[Peace] TONIGHT!!! shine for peace
Dlind49 at aol.com
Dlind49 at aol.com
Sun Mar 9 12:41:57 CST 2003
While this is a nice gesture and will make eveyone feel good by doing some
tangible symbolic action, preemptive war will break out within days or few
weeks at most. WAR IS SIMPLY ABOUT KILLING OR WOUNDING EVERYBODY; DESTROYING
EVERYTHING; AND CONTAMINATING GOD'S AIR, WATER, AND SOIL. If we are to make
a difference that means stopping this war now we must force the leaders of
the U.S. Department of Defense and British Ministry of Defence to comply with
their own regulations that prohibit combat units from going into combat with
defective equipment, poor combat training, and a broken medical care system.
Colin Powell and Condelezza Rice both said on the Sunday morning talk shows
that they do not care what the UN or other nations or peace makers think.
**
Supporting the Troops
Dr. Doug Rokke
As war looms while the sons and daughters of our nation are deployed for
participation in combat we must consider how to support our troops. Today,
first hand experience, numerous reports and congressional hearings have
verified that gas masks and chemical protective clothing that are essential
to survive when Iraq, United States, or British forces use weapons of mass
destruction are defective and will not protect the health of our troops.
Numerous reports also verify, just as during Gulf War I, that training and
education is inadequate to enable our troops to operate effectively and
survive during combat. As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
confirmed Gulf War I casualty count exceeds 221000 on disability and over
10000 dead we must reconsider the potential casualty count from any Gulf War
II combat actions. During Gulf War I we blew up Iraq's chemical and
biological stockpiles and nuclear reactors that the U.S. gave him. We
destroyed Iraq's infrastructure. Consequently we left Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi
Arabia a toxic wasteland exposing Gulf War I warriors to a toxic soup that
has devastated their health. We know based on actual reports and current
experience that medical care for Gulf War I casualties is ineffective and
thus we can expect the same inadequate medical care for new War II
casualties. During Gulf War I the United States military used depleted
uranium munitions that contaminated air, water, and soil and that have left a
trail of death and illness. We must ban the use of depleted uranium (DU)
munitions, provide the mandated medical care for "all" DU casualties, and
clean up the DU contamination. VA Secretary Tony Principi recently asked
President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld what the expected Gulf War
II casualty count may be and given the current state of medical care he
suggested that it is critical that we reconsider combat actions in the Iraq
and Kuwait because that region is a toxic wasteland due to Gulf War combat
actions. If we go into combat once more with defective equipment, inadequate
training, and a broken medical care system thousands more of America's finest
sons and daughters will become disabled. If we use 'SHOCK AND AWE" as planned
we will devastate God's earth and cause unacceptable collateral damage. As a
combat veteran I must urge that we support the troops by ensuring that
defective equipment is replaced, essential combat education and training is
completed, effective medical is available, and that before we engage in
combat that a viable threat to our nation's sovereignty exists. The
technology of war has exceeded our capability to resolve the health and
environmental effects of war. THEREFORE WAR IS OBSOLETE. We must do what is
right for God and the citizens of the world. In conclusion, "Supporting the
Troops" means keeping them home and out of harms way. PEACE MUST REIGN ON
EARTH!
***
By David H. Hackworth
Last month, Mike Wallace informed the nation on "60 Minutes" that our troops
in the Gulf region don't have sufficient training or the right protection and
detection gear to survive an Iraqi chemical or biological attack. Not exactly
breaking news to the readers of this column or DefenseWatch magazine, which
has been warning us for months not to allow a replay of the 1991 Gulf War
mistakes - which, according to a November 2002 Veterans Affairs report, has
so far killed or disabled almost 180,000 Desert Storm vets (August 1990 -
October 1991 participants).
The "60 Minutes" story was backed up by a congressional General Accounting
Office report blistering the top brass for rushing our troops into harm's way
without doing their sworn duty: making sure they were good to go. It seems
their precious deployment timetable is more important than their grunts, who
might soon be dispatched into a potentially poisonous caldron - to destroy
Iraq's chemical and biological weapons - without the right gear.
Although the Pentagon brass were too into escape-and-evade tactics to find
the time to do an on-camera interview with Mike Wallace, a senior
congressional aide, speaking off the record, said: "While of course I'm not
able to disclose anything 'classified,' you should know your story is
absolutely on-target. The classified facts regarding our preparedness for
chemical or biological warfare are a lot worse than '60 Minutes' reported."
Wait a minute! If a Senate aide on the outside of the inside loop knows the
score, surely the military brass, the aide's senator boss and at least a
platoon of his peers also know that - unlike Desert Storm, where the vast
number of deaths or disabilities were accidentally self-inflicted by U.S.
bomber- and/or engineer-zapped Iraqi chemical munitions blowing downwind and
striking our troops - our sons and daughters now sharpening their bayonets
are in even more jeopardy this time around from Iraqi horror weapons that
will be intentionally zeroed in on them.
Yet - to their everlasting shame - not one of these guardians of our republic
has stood tall and publicly sounded off about this life-or-death issue.
What's happened to the spirit of John F. Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage"?
Have those we trust to protect and run our country all suddenly been struck
dumb, or - worse - have they chosen the easy wrong over the hard right by
burying their integrity in a bunch of classified files?
And apart from "60 Minutes," what about the press? Why hasn't our Pentagon
press corps - supposedly our country's lead hunting dog - nosed around and
reported this story? The clues were all there, and the GAO report wasn't
exactly classified. Not only did every congressional office get copies, so
did the media. There is also DefenseWatch editor Ed Offley's repeated offers
to share the evidence he receives on a daily basis from the very worried
warriors who'll be hung out to do the dying in a death so horrific and
painful it haunts them day and night. Surely our media should have sniffed
that something was terribly wrong, especially after an NBC
(nuclear/biological/chemical) sergeant passed out at an air-conditioned
Pentagon briefing while demonstrating how well the protective gear works.
Military pals now deployed in Iraq doing dangerous behind-the-lines missions
have told me that almost every Iraqi oil well along the Turk border is wired
with demolitions to replicate the lung-searing, apocalyptic horror show we
saw when the Iraqi army blew the southern wells as they pulled out of Kuwait
in 1991.
Other pals, computer commandos in the various head-sheds who eyeball all the
reports coming in from the field, confirm this information and add an even
more sinister twist: some of the wells have bio/chem weapons rigged to go off
when they explode.
Surely our brass hats, the ultimate recipients of the commo, know that the
prevailing wind in Iraq is from north to south - from the Turk border over
Baghdad to Kuwait - right in the face of our advancing troops. And surely
they know the real status of our troops' inability to shield themselves while
on the go from these deadly agents.
Let's hope that "60 Minutes" sparks a chain reaction, and that the mothers
and fathers of America rise up and demand that our soldiers not be needlessly
sacrificed.
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