[Thanks to Z, who sent this in.]

Fiasco:
“The Iraqis Can’t Make It With The Teams We Have Now”
“They Will Fall Flat On Their Face”
“In My 28 Years Of Military Service I Have Never Seen Such An Appalling Approach To Training”

“By the time the training was finished, soldiers were demoralized, motivation was nonexistent and the team motto came from the Jo Dee Messina lyric, ‘my give-a-damn’s busted.’”

“In my 28 years of military service I have never seen such an appalling approach to training,” he wrote. “Nowhere else in the Army system would this have been acceptable.” His soldiers received only a few hours of instruction in Arabic language, Iraqi culture and advising foreign forces, says Col. Demas, who had previously served in Special Forces units.

October 18, 2006 By GREG JAFFE, The Wall St. Journal [Excerpts]

One of the biggest shocks for Lt. Col. Nick Demas and his troops came before they even deployed to Iraq.

The colonel’s soldiers, most of them inexperienced reservists from Maryland, had been tapped to serve as advisers to the Iraqi army. Their job was to live with, train and mentor an Iraqi force buffeted by poor morale, desertions and corruption.

President Bush has touted such advisory teams as key to the U.S. strategy for stabilizing Iraq and bringing American troops home.

So Col. Demas and his troops expected some of the best instruction the Army had to offer.

What they got was a “phenomenal waste of time,” the colonel wrote from Iraq last fall, in a report to his superiors.

“In my 28 years of military service I have never seen such an appalling approach to training,” he wrote. “Nowhere else in the Army system would this have been acceptable.” His soldiers received only a few hours of instruction in Arabic language, Iraqi culture and advising foreign forces, says Col. Demas, who had previously served in Special Forces units.

Other advisers have been just as scathing.

“By the time the training was finished, soldiers were demoralized, motivation was nonexistent and the team motto came from the Jo Dee Messina lyric, ‘my give-a-damn’s busted,’ “ wrote Lt. Col. James Goodwillie, who led advisers in Iraq, in a review that was passed to senior Army officials last fall.

Internal Army reviews and interviews with dozens of advisers show that, thus far, the Army hasn’t treated the advisory program as a priority. The job has often fallen to the military’s less seasoned second team: reservists, guardsmen and retirees called back to active duty. A 48-page Army study, finished in May and marked “For Official Use Only,” concluded that 10- to 12-man advisory teams are too small and “do not have the experience to advise in the various areas they are assigned.”

The teams have had to scrounge for equipment that is routinely allocated to big combat units.

Advisers going through training today are warned in a PowerPoint briefing: “You will not have all the radios, weapons, night vision devices and field gear issued to a U.S. battalion.”

For many advisers, the growing turmoil has been frustrating. “I know we’ve made a difference.

“But the insurgency has also become better, more lethal and more capable in my time here,” wrote Capt. Phillip Carter, who advised Iraqi police, in an email last month as he prepared to return home.

“In theory things should get better with the development of capable Iraqi Army and police units. That’s not happening.”

To fill some advisory teams, senior commanders asked big combat brigades to give up some soldiers. Often the units gave up troops of a lower rank and experience level than desired, senior Army officials say. The brigades “had a requirement, but they often treated it like guidance and staffed it the best way they could,” says Col. Sean Ryan, who served in Iraq with the command that oversaw development of the Iraqi army.

The Army also mobilized reservists for the mission, many of them part-time drill sergeants who had little experience in combat units. “They knew how to teach guys to march, dig fighting positions and fire weapons,” says Col. Demas, who in 2006 led an advisory team of the reserve soldiers from Maryland.

The training was minimal. A class on how to oversee a large battalion and brigade staff, for example, consisted of a 90-minute lecture after dinner. Midway through, one sergeant, who hadn’t ever served in a combat unit, broke in and complained: “I have absolutely no idea of anything you’re talking about,” wrote Col. Goodwillie, a senior adviser, in his review of the session.

Officers received only four hours of training on language and culture, and enlisted soldiers got two, according to soldiers who attended. To complete their training, advisers were instructed to guard mock ammunition dumps and to set up checkpoints to screen traffic for 12 days. Once they got to Iraq, advisers say, they never did anything like that.

Col. Demas says his team’s primary duty in Iraq was to mentor the staff of a 600-man Iraqi battalion, teaching them to plan missions and analyze intelligence. But once the Iraqi battalion moved into heavy fighting north of Baghdad, the seven enlisted advisers on Col. Demas’s 10-man team didn’t have the experience to advise the Iraqi officers, the colonel says. Those seven Americans had never served on a U.S. battalion staff and lacked combat experience.

“They were superb soldiers;- dedicated and hard working. They could teach basic soldier skills, but not leader tasks,” Col. Demas says. That job fell to Col. Demas and the two officers on his team.

Advisory teams elsewhere in Iraq spent much of their time worrying about even more basic problems, such as trying to get critical supplies for themselves and their Iraqi troops. The small teams are reliant on the big U.S. units for help fixing their Humvees and electrical generators.

At Camp Taji, near Baghdad, Staff Sgt. Clyde Daly persuaded a friend to give him 15,000 bottles of Gatorade, which he kept in a locked supply room on the Iraqi side of the base. He traded cases of the drink to other U.S. units for supplies, favors, and help fixing equipment.

Master Sgt. Darren Williams, who served on a team in Diyala Province, says: “We had to beg for support. It was like pulling teeth.”

Getting the Iraqis what they needed was even harder. “We’d spend more time working to keep the Iraqis fed and fueled than we would war-fighting,” says Col. Jeff Lamb, who returned in July from advisory duty in Diyala Province.

It took two weeks to persuade the Ministry of Defense to fire a corrupt food contractor that was serving spoiled food to the Iraqis, says Lt. Jason Karluk, who worked for Col. Lamb. He says it took him 60 days to get the Iraqis decent tents.

The harsh conditions and lack of supplies led to desertions. By the time Lt. Karluk left Iraq, the unit he was advising had shrunk to about 400 soldiers from 700, and the brigade had gone to about 1,600 from 2,400. His team’s biggest accomplishment, says the 24-year-old officer, was simply “holding the (Iraqi) unit together.”

Training exercises have been hindered by a shortage of Iraqi role players. At its major training centers, the Army brings in 250 Arabic speakers to play townspeople, mayors and police chiefs in mock Iraqi villages. At Fort Riley, there were only about a dozen Arab-speaking role players last month, so American troops had to play Iraqi commanders and rank-and-file soldiers.

As the situation on the ground in Iraq grows more dire, some officers argue the U.S. must improve the advisory effort quickly. In an article in a Marine Corps journal this summer, Lt. Col. Julian D. Alford, who recently commanded a 900-Marine battalion in western Iraq, outlined a plan to cut sharply overall U.S. troop levels by bolstering the advisory effort.

Col. Alford’s Marines had fought alongside an Iraqi army brigade and their U.S. advisers to drive insurgents from Qaim, which had been a main entry point for foreign fighters coming into Iraq from Syria. He says he left Qaim in June convinced that advisory teams were too small to help Iraqi forces stand on their own.

“The Iraqis can’t make it with the teams we have now,” he says. “They will fall flat on their face.”

But if the U.S. military doubles the size of the advisory effort, embedding more advisers in smaller Iraqi units where most of the fighting is done, he says, the Iraqis in his former region could hold off the insurgency. To field the larger teams, he would send only some of the senior enlisted troops and officers from big U.S. units, leaving junior troops at home. He would also give them far more language and cultural training.

“The real question is: How should we be organized, trained and equipped to fight these 21st-century wars?” he asks. “This is a different way of looking at warfare.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

3 Marines Killed In Al Anbar Province

Oct. 21, 2006 Multi National Corps Iraq Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20061021-01

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq: Three Marines assigned to Multinational Force-West died today from enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province.

Denton Loses Second Son In War

Army 2nd Lt. Johnny Craver, 37, was killed Friday in a small town south of Baghdad. Courtesy photo

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

October 17, 2006 By Donna Fielder, Staff Writer, Denton [Texas] Record Chronicle

Last year Denton County Sheriff’s Sgt. Phyllis Broomfield cried with her good friend Charlene Sauseda as Sauseda’s son, Army Spc. Ernie Dallas Jr., was buried with military honors after he was killed in Baghdad.

“I looked at her and wondered what it must be like to have to bury your son,” Broomfield said Monday. “Now, I know.”

Her own son, Army 2nd Lt. Johnny Craver, 37, was killed Friday in a small town south of Baghdad when he stepped out of the Bradley fighting vehicle he was commanding and an improvised explosive device blew up under his feet. Two of his men also were killed and another soldier was injured.

Though their sons never met, the mothers are friends and co-workers at the Denton County Jail. Broomfield learned of her son’s death Saturday as she reported for duty at the jail. Another officer met her inside and led her to an interview room.

“I walked down the hall and the chaplain hugged me and I saw a military man sitting in that room and I went to my knees,” she said. “I said, ‘Please don’t tell me my son is dead.’”

Sheriff Benny Parkey said Monday that sheriff’s employees were saddened by the second Iraq war loss in the department.

“It’s a tragedy any time a mother loses a son — on the battlefield or at home,” Parkey said. “Two of our employees have lost sons in the war. It makes it all the more real and closer to home. We’d ask that everyone keep this family in their prayers.”

Broomfield reared her son and his younger sister, Sherry, in McKinney. She almost lost him when he was a teenager, Broomfield said. He was badly injured in an automobile accident and she was told it would be a miracle if he lived. She got her miracle then.

When he was 17, he came to her with enlistment papers for her to sign.

“I told him, ‘You go look at that room of yours. They won’t let you keep a room that messy,’” she said. “But he was determined to join, and when he finished high school, he did.”

He became a Ranger and later a Ranger instructor. He served in Hawaii and Alaska and Washington, D.C., but he had not served war duty until he got his orders last summer. On July 15, he and his wife, Natalie, signed the documents on their newly built house near Fort Hood. He left for Iraq that afternoon, never having slept a night in his new home.

Craver left three children, Savannah, 12, Caelen, 8, and Emma, 3.

Natalie’s father, John Moseley, lives in Denton.

“I don’t know all the details, but Johnny volunteered to go,” Broomfield said. “He told me he was going to be home Nov. 27. I knew he could take care of himself. He was always a leader. He had me convinced he was going to be OK.”

A year ago, he walked his mother down the aisle when she married Dugan Broomfield, an investigator for the Denton County district attorney’s office.

They watched Craver on television when he participated in the 2005 Best Ranger Competition, Phyllis Broomfield said. He had trained for the event for months. At the end, as he and his partner started up a steep hill, his partner twisted an ankle.

Craver took his partner’s 80-pound rucksack and carried it, along with his own, to the top of the hill.

He had nearly finished a master’s degree in business management, his mother said.

“Show me a perfect son — that was Johnny,” she said. “Every Mother’s Day and every birthday he would call me, no matter where he was in the world.”

Craver’s body is expected to arrive at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Friday. She expects the funeral to take place early next week.

“I know Johnny died doing what he wanted to do,” Broomfield said. “I’d call him a hero and he’d say, ‘I’m not a hero. I’m just doing my job.’ But he was a hero.”

Former Anaheim Resident Dies In Iraq

October 10, 2006 By SARAH TULLY, The Orange County Register

Barihan Isshak knew she couldn’t call her son on his birthday. As a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, Daniel Isshak often was assigned to a place where she couldn’t reach him, but he could contact her.

When her son called on Sept. 26, Barihan Isshak was unaware he was in Iraq. As an only child, Daniel Isshak didn’t want to worry his parents, so he never told them that he volunteered to ship out.

About a week after his 25th birthday, the couple found out his whereabouts when an Army official rang the doorbell with news that their son had been killed.

Isshak, a former Anaheim resident, died Oct. 3 after his vehicle came under enemy small-arms fire in Hawija, Iraq.

Isshak was assigned to guard a colonel and was protecting him when he died, said Isshak’s cousin, Sasha Maher. About 30 members of the armed forces from Orange County have died in fighting in the Mideast.

More than 300 people attended Isshak’s funeral and Muslim burial Saturday in Westminster Memorial Park, Maher said.

Isshak spent his childhood in Anaheim, where he attended Hansen Elementary School.

After the family moved to Alta Loma in 1992, they stayed involved in the local Circassian community. Maher said about 1,000 Circassians – Muslims who originated from southern Russia – live in Orange County.

Isshak took Circassian language and dance classes when he was a child and teenager, Maher said. When he got older, Isshak played ice hockey.

At age 17, after graduating from high school, the usually obedient Isshak shocked his parents when he insisted that he was going to join the Army.

“He said, ‘Nobody fooled me. Nobody pushed me. Nobody is forcing me. This is what I want to do. With or without your blessing, I’m going to go. I’m going to join the U.S. Army,’” Barihan Isshak recalled. “I almost fell on the ground.”

His parents signed the paperwork for him to leave before his 18th birthday because they didn’t want to drag out the wait. But his sudden departure weighed on them.

“We were so sad. If anybody said, ‘How’s Danny?’ we were torn to pieces,” Barihan Isshak said. “I think I grieved for him back in July 1999.”

Daniel Isshak spent most of his service in Fort Benning, Ga., as an Army Ranger. Isshak followed his roommates, Joel and Jessica Peterson, to a post in Hawaii. From there, he was assigned to Iraq, leaving Aug. 3.

Jessica Peterson, whose husband served with Isshak and remains in Iraq, said Isshak likened the situation of going to medical school to become a surgeon but never performing surgery.

He debated whether to tell his parents.

“He didn’t want them to worry about him,” Peterson said. “It was a hard decision for him to make. He knew it was going to be really hard to keep it from them.”

During their birthday conversation, Isshak told his mother that he wanted to take a trip with his parents back East during a vacation in January.

Barihan Isshak teased him about wanting to visit a girl in New Jersey.

Barihan Isshak said she understands why her son declined to tell her where he was, and she’s proud: “We know that’s what he wanted. He loved what he was doing.”

“Daniel told me, ‘No matter what happens, no matter where I go, Mom, don’t cry. Don’t be sad. Don’t worry about it.’ “

Jonesboro Soldier Dies in Iraq

Justin Jarrett

10/9/2006 Reported By: Duffie Dixon; WXIA-TV

A Jonesboro family was mourning the loss of one of their heroes Sunday evening. Army Specialist Justin Jarrett, 21, was killed in Taji, Iraq Monday when an improvised explosive device detonated next to the vehicle he was riding in. Jarrett later died from his injuries.

His family learned of Jarrett’s death Tuesday. For them, he sacrificed his life for a country he loved.

“Justin paid the ultimate price. You see bumper stickers that say, ‘Freedom isn’t free,’ but you just don’t comprehend it until your son pays the ultimate price,” said Jarrett’s mother Caroline Nicolella.

“He believed in what he was doing, he was proud to serve America and I’m proud of him,” said Kathleen, Jarrett’s wife.

Jarrett was home just last month on a two-week leave, but family members had no idea that homecoming would be the last time they would see Jarrett alive.

While he was home, his wife remembered his preoccupation with buying a new car for her so that she had reliable car for their kids.

The two had only been married just over a year and he embraced her 4-year-old daughter as his own child. The couple also has a 9-month-old baby girl.

Jarrett grew up in Jonesboro surrounded by a large family. He enlisted two years ago because he wanted to make a difference and serve his country.

Family members laid photos on a table showing Jarrett from when he was little boy, all the way until just three weeks ago when he was home on leave.

Jarrett’s family said he may have been just 21-years-old, but he lived a full life that was rich with laughter.

Visitation for Jarrett will be Friday at Ford-Stewart funeral home in Jonesboro. He will be buried Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Crest Lawn National Cemetery.

The family has set up the Justin Robert Jarrett Children’s fund through Bank of America to help provide for his children.

Edgerton Native Killed In Iraq Combat

Oct. 11, 2006 Kansas City Star

An Edgerton, Kan., native was killed by enemy fire Sunday in Iraq, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

Pfc. Shane R. Austin, 19, was part of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armor Division, based in Baumholder, Germany. He died in Ramadi.

Austin’s father, Terry Austin, said his son was killed when an insurgent threw a grenade into his son’s tank. Shane Austin had been in Iraq a few months and was scheduled to come home with the rest of his unit next month.

“My son was a very proud soldier,” Terry Austin said. “He’s a hero in Edgerton today.”

Shane Austin was the middle of three brothers and had made private first class about a week ago, his father said Tuesday.

Austin attended school in the Gardner Edgerton district from elementary school through 2005. His mother and a brother went to the school Monday and told the staff of Austin’s death, Deputy Superintendent Tim Yoho told The Associated Press. “Our prayers are with the family,” Yoho said. “It’s a horrible thing, and it brings us back to reality when it’s one of your own who is killed.”

A candlelight vigil will be held this weekend in Edgerton, but plans are not complete. Terry Austin said he wants his son to be buried at Fort Leavenworth.

El Salvador Officer Killed, Four Soldiers Wounded In Nu’maniya;
Iraqis Were Seen Celebrating And Trampling On The El Salvador Flag

Oct. 20, 2006 AP & Reuters

Capt. Jos Argelio Soto Ochoa, 39, El Salvador Army, died Friday when his convoy was attacked by explosive device. The incident took place in Nu’maniya in the Kut province. Four other soldiers were wounded.

Iraqis were seen celebrating and trampling on the El Salvador flag.

The Salvadorian military vehicle has been set ablaze during an early morning attack.

El Salvador is the only Latin American country that still has troops in Iraq.

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

FUTILE EXERCISE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

US troops in central Baghdad Oct. 14, 2006 after two bombs hidden in a pair of parked cars exploded in a parking lot in the Rasheed district. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

NYU Women’s Center Presents:

“Women Resisting Empire”

A Special Screening Of The Documentary Film Sir! No Sir!

Tuesday, Oct 24th 6pm-7:30pm (Arrive Early)

NYU Kimmel Student Center, room 808 (huge building on corner of Washington Square Park South & Laguardia)

Featuring Iraq Veterans and supporters: Mickiela Montoya, Jennifer Hogg, Max Uhlenbeck.

Mickiela Montoya is a current member of the Army National Guard where at age 19 she served in Iraq from March-October 2005. She is currently a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Jennifer Hogg, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, served in the New York Army National Guard for five years, eventually attaining the rank of Sergeant. Feeling an uneasiness with the upcoming war, Jennifer began to question the relation of war and oppression ultimately culminating with resistance to war and militarism by way of discharge from the military in 2005 followed by engaging in social activism.

Max Uhlenbeck is a local anti-war activist in New York City. He was the northeast outreach coordinator for the theatrical run of Sir! No Sir! and a supporter of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

About Sir! No Sir!

In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn’t take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it.

Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile.

And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War has been the subject of hundreds of films, both fiction and non-fiction, but this story–the story of the rebellion of thousands of American soldiers against the war–has never been told in film. This is certainly not for lack of evidence.

By the Pentagon’s own figures, 503,926 “incidents of desertion” occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being “fragged”(killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers.

In the course of a few short years, over 100 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself; stockades and federal prisons were filling up with soldiers jailed for their opposition to the war and the military.

Yet few today know of these history-changing events.

Sir! No Sir! will change all that. The film does four things: 1) Brings to life the history of the GI movement through the stories of those who were part of it; 2) Reveals the explosion of defiance that the movement gave birth to with never-before-seen archival material; 3) Explores the profound impact that movement had on the military and the war itself; and 4) The feature, 90 minute version, also tells the story of how and why the GI Movement has been erased from the public memory.

I was part of that movement during the 60's, and have an intimate connection with it. For two years I worked as a civilian at the Oleo Strut in Killeen, Texas–one of dozens of coffeehouses that were opened near military bases to support the efforts of antiwar soldiers.

I helped organize demonstrations of over 1,000 soldiers against the war and the military; I worked with guys from small towns and urban ghettos who had joined the military and gone to Vietnam out of a deep sense of duty and now risked their lives and futures to end the war; and I helped defend them when they were jailed for their antiwar activities. My deep connection with the GI movement has given me unprecedented access to those involved, along with a tremendous amount of archival material including photographs, underground papers, local news coverage and personal 8mm footage.

Sir! No Sir! reveals how, thirty years later, the poem by Bertolt Brecht that became an anthem of the GI Movement still resonates:

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect: He can think.

Willful Dereliction Of Duty
(108 Charges):
Aggravated Assault Using A Loaded Firearm
(67 Charges)

[Make one curious, don’t it? T]

October 23, 2006 By Michelle Tan, Army Times Staff writer

The Army Trial Defense Service is working to boost the credibility of its defense attorneys even as Army lawyers handle more courts-martial per 1,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world.

Morris estimates there are about 1,400 Army courts-martial a year worldwide, and about 150 of those happen in theater.

With 208 charges, theft of non-military property was the most frequently committed offense in the war zone between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2006, according to data from the Army’s Office of the Clerk of Court.

Other frequently committed offenses include alcohol-related offenses (167 charges), willful dereliction of duty (108 charges), cruelty or maltreatment of a detainee (90 charges) and aggravated assault using a loaded firearm (67 charges).

“Alan E. Reilly Was A Tireless Source Of Support And Caring For The Homeless And His Fellow Vietnam Veterans”

October 19, 2006 BY ROBERT E. MISSECK, Star-Ledger Staff

Alan E. Reilly was a tireless source of support and caring for the homeless and his fellow Vietnam veterans. He would often go out in snowstorms, searching for those who lived on the streets, and would bring them food, said his wife, Paulette Tara Reilly.

“He knew the name of every homeless person in Kearny, Harrison and East Newark, and he knew where they slept at night so he could bring them hot food,” she said.

On Oct. 14, the 54-year-old self-employed silk screen artist and independent graphic designer succumbed to a heart attack while on a train near 14th Street in New York City, Reilly said.

She remembered her husband as a man who respected everyone, especially those who could not help themselves or were having a hard time.

“While others may have despised them, Alan saw the homeless as people who were just as worthy as anybody else of respect and compassion. He saw their burdens and their pain and he saw them as human beings,” she said.

Born and raised in Cranford, Mr. Reilly lived with his wife in Harrison for the past 15 years. He was the second oldest of five children, said his mother, Joan Reilly.

“My best memory of him is that whenever he would come for a visit, no matter who was here, he would say, ‘I have to find mom and give her a big hug,’ and I would get a big hug,” she said.

Mr. Reilly received an associate’s degree from Bergen County College in graphic design and was attending Chubb Institute for computer science. He was going to become a Web master. Mr. Reilly was also a longtime volunteer at the Garretson Forge and Farm in Fair Lawn, which is owned by Bergen County and administered by volunteers. One of the most important missions of the farm is raising heirloom and garden crops for local food pantries.

“Alan had a wry sense of humor and a deep compassion for those of us who are on this planet,” said Patricia Idone, president of the nonprofit group. “He and his wife were responsible for restoring and maintaining our children’s garden, which had fallen into disarray,” she said. April Barth, a past president and current first vice president of the group, said Mr. Reilly also developed an irrigation system for the farm’s gardens.

“This was critically important for us to be able to continue to provide vegetables to the food pantries,” she said.

His family said Mr. Reilly was an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, during which he served as a helicopter repairman.

When he returned home from the war, Mr. Reilly became active in Vietnam Veterans groups and was a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War, Veterans for Peace and the Jersey City Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee.

“Alan was a person who was doing everything he could to make this a better world,” said David Cline of Veterans for Peace and a longtime friend.

“We used to bring together as many homeless veterans as we could find in Newark, give them a hot meal and then bring them together with representatives of various service organizations,” Cline said.

“Alan was a very humble person. He wasn’t the type of guy to jump in front of a camera or microphone. He just kept plugging away,” Cline said.

Mr. Reilly’s sister, Joanne Reilly, recalls the many pleasurable political discussions she had with her brother and also his love for cats. He rescued strays, she said. “They would follow him and when he got home he would be taking them out of his coat pockets,” she said.

Mr. Reilly’s wife remembered back a few Christmases ago when her husband found a kitten cowering by the tire of a parked car on a snowy street near their apartment. “I said to myself, we are going to have another cat. Sure enough, we brought it home,” she said. Her husband’s compassion also was illustrated when he rescued two cats that were stricken with feline infectious anemia and took care of them until their quality of life deteriorated.

“In my eyes, he was a saint,” Paulette Reilly said.

In addition to his wife, mother and sister, Mr. Reilly also is survived by his father, Wendell, and brothers Gregg A., Drew W. and Warren C. Reilly.

Services will be held today at 11 a.m. in The Dooley Funeral Home, 218 North Ave. West, Cranford. Interment will follow in Fairview Cemetery in Westfield.

Donations may be made in his memory to Garretson Forge and Farm Restoration Inc., 4092 River Road, Fair Lawn, N.J. 07410.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

A police car destroyed by resistance forces in Amara October 21, 2006. The Iraqi Army deployed two companies (around 230 troops) to help defend the police station. [Yes. We can see how much good that did.] REUTERS/Atef Hassan

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting 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. Frederick Douglas, 1852

After Pat’s Birthday:
Stealing The Courage, Virtue And Honor Of Soldiers On The Ground

Pat Tillman (left) and his brother Kevin stand in front of a Chinook helicopter in Saudi Arabia before their tour of duty as Army Rangers in Iraq in 2003. Courtesy the Tillman Family

[Thanks to JFL, who sent this in.]

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

10/20/06 By Kevin Tillman, TruthDig [Excerpts]

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

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

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is.

Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet.

It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

The American Prison

From: Dennis Serdel
To: GI Special
Sent: October 19, 2006 8:36 AM
Subject: The American Prison

By Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree, in Perry, Michigan

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

The American Prison

Let’s build a wall like they did in China,
let’s build a wall like they did in Berlin,
let’s build a wall like they did in Israel,
to keep Hamas out and “Democracy” in.
Let’s build a wall across the Canadian border,
let’s build a wall across the Mexican border,
to keep the “Third World” out and terrorists too.
Let’s pour cement string razor wire
bury landmines build some towers
searchlights and sensors for our Army
“So we can keep freedom free.”
Prisons have walls, prisons have wire,
prisons have guards for who is in.
The Berlin wall fell and the Chinese wall
is still a long, long tourist attraction.

DEMONSTRATIONS AND …
“Take A Walk To Meet Your Local Soldier”
“Find Out They Hate The War Even More Than You Do”

10.21.06 By Alan Stolzer, The Military Project

It’s certainly fine to promenade on a spring or autumn afternoon in midtown Manhattan or some such expanse, participating in mass demonstration against the war(s) in Iraq/Afghanistan or any other.

It’s certainly fine to share emotions/points of view with, perhaps, hundreds of thousands who feel the way you do, i.e., let’s change history by ending the present inhumanity; then onto other, more civilized matters.

Yes, the feelings run deep and true afterwards. But after the demonstration … what?

“Go home to your workplace and organize” bellow the speakers. “Let’s show them what democracy’s like,” they insist. But who says how?

Sure, most of us belong to organizations dedicated to this platform or that approach. But most, if not all, seem to wind up back in that familiar, old expanse; marching to a wine and cheese beat that’s become all too stale yet somehow comforting because, after all, we did march didn’t we?

Where are the bridges that lead to the masses so lovingly referred to that will end the war(s)?

I’ll let you in on a little secret: they’re closer than you think. They’re right down the block at your local armory.

You know the one – that ancient relic of an eyesore that’s been there maybe since the Civil War that everyone remembers to ignore.

Don’t ignore it. The troops are there: waiting for us to join up and smash this war to obsolescence.

Who else has the knowhow and desire to end these wars? Who else has been trained to do what must be done? The answers await you.

So take a walk to meet your local soldier, marine, sailor or airman.

Find out they hate the war even more than you do since they may very well have to die in it or have their bodies and families shattered beyond recognition.

They’re not as distant as we might think so don’t let the uniform fool you. They are the catalyst and we are the support.

You don’t have to join the military but you should think about letting them know you’re on their side.

So go out, show up at their armory and tell them.

MORE:

MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY PROJECT

1. Do not “support the troops” in the abstract. We focus on support for Armed Forces resistance, giving aid and comfort to those who are against the war.

1. Are for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all occupation troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

1. Believe that oppressed peoples and nations have the right to self-determination and the right to resist Imperial invasion and occupation.

1. Do not require others to be in complete agreement to work together with them towards common objectives.

1. Reject the idea that organizations working together on a common project must not debate differences about the best way forward for the movement. On the contrary, we encourage debate and discussion as the most useful method to arrive at the best course of action.

1. May choose to support candidates for elective office who are for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but do not support candidates opposed to bringing our troops home now.

1. Are committed to organizational democracy. This means control of our organization by the membership, through freely elected delegates to any coordinating bodies that may be formed, whether at local, regional, or national levels. Any member in good standing may run for any position, with or without a slate. Coordinating bodies must report their actions, decisions and votes to the membership who elected them for approval or rejection.

1. Are committed to putting in time taking action in an organized way to reach out to members of the armed forces, including local community Reserve and National Guard units.

1. Are not present or former commissioned officers in the armed forces, members of the military police, or any law enforcement agency.

I understand and am in agreement with the above statement, and pledge to defend my brothers and sisters against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

-----------------------------
(Signed)

-----------------------------
(Date)

-----------------------------
(Application taken by)

THE MILITARY PROJECT: Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657
Contact@militaryproject.org

James Baker Wants A Kinder, Gentler War?
“The White House Wants A Veneer Of Consensus To Its Goals: A Veneer Too Many Democrats Are Only Too Willing To Provide”

October 21, 2006 By Ron Jacobs
To: GI Special

For those in the US antiwar movement, our fundamental task remains the same: immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all US forces.

There is no other way to end this war except through total annihilation of the majority of Iraq’s people.

In recent days, reports have begun to appear in mainstream US media sources such as Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times hinting at a new strategy on Iraq from Washington.

This strategy, which is scheduled to be officially made public after the November Congressional elections, is the product of a so-called bipartisan commission headed by one of the Empire’s old guard, James Baker III.

Baker, who served under Reagan, George Bush the Elder and helped to ensure the younger Bush’s ascendancy to the White House in the fraudulent election of 2000, is one of those men in the circles of US power that never goes away. Like Henry Kissinger, Baker is played up in the mainstream media as a wise man, whose voice of reason is always welcome.

Of course, reason and wisdom, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.

Clark Clifford was also such a man.

Never far from the men who made the decisions during his adult life and always available for advice on how to keep the empire intact, Mr. Clifford was called into service as an advisor to Lyndon Baines Johnson(LBJ) in spring of 1968, not long after the humiliating political defeat of US desires in Vietnam during Tet 1968.

Rather coincidentally, it seems, the events of Tet 1968 have been brought up recently by none other than George Bush himself in regards to the war in Iraq. Bush noted similarities between the two events in a question-and-answer session on October 18, 2006 when he was asked to comment on a column written by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wherein Friedman made the comment that the current offensive is the “jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive” in Iraq.

Ignoring the simplistic characterization of the resistance for now, Friedman went on to say that although “It would be depressing to see the jihadists influence our politics with a Tet-like media/war frenzy,” the fact is that fewer and fewer US residents are convinced that a continued US military presence in Iraq is doing any good. In typical fashion, Friedman is not calling for withdrawal, but he’s not urging a continuation of the occupation, either. He’s just not taking a stand.

Anyhow, back to the wise men Clifford and Baker.

In the spring of 1968, LBJ met with generals, advisors other than Clifford, and Clifford himself. The topic was what to do about Vietnam? There were those at the table who were convinced that another large increase in US troop numbers and bombing raids could win the war. In addition, these men—generals and civilians alike—urged Johnson to give the go ahead for the commander of US forces in Vietnam, General Westmoreland, to invade Laos and Cambodia in order to destroy enemy sanctuaries that they believed existed in those countries.

It was this group of men who wanted a total victory and believed such an outcome was still possible, the US public be damned.

Clark Clifford represented the other group of advisors.

This group still believed in the rightness of the US mission in Vietnam, but felt that the cost to the United States was too high to increase the military assault. Already, the effects of the war were being felt on the economy and the military was growing thin.

There were simply no more soldiers to send unless the number of men drafted was drastically increased (at a time when there were already 500,000 GIs in Vietnam) and no one wanted to extend tours of duty or forcibly return GIs who had already served one tour in the war zone.

In addition, the US public was torn in two over the war and those opposing the war were reaching a majority.

The answer to this situation from those advisors represented by Clifford was to change tactics. What this meant on the ground was this: run a less aggressive ground war, use bombing as leverage in negotiations, and begin to negotiate with the NLF and Hanoi.

These men felt that this plan ran a better chance at keeping the US in Vietnam after hostilities had ceased than the elusive chase for total victory would.

It would be months before elements of this strategy would begin to be part of US Vietnam policy and years before US forces would end their hostilities there.

The inauguration of Richard Nixon in January 1969 would actually temporarily expand the ground war once again and US forces did eventually invade Cambodia in May 1970—a move that (it could be argued) actually shortened the war, thanks to the outbreak of rebellion across the nation after the invasion was announced.

Today, we have James Baker and his task force.

According to news articles based on leaks from the task force’s report, its underlying assumption is that Washington can no longer achieve its original goals in Iraq.

What this seems to mean is that the attempts to install “democracy” in the country will be put aside.

Instead, the new US goals will be to achieve “stability” and set up a government that can contain the forces aligned against US desires in the region. Just like Clifford and his cohorts encouraged negotiation with the NLF and Hanoi, Baker’s commission is supposedly calling for similar negotiations with Syria and Iran (although apparently not with the resistance). To this end, one has to wonder about the US involvement in spreading recent rumors that a military coup is being planned in Baghdad.

Indeed, one has to wonder how much involvement the US has in the coup itself, if those rumors are true. It’s not like that would be unusual. History proves that not only does the US have a history of supporting and installing military governments in countries around the world, it has played the major role in establishing the succession of failed governments in Baghdad ever since it invaded in 2003.

If the debates of 1968 over US policy in Vietnam have any relevance to today’s situation in Iraq, and I believe they do, than the most obvious aspect of that relevance is in the arguments that are certain to occur between those in the Bush administration who still believe a total victory in Iraq is possible and those who think it’s time for another approach.

One can be certain that those debates will be as heated as any that occurred in LBJ’s White House. After all, Dick Cheney said as recently as October 19, 2006 that the only answer in Iraq is total victory. His nominal boss, George W., reiterated the same phrase the following day, insisting that he will stay the bloody course already embarked on.

On the other hand, if the fundamental objective of this whole Iraq exploit was to gain and maintain control of the oil under that nation’s sands, then Mr. Cheney and his ultrahawks may have to settle for something less, despite their lust for victory.

For those in the US antiwar movement, our fundamental task remains the same: immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all US forces.

There is no other way to end this war except through total annihilation of the majority of Iraq’s people.

However, as the recommendations of the task force become common knowledge, we are certain to see various Congresspeople and others in the circles of power that have given hope to some of us back away from talk of any kind of withdrawal, putting their hopes instead in one more ill-fated plan to win.

Indeed, that’s part of the reason the task force is bipartisan.

The White House wants a veneer of consensus to its goals: a veneer too many Democrats are only too willing to provide.

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send to contact@militaryproject.org:. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential. Same to unsubscribe.

“Bullshit” Indeed

[David Honish, Veteran, sent in the headline below with a comment: T]

BULLSHIT! The GOVERNMENT may be numb to the numbers, but the people are not.

Government suppression of news and photos of the casualties does NOT mean they are forgotten, only censored.

I’d like to see every paper in the nation run a daily box score of KIA / WIA right below the masthead on the front page.

“United States Numb To Iraq Troop Deaths: Experts”
Oct 20 NEW YORK (Reuters)

[David Honish is right, and the “experts,” as usual, are full of shit. Just because the rage about this war doesn’t make the news at 11 doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The pressure is building both among civilians and inside the armed forces. When it bursts out into the open, the “experts” will say they know the explosion was coming all along. T]

OCCUPATION REPORT

Good News For The Iraqi Resistance!!
U.S. Occupation Commands’ Stupid Terror Tactics Recruit Even More Fighters To Kill U.S. Troops

An Iraqi citizen sifts through the rubble of his mosque, destroyed by U.S. forces in Baghdad October 20, 2006. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen (IRAQ)

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can open fire on and destroy U.S. churches, kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, butcher their families, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. What a bunch of silly people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, who sent this in.]

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers.  www.traveling-soldier.org/  And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

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www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/
www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm
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