Action Alert: Bradley Manning Support Network

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Call To Action!

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Editorial  Comment: The following e-mail was forwarded to me from my VVAW brother Mutt, of the San Diego chapter of VVAW.  As a result I contacted Ms Reitman and asked her permission to post it up here on VetSpeak.org, inasmuch as Bradley is presently at the center of the national conversation on our involvement in Afghanistan.  

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This infamy results from his alleged actions in possibly having released Top Secret data to Wiki-leaks.  Actions that are seen either as an act of treason, or as an act of heroic patriotism, depending on one’s political perspective or political party allegiance.  Like so much else in America today, it is a seemingly outrageous act that is being used for political rallying purposes by both sides, rather than attempting to determine the truth of the matter through critical analysis of the facts, or hard evidence. 

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Our immediate concern is with Bradley’s  personal welfare while in custody, and the gravity of his current legal predicament.  Neither side is privy to all of the facts at this point in time.  It is not out of the realm of possibilities that Bradley is being played for a patsy in a cover up of a bigger conspiracy…I still remember the ol' two Lee Harvey Oswalds theory.  Tail waggin’ the dog?  Truth will out.  

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However, in the meantime, the fact remains; Bradley is a soldier, and even in a military Court Martial would have to be proven guilty based on consideration of all of the “truths” of the case, from both perspectives.  The best insurance that the light of truth will be kept on the proceedings is a widespread network of monitors.  As a soldier and as an American, Bradley is entitled to the best defense that he can muster to his case.  It is in that spirit that we are posting this call for support for Bradley.

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From: Loraine Reitman

Date: August 14, 2010 5:19:16 PM PDT

To: VVAW - San Diego

Subject: Bradley Manning Support Network - San Diego

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Hi there,

My name is Loraine and I'm serving on the steering committee for the Bradley Manning Support Network, www.bradleymanning.org.  We're working to raise awareness and support for Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst facing a court martial and up to 52 years in prison on charges of leaking classified materials that showed American soldiers killing Reuters journalists.  The video in question was published by WikiLeaks and can be viewed at www.collateralmurder.com

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A number of peace organizations have begun collaborating with our network, most notably Courage to Resist (couragetoresist.org) which has partnered with us to host a defense fund.  We've generated lots of interest on the Internet and in different parts of the country already.   Now, I am hoping that each of you reads this will actively join with us in the building of a nationwide grassroots support network for Bradley.  A network that speaks truth to power.  Together, in one strong voice.
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Peace,

Loraine Reitman

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Help change the world - Support Bradley Manning
www.bradleymanning.org

http://www.10news.com/video/24707932/index.html

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www.VetSpeak.org
                                        

Action Alert: Bradley Manning Support Network

Editorial  Comment: This e-mail was forwarded to me from my VVAW brother Mutt, of the San Diego chapter.  I contacted Ms Reitman, and asked her permission to post it up here on VetSpeak.org, as Bradley is presently at the center of the national conversation on our involvement in Afghanistan.  

This infamy results from his alleged actions in possibly having released Top Secret data to Wiki-leaks.  Actions that are seen either as an act of treason, or as an act of heroic patriotism, depending on one’s political perspective or political party allegiance.  Like so much else in America today, it is a seemingly outrageous act that is being used for political rallying purposes by both sides, rather than attempting to determine the truth of the matter through critical analysis of the facts, or hard evidence. 

Our immediate concern is with Bradley’s  personal welfare while in custody, and the gravity of his current legal predicament.  Neither side is privy to all of the facts, at this point in time.  It is not out of the realm of possibilities that Bradley is being played for a patsy in a cover up of a bigger conspiracy…I still remember the two Lee Harvey Oswalds theory.  Tail waggin’ the dog?  Truth will out.  However, in the meantime, the fact remains; Bradley is a soldier, and even in a military Court Martial would have to be proven guilty based on consideration of all of the “truths” of the case, from both perspectives.  The best insurance that the light of truth will be kept on the proceedings is a widespread network of monitors.  As a soldier and as an American, Bradley is entitled to the best defense that he can muster to his case.  It is in that spirit that we are posting this call for support for Bradley.

From: Loraine Reitman

Date: August 14, 2010 5:19:16 PM PDT

To: VVAW - San Diego

Subject: Bradley Manning Support Network - San Diego

Hi there,

My name is Loraine and I'm serving on the steering committee for the Bradley Manning Support Network. www.bradleymanning.org  We're working to raise awareness and support for Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst facing a court martial and up to 52 years in prison on charges of leaking classified materials that showed American soldiers killing Reuters journalists.  The video in question was published by WikiLeaks and can be viewed at www.collateralmurder.com

A number of peace organizations have begun collaborating with our network, most notably Courage to Resist (couragetoresist.org) which has partnered with us to host a defense fund.  We've generated lots of interest on the Internet and in different parts of the country already.   Now, I am hoping that each of you reads this will actively join with us in the building of a nationwide grassroots support network for Bradley.  A network that speaks truth to power.  Together, in one strong voice.

Peace,

Loraine Reitman

Help change the world - Support Bradley Manning
www.bradleymanning.org                             http://www.10news.com/video/24707932/index.html

Iraq & Afghanistan: One Veteran's Perspective on Guilt and Complacency...

America’s Guilt: What I Do Know and 

Do Not Know About it...

Although many blindly deny the treachery, many others see it clearly, but there has been no credible effort to take a stand against it.

By Rafe Pilgrim

Rafesplace@aol.com

I know that our government knows things about 9-11 it has not told us, including actions of its own devising.

I know that the invasion of Afghanistan was wrong, motivated by the lure of its natural resources, as well as its position to accommodate routing yet more resources from the Caspian basin to a port accessible to special interests, all enhanced by politicians both servile and mad, ambitious generals, the monster investment-bankers and the wide range of greed merchants who profit from war, and the power freaks and perverts who lust for it.

I know that the invasion of Iraq was wrong, it was motivated by madness, perhaps more than even by greed.

I know that the resulting slaughter of a million innocents will indict American history and character forever.

I know that the use of depleted uranium is wrong and will haunt hospitals from Los Angeles to Fallujah and beyond for generations.

I know that Bush and Cheney lied.

I know that Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice lied, seduced by the lures of the white power-structure, rather than to stand as examples of integrity and courage of their race and for America.

I know that Barak Obama made the same choice in performing his role as a more articulate but translucent Bush, upping the stakes in Afghanistan, and answering to the same white power-meisters.

I know that our Congress has also chosen complicity with power, or at best has simply fallen into political cowardice rather than to risk standing for the right thing.

I know that the "surge" is wrong, motivated by a last desperate grasp for Afghanistan's resources, or simply to delay the exposure of the lies that promoted the initial treachery.

I know that supporting Israel's treachery against the Palestinians with arms, funds and political posturing is wrong.

I know that denying the United Nations the honest support of the world's most powerful nation is wrong and harmful not only to peace but to the full range of humanitarian endeavors.

I know that the Department of Homeland Security is a clone of the Gestapo that "protected" the Heimatland.

I know that Guantanamo is wrong, along with trials of kidnapped minors by military tribunals.

I know that torture is abominably wrong, and that water-boarding is such despite its promotion by a sitting Vice President of the United States and endorsed by legal experts of our Justice Department.

I know that "extreme rendition" is a euphemism for international kidnapping to do the torture elsewhere and perhaps by more expert practitioners.

I know that the Patriot Act is an “official” excuse to violate of our constitutional guarantees and a license to intimidate and abuse American citizens with impunity.

I know that government tracking and eavesdropping on our phone calls and email is wrong.

I know that American Christians now hide within the stone walls of their churches rather than to walk and speak out as would Christ to oppose the treachery and to stop the slaughter.

I know that once friendly peoples of the world now disrespect and despise Americans for the treachery done in the name of our country.

Perhaps most difficult for this Veteran to digest is that I know that every one of our soldiers who died and will die in Iraq and Afghanistan is another wasted life resulting from our government's treachery.

I know there is a large segment of the U.S. population who "Support Our Troops," believing the propaganda that they are somehow defending America against "terrorism" in those deserts eight or nine thousand miles from our coast, or saving Christianity from the Muslim threat to its existence, and that it is heroic for a soldier to be blown to pieces by an IED or picked off by a ragtag sniper defending his own village.

I know that there is another large segment of Americans who really just don't care about all this, don't wish to listen, talk or be bothered by it. They've got "more important" things to do.

I know that there is yet another segment of Americans who are disturbed by the treacherous eternal wars, and who churn out emails to each other, write items such as this on the web, carry signs on street corners, attend weekend protests on the Mall, and join "activist" organizations that -- after nine years of soliciting contributions -- have accomplished nothing beyond promoting their continued organizational existence.

Neither this segment nor its organizations have ever measured up to the inconveniences and discomforts, and accepted the risks to their personal safety, such as are required to convince our government these treacherous wars must end,  and that our Bill of Rights must be restored. (These "activist" orgs' idea of action is to invite you to "our next annual meeting," and of course to solicit contributions. What is perhaps the largest of them advised me that my proposal for a specific meaningful action "...would interfere with our primary objective, which is to refine our organization." And this after five years of our slaughterous wars against Afghanistan and Iraq!

I know there are those other few precious individuals who have tried to galvanize the citizenry to demand decency of our government, but have failed to garner the required massive support to endure the hardships required for any chance of success. Bless them -- but the treachery proceeds.

What I do not know is why and how so many semi-intelligent, half-decent citizens have avoided the truth or claimed otherwise, and how they abide this evil and treacherous state of affairs, and how they can rise and prepare for each new day of it by looking into their morning mirrors without being overcome with well earned guilt and remorse regarding their complacency.

.....Very truly and most sadly,

Rafe Pilgrim

www.VetSpeak.org

A Veteran Weighs the Costs of War...

Do The Costs of Two Wars Exceed Our Human Capacity to Care?

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by Chante Wolf, 

Persian Gulf War Veteran

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Ed Note: I first met Chante when she signed on with VetSpeak.org to go to the 2008 Winter Soldier I&A, held at the National Labor College in May of that year.  We went not only to "cover" the hearings, but to stand as VVAW security for the event as well.  Chante, along with 12 other VetSpeak.org/Old School VVAW folks stood the front gate security detail during the hearings. We have been close friends, ever since. Together with VetSpeak co-founder Diane Ford, we have been working together to expand Women Veterans' voices through the medium of writing. Here is Chante's voice, speaking out strong...WH

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As an uncle recently told me, “I probably will not read your latest publication (my Veterans Book Project, soon to be published) because, for me, it is time to move on, NOT from your story exactly, but the hardship some of it has caused you.”

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I already get the tip-toe treatment and a pat on the head sorta speak from other family members when I get really upset with our military missions of pre-meditated mass murder. So what next? If I can not voice my feelings about war and the currently proposed never-ending one, when do I get to “move on?” When do the troops who have been exposed to mass horror tour after tour get the chance to protect their ‘beautiful minds’ like former first lady, Barbara Bush said in 2003 before the invasion of Iraq?

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Are our families in emotional overload? Are they tired of the anger, money problems, isolation and walking on egg shells around their veteran, careful not to set them off over the simplest thing? I know that there are family members who have started to commit suicide themselves. On two different occasions I heard the stories about the children of veterans attempting suicide, including a niece of a veteran who killed himself.

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Often soldiers come home disillusioned, full of guilt, remorse and displaced anger over the tremendous loss of life and destruction as well as the calamities of friendly fire, accidents and fraud, waste and abuse of U.S. tax dollars. And what happens when they get dissed by their own families who can not find the courage to listen with heart or begin to grasp the enormous change their loved one has just gone through, for the fourth, fifth, or sixth time? Are the soldiers told, “it is time for me to move on”, or “shut the fuck up and get over it - it is in the past now”, or “there is more to life than your war shit, you fucking drunk!”?

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Where do the soldiers go next and who can they trust to hear their pain without judgement? 

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Recently at the Minneapolis VA, I walked in with an ex-Marine hurting from the recent losses of two more men in his original unit (7 already committed suicide alone). He was suicidal. We went to the PTSR clinic for lack of knowledge of where we should have gone. We were then escorted from the PTSR clinic to the Emergency Room, and the woman escort relayed why we were there to the woman at the front desk. Once at the desk the woman asked the ex-Marine some questions, then started to “should” on him for not keeping his appointments three-years ago. He began to cry and told her he can’t get the war out of his head and he wants to kill himself.

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After he went through the task of getting evaluated he was wheel-chaired behind closed doors and left by himself for over 45 minutes. The young man was then ‘should’ on again, this time by the social worker about needing not to do alcohol or drugs for a period of time before he could get help and was then let go to his own accord. Once outside with a fellow VFP Vietnam Marine, he told us that out of his original unit it was only him and another guy left alive, that he just wanted to be normal like everyone else.

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Where do us vets go when our families have had enough heartache? What safe space do we find when the family still wants to ‘rah-rah’ about war and all the good we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq liberating all those people to Allah? Who will toss the soldiers the life line they need to get them out of their basements? And the flip of the coin, how will the families begin to find their lives after they have cut their loved one down from the water pipe and garden hose they used to hang themselves?

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Support the troops has been a very affective propaganda tool, which in my opinion only means that to protest the war the family member may jinx the life of their loved one deployed. Then the guilt and remorse those families would carry would be unbearable when, in reality it again serves its purpose to silence dissent. Even the spitting image has been effectively used against the peace protestors, specifically women. It seems interesting to me that women are the spitters. Hitler used the same image of women spitting on the German troops after their losing WWI to drum up support for his next war.

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How do we ever navigate through all the hypocrisy, spitting images, and calling war veterans cowards because they have been injured mentally from the brutality of war? How do the families negotiate the heartache and adjustments they must deal with their wounded warriors? How do the children grow up with all the confusion going on around them and not themselves be forever affected by war?

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If this is really all very confusing - welcome home. This is just the tip of the iceberg that has just broken off in Greenland and is coming to a theater near you.

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Why do Americans continue to buy the lies and deceit of the rich and the Pentagon to wage war? What can we really do about it all? Perhaps the sand is a better place to put our heads when the shit is too hard to swallow anymore. I certainly feel this way, and have found myself shying away from other war vets when their stories and heart ache has become too hard for me to bear. And the last nine years has been a long time to hold my breath for the current wars and 19 years of my own guilt and remorse that has cost me more than just brain cells, sleep, my friends from the military, my ex-partner, it has now cost me most of my family.

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www.VetSpeak.org

Join the Fight: Voices in the Wilderness Vs the V.A.

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Ed Note: This open letter came in the VetSpeak.org e-mail, this a.m. It directly addresses a post from VA Watchdog, http://www.vawatchdog.org/10/nf10/nfjul10/nf071710-1-1.htm, which I had just finished posting to FaceBook.  Ed Jackson is doing exactly what we all need to be doing, speaking out. Only we should begin to be doing it in an organized fashion…TOGETHER, as one voice, instead of in frustrated and angry individual outbursts.  As long as we are fighting and arguing among ourselves about political ideology or schoolbook philosophy, and continuing to exercise organizational chauvinism, rather than coalescing all of our knowledge, and all of our influence and resources in a concerted and unified campaign to confront and oust these tyrants on these issues specific to our experience as Veterans, they will continue to deny us that which we have, through our service in peace time and in time of war, earned.  Until then, VetSpeak.org’s pages are open to other voices in the wilderness wishing to speak out about the V.A.’s uncaring treatment of the very Veterans that the agency was created to serve.WH

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Dept. of Veteran's Affairs 

A National Embarrassment  

Our nation faces a lot of issues today, from the failed economy, to jobs, to defense, to healthcare, to housing, to the out of control national debt.
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Nearly every one of these problems have been self inflicted by the US Congress.  The Democrats have controlled the Congress for 4 years now and in that 4 years, the US has nearly imploded.  Republicans did not do much better when they controlled the Congress.  Congress has increased entitlement programs a staggering 50% in 4 years.  In FY-2006 theDepartment of Health and Human Services (HHS) was about $600 Billion, in FY-2010 it is $900 Billion.  HHS administers most entitlement programs.  HHS is scheduled to have a huge budget increase in the next few years, as it begins administrating ObamaCare.
 
In contrast the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) had a budget of about $90 Billion in FY-2006, and about $100 Billion in FY-2010, including a 9% increase in contracted attorneys this year.  Why does the VA need an increase in attorney costs?  Because it has some 3 million pending or appealed claims from veterans from WWII to today's Global Wars on Terrorism in Iraqand Afghanistan the VA is still fighting.  There are still some 800,000 claims from Vietnam Era veterans, most of which have claims or appeals for exposure to Agent Orange.  To settle these claims for Agent Orange exposure the VA has taken the official approach of "we are waiting for an Army to die".  The VA has refused to consider evidence submitted by veterans to support their claims or appeals.  The VA has refused to comply with the law that says if there are no government records found, and the veteran provides his/her own evidence then the "benefit of doubt" goes in favor of the veteran.
 
The VA current will not pay concurrent compensation if a veteran is retired from the military and collecting his/her earned retirement.  If these veterans have a VA disability rating of 50%, or less, the the retired veteran must give up a dollar for dollar amount of retired pays for his/her compensation.  In effect, the veteran is funding his own VA disabilities and the VA is not.  
 
I am one of those veterans, who gives up a portion of my USAF retirement pay to collect a 30% disability ($376 per month) "compensation".  That compensation is seperate from my claim of Agent Orange exposure.  I am one of some 800,000 veterans who served in Guam, the "Blue Water Navy", Thailand, Okinawa, and other places that directly support combat operations in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange while performing service to our great nation.  We veterans served in the US Army, USN, USAF, USMC, and USCG.  We were mostly between 18 and 22 years old when we were exposed, although some were also then approaching retirement age back then, between 38 and 48.  About 200 Vietnam Era veterans are now dying each day.  Many others, including myself are in poor health, and are being denied health care and compensation from the VA.  Many of us can no longer work.  But, what hurts us more than being denied by the VA, is we are finding out our exposures to Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, back in the 1960s and 1970s is we have passed new health problems to our children and grandchildren.  The health effects of dioxin is truly multi-generational.  
 
Past Congresses have set this type of system up for disabled veterans to jump through the hoops at the VA.  The VA and Dept. of Defense (DOD) insist that records cannot be found for the storage, use, and disposal of Agent Orange on Guam, or shipment by USAF aircraft or USN ships, including chartered aircraft and shipping.  But that is like saying "we cannot confirm or deny.....", which has been a DOD standard statement since WWII.  
 
Just where do you think all of that Agent Orange went after its use was stopped in South Vietnam in 1970?  Well, it wasn't Kansas.   
 
Does the US Government even know that if the VA paid all 3 million claims and appeals pending at 100% disability compensation, under $3000 per month, it would cost about $9 billion per year, not including administrative costs.  That is less than 10% of the current VA budget of about $100 billion per year (FY-2010).  That is about the same amount of money the VA increased their budget to pay attorneys with (to fight the claims against the veterans).  In FY-2009, the US Congress spent some $3 billion of the "cash for clunkers" program.  They pay senior executives of Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac, about $90 million per year, and are about to give each another (up to) $150 billion.  The USAF is about to spend some $40 billion on a KC-X (the next generation tanker aircraft) to replace stored KC-135s that even they say are safely flyable until 2040 or longer, with new engines and upgrades (at a fraction of the cost of the KC-X).  
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President Obama and the current Congress spent $787 billion in 2009 in a failed attempt to save jobs and the economy.  Unemployment has climbed from about 7% before that money was spent to as high as 10% since that money was spent.  Thank you Congress and Mr. President.  The President recently visited a battery plant Holland, MI (owned by a South Korean company) and gave them some $300 million to open a new plant in Holland for 300 workers, a cost of $500,000 per new job.  Yet, the government continues to ignore those of us who answered our nation's call when they needed us.  President Obama and the current Congress is no friend of the current troops now fighting for us, or past veterans who have.  Just last year he floated an idea he had to have current war veterans who were wounded, many with lost limbs, pay for their own health care and wounds or injuries incurred during their military war service. 
 
It is time we started supporting our current and former veterans, the VA will not, and this Congress will not.  All of us veterans who have been waiting for years for settlement of our claims will be voting this November.  I assure you, no candidate or incumbent can expect our support if they will not support the veterans, and correct the national disgrace the VA is.  
 
Ed Jackson,
Msgt. (RET), USAF
topboom@msn.com

www.VetSpeak.org