war the veterans were left to fend for themselves or subjected to bureaucratic stalls to prevent them from getting what had been promised.

Mustard gas, nerve gas, Agent Orange and depleted uranium are only a small list of toxic and deadly agents troops have been subjected to during the many wars of protecting American “freedoms”. Not only are few veterans given the necessary treatment but the nations polluted by the toxins are left to care for the innocents subjected to them. The numbers of innocent are ten times more than the troops affected.

Over 800,000 individuals are still waiting for entry into the VAMC system for needed care. Most are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Of the 230,000 individuals from those wars who have gained some form of treatment at the VA, 84,000 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. The stories of young men and women dying on return from combat grow. The stories of spouses and children abused by untreated veterans from these wars grow. Stories of homicide, substance abuse, acts of violence and other adjustment problems on return from combat grow.

New studies, new reports and new investigations reveal what every veteran knows. The systems meant to support, to treat and to welcome back the young men and women sent to the killing fields of war aren’t doing the job.

Imagine being the parent or spouse or child of one of these veterans who survived the combat only to come home and lose the battle for life in a dark cloud of despair that leads to suicide. Imagine how much despair and hopelessness it takes to reach a decision to end your own life.

Politicians use “support the troops” as a mantra to show their patriotism, flag wavers use yellow ribbons to say support the troops, peace activists let the troops speak against the war but seldom about their problems, mental health experts decry the conditions of the care available and everybody says they want the best for them but each day more die in despair or their rage boils over and ruins a life.

These expressions of concern ring hollow. The actions needed to avoid another young woman who recently killed herself or another young man who got in a stand off with police is missing. That is the stark testimony of how we really support the troops.



William T. Leichner, RN

USMC combat veteran (Vietnam ’67-’69)

Veterans Day

Every Veterans Day is a time I hate. It depresses and outrages me.
This year the local parade was the center of attention for the veterans in the peace movement in Denver. At first they were told they wouldn’t be allowed to march with the other veterans in the traditionally poor attended Veterans Day Parade. The reason given by a group called by the oxymoron, United Veterans Council, was the Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Iraq Veterans Against the War had chanted, “troops out now” at last year’s parade. That was a political statement which the “council” wanted to avoid. Not sure if it was the troops out now or the political statement they meant.
I attended last year’s parade despite my great dislike for such events and don’t remember the chanting. I know I didn’t chant. I do remember quite a bit of spectator applause along the route despite our group being last in line.
I do remember seeing the “Young Marines” atop a float raising the flag ala Iwo Jima. The poor kids had to maintain that position throughout the parade route. But I’m sure they were proud and honored to do it.
Now that was a political statement to see young kids dressed in combat gear imitating Ira Hayes and friends!!
How much more political does it get than to indoctrinate young boys ten or eleven years old to the fine arts of combat? Of course, no doubt those young kids were playing the latest version of “Call to Duty” on their X-Box or Wii play stations already.
The VFP and others decided at first they would do a counter march along the side walk at the parade since they were being excluded in the “official” march. It had been suggested they march in back of the street sweepers without a permit if the Denver Police Department refused to provide their permission. The police did as expected and refused to issue another permit for the same parade.
I was of the opinion the veterans opposing the war should take a chance of being arrested and walk behind the street sweepers anyway. What better symbol of this nation’s disregard for all veterans than walking behind street sweepers? After all, the Bush administration has tried since the war began to sweep the veterans’ issues under any convenient rug they could. Budget cuts and abuse of active duty and National Guard troops in multiple rotations to an illegal and immoral war are only the beginning of the administration’s lack of respect for the individual troop.
The leadership of the local VFP and other groups weren’t of the mind to risk arrest, however. I wasn’t surprised at all by that decision. The timidity of the peace movement’s veterans groups in Colorado has been an ongoing thing that has kept me from being a full participant in group actions and attendance at meetings.
I’ve grown really tired of the constant tactical scheme of marches, parades, rallies and speeches by the peace movement.
The urgency of young men and women dying in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to warrant a greater sense of urgency by the “movement” instead of weekend events and a return to normal following them.
The urgency of probably a million Iraqis dead since 2003 because of the war seems to warrant greater reactions than time consuming organization of rallies and marches.
The continued budget cuts of human services and all aspects of social safety net programs across the nation while 500 billion dollars drains into the bloody soil of Iraq and Afghanistan seems to warrant an attitude of outrage followed by outrageousness.
But the reality has been the “movement” holds out the deluded hope it can bring the end to the wars and the changes to government through the electoral process in place across this nation. The elections of 2006 were said to be a referendum on the war and the results were a clear message citizens of this country wanted it ended.
The response of the newly elected Democratic controlled Congress has been a classic demonstration of cowardice of politicians lacking a moral compass. Their only compass has pointed toward the green fields of cash offered by special interest groups.
And still the peace movement fails to change tactical strategies! The movement congratulates itself on lying down in the streets of America to be arrested in the
“catch and release” tactic of civil disobedience (often coordinated with officials of government and police to avoid anyone being upset). It hails the large rallies in Washington D.C. with hundreds of thousands of activists as a symbol of resistance when in truth they are the same people from the last rally and the rally before that.
They continue to be the same choir of voices that have been ignored by the general population, the press and certainly the Congress and the administration.
The veterans’ peace groups continue to follow suit with the same strategy. I’ve attended two actions that could be called grass roots; the Camp Casey event in Crawford, Texas in August of 2005 and the Veterans and Survivors March in spring of 2006.
Camp Casey became engulfed by the groups like United For Peace and Justice that wanted on the Cindy Sheehan bandwagon. Pretty soon it became indistinguishable from the rest of the movement.
The Veterans and Survivors March drew international attention but couldn’t sustain the momentum because too few of us were willing to forsake our lives to attend to the crisis we have in our nation. Instead we wait for the next election or the next Cindy Sheehan to galvanize us to action. While we wait the erosion of rights and the continued takeover of the nation by the “ghost government” epitomized by Blackwater destroys what little semblance of freedom and democracy we have left.

The Veterans Day Parade in Denver took place on Saturday, November 10, 2007 before a meager crowd along a route near the State Capitol and the City and County of Denver Civic Center. The United Veterans Council relented and allowed the veterans opposing the war to march after pressure from the city’s mayor. The national Veterans For Peace took credit for creating a letter writing campaign.
The grand result of the Veterans Day Parade in Denver was a four day media mention for the anti-war veterans. The veterans who marched got a few seconds of airtime on local television news. Some chose to march in their old uniforms and resembled the other veterans in the parade dressed in uniform. Some chose to wear the uniform of the antiwar movement which seems to be tee shirts with organizational emblems and banners and posters with three or four word quips like “Troops Out Now”.
In Iraq, troops continued to be killed despite parades and graveside memorials. New studies came out indicating one of four homeless people in America is a veteran. One in four (or more) of the prison population is a veteran. Nearly five hundred confirmed suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have occurred. One of every three veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan has required some mental health treatment. The infrastructure of Iraq remains in ruin. Potable water in most of Iraq remains scarce. Childhood cancer rates in Iraq continue to soar. Depleted uranium in Iraq continues to be used. Healthcare access for returned veterans of all wars remains inadequate for the needs. The nation’s safety net programs, educational programs and human service programs continue inadequate because of funding shortages. Living wages and employment security continue as problems. Thirty to forty percent of all Americans remain uninsured for healthcare. Unions continue to dwindle and die while the cost of living, cost of transportation and the cost of gasoline rises at record rates. Housing has recorded the highest foreclosure rate in history. Environmental consequences of neglect and abuse are now being seen in epic storms, fires and pollution. The American economy is on the verge of collapse under the weight of debt caused by endless war.
This list of conditions that should elicit outrage is only partially complete. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, religious oppression and fanaticism, child abuse, domestic violence and gun violence should also be mentioned.
And the “movement” response to the outrage? The continued use of rallies marches and parades! Don’t like something going on in your world? Go to the rally on Saturday. Help organize the march for the Democratic convention in Denver. Write a letter, sign a petition, email a congress person. And then go shopping because there’s a hell of a lot of bargains for Veterans Day!!
I watched the footage of the parade on the late news Saturday, the 10th. I saw vets in uniforms looking proud because they’d served their country in time of war. I saw marching units of ROTC, Army, Navy, Marine and Navy. I saw high school marching squads. I saw veterans for peace, many in uniform marching, with the same prideful appearance. And I wondered. What do we have to be proud about? What pride is there in that uniform we wore to war? Do veterans who profess to be about peace still take pride in their “service”? Should I take pride in seeing the after effects of napalm strikes on a village in the Danang area? Should I take pride in burning down other villages and creating refugees? Should I take pride in watching as a form of “water-boarding” and torture is used on a female prisoner by military intelligence officers accompanying my unit on a patrol in which she’s to show us enemy positions? Should I take pride in a body count when another Marine decided to extract gold teeth from the dead? Should I take comfort in a prisoner hit in the face with a metal entrenching tool by another Marine?
What the hell am I supposed to be proud of doing? What pride do I derive from my alleged service to my country, guys?? What victory is there in fifteen minutes of media coverage for a parade that glorifies war and the poor bastards who die and are wounded in war? Is Semper Fi supposed to make me feel all warm with unit pride?
I take no pride. I want nothing to do with any uniform. I detest a military state of mind that allows for the destruction of human life and fails to meet the basic needs of humans worldwide.
When will the outrage be enough that parades, marches and rallies are no longer enough?

Damn Liars!

I sit again in the darkness of my soul with the hour late and my life ever older,
I see the liars of the war clearly from the left and right probing at the wounds.
The masters of war want more, more, more and the peace groups always less,
But both care little ‘bout the wounded, the maimed or the dead of war.
Both say they do but their actions say they don’t. They lie to us and lie to themselves.
The masters of war carry on for the profit of the dead and maimed they’ve caused.
The liberals and progressives only see the warriors as a tool for their personal use.
Both groups use the warriors and victims to prove the other wrong and themselves right.
Both claim moral superiority but both lie and care little but for themselves.
Both claim loyalty but their actions of deceit and falsehoods show them as cowards.
They preen and clamor to have themselves famous and seen for all to know them.
They make a drama and a play of the dead and wounded; the scarred and traumatized.
They use the soldiers and their victims as tools to seek their fame and abandon them.
They move on to their next victims of their little play and toss them out as well.
War is their play, their moral way, their passion and their constant cry for fame.
War is their pulpit to debate the morality of their particular political thought and belief.
War keeps them relevant and at odds with one another as the tools die and bleed for them.
Liberal, progressive, right, conservative, left, moderate; they’re all the same.
They talk and talk while soldiers die in battle or die at home for lack of caring.
They talk and talk while children die from the soldiers’ weapons and lack of concern.
Talk is cheap and useless while others die, starve, thirst and fester from their wars.
Don’t be fooled by the patriotic fervor of the masters of war flying their flags so high.
Don’t be fooled by the peace groups’ rallies and marches incessantly all the same.
Neither side wants the war to really end and peace to reign in their separate worlds.
For the end of war would strip them of their stage, their drama and their reason for being.
Liars, damn liars, filthy liars, fucking liars, liars of the left, liars of the right; all liars!!

Rant to A Friend

D,
There are times in my moments of deepest despair that I wonder if I ever did come back home. I went as an idealistic 18 year-old and seemed to come back with the cynicism of an old embittered man. Is that coming back? I don’t know. But that’s the way things happen in life. We make one fateful decision when we’re young and it changes the course of our entire life. I know you can certainly relate to that.
There are also some moments in time which I find life is glorious because by absolute happenstance I’ve met people or seen things that lift the darkness to reveal beauty, kindness and love; yeah love. Meeting P-- was one of those times. Seeing my sons born were also times like that. The path that led me to the struggle for peace has shown me many of those times. The introductions to the passionate and caring people like you are also such times.
Sometimes I wonder if being ignorant of world affairs, choosing to ignore poverty, buying into the great American dream of consumerism, being self-centered, allowing television to narcotize and insulate me and not wanting to hear anything that’s bad news isn’t healthier. Sometimes I almost wish I could overlook genocide, dying children every thirty seconds, smart bombs, collateral damage, destruction of the environment, consumerism that is epitomized by spending 5 billion dollars this year on Halloween and 500 billion dollars spent to destroy Iraq.
I wonder if there’s a balance in life that allows us to care but not be overwhelmed by all of it. If not overwhelmed, I wonder if there’s a way to not allow the anger to consume us. And yet not allow ourselves to believe we can meditate the world into peace and justice.

Yeah, I’m angrier than ever about the band (USMC band mentioned) and the dirge it plays. I’m pissed at Christians in name but despicable and hateful Pharisees in actions. I’m pissed at the smug and self-serving liberals who divide up in a thousand special interest groups fighting one another while the world burns in the background. Are they any better than the tyrants and fascists who have succeeded in their attempts to widen the gap between the rich and the poor? Can you own a hybrid and live in a 10,000 square foot home and still be considered progressive while the rest of the world lives in squalor?
In my youth I lost myself in sports. I played baseball from sunrise to sunset in the summers. I played football in the fall and basketball in the winter. When I wasn’t playing I was watching. I filled my mind with the inane statistics of the batting averages of people like Aaron and Mantle and the passing percentages of Unitas and Tarkenton. I imagined jumping like Elgin Baylor and shooting like Jerry West. These were my heroes.
As I matured the natural progression from the wars of the playing field became the wars of nationalism. Young men fighting for words like democracy and freedom became my heroes. Skilled liars from rich and elitist families indoctrinated us with the idealism of fantasy. They made us believe they were with us and like us instead of the pawns of empire we really were. And when my time was up on the playing fields of empire I was like a pawn taken by the knight in a chess game of war and nationalism; pushed aside and discarded.
Now I’ve become the bitter and angry old veteran who watches as a new roster of pawns play on a new field of death and lies. New liars with the same lies are better able to distribute their lies but they are the same lies. The constant weeding out of the impoverished and the weak continues while the obscenely wealthy become even more obscene.
Now the masses continue with the delusional belief they too can become wealthy and have the fairy tale life. Instead they become prisoners of debt in their foolish attempt to emulate the elite who grow even richer from the mindless spending. The children of the pawns continue to learn the lessons of capitalism and consumerism without thought of scenes like Cambodia in the 1970’s and Darfur in 2007. They can’t find Baghdad or Basra on the world map but know how to travel the fantasy world of Halo and Call of Duty.
The children no longer play on the vacant lots of my childhood. They no longer find the joy of school yard football. The adults found out they can control the kid’s games. They found out they can make billions from the games once played for the fans but now played for the corporate interests of mass media and their advertisers. The games once played in the sun are now played in “prime-time” with kids unable to watch unless they stay up well beyond their bedtime. Instead they play fantasy games with the images of the players on their X-Boxes.
Our games, our entertainment and our lives are part of the nationalistic plot of the military-industrial complex. Fear and wars keep the masses in line to perpetuate the game. Lies told often enough become truth to the feeble-minded. Right becomes wrong and wrong becomes truth and righteousness. Priests and men of God continue to push the lies that lead the poor to the killing fields. Fight for God, Allah or some other spiritual being that may or may not be myth or real.
People of color, people labeled “illegal” and people of poverty become either the pawns of war or the capital of the new prison industry. Prisons need bodies to flourish and the bodies of those unable to defend themselves in the “injustice system” of the wealthy bring great profits to private prisons without the word “rehabilitate” in their vocabulary.
The maintenance of fear requires the scapegoat. Hitler used the Jews, Christianity used the nations of Islamic belief and the tyrants of today use the invasion of “illegals” and the “Islamofascist” terrorists to continue the needed level of fear and hysteria.
The mindless masses tape windows with duct tape and store up water and food in fear of attack while their sons and daughters use weapons of horrific destruction to attack the innocents as well as the perceived enemy. They never question why there may be hate in the world for a nation that spends more on weapons than any other nation, spends 5 billion for a children’s holiday meant only to enrich the corporate coffers, utilizes slave labor to manufacture overpriced consumer items and rapes the environment of third world nations for the natural resources available to fuel the lifestyle of the few privileged to live in comfort.
I know I’ve been privileged to live in this land called America or to some the United States but the pride I once had has turned to shame. The words of the founders of this nation were grand and idealistic but shallow and hollow in truth. There never was a democracy in this nation. There never has been equality and justice for all. There’s never been freedom for all.
Division and hate continues to keep groups of people from joining together to bring the tyrants and criminals of war to justice. Foolish thinking that fosters racism, misogyny and injustice continues to flourish while the purveyors of evil hatefulness steal the soul and conscience of this nation.
America has become the Amerika of Franz Kafka in a way even the mind of Kafka couldn’t imagine. It has become Orwellian in ways “1984” failed to portray. Thought police and repression come in the guise of “homeland security” and anti-terrorism. The people endure searches and spying for security. They endorse torture to feel peace of mind. They look the other way as children die under the bombs of “peacekeepers”. The most important thing on their minds is the winner of American Idol or Dancing With The Stars.
Politicians spend more than the GNP of most nations to win election and become the whores of the corporate masters who pay for special favors and looking the other way. If not the corporate masters, the Zionists use the guilt of the camps and the lure of geopolitical empire to push for the extinction of indigenous people and the theft of their lands. And still the progressives and liberals delude themselves into believing a letter or petition can make a difference. The sad truth is the system is broken and a revolution of ideas and new tactics will be necessary.
When I was young the thought of revolution seemed insane to me. But now I understand the words of Malcolm and Che were thoughtful and true. Now I understand Bobby Seale and the Panthers knew their letters and petitions were wasted efforts and only revolution could bring changes necessary for them to survive.
Every day I wonder why we fail to see the fantasy and lies we’ve been taught. I wonder why we can’t see the emperor without clothes and the wizard as the small man behind the curtain. I wonder what it takes before the darkness of nationalism will give way to the dawn of a new age of cooperation and awareness. And then I realize I’m the deluded one.
The lies of leaders and the corporations exploiting the workers continue unabated and yet the American people sit in a stupor without protest. The constant giving back to the company without loyalty or anything in return goes on without so much as a whimper because somehow the workers fear they’ll lose what little they’re left with. They long ago gave up the little dignity they once had before the unions were thrown out.
Ah, but you knew that anyway.
This is a response to your letter telling me of your love and gratitude I did return from my own personal nightmare. Such words of encouragement sustain me, believe me.
I write rants of discouraging things I observe. I should take time to write ones of the inspiring people like you who do sustain me. The dangers of dissent are great and the payoff is seldom what it should be. And yet there are so many willing to carry on. For all of you, I’m grateful and my heart full of love.
See you when I see you…..peace and love
T