Military Resistance 10D5: All-Time Low

8/2/2019 Military Resistance 10D5: All-Time Low

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Military Resistance 10D5

Public Support For The U.S. WarEffort In Afghanistan Has Fallen

To An All-Time LowTwo-Thirds Of Americans Think The

War Has Not Been Worth Fighting

Eight In 10 Of Those Polled Say ThereShould Be Limits On How Long ServiceMembers Can Be Deployed To Combat

Areas

April 11, 2012 By Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen, The Washington Post [Excerpts]

Overall, the Post-ABC News poll reflects a country bone-weary of war after more than adecade of fighting in Afghanistan and, until late last year, an almost nine-year

engagement in Iraq.

Public support for the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan has fallen to an all-time low, withonly 30 percent of respondents saying it has been worth fighting.

According to the poll, two-thirds of Americans think the war has not been worth fighting,equaling the most negative public assessments of the U.S. war effort in Iraq.

The findings come a month after a U.S. soldier is alleged to have killed 17 Afghancivilians in what witnesses said was a house-to-house rampage. The soldier, Staff Sgt.Robert Bales, had deployed three times to Iraq before arriving in Afghanistan inDecember.

The poll found that Americans are unsure about what, if anything, the incident revealsabout the toll of the war on U.S. troops.

But eight in 10 of those polled say there should be limits on how long service memberscan be deployed to combat areas.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the address if you wish andwell send it regularly.

Whether in Afghanistan or at a base in the USA, this is extra important foryour service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news ofgrowing resistance to the wars and economic injustice, inside the armedservices and at home.

Send email requests to address up top or write to: The Military Resistance,Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657. Phone: 888.711.2550

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Foreign Occupation Servicemember

Killed Somewhere Or Other InAfghanistan Wednesday:

Nationality Not Announced

April 11, 2012 Reuters


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A foreign servicemember died following an improvised explosive device attack insouthern Afghanistan today.

Foreign Occupation ServicememberKilled Somewhere Or Other In

Afghanistan Thursday:Nationality Not Announced

April 12, 2012 Reuters

A foreign servicemember died following an improvised explosive device attack insouthern Afghanistan today.

Pfc. Johnathon Davis, 20: Family, FaithForemost For Griffin Soldier

Pfc. Johnathon Davis, who was the second of five sons, was an adventurous practicaljoker a family spokesman said. Photo: Family

April 5, 2012 By Laurie Hoffman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Life loomed large for Pfc. Johnathon Davis.

Pfc. Davis had hopes of a future as an EMT. Like his brother, he was serving hiscountry.

His high school sweetheart -- who he'd married less than two years before -- wasexpecting their first child.


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But life was cut short. Pfc. Johnathon Frank Davis of Griffin died March 29 of woundssuffered from enemy small arms fire, according to the Department of Defense. He was20.

Visitation will be 3 to 5 p.m., and 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at Conner-Westbury Funeral Home

in Griffin. A funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at First Assembly of God in Griffin.

Pfc. Davis was born in Riverdale and attended Griffin High School, where he playedsoccer -- and met Kristen, his future wife. Family spokesman Randy Valimont, pastor ofFirst Assembly of God said: John and his wife used to come over when they weredating. He was at our house about a week before he left for Afghanistan. He was just awonderful kid.

Rev. Valimont said Pfc. Davis, who he'd known for about 13 years, was a member of thechurch's Evolve youth ministry. He carried his Bible everywhere he went, and it waswith him when he died, Rev. Valimont said.

While Pfc. Davis's faith was firm, he also knew how to have fun. He might be the guyflicking someone's ear, recalled the pastor. But there was never anything too serious.

Griffin High School Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Jamie Cassady knew Pfc.Davis as a good kid. He was always smiling. When I heard the news of his passing,that's the first thing I remembered about him.

Jessica DeVoursney taught Pfc. Davis and his girlfriend as seniors at Griffin HighSchool.

That was my first class of seniors, she said. So they were pretty special to me. He hadthe biggest heart of anyone I know, she added. His friends adored him, because he

adored them.

She said Pfc. Davis visited the school before he deployed in February 2012, and theytalked about the baby he and Kristen were expecting.

We talked about the baby coming, and how excited he was for the baby to get here. Hejoked about the baby playing soccer, too. He was so full of life.

Behind that smile was a sense of purpose -- and enlisting, a path to that purpose. Afterdeployment, Rev. Valimont said, Pfc. Davis wanted to serve people as an EMT.Stationed in Afghanistan, Pfc. Davis was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 73rd CavalryRegiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

Rev. Valimont said Pfc. Davis, trained as a scout, was in a group of soldiers sweepingan area when he was wounded.

He was doing what he was supposed to be doing -- protecting others -- when he waskilled, Rev. Valimont said. First Assembly of God will host the program God's Plan:Redeemed through Sunday. The Friday 7 p.m. service will honor Pfc. Davis, and willinclude a video tribute.


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In addition to his wife, Kristen, survivors also include his parents, Kerry and TraceyDavis of Griffin; and four brothers, U.S. Navy Seaman Kenneth Davis of Norfolk, Va.,and Steven Davis, Timothy Davis and Luke Davis, all of Griffin.

Hamilton Township High SchoolGraduate Killed In Afghanistan

Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown in an undated photo provided by the U.S. Army

An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Staff Sgt.Christopher L. Brown at Dover Air Force Base. AP

April 5, 2012 By Jim Woods, The Columbus Dispatch

A Hamilton Township High School graduate, on his third tour of duty with the U.S. Army,was killed in Afghanistan this week, the U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed.

The family of Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Brown, 26, was told of his death on Tuesday,Jacqueline Brown of Toledo, Brown's aunt, said last night.


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The Defense Department said Brown was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12th InfantryRegiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, in Fort Carson,Colo.

Brown was killed by an improvised explosive device while on a walking patrol, theDefense Department said.

His family, who lives on the South Side, was told that he died on Monday and that hisdeath involved a grenade attack, Jacqueline Brown said.

He and his wife, Ariell, had just married in January and she was expecting their thirdchild.

The couple also have two other daughters: Charlie, who turned 8 the day before herfather died, according to birth records, and Dilyn, who will turn 6 this month. His wifeand children were living in Mobile, Ala.

Besides his parents, he is survived by three sisters.

Word of his death circulated among his former classmates at Hamilton Township, wherehe graduated in 2003. Krystal Brown of Groveport, who is no relation, said she satbeside him through middle and high school. They even enlisted in the military togetherwhen they were in high school, she said.

Chris was very funny, she said. He had a lot of personality. He was the class clown,that was for sure. During their high-school days, he was known for bursting out in songor doing a dance.

He was an attention-getter, Krystal Brown said.

But he also took to life in the military. She enrolled in the Army Reserves to pay forcollege, she said, but the Army was Christopher Browns career. He was confident andhe liked the whole military thing, she said.

Veronica Denner, 28, who lives outside of Atlanta, said she heard about ChristopherBrowns death through Facebook.

She shares similar memories of Brown from high-school days. He was a jokester whohad a big personality, Denner said. He was one of those guys that you would alwaysexpect be around.

POLITICIANS CANT BE COUNTED ON TO HALTTHE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THEWAR


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For Every 46 Resupply Convoys InAfghanistan, U.S. Forces Suffer At

Least One Casualty, Army SecretaryJohn McHugh Said Last SummerBut Theres No Guarantee Packages

Will Arrive On Time And In Full ToAmerican Positions

Apr 11, 2012 By John Ryan; Army Times [Excerpts]

Todays supply soldiers brave improvised explosive devices, enemy ambushes,treacherous roads and unreliable foreign truckers, all in an effort to deliver needed cargoon time.

Afghanistans landlocked and mountainous landscape has forced the Army to forge anetwork of perilous ground and air routes, lifelines to about 65,000 soldiers at more than15 bases and 300 out-posts, according to the Govern-ment Accountability Office.

Although the 10th Sustainment Brigade has not suffered a casualty since assuming anarea of operations in eastern Afghanistan in November, most supply units in the warzone have some dark days.

For every 46 resupply convoys in Afghanistan, U.S. forces suffer at least one casualty,Army Secretary John McHugh said last summer.

But theres no guarantee packages will arrive on time and in full to American positions.

Cargo has fallen prey to inconsistent tracking and pilferage, according to an Octoberreport from GAO.

A dependence on host-nation trucking companies opens supply lines to pilferage, Col.Michael Peterman, commander of the 101st Sustainment Brigade, said in a 2011 Armyrelease.

This January, 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion soldiers teamed up with Afghanforces to clamp down on illegal activity by insurgents and smugglers on routes inKandahar province.

If improper customs documents or contraband were found, taxes were leviedthere on site, said Maj. Lisa Winegar, the 163rds operation officer. [Well, thatsolves the problem. Make the Taliban pay some taxes on site. T]


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When weather, unstable roads, enemy aggression or sensitivity of cargo make groundresupply impractical, the brigade looks to the skies. Planes and helicopters landsupplies at outposts or drop cargo to soldiers below.

Parachute-rigged pallets can deliver fuel bladders, ammunition or frozen steaks toground troops.

Any Person Whose Fields AreDestroyed, He Is Becoming

TalibanThe Program Has Been Met WithHostility By Many Local Residents

Who Say They Are Reduced ToPoverty Without The Income From

The Poppy CropLocal Farmers Say That Eradication

Is Selective, Meaning That OfficialsOften Exempt The Fields Of Relatives

Or Of People Who Bribe ThemSufficiently

If A Son Of A Farmer Is In TheGovernment And Wants To Destroy HisFathers Poppy Field, The Father Would

Be Happy If His Son Is Killed By Taliban

April 11, 2012 By TAIMOOR SHAH and ALISSA J. RUBIN, The New York Times[Excerpts]


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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan So focused are the Taliban on securing this years opiumpoppy crop and the support of the farmers tending it that in the early days of theirspring offensive in the south, they are targeting not only the officials trying to eradicatethe plants, but also the tractors they use.

This year, the poppy fields that are so beautiful right now, carpeted with lithe red

blossoms, are also sown with land mines the product of the increased cooperationbetween poppy farmers and the militants they see as protectors of their economicinterests, government officials say.

This year there is more poppy cultivation in Helmand, especially in places where peoplehave confiscated the government lands and in places that were desert, said DaoudAhmadi, the spokesman for the governor in Helmand Province. The reason is that theTaliban promised and persuaded farmers to grow poppy and told them they wouldprotect them.

One attack this week in Helmand Province, the poppy-growing capital not just ofAfghanistan but of the world, was indicative of the far larger fight being taken up to

control the crop across the southern opium belt, say government officials and the peoplewho live there.

The multifaceted attack included a team of three bombers, wearing police uniforms, whoentered the Musa Qala district police headquarters intent on killing the police chief, whohas been aggressive in his poppy-eradication efforts. Four officers died, and the chiefwas injured.

In the bazaar outside, other Taliban fighters strategically positioned two motorcyclesloaded with explosives as close as possible to the tractors used in the anti-poppycampaign, said Niamatullah Khan, the Musa Qala district governor. A third explosives-laden motorcycle detonated elsewhere in the bazaar, killing three more police officers.

In Helmand, the government has embraced eradication as part of a comprehensiveprogram to discourage farmers from growing poppies and to subsidize alternative crops.

The program has been met with hostility by many local residents who say they arereduced to poverty without the income from the poppy crop.

A study by the sociologist David Mansfeld, a researcher for Tufts University, noted thatfamilies who grow poppies eat meat more frequently and are more likely to be able toafford to marry off their children weddings often come with crippling costs inAfghanistan, where relatives far and near must be hosted and fed.

No one wants to see his poppy field destroyed. A farmer is even ready to fight for hispoppy field, said a merchant in Musa Qala who asked not to be named because thesubject was so delicate.

If a son of a farmer is in the government and wants to destroy his fathers poppy field,the father would be happy if his son is killed by Taliban.

Complicating matters is the hold that poppy profits have on government officials.


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Local farmers say that eradication is selective, meaning that officials often exemptthe fields of relatives or of people who bribe them sufficiently.

In Musa Qala, the police chief who is known locally only as Koka has areputation as a ruthless fighter against the Taliban.

He has made it a cause to destroy their poppy fields, but not necessarily those ofothers, like the policemen who work for him, said several local residents.

While only a small part of the total income from poppies goes to the Taliban roughly10 percent, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime but that adds up to a lot in a $4 billion-plus harvest.

The police chief made a plan to eradicate the poppy fields of Taliban commanders firstand then kill the poppy fields of those who are sympathetic with the Taliban, likelandlords who help Taliban or those farmers whose sons or relatives are with Taliban,the merchant said.

This decision really infuriated Taliban commanders, and by any means the Talibanwanted to kill Koka, so thats why yesterday they made a big effort. You cannot imaginehow lucky he was to survive.

Mr. Khan, the district governor, described a chaotic scene: after the bombers made theirway into the police headquarters their initial attacks muffled by silencers on theirpistols the chief burst out of his office. But then he hesitated, evidently confused bythe attackers police uniforms.

One of the chiefs officers shouted, They are not the real police, Mr. Khan said. Thechief pulled out his pistol and shot one of the attackers; as he did, the mans suicide vestexploded, wounding the other two bombers and the chief himself. The chief was taken

to a NATO hospital, local government officials said.

The intense resistance to eradication means that there will be a substantial poppyharvest in Helmand and that the campaign may create dangerous resentment, Mr.Ahmadi said.

I do not think it will be possible for the eradication campaign to destroy all the poppyfields in Helmand, he said.

And any person whose fields are destroyed, he is becoming Taliban.

Resistance ActionApr 11, 2012 The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan Roadside bombings on Wednesday killed a local Afghangovernment official.


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Sarhadi Zewak, a spokesman for Laghman province, said the head of Dawlat Shahidistrict, died Wednesday when his motorcycle hit a roadside bomb.

He was on his way to his office with a school headmaster, who was injured in theexplosion, Zewak said.

Separately, the Helmand provincial governor's office said three local Afghan policemenwere killed in Musa Qala district on Tuesday when a bomber on a motorcycle blewhimself up near their vehicle. The three were responding to an earlier attack that killedfour policemen at the district police headquarters building.

In Tuesday's bombing, three attackers wearing vests laden with explosives parked theircar outside the police building and walked toward the entrance, said Daud Ahmadi, aprovincial spokesman.

Ahmadi said police killed one attacker and the other two blew themselves up inside thecompound. However, an Associated Press photographer at the scene Tuesday saw twoattackers who were fatally shot and the remains of a third who had blown himself up.

IF YOU DONT LIKE THE RESISTANCEEND THE OCCUPATION

Confusion Reigned In Aftermath OfAfghanistan Massacre:

There Was Not Only Confusion ButSpin, Disinformation And Outright Lies

April 11, 2012 Jon Stephenson; McClatchy Newspapers.

Stephenson, a McClatchy special correspondent, was the first Western journalistto reach the scene of the massacre at Najiban, Afghanistan.

******************************************************************

NAJIBAN, Afghanistan One month after Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly wenton a killing spree here in southern Afghanistan, the saying that the first casualty of waris truth continues to hold true in the deaths of eight adults and nine children in thevillages of Najiban and Alkozai.

In the days following the attack, in the Panjway district of Kandahar province, confusionreigned as villagers, local officials and officials from the U.S.-led coalition sorted throughthe grim details of the killings. The conflicting accounts of what happened in the earlyhours of March 11 are still being pieced together as Bales whom U.S. officials have


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called the sole suspect sits in a U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.,awaiting his first court appearance.

What's clear, however, is that the narrative in Afghanistan of the most devastatingcivilian massacre of the decade-long U.S.-led war was shaped by several Afghanleaders who tried to exploit the massacre for political purposes.

It's also clear that a severe trust deficit mars the presence of U.S. forces in an area thatAmerican officials not long ago described as under control, and which they view ascrucial to Afghanistan's long-term stability.

Many local and international journalists faced challenges in their search for the truthbehind the killings.

In the fog of information and with Afghan leaders including President Hamid Karzaiunder public pressure to respond to the tragedy there was not only confusion butspin, disinformation and outright lies.

Come Quickly, They Were Told. There's Been A Massacre.

For reporters in Kandahar, news about the killings started trickling in shortly after sunrisethat day. Come quickly, they were told. There's been a massacre.

They grabbed their notebooks and cameras, scrambled for their cars, and headed forPanjway.

Near the district center, a convoy carrying two senior Afghan officials Haji Agha Lalai,the head of Kandahar's provincial council, and Asadullah Khalid, Afghanistan's ministerof tribal and border affairs and formerly governor of Kandahar province linked up with

reporters. Their vehicles roared along a paved road that winds its way past fields andfarms, flanked in places by hills and mountains. Soldiers and policemen stood toattention outside the many checkpoints and bases that punctuate the landscape.

Turning onto a dusty road, they came to the small but heavily fortified joint U.S.-Afghanbase known as Camp Belambay. A crowd of local villagers sat nearby while Afghansoldiers stood guard at the main gate, nervously cradling their assault rifles.

The officials were ushered inside along with Afghan journalists who'd reached the scene.The dead, who had been shot and in some cases stabbed, lay shrouded in blankets justoutside the base.

Khalid and Agha Lalai were shown the bodies.

They were really angry, said one Afghan journalist, who asked not to be identified toprotect his job. They were very upset because the bodies were burnt, the children wereburnt. It was a horrible scene.

Khalid called President Karzai to report the news. Are the media there? Karzai askedhim, according to two Afghan journalists who witnessed the phone call. Make sure themedia know. Make sure they see everything.


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A few journalists were taken the short distance to a nearby house at Najiban, where atleast 11 of the victims were shot and stabbed. The mood inside was tense. On the waythey passed a massive hole in the road. Villagers and Afghan officials have toldreporters that this was the site of a homemade bomb blast that struck a U.S. armoredvehicle a day or two prior to the slaughter.

They have also said that, prior to the killings, U.S. military personnel had threatenedNajiban residents with retaliation for the bomb attack. U.S. officials later said they hadno record of either incident.

We don't have any indication that ... the attack that's being described occurred, andcertainly no evidence that there were any threats of retaliation by U.S. soldiers, said aPentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby.

The discrepancy between the villagers' claim and the response of the U.S. military is justone of many examples of confusion and disagreement that surround the killings.

According to the Afghan journalist, who works for an international news agency,Kandahar's governor, Tooryalai Wesa, originally told local journalists that there were nocasualties. Just as inaccurate was a Taliban spokesman's claim that 50 villagers hadbeen killed.

Meanwhile, Afghan government officials in Kandahar warned local journalists againstreporting a high number of casualties.

Sometimes (Afghan) officials downplay incidents, the journalist said, but we still reportthe truth.

By the morning of Day Two, the numbers had settled at 16 killed and five wounded

U.S. officials would later charge Bales with 17 murders but the motive behind theattack was far from clear.

Why did this happen? an elder from Panjway asked Agha Lalai in a meeting withvillagers at his sprawling Kandahar compound. Agha Lalai couldn't furnish a compellinganswer.

He was drunk, an Afghan army colonel said of the killer. Few looked convinced.

As elders took turns to speak that morning there were varying accounts of the shootingspree. Some said they'd been told only one attacker was involved. Others said they'dheard that there were multiple attackers.

One suggested that the shooter was a Republican trying to damage President BarackObama's re-election chances.

There was silence.

Earlier that day, Shah Wali Karzai one of President Karzai's brothers and a prominentlocal figure seemed distressed but philosophical about the attack.


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You know, there are extremists in every country, Shah Wali, a soft-spoken man whoonce lived in the U.S., told McClatchy at his home. There are also Afghans who arekilling foreign troops in Afghanistan.

He added: We have to look at the bigger picture fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. Itwould be a tragedy if the foreign forces left.

Day Three

On Day Three, it was obvious not everyone agreed with this sentiment. In Najiban, ShahWali Karzai, his brother Qayum, Agha Lalai and Khalid led an official delegation to amemorial service for the victims. After prayers for the deceased, the delegationmembers rose one by one to speak in the courtyard of a mosque. Villagers who hadgathered interrupted them frequently and vociferously.

We don't want these Americans here, said one local, as U.S. helicopters thunderednearby and jets roared overhead. We don't want this base.

Moments later, as the dignitaries left the mosque, gunfire and explosions erupted.Taliban? asked one reporter, as villagers and security men scrambled for cover. Yes,said a soldier. Taliban.

Some of the villagers have insisted that no Taliban are present in the area, and inJanuary Maj. Gen. James Terry, then the commander of coalition forces in thearea, told reporters that after intense operations against the Taliban, we nowcontrol the decisive terrain that the insurgents have owned up until this point,including Panjway.

But those claims seemed to evaporate in the lengthy firefight that ensued after the

memorial ceremony. One Afghan soldier was killed and four others wounded.

Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of the massacre was the claims by some villagersthat a large number of U.S. soldiers took part in the killings. Some have claimed without evidence that more than 15 servicemen were involved.

Dutch journalist Bette Dam, who spent a week in Kandahar investigating the killings, toldMcClatchy that most of these accounts were coming from people who weren't actuallythere or from people who were in the area but didn't actually see the attack.

One of the people Dam spoke to who said he'd witnessed the attack admitted his mindwas confused. Another, a woman from Najiban who said her husband was murdered

in front of her by a single U.S. soldier, claimed also to have seen a group of Americansoutside the house in the dark.

Dam said she did not believe the people she spoke to were intentionally misleading heror had been pressured to give false accounts. Instead, she thinks the locals genuinelybelieve that there were multiple attackers because they're so accustomed to night raidson their homes by groups of soldiers.


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One villager told me that every house in that area has been searched (by groupsof soldiers) more than once, said Dam.

Such is the antagonism and distrust toward U.S. forces that an Afghan soldierbased at Belambay who reportedly told investigators he'd seen only one U.S.soldier leave the base that night was described as brainwashed by some local

members of Parliament who backed the theory of multiple attackers.

A high-ranking Afghan army officer told McClatchy that Afghan investigators have seen aU.S. surveillance video that shows a single soldier leaving and returning to the basealone on the night of the killings. But skeptical Afghans have claimed the video couldhave been faked.

Given that level of distrust, perhaps no amount of evidence could have convincedskeptics that there was only one attacker.

Some Afghan officials appeared to be guided by political considerations in allowing themultiple attacker theory to gain traction. Meeting in the presidential palace with

relatives of the victims five days after the killings, Karzai openly questioned the U.S.account of a lone gunman. Pointing to one relative, he said: In his family, in four roomspeople were killed children and women were killed and then they were all broughttogether in one room and then set on fire. That, one man cannot do.

Yet the testimony Karzai relied on was from the same Panjway residents whomMcClatchy and others had interviewed people who had lost relatives but notwitnessed the killings firsthand.

An even more incendiary allegation came from a delegation of Afghan parliamentarianswho conducted their own inquiry. They said they had found that not only 15 to 20 U.S.soldiers had been involved, but that some of the deceased women had been sexually

assaulted.

A group of relatives of the dead issued a press statement vehemently denying the claimand accusing the lawmakers of making it up for political advantage. The lawmakerssubsequently appeared to drop the claim.

Last week, Karzai's chief investigator, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan armychief who had previously told an Australian TV news program that he believed thekiller had one or two accomplices told McClatchy that he had heard testimony fromsurvivors that only one man was involved. Karimi said that this testimony was clear andconsistent, and he conceded that a highly trained soldier could have committed themurders alone.

The people of Najiban and Alkozai may never accept this. They've told politiciansand reporters that they have years of negative experiences with the U.S. military.They say that repeated night raids in particular have left them alienated, angry andafraid.

Karimi said that even if Bales is convicted as the lone attacker when he faces a court-martial in the U.S., the relatives of the Panjway victims might still suspect a cover-up.


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And even if he's executed, people will say, 'No, the U.S. is lying, they're cheating us. Heshould be tried here (in Afghanistan).' So, you cannot please (these) people.

MILITARY NEWS

DoD Scum Gave Troops DeadlyMalaria Drug To Save Money:Shortly After Commercial Use

Began, Anecdotes Surfaced AboutSide Effects IncludingHallucinations, Delirium And

PsychosesMultifocal Brain Stem Injury

Brain Damage Likely Caused ByMefloquine

How Much Does A .50-Caliber RoundCost? Theyre Worried About $4 A PillAnd Theyre Willing To Spend $5 For A

Round?

Navy Cmdr. Bill Manofsky who was medically retired in 2004 for PTSD andneurological problems, including loss of balance, that he said were documentedin his medical records as mefloquine-related said if cost concerns are an issue,they shouldnt be.

He said if DoD wants to protect the troops from malaria as well as mefloquinespotential side effects, it should ban mefloquine and pay the higher cost ofMalarone.


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Apr 11, 2012 By Patricia Kime - Staff writer; Army Times [Excerpts]

Navy Sonar Technician (Surface) Seaman Douglas Corrigan placed a Skype call to hiswife March 25, 2011, from Rota, Spain, shortly after taking his first dose of theantimalaria medication mefloquine.

Preparing for a mission to a malaria-endemic region, his unit watched a video on theillness, and corpsmen dispensed two drugs: daily-dose doxycycline, and mefloquine,taken weekly.

Corrigan doesnt remember getting a choice. He received a blister pack of mefloquineand was told it could cause nightmares.

He told me he didnt feel good, recalled Nicki Corrigan, his wife of three years. Hesaid, I dont feel like myself anymore. It was a really weird thing for him to say.

Corrigans personality changed radically, she said. The straight-laced husband andfather began chewing tobacco, drinking and carousing. He climbed outside a three-story

building to see whether he would feel fear.

Months later, at home, he was found tiptoeing around his basement, pursuing imaginedintruders. He ranted psychotically and complained of daily headaches.

Medical tests showed no traumatic brain injury, nor did doctors believe he had post-traumatic stress disorder.

They began suggesting he had a personality disorder or was a malingerer, faking hisproblems to get out of the military.

Finally, an ear, nose and throat doctor at National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md.,

offered another diagnosis: multifocal brain stem injury brain damage likelycaused by mefloquine.

He has a lesion. On his brain, said Nicki, a registered nurse.

Mefloquine has drawn attention since the Armys former top psychiatrist, retired Col.Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, wrote a column in Time magazine listing it among severaldrugs that may have induced psychoses in Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, charged in theshootings deaths of 17 Afghan civilians March 11.

But Defense Department concerns about mefloquine date back further and someclose to the issue say the most recent bout of scrutiny, which began with a meeting last

Aug. 24-25 of DoDs Joint Prevention Medicine Group to discuss mefloquine policy,stems from the Corrigan case.

You have a sailor with permanent brain damage, said an Army doctor familiar with thedebate. Its very serious.

Mefloquine was developed under the Armys malaria drug discovery program, which ranfrom 1963 to 1976.


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The Food and Drug Administration approved it for preventive use in 1989 and itwas marketed under the brand name Lariam.

But no safety and efficacy reviews were ever done on a normal civilian population.The Army performed tests on prisoners in Illinois and Maryland in 1975 and 1976.

Shortly after commercial use began, anecdotes surfaced about side effectsincluding hallucinations, delirium and psychoses.

A 2004 Veterans Affairs Department memo urged doctors to refrain fromprescribing mefloquine, citing individual cases of hallucinations, paranoia,suicidal thoughts, psychoses and more.

That same year, then-Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Dr. WilliamWinkenwerder ordered a study to assess the rate of adverse side effects associated withantimalaria medications.

He ordered the study after questions arose over its possible role in several

murder-suicides at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 2002 and suicides in Iraq among deployedtroops.

The DoD memo says troops given mefloquine must be counseled on its possible effectsand must not be suspected of having any mental health concerns.

In 2011, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command issued memos barringmefloquine use except when doxycycline or another preventive drug called Malaronecannot be taken.

Roche, the manufacturer of Lariam, stopped marketing it in the U.S. in 2008, but it is stillavailable in more than 50 countries. The mefloquine now taken by U.S. troops is a

generic version.

Navy Cmdr. Bill Manofsky who was medically retired in 2004 for PTSD andneurological problems, including loss of balance, that he said were documentedin his medical records as mefloquine-related said if cost concerns are an issue,they shouldnt be.

He said if DoD wants to protect the troops from malaria as well as mefloquinespotential side effects, it should ban mefloquine and pay the higher cost ofMalarone.

How much does a .50-caliber round cost? Theyre worried about $4 a pill and

theyre willing to spend $5 for a round? he said.

Theres no question malaria poses a risk. In 2011, 124 service members contracted thepotentially fatal disease 91 in Afghanistan, 24 in Africa and nine elsewhere. The yearbefore, 113 troops contracted malaria; one died.

Nicki Corrigan and others have contacted lawmakers, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein,D-Calif., and Jim Webb, D-Va., to press for congressional hearings.


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Douglas Corrigan is currently undergoing a Medical Evaluation Board to determine if heis still fit for military service.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh hadI the ability, and could reach the nations ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream ofbiting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom theyoppose.

Frederick Douglass, 1852

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is tochange it.-- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach


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Freedom Of Speech

From: Mike HastieTo: Military Resistance NewsletterSent: Sunday, April 08, 2012Subject: Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech

Photo by Mike HastieG-8 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at:([email protected]) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or aso-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizenof Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Mike HastieU.S. Army MedicVietnam 1970-71December 13, 2004

ANNIVERSARIES

April 13, 1919A Hero Imprisoned For Opposing

Imperial War

Carl Bunin Peace History April 13-19

Socialist and labor leader Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned for opposing U.S. entry intoWorld War I.

While in prison, he received nearly one million votes for President in the 1920election (as he had in 1912).


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April 14, 1988: Very HappyAnniversary

Next To Last Government To Invade

Afghanistan Withdraws In Defeat

Happy Russian soldiers going home.

Carl Bunin Peace History April 9-15

April 14, 1988: The Soviet Union signed an agreement to withdraw its troops fromAfghanistan after ten years of humiliating defeats at the hands of Afghan resistanceforces.

STUCK ON STUPID

Government Takes 30 Years To Fix KIAsMisspelled Name On Vietnam Veterans

Memorial


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Apr 11, 2012 The Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. A western New York family's 30-year effort to have a loved-one'smisspelled first name corrected on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is nearly over.

Sen. Charles Schumer says the National Park Service has told him Roland Settimi's first

name will be corrected on the memorial wall in Washington, D.C., by Memorial Day.When the memorial was completed in 1982, Settimi's first name was engraved asRonald.

Surviving family members have been trying to have the mistake corrected. They recentlysought help from Schumer, who asked the parks service to make the correction.

Settimi was a 20-year-old Army medic from Niagara Falls when he was killed in action in1969.

Schumer is joining members of Settimi's family Wednesday at the Vietnam Memorial inBuffalo to announce the impending correction.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK


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CLASS WAR REPORTS

Bahrain:

Impoverished Residents WidelyLoathe The Sunni Royal Family

And Call For Its RemovalThe Snake Is Long, But If You Cut

Off Its Head It Will Be EasierI Like It Like This, A Supporter Of TheMovement, Who Gave Only The Name

Raba, Said In Reference To More ViolentMethods. It Makes Us Stronger


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An antigovernment protester in Sitra, a small town in Bahrain, hurls a Molotov cocktail atriot police in an armored personnel carrier in late March. Reuters

April 10, 2012 By ALEX DELMAR-MORGAN, Wall Street Journal [Excerpts]

SITRA, Bahrain

On a recent Saturday in this dilapidated Shiite town, young men battled riot police amidclouds of tear gas. Overturned trash bins and burning tires littered the roads. Bouldersand rocks were scattered across the roads, put there by protesters seeking to slow

police vehicles.

Calm has mostly been restored to Bahrain's capital, Manama, where authorities putdown a mass Arab Spring uprising early last year with the backing of Saudi troops. Butclashes like the recent one in Sitra are widespread in small towns and villages acrossthe country, threatening the prospect for political dialogue between the country's Sunnirulers and the mostly Shiite opposition.

Violence has intensified as protesters call for the boycott of a Formula One race plannedin Bahrain this month and demand the release of a jailed activist who has been on ahunger strike for two months.

Some of Bahrain's recent protests are organized by a secretive group, the Coalition ofFebruary 14th Youth, named after the day Bahrain's mass protests broke out last year.The anonymous, decentralized group, which uses social-networking sites to organizeprotests, is emerging as a challenger to the mainstream opposition Wefaq.

No one knows the exact size of the February 14 group, which first drew attentionorganizing protests last autumn. Protesters associated with the movement say theirpolicy is to defend themselves from excessive police force, but security forces say


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unprovoked attacks by protesters with Molotov cocktails and other homemadeexplosives are rising.

In contrast to Wefaq, which takes a peaceful approach toward negotiations for politicalreforms and doesn't call for the removal of the monarchy, a goal of the youth movementis to overthrow the king. The group denies it is influenced by Iran, according to activists

familiar with it. An international report into rights abuses early last year in Bahrain,ordered by the king, found no evidence of Iran's involvement in the unrest.

Wefaq commands huge numbers at its political rallies and says it doesn't feel threatenedby more radical elements. It admits, however, that the February 14 movement is gainingstrength and that violence poses a threat to negotiations. Wefaq says the government isunwilling to engage in serious dialogue.

Clashes have centered in places like Sitra, one of Bahrain's poorest towns and a flashpoint in the country's turbulent history. Protests take place almost daily in this Shiitestronghold where impoverished residents widely loathe the Sunni royal family and callfor its removal.

Late last month, many protesters in Sitra held red, white and yellow February 14 flags asthey battled security forces. I like it like this, a supporter of the movement, who gaveonly the name Raba, said in reference to more violent methods. It makes us stronger.

The government sees the February 14 movement as part of a broader group of hard-lineyouth.

They and anybody else with extreme views are a threat to Bahraini society, a Bahraingovernment spokesman said. [Hopefully.]

The government is particularly sensitive to protests reaching the capital as it tries to

revive tourism and breathe life into its economy. Early last year, at the height of theunrest, demonstrators camped for weeks at Manama's Pearl Roundabout, bringing thecity to a standstill. Even as protests flare in small towns, the government has kept thecapital largely quiet, helping to paint a picture of normal life.

It is also seeking to repair its image after the international report accused security forcesof using widespread torture and excessive force against protesters early last year.

Last month, the United Nations criticized the excessive use of tear gas in Bahrainby police. Activists say 10 people died in March alone, most of them from tear-gas inhalation.

Obviously, the government wants to make it look like things have returned to normal,but the damage from a public-relations point of view is huge, Mr. Stephens said.

In Abu Saiba, a village west of the capital, a protester who gave his name as Husaintakes to the streets at night with a scarf wrapped around his face to engage in battleswith police.


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The snake is long, but if you cut off its head it will be easier, he says, referring to PrimeMinister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the king's uncle, who has been in office for 41years and is a major focus of anger among Shiites.

Troops Invited:Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service menand women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or [email protected]: Name, I.D., withheld unless yourequest publication. Same address to unsubscribe.

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