Apparently, I have crossed the line as a writer and entered into the censored zone. I posted three of these photos on my Examiner page and they were pulled down by my editor within an hour. Americans are not allowed to see the horror of war, we only see the cleaned-up version, with waving flags and apple pie and mom waiting, because we are apparently occupying third world countries to protect our freedom. Meanwhile our kids see shit like this. Then when they come home, freak out and kill people we wonder why. As the great Gen. Smedley Butler said, “To Hell with War!”

At least 43 soldiers at Fort Hood, TX were gunned down yesterday, 13 of which have reportedly died.

The alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was a psychiatrist who specialized in counseling soldiers returning from deployment who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

According to The New York Times, he was “mortified” about being deployed overseas because “he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war” after having counseled many who have been there. While that certainly does not excuse his actions, it does point to an alarming trend in the military and should be a wake up call for those who want to prolong the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The President already has expressed his regrets and condolences to the wounded troops and the families of the dead as a result of this “horrifying” attack. In the next few days, media pundits will talk about what may have driven an Army officer to do such a horrible thing. Talking heads will discuss every detail about the Major’s past and ethnic background, and a few may even question what precautions the military may take to prevent something like this from happening again. But so far few people in our government or media have mentioned what should be obvious: The best way to end violence like what happened at Fort Hood is to end the wars. And absolutely no one will talk about how horrifying war is, or show the images.

There are some photos that I would like readers to see, but they are considered “objectionable” and you cannot view them on my Examiner page. My take on that is that war is objectionable. Those photos are here on the bartblog, where freedom of speech and information is still valued.

Our troops in combat zones see things like this almost every day and it affects them in ways most Americans cannot even begin to understand. Some become desensitized to killing, and that is why things like what happened in Ft. Hood yesterday will continue to happen as long as our soldiers are ordered to fight in perpetual wars. If you do not like what you see, then speak out about ending these wars - call your representatives, write letters to your local paper, get involved, do something.

The reality of war is whitewashed and hidden from the American public by the corporate media, but it is harsh reality for the young men and women that have to experience it and live with those memories for the rest of their lives, if they survive. In many cases, the ones that do survive wish they had not. The suicide rate among active duty troops in the Army was higher in 2007 than it has been since records have been kept.

Regarding the shootings at Fort Hood, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said, “This is an isolated and tragic case, and we’re obviously in the process of obtaining more information as the events unfold.” According to NBC news and the AP, however, it is simply not true that what happened at Fort Hood yesterday is an isolated case.

On May 11, 2009 five soldiers were shot dead at Camp Liberty by Sgt. John Russell. On Sept. 8, 2008 Spc. Jody Michael shot himself to death after killing 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher at Foot Hood. On Feb. 25, 2008 Air Force Tech. Sgt. Dustin Thorson, after returning from Iraq and being diagnosed with PSTD, fatally shot his son and daughter at Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma after a domestic dispute with his wife. On June 7, 2005 two National Guard officers were killed by a grenade allegedly set off by a Staff Sgt. who later was acquitted of murder. On March 23, 2003 Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar tossed grenades into three tents and then fired a rifle at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, killing one and injuring 14. The list goes on and on…

While most soldiers returning from deployment in combat zones can still keep their wits about them and should be honored for their sacrifices, murders committed by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are very likely a direct result of eight years of perpetual war and multiple deployments for U.S. soldiers. In Dec. 2008, The New York Times published a special report regarding 121 cases of killings committed in the U.S. by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Denver Post published a similar article in Aug. 2008, warning of the dangers of redeploying soldiers with “pained bodies and troubled minds.” The Army is sending soldiers with physical and mental injuries back to war, at times overruling physicians’ classifications of soldiers as “nondeployable.” Once they are in Iraq or Afghanistan, “commanders sometimes ignored medical limitations set by doctors.” And if they survive, they come home to places like Fort Hood.

The casualties of war extend far beyond the soldiers that are killed in action, which right now is 4359 in Iraq and 912 in Afghanistan. 31,527 troops have been physically wounded. Thanks to modern body armor and medevac procedures, a lot have survived that would not have in previous wars. The ratio of wounded to dead is now 8:1 and it was 3:1 in Vietnam. Many of the survivors now, however, are missing limbs, eyes or have traumatic brain injuries that have disabled them for life. Then there are those suffering from PSTD and other psychological effects from being exposed to the horrors of war, whose numbers are estimated to be as high as 320,000. And the Iraqi and Afghani casaulties cannot even be counted.

The soldiers who died or were wounded at Fort Hood are also casualties of war. They were not killed or wounded in action overseas, but they are just as dead or just as hurt as the soldiers killed overseas because of these wars.

A soldier at Fort Hood, speaking on condition of anonminity due to the lockdown said the mood on the base is “very grim,” and that even before this incident, troop morale has been very low. “I’d say it’s at an all-time low - mostly because of Afghanistan now,” he explained. “Nobody knows why we are at either place, and I believe the troops need to know why they are there, or we should pull out, and this is a unanimous feeling, even for folks who are pro-war.”

Is this enough? Do we need any more reasons to end these wars?

Excerpt:
In the next few days, media pundits will talk about what may have driven an Army officer to do such a horrible thing, talking heads will discuss every detail about the Major’s past, and a few may even question what precautions the military may take to prevent something like this from happening again. The President already has expressed his regrets and condolences to the wounded troops and the families of the dead as a result of this “horrifying” attack. But so far few people in our government or media have mentioned what should be obvious: The best way to end violence like what happened at Fort Hood is to end the wars. And no one will talk about how horrifying war is.

There are some photos in this article that readers are not going to like to see. Too bad. Our troops in combat zones see things like this almost every day and it affects them in ways most Americans cannot even begin to understand. Some become desensitized to killing, and that is why things like what happened in Ft. Hood yesterday will continue to happen as long as our soldiers are ordered to fight in perpetual wars. If you do not like what you see, then speak out about ending these wars - call your representatives, write letters to your local paper, get involved, do something.

Regarding the shootings at Fort Hood, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said, “This is an isolated and tragic case, and we’re obviously in the process of obtaining more information as the events unfold.” According to NBC news and the AP, however, it is simply not true that what happened at Fort Hood yesterday is an isolated case.

On May 11, 2009 five soldiers were shot dead at Camp Liberty by Sgt. John Russell. On Sept. 8, 2008 Spc. Jody Michael shot himself to death after killing 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher at Foot Hood. On Feb. 25, 2008 Air Force Tech Sgt. Dustin Thorson, after returning from Iraq and being diagnosed with PSTD, fatally shot his son and daughter at Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma after a domestic dispute with his wife. On June 7, 2005 two National Guard officers were killed by a grenade allegedly set off by a Staff Sgt. who later was acquitted of murder. On March 23, 2003 Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar tossed grenades into three tents and then fired a rifle at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, killing one and injuring 14. The list goes on and on…

The casualties of war extend far beyond the soldiers that are killed in action, which right now is 4359 in Iraq and 912 in Afghanistan. 31,527 troops have been physically wounded, but thanks to modern body armor and medevac procedures, a lot have survived that would not have in previous wars. Many are missing limbs, eyes or have traumatic brain injuries that have disabled them for life. Then there are those suffering from PSTD and other psychological effects from being exposed to the horrors of war, whose numbers are estimated to be as high as 320,000. And the Iraqi and Afghani casaulties cannot even be counted.

The soldiers who died or were wounded at Fort Hood are also casualties of war. They were not killed or wounded in action overseas, but they are just as dead or just as hurt as the soldiers killed overseas because of these wars.

A soldier at Fort Hood, speaking on condition of anonminity due to the lockdown said the mood on the base is “very grim,” and that even before this incident, troop morale has been very low. “I’d say it’s at an all-time low - mostly because of Afghanistan now,” he explained. “Nobody knows why we are at either place, and I believe the troops need to know why they are there, or we should pull out, and this is a unanimous feeling, even for folks who are pro-war.”

Is this enough? Do we need any more reasons to end these wars?

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d6-Ft-Hood-shootings-Yet-another-reason-to-end-these-wars

Lot’s of great links in the article, but some very graphic photos.

…And How the Big Media Speculators Got It Wrong Again

The usual Big Media Punchinellos were out in force the past few days, blaring and bleating the Beltway Conventional Wisdom that the Democratic Party’s loss of the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey are a sure referendum on Obama Administration policies. This is the sort of doomed facile reasoning found in the bottom of a Washington cocktail glass typical of Our Pundit Class who, from non-existent Iraq WMD to Fred Thompson’s popularity with voters, can never seem to fit the square peg in the round hole, pound though they might.

A brief review of the Dem candidates in VA and NJ clearly shows why progressives and like-minded independents didn’t bother to vote for Creigh Deeds in Virginia or Jon Corzine in New Jersey, and it had nothing to do with Obama. For various reasons explained below, they were both terrible candidates.

Creigh Deeds: In an era of change, Deeds was a shambling throwback, a dismal campaign clunker with four flat tires, who rejected Obama’s advice and help until it dawned on him in the final weeks he was going to lose in a landslide. He ran a miserably negative campaign, devoid of ideas, and presented his pap on toast so dry even peppy Dem loyalists fought to stay awake during his speeches. A Dem Blue Dog so blue he threatened to opt out of a public option should it become available to Virginians, he was nearly as conservative as his GOP opponent Bob McDonnell. Why leave the house to vote when the choice is between a Republican and a Dem who thinks like a Republican? Seen clearly, this was a referendum, and portent of the future, for Blue Dog Dems rather than President Obama.

Jon Corzine: The one-time ‘Garden State’ US Senator who was just bounced from the governor’s mansion is a Goldman Sachs Golden Boy who made piles of money on Wall Street and insists on spending it on vanity campaigns. Why he doesn’t just buy a new summer home or sumptuous overpriced yacht instead of squadering his fortune to impose himself on our political process is beyond me, but Corzine has never shown much talent for governing once elected, and what few things he has accomplished were always moderate to the point of invisibility. Jon is the kind of drab Dudley Do-Nothing the Democratic Party needs to send packing, if they expect to keep the majority in the future. Again, the portentiousness of Corzine’s defeat was not his affiliation with Obama’s policies, but the yellow line up the middle of his back from avoiding tenaciously either the right or left lane. He will not be missed, at least by this writer.

The point? Neither of them were progressives and didn’t stir independents or liberal Dems to go out and vote for them.

And now to stare into the crystal – but not Kristol – ball for some predictions on the Republican winners of those two elections:

Read the rest of this post

Back in March I posted an essay on this blog by Robert Freeman, entitled The U.S. is Facing a Weimar Moment. The recent activity (or inaction) in congress is proving that to be a more accurate assessment of politics than ever.

Excerpt:
An article that I wrote regarding the thousands of Americans losing unemployment benefits while the Senate dithers received an overwhelming response from readers.

Today, the obstructionists in the Senate gave up on delaying the bill to extend unemployment compensation and it should should be passed soon. Perhaps the overwhelming response of people across the nation to many articles on that topic had something to do with that. I would like to think so.

As I pointed out yesterday, Democrats in the Senate have made comments alleging that the minority party is trying to stall legislation in order to prevent other Democratic priorities from reaching the floor. The minority party has succeeded in doing that by delaying legislation like this, which should have taken a fast track though congress.

In this commentary, I would like try to put what is happening in Washington into a historical perspective.

For that I must turn to an essay by Robert Freeman, published at CommonDreams.org on March 15, 2009. I posted the essay on this blog shortly thereafter and I am reposting it now because it is more relevant now than it was back then.

Mr. Freeman is a little-known writer in Palo Alto, CA who covers topics relating to education, history and economics. What he writes in this essay should sound hauntingly familiar to anyone who has been following politics in Washington for the past year. It is entitled The U.S. is facing a Weimar moment.

I could attempt to summarize this essay, but that would not do it justice. I’ll just say that the obstruction of the bills and policies of a “new” political party in power by a minority party has happened before in the 20th century…and the results were catastrophic. Freeman’s essay hits the nail on the head as to what is happening in Washington right now. I encourage you to read this in its entirety, because it puts the current political climate in our country in a very realistic, historical, and frightening perspective.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d5-GOP-Obstruction-in-the-Senate-may-be-history-repeating-itself

Excerpt:
According to a Democratic Senate ticker, almost 200,000 Americans have lost their unemployment compensation insurance benefits in the past 26 days since GOP Senators have blocked a bill to extend unemployment insurance. That amounts to over 7000 per day and still ticking.

The House bill, called the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009 (HR 3548), passed overwhelmingly on Sept. 22 by a 331-83 margin. The bill would extend jobless benefits to all states for 14 weeks, with an additional six weeks for states with more than 8.5 percent unemployment, and all without adding one penny to the deficit. The Senate version (S 1699) was introduced a day later and has since been stalled by bipartisan bickering.

With a popular bill that won a vote by margins of 331-83 in the House and 87-13 in the Senate, one may think it would be easy to get it passed. That, however, is not the case. Part of the democratic process in congress allows the minority party to slow down legislation in congress if they choose to exercise that right, and that is exactly what the GOP Senators are doing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters in the Capitol today that GOP leaders are stalling intentionally in order to prevent other Democratic priorities from reaching the floor. “Even today they’re still stalling before we can pass this bill finally,” Reid said. “Perhaps Senate Republicans don’t think it matters to stall and delay, but it matters to the unemployed worker who so desperately needs this money.”

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Nearly-200000-lose-unemployment-compensation-benefits-while-Senate-dithers

Excerpt:
According to an exclusive report by CBS News Investigates, “if you’ve been diagnosed ‘probable’ or ‘presumed’ 2009 H1N1 or ’swine flu’ in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.”

According to CBS, “with most cases [now] diagnosed solely on symptoms and risk factors, the H1N1 flu epidemic may seem worse than it is.” That does not mean it is prudent to pass on a vaccination if it is available. The CDC recommends that everyone should get the vaccination for H1N1. Without lab testing, however, it is impossible to determine the actual amount of H1N1 cases in the U.S. What little data is available, however, suggests the actual number may be far less than feared.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Report-Swine-flu-cases-may-be-overestimated

The Santa Monica Ice rink has opened and in Australia the citizens are getting all enthusiastic about Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup race.  It’s their version of America’s Kentucky Derby.  Many women go to work on the first Tuesday of November dress up as if they were going to the opera.  Bets are made during the day and by five minutes after three in the afternoon; it will all be over for this year.  Do Americans care about that bit of foreign culture?  Should we write about that or can we find a new take on the Bush wars?

In Los Angeles, the morning of November 1, 2009 was a living advertisement for the rich color saturation characteristic of Kodachrome film – or it would have been if you could still buy that type of film – because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it seems like a perfect summer day was beginning.  There were various and sundry bits of evidence that another Halloween had been celebrated and they subtly suggested that perhaps it would be a good day to write a column about ghosts such as the specter of repeating Vietnam era mistakes.

A quick check of the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times showed that the only topics they found worth considering were a portrait of President Obama, a tough talk piece on Iran by Doyle McManus, the possibility of fraud in the Afghanistan’s runoff election, and two assessments of economic challenge faced by the state of California.

Speaking of Shepard Fairey’s version of the Obama portrait do you think that someday someone will write about about the AP image just as one has been written about Alberto “Korda” Diaz Gutierrrez’ famous shot of “Che” Guevarra titled “Che’s Afterlife:  The Legend of an Image”  (written by Michael Casey)?

A few weeks back, while we were staying at the Hostel California, in the Venice Section of L. A., and we noticed that one of they young folks bore a striking resemblance to Ernesto “Che” Gueverra.  We asked the others if they saw the resemblance to the Cuban rebel leader and the reply was:  “Who is Che Guevarra?”

Luckily a laptop was nearby and a quick Google Images search produced a picture and the young travelers were delighted to see that the resemblance was quite striking, especially when the young man was shot in a way that would duplicate the famous “Guerrilero Heroico” image.   Cameras were activated and the one young lady who got the best shot promised to send a copy to this columnist.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t arrived in time to be used as an illustration for this column.

Just a few days ago, we were recounting that incident and when they didn’t respond to the name of the place where it happened, we gave them a clue via a line from an Eagles song:  “you can check out anytime, but you can never leave. . . .”  Some of the young folks knew who the Eagles were (no, not Perth’s West Coast Eagles), and that song in particular, but some didn’t. 

Hah!  Isn’t it ironic?  The peacnik hippies, who were on the young side of the Vietnam era’s “Generation Gap,” are now explaining that era’s cultural references to today’s younger generation.  Could it be that thanks to Rush Limbaugh, today’s college students are pro-war and the older hippies are still advocating Peace, Love, and Brotherhood?

Yikes, do the students at Berkeley, who protested budget cuts last month, know the origin of the line “the kids still respect the college dean”?

How can kids, who think they are in the “counter culture”on Telegraph Ave., be “hip” if they don’t know the titles of the Fugs’ biggest hits? 

Were the lyrics: “I used to live in New York City
Every thing there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said 12:30” about the doomsday clock? 

What was the name of the Susan Sontag essay that spawned the “Trivia” craze in the Sixties?  If that one stumps you follow this link
http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/prose/Susan_Sontag_-_Notes_on_Camp.html

Back in the Sixties every college student knew the answer to this question:  “What was Fibber McGee’s address?”

It’s not that there haven’t been any good bands that formed since the Sixties ended; the band calling itself “U2.” seems promising and wouldn’t Guns’n’Roses be quite good if they could just “get it together”?

This columnist can recall a conversation held in a bar in New York City advocating skepticism about “Tricky Dick’s” plan to win the 1968 election with a secret plan to end/win the War in Vietnam.  The older fellow chuckled when he heard the label we had pinned on Richard Nixon and informed me that was what his kids also called the Republican candidate.

What was so funny about a line in a New York City newscast that said:  “The Jets won and Heidi married the goat herder.”?  Huh?

Is it true that the Smothers brothers got tossed off network TV for not being “fair and balanced”? 

What does the expression “Up Creek Alley without a paddle” mean?

Back in the Sixties the oldies stations played Big Band music.  Now, do the oldies stations feature Sixties music?

Yikes!  As mortgages go upside down has the Generation Gap returned with the hippies now playing on the old fogies team?

Is Joey Heatherton still the hottest go-go dancer you’ll ever see?

Why didn’t kids say that Keith Leger was playing the role made famous by Burgess Meredith?

Will Harry Harrison be able to reassure me that New York City is the greatest city in the world?

There is one intriguing question that remains to be answered about a revival of the draft and a massive surge in Afghanistan:  If Fox News supported Bush’s efforts to start the war in Afghanistan, why will they ridicule President Obama for trying to continue it?  Won’t that indicate a contradictory attitude about the war, the current occupant in the White House, and bring up questions about the sanity of their contradictory stances on the same war as conducted by different Presidents?

So, if President Obama, this week, announces a surge in troop levels for the War in Afghanistan, this columnist expects to endure a massive case of déjà vu and will need to hear repeated playings of certain record albums.

The young people who seem oblivious to the dangers of an eternal war that can’t be won might learn something if they talked to some hippies about war and peace and how America’s latest wars got started. 

Che is quoted online as having said:  ““If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.”  Sounds like he was a hippie.

Now, the disk jockey will play the Snoop-Dog and Willie Neslson duet song, titled “Superman” as well as “Eve of Destruction,” and “Fixin’ to Die Rag,” maybe even throw in Joan Baez’s “Hello in there.”  It’s time for us to go splitsville.  Have a “Hey, Hey, LBJ” type week.

Excerpt:
Let’s take a look at two big spending issues, defense and health care reform, and try to put them into perspective.

Recently, Obama signed the defense authorization bill without much objection from anyone. The cost: $280 billion for 2010 only.

Then there’s health insurance reform. Estimated cost per year: $90 billion.

Approximate cost of U.S. House health insurance bill over the next ten years: $894 billion, not including a Congressional Budget Office finding that it will actually reduce the deficit by $104 billion over the next ten years.

Approximate cost of defense authorization over the next ten years: $7 trillion.

People killed by U.S. defense operations per year: N/A, although 135 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq and 452 died in Afghanistan thus far in 2009 and over 1000 were wounded in Afghanistan in the past three months. Afghani and Iraqi civilian casualties cannot be counted due to lack of data.

Americans who die from lack of health insurance each year: Approximately 45,000.
Approximate savings to U.S. taxpayers from House health care insurance bill over the next ten years: $100 billion.

Approximate savings to U.S. taxpayers from defense appropriations bill over the next ten years: $0.

The government will always spend your tax dollars, so the real question is what is best to spend money on. Whatever gives the best ROI is a good place to start. Perhaps spending our tax dollars on Americans in America is a better idea than spending it on occupying third world countries.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d1-Putting-government-spending-in-perspective