The Memorial Day Lie

If you are reading this message, thank a soldier. Let us not forget that every right that you still have was paid for with a soldiers blood, sweat and tears.

None of the Human Rights that are in the Constitutional Laws of either the US or any other country has been paid for by soldiers.

That is the First Lie of misguided Patriotism. It is especially not true about a country like the US, which has not had foreign troops in-side its borders since 1776. (No, the attack on Pearl Harbor didn’t land any foreign troops in the US…) Any American Troops being immortalized during Memorial Day this year was in-side other countries when they died – more often than not as the invaders and the attackers, violators and criminals against International Laws. They weren’t protecting the US – they were attacking someone else.

Never has the US taken military action out-side the US without there being a monetary, political or ideological self-interest involved – not even in the two Great Wars (WWI and WWII). The US joined both only after US interests had been attacked.

Today, US Troops litter the globe like hungry locusts, eating, burning, violating and bragging their way through area after area, claiming they are defending American freedoms. That might be, but they are doing so at the expense of the people and countries they violate and demean with their presence.

Yes, each soldier has a mother/father, a wife/husband a daughter/son – and they grieve when that soldier dies away from home playing at war and chauvinism in foreign lands – I acknowledge that. However I also ask those parents, spouses and children to dare to hold the Government, who sent them out to pillage the world in their name, responsible for those crimes against humanity, and use this Memorial Day to protest and to refuse to celebrate US violations of other peoples rights in the name of the American Constitution.

These people have the US soldiers to thank for nothing – and ultimately – is what you saw in those videos the price YOU want to pay for your freedom – regardless of whether it is being threatened or not?

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The US-ual disregard for human life

(CBS) The Department of Veterans Affairs came under fire again Monday, this time in California federal court where its facing a national lawsuit by veterans rights groups accusing the agency of not doing enough to stem a looming mental health crisis among veterans. As part of the lawsuit, internal emails raise questions as to whether top officials deliberately deceived the American public about the number of veterans attempting and committing suicide.

CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

In San Francisco federal court Monday, attorneys for veterans’ rights groups accused the VA of nothing less than a cover-up – deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans. “The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA is in denial,” said Veterans Rights Attorney Gordon Erspamer. The charges were backed by internal e-mails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA’s head of Mental Health.

In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it’s not outside the norm. “There is no epidemic in suicide in VA,” Katz told Keteyian in November. But in this e-mail to his top media advisor, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: “Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our metical facilities.” Katz’s e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 – a fraction of Katz’s estimate.

“This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows clearly, without a doubt, that there is an epidemic of suicide among veterans,” said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense. And it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers. First, he titled his e-mail: “Not for the CBS News Interview Request.” He opened it with “Shh!” – as in keep it quiet – before ending with “Is this something we should (carefully) address … before someone stumbles on it?” Today we showed the e-mail to Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “This is disgraceful. This is a crime against our nation, our nation’s veterans,” Filner told CBS News. “They do not want to come to grips with the reality, with the truth.” And that’s not all.

Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report. “Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate,” he said last November. But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later. He wrote: there “are about 18 suicides per day among America’s 25 million veterans.” That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, “is supported by the CBS numbers.” In an e-mail late Monday to CBS News, Katz wrote that the reason the numbers were not released was due to questions about the consistency and reliability of the findings – and that there was no public cover-up involved.

This really does not need any comment – it stands on it’s own – as an example of the usual US disregard for human life in general and US lives in particular.

If nothing else it’s a nice way to save money – dead people don’t need pensions and health care…

Follow up: VA Struggles With Vets’ Mental Health.
How we got the numbers behind the story.
VA Doctor on Veteran Suicides.
FYI: Suicide Risk Resources and Warning Signs.

Conscientious Objectors

“To qualify for conscientious objector status and to be granted military discharge on that basis, an individual must oppose all wars, not just a particular war. However, a conscientious objector may still embrace “spiritual warfare” between good and evil, the Department of Defense explained in a new policy instruction.”

This reminds me of Ehren Watada

read more | digg story

By refusing to return to Iraq he set the standards for what it means to be a conscientious objector in a modern society.

He is not alone:

 

Yesterday, June 19, 26 year old SPC Eli Israel put himself at great
personal risk by making the courageous decision to refuse further
participation in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Eli told his commanding
officer and sergeants that he will no longer be a combatant in this
illegal, unjustified war.

read more | digg story

I can’t help but feel that what we are witnessing, with soldiers refusing to serve in Iraq anymore is another Vietnam – with the distinction that during the Vietnam War US drafted people into the military – this is not the case in the Iraqi War. Instead Recruiters are working the streets and the US Army is even accepting convicts – that might not be such a novel idea, since the French Foreign Legion has always accepted anyone as long as they could pass the training. What is worse: They are actively recruiting illegal aliens through the use of promises of green cards once they have completed their turn. What happens to their families if they do not return? Their families have no rights, nothing to fall back on if the providing part of the family becomes another casualty of war.

How is that ethical?

It’s not. “Support our Troops” is the Slogan – it seems to me that the best way for the American People to support their troops is to support those who refuse to serve.

Shalom!

"Support Our Troops"

To me this is the basics in the US invasion of Iraq – Oh. I am aware that not all on the Right believe this for real – but I suspect quite a lot have wet dreams along these lines. Including George W Bush.The lies being told US Soldiers (the ‘cannon fodder’) – are not just things that were said, that turned out not to be true, like WMDs the and Osama bin Laden – but the attitudes being taught, spread and used to ‘make it a good things to kill Iraqis’.

Let’s get real – what’s in it for the regular soldier below General’s rank? He/she doesn’t get to rape and pillage, because that is against International Laws. The plunder is scarce, because the country he/she is invading didn’t have much to begin with, and when he/she gets home, if he/she does get home, he/she will be back in the same rut he/she was in before going ‘over there’. And even worse because of PSTD and injuries come by in the War – injuries that will not be treated properly and fully, because the Medic Care for Veteran’s has been cut into to pay for the War. So really, why should they go, stay and even bother to come home?

For no reason what so ever – the best way to support the troops is to deprogram them from the horrible lies they were told before going, and let them emigrate to a neutral country with a social security sytem that actually will allow them full recovery – like Sweden or Norway.

Shalom!

This article, including artworks and photos are © Henric C. Jensen aka Shadow Bear and are NOT public domain, unless otherwise specified.