and you think our troops will come home sane?

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13880387.htm

Order, peace elusive in Iraqi city of Samarra


-snip-

Staff Sgt. Cortez Powell looked at the shredded jaw of a dead man whom he'd shot in the face when insurgents ambushed an American patrol in a blind of reeds. Powell's M4 assault rifle had jammed, so he'd grabbed the pump-action shotgun that he kept slung over his shoulders and pulled the trigger.

Five other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division scrambled down, pulled two of the insurgents' bodies from the reeds and dragged them through the mud.

"Strap those motherf-----s to the hood like a deer," said Staff Sgt. James Robinson, 25, of Hughes, Ark.

The soldiers heaved the two bodies onto the hood of a Humvee and tied them down with a cord. The dead insurgents' legs and arms flapped in the air as the Humvee rumbled along.

Iraqi families stood in front of the surrounding houses. They watched the corpses ride by and glared at the American soldiers.

-snip-

Soldiers such as Sgt. Powell desperately want to reach out to the community, but they're mired in daily skirmishes. Residents have fled, and a 7-mile-long, 5-foot-high earthen wall that U.S. soldiers built around the city last August has failed to keep out the insurgents.

-snip-

"If they ever figure out that we don't have many guys here we'll be in trouble," said 1st Lt. Dennis Call, who commands the 2nd platoon. "If we're out on patrol with just seven guys, like usual, and we take two casualties we'll get messed up."

The lieutenant writes biblical quotes on the walls and bookshelves of his bedroom, which is a closet connected to the operations center in the Alamo schoolhouse. He has a goofy grin, and his sergeants tousle his sandy-brown hair as though he were a favorite uncle.

-snip-

He looked at McCreery and raised his finger toward the house in front of him.

"This my house," he said in broken English.

McCreery reached down. With his hands cupped, he shoved the man's organs back into his body and held them in place as Call unwrapped a bandage to put around the hole.

-snip-

"No one told me why I'm putting my life on the line in Samarra, and you know why they didn't?" Pena asked. "Because there is no f------ reason."
-------------------------------------------------


there is no fucking reason

and our health care system has crashed

and deadly DU will come home too

and our health care system has crashed

already the VA's resources have been stretched beyond capacity, especially with mental illness, PTSD and suicides. Did you know that the DOD is sitting on figures which show that returning army soldiers are 12 times more likely to commit homicide or suicide than the general population? And these figures are being culled by professionals who are not getting the support of the Pentagon.

If they are released from the military, the latest rules limit how much treatment they can get. The demands for treatment may provide fodder for Doonesbury, but the needs are huge and growing. My sources tell me that they honestly can state that 1/3 of people serving there will have a measurable mental illness or breakdown as a result of their service. We are talking about 100,000 walking wounded, folks. People who have been damaged by Cheney, Bush, and Rummie.
our brothers and sisters.

creating our reality. This is one form. A very devestating form from the aspect of human evil. Human imposed horror.

We muck them as prisoners.
We muck them as our soldiers.

seem fine. They blend right back into society with no problems. They usually spend a month or so in Kuwait before returning to the states to decompress a bit, that must help. The ones with a very good support system at home that have letters coming often seem to do better from what I hear.

AD INFINITUM, is that if they are brought home en masse EVERY COMMUNITY IN THE U.S. would suddenly be faced with the HORROR their loved ones have been subjected to. Can't have that. Rather keep them in that hell-hole till they're dead or too maimed to eventually tell the REAL TALE.

"No one told me why I'm putting my life on the line in Samarra, and you know why they didn't?" Pena asked. "Because there is no f------ reason."

This story was on the front page of the St. Paul Pioneer Press today including a photo of the dying Iraqi in front of his house being held by the US soldier who shot him.

It's about fucking time they showed the truth about the war. Almost 3 years too late but it's something.