I remember the evening of November 4, 2008 as clear as a bell, and remember thinking that that 16-month clock on Iraq will start ticking soon. I was joyous about Bu$h/Cheney and the possibility of war crimes trials. I even had hopes that warrentless wiretapping and signing statements would be a thing of the past and that those responsible would be held accountable.

Boy, was I wrong. Mr. O loaded up on a team of (Lobbyist) rivals and hit the ground (kind of) running. Quite honestly, the Geithner / Goldman Sacks connection bothers me, but what the hay. He can’t be any worse than Paulson. Right?

My cookies got seriously frosted when Mr. O changed his Out-Of-Iraq in 16-months to leaving 35,000 to 50,000 boots on the ground at the end of 19 months. I’m not happy with this decision, but what-the-hell, the United States government was essentially a fascist dictatorship run by bu$hCo. So anything is better than what we had. Right?

When the DOJ released the Yoo / Bybee memos I thought “Good. Now we can begin prosecuting these criminals.” I got stiffed on that one too.

What bothers me most is how much the Obama administration looks like the bu$h administration. Government secrets, National Security secrets, warrentless wiretapping, $1 trillion dollar military budgets, and two occupations heading south do not a happy feeling make. Mr. O does a lot of things I agree with, but this occupation thing needs to change. And I don't mean shoveling more troops into the fray. The Russians got their collective asses kicked out of Afghanistan and they were right next door. We've got to fly most of our stuff halfway around the world to put it into a soldier's hands. Talk about a long supply line.

Aw shit, Mr. O. It appears you’re stepping into some serious doo doo, and I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

Dear President Obama,

I hate to tell you this, but I think you’ve jumped the shark. 2012 to get out of Iraq? 35,000 ~ 50,000 troops after the drawdown in 2010? 17,000 new troops to Afghanistan?

Perhaps a history lesson is in order. If you recall, President Johnson escalated troop levels in Vietnam in 1965 with the big buildup coming in 1967~1968. The final number of American boots on the ground over there was over a million at the height of the war. We bombed the hell out of them. We decimated them in February, 1968. We defoliated their forests and killed civilians. Vietnam was costing the United States $2 billion a month. We were kicking ass and taking names. And yet we did not ‘win’ that war. For me, Vietnam will be forever known as the Johnson/Nixon war.

We didn't have an exit plan for Vietnam either.

I must digress for a moment. There are 60 seconds in a minute, 1,440 minutes in a day and 365 days in a year. If you multiply those numbers together, you’ll see there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year. Let’s play with those numbers.

If the military budget is $1 trillion dollars a year, we are spending $31,709 per second to keep the war machine (and M-I-C) engaged. If the military budget is ‘only’ $500 billion a year, we are spending $15,854 per second to keep the war machine (and M-I-C) engaged.

By now some of your folks at DoD have had a look at the ‘defense’ budget under dubya. You know about the $355 million dollar F-22s and the $5.3 billion dollar Zumwalt destroyers. You know about the $1 million dollar fancy jeep and mortar on wheels (ITV) that fits in the $68 million dollar MV-22 Osprey. You know about the $6.3 billion dollar USS George H. W. Bush. You know that the new Ford-class aircraft carriers are going to cost at least $11 billion dollars. You know about the two $2.5 billion dollar submarines we build each and every year.

You know the occupations are costing us at least $12 billion a month. And yet you continue with them. In your campaign you said we would be out of Iraq in 16 months. 3 more months are no big deal, unless you are unlucky enough to get wounded or dead in those three months.

As of this morning 4,252 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and 660 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan for a grand total of 4,912 dead Americans in the invasions and occupations of those two countries.

Can we set some sort of a cap on this waste? Can we start withdrawing after 5,000 American soldiers are killed in Iraq and Afghanistan? 6,000? Can we stop spending 15 (or $31) grand a second to _____?


Thanks for your time,

unhappycamper

I read last week Mr. Gates is going to hit you up for another $86 billion to continue the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan thru the end of 2009.

Now I’m sure you are concentrating on fixing the economy. I even read this morning you are thinking about ‘fixing’ Social Security and Medicare. That should be interesting to watch.

As a good American citizen, let me toss a few low hanging fruit at you to pay for some this.

1. Don’t give Gates the $86 billion to continue the occupations. You can use that to bail out GM and Chrysler.
   
   
2. Cut the military budget by $500 billion or so. We’re spending a trillion dollars a year on the US military. Just to refresh your memory, when dubya took over in 2000 the military budget was $302 billion. So if you cut the budget to $500 billion, it’s still up by 66% from when dubya took over. The occupations are costing us at least $5,000 a second, so if you get out of both occupations you’ll have an extra $5,000 a second to help Americans.
   
   
3. I strongly recommend you read ‘War Is A Racket’ by Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler. Save yourself $10 and read it online --> http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles... . It's a small book you can finish over short plane ride and I'd be interested what you think of that book.
   
   

Lastly, I understand you are big on bipartisanship. The Republicans (and some Democrats) are going to scream murder if you try to halt the occupations or cut the military budget and will attack you. The occupations will not be ended on bipartisanship. They will be ended by running out of money or bodies to throw into the fray. Why not get ahead of the curve?

Are you going to continue the insane path dubya took?

Say it ain’t so, Mr. O.

Corporate media & war crimes
By Linda LeTendre
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

There's a bumper sticker that's been around for a long time that reads, “When the people lead, the leaders will follow”. I saw evidence of that possibility this past weekend at the Veterans For Peace (VFP) action on Saturday the 17th at the Newseum, the museum of the the corporate media in Washington, DC.

More than 30 activists gathered at the Newseum to launch the inaugural edition of, “The War Crimes Times”, a newspaper that does what our “liberal” media has failed to do and that is to give the American public the information it needs to hold the Bush administration accountable for their actions and policies in the Iraq War.

About eight to ten people secretly brought a 38 foot banner into the Newseum, unfurled it from one of the balconies and it hung there for about five full minutes until museum officials requested that they take it down. The official who requested that activists take the banner down did so by saying that he agreed with what they were doing but they just could not do it in the museum.

Simultaneously, activists (many of whom were dressed as “newsies” and wearing “Arrest Bush” sweatshirts) inside and outside began shouting, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Corporate media complicit in war crimes cover up!” and handing out the “War Crimes Times” to passerby and people stopped in traffic.

I was outside as one of the “newsies” and my favorite line to call out was, “Read all the news that's not in that building!” while pointing to the museum.

While there were a few detractors, most people were supportive, especially on the inside where people applauded and told activists to “keep up the good work”.

Tarak Kauff, VFP member and coordinator of the event at the Newseum said, “Our goal is to have George Bush and his administration prosecuted for war crimes, no matter how long that takes. There is no statute of limitations on war crimes.”

Tarak, a Army former paratrooper, added, “We have come to the Newseum, the showpiece home of the corporate media, to distribute the War Crimes Times, a newspaper created to fill the void left by the corporate media’s failure to report the Bush administration’s numerous and severe war crimes. We are also here to demand the Obama administration vigorously and unconditionally prosecute Bush and all members of his administration responsible for these crimes.”

The War Crimes Times is actually an impressive little paper. The writers are not slouches or hacks. It features articles by:

1) Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights;
2) Colleen Rowley, former FBI agent and one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year for exposing FBI mishandling of September 11 information;
3) Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Col. and career foreign service officer (she resigned in protest of the Bush administration policies and actions);
4) Lawrence Velvel, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law;
5) Jesselyn Radack, former U.S. Department of Justice Ethics Adviser and;
6) Elaine Brower, mother of a young Marine deployed in Iraq.

An impressive line up if you ask me.

You can read a copy by going to: www.warcrimestimes.org

“DC's Finest “ showed up minutes after the action began, called in by Newsuem staff. God knows you don't want people non-violently expressing their First Amendment Rights in full public view without the constabulary nearby. Heaven knows what would come of that. A cruiser and a van waited in the median of Constitution Avenue until the action was over.

The building's front facade features a four story copy of the First Amendment and I thought it would be a real interesting photograph to have people being arrested in front of that backdrop for doing exactly what the words say that we have the right to do. As it was, just having the police there was image irony enough.

Laurie Arbiter, one of the most committed activists I know, and some of the others went to Union Station after the action still wearing their “Arrest Bush” sweatshirts and carrying their signs and newspapers. They couldn't get out for seven hours! Seven hours! People wanted their photographs taken with them and their signs that read, “Yes we can!”. They also wanted copies of the newspapers. Talk about support.

Of course the police followed them around the entire time, keeping democracy safe.

Some of you will remember that I wrote about Laurie this summer. She was one of the people at the Republican National Convention who, while riding in a car, was pulled over by police for no apparent reason, and held at gunpoint (guns to her head) while the car and all of her belongings were searched – sans warrant. Nothing was found.

It is interesting to note that the Newseum exhibit on 9/11 never mentions that none of the perpetrators were Iraqi – in fact it never mentions the “who”, “what”, “where”, “when” or the “why” of the event. I found that rather odd to say the least, I always thought those questions were the mainstays of journalism.

The cost for viewing this mis or disinformation (depending on your perspective) is $22.


Article at: http://warcrimestimes.org/

The Ghosts of Desert Storm
by Robert C. Koehler | November 29, 2008 - 1:53pm

Seventeen years and three wars later, the ghosts of Operation Desert Storm -- the cancers, the chronic headaches and dizziness, the fibromyalgia, the ALS and so much more that have stalked returning vets, whose medical claims have been denied, ignored, relegated to the paper shredder -- have just gotten a reality upgrade.

"The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time."

~snip~

For 17 years, the VA maintained that the strange, debilitating, sometimes fatal symptoms the vets of Gulf War I -- that quick little romp that routed Saddam's army and left America feeling so good about itself -- began experiencing was, to the extent that it was anything at all (or anything that had to do with the war), a mental thing, PTSD-induced. Vets learned that fighting the war may have been nothing compared to fighting the VA for treatment and compensation. It was a struggle that thousands didn't survive.

The Binns report estimates that more than a quarter of the GIs deployed during Desert Storm, around 200,000 of them, are suffering in some way from Gulf War Syndrome, and identifies two primary causes: pyridostigmine bromide, an anti-nerve gas medication all troops in the Gulf were required to take, and highly concentrated, DEET-like insect-repellents that were extensively used.

But the neurotoxic hell that is modern war cannot be reduced to two problematic substances. Many of the troops -- and, of course, millions of Iraqi and Kuwaiti civilians -- were exposed to a wide array of toxic chemicals, which the report did not rule out as contributing factors. These include: the smoke from burning oil-well fires; fumes from poison gas dumps blown up by the Army; anthrax vaccines; and the extremely fine radioactive dust of exploded depleted uranium munitions, which may prove to be the deadliest of all the poisons modern war leaves in its wake.


Rest of article at: http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/18938

I didn't get arrested today.

No speeches at City Hall today.


Before I start the rest of my story I need to tell ya my camera broke this morning and I don't have any pics of today's Veterans Day parade.

We had a pretty good turnout today - counting the Boston chapter of the IVAW we had around 60 vets. Last year's theme was a nation in distress. This year we decided to buy 40 VFP flags and mount them on 10 foot poles. I must say they looked pretty good. So we lined up behind the street sweepers and gave the 'real' parade a loooong city block lead. We had Code Pink, Raging Grannies, and Elliot Abrams of the national VFP office with us.

Now here's the interesting part --> the American Legion canceled all speeches. They really got their panties in a twist over last year's parade and I guess someone must have read the bill of rights. Or maybe they heard a Democrat got elected and free speech is now in vogue. Whatever.

Like I said - Missions Accomplished.

The operative word is try.

Yesterday we had the October 11th rally and march in Boston.

I was kinda tied up, so I gave my camera to a friend to blow off a few hundred pics which he did. Unfortunately most of them did not turn out well.

Yesterday's crowd was kinda smallish (probably around 1,200 ~ 1,500 or so) but very vocal. I'd say about half to 3/4 of them were college age 'kids'. The march led us up Beacon Street (which fucked up traffic) to Claridon Street (which fucked up traffic) to Boylston Street (which fucked up traffic) to Washington Street ((which fucked up traffic) to (I forget the street name) to Tremont Street (which fucked up traffic) to Boylston Steet (which fucked up traffic) back to our starting point.

The crowd was lefty, noisy and fun.

The march was led by Carlos Arrendando, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace. All the usual suspects were there.


I think this pic was taken on Boylston Street:




And here's the march right at the end:




Right at the end of the march, veterans peeled off to the either side of path and applauded as the marchers came by. All in all it was a fun day.

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/To_the_cap...


To the Captain I Saw at Cracker Barrel
by Richard R. DiPirro, VFP member

Welcome home. Welcome back, sir, and welcome home. Welcome back to the world you once knew, which looks entirely different to you now, which resembles the world you lived in before but seems drawn like a cartoon now and scored with music you’ve never heard. Welcome back to a civilization you couldn’t wait to get back to, but isn’t what you remember at all. There are people smiling and shaking your hand and slapping your back – actors in a bad play about the life of someone who looks a lot like you. There are signs and banners and parades and picnics and they whirl around you. You are an observer at the center of everyone’s attention. “Support the Troops!” They yell until they’re hoarse – waving flags and driving cars with yellow magnets, never trying to explain why they weren’t with you there, suffering 130 degree heat, shaking scorpions from their boots and feeling the weight of sand settle in their lungs. Welcome home, sir.

I saw you at Cracker Barrel the other morning, sir. I sat and ate my Old Timer’s Breakfast and laughed with my wife and forgot about my brothers and sisters living every moment of thirteen months in their own hot hell. I would have missed you if I hadn’t looked up when I did from my hash browns and turkey sausage, would have missed that moment I’ll never forget. I saw your boots first, sir and the brown and tan of your desert camouflage and then your face – a face I knew like my mothers, like my own. You scanned everyone as you walked through the restaurant toward your table, scanned their faces, evaluated their threat potential and moved on to the next. Your eyes held mine for only an instant, one of the longest moments of my life, and moved on to the kids at the table behind mine, content that I posed you and your troops not present no danger that morning. You sat alone then, talking on a cell phone to a buddy, or a woman who wouldn’t know you any more, and I struggled to maintain the peace and happiness I had with my wife only minutes before. That feeling was gone, though – those minutes had passed and I felt like I would never eat again. Welcome home, sir.

I felt that thing inside – that thing I can’t put words to – which spins and tugs and turns and kicks me when it feels the need to. My wife watched helplessly, trying as always to understand that thing she knows she never will. I stood and approached your waitress and paid for your meal and she and the others smiled and waved their flags and told me how sweet I was, but I wasn’t feeling sweet. I wasn’t feeling sweet at all. I stood and began to tremble and needed to approach you and I stepped into your line of sight and interrupted your phone call and held out my hand. I asked you, but I knew you had just returned, and I told you I had been there eighteen years before as a marine corporal and I looked past the false smile you held and into those eyes that had sent me back. Those eyes that were seeing me now but still held the sight of whatever had happened, whatever you had done over there. Those eyes which would never see things in fluorescent lighting, but forever washed out by a bright foreign, guilty sun. You thanked me, and I want to believe that just for an instant, you knew I knew who you were. Welcome home.

I felt like running out of there, but I walked to the counter and paid my bill, and held my wife’s hand as we left your presence. In the car she stroked my head silently as I burst into tears. God sir, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to keep them from sending you over there. I’m sorry for what the rest of your life will be like – for the burn scar you will carry forever on your soul. I’m sorry for the anger and frustration you will feel when you think that no one understands, that no one could possibly know what you had to do there. I’m sorry you don’t know what has been done to you. And I’m sorry for the tears you too will shed one day when you do understand. Welcome home, sir.

This article was originally published in the July 2008 VFP Newsletter.


http://www.veteransforpeace.org/To_the_cap...

The Navy's first Littoral Combat Ship, the Freedom (LCS 1), left its pier for the first time July 28 and will spend the next two weeks conducting builder's trials in Lake Michigan, said Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder.


First Littoral Combat Ship gets underway
By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 5:55:11 EDT

The Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship, the Freedom (LCS 1), left its pier for the first time Monday and moved into Lake Michigan to begin a series of underway builder’s trials.

“Freedom is now under way,” Joe North, director of Lockheed Martin’s LCS program, said in a statement.

The 378-foot long ship will spend the next two weeks conducting the trials, said Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder. During that time, engineers from Lockheed Martin, its shipbuilder, Marinette Marine, and other subcontractors will check out the ship’s propulsion, communications, navigation and mission systems, as well as other ship systems, Eschenfelder said. The ship will not remain underway for the entire period, but will return to harbor or anchor for most nights.

~snip~

The LCS program, which originally envisioned a two-year construction period for the ships, has experienced multiple design and production difficulties, and Freedom is more than a year behind schedule. The ship’s keel-laying was held in June 2005, and it was launched in September 2006.

Costs for the first-of-its-kind ship have risen dramatically. Projected in 2004 at $220 million, the price tag has more than doubled. Navy and Lockheed officials won’t reveal current numbers, but sources have said the price for the first ship is at least $500 million.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/07/navy... /



uhc comment: $500 million my ass.

On Friday Feb 15, 2008, Christopher P. Cavas (same guy) , staff writer for the Navy times said:

A $3.3 billion price tag is attached to each of the new ships, although the Navy hopes the cost will drop as further ships are ordered. Independent government analysts, however, routinely forecast a much higher cost, with some estimates topping $5 billion and more. --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...