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Title: Families bristle at word of tour extension
Source:
Army Times
URL Source: http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1985733.php
Published: Jul 28, 2006
Author: Karen Jowers
Post Date: 2006-07-30 09:11:44 by Eoghan
Keywords: None
Views: 437
Comments: 10
For some families of soldiers in the 172nd Stryker Brigade, the July 27 announcement of the extension of their tour in Iraq was just too much. Some of them are joining the ranks of the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out. “We’ve had a whole group of people who have joined since the announcement,” said Nancy Lessin, co-founder of the group. She was working to get an exact count at press time, and said e-mails are still coming in to the organization. “They are having meetings at families’ homes,” she said. “Many family members hold their breath until their loved one gets home,” and then speak out, she said. “But something like this puts them over the edge. “There has never before been a group of military families breaking the code of silence like this,” she said. “It speaks to the horrific nature of the invasion and now occupation of Iraq.” Lessin and her husband, Charley Richardson of Boston, founded the organization with another military family in November, 2002, to speak out against military action in Iraq. Their Marine son served in Iraq in 2003. The organization now has grown to more than 3,000 military family members. Most are parents or spouses or fiancées of troops, she said, but there are also siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and children. “I got one e-mail from a young man whose 59-year-old mother was being deployed,” she said. Since June 22, some members of the group have staged “Operation House Call” near the U.S. Capitol, making statements to congressmen, staff members, and others as they pass by. The number varies daily, but more than 50 family members have participated at some point, coming from the Washington, D.C., area as well as other locations around the country. By the time they finish Aug. 3 when Congress is expected to go into summer recess, the number may reach 100. A number of service members, including some Marines and a West Point graduate, have thanked them for their efforts, Lessin said. Group members have also visited a number of congressmen and senators. “As we go in to offices, we often take two pairs of boots and put them on the table to show an average of two troops are being killed for each day that Congress fails to act,” she said. They will continue to speak out until their goals are met, Lessin said. Those goals “are to end the occupation and bring the troops home; to take care of them when they get here. “And never again send our loved ones to a reckless misadventure putting them in harm’s way in a war based on lies,” she said. Group members have been maintaining their vigil near the Cannon House office building when Congress is in session. The group is worried about the care of troops who return, especially their mental health. “The biggest single issue among families lucky enough to welcome their troops home is PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” she said. But there’s a broader concern, too, Lessin added. “There’s a real sense among families this war is destroying the military,” she said, noting that “many service members who wanted to make the military a career” and were devoted to their service, have chosen to leave the military.
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#1. To: Eoghan, loner, Fred Mertz, Soda Pop (#0)
She's not the 1st we've read about, and she won't be the last. The group is worried about the care of troops who return, especially their mental health. “The biggest single issue among families lucky enough to welcome their troops home is PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” she said. We know just how much this regime cares about the human condition.
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers try this: hell no we won't go. and then, don't go. so they lock you up, if they can find you. get a new ssn and start getting benefits, claim youre a mexican.
I went to the park and saw this kid flying a kite. The kid was really excited. I don't know why, that's what they're supposed to do. Now if he had had a chair on the other end of that string, I would have been impressed. -Mitch Hedberg
Friend just recently back from second tour in Iraq is being bribed with Lt. Col. if he will stay in. He found out from a friend that if he accepts the promotion he will be going to Afghanistan soon. He is currently undergoing counseling by military shrinks and that matters not.
or better yet, a foreign visa worker from India or China They are at least experiencing the American Dream.
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers Operation Shekinah...America Commits Suicide in Iraq
As the populace awakens from their comatose condition, the Doctors of death prepare another dose of terroristic anesthetic, to perpetuate an artificial (superficial) nirvana.
In a June, 1992 exclusive and published interview granted by President George H. W. Bush to Sarah McClendon, the grand dame of the White House press corps at the time, McClendon said: "George Bush, what will the people do if they ever find out the truth about Iraq-gate and Iran contra? George Bush replied: 'Sarah, if the American people ever find out what we have done, they will chase us down the streets and lynch us.' " It won't be long before Americans learn that Bush was intimately involved in the Nov. 22, 1963 coup that forever changed America into Fascist Amerika ! Exactly when Moqtada al-Sadr will pounce is hard to say. He may start attacking convoys within weeks, or he might take the view that it would be better to wait a few months and let the northern Sunni counter-insurgency teams further weaken American military resolve. Either way, Moqtada al-Sadr gets the pick of all American convoys trying to leave Iraq in a hurry, which to borrow an old military term, means an incredibly “target rich environment”. Do you remember the awesome devastation on the “Highways of Death” leading out of Kuwait during Gulf War One? Just like that, but substitute American bodies for the Iraqi bodies you saw there thirteen years ago. al-Sadr was a young, unknown cleric with a newspaper that had a readership of only 5,000, until that genius Paul Bremer, decided to shut down his newspaper and arrest al-Sadr and his aide on an old trumped up charge of murder. He became a folk hero overnight, thanks to the boneheaded decisions made by Bremer, or by whomever told Bremer to bother with al-Sadr.
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers Hopefully the antidote is talking about it, to remove the element of surprise and to turn their eyes toward the real perpetrators.
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers Huh? But this is what the military is all about, so these people were terribly ignorant when they signed their X. They're never getting out, that's one of the big secrets.
"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars" p318
“I got one e-mail from a young man whose 59-year-old mother was being deployed,” she said.
#2. To: Eoghan (#0)
#3. To: robin (#1)
We know just how much this regime cares about the human condition.
#4. To: gengis gandhi (#2)
get a new ssn and start getting benefits, claim youre a mexican.
#5. To: robin (#1)
“There’s a real sense among families this war is destroying the military,”
“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"
#6. To: robin (#1)
#7. To: Eoghan (#5)
The bottom line is that Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld have taken the brakes off a giant million-man Shi’ite war machine called the Mehdi Army, and all Moqtada al-Sadr has to do now to start it rolling, is turn the ignition key. Remember, the Shi’ite Mehdi Army brackets all American exfiltration routes south towards Kuwait, which is the only way out for 110,000+ American servicemen.
#8. To: noone222 (#6)
#9. To: Eoghan (#0)
But there’s a broader concern, too, Lessin added. “There’s a real sense among families this war is destroying the military,” she said, noting that “many service members who wanted to make the military a career” and were devoted to their service, have chosen to leave the military.
#10. To: Eoghan. Everyone here (#5)
War - it's for the children
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