There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Ben Franklin
Truth in Recruiting - The Tulsa Peace Fellowship Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for July 2009
Truth in Recruiting - "Don't Believe the Hype!"
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for July 2009
lead story:
file under: grim milestone
5,000 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan - Oklahoma Father Speaks Out
--As Wars’ Death Toll Passes 5,000 Dead, Military Families Speak Out
--A Gold Star Father from Oklahoma Urges President Obama to Bring All Our Troops Home Now
from the archives:
Lyrics to "Machine Gun, " by Jimi Hendrix
--a counter-recruitment anthem, lyrics worth ponderring
--view vintage footage on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVvtIS2YGVI
page one:
Fatal attack against U.S. Recruiting Station in Little Rock, Arkansas
--an American citizen, the accused assailant, is in custody
--one U.S. soldier dead, another in hospital
Marjorie Cohn's book Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent
--book takes a hard look at the rights, obligations and options for Soldiers in the era of Corporate Warfare.
G.I. Rights Workshop in Oklahoma City
--was held mid-June, hosted by Oklahoma Center for Conscience (OCC, formerly known as the Oklahoma Committee for Conscientious Objection)
Late soldier's family gives their grief purpose: ending Iraq war
--Five years after setting a Marine van on fire, the father of a soldier who died in Iraq has turned personal tragedy into a political testament.
quote:
''I think it's important for people to see how families grieve. I share my grieving very publicly.''
~a Gold Star Father, Carlos is active in Military Families Speak Out (MFSO)
page two:
Will there be a trial for U.S. pilots committing war crimes in Afghanistan?
--U.S. acknowledges faul Afghan airstrikes that killed civilians
--Pilots accused of breaking "the rules of engagement"
--The Afghan government concluded that about 140 civilians had been killed in the attacks.
‘Tough’ New Afghan Rules of Engagement: Avoid Civilian Homes
--U.S. & NATO Troops Ordered Not to Fight Near Afghan Homes
Air Guard recruiter charged with selling drugs
--arrested and accused of dealing cocaine and prescription drugs from his military office in Rhode Island.
Police arrested a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping
--San Pedro Marine recruiter accused of pimping a 14-year old girl
file under: fascism in America
Threats of Lawsuits from Parents in Atlanta delay opening of pro-military high school
--DeKalb County parents accuse school board of abetting the criminal preying on children by military recruiters
fact:
At Carver Military Academy in Chicago, just 8 percent of students passed muster on state tests. Between 3% and 7% more graduating seniors accept the enticements offered by such military academies to enlist in the military.
backpage:
University of Sydney offers course in disrupting U.S. wargames off Australia coast
--Uni offers six-week degree in 'Peace and Activism' including civil disobedience
--arrests are anticipated for 12 July 2009
book reviews:
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War,” by Patrick J. Buchanan
--links to reviews of the book by Robert Higgs, and by Anthony Gregory
--Was the “Good War” Unnecessary?
Epitaph for this edition of "Truth in Recruiting"
"It was rather a shock to find we were not welcomed ecstatically as liberators by the local people, in Normandy. They saw us as bringers of destruction and pain."
~Cpl LF Roker of the Highland Light Infantry, from his WWII diary, quoted in a new book about the impact of the campaign on French civilians, Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, by William Hitchcock..
lead story
5,000 U.S. TROOPS KILLED IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN - Oklahoma Father Speaks Out
For Immediate Release – June 2, 2009
Contact: Military Families Speak Out, 617-983-0710, press@mfso.org
Warren Henthorn 405-733-2693
As Wars’ Death Toll Passes 5,000, Military Families Urge President Obama to Bring All Our Troops Home Now
Nationwide – As the nation awaits confirmation from the Pentagon of the 5,000th death of a U.S. service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of Military Families Speak Out are mourning the dead and calling on President Obama to honor the sacrifices of these service members and their families and honor all of those who serve by acting swiftly to end both wars.
Warren Henthorn of Choctaw, OK, the father of Army Spc. Jeffrey Henthorn who died in Iraq on Feb 8, 2005, says:
“Way too many have died on all sides of these wars. If I remember correctly, President Obama won the Democratic nomination based on the promise to end the war in Iraq. But, between Iraq and Afghanistan, at the end of this year we will actually have more troops in harm’s way then we did at the height of the ‘surge.’ That’s just as bad as we had it under President Bush. These wars now belong to President Obama. The blood is on his hands.”
Henthorn is a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out, a national chapter of Military Families Speak Out whose members’ loved ones died a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jane Bright of West Hills, CA, the mother of Sgt. Evan Aschraft who was killed at the perimeter of an oil refinery in Iraq on July 24, 2003, is also a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out. She says:
"My son was the 249th U.S. service member killed in Iraq – it’s hard to believe that 5,000 of our troops have already died in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many more? We need to bring all our troops home from these wars and we need to take care of our veterans when they return home, giving them the medical and psychological care and treatment they need and deserve.”
Maggie Pondolfino, a member of Military Families Speak Out from Portland, OR has been nervously watching the death toll in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rise as her son awaits a deployment to Afghanistan with the U.S. Army:
“It’s been over a year since my only son returned from a 14 month deployment to Iraq. Over a year since I was immobilized with dread at every unexpected knock on my door and every unfamiliar van parked in front of my house. Daily, I obsessively checked the Department of Defense casualty list. Too many times the names were close to home…someone from our state, or even someone from his platoon,” says Pondolfino. “I imagined the other mothers’ grief and wondered would I be able to endure it? Then I had a year of relative calm. I even celebrated a new administration and momentarily experienced the hope that seemed to engulf the country.
“Now as the nation braces for the news of the confirmation of the 5,000th death of a U.S. service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the administration that briefly gave me new hope prepares to send my son to another war with no clear mission and no exit strategy. And how do I prepare? How do I prepare for another year of going through the motions of living, all the while wondering if he will come home and, if he does, will he have to fight a war within him? As hurtful as it is to say this, if he does not come home, my darling boy with his loving heart and keen intellect will have died for nothing. I know that no good will come from continuing the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, just more heartbreak, sorrow, and tragedy. When will we ever learn?”
Our loved ones took an oath to defend our country and our Constitution. Instead, they have been sent and re-sent to wars of occupation. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are denying the Iraq and Afghan people the ability to determine their own future. The best way for Congress and the President to uphold our country’s values and honor our troops’ commitment and sacrifice is to bring the troops home now and let the Iraqi and the Afghan people decide their own course.
Members of Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out are available for interview.
Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is an organization of people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the buildup to the Iraq war in the fall of 2002. Formed by two families in November of 2002, we have contacts with military families throughout the United States, and in other countries around the world. Military Families Speak Out is a national organization of over 4,000 military families working to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and secure the care that our troops, Veterans, and military families need to recover from the impact of those wars on our lives and the lives of our loved ones. Gold Star Families Speak Out is a national chapter of Military Families Speak Out with over 150 families whose loved ones died a result of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
http://mfso.org/article.php?id=1319
{Thank you Darla for bringing the above story to our attention.}
Military Families Speak Out - MIDWEST CHAPTER (Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma)
http://www.mfsomidwest.org/
Modern Music for a Requiem:
Lyrics to "Machine Gun, " by Jimi Hendrix:
Machine Gun
Tearing my body all apart
Machine Gun, yeah
Tearing my body all apart
Evil man make me kill ya
Evil man make you kill me
Evil man make me kill you
Even though we’re only families apart
Well I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer
(You know what I mean)
Hey! And your bullets keep knocking me down
Hey, I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer now
Yeah, but you still blast me down to the ground
The same way you shoot me down, baby
You’ll be going just the same
Three times the pain,
and your own self to blame
Hey, Machine Gun
I ain’t afraid of your mess no more, babe
I ain’t afraid no more
After a while, your, your cheap talk don’t even cause me pain,
so let your bullets fly like rain
’Cause I know all the time you’re wrong baby
And you’ll be going just the same
Yeah, Machine Gun
Tearing my family apart
Yeah, yeah, alright
Tearing my family apart
(Don’t you shoot him down)
(He’s ’bout to leave here)
(Don’t you shoot him down)
(He’s got to stay here)
(He ain’t going nowhere)
(He’s been shot down to the ground)
(Oh where he can’t survive, no, no)
Yeah, that’s what we don’t wanna hear anymore, alright?
(No bullets)
At least here, huh huh
(No guns, no bombs)
Huh huh
(No nothin’, just let’s all live and live)
(You know, instead of killin’)
May this be
Love or just
Confusion Born out of
frustration wracked
feelings - of not
being able to
make true physical
love to the
Universal gypsy Queen
True, free expressed music
Darling guitar please
rest. Amen
page one
Fatal attack against U.S. Recruiting Station in Little Rock, Arkansas
--an American citizen, the accused assailant, is in custody, has pleaded not guilty
By JAMES DAO and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: June 2, 2009
Mr. Muhammad -- an American convert to Islam, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe -- has been charged with one count of capital murder and 15 counts of terroristic acts in Monday’s shooting, in a parking lot outside the recruiting office. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a preliminary hearing before a state judge in Little Rock and was ordered held there without bond at the Pulaski County jail.
Mr. Muhammad has told investigators that he acted alone, the Little Rock police said. But his travels to Yemen and possibly Somalia raise questions about whether he met with any of the militant Islamic groups that are active in both countries.
“Mr. Muhammad stated that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,” an arrest report filed by the Little Rock police said. “Mr. Muhammad further stated that he would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot.”
Pvt. William A. Long, 23, of Conway, Ark., was killed in the shooting. The wounded soldier, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Ark., was in good condition Tuesday at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, the police said.
The two soldiers were at the recruiting station as a result of a program that uses troops recently out of basic training to promote the Army in their home regions, Army officials said. Neither had ever been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Mr. Muhammad was heavily armed when he was arrested Monday shortly after fleeing the shooting scene in his black Ford truck.
Mr. Muhammad changed his name from Carlos Bledsoe some time ago, the police said. His parents operate tour bus and airport shuttle companies in Little Rock, Memphis and Mississippi.
Stuart Thomas, the police chief in Little Rock, said Mr. Muhammad apparently moved there from Tennessee just a few months ago to work at his parents’ business.
The 23-year-old man charged with killing one soldier and seriously wounding another in a shooting outside an Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Ark., was once detained in Yemen for possessing a fake Somali passport and other counterfeit documents, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
It is not clear when Mr. Muhammad, an American convert to Islam who was traveling on a valid United States passport, was detained in Yemen or why he would have been carrying counterfeit documents. His detention in Yemen was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.
Military recruiters said they could not recall a recent fatal attack against a recruiting station. But the shootings were a reminder that recruiting offices are often targets of threats and sometimes actual violence.
Last year a small bomb shattered the glass facade of a military recruiting station in Times Square. No one was injured in the early-morning explosion, which remains unsolved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/03recruit.html?partner=rss&...
book review
Marjorie Cohn's book Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent
--book by Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd (Poll Point Press, Sausalito, 2009) takes a hard look at the rights, obligations and options for soldiers in the era of corporate warfare
Although a primer on the available legal and honorable means for redress of the many grievances the US military may suffer, the book is also a deeply suggestive meditation on the military "we have" and how it may have come to be the source of so many and such varied grievances.
Their crucial insight - which runs counter to the complete anti-military bias of some in the anti-war movement - is that "Poor healthcare, poor gear, poor safety conditions, poor training, and the use of racist stereotypes and sexism are not inherent in a military - rather they are inherent in a military fighting illegal and immoral wars and ignoring basic rules of engagement ..."[1] Cohn and Gilberd are on the side of US service members who didn't check their conscience - and their sense of honor - at the door when they signed up.
"Rules of Disengagement" provides a brief history of service member challenges to illegal war based on the Nuremberg Principles and Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) which establish a duty to disobey unlawful orders. The authors determine that while US military judges have been largely unwilling to rule that US military engagements per se are unlawful, they have sometimes been open to using such arguments to mitigate sentencing of service members who resist or refuse orders on the basis of their illegality.
A chapter on conscientious objection highlights specific cases and focuses on clarifying the actual law and means for redress while debunking some of the stereotypes about conscientious objectors that prevent service members from applying for that status when it covers their situation. The authors maintain that a large number of service members who could be eligible to be conscientious objectors go AWOL, unaware that they might qualify as COs. They also helpfully point out that the chances of achieving CO status are enhanced when the belief system used as the basis for the application is religious, i.e. NOT political.
http://www.truthout.org/062209A
G.I. Rights Workshop in Oklahoma City
--was held mid-June, hosted by Oklahoma Center for Conscience (OCC, formerly known as the Oklahoma Committee for Conscientious Objection)
GI Rights: AWOL in the Army
Introductory training session for anyone seeking to help GIs know their legal options was held Sunday, June 21, 2009, in OKC, at the Joy Mennonite Church, 504 NE 16th, OKC (corner of 16th and Lincoln, south of the Capitol)
Hosted by: Oklahoma Center for Conscience
A workshop entitled AWOL No More: (Relatively) Painless Processing Out of the Army was offered on Sunday June 21 at 4:30 pm. The program is designed to help volunteers learn about the regulations concerning AWOL soldiers and how to help conscientious objectors to return to civilian life by turning themselves in and, when eligible, being processed through the Army's PCF at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. The Ft. Sill facility is one of only two in the U.S. where "absent without leave" service members who meet certain requirements can surrender and be discharged.
Leading the workshop was James M. Branum, an attorney with a private practice specializing in military law who has worked with hundreds of soldiers nationwide to facilitate their surrender to and separation from the Army. Branum is the supervising attorney with the Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline, he serves on the board of the National Lawyers Guild’s Military Law Task Force and he is a co-founder of the Oklahoma Center for Conscience.
The Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline, which is not affiliated with the military, provides free, confidential, and accurate information on US military regulations and practices to service members, veterans, potential recruits, and their families.
Because of Ft. Sill's status as a PCF base, Oklahoma-based volunteers are in increasing demand in both counseling and non-counseling positions, to provide information, assistance, and in some cases to transport and/or accompany GI's to the facility.
For more information, call the Oklahoma Center for Conscience at 405-236-4938 ext. 2.
event notice on facebook
Letter to the Editor, in the local OKC newspaper:
http://www.newsok.com
"As a supporter of the Oklahoma Center for Conscience, I want to thank The Oklahoman for mentioning OCC’s AWOL workshop held at Joy Mennonite Church. OCC’s Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline counsels soldiers who want to leave the Armed Forces or who are AWOL and advises them of their rights and what they might expect if they decide to leave the military or to return to receive their discharge. AWOL soldiers have many reasons for leaving the military. Some of them don’t want to fight and kill people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are only protecting their homeland from forces that they perceive as invaders. It takes a brave person to stand up and say he won’t kill people no matter the circumstances. Often, they face many years in prison for refusing to fight. OCC and veterans hospitals have the same goal. It’s to bring the soldiers home, restore their health and make them well again."
John Walters, Oklahoma City
June-26-2009
Late soldier's family gives their grief purpose: ending Iraq war
Five years after setting a Marine van on fire, the father of a soldier who died in Iraq has turned personal tragedy into a political testament.
Monday, 06.08.09
BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
In the front yard of the former Hollywood home of the Arredondo family stands a small rose bush, a brown cross carved from their white picket fence and a large black mark scorched on the roadway.
All are reminders of that dark day five years ago when Carlos and Melida Arredondo turned from patriotic parents supporting their soldier son in battle to assertive activists wanting to end the war that took their child from them.
On that day, Aug. 25, 2004, Marines visited the Arredondos' home to tell them that Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo had been killed in Najaf, Iraq. It was Carlos' 44th birthday.
''On a day of celebrating life,'' he said, ``I was celebrating death.''
Carlos, shocked and grief-stricken, set fire to the Marines's van. The images of Carlos' burned body and the charred Marine van were broadcast around the world.
The couple has since tried to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together by turning a personal tragedy into a political testament.
It was after noon when the Marine van parked in front of the one-story home at 5430 Tyler St. The three Marines in dress blues got out and started smoothing their uniforms.
Carlos was building a front-yard fence when he saw the men.
He thought they might be recruiters, looking for his younger son, Brian.
They were there to notify him of the death of Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo.
Stunned, Carlos ran crying from the officers and told his mother. She, too, broke down.
Carlos called his younger son in Boston. The Marines were there as well.
Carlos desperately wanted the men to leave. He thought they must be at the wrong house. If they just turned back down the path, back to the van, he was sure it would turn out to be a terrible mistake. His son would still be alive. But they would not leave until his wife got home.
What happened next pushed the grieving father into national news headlines.
His green eyes redden in retelling the story. ''I find myself lost in all this,'' he said.
He plucked a five-gallon tank of gas from the garage, along with a propane torch and a hammer. He smashed the windows, yelling, hearing his mother's screams all the while.
He doused the van with gasoline, and it soaked his shorts and socks, as well. He squeezed the propane lighter. The flames started shooting from the van; the explosion knocked him back.
A few months later, before Veterans Day in 2005, Carlos transformed his green pickup truck into a rolling memorial to his son.
A small casket, draped with an American flag, sat on top. The director of a funeral home donated a full-size casket.
Carlos' goal: End the government's long-standing policy not to allow the media to photograph or film caskets of dead soldiers being returned to the United States. The ban was lifted in February.
''We as a family would talk about why can't we see caskets,'' Melida said. ``That's respecting the fallen, honoring the fallen. If we can't see, we're forgetting the fallen. . . . In the beginning it was emotional therapy.''
Slowly the truck memorial grew beyond the casket.
Carlos has logged about 100,000 miles on the truck, traveling to 26 states. He's parked in Times Square and Boston Common.
Carlos and Melida have met with legislators, asking the governor not to activate the Massachusetts National Guard. They're active in a support group for Gold Star families.
Carlos is active in Military Families Speak Out, an organization of military families against the war. Carlos and Melida have led a handful of antiwar rallies, including one with thousands of peaceful protesters last September outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
He has driven the truck in funeral processions. To protests.
He takes it to the grocery store. Sometimes, Melida admits, she'll suggest they take her car to run an errand.
''I think it's important for people to see how families grieve,'' Carlos said. ``I share my grieving very publicly.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/1087...
--with slideshow--
page two
U.S. Report Finds Errors in Afghan Airstrikes
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
Published: June 2, 2009
WASHINGTON — A military investigation has concluded that American personnel made significant errors in carrying out some of the airstrikes in western Afghanistan on May 4 that killed dozens of Afghan civilians, according to a senior American military official.
The official said the civilian death toll would probably have been reduced if American air crews and forces on the ground had followed strict rules devised to prevent civilian casualties. Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes against half a dozen targets over seven hours would have been aborted.
The report represents the clearest American acknowledgment of fault in connection with the attacks. It will give new ammunition to critics, including many Afghans, who complain that American forces too often act indiscriminately in calling in airstrikes, jeopardizing the United States mission by turning the civilian population against American forces and their ally, the Afghan government.
Since the raid, American military commanders have promised to address the problem. On Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, nominated to be the American commander in Afghanistan, vowed that reducing civilian casualties was “essential to our credibility.”
Any American victory would be “hollow and unsustainable” if it led to popular resentment among Afghanistan’s citizens, General McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a confirmation hearing.
According to the senior military official, the report on the May 4 raids found that one plane was cleared to attack Taliban fighters, but then had to circle back and did not reconfirm the target before dropping bombs, leaving open the possibility that the militants had fled the site or that civilians had entered the target area in the intervening few minutes.
In another case, a compound of buildings where militants were massing for a possible counterattack against American and Afghan troops was struck in violation of rules that required a more imminent threat to justify putting high-density village dwellings at risk, the official said.
“In several instances where there was a legitimate threat, the choice of how to deal with that threat did not comply with the standing rules of engagement,” said the military official, who provided a broad summary of the report’s initial findings on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry was not yet complete.
The Afghan government concluded that about 140 civilians had been killed in the attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/world/asia/03military.html?partne...
--includes geographical map of Farah province, Afghanistan--
More coverage:
US Admits but Still Defends Afghan Civilian Slaughter
by Jeremy Scahill, June 05, 2009
The attack in Farah province killed as many as 140 Afghan civilians. The US military says errors were made, but insists the "targets" "posed legitimate threats to Afghan or American forces."
The May 4 US bombing in Farah Province in Afghanistan was reportedly the single worst aerial attack by US forces since the 2001 invasion began. Afghan sources said as many as 130-140 civilians were killed. At the time, The New York Times reported the attack "could be the largest case of civilian casualties since an attack on the village of Azizabad in western Afghanistan last year, in which United Nations officials said there was convincing evidence that 90 civilians were killed." Among the dead, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross were 13 members of the one family, including a worker for the Red Crescent.
In the immediate aftermath, the Pentagon tried to spin a story that Taliban fighters used grenades to kill three families to "stage" a massacre and then blame it on the US. The ICRC passionately rejected this claim, saying, "We know that those killed included an Afghan Red Crescent volunteer and 13 members of his family who had been sheltering from fighting in a house that was bombed in an air strike."
Over the past month, the US military has been conducting an internal investigation. It bears remembering that the US track record of thoroughly "investigating" US massacres is pathetic. The UN said there was convincing evidence that last year’s US attack on the village of Azizabad killed 90 civilians, but the military only acknowledged 30 civilian deaths.
Now, it seems that the military is once again preparing a "sorta culpa" on the Farah bombing, which the US military has already said killed an estimated 20-30 civilians
This is a story that should not be forgotten and it should not be swept under the rug of impunity. The victims of this bombing deserve justice and there must be accountability for those responsible.
http://original.antiwar.com/scahill/2009/06/04/us-admits-but-still-...
related development:
‘Tough’ New Afghan Rules of Engagement: Avoid Civilian Homes
--U.S. & NATO Troops are now ordered not to fight near Afghan homes
Hot on the heels of releasing its report admitted that it “maybe” killed 86 civilians in a series of air strikes against villages in the Farah Province, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the recently appointed new commander of US forces in Afghanistan, is poised to issue a sweeping new change to the rules of engagement.
Gen. McChrystal
According to officials, Gen. McChrystal will order all international forces in Afghanistan to stop starting fights with militants near the homes of Afghan civilians. The troops will still be allowed to return fire if they are “in imminent danger,” but the preferred option will be to withdraw from the area.
The enormous civilian toll caused by the international forces has been a source of considerable strain with the Afghan populace. US troops have regularly conducted raids against homes suspected of containing militants across the nation. The rule change appears aimed at changing this trend.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/22/gen-mcchrystal-eyes-new-rules-in...
Air Guard recruiter charged with selling drugs
By Ray Henry - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 2, 2009 20:07:51 EDT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Air National Guard suspended recruiting for five days Tuesday after a recruiter was arrested and accused of dealing cocaine and prescription drugs from his military office.
Tech. Sgt. Richard Flamand, 31, did not enter a plea to charges of possession of cocaine and prescription drugs with the intent to deliver, possession of marijuana and other crimes during an arraignment in Kent County District Court. A bail hearing was scheduled for June 15.
Acting on a tip from Air Force officials about three weeks ago, State Police made controlled drug buys from Flamand’s home in Coventry, where he was arrested Monday. Police learned from an informant that Flamand was supposedly selling drugs from his Cranston recruiting office, State Police Capt. David Neill said.
While searching that National Guard office, police found 40 grams of cocaine, Neill said. Prescription pills were taken from Flamand’s home, truck and office, including OxyContin, methadone and Viagra. Investigators also seized about $7,600 in cash from Flamand.
Military authorities are investigating his contacts with recruits.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_airguard_recruiter_dru...
San Pedro Marine recruiter accused of pimping
By The Associated Press
Posted: 06/02/2009
HEMET - Police who arrested a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping said Tuesday that they are looking into whether he used a 14-year-old girl to entice potential recruits.
Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, 33, of San Pedro pleaded not guilty to seven felonies last week after police in Orange discovered the teenage girl in a car with Cunningham and two other men. The two men, ages 18 and 19, were potential Marine recruits, police said.
The girl, who has since been returned to her parents in Hemet, told police that she met Cunningham online and had sex with all three men. She also told police Cunningham wanted her to work as a prostitute and had tried to take her to Los Angeles County against her will.
Police said they are trying to determine if Cunningham may have been using the girl to entice Marine recruits.
The Marines are also working to "administratively separate" Cunningham from the Marines, so he would be forced to leave the military.
Also charged are Justin Willard, 18, of Los Angeles and Homer Daskalakis, 19, of Long Beach.
Daskalakis has pleaded not guilty. He remains in custody.
Willard faces charges but is free on bail. He will be arraigned June 24.
Cunningham is being held on $1 million bail and has a court hearing June 18, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_12507199
Threats of Lawsuits from Parents in Atlanta delay opening of pro-military high school
In DeKalb County, which includes part of Atlanta, protests by parents and threats of lawsuits began almost as soon as the school board announced last year that it planned to open a Marine Corps high school. The district wanted to open it this fall, but the approval process in Washington has delayed that. The district hopes to open the school in fall 2010.
The academy would be much like a typical high school, except students would wear ROTC uniforms and start each day with a military formation and inspection. Besides Spanish club and debate team, students can sign up for military drill team and color guard. The school's principal likely will be a retired Marine.
Critics like Mike Hearington, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran whose son attends Shamrock Middle School in DeKalb County, say the schools are breeding grounds for the military.
"To pursue children like they are is criminal in my mind," Hearington said.
Between 5 percent and 10 percent of graduating seniors from the nation's public military schools end up enlisting, according to an Associated Press review of the majority of the schools' records. About 3 percent of all new high school graduates join the military, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Such academies have the support of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who ran Chicago Public Schools before being tapped by President Barack Obama.
Test results have been mixed. None of the Chicago military schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year, meaning they fell short of basic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Students at the public military schools in Chicago have struggled.
Just 27 percent met standards in 2008 — the most recent data available — compared to the district average of 60 percent and the state average of 74 percent. At Carver Military Academy in Chicago, just 8 percent of students passed muster on state tests.
tags: recruiting tools, fascism-in-America, militarism
back page
Uni offers six-week degree in 'Peace and Activism'
civil disobedience planned for 12 July 2009; arrests are anticipated
Article from: AAP
By Joe Hildebrand
June 08, 2009
ANTI-military activists have been offered training on how to disrupt Australia's top-level wargames with the US military in an official course run by Sydney University.
The University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies offered students a six-week "Peace and Activism Training Course" culminating in a trip to Queensland next month to disrupt Exercise Talisman Sabre.
The $500 course fee even included travel expenses for the six-day trip to Rockhampton to take part in the "Peace Convergence" for the first week of the three-week exercise.
An online discussion group by organisers investigated by The Daily Telegraph reveals the group plans to blockade Rockhampton airport on Sunday, July 12 and other direct action.
It also anticipates possible arrests.
In previous years protesters have tried to blockade the Shoalwater Bay military training base and several have been arrested.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25603087-5005961,00....
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Book Review by: Robert Higgs
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/book-reviews/churchill-hitler-and-t...
another review of the same:
Was the “Good War” Unnecessary?
by Anthony Gregory, Posted June 24, 2009
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/book-reviews/churchill-hitler-and-t...
Tulsa Peace Fellowship's counter-recruitment update/digest for July 2009
masthead
who we are:
The website for the Tulsa Peace Fellowship is:
www.tulsapeacefellowship.org
TPF meets monthly @ Peace House in Tulsa
inside the Unitarian Universalist church at 1314 N. Greenwood Ave, in Tulsa, close to corner of Pine & Greenwood, just north of the OSU-Tulsa campus
If you have not already done so, please join the new social networking tool for TPF on Ning, in lieu of TPFtalks on yahoogroups, which has fallen into disuse Thank you! You can check out our new tool here: http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/ (new for 2009) Also still going strong: our announcement list on yahoo! tulsapeace@yahoogroups.com (since 2002) Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/ and search for "tulsapeace"
Through its counter-recruitment task force, TPF is a member of the
National Network in Opposition to the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
On the web: http://www.nnomy.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=v...
Tulsa Peace Fellowship is non-partisan, and is open to 3rd parties, progressive Dems, libertarians, etc. TPF is the activist wing of the peace movement in Eastern Oklahoma "Waging Peace One Person at a Time".
Peace House-Tulsa is an incubator for peace and justice. The Peace House building can host a wide range of activities: classes, discussion groups, meditation, music-making, social gatherings, retreats, etc. While some activities may be limited by the size and amenities of this building, our imaginations need not be limited!
If you enjoyed this news digest and/or found this update useful, please consider making a donation of time, money, or effort to the Tulsa Peace Fellowship. Details on tax status available.
info for TPF counter-recruitment-- contact by phone 918 906 0828
The next regular meeting of the Fellowship will be held
on Thursday, July 9 2009, 6:15 PM – 7:30 PM
--including members from other local non-partisan groups such as the Tulsa chapter of “Season for Non-Violence,” the Tulsa University chapter of Amnesty International, ImpeachOK1.org, TulsaTruth.org, the Center for Racial Justice in Tulsa, and the Tulsa Interfaith Allliance.
--including a meeting of the counter-recruitment campaign activists
Come join us! Especially parents, guardians, and students in the Tulsa Public Schools system who are interested in countering the presence of military recruiters on school grounds.
A
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for July 2009
lead story:
file under: grim milestone
5,000 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan - Oklahoma Father Speaks Out
--As Wars’ Death Toll Passes 5,000 Dead, Military Families Speak Out
--A Gold Star Father from Oklahoma Urges President Obama to Bring All Our Troops Home Now
from the archives:
Lyrics to "Machine Gun, " by Jimi Hendrix
--a counter-recruitment anthem, lyrics worth ponderring
--view vintage footage on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVvtIS2YGVI
page one:
Fatal attack against U.S. Recruiting Station in Little Rock, Arkansas
--an American citizen, the accused assailant, is in custody
--one U.S. soldier dead, another in hospital
Marjorie Cohn's book Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent
--book takes a hard look at the rights, obligations and options for Soldiers in the era of Corporate Warfare.
G.I. Rights Workshop in Oklahoma City
--was held mid-June, hosted by Oklahoma Center for Conscience (OCC, formerly known as the Oklahoma Committee for Conscientious Objection)
Late soldier's family gives their grief purpose: ending Iraq war
--Five years after setting a Marine van on fire, the father of a soldier who died in Iraq has turned personal tragedy into a political testament.
quote:
''I think it's important for people to see how families grieve. I share my grieving very publicly.''
~a Gold Star Father, Carlos is active in Military Families Speak Out (MFSO)
page two:
Will there be a trial for U.S. pilots committing war crimes in Afghanistan?
--U.S. acknowledges faul Afghan airstrikes that killed civilians
--Pilots accused of breaking "the rules of engagement"
--The Afghan government concluded that about 140 civilians had been killed in the attacks.
‘Tough’ New Afghan Rules of Engagement: Avoid Civilian Homes
--U.S. & NATO Troops Ordered Not to Fight Near Afghan Homes
Air Guard recruiter charged with selling drugs
--arrested and accused of dealing cocaine and prescription drugs from his military office in Rhode Island.
Police arrested a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping
--San Pedro Marine recruiter accused of pimping a 14-year old girl
file under: fascism in America
Threats of Lawsuits from Parents in Atlanta delay opening of pro-military high school
--DeKalb County parents accuse school board of abetting the criminal preying on children by military recruiters
fact:
At Carver Military Academy in Chicago, just 8 percent of students passed muster on state tests. Between 3% and 7% more graduating seniors accept the enticements offered by such military academies to enlist in the military.
backpage:
University of Sydney offers course in disrupting U.S. wargames off Australia coast
--Uni offers six-week degree in 'Peace and Activism' including civil disobedience
--arrests are anticipated for 12 July 2009
book reviews:
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War,” by Patrick J. Buchanan
--links to reviews of the book by Robert Higgs, and by Anthony Gregory
--Was the “Good War” Unnecessary?
Epitaph for this edition of "Truth in Recruiting"
"It was rather a shock to find we were not welcomed ecstatically as liberators by the local people, in Normandy. They saw us as bringers of destruction and pain."
~Cpl LF Roker of the Highland Light Infantry, from his WWII diary, quoted in a new book about the impact of the campaign on French civilians, Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, by William Hitchcock..
lead story
5,000 U.S. TROOPS KILLED IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN - Oklahoma Father Speaks Out
For Immediate Release – June 2, 2009
Contact: Military Families Speak Out, 617-983-0710, press@mfso.org
Warren Henthorn 405-733-2693
As Wars’ Death Toll Passes 5,000, Military Families Urge President Obama to Bring All Our Troops Home Now
Nationwide – As the nation awaits confirmation from the Pentagon of the 5,000th death of a U.S. service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of Military Families Speak Out are mourning the dead and calling on President Obama to honor the sacrifices of these service members and their families and honor all of those who serve by acting swiftly to end both wars.
Warren Henthorn of Choctaw, OK, the father of Army Spc. Jeffrey Henthorn who died in Iraq on Feb 8, 2005, says:
“Way too many have died on all sides of these wars. If I remember correctly, President Obama won the Democratic nomination based on the promise to end the war in Iraq. But, between Iraq and Afghanistan, at the end of this year we will actually have more troops in harm’s way then we did at the height of the ‘surge.’ That’s just as bad as we had it under President Bush. These wars now belong to President Obama. The blood is on his hands.”
Henthorn is a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out, a national chapter of Military Families Speak Out whose members’ loved ones died a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jane Bright of West Hills, CA, the mother of Sgt. Evan Aschraft who was killed at the perimeter of an oil refinery in Iraq on July 24, 2003, is also a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out. She says:
"My son was the 249th U.S. service member killed in Iraq – it’s hard to believe that 5,000 of our troops have already died in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many more? We need to bring all our troops home from these wars and we need to take care of our veterans when they return home, giving them the medical and psychological care and treatment they need and deserve.”
Maggie Pondolfino, a member of Military Families Speak Out from Portland, OR has been nervously watching the death toll in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rise as her son awaits a deployment to Afghanistan with the U.S. Army:
“It’s been over a year since my only son returned from a 14 month deployment to Iraq. Over a year since I was immobilized with dread at every unexpected knock on my door and every unfamiliar van parked in front of my house. Daily, I obsessively checked the Department of Defense casualty list. Too many times the names were close to home…someone from our state, or even someone from his platoon,” says Pondolfino. “I imagined the other mothers’ grief and wondered would I be able to endure it? Then I had a year of relative calm. I even celebrated a new administration and momentarily experienced the hope that seemed to engulf the country.
“Now as the nation braces for the news of the confirmation of the 5,000th death of a U.S. service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the administration that briefly gave me new hope prepares to send my son to another war with no clear mission and no exit strategy. And how do I prepare? How do I prepare for another year of going through the motions of living, all the while wondering if he will come home and, if he does, will he have to fight a war within him? As hurtful as it is to say this, if he does not come home, my darling boy with his loving heart and keen intellect will have died for nothing. I know that no good will come from continuing the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, just more heartbreak, sorrow, and tragedy. When will we ever learn?”
Our loved ones took an oath to defend our country and our Constitution. Instead, they have been sent and re-sent to wars of occupation. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are denying the Iraq and Afghan people the ability to determine their own future. The best way for Congress and the President to uphold our country’s values and honor our troops’ commitment and sacrifice is to bring the troops home now and let the Iraqi and the Afghan people decide their own course.
Members of Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out are available for interview.
Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is an organization of people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the buildup to the Iraq war in the fall of 2002. Formed by two families in November of 2002, we have contacts with military families throughout the United States, and in other countries around the world. Military Families Speak Out is a national organization of over 4,000 military families working to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and secure the care that our troops, Veterans, and military families need to recover from the impact of those wars on our lives and the lives of our loved ones. Gold Star Families Speak Out is a national chapter of Military Families Speak Out with over 150 families whose loved ones died a result of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
http://mfso.org/article.php?id=1319
{Thank you Darla for bringing the above story to our attention.}
Military Families Speak Out - MIDWEST CHAPTER (Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma)
http://www.mfsomidwest.org/
Modern Music for a Requiem:
Lyrics to "Machine Gun, " by Jimi Hendrix:
Machine Gun
Tearing my body all apart
Machine Gun, yeah
Tearing my body all apart
Evil man make me kill ya
Evil man make you kill me
Evil man make me kill you
Even though we’re only families apart
Well I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer
(You know what I mean)
Hey! And your bullets keep knocking me down
Hey, I pick up my axe and fight like a farmer now
Yeah, but you still blast me down to the ground
The same way you shoot me down, baby
You’ll be going just the same
Three times the pain,
and your own self to blame
Hey, Machine Gun
I ain’t afraid of your mess no more, babe
I ain’t afraid no more
After a while, your, your cheap talk don’t even cause me pain,
so let your bullets fly like rain
’Cause I know all the time you’re wrong baby
And you’ll be going just the same
Yeah, Machine Gun
Tearing my family apart
Yeah, yeah, alright
Tearing my family apart
(Don’t you shoot him down)
(He’s ’bout to leave here)
(Don’t you shoot him down)
(He’s got to stay here)
(He ain’t going nowhere)
(He’s been shot down to the ground)
(Oh where he can’t survive, no, no)
Yeah, that’s what we don’t wanna hear anymore, alright?
(No bullets)
At least here, huh huh
(No guns, no bombs)
Huh huh
(No nothin’, just let’s all live and live)
(You know, instead of killin’)
May this be
Love or just
Confusion Born out of
frustration wracked
feelings - of not
being able to
make true physical
love to the
Universal gypsy Queen
True, free expressed music
Darling guitar please
rest. Amen
page one
Fatal attack against U.S. Recruiting Station in Little Rock, Arkansas
--an American citizen, the accused assailant, is in custody, has pleaded not guilty
By JAMES DAO and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: June 2, 2009
Mr. Muhammad -- an American convert to Islam, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe -- has been charged with one count of capital murder and 15 counts of terroristic acts in Monday’s shooting, in a parking lot outside the recruiting office. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a preliminary hearing before a state judge in Little Rock and was ordered held there without bond at the Pulaski County jail.
Mr. Muhammad has told investigators that he acted alone, the Little Rock police said. But his travels to Yemen and possibly Somalia raise questions about whether he met with any of the militant Islamic groups that are active in both countries.
“Mr. Muhammad stated that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,” an arrest report filed by the Little Rock police said. “Mr. Muhammad further stated that he would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot.”
Pvt. William A. Long, 23, of Conway, Ark., was killed in the shooting. The wounded soldier, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Ark., was in good condition Tuesday at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, the police said.
The two soldiers were at the recruiting station as a result of a program that uses troops recently out of basic training to promote the Army in their home regions, Army officials said. Neither had ever been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Mr. Muhammad was heavily armed when he was arrested Monday shortly after fleeing the shooting scene in his black Ford truck.
Mr. Muhammad changed his name from Carlos Bledsoe some time ago, the police said. His parents operate tour bus and airport shuttle companies in Little Rock, Memphis and Mississippi.
Stuart Thomas, the police chief in Little Rock, said Mr. Muhammad apparently moved there from Tennessee just a few months ago to work at his parents’ business.
The 23-year-old man charged with killing one soldier and seriously wounding another in a shooting outside an Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Ark., was once detained in Yemen for possessing a fake Somali passport and other counterfeit documents, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
It is not clear when Mr. Muhammad, an American convert to Islam who was traveling on a valid United States passport, was detained in Yemen or why he would have been carrying counterfeit documents. His detention in Yemen was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.
Military recruiters said they could not recall a recent fatal attack against a recruiting station. But the shootings were a reminder that recruiting offices are often targets of threats and sometimes actual violence.
Last year a small bomb shattered the glass facade of a military recruiting station in Times Square. No one was injured in the early-morning explosion, which remains unsolved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/03recruit.html?partner=rss&...
book review
Marjorie Cohn's book Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent
--book by Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd (Poll Point Press, Sausalito, 2009) takes a hard look at the rights, obligations and options for soldiers in the era of corporate warfare
Although a primer on the available legal and honorable means for redress of the many grievances the US military may suffer, the book is also a deeply suggestive meditation on the military "we have" and how it may have come to be the source of so many and such varied grievances.
Their crucial insight - which runs counter to the complete anti-military bias of some in the anti-war movement - is that "Poor healthcare, poor gear, poor safety conditions, poor training, and the use of racist stereotypes and sexism are not inherent in a military - rather they are inherent in a military fighting illegal and immoral wars and ignoring basic rules of engagement ..."[1] Cohn and Gilberd are on the side of US service members who didn't check their conscience - and their sense of honor - at the door when they signed up.
"Rules of Disengagement" provides a brief history of service member challenges to illegal war based on the Nuremberg Principles and Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) which establish a duty to disobey unlawful orders. The authors determine that while US military judges have been largely unwilling to rule that US military engagements per se are unlawful, they have sometimes been open to using such arguments to mitigate sentencing of service members who resist or refuse orders on the basis of their illegality.
A chapter on conscientious objection highlights specific cases and focuses on clarifying the actual law and means for redress while debunking some of the stereotypes about conscientious objectors that prevent service members from applying for that status when it covers their situation. The authors maintain that a large number of service members who could be eligible to be conscientious objectors go AWOL, unaware that they might qualify as COs. They also helpfully point out that the chances of achieving CO status are enhanced when the belief system used as the basis for the application is religious, i.e. NOT political.
http://www.truthout.org/062209A
G.I. Rights Workshop in Oklahoma City
--was held mid-June, hosted by Oklahoma Center for Conscience (OCC, formerly known as the Oklahoma Committee for Conscientious Objection)
GI Rights: AWOL in the Army
Introductory training session for anyone seeking to help GIs know their legal options was held Sunday, June 21, 2009, in OKC, at the Joy Mennonite Church, 504 NE 16th, OKC (corner of 16th and Lincoln, south of the Capitol)
Hosted by: Oklahoma Center for Conscience
A workshop entitled AWOL No More: (Relatively) Painless Processing Out of the Army was offered on Sunday June 21 at 4:30 pm. The program is designed to help volunteers learn about the regulations concerning AWOL soldiers and how to help conscientious objectors to return to civilian life by turning themselves in and, when eligible, being processed through the Army's PCF at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. The Ft. Sill facility is one of only two in the U.S. where "absent without leave" service members who meet certain requirements can surrender and be discharged.
Leading the workshop was James M. Branum, an attorney with a private practice specializing in military law who has worked with hundreds of soldiers nationwide to facilitate their surrender to and separation from the Army. Branum is the supervising attorney with the Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline, he serves on the board of the National Lawyers Guild’s Military Law Task Force and he is a co-founder of the Oklahoma Center for Conscience.
The Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline, which is not affiliated with the military, provides free, confidential, and accurate information on US military regulations and practices to service members, veterans, potential recruits, and their families.
Because of Ft. Sill's status as a PCF base, Oklahoma-based volunteers are in increasing demand in both counseling and non-counseling positions, to provide information, assistance, and in some cases to transport and/or accompany GI's to the facility.
For more information, call the Oklahoma Center for Conscience at 405-236-4938 ext. 2.
event notice on facebook
Letter to the Editor, in the local OKC newspaper:
http://www.newsok.com
"As a supporter of the Oklahoma Center for Conscience, I want to thank The Oklahoman for mentioning OCC’s AWOL workshop held at Joy Mennonite Church. OCC’s Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline counsels soldiers who want to leave the Armed Forces or who are AWOL and advises them of their rights and what they might expect if they decide to leave the military or to return to receive their discharge. AWOL soldiers have many reasons for leaving the military. Some of them don’t want to fight and kill people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are only protecting their homeland from forces that they perceive as invaders. It takes a brave person to stand up and say he won’t kill people no matter the circumstances. Often, they face many years in prison for refusing to fight. OCC and veterans hospitals have the same goal. It’s to bring the soldiers home, restore their health and make them well again."
John Walters, Oklahoma City
June-26-2009
Late soldier's family gives their grief purpose: ending Iraq war
Five years after setting a Marine van on fire, the father of a soldier who died in Iraq has turned personal tragedy into a political testament.
Monday, 06.08.09
BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
In the front yard of the former Hollywood home of the Arredondo family stands a small rose bush, a brown cross carved from their white picket fence and a large black mark scorched on the roadway.
All are reminders of that dark day five years ago when Carlos and Melida Arredondo turned from patriotic parents supporting their soldier son in battle to assertive activists wanting to end the war that took their child from them.
On that day, Aug. 25, 2004, Marines visited the Arredondos' home to tell them that Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo had been killed in Najaf, Iraq. It was Carlos' 44th birthday.
''On a day of celebrating life,'' he said, ``I was celebrating death.''
Carlos, shocked and grief-stricken, set fire to the Marines's van. The images of Carlos' burned body and the charred Marine van were broadcast around the world.
The couple has since tried to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together by turning a personal tragedy into a political testament.
It was after noon when the Marine van parked in front of the one-story home at 5430 Tyler St. The three Marines in dress blues got out and started smoothing their uniforms.
Carlos was building a front-yard fence when he saw the men.
He thought they might be recruiters, looking for his younger son, Brian.
They were there to notify him of the death of Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo.
Stunned, Carlos ran crying from the officers and told his mother. She, too, broke down.
Carlos called his younger son in Boston. The Marines were there as well.
Carlos desperately wanted the men to leave. He thought they must be at the wrong house. If they just turned back down the path, back to the van, he was sure it would turn out to be a terrible mistake. His son would still be alive. But they would not leave until his wife got home.
What happened next pushed the grieving father into national news headlines.
His green eyes redden in retelling the story. ''I find myself lost in all this,'' he said.
He plucked a five-gallon tank of gas from the garage, along with a propane torch and a hammer. He smashed the windows, yelling, hearing his mother's screams all the while.
He doused the van with gasoline, and it soaked his shorts and socks, as well. He squeezed the propane lighter. The flames started shooting from the van; the explosion knocked him back.
A few months later, before Veterans Day in 2005, Carlos transformed his green pickup truck into a rolling memorial to his son.
A small casket, draped with an American flag, sat on top. The director of a funeral home donated a full-size casket.
Carlos' goal: End the government's long-standing policy not to allow the media to photograph or film caskets of dead soldiers being returned to the United States. The ban was lifted in February.
''We as a family would talk about why can't we see caskets,'' Melida said. ``That's respecting the fallen, honoring the fallen. If we can't see, we're forgetting the fallen. . . . In the beginning it was emotional therapy.''
Slowly the truck memorial grew beyond the casket.
Carlos has logged about 100,000 miles on the truck, traveling to 26 states. He's parked in Times Square and Boston Common.
Carlos and Melida have met with legislators, asking the governor not to activate the Massachusetts National Guard. They're active in a support group for Gold Star families.
Carlos is active in Military Families Speak Out, an organization of military families against the war. Carlos and Melida have led a handful of antiwar rallies, including one with thousands of peaceful protesters last September outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
He has driven the truck in funeral processions. To protests.
He takes it to the grocery store. Sometimes, Melida admits, she'll suggest they take her car to run an errand.
''I think it's important for people to see how families grieve,'' Carlos said. ``I share my grieving very publicly.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/1087...
--with slideshow--
page two
U.S. Report Finds Errors in Afghan Airstrikes
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
Published: June 2, 2009
WASHINGTON — A military investigation has concluded that American personnel made significant errors in carrying out some of the airstrikes in western Afghanistan on May 4 that killed dozens of Afghan civilians, according to a senior American military official.
The official said the civilian death toll would probably have been reduced if American air crews and forces on the ground had followed strict rules devised to prevent civilian casualties. Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes against half a dozen targets over seven hours would have been aborted.
The report represents the clearest American acknowledgment of fault in connection with the attacks. It will give new ammunition to critics, including many Afghans, who complain that American forces too often act indiscriminately in calling in airstrikes, jeopardizing the United States mission by turning the civilian population against American forces and their ally, the Afghan government.
Since the raid, American military commanders have promised to address the problem. On Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, nominated to be the American commander in Afghanistan, vowed that reducing civilian casualties was “essential to our credibility.”
Any American victory would be “hollow and unsustainable” if it led to popular resentment among Afghanistan’s citizens, General McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a confirmation hearing.
According to the senior military official, the report on the May 4 raids found that one plane was cleared to attack Taliban fighters, but then had to circle back and did not reconfirm the target before dropping bombs, leaving open the possibility that the militants had fled the site or that civilians had entered the target area in the intervening few minutes.
In another case, a compound of buildings where militants were massing for a possible counterattack against American and Afghan troops was struck in violation of rules that required a more imminent threat to justify putting high-density village dwellings at risk, the official said.
“In several instances where there was a legitimate threat, the choice of how to deal with that threat did not comply with the standing rules of engagement,” said the military official, who provided a broad summary of the report’s initial findings on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry was not yet complete.
The Afghan government concluded that about 140 civilians had been killed in the attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/world/asia/03military.html?partne...
--includes geographical map of Farah province, Afghanistan--
More coverage:
US Admits but Still Defends Afghan Civilian Slaughter
by Jeremy Scahill, June 05, 2009
The attack in Farah province killed as many as 140 Afghan civilians. The US military says errors were made, but insists the "targets" "posed legitimate threats to Afghan or American forces."
The May 4 US bombing in Farah Province in Afghanistan was reportedly the single worst aerial attack by US forces since the 2001 invasion began. Afghan sources said as many as 130-140 civilians were killed. At the time, The New York Times reported the attack "could be the largest case of civilian casualties since an attack on the village of Azizabad in western Afghanistan last year, in which United Nations officials said there was convincing evidence that 90 civilians were killed." Among the dead, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross were 13 members of the one family, including a worker for the Red Crescent.
In the immediate aftermath, the Pentagon tried to spin a story that Taliban fighters used grenades to kill three families to "stage" a massacre and then blame it on the US. The ICRC passionately rejected this claim, saying, "We know that those killed included an Afghan Red Crescent volunteer and 13 members of his family who had been sheltering from fighting in a house that was bombed in an air strike."
Over the past month, the US military has been conducting an internal investigation. It bears remembering that the US track record of thoroughly "investigating" US massacres is pathetic. The UN said there was convincing evidence that last year’s US attack on the village of Azizabad killed 90 civilians, but the military only acknowledged 30 civilian deaths.
Now, it seems that the military is once again preparing a "sorta culpa" on the Farah bombing, which the US military has already said killed an estimated 20-30 civilians
This is a story that should not be forgotten and it should not be swept under the rug of impunity. The victims of this bombing deserve justice and there must be accountability for those responsible.
http://original.antiwar.com/scahill/2009/06/04/us-admits-but-still-...
related development:
‘Tough’ New Afghan Rules of Engagement: Avoid Civilian Homes
--U.S. & NATO Troops are now ordered not to fight near Afghan homes
Hot on the heels of releasing its report admitted that it “maybe” killed 86 civilians in a series of air strikes against villages in the Farah Province, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the recently appointed new commander of US forces in Afghanistan, is poised to issue a sweeping new change to the rules of engagement.
Gen. McChrystal
According to officials, Gen. McChrystal will order all international forces in Afghanistan to stop starting fights with militants near the homes of Afghan civilians. The troops will still be allowed to return fire if they are “in imminent danger,” but the preferred option will be to withdraw from the area.
The enormous civilian toll caused by the international forces has been a source of considerable strain with the Afghan populace. US troops have regularly conducted raids against homes suspected of containing militants across the nation. The rule change appears aimed at changing this trend.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/22/gen-mcchrystal-eyes-new-rules-in...
Air Guard recruiter charged with selling drugs
By Ray Henry - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 2, 2009 20:07:51 EDT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Air National Guard suspended recruiting for five days Tuesday after a recruiter was arrested and accused of dealing cocaine and prescription drugs from his military office.
Tech. Sgt. Richard Flamand, 31, did not enter a plea to charges of possession of cocaine and prescription drugs with the intent to deliver, possession of marijuana and other crimes during an arraignment in Kent County District Court. A bail hearing was scheduled for June 15.
Acting on a tip from Air Force officials about three weeks ago, State Police made controlled drug buys from Flamand’s home in Coventry, where he was arrested Monday. Police learned from an informant that Flamand was supposedly selling drugs from his Cranston recruiting office, State Police Capt. David Neill said.
While searching that National Guard office, police found 40 grams of cocaine, Neill said. Prescription pills were taken from Flamand’s home, truck and office, including OxyContin, methadone and Viagra. Investigators also seized about $7,600 in cash from Flamand.
Military authorities are investigating his contacts with recruits.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_airguard_recruiter_dru...
San Pedro Marine recruiter accused of pimping
By The Associated Press
Posted: 06/02/2009
HEMET - Police who arrested a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping said Tuesday that they are looking into whether he used a 14-year-old girl to entice potential recruits.
Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, 33, of San Pedro pleaded not guilty to seven felonies last week after police in Orange discovered the teenage girl in a car with Cunningham and two other men. The two men, ages 18 and 19, were potential Marine recruits, police said.
The girl, who has since been returned to her parents in Hemet, told police that she met Cunningham online and had sex with all three men. She also told police Cunningham wanted her to work as a prostitute and had tried to take her to Los Angeles County against her will.
Police said they are trying to determine if Cunningham may have been using the girl to entice Marine recruits.
The Marines are also working to "administratively separate" Cunningham from the Marines, so he would be forced to leave the military.
Also charged are Justin Willard, 18, of Los Angeles and Homer Daskalakis, 19, of Long Beach.
Daskalakis has pleaded not guilty. He remains in custody.
Willard faces charges but is free on bail. He will be arraigned June 24.
Cunningham is being held on $1 million bail and has a court hearing June 18, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_12507199
Threats of Lawsuits from Parents in Atlanta delay opening of pro-military high school
In DeKalb County, which includes part of Atlanta, protests by parents and threats of lawsuits began almost as soon as the school board announced last year that it planned to open a Marine Corps high school. The district wanted to open it this fall, but the approval process in Washington has delayed that. The district hopes to open the school in fall 2010.
The academy would be much like a typical high school, except students would wear ROTC uniforms and start each day with a military formation and inspection. Besides Spanish club and debate team, students can sign up for military drill team and color guard. The school's principal likely will be a retired Marine.
Critics like Mike Hearington, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran whose son attends Shamrock Middle School in DeKalb County, say the schools are breeding grounds for the military.
"To pursue children like they are is criminal in my mind," Hearington said.
Between 5 percent and 10 percent of graduating seniors from the nation's public military schools end up enlisting, according to an Associated Press review of the majority of the schools' records. About 3 percent of all new high school graduates join the military, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Such academies have the support of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who ran Chicago Public Schools before being tapped by President Barack Obama.
Test results have been mixed. None of the Chicago military schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year, meaning they fell short of basic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Students at the public military schools in Chicago have struggled.
Just 27 percent met standards in 2008 — the most recent data available — compared to the district average of 60 percent and the state average of 74 percent. At Carver Military Academy in Chicago, just 8 percent of students passed muster on state tests.
tags: recruiting tools, fascism-in-America, militarism
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Uni offers six-week degree in 'Peace and Activism'
civil disobedience planned for 12 July 2009; arrests are anticipated
Article from: AAP
By Joe Hildebrand
June 08, 2009
ANTI-military activists have been offered training on how to disrupt Australia's top-level wargames with the US military in an official course run by Sydney University.
The University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies offered students a six-week "Peace and Activism Training Course" culminating in a trip to Queensland next month to disrupt Exercise Talisman Sabre.
The $500 course fee even included travel expenses for the six-day trip to Rockhampton to take part in the "Peace Convergence" for the first week of the three-week exercise.
An online discussion group by organisers investigated by The Daily Telegraph reveals the group plans to blockade Rockhampton airport on Sunday, July 12 and other direct action.
It also anticipates possible arrests.
In previous years protesters have tried to blockade the Shoalwater Bay military training base and several have been arrested.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25603087-5005961,00....
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Book Review by: Robert Higgs
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/book-reviews/churchill-hitler-and-t...
another review of the same:
Was the “Good War” Unnecessary?
by Anthony Gregory, Posted June 24, 2009
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/book-reviews/churchill-hitler-and-t...
Tulsa Peace Fellowship's counter-recruitment update/digest for July 2009
masthead
who we are:
The website for the Tulsa Peace Fellowship is:
www.tulsapeacefellowship.org
TPF meets monthly @ Peace House in Tulsa
inside the Unitarian Universalist church at 1314 N. Greenwood Ave, in Tulsa, close to corner of Pine & Greenwood, just north of the OSU-Tulsa campus
If you have not already done so, please join the new social networking tool for TPF on Ning, in lieu of TPFtalks on yahoogroups, which has fallen into disuse Thank you! You can check out our new tool here: http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/ (new for 2009) Also still going strong: our announcement list on yahoo! tulsapeace@yahoogroups.com (since 2002) Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/ and search for "tulsapeace"
Through its counter-recruitment task force, TPF is a member of the
National Network in Opposition to the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
On the web: http://www.nnomy.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=v...
Tulsa Peace Fellowship is non-partisan, and is open to 3rd parties, progressive Dems, libertarians, etc. TPF is the activist wing of the peace movement in Eastern Oklahoma "Waging Peace One Person at a Time".
Peace House-Tulsa is an incubator for peace and justice. The Peace House building can host a wide range of activities: classes, discussion groups, meditation, music-making, social gatherings, retreats, etc. While some activities may be limited by the size and amenities of this building, our imaginations need not be limited!
If you enjoyed this news digest and/or found this update useful, please consider making a donation of time, money, or effort to the Tulsa Peace Fellowship. Details on tax status available.
info for TPF counter-recruitment-- contact by phone 918 906 0828
The next regular meeting of the Fellowship will be held
on Thursday, July 9 2009, 6:15 PM – 7:30 PM
--including members from other local non-partisan groups such as the Tulsa chapter of “Season for Non-Violence,” the Tulsa University chapter of Amnesty International, ImpeachOK1.org, TulsaTruth.org, the Center for Racial Justice in Tulsa, and the Tulsa Interfaith Allliance.
--including a meeting of the counter-recruitment campaign activists
Come join us! Especially parents, guardians, and students in the Tulsa Public Schools system who are interested in countering the presence of military recruiters on school grounds.
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