Spoof New York Times reports end to Iraq war

(Fake) New York Times reports end to Iraq war


NEW YORK (AFP) — The United States has ended the war in Iraq and indicted President George W. Bush on treason charges, The New York Times reported Tuesday. OK, well not really.

An elaborate spoof hit the streets of New York on Tuesday: a convincing fake of The New York Times announcing not just the withdrawal of troops from Iraq but a raft of other US liberal fantasies.

Bush is indicted, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologizes that the fuss about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was invented, and Americans are finally getting national health insurance.

And that's just on the front page.

The only problem? The free, 14-page "special edition" newspaper -- and its equally realistic looking "New York Times" website -- are phoney.

Website www.gawker.com has identified the pranksters behind the stunt as The Yes men, a liberal group famous for practical jokes.

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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2iXmvWWipHA4VprWUol2bB3ZK7w

David Letterman lists what we do have to be thankful for

David Letterman is right on this but while reminding us what we do have to be happy about, (will come in handy on Thanksgiving when we are trying to list what we are thankful for) he is dismissing the suffering of most of the country. Besides the layoffs, foreclosures, two military campaigns creating more and more wounded and fallen soldiers with families to grieve the loss, homeless people in every city, if we only think about what is bad, we do tend to forget about what is good. It's something that is much needed and very timely considering that there is a new president coming in and a new mood in the nation.


Sent from email.

No matter what your political convictions are this is an eye opener....What a thankless people we are!!!

David Letterman, on President Bush. (Surprising)

David Letterman wrote this; it's the David we don't often see....

'As most of you know I am not a President Bush fan, nor have I ever been, but this is not about Bush, it is about us, as Americans, and it seems to hit the mark.'
'The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some Poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?
The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the President.. In essence 2/3 of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change. So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, 'What are we so unhappy about?'

A. Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week?

B. Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter?




C. Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?

D. Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

E. Maybe it is the ability to drive our cars and trucks from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state.



F. Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter?

G. I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough either.

H. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

I. Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home.



J. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family, and your belongings.

K. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.

L. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

M. How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world?

Maybe that is what has 67% of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me?



Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad? Think about it......are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the 'Media' told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.



Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an 'other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable' discharge after a few days in
the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans?

Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by 'justifying' them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it
this way......Insane!

Turn off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New
York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad. We are among the most blessed people on Earth and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.' 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'



-David Letterman


Please keep this in circulation. There are so many people who need to read this and grasp the truth of it all.

Bronze Star honors sailor’s Iraq service

Bronze Star honors sailor’s Iraq service
By Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, November 14, 2008

A Navy lieutenant was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor device Monday on Okinawa for the very dangerous work of eliminating explosives in the Anbar province of Iraq in 2007.

But for Lt. Jonathan Haase, the deployment had been a "lot of fun," he said. He added he never thought he would earn such a high award when he joined the U.S. Navy.

The sailor said he was most grateful for something else — having his wife at the award ceremony.

"My wife was home for the kids and it was a way to thank her for all the support that she gave me," Haase said. "For me, it was really gratifying that she was there."

Haase was given the award for routinely exposing himself to grave and immediate danger as the officer-in-charge of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Five Detachment One, which operated in Iraq from June until December 2007.
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Navajo WWII Marine, Code Talker big hit at Yokosuka Naval Base’s elementary school

Kids tune in to ‘code talker’
A piece of living history visited Yokosuka Naval Base’s elementary school Wednesday to give students a first-hand account of his role in World War II. Samuel Smith, a Navajo and former Marine, was a member of the so-called "code talkers," who transmitted secret, tactical messages using their native language over military telephones and radios.
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Annual food drive returns to Killeen with help from troops

Annual food drive returns to Killeen
Floating on cloud nine is how Ann Farris said she will feel after Killeen's Food Care Center receives its donated goods during the Central Texas Food For Families drive Nov. 21.

Farris, the co-director of the Food Care Center, said sorting all those provisions and getting them out to families in need will be an exhausting process, but it is always well worth the positive impact that the simplest of necessities can make on the community.

Through the partnership between KWTX Channel 10 News, H-E-B, the Longhorn Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the U.S. Army, local food pantries and scores of volunteers, the food drive has been going strong in Central Texas for 18 years.

Virgil Teter, the vice president of news at KWTX and an organizer of the drive, said the event is spread over 19 cities and nine counties.
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Husband's coffin kills widow in Brazil

Husband's coffin kills widow
Husband's coffin kills widow
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 2:59 AM


SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Police say a woman has died on the way to a cemetery when a traffic accident hurled her husband's coffin against the back of her neck.

Police say 67-year-old Marciana Silva Barcelos was in the front passenger seat of the hearse during the crash Monday in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Her 76-year-old husband, Josi Silveira Coimbra, died Sunday of a heart attack while dancing at a party.

Second school collapses in Haiti

Second school collapses in Haiti
A second school in Haiti has partially collapsed, injuring nine people. Portions of the Grace Divine School in Canape Vert came crashing down Wednesday while class was in session. -
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Teen faces first-degree murder in Dillard High School slaying

Teen faces first-degree murder in Dillard slaying

Shooting suspect Teah Wimberly, has been charged with first-degree murder and one count of discharging a weapon on school property for Wednesday's slaying at Dillard High School. - Updated 29 minutes ago
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY, HANNAH SAMPSON AND JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA
jmooney@MiamiHerald.com
A 10th-grader was fatally shot as classes were underway at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday afternoon, and another 15-year-old armed with a chrome, semiautomatic handgun was arrested shortly afterward, authorities said.

The victim, identified as Amanda Collette, was rushed to Broward General Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, both police and school district officials confirmed. She was shot in the torso, authorities said.

The shooting suspect, a sophomore named Teah Wimberly, was being questioned -- with her grandfather by her side -- at police headquarters and has been charged with first-degree murder and one count of discharging a weapon on school property.
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Three generations of soldiers mark Veterans Day in Peabody MA

From left, Louis P. Girolimon, Frederick L. Howcroft and Frederick J. Howcroft represent three generations of military service within a single family. Girolimon served in World War II, Frederick L. Howcroft served in the War of Terror, and Frederick J. Howcroft served in Vietnam. Matthew Viglianti/Staff Photographer

A family of heroes: Three generations of soldiers mark Veterans Day in Peabody

By Alan Burke
Staff writer


We all have responsibilities as citizens, but some of us carry more of the weight. And some carry it farther.

Yesterday, three generations of American warriors gathered at Peabody City Hall to mark Veterans Day. Included was Army National Guardsman Frederick L. Howcroft, his father Frederick J. Howcroft and his grandfather Louis Girolimon. Among those remembered was Girolimon's son, Lance Cpl. Louis M. Girolimon, killed in Vietnam on June 10, 1968.

Grandfather Louis, now 83 and a retired Peabody patrolman, began the family's American military tradition in World War II. The son of an Italian immigrant, he went into the Army on graduation from Peabody High School.

"I've been patriotic all my life," he says. "It's something you have to do as a man. ... As long as we uphold our honor, that's the important thing."

go here for more
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_316221359.html

Two schoolgirls blinded in acid attack in Afghanistan

Two schoolgirls blinded in acid attack in Afghanistan
Story Highlights
Men on motorcycle spray girls with acid from squirt guns, military says

No one claims responsibility, but network says Taliban suspected

Girls were prohibited from going to school under Taliban regime

Top U.S. commander calls insurgents "dishonorable"


KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two men on a motorcycle used water pistols to spray acid on girls walking to school Wednesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, blinding at least two of them, military spokesmen said.


An Afghan schoolgirl sits in a hospital Wednesday after being sprayed with acid in Kandahar, Afghanistan.



U.S. Col. Greg Julian said Afghanistan's National Military Command Center told him that four girls were hurt in the incident. Two were blinded and remain hospitalized, and two were treated and released, he said.

The men escaped after the attack, and no one claimed responsibility for it, but Arab-language network Al-Jazeera said Taliban militants were suspected to be responsible.

The incident occurred about 8 a.m. near Mirwais Nika Girls High School in the Meir Weis Mena district.

Kandahar government spokesman Parwaz Ayoubi gave different figures on the number of girls injured, saying six were burned, one of them severely. He called the attackers "enemies of education."

Girls were forbidden to attend school under the Taliban, which ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, when U.S.-led forces removed them from power.

According to Al-Jazeera, the girls were attacked with battery acid. Two teenage sisters, one of whom suffered serious burns, were among the victims.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/afghanistan.acid.attack/index.html

TroopTube is Pentagon's answer to YouTube

Pentagon launches its own version of YouTube

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 12, 2008 16:04:27 EST

Eighteen months after banning access to YouTube and other social networking and entertainment sites on Defense Department computers, the Pentagon has launched a site where troops and families can upload and share videos.

Don’t look for anything too edgy on TroopTube. All videos are subject to screening for “taste, copyright violations and national security issues,” according to the Web site, which is administered by Military OneSource, the Pentagon’s online family resource center.

But the good news is that unlike YouTube, MySpace and 10 other networking and entertainment sites banned on official sites worldwide by the Pentagon in May 2007 — primarily, officials said, because they took up too much bandwidth — TroopTube can be viewed on an official computer.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_trooptube_111208w/

This sounds great and maybe it'll replace what the troops have been missing.

If you think any of my videos will help a service member understand what PTSD is, not just for themselves, but their friends as well, please feel free to just upload away. No permission needed for what I do. Here's all the links so that you can use whatever you want.


When War Comes Home Part One04:33
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 387
2 ratings

When War Comes Home Part Two

Women At War08:02
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 10,571
17 ratings


Hero After War08:27
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 4,966
16 ratings


A Homeless Veteran's Day04:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,247
7 ratings


Nam Nights Of PTSD Still08:33
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 2,431


Coming Out Of The Dark Of PTSD04:25
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,234

The Voice Women At War09:49
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,017

PTSD Not God's Judgment06:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 2,168

Point Man Int. Ministries Is There04:41
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 360

PTSD After Trauma04:44
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 2,314

PTSD I Grieve08:40
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,109

PTSD Final battle of war05:01
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 268

PTSD It's All About Soul06:12
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 83

Veterans Day Memories of Vietnam08:50
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 179

Wounded Minds Veterans and PTSD

Dad has message after family killed:Don't drink and drive

Josh Jahn of Dwight speaks of missing his wife and children after Tuesday's funeral for Amanda, 27, Ryan, 3, and Kaitlyn, 11 months, in First Christian Church in Morris. The three family members died in a two-car accident near Morris on Thursday night. The other driver, Ann Marie Getz, 43, of Streator was charged with three counts of aggravated driving under the influence. (Tribune photo by John Smierciak / November 11, 2008)

'Please don't drink and drive. ... This is what happens—three beautiful lives abruptly cut short.'
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons Tribune reporter
November 12, 2008
Amanda Jahn was driving home from teaching a violin lesson, her two young children strapped into their car seats, when a vehicle came barreling through a stop sign and slammed into their car.

A repeat drunken driver was behind the wheel of the other vehicle, officials said.

Josh Jahn, a volunteer firefighter, was at home with his police scanner on. When he heard the accident come over the radio, he drove to the scene because he had just talked with his wife and knew she was driving on that road.

Jahn saw his son being loaded onto the ambulance but not his wife. He followed the ambulance to the hospital, where he kept asking where his wife was until someone told him she had died at the scene.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-dui-deathsnov12,0,1585608.story

Only 1 boy's body found in car in Green River

Only 1 boy's body found in car in Green River
A car that plunged into the Green River last week was finally pulled from the water Tuesday, but inside was the body of only one of two boys who had been trapped.

By Nancy Bartley

Seattle Times staff reporter

AUBURN — Eleven years ago, the Beaupre family gathered on the banks of the Green River to scatter the ashes of patriarch Paul Beaupre, an avid fisherman who died at 72.

On Tuesday, the family was back at the river holding vigil as King County sheriff's deputies recovered the body of 2-year-old Hunter Beaupre from a car that had careened into the murky, brown water on Friday. Hunter was Paul Beaupre's grandson.

But the body of Hunter's 13-year-old cousin Austin Fuda, who also had been in the car when it plunged into the river, was not found in the battered Volkswagen Beetle. A search of the riverbank also turned up no sign of the teen, adding to the anguish of the family that has waited nearly a week for some sign of the two boys.

"We were hoping and praying he was in the car," said Kristin Fuda, Austin's aunt. "This is like another nightmare on top of everything."
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Please pray for the family

Hard times forcing more families to give up pets

Hard times forcing more families to give up pets
The couple brought everything with their two dogs -- beds, food, even favorite toys. "I just felt for these people. They were having a hard time," said Gloria Thomas, director of the West Volusia Humane Society. "You could tell they were devastated they had to give up these two little pets."

By NICOLE SERVICE
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- The couple brought everything with their two dogs -- beds, food, even favorite toys.

"I just felt for these people. They were having a hard time," said Gloria Thomas, director of the West Volusia Humane Society. "You could tell they were devastated they had to give up these two little pets."

As Thomas tells the story, the couple didn't have much choice. Their home was being foreclosed on and they were about to lose everything, which now included their beloved pets.

Shelter workers and volunteers throughout Volusia and Flagler counties tell similar stories about people faced with foreclosure, unemployment, or falling wages being forced to surrender their pets.

"You can always tell who they are," said Lynda Mays, a board member with Southeast Volusia Humane Society in New Smyrna Beach. "They are the people who sit and cry in our office for an hour. They feel they are not living up to their responsibility. It is terribly sad."

Bobbi Gibson with the Flagler County Humane Society said that facility has been getting one or two such pets per day -- about five a week -- from people who admit they have to surrender their pets because of financial problems.

Amy Beliman, a board member and volunteer, said the Flagler facility had five such surrenders on Monday alone.

"It is a sign of the times," she said. "Unfortunately, there are people who can't take care of their animals."

She said the influx of abandoned or surrendered pets is putting animal shelters into a financial bind, too.

"We are in dire need of funding," Beliman said. "People are hurting and the economy is tough, but we need to remember that the animals really need the help right now, too."
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Girl dies after possible school shooting in Fort Lauderdale

Girl dies after possible school shooting in Fort Lauderdale
By Ihosvani Rodriguez and Kathy Bushouse | SunSentinel.com
1:28 PM EST, November 12, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE - A Dillard High School junior has died after a possible shooting on campus this morning, Superintendent James Notter said.

Notter confirmed the 15-year-old girl's death. He said he believed the shooting occurred in a school hallway after some sort of dispute with another 15-year-old female student around 11 a.m., but police still aren't sure exactly what.

The victim was found unresponsive in the hallway, but an initial examination found no evidence of a major wound, police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said.

As police arrived, dispatchers got a call from Captain Crab's, a nearby restaurant, reporting that another girl may have been involved in a shooting, Sousa said.
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Vet highlights women in combat, military health care

Vet highlights women in combat, military health care
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY | zachary.dowdy@newsday.com
8:13 PM EST, November 11, 2008
Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth stood alongside President-elect Barack Obama for a Veterans Day observance at a memorial in Illinois Tuesday and saluted those who fought beside her and died - men and women who weren't as lucky as she was.

Duckworth, 40, who in 2004 lost both of her legs and partial use of an arm during the conflict, had flown combat missions as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. The decorated soldier, who spent 13 months recuperating at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal for her service.

A major in the Illinois National Guard, she had flown the fighter plane for more than 200 combat hours before a grenade exploded in her cockpit. She told The Associated Press that her experience is an example of women's increased exposure to military combat.

"The American public is beginning to realize that women are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing the same risks," she said.
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We neglect our veterans to our shame

We neglect our veterans to our shame
Stamford Advocate - Stamford,CT,USA


Staff Reports
Article Launched: 11/12/2008 03:00:24 AM EST


Somehow, somewhere the plight of some veterans became lost in the excitement and hubbub of the national election. In a preview to Veterans Day on Tuesday, it was disclosed that 1,200 veterans of the armed forces are homeless in Southwestern Connecticut. That should not be. Consider that those same veterans served us and protected us from harm. Most of them served overseas in faraway lands, fighting desert sands and other discomforts. They risked their lives every day fighting for our freedom. Why there are not places for them to live is beyond me, and is in a word, shameful.

As a veteran myself, I find that some of our comrades, even those separated from us by a generation, are basically forgotten.

It wasn't always this way. There was a time when we did a much better job of living up to our obligations toward our veterans. Following World War II, veterans came home to temporary housing. Quonset huts were erected on public land. Here in Stamford, that kind of housing was established in Shippan adjacent to Cummings Park. Other, more conventional housing was constructed on city-owned land on High Ridge Road where Rippowam School now stands. They were attractive Cape Cod-style cottages. Many World War II veterans received their re-start and return to family life as they knew it in the temporary housing.

There are some shelters for homeless veterans in Connecticut. In Bridgeport, for example, where they are provided with housing, instruction in the use of a computer,
and programs to help them gain employment. But they are shelters, pure and simple. Not enough.

The questions posed here is: If the government can pour billions of dollars into the banking community, something, by the way, that should be rescued, why hasn't adequate money been set aside to care for our veterans? Not only as far as housing and jobs are concerned - but what about health care and rehabilitation?

Remember the conditions that were discovered at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington - literally under the noses of the administration and our legislators in the Congress? It is almost as though the thinking was, "Send them off to battle with a parade and hugs from their families, and we will think about health care, jobs and their general well being when we get around to it."

We didn't know about the terrible conditions at Walter Reed until reporters from the Washington Post newspaper exposed them. What would conditions be like today if those reports had never come out? The disclosure spirited some good citizens to become active in helping veterans, including a group that established a state-of-the-art hospital for veterans in Texas. But more is needed as the wars go on and service people return with arms and legs missing and need help.
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UK:NHS failing 'soldiers with post traumatic stress'

NHS failing 'soldiers with post traumatic stress'Western Morning News - Plymouth, England,UK

Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 10:00

THE NHS has been accused of failing armed forces personnel suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome.

New information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the leader of the Teignbridge District Council, Alan Connett, revealed that mental health trusts throughout the country are not aware of new Government rules demanding that injured armed forces personnel are given priority treatment.

Coun Connett e-mailed 74 trusts in England with a set of 11 questions and was surprised that the majority were not aware of the Government guidelines.

Coun Connett's findings revealed many trusts do not even record if patients are, or have been, in the armed forces.

He said: "During the First World War, people would get shot for being shell-shocked.

Nowadays they don't get shot, thank God, but it seems people still don't care about our armed forces and all the stress they suffer from. We haven't learned the lesson."

In the Westcountry, only the Cornwall Partnership Trust has a £70,000 pilot programme in place to help veterans.

Other partnership trusts have nothing specific in place or did not even respond to Coun Connett's request for the relevant information.

Lisa Whyte, 34, wife of Scott Whyte, 30, a former lance corporal in the 38 Engineer Regiment, who suffered from severe post traumatic stress disorder after an eight-month tour of Iraq, said her husband had only been properly diagnosed a few weeks ago after the Royal British Legion stepped in to help.

Mrs Whyte, who lives in Uffculme, Devon, said: "I'm not surprised with these findings. The NHS has been useless. It's falling apart in this country."

On December 12, 2007, NHS chief executive David Nicholson wrote to all NHS trusts telling them about the new priority for veterans, which came into effect on January 1this year.

However, in their responses to Coun Connett's request, only 48 mental health trusts out of 74 made any reference to the new guidance. Most also confirmed they would not give any priority to treating service personnel or veterans or did not routinely ask if PTSD patients have served in the armed forces.

Coun Connett added: "As we reflect on those who have paid the ultimate price for their country, many who have fought in previous wars continue to bear the wounds, both physical and mental, of their service.
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Jonestown, Escape from madman

I watched this the other night. It's powerful. When you want to know what trauma looks like, watch it. There are interviews with people who escaped, had relatives and friends die there and what was going on in other branches of the People's Temple. The lingering heartache did not fade with the years.

Escape from a madman
"It was a slave camp run by a madman," and escape from Jim Jones' Peoples Temple cult compound in Guyana meant hiking 30 miles through the jungle. Leslie Wilson was one of the lucky handful who did escape 30 years ago. More than 900 others didn't. full story
Jones stockpiled cyanide
Escape from Jonestown, 9 p.m., Thursday

US Troops begin to shift out of Iraqi cities

Troops begin to shift out of Iraqi cities

By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Nov 12, 2008 9:23:58 EST

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military in Iraq is abandoning — deliberately and with little public notice — a centerpiece of the widely acclaimed strategy it adopted nearly two years ago to turn the tide against the insurgency. It is moving American troops farther from the people they are trying to protect.

Starting in early 2007, with Iraq on the brink of all-out civil war, the troops were pushed into the cities and villages as part of a change in strategy that included President Bush’s decision to send more combat forces.

The bigger U.S. presence on the streets was credited by many with allowing the Americans and their Iraqi security partners to build trust among the populace, thus undermining the extremists’ tactics of intimidation, reducing levels of violence and giving new hope to resolving the country’s underlying political conflicts.

Now the Americans are reversing direction, consolidating in larger bases outside the cities and leaving security in the hands of the Iraqis while remaining within reach to respond as the Iraqi forces require.

The U.S. is on track to complete its shift out of all Iraqi cities by June 2009. That is one of the milestones in a political-military campaign plan devised in 2007 by Gen. David Petraeus, when he was the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and his political partner in Baghdad, Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The goal also is in a preliminary security pact with the Iraqi government on the future U.S. military presence.

The shift is not explicitly linked to U.S. plans for increasing its military presence in Afghanistan, but there is an important connection: The logistical resources needed to house and supply a larger and more distributed U.S. force in Afghanistan have been tied up in Iraq. To some extent that will be relieved with the consolidation of U.S. forces in Iraq onto larger, outlying bases that are easier to maintain.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_iraqcities_111208/