See also our sister publication  http://www.traveling-soldier.org/





GI SPECIAL #107



BRING HIM HOME ALIVE: U.S. soldier in Falluja, October 2, 2003. (Mohammed Abud/Reuters)



ACTIVE DUTY NEW JERSEY SOLDIER LEADS PROTEST TO BRING TROOPS HOME!



On Friday October 3, a demonstration took place at the Newark offices of NJ Senators Corzine and Lautenberg led by Army reservist Frank Mendez, along with 25 family members, friends and members of Veterans For Peace, to demand the troops be brought home.



It was Mendez’s 23rd birthday and he is home on a thirteen day leave from the 310 Battalion, which is deployed in Iraq. Since 9/11/01, his unit has been on active duty almost two years, first at Fort Tyler and Fort Drum and now in Iraq.



Mendez stated, “I had no problem going into this. I knew the mission going in: We were going to find weapons of mass destruction. Only there weren’t any, then the mission became bringing democracy to Iraq. But now we’re just in the country sitting on our butts wasting taxpayers money and wasting our time”



A banner read “God Bless America-Bring The Troops Home Now” and demonstrators chanted slogans and displayed signs, receiving numerous thumbs up and horn blasts of support from the motorists driving by. Only one motorist voiced opposition, shouting “it’ s better to fight in Iraq than here”. Most people walking by signed petitions calling for a return of the troops and several joined the picket line as well. One veteran joined VFP on the spot.



After demonstrating for an hour, a representative for Senator Jon Corzine came down to speak to Mendez who explained the situation he and his fellow reservists are in and the many problems they face. Mendez said he represented many of his fellow reservists who asked him to speak out on their behalf while he was on leave.



Soon after that Senator Frank Lautenberg came out and spoke to Mendez as well, stating that originally he had been for the war but now was opposed to it. He said that much of what Congress had been told were the reasons for war have turned out to be misrepresentations and falsehoods. He also stated that he did not see how the Bush administration could get out in less than five years.



As the protest ended, we presented a VFP “Support the Troops-Bring Them Home Now” lawn sign to the family. I also gave Frank a “Bring Them Home Alive” button and asked him to take it back to Iraq and show it to his comrades to let them know that we are in sympathy with them and against the occupation as well as those politicians who are responsible for this unjustified military adventure.



Frank Mendez returns to Iraq next Tuesday. He has shown real courage by speaking out while home on leave. The more our servicemen and women take actions like this, it will broaden the antiwar movement and hasten the day when all our troops are brought home.



David Cline

10/5/03



(For an interview with David Cline go to www.isreview.org., page 13)



Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and in Iraq, and information about other social protest movements here in the USA. Send requests to address up top. For copies on web site see: http://www.notinourname.net/gi-special/





Majority Of Americans Say Iraq War Not Worth It



A CBS News/New York Times poll showed 53 percent of Americans believe the Iraq war was not worth the cost, while just 41 percent believe it was, down from 43 percent two weeks ago and 46 percent in August. (AFP 10.5.03)



Over all, the poll found, Americans are for the first time more critical than not of Mr. Bush's ability to handle both foreign and domestic problems, and a majority say the president does not share their priorities.



Thirteen months before the 2004 election, a solid majority of Americans say the country is seriously on the wrong track, a classic danger sign for incumbents, and only about half of Americans approve of Mr. Bush's overall job performance.



Nearly half of Americans --and a like number of registered voters -- say the Democrats have no clear plan of their own for the country.



(Comment: Sure they do: Continue the policies they practiced under Clinton,

handing over society’s wealth to the super-rich, and sending more soldiers to their deaths to defend the American Imperial Corporate Class that runs the country. Clinton’s war on Serbia was just a dry run for Iraq.



(Their near term policy is to get people suckered into wasting time and effort supporting one of their “anybody but Bush” candidates, rather than doing what the U.S. Imperial ruling class really fears: building a fighting alternative from below to Democratic (and Republican) Party corporate rule, and taking it to the streets.)



The poll found that just 45 percent of Americans now have confidence in Mr. Bush's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis, down sharply from 66 percent in April, and half now say they are uneasy about his approach.



Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say the war in Iraq is still going on, and 6 in 10 say the United States should not spend as much on the effort as Mr. Bush has sought. Three-quarters of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say the administration has yet to clearly explain how long American troops will have to stay in Iraq, or how much it will cost to rebuild the country.



Just 40 percent of voters expressed confidence in Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the economy, down from half in April, while 56 percent said they were uneasy, up from 42 percent in April.



Even worse news for the president was that Americans have also become critical of his handling of foreign policy, which had been seen as his strength for most of his presidency. The latest survey found that 44 percent of those polled approved of Mr. Bush's overall handling of foreign policy, down from 52 percent in July, and that 47 percent approved of his handling of the situation in Iraq, down from 58 percent in July.



What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to the E-mail address up top. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.





IRAQ WAR REPORTS:





Attacks On U.S. Forces Increasing In Scope And Effectiveness;

Anti-Aircraft Guns Firing On Occupation Planes



By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, 10.3.03



Attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq have escalated over the past several months, and insurgents are now launching an average of 17 assaults a day against patrols, convoys and bases, an analysis of coalition security reports shows. The data also show insurgents are using more sophisticated tactics and weapons.



There were few attacks against coalition forces immediately after Baghdad fell in April. But by early summer, the Army said attacks were averaging about a dozen per day. In September, the number of attacks exceeded 20 on some days. The attacks are killing an average of three to six American troops per week.



The increase in resistance suggests that raids on rebels and their arms caches so far are failing to reduce the number of attacks against the U.S.-led occupation.



* Violence has spread from the capital to northern Iraq. The most troublesome region remains Baghdad and the ''Sunni Triangle'' areas to the north and west of Baghdad, where support for Saddam Hussein remains strong. But rebels are also active in the north, where the predominantly Kurdish population opposed Saddam's regime. In Mosul, rebels have attacked coalition forces or their Iraqi allies at least 40 times in the past six weeks.



* Attacks are more coordinated. Attackers increasingly initiate an ambush by firing a rocket-propelled grenade or detonating a roadside bomb. The assailants then shoot at coalition soldiers with AK-47 assault rifles. On occasion, attackers have detonated an explosive to lure quick-reaction forces into ambushes.



* Mortars frequently are used against police stations and U.S. bases. At times, guerrillas fire mortars from the back of a truck and take off before coalition troops can respond. Abu Ghraib, a former Saddam prison now used by coalition forces, has been targeted by mortars at least four times in the past six weeks. Improvised explosive devices -- homemade bombs made from mortar and artillery shells hidden in dead animals or partially buried on the sides of roads -- were used in 20% of the attacks. They often are rigged to be detonated remotely, sometimes using wireless garage door openers.



* Rebels are shooting at aircraft. Coalition aircraft have been fired on at least eight times in the past six weeks, though the attempts missed their targets. Some of the guerrillas used assault weapons, which are mostly ineffective against helicopters or airplanes. But there have been three attacks using missiles or large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.



Abu Ghraib prison, the country's largest, sits on a sprawling complex in western Baghdad and is attacked by mortar fire almost every night. The 800th Military Police brigade and Iraqi police now jointly run the prison, which holds Iraqi detainees on local charges.





American Soldier Killed In Iraq



Albawaba News (Jordan), October 4, 2003



A US soldier was killed and one was injured in an attack in southeast Baghdad, the U.S. military reported Saturday. The patrol from the 4th Infantry Division was hit at about 11:45 p.m. Friday with small arms fire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the As Sadiyah region, the military said.





Three Attacks On Iraqi Police And U.S. Forces in Kirkuk



KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 3 (AFP) - Three attacks were launched on Iraqi police officials and coalition forces late Friday in the northern oil centre of Kirkuk, but there were no reported casualties, a police official told AFP.



At 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), a grenade was hurled at the home of the city's police chief, Sabah Bahlul Karatun, said Khattab Abdullah, director of Kirkuk's emergency police unit.



The blast blew out the windows of Karatun's home, but nobody was there at the time, Abdullah said.



Ten minutes later, an unknown assailant threw a grenade at the Al-Rashid kabab restaurant popular with US troops in Kirkuk, but it was not clear if anyone was injured.



The Al-Mikdad police station also came under attack when gunmen pulled up in a car and sprayed gunfire, provoking a 10-minute shoot-out. The car then sped away and no one was hurt.



A security source, on condition of anonymity, also reported eight explosions at 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) on the US military airbase here, but the army said soldiers had only been detonating Iraqi ordnance.



There was another round of explosives at midnight and again the army called them detonations of old Iraqi munitions left over from Saddam Hussein's era.



However, the security source said the army usually explodes old Iraqi munitions between noon and 1:00 pm daily.



Six other explosions rocked the city, leaving at least two soldiers wounded, officials said. (No doubt more “left over Iraqi munitions,” which, after all, is exactly what the resistance movement is using. Duh!)



(Something about the explanation of the midnight explosions does not pass the smell test for bullshit.)





U.S. General Says Iraqi Rebels Getting Stronger



Tyler Marshall, The Los Angeles Times, 03 October 2003



BAGHDAD — In a week that has already seen five more U.S. combat deaths and the wounding of 41 soldiers, the commander of military forces in Iraq indicated Thursday that resistance to the occupying troops was strengthening and warned Americans to brace for more casualties.



Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters at a weekly news briefing here, "This is still wartime."



Sanchez said the U.S.-led forces are engaging resistance groups 15 to 20 times a day, on average, with as many as 25 incidents on some days. Military spokesmen have cited lower figures in the past.



The general added that the resistance was showing signs of improved organization. Though most attacks against U.S. forces are being carried out by small, locally based groups apparently acting on their own, there are indications that the resistance is beginning to operate under a broader, more regional control, Sanchez said.



He noted that in a growing number of attacks, resistance fighters have used homemade bombs cobbled together from some of the more than 600,000 tons of Iraqi arms and munitions stored throughout the country. Sanchez said it was impossible to guard such a large amount of weaponry.



"We find new dumps every day," he said.







TROOP NEWS



How Bush Brings The Troops Home



Hundreds Mourn Their Sister in Arms



By Laura King and Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times, 04 October 2003



The mournful notes of a solitary bugler blowing taps rose into the breezeless desert air. In a final roll call, her name - Analaura Esparza - was intoned three times, with long pauses between, as if she might answer.



Hundreds of soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division lined up in long, silent rows Friday to pay tribute to Esparza, a 21-year-old private first class killed two days earlier when a bomb went off almost directly beneath the Humvee she was driving, ripping into her left leg and chest.



A member of a forward support company, she was returning to base after a supply run in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's restive hometown.



A world away, in a tidy middle-class neighborhood outside Houston, where wildflowers line the sidewalks and every other house seems to have a basketball hoop in the driveway, the cries of a mother who had lost her only child echoed through a cul-de-sac Friday.



"Que paso?" Armandina Esparza screamed again and again. "What happened?"



Her husband, Augustin, his red-rimmed eyes peering through bifocals, remembered "a good daughter, a brave daughter."



"She was proud of what she did," he said, "not because she was a woman but because she was a soldier."



Esparza, known to her friends as Lissy, was the 315th American soldier to die in Iraq or Kuwait since the start of the war. Her death underscored the lack of distinction between traditional combat and support roles in a war in which the front lines are everywhere and nowhere.



That is particularly true in places like Tikrit, where every American soldier leaving the gates of highly fortified U.S. compounds is under orders to consider himself - or herself - to be on combat footing.



In Iraq, women serve in all units except those specifically designated for combat: infantry, artillery and armor.



Esparza's death, the third in the 700-strong task force in which she served, appeared particularly wrenching for fellow soldiers.



The Army was supposed to be a means to an end for Esparza, who at age 7 immigrated with her family to the United States from Monterrey, Mexico. She earned mostly A's before graduating from Cy Falls High School in 2001. In school, she was a member of the French honor club and developed an eye for photography.



She wanted to go to college to become a psychologist, but she knew the family couldn't afford it on her father's wages as a machinist. So she enlisted in the Army in May 2002 as a supply specialist. She figured she would serve a couple of years, come home and maybe go to Rice University or the University of Houston.



Her 4th Forward Support Battalion had been in Iraq for six months, mostly around Tikrit.

"When she joined the Army, none of this was going on," said her aunt, Meyra Esparza. "She was sent to Iraq so fast."



Esparza trained at Ft. Jackson, S.C., and Ft. Lee, Va., before shipping out to Kuwait. Along the way, she had found love - with Spc. Jose Gomez, an infantryman from the Bronx in the 122nd Task Force, to which her supply company was attached. He had already returned to the U.S., and she intended to join him when she could. They planned to marry.



"He was so nervous he could barely get the words out," Esparza wrote a friend about his proposal. "I still have to get a ring and he still has to get my parents' permission. But I look forward to having his kids and getting old and fat together. I truly believe this was meant to be."



Esparza managed to call home last weekend. She had been told she would return to the U.S. after six months, but she had recently received, like thousands of other soldiers in Iraq, orders to remain for far longer.



"She was anxious to get home, but she said everything was fine," Meyra Esparza said. "Every time she called, she spoke with confidence. She would say that she was OK, that she was coming home soon. She had a lot of hopes, a lot of dreams."



In Esparza's unit, officers and peers alike spoke of a reliable and self-disciplined young soldier with an infectious laugh and a light-up-the-room personality. She would joke at her own expense about her stop-and-go style of driving, saying she needed to log more miles outside Houston.



"Everyone who knew her should feel blessed," said Staff Sgt. Carlos Garcia of San Diego, who recalled how Esparza took a lunchtime college course and was exuberantly delighted with her A.



At a memorial to her Friday, bouquets of artificial flowers were placed over camouflage netting, together with a traditional salute to the fallen: an M-16 rifle topped with a helmet and propped between a pair of combat boots.



Each member of her company passed before it, some saluting, some kneeling for a moment's prayer, some crossing themselves. Others paused to wipe away tears.



The attack that killed Esparza and wounded three others, two of them seriously, pointed up the vulnerability of the American forces to ambushes by insurgents, these days most often involving roadside explosive devices. Her three-Humvee convoy was less than 400 yards from base, shortly before 5 p.m., when it was hit. Esparza was driving the lead vehicle.



"I didn't hear the blast - you don't. I just felt the shock wave," said Capt. Curtis Kuetemeyer, the company commander, who was riding in the same Humvee. "I saw a flash of light and a cloud of dust moving, like watching a tape in slow motion. And then I saw her - she was so, so hurt."



Kuetemeyer said he and Esparza had often talked about the dangers of traveling in and around Tikrit in supply convoys, but that Esparza did not dwell on them. "She was very, very careful but very calm," he said.



Although Esparza was in a support company, commanders say her job in Tikrit was just as dangerous as many of those that are "combat-coded."



In the Tikrit palace parking lot where soldiers in camouflage and battle gear gathered for the memorial to Esparza, no one seemed ready for last farewells.



Spc. Anton Rzhevskiy of the Bronx had a personal recollection of his friend:

"She was only 5-foot-4 in her boots, shorter and smaller than a lot of people. But her heart was bigger - much, much bigger."





Outrage Over Making Soldiers Pay For Leave Tickets;

Bush Should Pay!!



The military is only paying for flights as far as Baltimore. Eventually, the Pentagon claims, it will also have flights to Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles.

Soldiers who live outside these cities will have to pay for their own fare to get the rest of the way home. Because of the uncertain scheduling, they must purchase the ticket on the same day, when it is most expensive.

Jan Hogan has two nephews stationed in Iraq. Hogan checked the price of a same-day ticket from Baltimore to St. Paul, Minn., and was quoted $1,200. A private in the Army makes just over $1,000 a month. She said President George W. Bush should use some of the money collected in his campaign fundraising tour to help fly the troops the last few miles home.

"I'd like to take some of those millions he raised and help those two boys as well as all the others," Hogan said of her nephews. (Associated Press, Sept. 27)



MORE:


"An Atrocity:" Making Troops Pay For Leave Trip Home

Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington, Spet. 28, 2003

Letters To The Editor

We are usually quiet individuals, expressing little about world events and politics, etc. However, we have to stand up and say something now.



Our son-in-law is in the Army, serving our country for several months in Iraq. He was recently authorized to return home for two weeks. We are all grateful for this news! However, there is one catch - he has to pay for the journey!

How can the government expect him to pay his own airfare? It seems unfair the government won't foot the bill to send troops home, after they risk their lives for our country. They have had to leave their families struggling emotionally and some financially. Then when they do have the opportunity to come home briefly, they are expected to pay their own way.

This is an atrocity! And, too often, there is no way some of these families can afford the airfare.

Our country is spending a fortune on behalf of another country. But, our fighting forces should be the main priority, including traveling home for a reprieve. We truly believe our armed forces should be rewarded with a paid visit to their loved ones. Don't you?

Randy and Pam Forcier
Spokane





The High Cost Of War

My friend recently came back from Iraq ... his jaw was blown off.

How do we help him without breaking down in tears and anger? Doesn’t the public know that the first rule of war is you don’t need to kill a soldier in order to disable him. I am afraid that, for the rest of his life, my friend will be removed from society, survive on drugs and wish he were dead.

What do we say? What do we do?

Lars Pardo, London, England

Army Times 10.6.03



Pentagon Incompetence Killed U.S. Soldiers;

Cancelled Friendly Fire

Protection “Too Costly”



October 2, 2003,



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon failed to do enough to prevent incidents of "friendly fire" in the Iraq war despite acute concern about the same problem after the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. military said on Thursday.



A "lessons learned" report, compiled by the military and aimed at correcting mistakes made during the war, also criticized the way the Pentagon notified, mobilized and trained reservists and the slowness of assessing the amount of damage inflicted on Iraqi targets.



Two generals testified before Congress and briefed reporters about the findings, but declined to release the report.



The Pentagon did not take the needed steps to prevent friendly fire incidents -- accidental attacks by U.S. forces on other Americans or allied troops, said Adm. Edmund Giambastiani Jr., head of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, responsible for the report. The military calls such incidents fratricide.



Neither he nor Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, who directed the report, revealed how many friendly fire incidents occurred in the Iraq war or how many casualties resulted.



The Pentagon in 2001 terminated as too costly an Army program to equip tanks and other military vehicles with electronic devices enabling troops to distinguish U.S. vehicles from those of the enemy amid the chaos of war. (Obviously command considers soldiers’ lives to be cheap.)



As a result, pilots in U.S. warplanes and troops manning guns in tanks did not instantly have a way to identify before pulling the trigger that a target was not, in fact, a friend rather than a foe.



"In terms of combat ID (identification), I don't think we've made a lot of progress in the last 10 years," Cone told reporters at the Pentagon.



G.I.'s speaking out, angry vets signing petitions, generals attacking him. George Bush's once-rosy relationship with the military is turning sour…..

By Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, 02 October 2003



….says retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth, a White House critic whose Web sites, Soldiers for the Truth and Hackworth.com, have been documenting the contempt many service men and women feel for the Iraq war planners.



"Most military guys who understand war, professional soldiers, they recognize America is engaged in its largest and nastiest war. And like in Vietnam, they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel," he says. "My e-mail, overwhelmingly from soldiers and vets, says these guys are really pissed off about the handling of the war. And what's amazing is the huge number of folks from this group no longer relating to the Republican Party."



Today's list of military complaints is long:



Many fighting men and women are upset over how the war in Iraq has been conducted (i.e. trying to prosecute the war "on the cheap"); feel that forces are being stretched too thinly; think that Pentagon civilian planners are not listening to generals; worry that part-time National Guard and reservists are being asked to carry too much of a burden; and find the administration's rationale for the war slippery.



They also seem to have a visceral dislike for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who's seen as having a vendetta against the Army, and think the Bush White House seems eager to send troops off to war yet reluctant to help Congress pass more comprehensive health benefits for disabled veterans.



"This is the most anti-soldier secretary [of defense] we've had since Robert McNamara," says Ralph Peters, a retired Army intelligence officer, referring to the architect of President Johnson's Vietnam War troop buildup in the 1960s. "Rumsfeld is hated by the officer corps."





“Non-Combat Evacuations From Iraq:

4000 And Rising



Mark Benjamin, Investigations Editor 10/3/2003



WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Nearly 4,000 U.S. troops have been medically evacuated from Operation Iraqi Freedom for non-combat reasons -- with more than one in five of those for psychiatric or neurological problems, according to Pentagon data.



A total of 3,915 evacuations from the region have been for non-combat medical problems. A combination of what the Pentagon is calling evacuations for "psychiatric" and "neurological" problems make up 22 percent of the total, with 478 and 387 evacuations, respectively.



Another 544 evacuations have been for "general surgery," 290 for gynecological reasons and 118 for orthopedic problems.



"Clearly there is more detail that needs to be given about the nature and causes of these evacuations," said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center.



Robinson questioned whether any of the psychiatric or neurological problems might be related to Lariam, a common anti-malaria drug given to many soldiers in the region. Lariam's FDA-approved product label warns of reports of hallucinations, seizures, paranoia, aggression, delusions and suicide.





DoD Scam;

Dead Green Card Soldier Gets “Citizenship;”

Survivors Get No Benefits



Tompaine.commonsense, Bill Berkowitz,



Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez grew up as an orphan on the streets of Guatemala City, and crossed the border illegally from Mexico at age 14. He eventually managed to get legal resident status and attended to high school and college in California. Gutierrez joined the Marines in March 2002, because "he wanted to give back a little bit to his adopted country," says his foster mother, Nora Mosquera. He was killed last March, becoming one of the first U.S. soldiers to die in combat in Iraq.



As a green-card holder, Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez was granted citizenship under a 2002 executive order allowing the family of military personnel killed in combat to apply for posthumous citizenship. But the citizenship is "primarily symbolic," says Francisco Arcaute of the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, as there are no benefits for relatives go along with it.





Deployment-Pay Delay?

Pentagon Chiselers Trying To Screw Troops Again

October 06, 2003, From Army Times Editorial

It has taken almost two long years, but Pentagon officials finally have come up with a new high-deployment pay plan.


The two-phase plan allows for maximum payments of $300 a month for “duration” and “frequency of deployments” for a total potential payout of $600 a month. It’s a realistic alternative to an earlier congressional proposal that would have forced the services to pay $100 a day to troops deployed for inordinate amounts of time---a plan that indefinitely was suspended by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

While that original plan was a punitive stick designed to scare Pentagon officials into better managing the operations tempo of the force, the new proposal actually would serve as a reward to the troops, a valid recognition of their sacrifices.

That said, it still has two big problems that need fixing.

First, the Pentagon wants to reset every service member’s deployment “clock” to zero for the purposes of this program. That means no deployment time up to the day it launches would count.

Second, the Bush administration would decide when to lift the emergency suspension order that would allow payments to begin.

No sale on both counts.

Tens of thousands of service members who have put in the toughest kind of deployment time---combat duty---qualify for at least partial payments right now. Asking them to discard the many long months of combat, hardship and isolation they’ve already endured is a slap in the face that largely would undermine whatever good will this plan might foster.

Furthermore, defense officials know full well who qualifies for the pay---they’ve continued to track deployment days all along. So there’s absolutely no reason to delay the start date.

Both provisions could be used to put off actually forking over any money. Neither should be allowed to stand.



101st Airborne In Deep Shit;
Nobody Ready To Replace Them In February

By Daniel Schorr, Christian Science Monitor 10.3.03

WASHINGTON -

The United States does not have firm commitments of enough international troops to make an additional division. It will be necessary to mobilize more National Guard and Reserve troops. This may stir reaction from families at home, who are increasingly distressed about the fate of their loved ones serving ever-longer assignments in an often-hostile environment. (DUH!)

At the moment, there are about 144,000 American and 14,000 British troops in and near Iraq. There are also two international divisions, one under British command, the other under Polish. Some of the international elements are quite small - for example, the 180 Mongolians who are being used to guard petroleum pipelines.

For the Pentagon, the most immediate problem is that the 101st Airborne Division is scheduled to be rotated home in February or March. Unless it can be replaced by an international division, it will be necessary to start the training and orientation of American replacements soon.



Meanwhile, the Bush administration is under pressure in Congress to bring home troops as soon as possible. At a stormy hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, ranking Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that he had heard from many families anxious to know when their loved ones would be coming home. Senator Byrd said that "pulling their fair share gets harder and harder as their fair share gets longer and longer and longer."





Soldiers Lives At Risk as Bush Regime Floods Iraq With Civilian Mercenaries

Tue 30 Sep 2003, The Scotsman.com,



BORZOU DARAGAHI IN KIRKUSH


A NOISY column of green camouflage heralds the coming of the new Iraqi army’s first recruits.

But to train them the United States is turning to a group of grey-suited specialists under contract from the Vinnell Corporation, a subsidiary of the American defence giant, Northrop Grumman.

Vinnell is one of more than a dozen private military companies, often called PMCs, hired by the Pentagon to augment US forces in Iraq in ways that have occasionally raised the eyebrows of real soldiers and occupation officials.

Many coalition soldiers on the ground are squeamish about the private contractors and say they weren’t involved in the decision to contract out duties such as training soldiers.

They hope the contractors are a temporary fix, and that eventually Iraqis themselves - including former members of Saddam’s Baath Party who are currently barred from joining the military - will take up the duty.

"This is a very touchy issue," said one high-level coalition military official who opposes expanded use of private soldiers in Iraq. "There’s a lot of pressure to use these contractors."

Some soldiers are concerned that the private-sector soldiers might not be constricted by the usual rules and that there will be rogues among them who might kill or hurt Iraqis - bringing reprisals on all foreign forces.

A coalition military official in Baghdad asked: "What are the rules of engagement [for the private companies]? Are they civilians or are they military? I don’t know who they are and I don’t want to go anywhere near them."

Dozens of private soldiers, many of them trained former US or British special forces, are already operating in Iraq.



Bad News For California Guard



San Diego Union Tribune, October 3, 2003



SAN DIEGO - About 600 California Army National Guard soldiers from the Southland have been alerted for possible mobilization for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the

Guard announced today.



Included in the alert are about 100 soldiers with the San Diego-based Company B, 898th Engineer Battalion.



The Guard also announced that soldiers with military companies based in Santa Ana, San Bernardino, Corona, Palmdale and Apple Valley have been alerted that their

activation is probable and they will likely receive mobilization orders next month.

___________________________________________________________________



British Reservists Getting Out ASAP
Long Tours Of Duty In Iraq Too Much


Jamie Wilson, September 30, 2003, The Guardian

Britain's overstretched armed forces are facing a personnel crisis because the Territorial Army has been losing volunteer reservists since the beginning of the war with Iraq, the Guardian can reveal.

Almost 2,000 have left since March, raising concern in the Ministry of Defence, which has been relying on the TA to fill shortages in the army's medical, technical and intelligence units.

The revelation is likely to add to the fear that the protracted nature of the war in Iraq, which is leading to reservists being called up for long tours of duty, is exacerbating the crisis.

Almost a quarter of the 11,000-strong Operation Telic in Iraq are reservists. Letters have been sent out to 1,500 more this week warning that they may be sent to the Gulf.

According to figures in a Commons written answer by the MoD, the total strength of the TA, the biggest reserve force, dropped from 39,210 in March to 37,360 in August, more than 4,000 below the government's target.

The reduction comes when the armed services are more stretched than at any time since the cold war ended, with troops currently deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland.

With the regular army about 10,000 short, reservists are being used to fill in the gaps. Many reservists have found themselves still in the Gulf long after their regular army colleagues have been sent home.

Defence chiefs admit privately that they are worried. While the reservists themselves knew they could be mobilised before the Iraq war, many of their families did not understand the full implications and since their return had urged them to leave at the earliest opportunity.

One reservist who served in the Gulf said that several colleagues had told him they intended to resign. "They said that their wives or partners were fine when it just meant a couple of weeks and the odd weekend a year, but they were not prepared for them to be away for six months," he said.

The pressure from families has been heightened by the death of five reservists in Iraq in recent months.



Pressure is also is also beginning to come from employers. Anthony Caffyns, a consultant to his family's motor distribution firm, said that the current government compensation did not cover the real cost to business of losing a skilled member of the workforce. He said that if the current rate of call-up continued, employers would begin to question having reservists on the payroll.

"I am a great supporter of the Territorial Army, but my concern is that if they are overused both the reservists and employers are going to say enough is enough," he said.

Tim Corry, chief executive of Sabre, an MoD-run organisation which acts as a link to industry admitted that if the current rate of call-up continued, employers and employees might become more hostile.

It is quite muted at the moment but it might get louder, and it is something that we are going to have to address."

Bernard Jenkin, the shadow defence secretary, said: "The armed forces are trying to do too much with too little."







IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP



Two US Troops Hurt In Protest By Unemployed Ex-Soldiers



BAGHDAD, Oct 4 (AFP) - US troops and Iraqis traded gunfire Saturday after a fight broke out with a crowd of ex-soldiers seeking promised back pay. Two US soldiers and at least six Iraqis were reported wounded.



Reports conflicted as to who fired first in the melee in western Baghdad. Some witnesses said the Americans initiated the exchange, while others and US officials blamed gunmen in the crowd.



The clash erupted about 8:30 am at an office compound where soldier's pay is dispersed and lasted about an hour, with the Iraqis throwing rocks and setting two police cars ablaze, officers and witnesses said.



Iraqi witnesses said at least six former enlisted men were wounded, including three seriously in the incident in Baghdad's Damascus Square. But there was no official word on their condition.



The US military said two US soldiers were wounded but would not say how.



The violence erupted as thousands of former enlisted men queued for back wages and pensions, the last of the soldiers from the old regime to receive the payments promised by the US-led coalition.



Hassan Khodair, one of the former soldiers on line, said the queue, which formed outside an office compound once used by Saddam to plan the construction of mosques, was badly managed.



"Some of the people got angry. There was a fight. They (US troops) started beating people in the line. Some people started shooting at the Americans and the Americans returned fire."



It was the third protest by irate Iraqis in Baghdad this week.



Members of the former Iraqi security services demonstrated on Thursday to demand payment of their salaries and seek jobs in the new police force.



On Wednesday Iraqi police fired in the air to disperse an angry crowd of Iraqi job seekers who had clashed with guards, throwing rocks and setting cars ablaze in central Baghdad.





Armed Iraqi Militias Defy Occupation;
Take To Streets Again

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer, 10.3.03



NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- An estimated 50,000 Shiite Muslim faithful descended on this holy city Friday for ceremonies marking the 40th day since the car bomb assassination of revered cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.

Iraqi police, the Badr Brigade - the banned military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and uniformed soldiers of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan provided security at the memorial services. The slain al-Hakim founded SCIRI while in Iranian exile. His brother has since taken over leadership.





Shiites Demand U.S. Withdrawal



BAGHDAD (AFP) 10.3.03 - The head of Iraq's top Shiite political party demanded that national elections be held to choose the drafters of a new constitution, piling pressure on the US-led coalition.



Prayer leader Sadreddin al-Qobanshi also called for "the speedy withdrawal of occupation forces," from Iraq, a demand repeated at weekly Friday sermons across the country.







OCCUPATION REPORT





The Unbuilding of Iraq;

Bremer As A Source Of Ridicule



John Barry and Evan Thomas, Newsweek, 01 October 2003





On the ground, the Coalition Provisional Authority, charged with actually running Iraq until the Iraqis can take over, is the source of increasing ridicule.



"CPA stands for the Condescending and Patronizing Americans," a Baghdad diplomat told a NEWSWEEK reporter. "So there they are, sitting in their palace: 800 people, 17 of whom speak Arabic, one is an expert on Iraq. Living in this cocoon. Writing papers. It's absurd," says one dissident Pentagon official. He exaggerates, but not by much. Most of the senior civilian staff are not technical experts but diplomats, Republican appointees, White House staffers and the like.



Some astute foreign observers think that time is running out. "We are losing the consent of the Iraqi people," warned John Sawers, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's emissary in Baghdad. "We have until Ramadan [Oct. 27-Nov. 25] to turn it around," Sawers told American officials in Washington two weeks ago. "After that it will be too late."



At least one old Middle East hand is a pessimist. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recently passed a message to Rumsfeld. It ran roughly: "There's a 5 percent chance you get Saddam tomorrow, the energy goes out of the resistance and things get dramatically better. There's a 5 percent chance a car bomb takes out the entire Governing Council, and things go to hell. In between those, it will get better over time, or worse over time. Right now, I say it's twice as likely that it gets worse." It's not known how Rumsfeld responded.



OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION

BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!





DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK



Bush Caught Telling Stupid Silly Lies Again:



By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer. 10.3.03



WASHINGTON - Both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell contended Friday that a vial of botulinum bacteria found in Iraq is evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons intent. But the chief U.S. weapons inspector said the vial had been stored for safekeeping in an Iraqi scientist's refrigerator since 1993. He offered no evidence it had been used in a weapons program during the last decade.



Bush said Friday the Iraq war was justified and cited the vial of bacteria — as proof Kay found ample signs Saddam "was a danger to the world."



The vial contained live bacteria that make botulinum toxin — a toxin that can be used as a biological weapon. But experts say there are many, complicated steps between possessing a vial of bacteria and producing enough of the toxin to create a weapon. That would require relatively sophisticated equipment and processing.



Kay, in a briefing with reporters after Powell and Bush spoke, said the Iraqi scientist who had the vial had been given it for safekeeping at his home by another, more senior scientist, in 1993. The scientist initially had other samples, most of which he quickly returned because of concerns for his family's safety.



"He was actually storing them in his refrigerator," Kay said. "He had small children."



(THANKS TO B WHO E-MAILED THIS IN: B WRITES:

Wow 150,000 troops and billions spent to disarm Iraq of ONE VIAL OF STUFF IN SOME DUDES FRIDGE.)





Democratic Party Unanimously Votes For More Dead American Troops;
Democrat Presidential Candidates Offer No Objection To War Money Vote

Agence France-Press, October 1, 2003



The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a White House request for 87 billion dollars in supplemental funding for military operations and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as Iraqi leaders asked for grants instead of loans.



Of the amount, 66.7 billion dollars was allotted to support US troops and the remaining 20.3 billion for Iraqi reconstruction.

The Appropriations Committee bill, approved by a vote of 29-to-0, now goes before the full Senate for consideration.





Give "WMD" Search Time, Republicans Say



October 3, 2023, RHCP Press, Washington DC



In a news conference this morning, House Minority Whip and ex-comedian Dennis Miller (R - California) defended the more than 20-year-long search for "WMD" (an obsolete acronym for "weapons of mass destruction" used decades ago to refer to any lethal weapons retained by countries other than America) in Iraq.



"It's not easy to find these well-hidden weapons in a country larger than my state of California," Miller said. (California and Iraq were once the same size, before the massive 2011 California earthquake.)



"We know the weapons are there," Miller continued. "We have to give our people adequate time to locate them."





CLASS WAR NEWS



Working Class Wage Cut



Between l979 and l999, real wages for male high-school graduates dropped 24 percent. (Arlie Hochschild, October 2, 2003)



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