Mental health problems among thousands of US Iraq vets ignored by Bush admin November 8, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Bush Administration, Human Rights, Invasion of Afghanistan, Invasion of Iraq, Politics.add a comment
Here is the video I promised yesterday. It’s very informative and emotional, it left me with tears in my eyes. Kudos to the great Dateline team, who always do great stuff.
Tens of thousands of US soldiers are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
They say they’ve been abandoned by the Bush Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming that government officials are actively trying to cover up the extent of America’s traumatised soldiers.
For many vets, this means not enough help is being offered and their lives are plagued by anxiety and mental health issues. But for some, the results are even more tragic.
Dateline video journalist Nick Lazaredes meets the widow of an Afghanistan veteran who was severely depressed by his recall to fight in Iraq.
He was killed in a police shootout on Christmas Day, his death dubbed ‘police-assisted suicide’.
As Dateline reveals, his story is not an isolated one.
Reporter/Camera.
NICK LAZAREDESAdditional Filming.
STEVE HARPERResearchers.
YAARA BOU-MELHEM
TARA LIBERTEditors.
WAYNE LOVE
NICK O’BRIENProducer.
AARON THOMAS
2007: More US troops killed in Iraq than any other year November 6, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Bush Administration, Human Rights, Invasion of Iraq.add a comment
At least 852 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year – the highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to AP figures. Some 850 troops died in 2004.
Well, well, well. So all we hear from the Bush crime gang’s mouth is that all is going swimmingly in Iraq (oh, they say there’s still “hard work” in front of them, but their asinine assessments attempt to paint a deluded view of the hell hole the US has made Iraq).
Pertinent to this issue is tonight’s episode of Australian current affairs programme Dateline. They will be airing a piece about post truamatic stress disorder plaguing US soldiers returning from Iraq, and the total nonchalance the Bush Admin. greets this. I’ll upload the video if I can.
Time Travel: Patience & Patients August 25, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Bush Administration, Invasion of Iraq.add a comment
Bush pleads for more patience for Iraq war efforts
Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:43PM EDT
By Jeremy Pelofsky
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush, faced with growing calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, pleaded with Americans on Saturday for patience and cited progress in the past two months.
~~~ Time travel doodad initiation sequence start ~~~
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Weapons inspectors need more time: Blix
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix says his teams should be given “a few more months” to work in Iraq, in an interview to be published in Germany.
“Even if Iraq immediately, actively and unconditionally cooperates with us, we would still need a few more months,” Dr Blix told the German weekly Die Zeit.
Sydney high school attacked for anti-Iraq war performance August 16, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Australian Politics, Bush Administration, Invasion of Iraq.add a comment
Rock Eisteddfod’s Iraq entry draws criticisms
The Federal Government has accused a Sydney school of hijacking the annual Rock Eisteddfod challenge by involving students in a controversial and political performance.
The piece, called ‘Bad Knight 2′, is critical of US President George W Bush and the war in Iraq.
There are calls for it to be banned because its performance will coincide with a visit by Mr Bush to Australia.
And we certainly wouldn’t want to hurt poor Bush’s feelings! Anyway, he lives in a bubble, he’ll have no idea it’s even happening.
The New South Wales Opposition’s education spokesman Andrew Stoner think it is completely inappropriate.
“To be sending this overtly left-wing political message during the APEC meeting is not only unwise, frankly it can be embarrassing for us as Australians,” he said.
Thank you for speaking on behalf of all Australians, Mr. Stoner. Speaking on my behalf, what I can say embarrasses me is that our Prime Minster is a lapdog of the Bush Administration, and this gleefully sent our country into an immoral invasion. And then there’s the treatment of indigenous Australians, the shameful treatment of refugees, a careless disregard for the environment, and the deeming of gay and lesbian Australians as second class citizens, to name but a few issues. Yes, frankly we have a lot to be embarrassed about, but it has nothing to do with high school performance pieces.
Current federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has now attacked the new performance, claiming it does not represent the “healthy living” theme of the eisteddfod.
Oh, you know what, Julie? I agree with you! There’s scant signs of healthy living in Iraq:
According to U.N. figures, barely one in three Iraqis have access to clean drinking water.
Waterborne diseases like diarrhea — the most prolific killer of children under 5 — are on the increase. In some areas, it’s up as much as 70 percent over last year.
As far as any action against the piece goes, the eisteddfod says it does not censor any performances and the NSW Education Department’s Trevor Fletcher has supported the school and says it will not be stopped.
That’s good news. You know, I really, really, REALLY don’t get people who have no qualms about the mass slaughter of humans, yet a high school dance routine keeps them up at night. I mean come on. Seriously people, come on!
Oh, and the good news just keeps coming:
US Army suicides hit 26-year high
Twenty-eight of the soldiers who took their own life last year did so while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
[snip]
So far this year, 44 soldiers have taken their own lives, 17 of them while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
I guess that’s called supporting your troops.
The psychopath speaks (again) May 2, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Bush Administration, Human Rights, Invasion of Iraq.add a comment
The US president has vetoed a bill that would have set a timetable for US troops to pull out of Iraq, saying a hasty exit would turn Iraq into “a cauldron of chaos”.
And what is it now? A pot of peace? A bowl of beauty? A cup of calm?
“Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a deadline for failure, and that would be irresponsible,” Bush said in a nationally televised speech on Tuesday…
Thank goodness Bush doesn’t want to do anything irresponsible. We wouldn’t want him to do anything FUCKING IRRESPONSIBLE. What…. what a total fuck. I can’t be articulate with my criticism when I’m this angry. Irresponsible!! No, Gerorge, don’t do anything that’s irresponsible, you good, good man. Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK you, you fucking fuck,.
I said I couldn’t be articulate. It just boggles my mind. This man, this human being, who has wrought so much death and suffering and destruction and chaos upon Iraq doesn’t want to do anything “irresponsible.” It would be laughable if it wasn’t so fucking depressing.
And he actually thinks the US can still win? He is still thinking with a win/lose mentality!
The US and other foreign occupiers cannot ‘win’.
Even if stability is brought about, if ordinary Iraqis can walk down to the local bakery and not get blown to pieces, how is that a victory if you bring Iraq back to how it was prior to March 2003?
Bush sounds like a cowboy in the old wild west, yee haa, we’re gunna win! We will beat those bad guys! Yaa hoo! Iraq is a humanitarian catastrophe that cannot be ‘won’ or ‘lost’.
The US is in desperate need for new leadership, sane leadership. This president still believes Iraq is “winnable”. This is dangerous thinking that will only impede the healing of Iraq. I can only conclude that his mind is a cauldron of chaos.
Australian soldiers killing themselves April 30, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Bush Administration, Human Rights, Invasion of Afghanistan, Invasion of Iraq.1 comment so far
The Federal Government acknowledges two soldiers took their own lives after returning from the Middle East, but veteran activists say there could have been as many as five suicides – and they fear more will come.
To date 121 soldiers returned from the Middle East have been discharged for mental illness. About two dozen have serious psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Families say the soldiers who commit suicide on their return are the hidden casualties of war.
Read the whole article: Our suicide soldiers: the hidden casualties
While Iraqis have suffered the most from Bush’s invasion, the tragic repercussions are spread considerably far across the world, and will most likely continue for at least decades to come.
Australian reaction to Saddam Hussein’s killing January 3, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Human Rights, Invasion of Iraq, Media.1 comment so far
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the general reaction of Australians to the hanging of Saddam Hussein. If newspaper letter sections and phone/internet polls are anything to go by, the vast majority of Australians are against the killing of Hussein.
The Herald Sun, a Murdoch owned Melbourne tabloid, ran a phone poll asking “Was death the right punishment for Saddam Hussein?” 87.3% (2, 171 callers of an overall 2, 489 callers) said no.
W hile Melbourne’s broadsheet newspaper, The Age, recorded 73% opposition to the hanging.
The Herald Sun’s editorial reiterated their stance against capital punishment, saying the scenes from Baghdad only reinforced this position. Saddam died without dignity, the paper said, and the verbal abuse he received seconds before he died was a “terrible indictment on the Iraqi justice system.”
Both newspapers have been filled with letters aghast at the execution, with letters supporting the killing a tiny minority.
It goes without saying that I do not agree with this execution. I am vehemently opposed to capital punishment (in other words, state sponsored murder) without exception.
My first thought when I heard Saddam was dead? “So they’ve (America and other western governments and companies) got away with it.”
There’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein was a tyrannical dictator responsible for the torture and killings of at least several hundred thousand people, if not over one million. But his crimes were not committed in isolation. Saddam Hussein received help from the west, including the US government and US and French companies.
A brilliant French documentary, Saddam Hussein: le procès que vous ne verrez pas, (“Saddam Hussein: The Trial the World Will Never See”, a very prophetic title that) details all of this so beautifully.
Indeed, it’s one of the greatest pieces of television I have ever watched. Seeing Donald Rumsfeld confronted with the footage of him shaking hands with Hussein is priceless (Rummy looks bewildered and stammers and says “well… that’s interesting!”.)
Unfortunately, the only reference I’ve seen so far to the west’s involvement in Saddam Hussein’s crimes was on SBS World News Australia (the same channel that aired The Trial The World Will Never See). Here is the relevant excerpt of the 30/12/06 bulletin:
LEE LIN CHIN [NEWSREADER]: He (Saddam Hussein) was due to face a second trial and this one over the gassing of thousands of Kurds at Halabja. Why do you think the death sentence was carried out before that trial?
CLIVE WILLIAMS [intelligence analyst with the Australian National University]: Many people will say that it was intended to silence Saddam before he could talk about his links to the United States and in particular to chemical supplies because during that period before 1990 he was a close ally of the United States and the US assisted Saddam in his war against Iran.
The co-director of The Trial…, Barry Lando, has a blog and a few months ago wrote an excellent article about this very topic: The Trial in Iraq We’ll Never See.
This mobile phone video that was released on the net of the execution has directly contradicted official accounts of the execution (“He was a broken man,” he (Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie) said. “He was afraid. You could see fear in his face.” Hardly. What execution was he watching?) and of course the taunts, absent from the silent official video. [I've just heard on the news that the man who filmed the second footage has been arrested]. And now Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Miliki wants to quit his job (though really, who could blame him?).
This whole thing (the invasion, the trial etc.) has been a deadly farce from the beginning. The government lies over Saddam’s execution only highlight that corruption (relatively small, in regards to things such as death squads) continues to exist irrespective of whether Saddam Hussein is alive or not. His hanging is hardly a “milestone” for Iraq, a “turning point.” It’s merely another ghastly pot hole on a road where humanity has been all but crushed.
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Click here to find out more about the documentary “Saddam Hussein – The Trial The World Will Never See”
The BBC’s John Simpson on the mobile phone video: Saddam hanging taunts evoke ugly past
Riverbend, as always, provides an articulate assessment, along with the raw honesty and immediacy that only living in Iraq can bring: A Lynching…
