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Military Blogger from Hawaii Muzzled

Filed under: HI Media — Doug @ 12:31 pm
A long time ago, when former-Representative Tamayo was blogging from Iraq, I wrote a post where I wondered what other milbloggers from Hawaii were out there blogging from Iraq or Afghanistan. Well, today the Star-Bulletin In the Military column mentions a blog by a Schofield-based soldier in Iraq that apparently the Army would rather we not read. They forced him to take it down, in fact.

Luckily, there is an archived version of the blog, to include the offending post that got the author, a Lieutenant (now Captain) Matthew Gallagher in hot water with the higher brass.

Hi blog, "Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal," chronicles his time with Gravediggers - his platoon. Matthew's fiancee now maintains it.

The Costs of War: The Parents' Agony

Friday 18 July 2008
by: Ann Wright, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Every day for a parent of a person in the United States military is a long day, filled with concern for their daughter or son. Parents of nine US Army soldiers were notified of the deaths of their family members in Afghanistan this week.

July 16 and 17, 2008 have been extraordinarily long days for another group of parents.

In Washington, DC, on July 17, 2008, John and Linda Johnson, the parents of US Army Private First Class (PFC) Lavena Johnson, met US Army criminal investigators concerning the classification of the death of their daughter, who died three years ago on July 19, 2005 in Balad, Iraq. The Army labeled her death a suicide, despite evidence from materials the Army reluctantly provided to the parents that she was beaten, bitten, sexually assaulted, burned and shot. Despite numerous questions from Dr. John Johnson about the Army's investigation and determination of suicide, the Army stuck to its guns, saying that Lavena Johnson committed suicide. After the briefing, the Johnsons asked Congressman William Lacy Clay and Congresswoman Diane Watson to request that House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman hold hearings, requiring the production of witnesses to testify under oath to their knowledge of how Lavena died - an attempt to get information that the Army has so far failed to provide.

On July 16, 2008, at Fort Knox, KY, Helen and Eric Burmeister, the parents of PFC James Burmeister, attended the court-martial of their son.
After being in three IED explosions in Iraq, . . .

Afghanistan can no longer be ignored

The Taliban Strikes Back
Monday 21 July 2008 by: Gary Brecher, AlterNet

After six years of ignoring Afghanistan, things have gotten bad enough to force American officials to pay attention. For the past two months, U.S. casualties in Afghanistan have been higher than in Iraq. And on July 13, Afghanistan definitely got everybody's attention when nine U.S. troops were killed in what Wikipedia is now officially calling "The Battle of Wanat." Three days after the battle, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the U.S.-dominated military force running the country, announced it's abandoning Wanat completely.

The outpost that the United States had just set up in Wanat was supposed to disrupt Taliban supply lines from Pakistan. Instead, it became a tempting target for the local guerrillas, just like hundreds of other remote forward bases in other rural guerrilla wars from Southeast Asia to Algeria. Guerrillas usually avoid open combat with conventional forces, but when they do attack in force it's usually against the smaller, more vulnerable forward bases. The Wanat base was a very tempting target because it was still under construction.

It's not so easy to be sure what actually happened in the battle there on July 13 . . .

Soldiers have dramatic emotional changes

"We're Going to Be Paying For This For a While": Soldiers Bring the War Home
By Jill Carroll, Christian Science Monitor. Posted July 16, 2008.

When veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan bring their troubles home, police and judges often are the first to deal with them

During 21 years in the Marine Corps, Jeff Johnson saw young adults walk into his recruiting office and newly minted marines walk out of boot camp just a few months later. Now working at the other end of that pipeline at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, he sees far different, troubling changes in those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The changes were dramatic. I'd never seen these kinds of changes in people," says Mr. Johnson of those wrestling with the mental and physical trauma of war.

The once upstanding service members were getting arrested for domestic violence and bar fights, and being pursued by police as they raced along streets at 100 miles per hour -- often with drugs or alcohol involved -- seeking to replicate the adrenaline rush of combat or to commit suicide by motorcycle or police bullets.

He was moved to action, creating a presentation about the mental injuries of war for police and other first responders, usually the ones called when a veteran hits bottom.

A year later, he's delivered his message more times than he can count and he's been in demand from police departments across the country, hungry to prepare for what they worry is a coming surge of mentally injured veterans.

"A lot of them were getting in trouble with police. If [the police] know what resources are out there then they can funnel them into that," says Johnson, who has one son who is an Iraq veteran and another entering the service.

Police departments, veterans groups, and individuals from California to Colorado to Massachusetts are taking similar steps. At the other end of the criminal justice system, a "treatment court" in Buffalo, N.Y., dedicated to veterans opened this year.

The flurry of action is spurred by numbers like these: Some 40,000 cases of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were diagnosed by the military among troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2007. The Rand Corp. estimates 300,000 troops are suffering from PTSD from those wars. Many mental-health experts expect those trends to continue, or even worsen, as the wars go on.

Police Sgt. George Masson in Riverside, Calif. -- home to many military families and near several bases -- shares those concerns. When he began his career in 1980, he encountered many troubled Vietnam War veterans. Almost 30 years later, those early experiences weigh on him.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," says Sergeant Masson. "We're going to be paying for this for a while."

He helped organize a large, multi-agency training session this year focused on handling troubled veterans. Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton role-played such scenarios as hostage taking and suicide attempts. They invited mental health experts and combat veterans who suffered from traumatic stress to lecture.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Police Department's crisis intervention team has added a segment on veterans to its training, says public information officer Sgt. Wilfred Williams.

Updated statistics are few, but a 2004 US Department of Justice report found 10 percent of all state and federal prisoners had served in the military, mainly during the Vietnam era. But about 4 percent were Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

the rest

Veterans Must Fight For the Care They Deserve

* * Segments of this article published in June 25-July 1 issue of the Honolulu Weekly**
***Thank you to Stephen who generously contributed the photos of himself in Iraq, and his Team at home**


"That's When Everything Fell Apart"

“Our convoy went through the [Green Zone, Baghdad] Gateway 310 times. I always thought it could be my last day. Our adrenaline was so high. When I was out there I could only think of IED’s, getting shot at, or getting harassed by the locals,” said Stephen Imamoto, specialist in convoy security. Imamoto was a Sargeant 1st Class, "I did 21yrs with the 100th BN 442 Infantry, but I did not deploy with this unit in 2005-2006. The Unit I deployed with was 322 Civil Affairs Brigade (CAB) as the Team Chief of the Convoy Security Detail."

“We were hit with 4 – 6 roadside IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices). I have traumatic brain injury (TBI) – our truck was rocked really bad.” With a sigh, Imamoto said, “I probably aged 10 years, I really did.” Now retired, Imamoto shared his experiences in Iraq with The Honolulu Weekly, hoping it may help other veterans.

“I wanted to retire when I had 20 years, but they Stop-Lossed me for two more years.” A weekend warrior no more, Imamoto was not allowed to leave the Army Reserves.

Imamoto, married with three daughters; 2 in college, and a "my baby" 7 year-old daughter, was ripped out of his retirement dream, and “backdoor-drafted” into Iraq. His next unpleasant surprise was being told that he had only three months to get a bunch of young recruits ready to enter a war zone. He’s most thankful that he got them all home alive, and physically uninjured.

“In 2005 I was mobilized to go to Iraq, but when I came back home with my local unit in 2006 of May, that’s when everything fell apart. I couldn’t sleep, I had pain, I had nightmares, all the post symptoms of combat. Imamoto has “injuries from head to toe,” as well as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). His adrenaline was on high every day, “to stay alive. . . not thinking about the weight I was carrying around as an infantryman, about a hundred pounds of ammunition, grenades, and all that.”

He still can’t sleep because of his pain-wracked body, and unrelenting nightmares. He went to see Army doctors at the VA (Veteran’s Administration). “They said, ‘naw that’s not TBI,’ but yet I have all the symptoms – ringing in the ears, tinnitus, I have hearing aides for both ears - migraine headaches, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), blurred vision – all the symptoms of TBI but the army is saying, no it’s PTSD. I suffer every day with my back, and knees, I have damage from head to toe.”

“They say there’s nothing wrong with me. They accuse us of making up the injuries - that we’re imagining what we report! They just want to push us out. Most of the doctors haven’t been to Iraq, and they tell a veteran that they’re lying!”

“I’m pissed off at the system. They say they want to take care of the veterans, but the red tape is mind-boggling. I’m a wounded vet, I was medically discharged from the military, and I can’t even be seen by Tripler for my injuries unless I have a health plan. I’d have to purchase a tri-care prime. Right now the Army has given me tri-care standard, a really bad plan to have if I want to be seen by Tripler. I don’t like the system - that we have to pay for benefits. I was told to go to the medical treatment facility near my home, which would be Tripler, and they won’t consider me.”

Why doesn’t Hawai’i have a Veterans Hospital? The US government has invested enormous amounts of money for military purposes here in Hawai’i, including our freeways that link the bases. The military takes the land, they don’t lease it, and so perhaps there's money for a Veteran’s Hospital.

Peeling the Onion – Pentagon’s Cover-up of Military Suicides

Howard Zinn, Professor emeritus at Boston University, and a former WWII pilot, points out in his book, A People’s History of the United States, that information is like an onion, and as we peel away one layer, another layer is then revealed until finally, we uncover the truth.

A growing avalanche of media is now focusing on the plight of our soldiers. Exposed in internal emails, the painful truth exploded: The Pentagon was covering-up an epidemic of suicides and attempted suicides in our military. CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian laid it all open for the public on TV last November. The VA said there were 790 suicides when there were at least 12,000.

The suicide cover-up instigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA or VA) came to light when two internal VA emails were made public. In one, Dr. Katz of the VA wrote,

“Shh! – Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. . . ”

This email was evidence in a civil lawsuit filed against the VA by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth.

The second internal email that added fuel to the fire was written in March by Norma J. Perez, the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) coordinator at a VA facility in Temple, Texas. It stated

“Given that we have more and more compensation seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out. Consider a diagnosis of adjustment disorder, R/O [ruling out] PTSD ... we really don’t ... have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD.”

Paul Sullivan, director for Veterans for Common Sense said, “The bottom line is that VA under the Bush administration has dropped the ball. The email sent by Perez proves our lawsuit was correct - VA is short staffed for mental health care and VA intentionally misdiagnoses veterans in order to save money. VA was illegally and unconscionably turning away suicidal veterans in need of emergency mental health care. We are asking the court to order VA to stop this outrageous practice.”

** June 26, 2008 - Judge decides Against Vets, Lawyers for the Veterans Will Appeal

In a May 19, 2008 Press Release, Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veteran Affairs Committee expressed his outrage after reading a recent report titled, Audit of Alleged Manipulation of Waiting Times in Veterans Integrated Service Network 3. Akaka said, “VA’s neglect of patient wait times is a breach of the faith that service members put in the system. This audit indicates that the Veterans Health Administration is not committed to reducing unacceptable wait times. I am concerned that this problem exists throughout the VA system.”

In the Valley of Elah, a film directed by Paul Haggis, shows how the humanity is being sucked out of the soldiers sent to Iraq, the severe emotional toll it takes on them, and how what has happened in Iraq reflects on this entire country. It helps us understand what our soldiers have gone through including the resulting use of white phosphorus bombs.

Soldiers talk of reaching a turning point when it becomes intolerable to do what they have been trained to do.

“What of the other long-term effects of continued occupation? I’m thinking of the poisoning of the moral fiber of our soldiers—being forced to kill, maim, imprison innocent people, becoming the pawns of an imperial power after they were deceived into believing they were fighting for freedom, democracy, against tyranny.”

Zinn in a June 2004 article in The Progressive.

Emotionally and physically shattered soldiers

A tragedy was recently averted here in our own backyard. A 23-year-old Sergeant called his former Commanding Officer (CO) saying he wanted to commit suicide, and was also going to take his wife with him. “He was really depressed, he was acting extremely violent to everyone, his family, his wife. He wanted to be back in Iraq – with people that could understand him,” the CO explained. He and another team member went to visit the young soldier.

“We talked about what we’re going through, and he’d say, ‘yeah, I have that problem too, yeah me too, yes.’ We told him it’s PTSD, and that there are tens of thousands of other people in the military going through the same thing, he’s not alone. It helped him to know we were suffering with PTSD too. I’m only human, I often told my team, nothing more. It really helped him to know this.”

The CO managed to get the soldier “back on active duty so he could get the medical treatment he needed - all the facilities and programs the Army has to offer, are given to active duty components first.”

“He’s currently in the medical unit,” said the CO. “He isn’t very happy with it, but he lives in a nicely furnished room on-base attending an 8-week in-house program. He had a really hard time because they made him reflect on what happened, and he wanted to bury it. It’s so hard because the public doesn’t understand. They try to fix us, help us understand, and it’s hard for us to be in public. He said if someone just looks at him, he wants to fight him. I react like that too, it’s hard to control,” said the CO. “He got the help he needed, so hopefully he’ll be okay, I’m glad we could help him, and I’m here for the other guys in my team who find they need help.”

What If . . .

Try to imagine yourself or your loved one immersed in a war zone with no front lines for 365 days - more if you’re Stop-Lossed. You’re carrying about 100 pounds of equipment, the temperature is over 130 degrees, making your drinking water boil, and you haven’t slept in days. There’s sniper fire, IED’s, and EFP’s - that indiscriminately tear off arms and legs, rip into faces, necks, and other vital extremities not covered in Kevlar. There are suicide bombers, ICBM’s (cluster bombs) and RPG’s (rocket-propelled grenades). Walking or driving, you’re acutely aware of ever-present and overwhelming danger producing severe anxiety. “I know I have a bulls-eye on my head,” said an Army Ranger.”

ROE (Rules of Engagement) have long been cast aside. National Guardsman Spc. Patrick Resta, 29, said his supervisor told his platoon point-blank, “The Geneva Conventions don’t exist at all in Iraq, and that’s in writing if you want to see it.” The Nation, July 2007

The American public wouldn’t have accepted a draft. It would have been a political disaster, so the military’s first plan was for Recruiters to target High Schools and economically disadvantaged young people by enticing them with fairy tales of money, or free college – basically lying to them, in order to get them to signup. Still there weren’t enough bodies. Enter Stop-Loss – a Backdoor-Draft.

8 Soldiers suing the Army over the Stop-Loss Policy

“To keep enough boots on the ground, the Pentagon has stopped asking volunteer soldiers to extend their service—and started demanding it. Using a little-known provision called “Stop Loss,” the military is forcing reservists and guardsmen to remain on active duty indefinitely. “This is an ‘all-volunteer Army’ with footnotes,” says retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, who served as Air Force chief of staff under the first President Bush. “And it’s the footnotes that are being held in Iraq against their wishes. If that’s not a back-door draft, tell me what is,” wrote Tim Dickinson, Jan 27, 2005 Rolling Stone. Jules Lobel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, is challenging the extension the US military creatively-engineered to keep 40,000 Guards “imprisoned” in the Army until 2031 – another outrage. “The military is telling soldiers, “We’re giving you a chance to voluntarily re-enlist—and if you don’t do it, we’ll screw you. And the first way we’ll screw you is to put you in until 2031,” stated Lobel.

Wounded ~ what does wounded really mean?

Over 4,000 soldiers have died in this latest war on Iraq. Over 250,000 have been wounded. But the words wounded or injured, don’t even begin to describe the disfigurement and amputations as well as the emotional trauma of seeing a friends arms and legs blown off, being paralyzed, badly burned or having a TBI. All soldiers may have PTSD. Our soldiers and their families suffer a lifetime.

Dr. Col. Vito Imbascini, a surgeon with the California Army National Guard, said in and interview with International Press Service (IPS), that because of advances in military technology the death rate is lower than during the Vietnam War, but soldiers who survive attacks are often severely disabled for life. “Now, your heart and chest and lungs and heart are protected by armor, leaving only your extremities exposed.” He said there are an extremely high number of soldiers coming home without arms or legs. He also said that during a four-month deployment to Germany where he treated the worst of the US war wounded, he amputated the genitals of one or two men every day. Every day.

Around forty US soldiers a month have been killed by IED’s since 2005. The enemy has figured out ways to blow up Humvees, Bradleys, Armored trucks, oil tankers, and Abrams tanks. As the US forces improve vehicle armor, the enemy improves the IED’s, making them bigger, and now sometimes adding white phosphorus/napalm, and with better detonating mechanisms. A newer device, the EFP’s (Explosive Fire Projectile) are so powerful they can rip a tank in half killing everyone.

Congressman Neil Abercrombie, (D-HI) Chair of the Armed Services Committee had heard about these devastating injuries, he said in a phone conversation with The Honolulu Weekly. “The committee I chair has to deal with the after-effects of the people bearing the principal brunt in this - which is the Army and the National Reserve.” The issues regarding the unspoken-of amputation of soldiers genitals, was known by Congressman Abercrombie, “the kinds of injuries that are sustained in road side bombs - that’s why we had to fight to get the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) V-shaped hull and raised chassis vehicles that better disperses the force of a blast. We had to fight to get those! That was a Congressional initiative.”


Coming Back Home injured, and having to fight the VA

After an agonizing year in Iraq Sergeant Stephen Imamoto and his team were back home in Hawaii. “When I got back in 2006, I was in the medical hold unit for my injuries, and went through all kind of treatment.” That was when Imamoto was still active-duty.

Now that he’s retired, Imamoto can’t get help. “Everyday when I’m in pain, can’t get out of bed, stuck, can’t move, the VA can’t see me right now, the army - Tripler won’t even consider me so that means I’d have to either put up out-of-pocket expenses to see my own doctor or wait until there’s an appointment - at least a week. So VA is trying to accommodate, but they’re overwhelmed with other vets. They’re willing to help me, but not Tripler. They want us to go to the emergency room at Tripler, if it’s really bad, but the problem with that is there’s a 6-hour waiting period. And because of my status, retired, the active duty, their spouses and family come first. Might not get in all day.”

“Prior to being deployed, we have to take a physical, and there was nothing wrong with me,” Imamoto said. “When I got back I was in the medical hold unit for all kinds of treatments, I didn’t have no pre-existing injuries.” He was lucky to have had a superior warn him, “When you get out and fill out the paper work, don’t just check you’re ok, take your time.” Imamoto explained the importance of taking your time with the final papers or things will be extremely difficult when you find you need help. The military brass says the troops are getting plenty of information and counseling when they return home, but the troops are saying the opposite - that they hurry through the benefit application form, just to get out of there and go home, with no one advising them of how critical these forms are for future benefits.

“I had five mental health appointments this month cause I had to tell the doctor, ‘I’m going crazy,’ sometimes I think homicidal or suicidal cause I’m just fed up.” Even telling his doctor this, Imamoto had an uphill battle trying to get help. “I have all my records. Always have documentation, is what I’ve learned in the years I’ve been in.”

“It’s hard because I’m still hyper-vigilant, looking for snipers, people walking up with bombs strapped to them – I’m back home, and I’m still doing that while I’m around my family. I had to be vigilant for a year [in Iraq]. I’m still having a difficult time accepting . . . I’m trying but I don’t want to deal with anybody. I don’t want to be in the public or be around anybody. Especially when people do silly things, it pushes my button, I want to just go there and hit them, tell them, do you know what you’re doing can get people hurt by your stupid act. So I have to stay home. I haven’t gone back to my civilian job.”

“They [doctors] don’t want to listen to what we’re saying. They have it right in front of their nose, Iraqi veteran, how much more proof do they need. It’s a mind-boggling game, but I’m not giving up, giving in. But I get discouraged. I want to be violent. I only sleep 20 minutes at a time, and they say nothing’s wrong with me. Can’t fall asleep or stay asleep. I’m married, she’s been dealing with me pretty well, but I don’t know how much more. We’re not even sleeping together because of me punching the walls. I don’t know how much more she’s going to be able to put up with me,” Imamoto sad softly. His whole family feels the repercussion of his injuries.

“In May of 2006, that’s when everything fell apart. I couldn’t sleep; I had pain, nightmares, all the post symptoms of combat. That’s when I was put on all kinds of medication – they didn’t help at all – and they’re saying I’m ok! (sad laugh) “Where do I go?” Imamoto asks. “I’m still fighting a battle for benefits. Because of our status in the Reserve, we don’t at the same benefits as the active, but we do the same mission, the same training, one regulation, one policy. We’re the ones ending up on the short end of the stick.”

“They give you all these decorations and medals, “but what our veterans need and deserve is health care. In the VA, the command staff perceived all us wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are here to milk the system, to make good money. That was never my case; I just want to get the medical treatment I’m entitled to, so I can get better. What makes it worse, what makes me sick is that these Command Staff never went to Iraq or Afghanistan, no combat experience and they have the nerve to say, ‘I know what you’re going through.’ They have the nerve to say we’re in it for the money! No, we’re here to get treated.”

Striving to help on the Federal level

Sometimes people don’t understand why he’s on the Armed Forces Committee. Congressman Abercrombie explains, “first of all the Constitution requires the Congress to exercise oversight. Our problem is we don’t have enough people that are interested in being on the Armed Services Committee who will get in and understand what we have to do meet our Constitutional obligations and not leave it in the hands of Bush’s and the Cheney’s.” He wants to make sure our soldiers have the necessary equipment they need since they’re in a war zone, though he really wants to bring them all home.

Congressman Abercrombie voiced his concerns about the huge amount of PTSD and traumatic brain injuries as a result of concussions sustained by so many soldiers from explosions. He’s recommending the military look into research already available on the effects of epilepsy and brain seizures. “There hasn’t been a full appreciation of how blasts can affect people – few studies have been done on brain trauma and possible mental instability of the soldiers that are affected.” Regarding the difficulties of getting funding to help the troops after they’ve been injured he said, “It’s really scandalous. The Congress has had to take up the issue because the Bush administration has failed utterly to follow through monetarily.”

Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs and Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT), a member of the Committee, announced on May 2, that VA Secretary James Peake allocated an additional $2 million to the National Center for PTSD that the Senators requested.

After reading a recent audit report regarding the manipulation of the length of time for health care appointments, Akaka released a statement on May 19th stating, “This deception must end. Veterans are not receiving the services they need, and inaccurate data prevents VA from fixing the problems. This failure is inexcusable, especially given the unprecedented funding increases VA has received in recent years.”

When it comes to our soldiers Abercrombie is quite upfront, “Their view - Cheney, Bush, Pentagon politicos - their whole view is that the soldiers are volunteers, they’re not really owed anything.” He continued, “They don’t want to spend the money and they don’t want to admit again, the miscalculations they made in the beginning are going to have after effects. Costs are going to go on for years. The trauma that I’m talking about is so severe that those who are now surviving extreme battle causalities would have died in the Vietnam War, and even in the first Iraq war. But they’re now being saved because of the extraordinary efforts being made technologically and logistically in the sense of being able to take people from battle conditions and get them to first-rate hospital facilities with very dedicated people who save their lives. Then you have to start dealing with the aftermath and they don’t want to. That would be a further admission of failure so the cruel irony is that the worse it gets the more it has to be suppressed. You even have people in the administration trying to hide the fact that there were suicides. The denial factor is an Orwellian approach - it goes beyond denial - it’s an ideological approach. You gear your rhetorical context to denying what’s right in front of you.”

“The Armed Services Committee has heard the Winter Soldiers Hearings,” Abercrombie said, “but we don’t have the votes [to bring the troops home]. We have to have a president that will get us out of the war. And we don’t have sufficient votes, when we try to push these things through particularly to service the people who are coming out of the war with all of the difficulties they have, we can’t get it past the Senate,” Abercrombie said in exasperation. “It’s my duty as the Chair of the Committee to see to the readiness of the Armed Forces, and further as a member of Congress to keep them out of harms way, and not have them be victims of bad political decisions - but the Army itself isn’t making these decisions – it’s political.”

Abercrombie recalled that, “People like Gen. Eric K. Shinseki [former commander of the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia], stood up [saying more troops were needed] and got hit for it. But it goes back to what’s the political count in the room and November will tell the story.”
“People have to Vote! It’s up to the people who want to end this madness, to end this nightmare and to act in behalf of those who after all are dependent on good political judgments being made here at home. To support our soldiers means getting them out of there.”

Help on the State Level

Honolulu Psychologist Stan Luke, PhD, with the non-profit, Helping Hands Hawai’i, a place veterans can go for help, gave testimony before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs on May 22. “Since the start of the Iraq war, we’ve seen an increase in demand for treatment of PTSD and traumatic brain injury. There are two major problems that we’ve identified. First, barriers to treatment. The volume of eligible veterans has increased so much that the system is unable to accommodate the demand. The consequence on a clinical level is that those with PTSD and traumatic brain injury are left untreated and their illnesses and injuries get worse, resulting in increased family conflict, financial burdens and many veterans dropping out of necessary treatment out of frustration. Second, a rise in hurdles in the disability applications. Many veterans experience financial hardship because their applications are delayed in a system that is overwhelmed. For many disabled veterans, this confluence of financial pressure, frustration with the system, and their attendant disability results in bad outcomes.”

State Representative Cindy Evans, Chair of the House Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs hosted a talk story session with Hawai’i veterans on May 28. Evans has traveled to all the islands in her fact-finding mission asking Hawai’i’s veterans for their thoughts on issues they are having difficulties with and if they felt veterans services should be back under the Department of Human Services. In attendance were Representatives Marcus Oshiro, Marilyn Lee, and Ryan Yamane. Also in attendance was Mark Moses, Director of the Office of Veterans Services (OVS), William Clay Park, case manager with Helping Hands, and a group of veterans.


Park, a Vietnam veteran, shared some of his outreach experiences, often helping homeless veterans in filling out VA benefit applications, which he carries by the boxful in his trunk. “What I see happening today is the severe stress on family members. I get many calls from wives whose husbands most likely have PTSD, but husbands refuse to acknowledge they have a problem. We keep focusing on the vets, but I look at the family as well as the vets because I keep getting calls from wives saying ‘I want my husband back, this is not the man that I married.’”

One of the many people Park has reached out to is Stephen Imamoto. Park created a new Helping Hands program called the Uncles Program. Imamoto, who has been speaking out and sharing his war experiences, was recently inducted as an "Uncle." He feels good when he can help others.


Stephen Imamoto (turquoise shirt with lei) with part of his Team, safely back home

There’s a great need for more "Uncles" to help the flood of veterans coming back from war.

Park knows there are many veterans out there that need a hand getting their paperwork in order, and he happily works many long hours helping them and their families, but he’s only one man - and everyone who knows him wants to clone him! So Park's solution was to set up The Uncles Program!

Oshiro, House Finance Chair is determined to help the veterans by working with the Legislature to provide policy and direction to the Governor who can then fund needed programs for the veterans through the Office of Veterans Affairs (OVA). Moses looks forward to working together with Oshiro in getting more counselors and opening more clinics on O’ahu and other islands.

Office of Veterans Services initiated a new program calling all veterans, Moses said, “and the recent veterans, six months after they get back to see how they are, but we can’t talk to the wives, only the vets, so there’s still a disconnect there.” Moses said, “the OVS has changed how we deal with mental health issues, “With the returnees now, it’s understood, there’s a new presumption within the VA that if you were exposed to IED’s, you have PTSD or that you could have it. Before you had to prove you had it.”

One veteran said, “Local boys don’t want to admit they’re broken.” Moses advised, “He doesn’t have to say he’s broken, he can say he’d like to get the benefits he’s entitled to, it’s not welfare! He’s earned those benefits, and if he’d like to get that extra cash in his hand, he should come and see us. We have about 120,000 vets in the state and their dependents, double that, that’s a large population and the point I make is they don’t have to feel this is welfare, it isn’t - they’ve earned it!”

Veterans can get counseling at Tripler Hospital, and the Honolulu Veterans Center on Kapiolani Blvd. where Director Stephan Molnar, a Vietnam veteran is there to help, “It isn’t just the physical injuries. It’s the wounds of the heart. When this war ends, it’s just the beginning of where we’re going.”

Hawai’i Troops are being redeployed

On May 19, 2008, the DOD announced the additional major units from Hawaii scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Redeployed for the 3rd time: 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division
Redeployed for the second time: the National Guard’s 29th Brigade.
Redeployed for the second time: 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment

There will be a total of 12,200 Hawaii-based troops on active duty
in Iraq, Afghanistan or Kuwait by fall.

Major General Robert G. F. Lee, State of Hawaii Adjutant General, said units in the 29th Brigade are being redeployed this fall. He said 35% or 1,500 soldiers in the National Guard would be sent mainly to Kuwait.

Senator Akaka expressed his concerns of the effect “that this earlier than planned redeployment will have on our Guard soldiers and their families.”

General Lee had sent a letter to a Honolulu newspaper a year ago telling soldiers and their families that the 29th Brigade wouldn’t be mobilized for five years - that was the understanding - that the Hawai’i Guard wouldn’t be eligible for combat duty until 2010. “One of the reasons why our troops didn’t get the full five years and got called up about a year and a half early,” he said, “is there’s been a surge of the National Guard so that our active Army brothers and sisters can reduce their time of a 15-month rotation back to 12 months.”

Lee is concerned about the PTSD issue. Recently he gave testimony in front of Senator Akaka’s Veterans Affairs Committee, asking that the 18-month rule in applying for help with PTSD be dropped, believing PTSD may be triggered at anytime. Congress changed it to five years, but he vows to keep on fighting for the troops lifelong access to help with post-traumatic stress.

Bringing “Democracy” or Taking Corporate/Military Control of Oil?

Gen. Wesley Clark stated,

“Given the administration’s track record, we would be wise to greet this latest assertion (of growing democracy) with suspicion. It’s understandable that the administration would want to make this claim. After all, by any honest accounting, the Iraq operation has been a mess. The U.S. military has performed brilliantly for the most part. But we invaded the country for the express purpose of removing weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist. That effort has cost $200 billion ($3 trillion, 2008) and more than 1,500 (4,000+, 2008) American lives. It has strained our alliances, damaged America’s reputation in the world, pushed the all-volunteer military to the breaking point, and left our troops exposed in a hostile country with an open-ended exit strategy. It would be convenient to be able to say that the intent all along was just to bring democracy to the region and that this was simply the necessary price. Convenient, but not true.” Gen. Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, from 1997-2000.

(Washington Monthly, May 2005)

And from a June 28th, 2008 article in truthout by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship,

Here's a recent headline in The New York Times: "Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back." Read on: "Four western companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power."

There you have it. After a long exile, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP are back in Iraq. And on the wings of no-bid contracts - that's right, sweetheart deals like those given Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater. The kind of deals you get only if you have friends in high places. And these war profiteers have friends in very high places.

Winter Soldiers Hearing Testimonies

“We stepped up to serve our country, and we haven’t asked that much in return, but proper healthcare should be at a bare minimum what we’re entitled to,” a veteran said during the Winter Soldiers Hearing last March (blacked-out by mainstream media).

During the Winter Soldiers Hearing, hundreds of soldiers and veterans told their stories. They say they lacked any training of Iraqi culture and language, and were conditioned before going to Iraq to think of Iraqis as less than human, conditioned to hate them so it would be easier to kill them. They asked, how do you explain and live with actions that would be criminal even in a war zone? Having to participate in actions they feel are morally wrong often brings intense emotional pain to soldiers once they come home and have time to reflect on what went on. “We’re not bad people; we’re not monsters. We’re normal people caught in a horrible situation.” They apologize and ask for forgiveness from the innocent Iraqi people they’ve hurt, and from the Iraqi’s who’ve had family members killed. Many become “broken soldiers.” Too many attempt suicide, too many succeed.

Logan Laituri, from Hawai’i, served a tour in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as an Army Sergeant. He also gave testimony at the Winter Soldiers Hearing. He was discharged after filing as a Conscientious Objector after what he’d witnessed in Iraq.

“The problem we faced in Iraq was the policy makers and leaders set a precedent of lawlessness where we don’t abide by the rule of law. We don’t respect international treaties, so when that atmosphere exists it lends itself to criminal activity,” like when one of his fellow soldiers shot an unarmed man just walking down the street. Laituri plans on returning to Hawai’i and setting up a branch of Iraq Veterans Against the War. “Service to your country includes recognizing when that country is in need of a moral voice, of a voice rooted in love and peace for not just our own country and not just our own interests. What our country needs most in times of war are the voices that reminds them we are a moral nation, that we are a peace-loving nation, and that means that we want what’s best not just for ourselves, but for the world, and I think the way to do that is to gently, reverently, lovingly remind our country that there better ways than war to solve problems, that war needs to be the last resort.”

Our reality changes as we find our way to the truth

The history we were taught in school seems to have been written through the rose-colored glasses of Norman Rockwell. Then one day, the rose-colored glasses are removed. Professor Zinn, explains that information is like an onion, peeling away layers until finally, we uncover the truth. It’s that way about the wars in the Middle East. Facts that were hidden are now making the mainstream press, but we must continue to peel more layers.

Becoming aware of the truth can bring anger and sadness, but those feelings can be channeled into constructive action, which is what more and more veterans are now doing by speaking their truths out loud. Our human nature is one of hope. We hold onto tattered dreams of liberty and justice for all.

The questions the American public must ask themselves are - how much more death and destruction are we are willing to inflict in the Middle East? Is the war in the Middle East benefiting or weakening the American people? Is the war benefiting of bringing more suffering to the Iraqi people? Is it benefiting the private contractors and a few corporations in the US and UK? What about lack of oversight, the loss of $23 billion due to contractor fraud & mismanagement and no bid contracts?

Why isn’t the media allowed to show photos of the caskets that come home. Why are the mainstream news sources "embedded" which means under censorship. Perhaps so the war can be sanitized for our viewing pleasure.

Alternative media including that from other countries can be found on the Internet ~ see the sidebar on this Blogsite.

Constructive ways each of us can help are there as well.

As Margaret Mead once said,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Update From Stephen

*
Stephen Imamoto's clarifications, comments, photos


Stephen Imamoto "did 21 years with the 100th BN 442 Infantry, but I didn't deploy with this unit in 2005-2006. The Unit I deployed with was 322 Civil Affairs Brigade (CAB) as the Team Chief of the Convoy Security Detail."

"I'm so honored to have served with 322 CAB," Imamto said, just as much as if he were to have gone out with the 100/442. "The 322 CAB Unit made history by helping with the elections, humanitarian support and many unnoticed achievements. This is the Unit I was introduced to - the "TEAM" - very young men, they listened and executed, and we came home!!!"

. . . and we came home!!!

"Here's a picture of me with SGT Peter Mahoe and Team Maunakea at the Green Zone."

Response From Tripler Army Hospital

Tripler Begins a new Warrior Transitioning Program - (hoping for the best!)

Iraq in Photos and Footnotes - by James Dale

**
**click on the images to go directly to a large selection of James Dales very interesting photos* as well as very informative bios of each image*

I was wondering about the backdrop of the sword arch in many photos of the troops, and this is what I found out:

The Swords of Qādisīyah, Baghdad To celebrate his victory (actually a draw) over Iran, Saddam decided to build a Triumphal Arch. The concept of a triumphal arch is a European import, without precedent in the Middle East since Roman times. The colossal Hands of Victory monument has dominated Baghdad's skyline since the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Built in duplicate, it marks the entrances to a large new parade ground in central Baghdad, towering 140 feet above the highway. The triumphal arch is shaped as two pairs of crossed swords, made from the guns of dead Iraqi soldiers that were melted and recast as the 24-ton blades of the swords. Captured Iranian helmets are in a net held between the swords. And surrounding the base of the arms are another 5,000 Iranian helmets taken from the battle field. The fists that hold the swords aloft are replicas of Saddam Hussein's own hands. The German company that built the monument, H+H Metalform, said it was given a photograph of Saddam's own forearms to use as a model.

When Saddam inaugurated these triumphal arches, he rode under them on a white horse - an allusion to the steed of Hussein, the Shi'ite Muslim hero martyred at nearby Kerbala. The day before the first bombing run on Bhagdad during the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi TV showed a mass of Iraqi soldiers marching beneath the huge crossed swords of the Victory Arch, to the theme music from 'Star Wars'. In April 1998 Iraq's volunteers paraded for six hours in Baghdad's Grand Festivities Square, the large outdoor arena marked by the two sets of enormous crossed swords.

Al-Faw Palace, presently called "Camp Victory"

Iraq War Documentaries

THE OIL FACTOR: BEHIND THE WAR ON TERROR (2005)
"After assessing today's dwindling oil reserves and skyrocketing use of oil for fuels, plastics and chemicals, "The Oil Factor" questions the motives for the U.S. wars in the Middle-East and Central Asia where 3/4 of the world's oil and natural gas is located."

A COMPANY OF SOLDIERS (2004)
"In "A Company of Soldiers," Frontline reports from inside the U.S. Army's 8th Cavalry Regiment stationed in Baghdad for an up-close, intimate look at the dangers facing an American military unit in Iraq. Shot in the weeks following the U.S. presidential election, the film tracks the day-to-day challenges facing the 8th Cavalry's Dog Company as it suddenly has to cope with a dramatic increase in attacks by insurgents." -washingtonpost.com

NO END IN SIGHT (2007)
"Chronological look at the fiasco in Iraq, especially decisions made in the spring of 2003 - and the backgrounds of those making decisions - immediately following the overthrow of Saddam: no occupation plan, an inadequate team to run the country, insufficient troops to keep order, and three edicts from the White House announced by Bremmer when he took over: no provisional Iraqi government, de-Ba'athification, and disbanding the Iraqi armed services. The film has chapters (from History to Consequences), and the talking heads are reporters, academics, soldiers, military brass, and former Bush-administration officials, including several who were in Baghdad in 2003."

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED (2004)
"This guy has a lot of balls and curiousity. He takes a video camera and an interpreter to the major conflict areas of Iraq and shows what the average citizen and the extremists believe and what the US soldiers are facing day-to-day. Unadulterated realism. Highly recommended."

THE LOST YEAR IN IRAQ (2006)
"Weeks after the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, ambassador L. Paul Bremer and a group of administrators went to Iraq with the goal of establishing a democracy. One year later Bremer left, but a growing insurgency and broken economy have continued to pose a challenge to U.S. troops and the young Iraqi government." -washingtonpost.com

THE FIFTH ESTATE : THE LIES THAT LED TO WAR
"Since the US-led invasion four years ago, the fifth estate has covered Iraq and the war on terror from virtually every angle--the military, media, intelligence, politics--revealing aspects of the story that you didn't find anywhere else. Now, as the White House warns about the latest threat in the region, this time from Iran, it's worthwhile looking back to examine the deception, suspect intelligence, even lies, that convinced the world of the rightness of targeting Saddam Hussein."

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for TBI

A patient at the Hyperbaric Medicine Center read the recently published Honolulu Weekly article on Military Veteran Stephen Imamoto, and immediately brought the article to the attention of Helen McCracken, nurse and owner with husband Alfred, of the Hyperbaric Medicine Center in Honolulu, one of 20 hyperbaric therapy centers in the United States.

The patient wanted Stephen Imamoto and others suffering from TBI (traumatic brain injury) to know about how the Hyperbaric Chamber can help them. So Helen contacted me, and after a very interesting discussion with her, I started doing some research on hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which I will continue persuing in the hope this non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical therapy can help our many Veterans.


Dr. Paul Harch, Emergency Medicine Specialist, Director of the LSU Health Sciences Center's Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship Program.

The Oxygen Revolution is the definitive guide to the miracle of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, from a pioneer in the field.

There's nothing more valuable than oxygen, and The Oxygen Revolution is your owner's manual
May 2, 2007 David M. Freels


Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) can save us millions of heartaches and billions of dollars. Read The Oxygen Revolution, and you'll understand how HBOT can save our very lives and the lives of our loved ones.

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