the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 13, 2006
March 19 marks the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
This invasion has been a costly tragedy. So far the Bush administration, with the unwavering support of the Congress, has spent more than 250 billion tax dollars for the occupation of Iraq.
But the real price of the war is paid in human lives. More than 2,500 troops of the occupation force have been killed in this war, more than 2,300 of them Americans. The number of wounded soldiers is at least 20,000.
As high as these numbers are, they fade in comparison to the civilian casualties. Officially, between 34,000 and 38,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in this war so far. A much higher estimate, 100,000, was published by the medical journal Lancet about one and a half years ago.
Either way this is a very heavy toll, and it has been rising steadily. Everyone agrees that Iraq is in a state of civil war.
Today the majority of Americans think that George Bush lied about the reasons of invading Iraq three years ago. But there are still many working people in this country who believe Bush when he says that U.S. troops have to stay in Iraq to stop the bloodshed.
It’s every bit as big a lie! The U.S. invaded Iraq to better control its resources, especially oil, on behalf of U.S. corporations. And the U.S. is continuing the occupation for that same reason.
The ongoing civil war in Iraq is a direct result of the occupation. The U.S. set up militias based on ethnicity and religion and used them to attack the population, in order to suppress the Iraqi insurgency. These attacks have now escalated into a full-fledged ethnic and religious war.
No, the U.S. occupation doesn’t help the situation in Iraq. The civil war may not stop if the U.S. troops leave Iraq today. But every day they stay makes the situation worse, not better.
The troops say this themselves. So do their relatives and friends back home, and the majority of Americans in opinion polls.
How many more years will this bloody occupation continue? How many more thousands of Iraqis and American soldiers will die? How many more hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent for this dirty war?
The Republicans and Democrats–and the U.S. ruling class they represent–are not worried about the enormous cost of this war. Both parties continue to vote money for the war. Both parties make working people, both in Iraq and the U.S., pay for it.
We pay for the occupation of Iraq with our lives and limbs. We pay for it with the money that is cut from the services we need–education, health care, welfare programs, maintenance of the infrastructure, disaster aid.
But working people and the troops who come out of the working class are also the ones who can stop this war. And we have every reason to do it.
Mar 13, 2006
Shawanna Nelson gave birth to her baby in an Arkansas prison in September 2003 without anesthesia and with her legs shackled together. As a result, Nelson suffered damage to her sciatic nerve and has lasting back pain. She is suing the prison authorities as well as the medical company that delivered the baby.
As horrible as it sounds, it is in fact common practice in U.S. prisons to shackle pregnant women during labor, even though it is well-known that this puts not only the mother but also the baby at risk of injury. About 5% of women inmates are pregnant when they enter prison, which means that about 2000 babies are born in U.S. prisons every year, most of them to shackled mothers. In fact, only two states, California and Illinois, have laws banning this utterly inhuman act.
That a woman in labor would run away is not only unlikely but physically impossible. So it’s not at all surprising that no such escape attempt is known to have ever been recorded. In fact, it is hard to find a logical reason for such a practice–except to punish a person. It is in fact one of the many common, everyday things prison authorities do to directly attack the inmates’ dignity and physical well-being.
This barbaric practice, by itself, is not only an indictment of the prison system but also the society that has produced it.
Mar 13, 2006
This week BGE announced that electric costs will go up by $743 per year per family. That means on average we will pay $62 extra per month, just for electricity.
But the politicians and the corporation never explain WHY we should be paying so much to a company so profitable that another company wants to buy it. And they never explain why customers in nearby Howard County have an increase of $468 per year–still too much but quite a lot less than the Baltimore area increase. And none of them seem able to explain why Pepco, which provides power to the Washington, D.C. area, estimates the average rise will be $8.33 per month!
Politicians, including our so-called “friends” the Democrats, pretend they can do nothing. They will allow these rate increases even though customers have no other choice because BGE is the only utility. The politicians were the ones who claimed that “deregulation” would be good for customers, giving us “choice” and “lower prices.”
They are the ones who need to feel our anger!
Mar 13, 2006
Without any advance notice, Republicans in the Michigan legislature pushed through an increase in the minimum wage. Currently set at the federal minimum of $5.15 an hour, it will go up in three steps, hitting $6.90 an hour next October, and eventually reaching $7.40 two years from now.
Apparently, they were trying to upstage the Democratic governor who had let it be known she would support a referendum calling for an increase in the minimum wage–hoping of course, to benefit in her election this November.
Pretty amusing to see these two parties so worried about an election that they compete with each other to raise the minimum wage–if it weren’t for the fact that both proposals are inadequate.
The minimum wage has been frozen for nine years at a meager $5.15 an hour, with workers falling further behind every one of those nine years.
In fact, minimum wage workers have regularly been falling behind ever since 1968. If the minimum wage in that year–$1.60 an hour–had simply kept up with inflation, it would be $8.87 an hour today.
Even at its high point, the minimum wage was not enough to live on. But it’s an outrage that in nearly 40 years, during which the capitalists accumulated untold trillions of dollars, the minimum wage has been offering less protection, not more.
Don’t let either of these parties pretend they are doing us a favor!
Mar 13, 2006
A new report by the Consumer Federation of America showed that natural gas usage is down this year by 5%. The supply of natural gas, at the same time, has remained steady.
According to the law of supply and demand, that means natural gas prices should be down, right? No, on the contrary, prices are up 28% this year.
Somebody is paying lower prices for natural gas, but it certainly isn’t us. A large supply of profits is obviously in great demand!
Mar 13, 2006
At least 400 high school students left school to protest in front of City Hall and the Department of Education in Baltimore City. The school system plans to close five schools this summer, moving 5300 students to other buildings.
These Baltimore students, led by a student-run tutoring organization, pointed out that the conditions they face every day will not be addressed by these changes. One senior mentioned that he has between 37 and 40 students in each of his classes. Others said their schools lacked heat, books or even toilet paper. A sophomore mentioned how her teachers used their own money to buy paper for copying materials.
The students demanded smaller classes and a return of art and music classes–which had been cut as the system faced budget crisis after budget crisis.
Trying to defuse student complaints, an education department official said Baltimore City received the most funding of any system in the state of Maryland. As if that were an answer to the obvious lack of funds. Baltimore may have more–but its class sizes are twice what is recommended, its schools lack books and supplies, its furnaces don’t work and many of its roofs leak. And it’s not giving its students an adequate education.
All schools should have adequate funding, and big city systems need extra on top of that. Poorer areas need far more funding to make up for what the parents and grandparents of these students can’t give them, because they never got it from the school system when they attended.
The mayor met with five protesting students, but justified himself saying the city lacked the funding to meet the students’ demands. As usual, city and state officials only hear funding requests made by developers of fancy hotels, high-priced condos and well-connected contractors.
The politicians have failed these students. If the protests grow louder and larger, the politicians might make other choices. They certainly don’t listen to reason!
Mar 13, 2006
The city of Chicago is laying the basis to privatize Midway Airport–with the help of the Illinois legislature. The State Senate unanimously passed a bill opening the way for private companies to run the airport.
It’s not the first privatization at airports. Chicago has slowly been privatizing airport work over the years. It turned the work of plumbers, custodians, window cleaners and parking garage workers over to private contractors. The privatization of Midway only finishes this stage. And next in the city’s aim is the much bigger O’Hare Airport, with more than 1,000 city workers’ jobs at risk.
Mayor Daley has enthusiastically pushed privatization of all kinds of city services, such as repairs and construction of pavements and curbs, and custodial work in city offices. The mayor says he saved the taxpayers money.
It’s not true. Yes, the wages are reduced, but the private companies now get their profits from those lower wages. The city pays out the same amount of money–or more! No wonder these companies often contribute generously to the mayor’s campaign coffers.
Chicago was long called the “city that works.” It’s increasingly “working” to enrich private owners profiting off of public services, while impoverishing the workers who do the real work.
Mar 13, 2006
Public employee pension funds are in trouble all around the country. About 30% are considered to be seriously underfunded. Illinois’ pension funds alone have a deficit estimated at 38 billion dollars. The California teachers’ retirement system has a shortfall of more than 24 billion dollars.
Funds for local government workers are at least as bad. San Diego’s plan is underfunded by about two billion dollars.
Many public employees believe that because they work for the government, even if their pension plans are seriously underfunded, their benefits are still secure.
They are mistaken.
In recent years, local governments have defaulted. Like the corporations, some of these local governments pretended to be bankrupt as an excuse to walk away from pension and other obligations to both their active and retired workers.
But a growing number of state and local governments aren’t waiting for that. Twelve states and many local governments have already replaced traditional defined-benefit pension plans with 401(k) plans for some or all of their employees.
These 401(k) plans provide no guaranteed level of retirement benefits. Even the best of them don’t give someone enough to live on for more than a few years. They also provide little or no benefits for workers who must retire early because they are disabled.
Putting our trust in politicians to protect our future retirement is like putting our trust in a thief not to rob us.
Mar 13, 2006
There is a move by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson to eliminate the single business tax. This is after a number of other tax reductions in Michigan for businesses and the wealthy.
You would think they keep doing this because businesses are way over-taxed in Michigan. But the opposite is the truth. Michigan is below the national average for business taxes. But everywhere in the country, the proportion of taxes paid by businesses and the wealthy has been going down.
So who is paying more taxes? Everyone else! In fact, Michigan is one of the worst states in regard to taxing the poor. According to a recent report, Michigan is the 4th worst when it comes to taxing those below the poverty level.
So if there should be any tax relief, it should be for the poor and working class.
Think of it: We’re paying more for gas, for our heating bills, and all our bills–yet they want to give relief only to the rich!
Mar 13, 2006
When President Bush made his recent trip to India, the press spoke often of the “Indian economic miracle,” which was underlined by a new multi-billion dollar nuclear accord signed by Bush and Indian President Singh.
What the press ignored was a major study just released by the World Bank showing that India has the greatest concentration of hungry children in the world. According to the report, 38% of India’s children suffer from malnourishment, hunger and starvation–a number even higher than in poverty-stricken sub-Saharan Africa, where the World Bank says that 26% of the children suffer from malnourishment. In fact, the study found that almost 40% of the world’s malnourished children live in one country, alone–India.
In India, there are signs of burgeoning wealth. In bustling cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, new high rises soar ever upward, with much of this construction fueled by hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign investment that has flowed into the country over the last decade. In Bangalore, India has its version of a high-tech Silicon Valley, with sprawling corporate campuses where new software and other computer technology is developed. India has its share of global tycoons, like Lakshmi Mittal, who oversees the biggest steel empire in the world and is worth more than 25 billion dollars, according to Forbes magazine. And, as Bush noted on his trip, there is a new middle class in India, made up of tens of millions of people. According to Bush, India supposedly represents a growing market for products “Made in the USA.”
The Indian government has already been on its own overseas buying spree. In 2004, according to a U.S. congressional study, India agreed to buy 5.7 billion dollars in weaponry, allowing it to become the biggest buyer on the world arms market. And during Bush’s trip, the Indian government announced that it is getting ready to buy 126 fighter jets, including advanced F-16s and F-18s worth up to seven billion dollars.
All these purchases have changed nothing for most people in India. The terrible depth of poverty in both the cities and countryside is one indication of that. Official estimates are that 300 million of India’s 1.1 billion people live below the official poverty line on less than $1 a day. And experts agree that the amount of abject poverty is much worse, since the government measure of poverty deliberately underestimates the daily minimum of calories each Indian needs to survive.
In other words, the Indian economic miracle is for the capitalists’ benefit only. Most of the population is getting poorer and hungrier–something that neither Bush nor most of the U.S. press bothered to mention during his trip.
Mar 13, 2006
In January, Human Rights Watch issued its 2005 report on the use of torture around the world. It detailed hundreds of pages of human abuse by governments around the world. But its top concern was the United States, because “torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights.”
The head of Human Rights Watch wrote that the U.S. policy of torture came from its top leadership. He mentioned Bush’s threat to veto a bill against “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” and Cheney’s attempt to protect the CIA from any responsibility. Human Rights Watch’s director also mentioned the complicity of Britain in sending suspects to another country to be “questioned,” that is, tortured, by another government and the European Union’s willingness to ignore torture used in countries it wanted for its allies.
Altogether, the director of Human Rights Watch wrote of “a global leadership void” in defending human rights.
Bush responded, with his most cynically “sincere” face, “No American will be allowed to torture another human being anywhere in the world.”
No U.S. torture? Apparently the administration expects that nobody remembers the dead Iraqis and Afghans, beaten and tortured under American command. Apparently, he figures nobody remembers Abu Ghraib any more. Apparently, the 500 men being physically abused, including force feeding right now at Guantanamo, have not been “tortured.” The U.S. administration keeps changing its definition of torture.
This government sends its officials around the world to lecture other leaders about democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Meanwhile it has chosen a conscious policy of torture, led by its attorney general, Mr. Torture-is-legal, and its chief officer, President Liar.
But if Human Rights Watch hopes to shame the leaders of the world’s richest countries, the organization is on a fool’s errand. How can those responsible for abusing human rights turn around and investigate themselves or lead the way forward from such bestial actions?
The angry populations of the world will one day bring such torturing murderers to account.
Mar 13, 2006
Every time a swan or a duck dies from the bird flu in a swamp somewhere in Europe, there is a flood of media coverage. On the other hand, there is almost no coverage of this disease in the poor countries of Asia and Africa, where it could produce tens of millions of dead birds but also, perhaps tomorrow, lead to grave consequences for humans.
The measures necessary to limit infection among birds have been known for decades, if not for centuries: birds with the flu must be quarantined, separated from others. When a flock of birds is infected, it is necessary to slaughter the entire flock and nearby ones as well. Additionally, birds need to be vaccinated to keep them from being contaminated by wild birds. Outdoor markets where poultry are sold must be closed.
In Africa, such measures are impossible to carry out. Nigeria has already announced cases of bird flu–putting the entire continent at risk for this disease. But the government can hardly propose slaughtering the birds. They have no means to pay compensation to peasants who raise birds for the market or just for basic survival.
The virus causing the bird flu is not recent. It was first identified in December 2003. It seems to have originated in Korea, then spread from one country to another. In just a few weeks’ time, all the countries of Southeast Asia were affected. Millions of birds died.
Men and women also died, although this virus is specific to birds and only under exceptional circumstances transmitted to humans. But where there is close contact between birds and humans–which is the case in poor regions–then transmission is possible. To date, some 200 people have been contaminated by the virus and close to half of them are dead, every single one from poor countries.
Right from the start, health experts predicted the risk of a rapid spread of the bird flu around the planet. According to the director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2004, the international community had the obligation to “make a complete and major effort now, in order to avoid an epidemic.”
But nothing was done.
Viruses do not recognize borders. So the virus attacked large numbers of birds in Asia, then Africa and Europe. And in Africa, where it is difficult to separate humans from the fowl they keep for food, the contamination spreads more easily. And the consequences will be severe. Even more so since any disease will be aggravated by the epidemics of AIDS, of malaria, tuberculosis and all the other diseases that cause death in Africa. The treatment and the cure for these diseases are well known, but the health programs to deal with them are funded mainly for those in richer countries.
The more the virus spreads the higher the risk that it will go through a mutation. A mutation could eventually lead to a totally new virus that isn’t affected by existing immunizations and thus could become contagious directly between human beings.
In this way, a true world epidemic could begin. The rich countries have begun preparing by stockpiling Tamiflu and protective masks. But at the same time, they remain deaf to appeals from the poorer parts of the world to do what must be done to contain bird flu. By their unwillingness to spend what funds are needed in the poorer countries, the hypocrites of the richer ones will allow this flu to spread and develop further … thus preparing the way for another world crisis.
It really is an insane world!
Mar 13, 2006
The Bush administration has stepped up its rhetoric against Iran in recent days. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Iran the “central banker” of terrorism and the greatest challenge facing the U.S. “... You can imagine Iran with a nuclear weapon and the threat they would then pose to that region,” she said.
Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran “continues to defy the world with its nuclear ambitions” and that “the United States is keeping all options on the table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime.”
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld jumped on the bandwagon, accusing Iran of sending its Revolutionary Guard into Iraq to stir up trouble. He went on to make his own threat, saying that this is something the Iranian government “will look back on as having been an error in judgment.”
Where have we heard such bellicose statements before? From the same Bush administration before it sent troops to invade Iraq three years ago. And, as if on cue, the U.S.’s main ally and fellow-accuser of Iraq, Britain, stepped in also. A British “senior Foreign Office official,” quoted in the Guardian newspaper, said that Iran could acquire the technological capability to build a bomb by the end of the year.
Does this mean the U.S. and Britain are preparing to attack Iran, a country about three times larger than Iraq in both population and land area? It remains to be seen. Given the record of the Bush administration, however, some kind of military attack against Iran can certainly not be ruled out.
But why is the U.S. attacking Iran like this? Is it really worried about Iran becoming a nuclear power and threatening the Middle East–and the U.S.?
Iranian government officials say they want to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes–to generate electricity–and that they also have the right to develop nuclear weapons if they choose to do so. That should be hard to object to, given that Iran is surrounded by countries that already have nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan and Israel. The U.S. has given its blessing to these countries’ nuclear weapons programs. In the case of Israel, the U.S. has even actively helped it build its nuclear arsenal.
So, when it comes to nuclear weapons, it’s not really Iran, but the U.S. that takes an inconsistent position. Here is the world’s biggest nuclear power, the only country that has ever used nuclear bombs on a population, wagging its finger at Iran. And this when Bush has just announced U.S. approval of the nuclear program of India–a country that has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Iran has signed it.
This is blatant hypocrisy, but is it a surprise? This is the same Bush administration that, three years ago, used the blatant lie of “weapons of mass destruction” to attack and invade Iraq.
No, if the U.S. decides to launch a military attack on Iran, it will not be because of Iran’s nuclear program. It will be to serve the U.S.’s own imperialist purposes.
One purpose of the invasion of Iraq–to establish a large, solid U.S. military foothold in the region–has apparently not succeeded. So the U.S. needs more cooperation from other countries in the Middle East, especially large ones like Iran, in policing the area. This pressure on Iran may be geared toward pushing the Iranian regime in that direction.
The Iranian regime, like other governments, may be a bully. Like other governments, it may act without any concern for the peoples of the Middle East, including those in Iran itself. But the biggest threat to people’s security in the Middle East–and the rest of the world–is the never-ending aggression of the big bully on the block, the U.S.
Working people in this country pay for this aggression, in blood and money. And like working people in other parts of the world, we are less safe as a result of it. We have every reason to raise our voices in opposition to a possible U.S. attack on Iran.
Mar 13, 2006
On Monday, March 6, GM retirees brought their case to U.S. District Court in Detroit, Michigan. The retirees are challenging the re-negotiated contract that forces them to pay monthly premiums for their health care, plus co-pays and higher deductibles. All retirees have for many years been guaranteed coverage with premiums fully paid by GM.
The court hearing lasted one day and it was clearly stacked against the retirees. High-priced lawyers for GM and the UAW simply read into the record the cases they had designed and prepared months ago. The lawyers took advantage of a long string of legal rulings and intricate procedures–and the fact that GM doesn’t answer to anyone.
The retired workers and their lawyers were then allowed to state their case. Their testimonies made it very clear that, as one retiree said, “This is shameful. Discriminatory. Illegal.”
The retirees’ attorney pointed out that GM’s case was based on the judge simply accepting whatever GM says, because the actuarial and financial tables they used to concoct their case were kept secret and “... cannot be cross-examined. This violates the normal codes of evidence that lesser mortals than GM are held to.”
The retirees brought documents, UAW statements, and GM statements to prove their retirements were based on a contract for lifetime health insurance “with no cost to you.” One witness had been a union benefits representative for 20 years. He had signed hundreds of retirement contracts together with GM’s representative. He showed his manuals: on retirement you will receive “the same healthcare as active workers at no cost to you for life.”
Retirees told the judge: “If I buy a GM car on a payment plan, and then I run into some financial problems, can I go to GM and make them give me a break?”
A retiree said he had witnessed other years when GM was in financial trouble and in the plant they put “a lock on the purse strings.” Nothing like that is going on in the plants today. “The only urgency is to take from us. The bear is eating the honey made by the worker bees and he won’t stop until it’s gone.”
Another retiree stated, “We sold our youth one hour at a time. Fire the executives who planned this.”
Retirees were not intimidated by the robed judge and the stylish lawyers. One pointed at the GM lawyers and said, “You Rhodes scholars, look at yourselves. Think of your own fathers and grandfathers.” Another said, “Greed is motivating this whole thing. It’s fraud. It’s breach of contract. You all should go hunting with Cheney and see how things turn out down in Texas.”
The last retiree witness told the judge, “If my contract isn’t any good then let me have my job back.”
The judge is to issue his ruling by the end of March. But the judge already told the press, two weeks before the hearing, that he didn’t see how anyone could object to such a “fair and reasonable” deal.
Fair and reasonable? The only fair and reasonable deal is to toss these two-faced double-dealers out on their rear ends.
Mar 13, 2006
On March 7, GM announced a freeze on white-collar workers’ current pension plans. GM will no longer pay defined benefits. Instead they will shift to defined contributions, a 401(k) type of plan. The same 401(k) deal that so many workers lost their shirts on a few years ago!
In other words, workers no longer will gain credits toward a set guaranteed pension. They will have only a savings account that they will have to draw down in retirement.
GM is directly attacking salaried workers–but it has someone else in its sights: hourly workers. The UAW’s contract expires in late 2007. GM is setting the stage to demand big changes and give-backs from the hourly ranks as well.
Moving at this time also helps GM hold a threat over the heads of workers eligible to retire or take buy-outs before the contract expires. GM is clearly saying to these workers: get out now while you still have what you have. It’s part of their program to force high-seniority, high-wage workers off the books.
But workers will also see GM’s other message quite clearly. How can you trust anything GM promises? They tell you one thing one day and then change it the next. How can you retire based on false and deceptive promises?
Every worker knows that GM is the bear that isn’t satisfied until it takes the last drop of honey from the bees that produce it.
Mar 13, 2006
Dana Corporation, an auto supplier, filed for bankruptcy. It will now proceed to spend money like water.
This “bankrupt” company will pay at least 12.5 million dollars to Miller Buckfire of New York, and more than six million dollars to AlixPartners of Michigan, for “executive assistance” during the bankruptcy. Plus, two executives will be paid $125,000 per month. Then there are the other l9 executives who receive pay up to $670 an hour! And Dana’s ex-CFO will be re-hired as a “consultant” at $500 an hour.
If this is a “bankrupt” company, then Dick Cheney is a safe hunter.
Mar 13, 2006
At its peak in September, 131 detainees, that is, one out of four, were participating in a hunger strike at Guantanamo Camp. It began in June with a few dozen detainees protesting harsh conditions. Over the summer the strike escalated as more men joined, with the indefinite nature of their confinement becoming the main issue. Many of the 517 detainees at Guantanamo have been confined for several years, some for as long as four years, without ever being charged with any crime.
This is not the first hunger strike at Guantanamo. There have been several. But the current one was perhaps more organized, lasted longer, and attracted a larger number of men.
Prison authorities and Defense Department officials worried things were getting out of hand: that the strike could grow larger, that someone might die, that news of the protest would leak out to the world. By December the decision was made to break the strike.
After refusing to eat at mealtime, detainees would return to their cells to find basic necessities taken away: clothes, shoes, towels, blankets, books. Some detainees were put in cold isolation cells, with air-conditioning turned up all the way. Some detainees were forced-fed, but not on a regular basis.
In December and January, prison authorities upped the ante. Forced feedings have taken a horribly gruesome turn, amounting to nothing short of torture. Riot control police hold prisoners down for forced feedings several times a day. Restraint chairs were shipped in, with men, not wild animals but human beings, tied up and held immobile for hours at a time, while guards insert long tubes from nostrils to stomach, causing excruciating pain. Laxatives were added to the liquid formula, making things even more horrific and degrading.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), World Medical Association and human rights groups have all denounced such methods as torture.
As weeks went by, a growing number of detainees could no longer stand such treatment. Detainees have described to their lawyers how persistent and militant detainees advised their brother-strikers to give up the hunger strike. By the end of February, apparently only a trickle–authorities say four men–were continuing their hunger strike.
The level of cynicism of prison authorities knows no bounds. They have justified these atrocious methods as “humanitarian” and claim they’re saving detainees’ lives. The reality is they’re determined not only to break this hunger strike, but to “break” the will of detainees.
Is it any wonder that the U.S. is so hated and reviled in so many other countries? The U.S. paints its own picture for the whole world to see at Guantanamo.
Mar 13, 2006
More than one in three U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq has received some kind of mental health care within a year after coming back. This is the result of surveys taken by about 300,000 veterans deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas from May 2003 to April 2004.
Not surprisingly, the highest rate of mental problems is seen among troops coming back from Iraq, where patrolling the streets makes U.S. soldiers direct targets. In Iraq even bases are not safe–they are regularly targeted by mortar attacks. And if not a target themselves, seeing others getting killed or wounded traumatizes soldiers for months and years to come–not to mention being the shooter who kills a child or another civilian who happens to be in the way.
“I had real bad flashbacks. I couldn’t control them,” said Jesus Bocanegra, a 23-year-old Iraq veteran from Texas. “I saw the murder of children, women. It was just horrible for anyone to experience.” Such flashbacks, anxiety and panic attacks, nightmares, inability to sleep, inability to relate to other people, depression, aggressive or suicidal thoughts are common symptoms among combat veterans. Bocanegra has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Officially, Iraq veterans are being diagnosed with PTSD at a rate of 12% a year.
PTSD is a name coined after the Viet Nam war. Before Viet Nam, it was called “combat fatigue” or “shell shock” and usually ignored. Today, also, most veterans who have such problems never receive any treatment, or even recognition, for their suffering.
There are some statistics that give a hint about the toll PTSD takes on veterans and their families. According to a recent study done by the Army, for example, documented cases of aggression among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan rose from 11% before deployment to 22% afterwards. Alcohol misuse increased from 13% to 21%. Divorces among soldiers in 2004 were 28% more than in 2003 and 53% more than in 2000–while the total number of soldiers stayed about the same during that time period.
Of course, soldiers, their families and friends don’t need these statistics to know what war does to people. They experience it first hand. They know that most of those who survive a war will carry the scars of it, physical as well as mental, for the rest of their lives. Many of them will not be able to adjust to society, hold down a job or stable relationships and will end up in the street. Many will take their own lives. (Most estimates agree that the number of Viet Nam veterans who committed suicide within several years after the war is greater than 58,000, the number of U.S. troops killed in that war).
Nor do veterans and their families need medical experts to come up with new names for this after every war, whether it’s called combat fatigue, shell shock or PTSD. They know what it is and what it’s called.
It’s called war. If war doesn’t kill or paralyze you on the battlefield, it does that afterwards. Perhaps more slowly, but just as surely.
Mar 13, 2006
With the consent of their field commanders, G.I.s serving in Iraq were polled by Zogby International about their opinions on the war.
Seventy-two% said the U.S. should pull out in less than a year, and 29% said the pull-out should be IMMEDIATE!
When they went to fight in Iraq, most of the troops believed the lies they were told about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction, how he was supposedly tied in with 9/11, and how the Iraq people would shower U.S. soldiers with flowers.
Reality has ripped the mask from those lies. Now a respected polling firm has been allowed to document what has in fact been clear for many months. The troops want out.