For Cindy Sheehan and the residents of Camp Casey
image: Iraqi men grieve outside a hospital following an attack by insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk August 4, 2005. More than two years of war, occupation and insurgency have turned Iraq into possibly the most psychologically damaged nation in the world, one of the country’s top psychiatrists said on August 4. Dr Harith Hassan, the former head of Baghdad’s Pyschological Research Centre, estimated that more than 70 percent of the private clients he sees each week are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a severe anxiety condition. REUTERS/Ali Jasim/Files
(Photo by Stringer/Iraq/Reuters)
Cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
Song Against Natural Selection
by Edward Hirsch
The weak survive!
A man with a damaged arm,
a house missing a single brick, one step
torn away from the other steps
the way I was once torn away
from you; this hurts us, it
isn’t what we’d imagined, what
we’d hoped for when we were young
and still hoping for, still imagining things,
but we manage, we survive. Sure,
losing is hard work, one limb severed
at a time makes it that much harder
to get around the city, another word
dropped from our vocabularies
and the remaining words are that much heavier
on our tongues, that much further
from ourselves, and yet people
go on talking, speech survives.
It isn’t easy giving up limbs,
trying to manage with that much
less to eat each week, that much more
money we know we’ll never make,
things we not only can’t buy, but
can’t afford to look at in the stores;
this hurts us, and yet we manage, we survive
so that losing itself becomes a kind
of song, our song, our only witness
to the way we die, one day at a time;
a leg severed, a word buried: this
is how we recognize ourselves, and why.
– – –
This diary series is dedicated to all who suffer because of war
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
read this soldier’s blog
witness every day
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WASHINGTON – The Army, in a rare disciplinary act against a four-star officer, relieved Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes -bio- of his command after a Pentagon investigation into unspecified “personal conduct.”
Byrnes was relieved as commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command on Monday by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, according to a brief statement issued by Army headquarters at the Pentagon.
In that post, Byrnes oversaw all Army training programs and the development of war-fighting guidelines. It operates 33 training schools and centers on 16 Army installations and is headquartered at Fort Monroe, Va. Among the command’s responsibilities is to oversee Army recruiting and initial recruit training.
“The investigation upon which this relief is based is undergoing further review to determine the appropriate final disposition of this matter,” the Army statement said.
Although disciplinary action against general officers is not uncommon, it is extremely rare for a four-star general to be relieved of command. Byrnes held the position as commander of Training and Doctrine Command since November 2002. Before that he was director of the Army staff at Army headquarters in the Pentagon.
Byrnes’ tenure at Training and Doctrine Command was already coming to a close, since his successor had been named – though not yet confirmed by the Senate – and Byrnes had not been nominated for another post. He was expected to retire.
A spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Bryan Whitman, said the investigation involved “matters of personal conduct,” but he would not say more. Other officials said the matter was investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General and the findings were now being considered by senior Army officials to determine whether further action should be taken.
Among the four-star general or flag officers to have been relieved of command in recent years —
● Navy Adm. Richard C. Macke, sacked as commander of Pacific Command in 1995 for remarks he made about the case of U.S. Marines accused of raping a 12-year-old Japanese girl,
● Gen. Michael Dugan, who was fired as chief of staff of the Air Force in 1990 for comments to reporters about planning for the 1991 Gulf War.
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Please read my additional comment:
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This can’t be true – the attorney for 4 star Maj. Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes is David H. Robertson. Is he the son of ….. ?
Need to bet on membership of Skull & Bones and fraternity? Can someone find out, please.
A lengthy comment …
Posted in soj’s diary @ Daily Kos
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Moms
not
Bombs
Hi, DJ
I read your Sheehan diary and recc’d, but was too fatigued to comment (had just come home from work).
Many folks, like the chucklehead at the station you spoke to, just aren’t gonna plug into/respond to your passion. But I know that ain’t gonna slow you down.
Really glad to see it made the recc list and has a good thread. I’m gonna come back and check that out later.
Peace out Peace Mom ;^)
Riverbend hasn’t posted since 7/15. Hope she’s okay.
Yeah, there are lots of gaps between her entries. The conditions that enable her to blog are pretty sporadic. We don’t know how lucky we are…
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BooMan | SusaHu | Soj :: Any Credibility? See my earlier post
Reporter suggests Byrnes discovered plan to turn nuke exercise into staged terror attack
PrisonPlanet by Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | August 10 2005
The head of Fort Monroe’s Training and Doctrine Command, four star general Kevin P. Byrnes, was fired Tuesday apparently for sexual misconduct according to official sources.
Other sources however have offered a different explanation for Byrnes’ dismissal which ties in with the Bush administration’s unpopular plan to attack Iran and the staged nuclear attack in the US which would provide the pretext to do so.
According to reporter Greg Szymanski, anonymous military sources said that Byrnes was the leader of a faction that was preparing to instigate a coup against the neo-con hawks in an attempt to prevent further global conflict.
Indications are that, much like popular opinion amongst the general public, half the military oppose the neo-con’s agenda and half support it.
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Reactions from Soj et all — European Tribune
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