Category: War

Cross-posted from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

A Valentine’s Day reminder, given chocolate’s status as a conflict substance, that ethical (and tasty!) chocolate is readily available. Why is this important? With Fair Trade chocolate:

* Forced and abusive child labor practices are prohibited

* Farming families earn a price that is adequate to meet their basic human needs

* Environmentally sustainable production methods are required

Where to buy Fair Trade chocolate and other Fair Trade goods?

A partial list is available here

Happy Valentine’s Day from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

Ta!

I Think Not!

Today we get another followup report Report Faults Mental Care for Iraq Veterans at Upstate Base

Seems as these reports keep coming they all can be considered ‘followups’, one after the other after the other after the other….., building to what is actually happing to our Military, but Especially the Military Personal that serve, so it seems, not the Country but the whims of the Civilian and some Military Leadership as well as Ideologies not followed by the Majority, as the Nation of Apathy tunes out to their Service and the Care given for same!

Back on the 29th I put up a post about an NPR Morning Edition report Army Blocks Disability Paperwork Aid at Fort Drum, the link is to my sites post which I put up on a few others with some added content..

Here is the link to that NPR report.

A soldier described his first briefing with the VA office on base:

According to the soldier, the VA official told a classroom full of injured troops, “We cannot help you review the narrative summaries of your medical problems.” The official said the VA used to help soldiers with the paperwork, but Army officials saw soldiers from Fort Drum getting higher disability ratings with the VA’s help than soldiers from other bases. The Army told the VA to stop helping Fort Drum soldiers describe their army injuries, and the VA did as it was told.

You can listen to the report here – NPR media player

This is going to be quick and short.

I just caught a link to a report that will be airing on NPR Morning Edition

Army Blocks Disability Paperwork Aid at Fort Drum

by Ari Shapiro

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET

It starts out thus:

Morning Edition, January 29, 2008 · Army officials in upstate New York instructed representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military disability paperwork last year. That paperwork can be crucial because it helps determine whether soldiers will get annual disability payments and health care after they’re discharged.

And we get this from one of Drums soldiers:

“To be tossed aside like a worn-out pair of boots is pretty disheartening,” the soldier says. “I always believed the Army would take care of me if I did the best I could, and I’ve done that.”

For now Visit here to read, than Tune In to listen to this!

Greyhawk had this posted at ePluribus about the Military breaking ranks with the White House on the propaganda about the Successful Surge with only this one snippet

“Don’t let the quiet fool you,” a senior defense official says. “There’s still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the ‘surge’ has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That’s just ludicrous. There’s increasing quiet in Iraq, but that’s happened because of our shift in strategy – the ‘surge’ had nothing to do with it.”

And just a few sentences, so I followed the link. Here’s abit more to hopefully get you to drop over to the Asia Times online and read the rest.

The New York Times, Sunday 1-13-08, has an ‘Eye Opening’ Report, Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles with this one only being Part 1 !!

My generation thought Vietnam was an aberration, but it wasn’t, it was the game plan.  Lie your way into a nasty little war and let other people’s children do the killing and dying while the fat cats at the top of the capitalist pile rake in the dough.  It’s all for the benefit of those so bloated with greed that they just don’t care that their profits come soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots.

My generation thought Vietnam was an aberration, but it wasn’t, it was the game plan.  Lie your way into a nasty little war and let other people’s children do the killing and dying while the fat cats at the top of the capitalist pile rake in the dough.  It’s all for the benefit of those so bloated with greed that they just don’t care that their profits come soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots.