Families of two boys presumed drowned in the Green River gathered on the riverbank Saturday

COURTNEY BLETHEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Family of boys keeps vigil at Green River
David Mundell, center, hugs his mother, Karen Green, as family and friends gather Saturday along the Green River where two boys are missing and presumed drowned.
Mundell is the stepfather of Austin Fuda, 13, who was in a car that went into the river Friday.
Family, friends of boys keep vigil at Green River

Families of two boys presumed drowned in the Green River gathered on the riverbank Saturday.

By Nicole Tsong

Seattle Times staff reporter

AUBURN — On the banks of the Green River, the parents of 13-year-old Austin Fuda stood and wept.

Saturday marked their first pilgrimage to the site where a car carrying Austin and 2-year-old cousin Hunter Beaupre went into the river Friday morning. The driver, Austin's 16-year-old stepsister, swam to safety.

Officials suspended the search for the boys Friday because of the swift current, which had worsened by Saturday. Rescuers believe they know where the car is and that the boys are in it, but they need a couple of days without rain before they can bring them out, said King County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

The river was flowing at about 2,900 cubic feet per second when the car went into the water and swelled to more than 4,000 by Saturday morning, he said. The current needs to be below 2,000 cubic feet per second before it's safe for divers to go in, Urquhart said.

"It's just way too fast and too dangerous to go in there," he said.
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Hundreds on waiting list to adopt Down Syndrome children

Families Take a Leap of Love
For many parents, a diagnosis of Down syndrome can be overwhelming, but hundreds of families are on a waiting list to adopt a child with the condition. The Curtis family adopted Daniel, right, and three others with Down Syndrome.

Norman Bussel, Yorktown ex-POW describes struggles

Yorktown ex-POW describes strugglesLower Hudson Journal news - West Harrison,NY,USA
By Brian J. Howard
The Journal News • November 9, 2008

YORKTOWN

A few months after he was liberated from a German prisoner-of-war camp, Norman Bussel was invited to a wedding he just couldn't bring himself to attend.


Bussel wasn't doing well, the trauma of the past year still painfully fresh for him. Still, the pilot from his bomber crew was getting married in Atlanta and Bussel thought he could make it.

But five days before the wedding, he received a letter from the sister of his navigator, one of four fellow crew members killed when their B-17 was shot down over Berlin. She didn't understand how six men could make it off the plane while four others could not.

"To me, the implication was that I'd stepped over his dead body and just left him," Bussel, now 85, said in the living room of his Mohegan Lake home.

From the time he'd boarded in Rattlesden, England, on April 29, 1944, until the time he bailed out, the 19-year-old technical sergeant saw only one other crew member, and then only briefly while they were over the English Channel. He never heard a bail-out order, never even left his radio room until he leapt from the plane.

It exploded seven seconds later, as he was counting to 10 before pulling his parachute cord.

After reading that letter, Bussel skipped the wedding and went on a two-week drinking binge.

He recounts that day, including his subsequent capture by angry villagers, in moving detail in his book, "My Private War: Liberated Body, Captive Mind - A World War II POW's Journey," published yesterday by Pegasus Books.

A journey is what he shares, from his enlistment at 18 over his mother's objection to his grueling detainment in Stalag Luft IV in eastern Germany.

The story doesn't end with the camp's liberation by Gen. George S. Patton's tank corps, though. That comes a little more than halfway through the book. What follows is the story of his long struggle with survivor guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My medication of choice was alcohol," the Memphis, Tenn., native said. "I expect if drugs had been around then I'd have done them as well."
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For wounded Iraq vet, kindergartners are therapy

For wounded Iraq vet, kindergartners are therapy

November 8, 2008 - 2:58PM
CAROL MCGRAW
The Gazette
The kindergartners at Patriot Elementary School are busy pasting cut-out paper socks in smallest to biggest order, when the shouts ring out:

"Mr. Carlos. Mr. Carlos."

The dark-haired man in the Army uniform heads over to one table and crouches, eye level, to 5-year-old Caleb Marlatt who gives him a big smile and holds up his paper.

"Good job. Don't forget to put your name on it," the soldier says, moving on to other children who are eager for his attention.

Caleb, watching the other kids mob the soldier, says in a loud whisper, "Mr. Carlos is like my dad. My dad is in Iraq since I was a baby. I want to see him. Mr. Carlos is not my dad. But Mr. Carlos helps you like a dad."

And the kids, in turn, are helping Mr. Carlos.

Mr. Carlos is Staff Sgt. Carlos Barreto, a 41-year-old career soldier who was brain-injured in a bomb blast In Iraq. Now he's an aide at the Fort Carson school, where his Army job is to help the students recite the alphabet, learn to count and recognize written words. In doing so, he's finding that his own war injuries, including short-term memory problems, are getting better.

Barreto is one of 600 soldiers at Fort Carson who are members of the Warrior Transition Unit - soldiers who have been wounded or have other medical problems that prevent them from returning to active duty. They are provided with medical care and other services such as legal, financial, family and education counseling.

Some of the soldiers in the unit work on post; others work off base in apprenticeships and take classes that prepare them for employment when they leave the Army.

But Barreto is the only one from the local Warrior unit serving as a teacher's aide.
go here for more
http://www.gazette.com/articles/kindergartners_43071___article.html/carlos_one.html

11 year old angel, Brenden Foster's family needs help

This was left as a comment on my original post.

I am a very close friend of the family and I must say that Brenden is such an inspiration to so many people.My kids and I love him so much and will miss him dearly. I know that Wendy(Brenden's mother) Would never ask of anything from anyone and only hopes that Brenden has inspired people to help others as he has tried to do. I however am asking for help for this family. I see her everyday struggling to make ends meet and they are having a hard time finding funds for his final resting place. There is a benevolence fund that has been set up for Brenden. It is at Washington Mutual bank under the Brenden Foster Cancer Fund.Thank you so much for all your comments. I know that Wendy shares comments to Brenden every night and they are very thankful for all of your support.

I called the news station to see if they had the address for the bank to make donations. I was told they have a Problem Solvers Fund and will get the money directly to the family. Until I have better information, here it is.

Problem Solvers At KOMO TV
Brenden Foster Fund
140 Fourth Ave. North, Suite 370,
Seattle, WA 98109

Here is the link to the original post.
http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/11/11-year-old-brenden-fosters-dying-wish.html

Old soldiers never die — they just move to Florida

Military veterans are marching to Florida
Darryl E. Owens | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 9, 2008


Old soldiers never die — they just move to Florida.

It is a durable trend reflected in great numbers after World War II, recently reinforced by the military men and women who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and who are again marching home to the state.

Florida's intrinsic amenities and expanded veterans' services are magnets that have boosted the state past Texas for the second-largest veteran population at 1.75 million, according to the latest tally. Only California is home to more veterans, with 2.1 million. But the Sunshine State is the hot draw. Even as the nation's veteran population withered 16.5 percent since 1980, Florida increased its ranks by nearly 400,000.

Forecasters predict the state will surpass California within 20 years.

"The Southeast, and Florida in particular, is an attractive region for military veterans and retirees," said Jay Agg, national communications director for AMVETS, noting that the state has one of the organization's fastest-growing and most active departments.

"Florida is already renowned as a friendly and hospitable retiree destination, but it is also a draw for veterans and military retirees because of its significant military community," Agg said.

Adding to that allure, say advocates for veterans, has been the lack of a state income tax, a generally strong economy and mild winters.

Across Central Florida, veteran tallies eclipse 1980 totals:
Orange County, for example, now boasts 77,947 veterans, up from 68,100 in 1980; Seminole has 38,802 veterans, up from 28,670; and
Volusia is home to 57,809 vets, up from 41,139.
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U.S. vows to back off if fighters use Afghan civilians as cover

This is a good idea because one of the worst things the troops have to recover from is when civilians die. It was harder on them during Vietnam just as it is harder in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a noble thing to do but when the Afghan fighters decide that their own people don't matter and they hide behind them, it is dangerous for the troops. What is the right answer when both sides don't play fair? The conscience of the troops will not allow them to have such disregard for the lives of civilians. It eats away at them. Still they cannot be targeted because they will not engage when civilians are near. Can't someone in the military come up with a better plan and use their brains when these situations come up? What do police officers do when thugs take hostages? What about a SWAT type of attitude for the military?

U.S. vows to back off if fighters use Afghan civilians as cover
Story Highlights
The issue of civilian casualties has rankled relations between U.S. and Afghanistan

Commanding general says there's renewed emphasis to avoid civilian casualties

U.S.: Fighting last week in Kandahar province left 37 civilians dead

Afghan officials: Civilian deaths in Kandahar were the result of a U.S. airstrike




COMBAT OUTPOST MALAKASHY, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. forces in Afghanistan will "back off" from firing at insurgents if the fighters are using civilian buildings as cover, the U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan told CNN.

"I've given direct guidance, and so has my boss to me, that if there's any doubt at all that the enemy is firing from a house or building where there might be women and children, that we'll just back off," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, told CNN's Barbara Starr.

"That potentially is something that we did not do before, but now because of this increased emphasis, we are doing," he said in an interview at an outpost in Afghanistan's Paktika province near the Pakistani border.

Schloesser spoke the same day the U.S. military announced that fighting last week in Kandahar province left 37 civilians dead and another 35 wounded. During the two-day battle in Kandahar's Shah Wali Kott district, insurgents fired from some villagers' houses, using them as cover, villagers told the U.S. military.

Afghan officials said the civilian deaths in Kandahar were the result of a U.S. airstrike. But a joint U.S.-Afghan investigation concluded that the civilians died during a battle that was sparked when insurgents ambushed an Afghan-coalition patrol.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/09/afghan.civilians/index.html

This Veteran's Day should come with remembering the homeless veterans

This Veteran's Day, as we honor our veterans, it would be really nice to stop and think about how many of them are homeless and how many of them are females as well. One thing that is often forgotten about with female homeless veterans, is a lot of them come with children!

Not enough housing for homeless female veterans

By James Hannah - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 9, 2008 13:36:03 EST

DAYTON, Ohio — When Carisa Dogen looks back on her life of 38 years, it’s easy to see where she lost her way: She left her hometown of Dayton at 15 and moved to Kentucky, where she graduated from high school and enrolled in electronics school. But drugs beckoned, and she didn’t finish.

She joined the military, but fate intervened and she later found herself homeless — forced to sleep in parks on some nights when it was bitterly cold and rainy, and scavenge for food in trash cans.

“I got accosted a couple of times by males. Walking the streets and stuff, it’s hard and it’s scary,” she said in the comfort of The Other Place, a homeless shelter in Dayton that helped put her into new housing where she will receive treatment and job training.

Particularly bewildering for Dogen, she is an Army veteran. Her life should never have come to this.

Of the 1.8 million female military veterans, Dogen was among the 7,000 to 8,000 who are homeless, as estimated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is among the few who have benefited from new housing specifically for female veterans, an initiative homeless advocates say falls far short of what is needed.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_homeless_veterans_110908/

11 year old Brenden Foster's dying wish, feed the homeless

Brenden Foster said he wants to be an angel so that he can help the homeless from Heaven. Get ready to cry for this sweet child when you watch this video. He's proof there are angels here on earth already. He's one of them.

Last wish: Feed homeless 2:18
Feeding the homeless is a Washington state 11-year-old's last wish. KOMO has the story.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/09/jaffey.wa.last.wish.komo
Boy shares heartbreaking last wish

LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- Doctors gave 11-year-old Brenden Foster two weeks to live.

Those two weeks were up on Wednesday. On Friday, he shared his last wish.

Not yet a teenager, Brenden's time to die has come.

"I should be gone in a week or so," he said.

Brenden was the kid who ran the fastest, climbed the highest and dreamed of becoming a marine photographer. Leukemia took away all those things, but not his dying wish to help others.

"He's always thought about others. Never complained about having to go through this, ever," said his mother, Wendy Foster.

When Brenden was first diagnosed with leukemia, he and his mom began a new tradition. Every night they list three positive things that happened during the day, and they have to share a laugh. A chuckle will do, Brenden said, but a fake laugh will never do.

In the last days of his life, it was a homeless camp, namely Nickelsville, that captured the boy's heart.

"I was coming back from one of my clinic appoints and I saw this big thing of homeless people, and then I thought I should just get them something," he said.

Brenden is too ill to leave his bed and feed the homeless. He walked into an emergency room last December and hasn't walked since.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/34127439.html

Family, officials stunned by deaths at Fort Jackson

Family, officials stunned by deaths at Jackson

Three recruits die in less than a month at post
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Nov 9, 2008 8:54:53 EST

Cameron Oquendo will never know the soldier his mother, Pvt. Andrea Rosser, could have become.

Rosser died Oct. 25 on the toddler’s first birthday while taking the Army Physical Fitness Test at Fort Jackson, S.C. She was one week away from completing the nine-week basic combat training course.

Rosser’s family is still trying to make sense of their 21-year-old’s sudden death.

“I just spoke to her about three weeks ago; she sounded wonderful,” Rosser’s mother, Georgette, told Army Times in an Oct. 30 telephone interview from her Clayton, N.C., home.

What’s more troubling, her mother said, is Rosser is one of three privates who have died in the past month attending Jackson’s basic training program.

“Three deaths in less than a month — what’s happening?” she asked. “We are trying to grieve for our daughter, and we are still trying to grasp what happened.”

In addition to Rosser, Pvt. Dominique Brooks, 19, of Houston, died Sept. 25 after having a seizure on her barracks floor, and Pvt. Derryl Britt, 20, of Durham, N.C., died Sept. 27 when he was taken off life support after surgery to repair a brain hemorrhage.

Fort Jackson officials are still investigating Rosser’s death and provided limited details of the incident, Jackson spokeswoman Karen Soule said.

Rosser’s mother, Georgette Rosser, said post officials told her that the Oct. 27 autopsy performed on Rosser at the Richland County Coroner’s office was inconclusive.

“We are waiting for the toxicology results to come out,” she said. “She had no pre-existing heath conditions.”

Leaders at Jackson said they are shocked by the three deaths.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/army_trainingdeaths_110908w/

PTSD:Maj. General David Blackledge shows what courage is back home

Photo by AP
In this photograph provided by Maj. Gen. David Blackledge, Blackledge, right, stands next to then U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad in Iraq in this undated photograph. From Boston Herald

PTSD News: After Two Iraq War Deployments, Army Major General Steps Forward, Breaks Culture of Silence on Mental Health

Pauline Jelinek


Associated Press

Nov 08, 2008

November 8, 2008, Washington, DC (AP) — It takes a brave soldier to do what Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge did in Iraq.

It takes as much bravery to do what he did when he got home.

Blackledge got psychiatric counseling to deal with wartime trauma, and now he is defying the military's culture of silence on the subject of mental health problems and treatment.

"It's part of our profession ... nobody wants to admit that they've got a weakness in this area," Blackledge said of mental health problems among troops returning from America's two wars.

"I have dealt with it. I'm dealing with it now," said Blackledge, who came home with post-traumatic stress. "We need to be able to talk about it."

As the nation marks another Veterans Day, thousands of troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with anxiety, depression and other emotional problems.

Up to 20 percent of the more than 1.7 million who've served in the wars are estimated to have symptoms. In a sign of how tough it may be to change attitudes, roughly half of those who need help aren't seeking it, studies have found.
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/11596

How will military greet Obama?

A few things to consider here. First is that Bush said he listened to the commanders, but he ignored anyone daring to disagree with him. That is a fact and many experienced, loyal, dedicated generals resigned instead of following callous orders that would cause unnecessary deaths. The other is to remember that while President Elect Obama does not have military experience, he does have something Bush never did. A great respect and heart for those who serve. It came from his own family. He's shown this when as soon as the became a Senator, Obama joined the Veterans Affairs Committee and fought for veterans to be taken care of. Just look up his record and his speeches to know exactly how he feels about the men and women serving this nation.

How will military greet Obama?
by Politico.com
Sunday November 09, 2008, 7:22 AM

Barack Obama will enter the White House without any military experience and with a playbook that emphasizes diplomacy, behind a president who waged two wars and presided over some of the largest-ever defense budget increases.

So, how will President Obama be received at the Pentagon? Much depends on his first moves.

One of his senior security advisers, former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), said even though the president-elect has experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he’ll need a strong defense team that works together well.

“He will have to pay a lot of attention to a secretary of defense and the close advisers to the secretary,” Hamilton said. “The whole military, national security establishment will be watching that with care.”

And since the military is trained to follow orders, insiders say it is receptive to the change of command.

The military needs to be ready to offer its advice while scrupulously avoiding any attempt to shape the agenda, said a senior defense official familiar with the transition. “It is to everyone’s benefit to shorten the learning curve for whoever is coming in,” he said, especially because this is the first wartime transition since 1968.

Senior officers will be ready to follow the orders of Obama, who has not stirred any detectable negative response in the military command, said Dov Zakheim, who was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon comptroller. And if they balk, one former senior officer pointed out, there are plenty of other officers to be promoted.

President Bush wasn’t shy about using the military, but his relationship with top military commanders was sometimes sour, particularly over issues related to the war in Iraq.

Early on, Bush deferred to Rumsfeld, his first defense secretary, who dumped Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki after he told Congress more troops were required for the invasion of Iraq. And while active-duty generals muted public criticism for the rest of Bush’s term, retired generals spoke out.

In 2004, retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni raised early concerns about the execution of the war. Then in 2006, six retired generals went public with their concerns.

Bush responded with a surge of forces, and extended officers’ tours of duty from 12 to 15 months for a force already strained by multiple, lengthy deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In his book “The War Within,” Bob Woodward detailed how that decision was made over the objections of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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PTSD:A Plague of War

Trained for battle, toughened, ready to fight, courage, patriotism, many different words they hear as they prepare to risk their lives. What they don't hear is the word "human" in the vocabulary of military speak. Then they come home changed. Some, temporary, others forever. While our experiences go into who we are and we move on with memories of normal daily lives, the combat veterans have to live with the memories of war. They still have the words used to train them reverberating in their minds and none of those words fit in with seeking help.

For all the times we've heard about the concern for phony claims in the VA with PTSD, what we need to remember is that the vast majority of veterans with PTSD, never go for help at all. Ask a Vietnam vet and understand that help was for the weak in their mind and this is something the "tough" will not tolerate. The stigma lives on. They don't understand that it takes a lot of courage and tenacity to fight the government to have claims approved, have the wounds treated and begin to heal. Courage to no longer care what some uneducated fool has to say about a brave veteran seeking help for this wound. Enough knowledge to know that no one has to just suck it up and deal with it as their lives fall apart.

I tell this story often about how one day at the VA in Orlando, waiting for my husband to come out after his appointment, I talked to two Marines back from Iraq. They were trying to fill out paperwork for their claims. I had on a Chaplain T-shirt so they knew who they were talking to. One Marine began to cry. He apologized to me. He talked about his training and how Marines were supposed to be tough but he was showing his weakness in front of me. We talked for a long time and I reminded him that he was sitting there after the battle was done, after he did his duty, after he followed orders, after his buddies needed him and he did all of this carrying the wound of PTSD eating away at him. There was nothing to be ashamed of. He showed exactly how brave, tough and committed he was and it was time for him to heal.

When we hear about a soldier with a bullet wound still fighting off the enemy, we think of how brave he was but when the wound they fight with is inside of them, no one ever thinks twice about what kind of courage that takes. We award the physically wounded with medals of heroism yet we brand the PTSD wounded with animosity. Who decided there should be anything to be ashamed of when a human is touched by all they endure during combat? People die in front of their eyes. They lose friends. They see horrific results of bombs blowing up. They have to kill. People will tend to have a lot more compassion for some civilian after a natural disaster than they do a soldier after hundreds of traumatic events.

We've come a long way but there are so many battles to fight against the people standing in the way of our men and women in the military and especially the National Guards seeking help to heal from what they went thru. The question is, when do we get there?
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

A plague of war
Asbury Park Press - Asbury Park,NJ,USA
As veterans return from Iraq, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has become common. Its treatment presents challenges.
By Michael Amsel • STAFF WRITER • November 9, 2008
They can't sleep at night, constantly tossing and turning. The slightest rumbling
reminds them of an improvised explosive device. They can't connect with their loved
ones. A feeling of despair is impossible to shake, shadowing their every move,
triggering thoughts of suicide. And the nightmares, so dark and turbulent.

These are symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, an anxiety disorder that has afflicted tens of thousands of soldiers in this country after their exposure to
traumatic events of war. During World War I, PTSD was called "shell shock." During
World War II, it became known as "combat fatigue."

Now, it is universally referred to as PTSD and is as prevalent as ever, given the
ongoing five-year Iraq War.

Estimates of the rate of PTSD among veterans returning from Iraq range from 12 to 20 percent, according to a 2007 survey taken by the American Public Health Association. The Department of Veterans Affairs has treated more than 52,000 persons; with deployment now over 1.5 million, the numbers are expected to increase sharply in the years ahead, experts say.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder really came to light back in 1980 when a group of Vietnam veterans began showing up with the same cluster of symptoms," said Thomas Lozinski, a licensed psychologist from Manasquan who is recognized as a local pioneer in treating the disorder. "Many of them, when they woke up, didn't know where they were and turned violent. They had these feelings of alienation, which we call psychic withdrawal. They guarded their emotions. They couldn't enjoy themselves, an inability known as anhedonia. Their symptoms read like a big Chinese menu — one from Column A, three from Column B."

Many veterans, upon returning home, are unable to make the adjustment to civilian life. They have marital problems. They can't find jobs. They experience behavioral problems and are unable to control their anger.

The symptoms of PTSD fester in their minds, often lying dormant for years at a time, wreaking havoc with their lives. Many are simply too proud to ask for help. Much denial is inherent in the disorder, and soldiers are worried about being stigmatized.

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Casualties of war: a soldier writes

Casualties of war: a soldier writes

By Mark Dryden
Sunday, 9 November 2008
On Remembrance Sunday we pause to think of those who have perished in conflicts but for every lost soldier, countless others are left with physical and mental scars.
On 20 November 2005 Sergeant John Jones, 32, of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was killed in a roadside bomb in Basra, Iraq, in which Lance Corporal Mark Dryden lost an arm. L/Cpl Dryden, a self confessed “class clown” who joined the army at 17 without any qualifications, has since left and is now working towards a degree. Currently volunteering as a junior football team coach, he hopes to get a job as a physical education teacher. In this, his first ever essay for his new college, he recounts the day he lost his friend.


It’s been an hour. The streets are very quiet. Something is just not right. It feels hostile as if something is going to happen. We stop next to a local shop; we have spoken to the shopkeeper once before. He was very nice and talkative, but this time he won’t talk to Captain Fields.

I say to John, "This is pointless no one is gonna talk to a female officer."

John agrees. We drive away.

I tell John, "I don’t think we will get much out of this patrol as we have a female interpreter."

John has always trusted my judgement as I’m third in charge. We had a good rapport with the local shopkeepers; some have told us that it’s the Afghans and the Iranians that are bombing the city. Something still doesn’t feel right. I’m not scared, I’m quite happy as we are going to get back in early.
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So, what are we fighting for today?
Military hopes Barack Obama’s election will bring clear new aims to the mission in Afghanistan.
We've forgotten the lessons of British history, says former commander in Bosnia, as forces are imperilled by absence of clear direction, defined objectives, support and adequate equipment

By Cole Moreton
Sunday, 9 November 2008
On this Remembrance Sunday, British soldiers standing in dusty battle fatigues in Afghanistan will remember a friend whose death was so recent that the feelings are still raw.


Yubraj Rai was shot during an ambush by the Taliban. Medics tried to save him, but they couldn't. The 28-year-old died in a land where the poppy does not mean remembrance. It means opium, money and power. And death.

His mates have spoken about a man with a ready smile that hid how "brave, strong and hard" he was. Yubraj used his pay from the Royal Gurkha Rifles to support a mother, sister and three brothers back home in Nepal. "We are proud of you," said one of his closest comrades, "and what you did for us, your family and for the Queen."
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Reports: More than 20 dead in Russian nuclear sub accident

Reports: More than 20 dead in Russian sub accident
Story Highlights
Russian submarine's fire extinguishing system went into operation in error

Submarine was in Pacific Ocean conducting tests, reports say

Accident did not affect sub's reactor; radiation levels on ship normal, reports say

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russian news agencies are reporting that an accident aboard a nuclear-powered submarine has killed more than 20 people.

Interfax quotes navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo as saying the reactor is working normally and radiation levels are normal.
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Harsh Words About Obama? Never Mind Now

Good but will their supporters now understand that what they heard from all of these people was not true?

Harsh Words About Obama? Never Mind Now
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 8, 2008
That whole anti-American, friend-to-the-terrorists thing about President-elect Barack Obama? Never mind.

Just a few weeks ago, at the height of the campaign, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota told Chris Matthews of MSNBC that, when it came to Mr. Obama, “I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.”

But there she was on Wednesday, after narrowly escaping defeat because of those comments, saying she was “extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year.” Ms. Bachmann, a Republican, called Mr. Obama’s victory, which included her state, “a tremendous signal we sent.”

And it was not too long ago that Senator John McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, accused Mr. Obama of “palling around with terrorists.”

But she took an entirely different tone on Thursday, when she chastised reporters for asking her questions about her war with some staff members in the McCain campaign at such a heady time. “Barack Obama has been elected president,” Ms. Palin said. “Let us, let us — let him — be able to kind of savor this moment, one, and not let the pettiness of maybe internal workings of the campaign erode any of the recognition of this historic moment that we’re in. And God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family.”
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linked from RawStory

Pregnant soldier was strangled to death in barracks 7 years ago

Slain teen’s mom still seeks justice
Pregnant soldier was strangled to death in barracks 7 years ago
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, November 9, 2008


It’s been seven long years.

But Gloria Bates, the mother of a murdered daughter, still believes there will be justice.

"It hasn’t gone to cold case. It’s still open and they’re still investigating," Bates said from her home in Dallas. "We haven’t let up hope."

Nov. 5 marked the seven-year anniversary of the murder of Pfc. Amanda Gonzales, whose body was found on the floor of her third-floor barracks room on Fliegerhorst Casern in Hanau, Germany. Gonzales, 19, was five-months pregnant when she was strangled to death.

In the time since her death, much has changed. The base where she worked as an Army cook has closed. The soldiers assigned there have scattered. Yet DNA evidence continues to be analyzed, Bates said.

According to Bates, the DNA analysis has been slow going. And with two wars going on, agents with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command also are stretched thin, she said.

"[They] are so short-handed right now as far as CID agents," she said. "That does slow down our case more."
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58717

Arizona boy, 8, accused of killing 2, including dad

Arizona boy, 8, accused of killing 2, including dad
By FELICIA FONSECA
Associated Press
Nov. 8, 2008, 7:59PM
ST. JOHNS, Ariz. — A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should handle guns and had taught him how to use them, the clergyman said Saturday.

The father, Vincent Romero, 29, was from a family of avid hunters and wanted to make sure the boy wasn't afraid of guns and knew how to handle them, said the Very Rev. John Paul Sauter of St. Johns Catholic Church. The boy's stepmother had suggested he have a BB gun, the priest said.

Romero taught his son how to use a rifle to kill prairie dogs, Sauter said. Police say the boy used a 22.-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos.

The priest did not say how he advised the couple or whether they decided to buy him a gun but said Saturday that the boy "was just too young."

"That child, I don't think he knows what he did, and it was brutal," said Sauter, who presided at the wedding of the father and stepmother.

The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said. Police are looking into whether he might have been abused.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6102254.html

Two children found unhurt in Haiti school collapse

Survivors Found in Haiti School Collapse
CNN
Port AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Nov. 8) -- Rescue workers in Haiti continued sifting through piles of rubble for signs of life Saturday as night fell over the grim scene where a school collapsed Friday.

Two uninjured children were pulled from the rubble of College La Promesse Evangelique in Petionville on Saturday and reunited with their families, said Rob Drouen, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Their rescue came hours after the death toll from the collapse climbed to 82 with the discovery of 21 bodies in a classroom, President Rene Preval said, according to Clarens Renois of the Haitian Press Network.

However, Drouen said it was difficult to say exactly how many people were inside the school.

"Yesterday, there was a special event at the school, so there were not only pupils but family members and friends who were invited," he said. "It's very difficult to say how many people were in the school."