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|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) |
Fort Hood Shooting
WASHINGTON - November 6 -
DAHR JAMAIL
Jamail is the author of "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He just wrote "Mass Shooting Indicates Breakdown of Military."
AARON GLANTZ
Glantz is an editor at New America Media and author of "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans."
He just wrote the piece "After Fort Hood: Count All the Dead," which states: "Perhaps the most depressing aspect of Thursday’s shoot-out at Fort Hood is that none of the 12 [now 13] people who died in the melee will be counted as casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ...
"Missing are the names of service members, like Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, First Warrant Officer Judson E. Mount, or Spc. Franklin D. Barnett, who died stateside after receiving substandard medical care for wounds sustained in the war zones. ...
"Missing, too, are the names of American soldiers and veterans who have killed themselves after serving a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, people like 19-year-old Spc. John Fish of Paso Robles, California who told his superiors [and others at Fort Hood] he was thinking of killing himself after his first deployment, but was ordered overseas a second time anyway."
DAHR JAMAIL
Jamail is the author of "The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He just wrote "Mass Shooting Indicates Breakdown of Military."
AARON GLANTZ
Glantz is an editor at New America Media and author of "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans."
He just wrote the piece "After Fort Hood: Count All the Dead," which states: "Perhaps the most depressing aspect of Thursday’s shoot-out at Fort Hood is that none of the 12 [now 13] people who died in the melee will be counted as casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ...
"Missing are the names of service members, like Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, First Warrant Officer Judson E. Mount, or Spc. Franklin D. Barnett, who died stateside after receiving substandard medical care for wounds sustained in the war zones. ...
"Missing, too, are the names of American soldiers and veterans who have killed themselves after serving a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, people like 19-year-old Spc. John Fish of Paso Robles, California who told his superiors [and others at Fort Hood] he was thinking of killing himself after his first deployment, but was ordered overseas a second time anyway."
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Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) Links:
6 Comments so far
Show AllThe reality is IRAQ and many other areas around the world,where the USSA soldiers are placed in harm's way,are for genocidal purposes.The Psychiatrist's role in helping conditioned,damaged,soldiers who participate in the genocide and atrocities,would get to him or any other human being.Pushed to the brink,he went off.All round a tragedy.
Now the propaganda freaks are linking the doctor to the 9-11/Bushite scam.The BS,half truths and distortions continue on.There is no mention of the million dollars per minute,by this,excuse for a government,who finance the various genocides.( Give out their corporate wellfare to the numerous old boys club causes)
Next the rationale/excuse for killing hundreds of innocents in Pakistan with the DRONES that Obomba seems especially fond of, will be because of the fort Hood genocide.So twelve die there ,sad, but what about the millions globally that die,at the hands of our conditioned,brainwashed to kill, soldiers. Even with half a brain,the picture of what is really going on is clear,The enriched elitist/cronies get even more filthy rich and war is their moneymaker.
I have been giving some serious thought to this for a while, and would appreciate some others' reactions or thoughts: restore the draft!
It scares the shit out of me to HAVE a military comprised solely of people who are so politically naive and gullible. An all-volunteer force would have made the attempted coup d'etat against FDR successful. IF we are to have a standing army, and if democracy is, by its very nature, a structure that requires an informed AND PARTICIPATING body politic, then it seems to me every citizen should be required to give up a year or two in national service. It could be in the military, or in a National Parks CCC-type corps, or in education or elder-care or -- hell, so much needs to be done! It should be open to all: don't tell me the diabled are unable and have nothing to contribute.
With draftees in the military, the Pentagon has to deal with a more disgruntled and (hopefully) more politically-astute army. I remember the anti-war efforts and "underground" newspapers that were springing up on U.S. military posts all over the world in the later '60s and early '70s. In fact, there's no reason why the uniformed services aren't unionized!
(Of course, none of this will happen; I'm only doing a mental jerk-off here, And this would be accompanied with a nationalized health-care system, gov't-paid higher education, gov't-subsidized conversions to renewable energy (give me the solar panels and let me pay you back out of my electric bill savings at a low interest rate, like they do in Germany), etc., etc.
Instead, the Obama/D-party worshippers end up giving me a D-controlled gov't that tells Israel to have fun stealing the reat of the West Bank's water and best arable land, linking settlements to finally encircle and cut off east Jerusalem from the West Bank; who condemn the Goldstone report (I'm sure without reading it), oh well, you know how it goes.
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
Saying I have a comment is a bit glib at this point. I do have a question.Has there been any other mention of"friendly" fire?
""Perhaps the most depressing aspect of Thursday’s shoot-out at Fort Hood is that none of the 12 [now 13] people who died in the melee will be counted as casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ..."
Really? Is that the most depressing aspect of this mess? I can think of at least 1.3 million more in Iraq alone but, hey, who's counting, eh?
Sorry, but I find myself having absolutely zero pity for the soldiers. The second they sign up for the armed forces, in my book, they have just become another paid assassin for the corporations and there's no loss to be mourned there, in my book.
I forgive the soldiers because many do not know what they are doing until they are trapped in the military. They can't refuse orders or quit without the government crushing them. They are also harassed and tortured for any deviation from the military way. They are dumped off with few resources and whatever damage both physical and mental festers.
Those that do know what the military does to people and have the power to do something about it avoid any service (Shotgun Dick) or hook up with a champagne brigade like Bush the inferior. The draft was too tricky for these chickenhawks, because heavy fingerprints were needed to pull out junior the connected and substitute one of us rabble.
The fact that soldiers 'volunteer' is bullshit. With shitty schools, shitty jobs (if you can get one) and decaying infrastructure combined with a media fear machine and economic disaster and no safety net RECRUITMENT GOALS WERE MET THIS YEAR.
Do you think volunteers would be there if they had good prospects elsewhere?
@ shakker November 7th, 2009 12:23 am,, I second your comment, having talked to a couple of vets from Bush's wars in the Middle East. These guys were 18 or 19 when they joined up, politically naive, and were inundated with constant military propaganda from their superiors and Armed Forces Radio that Saddam Hussein and Iraq, or the Taliban and Afghanistan, were behind 9/11. They thought they were killing their nation's enemies to save American lives, because this is what they were told repeatedly -- it was the military justification for the wars. Both came to their senses after a few years in the field, but now they were trapped in Stop/Loss and unable to get out or receive a transfer. For years in Iraq, the only way out was in a body bag or on a stretcher. 'Minor' wounds, such as a concussion or shrapnel fragments in a limb, were treated in Iraq and the soldier or Marine sent back into combat when they healed. Both finally did get out, one through an infection that nearly killed him and the other because his wife was having another child -- but they each thought, independent of one another, that they would die over there.
It's easy for a civilian to say they should have just quit and refused to serve, but then they would have ended up in the brig facing a dim future when they got out or, worse and more likely, fragged by one of their own. It's not talked about, but that's been happening nearly since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan began. They each assured me Pat Tillman's 'friendly fire' murder was just the tip of the iceberg.