Two days ago the Washington Postbroke a story on a deadly new weapon that Shi'ite resistance forces in Iraq are using against US troops there.
U.S. military officials call the devices Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions, or IRAMs. They are propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by 107mm rockets.
Then again, you might have already known about it, that is, if you follow the YouTube videos being posted by Casey J. Porter, a soldier based near Baghdad who is an active-duty member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
[Once again Jeri Reed has forwarded me an important article, like the one she wrote here a few months ago. Once again she has pulled my coattail to something by Casey J. Porter, the Iraq Veteran Against the War member who has been vlogging from outside of Baghdad. This time it's just words, but what powerful words!]
By Casey J. Porter
I feel pretty lousy as a human being today.
I had to turn away this Iraqi man at our gate here at the outpost. At some point the army took over this factory in the industrial part of Baghdad and we've been here ever since. He was an older man, diabetic, with multiple folders of paper work to show. He didn't speak any English and wished to talk to an interpreter. I was guarding the gate and was the one to call it in. So they send out the "Terp" as we call them.
This older man was not looking for a handout. He was the former owner of a paint shop that is built right up the building we now occupy. He was asking for compensation for his workers because they are no longer able to work now that we are here.
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone. All weekend, I saw veterans honored on television, the newspapers, parades, etc. I saw more than my share of yellow ribbons, American flags, 21-gun salutes and more. But something was missing, something I wish would be covered every Memorial Day, voices of dissent, especially from those who served our country.
Okay, this is my first diary so be gentle. I did a search and I couldn't find anyone else who had mentioned this particular young man so I'm going to go for it.
Matthis Chiroux is 24 years old. He's been in the army since he was 20, and was honorably discharged. He had been ordered to return to active duty, in order to serve in Iraq. Instead, at the end of the Winter Soldier on the Hill testimonies, he held a press conference and announced that he would not be going after all.
Reminds me of that great old saying, What if they held a war and nobody came?
His press statement, link to legal defense fund and contact info below the fold:
Thursday May 15th at 6am Pacific - 9am Eastern - 01:00 GMT Repeated this Saturday May 17th at 9am Pacific - 12 Noon Eastern - 16:00 GMT Click Here to Listen and or save for thursdays hearings, also on graphic below.
I was still in 'Nam, counting down the days, real short, in returning back to 'The World' and my discharge after 4years of service, when 'Winter Soldier Investigation '71' took place.
The Congressional Testimony than would follow the Detriot testimony of my brother 'Nam Vets who had already returned from that Debacle and Occupation!
Sadly the Country that said, almost as one {many of us 'Nam Vets said we would never allow again} we would remember the lessons of, We Didn't, and history repeats!
[This was banged out in an effort to rectify what I felt was a most unfortunate error in a post by Tom Hayden at the new Progressives for Obama website. That site was started, I believe, by Carl Davidson in response to a widely circulated article by Hayden, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Danny Glover. The comment is hanging fire, waiting for site approval, but check out the thread it is on, which addresses the very important issue of the Obama and Clinton positions on Iraq.]
Tom Hayden writes:
The other day I was talking to a friend, a Sixties revolutionary, about the Obama movement, who laughed and recalled that at the beginning of the Southern Civil Rights era there were progressives sitting around arguing that demanding a hamburger and a cup of coffee wasn't radical enough. Meanwhile a whole generation was in its moment of transformation. The New Left and SDS owed their existence and achievements to the spirit of those young people who had the audacity to risk so much.
Back on March 19th I placed a post, on my site, as well as a few others. I also sent that out to a small e-list I maintain to a few site boards, mostly Veteran, and individuals. I will give you the link and part of that post shortly, but first I would like you to view these closing remarks, from the Winter Soldiers 2008 Testimonies, by Camilo Mejia of Iraq Veterans Against The War.
Today, I would like to talk about the speech that Barack Obama gave about moving beyond the racial divisions that Jeremiah Wright articulated in his controversial sermons and discuss how to move beyond the rhetoric of the 1960's.
A lot of the difference between Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright is generational -- Wright came from a time when he experienced ugly discrimination. He is a living memory of the living hell that Blacks went through during the days of Jim Crow and during a time when it was still OK to call someone "Nigger."
On Sunday, 3-9-08, a fundraiser was held at the First Congregational Church of Long Beach for Iraq veterans eager to talk about the war they saw; a war rife with death, anger, courage and lies. The fundraisers intent was to help defray the costs needed to send the same vets to speak in Washington D.C. at Winter Soldier II, to be held from Thursday March 13 to Sunday March 16, prior to that The District Weekly of Long Beach asked several of them to tell them their stories.
Below you will find some snips about each and what they had to say, with the link above taking you to the rest.
"I joined the National Guard.. didn't know it was going to be the International Guard."
Next week, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations will come together in Washington, D.C. to tell the world about their experiences.
Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony March 13-16 from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.
This 10-minute video will get you in the right frame of mind.
Today's story from News8Austin has a good a capsule description as any:
Thousands of soldiers are being sent back to war when they should be finished with their military duty.
It's a story that is repeated around the country every month, as so-called Stop Loss orders force troops who are short, almost ready to leave the service, and send them back for another deployment in The Sandbox. Thousands of others who have served and fulfilled their active duty obligation but who are in what's called the Individual Ready Reserves are also being called back to patch the holes in an overtaxed military.
This diary is going to focus on one soldier who's been hit with what is referred to as the Back Door Draft:
"I honored my commitment, why is it not being honored on the other end?" Casey Porter said.
Specialist Porter had just three weeks left of his enlistment when he was expecting to receive discharge papers. Instead, he received new deployment papers with a date three months away to return to war.
Maybe we shouldn't complain about the news media's lack of coverage of the antiwar movement. They don't even cover the issue when it's debated for two days in the US Senate.
Senate Democrats, failing to pass anything this week, promise to try again in April, when an appropriations bill comes up. House Democrats are in a "wait til' next year" mode.
All the more reason to turn up the heat in March. And there are plenty of opportunities to take action -- in Washington or in your hometown -- as the 5th anniversary of the invasion approaches on March 19.
