MGx - Musings, Essays & Ballads

Bronze star recipient Sgt Nils Aron Andersson, combat veteran turned recruiter, originally from Oregon commits suicide. Married only 24 hours earlier, his new wife follows him and commits suicide a day later.
“He was morally opposed to putting more young men into that situation, where they could be injured or killed or see the things […]

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This is how we ’support our troops’ in America.

Wave your flags and display your magnets and then really support the troops and write Congress!

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Instead of losing 15lbs in Iraq, now the average soldier in Baghdad is gaining ten. Hidden in the bloat is a segue into the outrageous profits reaped by KBR, Burger King and Pizza Hut. In the end it is the warrior who pays the price.
Passing time in a rec tent back in Kuwait, […]

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I have written about this before but the VA has acknowledged that on average 126 veterans, 18 per day are committing suicide.
Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kussman, the undersecretary for health at the VA, sent the email, dated Dec. 15, 2007. Kussman had inquired about the accuracy of a news report published that month claiming the […]

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No one volunteered to be ’stop lossed’ repeatedly into Iraq. Reestablishing a draft would be politically imprudent and detrimental to the continued war effort as envisioned by the administration. Consequently, our troops are being extended repeatedly against their will because pro-war advocates will not enlist. I have written about this before.

The above […]

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Traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder both characterized by severe physiological and irreparable damage to the brain are subject of a new study released by the RAND Corporation.
“There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-leader […]

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Writer Robert Fisk discusses the semantics employed by George Bush. In particular, apparently to ‘re-educate’ the public about the truth in Iraq, Bush’s use of words beginning with ‘re’.
Note, too, the constant use of words that begin with “re -”. Renew. Revive. And – incredibly – Bush also told us that “we actually re-liberated […]

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We have met yet another grim milestone as the 4000th soldier has been killed in Iraq. As I have written before, nothing is more demoralizing to the troops than public complacency and the Iraq war has faded from view in the news.
Coverage has declined sharply, according to a Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism […]

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A fellow peace activist wrote this and gave me permission to post it here. It is moving and thoughtful and attends to the too little attention given by the mainstream media upon these gut wrenching testimonies of our wounded warriors, our true winter patriots.
Editor:
As noted in The World (March 17, 2008), Sunshine Week is […]

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From the Washington Post
Former Marine Jon Turner began his presentation by ripping his service medals off his shirt and tossing them into the first row. He then narrated a series of graphic photographs showing bloody victims and destruction, bringing gasps from the audience. In a matter-of-fact voice, he described episodes in which he and fellow […]

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One of the first conscientious objectors was Camilo Mejia who is now on the board of IVAW, Iraq Veterans Against the War. He has helped organize this Winter Soldier event because he feels it is his patriotic duty to defend the constitution.
Mejia was court martialed for refusing to redeploy to his unit after two […]

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Details here at Rawstory and watch live streaming video here

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Nineteen year old female medic earns Silver Star
Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.
…Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was […]

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Inadequate funding of the VA leaves many veterans untreated.
…testimony before U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti, Dr. Gerald Cross, the undersecretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration, made a startling admission during cross-examination by the plaintiffs’ attorneys that would appear to contradict the agency’s position.
Cross admitted that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were not […]

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Dabbling in foreign affairs without adequate understanding of local cultures is a dangerous thing. It is proving very dangerous for our troops as detailed in this article by Gareth Porter at Asia Times. Funded by US money and supplied with weapons by the US military has further endangered our troops.
…mainstream Sunni insurgents who […]

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