from the article: Evan Knappenberger served one year in Iraq with the Army 4th Infantry Division working as an intelligence analyst. “We are responsible as soldiers, we are murderers of over one million Iraqis,” a visibly shaken Knappenberger said. “I participated in burglary, trespassing, knowledgeable negligence, criminal assault and battery, rape by association, and gangsterism, I am standing here today as a criminal — in a sense of the word that only someone who has worn the uniform can understand…. “in Iraq, I did many things, but nothing for freedom”
take a look at the following interview with independent journalist nir rosen, and check out his article how we lost the war we won on rollingstone.com. it’s an insightful look at the wars in afghanistan and iraq that you won’t see on most tv news broadcasts… -h
here’s an encouraging news story about one iraq war vet helping other vets to transform their trauma into artwork. they take their old uniforms, turn them into paper, and then make art projects out of them to communicate about their experiences during the war, help themselves heal emotionally, and also speak out for peace. check it out.
also, the author of this news piece, dahr jamail, is a renowned journalist who has written many reports from the war in iraq, and is also visiting portland this weekend on the resisting empire speaking tour. he’ll be speaking at the first unitarian church on SW 12th & main at noon on saturday, along with staff sergeant camilo mejía, the board chair of iraq veterans against the war (IVAW). click the resisting empire link for more details and go check it out if you can, as it sounds like they’ll have some very interesting things to say. i’ll likely be there, to see what i can learn…
as a follow-up to my recent post about the importance of bringing our troops home, i’d like to inform everyone reading this that you can help bring our troops home simply by signing the online petition below. it takes just a minute or two to fill out and send, and your petition gets delivered directly to your state/region’s elected representatives in the senate and congress.
please, take a quick moment out of your day to make your voice heard.
please do what you can to send this along to friends as well. it only takes a minute to email to your friends right from the form, so please, let’s do our part to show those serving in the armed forces that we care… -h (read on below)
from the petition form:
George Bush is bullying Congress to give him $102 billion more to continue the disastrous occupation of Iraq into 2009 and beyond. Bush’s Iraq disaster has already cost American families the loss of 4,000 soldiers and cost American taxpayers $562 billion, and could cost $3 trillion if it continues.
The occupation of Iraq has greatly increased Al Qaeda terrorism worldwide, devastated the morale of American troops through repeated deployments and lowered recruiting standards, increased oil prices to $110 per barrel, and pushed the U.S. economy into a recession.
George Bush is defying the will of the American people, who elected a Democratic Congress in 2006 to end the occupation. Polls consistently show over 60% of Americans disapprove of the occupation, and over 70% of Iraqis want us to leave.
check out this informative article from rolling stone about government contracting in iraq since this war began…
an excerpt:
The deal charged Custer Battles with the responsibility to perform airport security for civilian flights. But there were never any civilian flights into Baghdad’s airport during the life of their contract, so the CPA gave them a job managing an airport checkpoint, which they failed miserably. They were also given scads of money to buy expensive X-ray equipment and set up an advanced canine bomb-sniffing system, but they never bought the equipment. As for the dog, Ballard reported, “I eventually saw one dog. The dog did not appear to be a certified, trained dog.” When the dog was brought to the checkpoint, he added, it would lie down and “refuse to sniff the vehicles” — as outstanding a metaphor for U.S. contractor performance in Iraq as has yet been produced.
it’s a long article, but very insightful. check it out.
