whitebeard

Don't curse the darkness, light a candle.

Speaking of (former) Sgt. James Circello,

I just got some good news about him from a Camp Casey friend. James went AWOL from Camp Ederle in
Vicenza last April. He has been speaking out against the war in the U.S.  with Iraq Veterans Against the War. Well, he decided to turn himself in at  Ft. Knox last week and this morning he was discharged. No court martial. He's out!

See his open letter to the U.S. government and a speech he made at the Oct 27 demo in New Orleans:
http://www.ivaw.org/user/560

See also plans from IVAW for a Winter Soldier assembly next march, similar to the gathering held during Vietnam, in which Vets and Iraqi and Afghan survivors will testify about their experiences and reveal the truth of occupation. You can sign a statement of support on their site:
http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldierstatmentofsupport 

And on a decidely sadder note, Ian from Verbania wrote (see below) asking about the story regarding suicides among Iraq war vets. Ian had troubles writing to the list and I had problems writing to Ian (my message bounced because of spam filters), so I'm sharing my response via the list.
This will give us all something to consider at our meeting next week.
Steph

Hi Ian,
CBS was the first to report on this. Staggering numbers: 120 per week in 2005! Here is an article from AFP:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jUtHzz80dkhT-nkIIbI4nsXXPGEw

Here's the original CBS video:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB2-xER8NS8
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqFJAByDU40

(of course the reports only deal with the lack of care the vets are receiving when they get home and not the fact that they shouldn't have been sent in the first place!)

And here's an article on truthout about a soldier who went AWOL to get treatment and was just arrested:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111507B.shtml

Steph

On 16 Nov 2007 at 10:14, Ian Naysmith wrote:

I just read in today's LaStampa that the # of suicides for soldiers serving/served in Iraq is over 6,400.  Number actually killed in Iraq isover 3,800.
Since my Italian is not very good yet, I am not clear as to the exact details of the article.  Would like to know if anyone can help clarify this for me?
Ciao grazie,

Ian Naysmith
Verbania, Italia

posted by: Whitebeard at 00:36 | link | comments |
iraq, us, civil rights, democracy, war, censored news, resisters