Kathie Costos
June 15, 2014
If you read about Iraq veterans wanting to go back into Iraq, that is exactly what the national press wants you to know. They don't seem too interested in giving voice to the countless veterans believing they should not have been sent there in the first place. They give even less voice to those who know first hand how the VA was not ready to take care of any of them when they were getting wounded in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan. The national press decided long ago that history did not matter. Why look up facts when they have such a salacious story today? Trouble with the VA is like porn to them because they are allowed to freely blame anyone and everyone, except themselves, much like they did with pushing to send troops into Iraq back in 2003.
It seems that they always give greater voice to the opposing team. Hey, why not? After all it worked so well for them all these years. They have been playing psyops like pros!
PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS SPECIALISTThe press pulled it on us, at least those of us incapable of remembering the last time troops were sent to fight against the Iraqi Army, when they had a real Army.
OVERVIEW
As a member of the Army special operations community, the psychological operations specialist is primarily responsible for the analysis, development and distribution of intelligence used for information and psychological effect.
JOB DUTIES
Research and analyze methods of influencing foreign population from a variety of information sources Operate and maintain equipment such as ground tactical vehicles and shelter systems, loudspeaker systems, state of the art computers, analog and digital recording and playback devices and communication systems
Travel to overseas locations in peace, crisis and conflict to assist U.S. and foreign governments, militaries and civilian populations
Richard Stengel: When we got into the Iraq war we didn’t know how long it would last. When we got into the Iraq war we didn’t know how much it would cost. It’s lasted longer, it’s cost more than we ever expected. The real toll is coming out now. The Pentagon is releasing a report saying, one in five American serviceman and women who have been in Iraq are coming back with brain injuries. Mild, traumatic brain injuries. More than 250,000 people. That legacy of that will last all of our life times and it’s incalculable.
The problem is this guy was managing editor of TIME when he said that. I was wondering what part of dinosaur stuck in tar pit he didn't understand. That was what General Schwarzkopf said about sending troops into Iraq after getting them out of Kuwait.
Schwarzkopf: On the question of going to Baghdad. If you remember the Vietnam war, we had no international legitimacy for what we did. As a result we, first of all, lost the battle of world public opinion and eventually we lost the battle at home.
In the Gulf War we had great international legitimacy in the form of eight United Nations Resolutions, every one of which said "Kick Iraq out of Kuwait", did not say one word about going into Iraq, taking Baghdad, conquering the whole country and hanging Saddam Hussein. That's point number one.
Point number two, had we gone on to Baghdad, I don't believe the French would have gone and I'm quite sure that the Arab coalition would not have gone, the coalition would have ruptured and the only people that would have gone would have been the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
And, oh by the way, I think we'd still be there, we'd be like a dinosaur in a tar pit, we could not have gotten out and we'd still be the occupying power and we'd be paying one hundred percent of all the costs to administer all of Iraq.
They knew what was coming. They knew how many years it would take. They knew how many wounded they should have planned for as well as how many veterans would need care for the rest of their lives.
Jon Soltz Co-Founder of VoteVets.org, served as a Captain in Operation Iraqi Freedom and wrote this on the Huffington Post back in 2008.
Today's release of the Army's latest mental health survey provides very little to be happy about. In the past, I've talked repeatedly about mental injuries in war, so I won't rehash all of that again. But here are the highlights from today's report:
Despite all the talk about how wonderful things are in Iraq, the overwhelming majority of troops in Iraq continue to say that morale in their units and their own morale is low. Just 11 percent reported that their unit's morale was "high or very high." Only 20 percent said their own morale was "high or very high."
Afghanistan, which is quickly becoming the 'forgotten war' for Bush/McCain, is finding a worsening of the mental health among our troops there. Preliminary reports are that there has been a rise in the amount of troops in Afghanistan reporting depression. In Iraq, troops report the same level of depression as last year.
Combined, the findings are highly troubling. What it tells me, and any person with an elementary school education, is that for all the talk of success in Iraq, the troops aren't feeling that, at all. At the same time, we're crushing our troops in Afghanistan, who have done heroic work there with little help, but now are feeling increasingly overwhelmed.
Everyone seems so upset about the VA and "two sets of books" but the original two sets kept by the Pentagon were forgotten about. Back in 2008 the Pentagon was keeping two sets of books on the wounded
"The Pentagon keeps two sets of books," said Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
"It is important to understand the full number of casualties because the U.S. government is responsible for paying disability compensation and medical care for all our troops, regardless of how they were injured," Bilmes said.
The war in Iraq was supposed to end in 2009, but yet again, the national press won't remind anyone of what they reported on way back when it mattered. The War's Expiration Date, on the Washington Post By Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway was published on April 5, 2008.
A crucial yet overlooked deadline looms over the Iraq debate: Unless further action is taken, the war will become illegal on Jan. 1, 2009.
Despite protestations to the contrary, Congress clearly understood that it was authorizing the president to intervene militarily when it passed its joint resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq in October 2002. But it did not give him a blank check. It allowed for the use of force only under two conditions.
The first has long since lapsed. It permitted the president to "defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq." This threat came to an end with the destruction of Saddam Hussein's government. It makes no sense to say that it continues today, or that our "national security" is "threatened by" the Iraqi government headed by Nouri al-Maliki.
Instead, U.S. military intervention is authorized under the second prong of the 2002 resolution. This authorizes the president to "enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq." This has allowed the Bush administration to satisfy American law by obtaining a series of resolutions authorizing the United States to serve as the head of the multinational force in Iraq.
But here's the rub. The most recent U.N. resolution expires on Dec. 31, and the administration has announced that it will not seek one for 2009. Instead, it is now negotiating a bilateral agreement with the Iraqi government to replace the U.N. mandate.
Whatever this agreement contains, it will not fill the legal vacuum. That's because the administration is not planning to submit this new agreement to Congress for its explicit approval. Since the Constitution gives the power to "declare war" to Congress, the president can't ignore the conditions imposed on him in 2002 without returning for a new grant of authority. He cannot substitute the consent of the Iraqi government for the consent of the U.S. Congress.
USA Today, Gregg Zoroya reported that "More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show." At the same time a vote in the House on funding for the wars brought 132 representatives voting "present" instead of having the courage to vote "yea or nay."
Yet aside from fighting two wars, there was the other factor of PTSD and not enough working in the DOD to care for mental health casualties.
The military has had trouble finding enough mental health professionals to deal with a wave of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems among servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Mental health providers are in short supply across the country. This is no secret, it's well established. It's a struggle to get people the right provider in any state in the country," said Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
Military lags on suicide prevention
In 2006, 30 soldiers and Marines committed suicide while serving in the war in Iraq, the most in any year since it began in 2003, according to information released by the Defense Manpower Data Center in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Bee.
This year is on track to meet or surpass that number with at least 27 suicides so far in 2007.
Soldiers and Marines are being required to serve on the front lines for longer than any time in U.S. military history, according to a report on mental health by the Army's Office of the Surgeon General.
The Sacramento Bee reported this in 2007.
Four Erie County Soldiers committed suicide
Top left, Airman Andrew Norlund, praised for his work ethic, was frustrated and angry. Top right, Sgt. Matthew A. Proulx, a soldier to the end, had no interest in seeking help. Bottom left, Staff Sgt. Justin Reyes, a proven leader in Iraq, was troubled back in the U.S. Bottom right, Sgt. Gary Underhill loved the Army life, but had nightmares and anxiety.That was reported by Buffalo News in 2007.
It is great to report on what is happening right now to keep the public informed however, it is even better to remind them once in a while how today's news came to be. What happened matters because the ramifications live on.
