Veterans for Common Sense

March 26, 2008 – Former U.S. Marine Corps machine gunner John Michael Turner leaned over the microphone, his voice choking with emotion, the words barely forcing themselves out, the tears barely held back.

“There’s a term ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine,’” he said, ripping off his medals and throwing them to the ground. “But there’s also the expression ‘Eat the apple, f*@ the Corps, I don’t work for you no more.”

Turner was one of more than 200 veterans who came the Winter Soldier hearings organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Like the other veterans assembled, Turner spoke openly about what he saw and did during his tours in Iraq.

“April 18, 2006 was the date of my first confirmed kill,” he said. “He was innocent, I called him the fat man. He was walking back to his house and I killed him in front of his father and friend. My first shot made him scream and look into my eyes, so I looked at my friend and said, ‘Well, I can’t let that happen,’ and shot him again. After my first kill I was congratulated.”

Not Just Bad Apples
When he was done speaking, Turner received a standing ovation from the crowd of Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Gulf War veterans. The ovation went on for over two minutes. Turner’s comments, and the response was typical of the three day gathering, which Iraq Veterans Against the War hoped would show that well-publicized incidents of U.S. brutality, including the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha, are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “a few bad apples,” as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the organizers said, of “an increasingly bloody occupation.”

Corporal Jason Washburn did three tours in Iraq including the invasion. Over the course of his service, Washburn was stationed in some of the most dangerous areas of Iraq: Najaf, Sadr City, and Anbar Province. A squad in his unit was responsible for the massacre of 26 civilians in Haditha in November 2005.

Washburn told the gathering his commanders encouraged lawless behavior.

“We were encouraged to bring ‘drop weapons’ or shovels, in case we accidentally shot a civilian, we could drop the weapon on the body and pretend they were an insurgent,” he said.

“By the third tour, if they were carrying a shovel or bag, we could shoot them. So we carried these tools and weapons in our vehicles, so we could toss them on civilians when we shot them. This was commonly encouraged.”
Meager Media Coverage
These gripping, often tearful personal testimonies were broadcast in their entirety through IVAW’s website, the satellite statio Free Speech TV, and Pacifica Radio (who’s three- day live broadcast I co-hosted) but they mostly went ignored by the mainstream media.

These grassroots outlets reached a much larger audience than organizers expected. IVAW’s website received more than 30,000 unique views every day during Winter Soldier. Warcomeshome.org, the site I edit for Pacifica Radio, received hits from internet users in over 110 countries and moving comments from veterans and active duty service members and their families. The progressive print and online media also paid attention: articles ran in In These Times, The Nation and AlterNet.

Winter soldier also received wide play in the military press, with favorable stories published in Stars and Stripes and the Military Times chain of newsweeklies. The IVAW has posted media coverage of the hearings on its site.

Success in alternative and military outlets was tempered, however, by a nearly complete blackout by the mainstream media. Though the gathering was timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and was held in Silver Spring, Maryland less than 10 miles from the White House, the personal testimony of hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans garnered scant mainstream media coverage, with the notable exceptions of Time, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, the Boston Globe and The Washington Post, which buried an article on Winter Soldier in the Metro section. Meanwhile, The New York Times¸ CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS ignored it completely.

Instead, these media outlets proffered stories produced by embedded journalists citing “progress” in Iraq, supposedly thanks to the so-called “surge.” The contrast between the raw, honest words of these veterans and the coverage on TV was incredibly jarring.

Waking up at my suburban Washington hotel Sunday morning, I turned on Good Morning America, and saw a live shot from “Camp Victory” (formerly Saddam Hussein International Airport) where the reporter excitedly reported “more troops is just one reason for the drop in violence.”

No mention was made of the 4,4783 Americans who’ve been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the one million Iraqis researches at Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University believe have died. No mention, either, of more than 69,000 American soldiers the Pentagon reports have been wounded, injured, or fallen ill in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There was also no mention of the nearly 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have gone to the Department of Veterans Affairs for treatment; nor of the 250,000 who have filed a disability claim with the VA.

Five years into the war, we appear to be back where we started in terms of media coverage, where a cowed media blindly follows the spin coming from the White House. After Winter Soldier concluded, the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting released an alert to its members asking them to “contact the broadcast networks and ask them why they decided to ignore the Winter Soldiers hearings while carrying the less-informed observations on Iraq of John McCain and Dick Cheney.”

Troubling Polling Data
It’s not surprising then that when asked by the Pew Research Center earlier this month, only 28{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of respondents correctly said that about 4,000 Americans have died in the war. Most thought the number was closer to 2,000 or 3,000.

According to the same survey, overall media coverage of the war dropped from an average of 15{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of stories in July 2007, to just 3{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} in February 2008.

At Winter Soldier, veterans I spoke to found these developments upsetting, but not discouraging. They note that when Vietnam veterans held a similar forum on war crimes in 1971 it was also roundly ignored by the mainstream press. But that did not cause the story to go away, because word got out through military and veteran circles got out that resistance within the ranks was building – a development most members of Iraq Veterans Against the War see as even more important than mainstream media coverage and lobbying on Capitol Hill.

“We don’t need to rely on the mainstream media,” said Aaron Hughes, a former Illinois National Guardsman who drove convoys in Iraq. “We can rely on the grassroots networks that we’re building through events like Winter Soldier. People are posting on blogs and organizing in their workplaces and in their schools. That’s what’s important.”

Hughes and other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War were also excited to see the extensive coverage they were given by military papers like Stars and Stripes and the Army Times. IVAW also bought advertisements in both papers in advance of the event with an eye to boosting their membership and increasing the amount of opposition to the war within the U.S. military.
Changing the Whole Nation
“That’s getting to the veterans and GIs who oppose this war but may feel like they’re alone,” he said. “As long as we keep building that it doesn’t matter if the mainstream media is covering this or not because we’re going to change this whole nation but what we are doing.”

Already 30 Iraq and Afghanistan have contacted IVAW since the Winter Soldier gathering began on March 13 and hundreds of other veterans who were already members of the organization have stepped forward offering to add their testimony to those who testified in Silver Spring.

“This time we came with 200 veterans,” Hughes said. “The next time we’ll come with 400 veterans and then 800. We will not let up until this occupation is over.”

Independent journalist Aaron Glantz, a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, has reported extensively from Iraq throughout the U.S. occupation. He is author of How America Lost Iraq (Penguin). He co-hosted the Pacifica radio broadcast of the Winter Soldier hearings, along with veteran Aimee Allison. Full archives of Winter Soldier are available at warcomeshome.org and ivaw.org.

March 26, 2008 – Basra, Iraq — Iraqi forces fought Shi’ite militants on Wednesday in battles that threatened to wreck a truce by a powerful cleric that U.S. forces had credited for much of the reduction in violence of the past year.

More than 60 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the fighting, centered on the oil hub of Basra in the south and on Shi’ite neighborhoods of Baghdad where armed followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr hold sway.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in Basra overseeing the campaign, said fighters would be spared if they surrendered within 72 hours. Sadr’s followers rejected the ultimatum.

The assault was the largest military campaign carried out yet by Maliki’s forces without U.S. or British combat units, posing a crucial test for the Iraqi government’s ability to impose its will and allow American forces to withdraw.

“These are Iraqi decisions, they are Iraqi government forces and these are Iraqi leaders implementing and directing these decisions,” U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said in Baghdad. He said U.S. and British backing was limited to small mentoring teams and some air support.

“A year ago the Iraqi security forces would have struggled to move this force, they would not have been able to support it and it would have been difficult for the government then to take this strong action,” he told a news conference.

Washington aims to bring 20,000 of its 160,000 troops home by July after a build-up of troops reduced violence dramatically last year. But violence has increased in the past few months.

Maliki’s government is under pressure to show it can maintain security on its own. U.S. Democratic candidates who hope to succeed President George W. Bush next January are calling for a speedy withdrawal from an unpopular war.

Sadr, a young, anti-American cleric, helped install Maliki in power after an election in 2005 but later broke with him. His followers, known as the Mehdi Army, have feuded with other Shi’ite groups, especially the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a powerful force in Maliki’s government and in the police.

The fighting threatens a ceasefire which Sadr declared last August, winning praise at the time from U.S. commanders for helping to reduce violence.

Sadr’s followers have taken to the streets demonstrating against Maliki’s government and forcing schools, universities and shops to close. On Tuesday he said he would call a “civil revolt” if attacks against his followers did not stop.

The truce was still in effect, senior Sadr aide Luwaa Sumaisem told Reuters in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf.

The head of Sadr’s office in Basra, Harith al-Ithari, said the movement was negotiating with Maliki to end the fighting.

“There are ongoing negotiations with the prime minister. Maliki asked to meet Sadr officials in Basra,” he told Reuters. “Things are moving in the direction of solving the crisis.”

BASRA FIGHTING

The worst fighting has been in Basra, where a health official said 40 people had been killed and 200 wounded.

Heavy gunbattles restarted early Wednesday in five districts of Basra after a brief lull. Mortars or rocket attacks regularly struck Iraqi security checkpoints and bases.

Ground commander Major-General Ali Zaidan told Reuters his forces had killed more than 30 militants on the first day of the operation, which began before dawn on Tuesday. More than 25 were wounded and around 50 were captured, he said.

“The operation is still going on and will not stop until it achieves its objectives,” he said.

A British military spokesman said the assault was expected to last two to three more days. British forces, which patrolled Basra for nearly five years, have withdrawn to a base outside the city since December and were not involved in the fighting.

An official with Iraq’s Southern Oil Company said production in the Basra area could be disrupted if the fighting continues for more than three days, preventing employees from reaching work. The area produces 80 percent of Iraq’s oil exports.

In the capital, a health official said 14 people were killed and more than 140 wounded in clashes in Sadr City, the Shi’ite slum named for the cleric’s slain father, where the younger Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia have widespread influence.

Bergner said rogue Mehdi Army units linked to Iran were responsible for days of constant mortar strikes on the Green Zone diplomatic and government compound and other Baghdad areas.

One mortar bomb on the Green Zone seriously hurt three U.S. civilians. Mortar attacks killed five people and wounded 21 in the Karrada neighborhood and killed four in Risala.

Elsewhere in the south, Sadr fighters seized control of seven districts in the town of Kut. A Reuters witness heard clashes near a government building. Residential buildings and cars were on fire and mortar explosions could be heard.

March 27, 2008 – A classified memo written by a top military official stationed in Western Iraq reveals that a prison in downtown Fallujah is so overcrowded and dirty that it does not even meet basic “minimal levels of hygiene for human beings.”

“The conditions in these jails are so bad that I think we need to do the right thing in terms of caring for the prisoners even with our own dollars, or release them,” says the memo, written late last month by Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S forces in western Iraq.

The classified document, leaked to the website Wikileaks, a website where whistleblowers can “reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations,” was authenticated by the organization.

The memo contains other shocking revelations about conditions at the jail, including a massive shortage of food and water. The prison is said to be run by Iraqi officials. US Marines oversee operation of the facility.

“I found the conditions there to be exactly (unbelivable [sic] over crowding, total lack of anything approaching even minimal levels of hygiene for human beings, no food, little water, no ventilation) to those described in the recent (18 February) FOX news artickle [sic] by Michael Totten entitled the “Dungeon of Fallujah.,” says Kelly’s memo click here “We need to go to general quarters on this issue right now… To state that the current system is broken would erroneously imply that there is a system in place to be broken.”

Totten, an independent journalist, said the prison can house a maximum of 110 prisoners but he discovered that there were more then 900 cramped into the facility. US contractors built the prison in 2005 which is located next to the US Joint Communications Center is

It is unknown who Kelly, the military commander in Iraq, sent the memo to. A Pentagon spokesman did not return calls for comment late Wednesday.

Kelly wrote that when he inspected the prison “iraqis [sic] and marines present throughout my inspection as to why these conditions existed, three conditions were universaly [sic] cited as problems in Fallujah as well as the rest of Anbar,” the commander’s memo says.

“First, there is zero support from the government for any of the jails in Anbar. No funds, food or medical support has been provided from any ministry,” Kelly added. “Second, the police that run Anbar’s jails are the same personnel responsable [sic] for investigating crimes. These jailer/investigators are undermanned and more often than not spend most of their time out begging and scavenging for food than investigating crimes. (It is unlikely the prisoners will eat today)…I believe the Iraqi police are doing the best they can, and they literally begged me on humanitarian, moral and religious grounds to help them help the prisoners by somehow moving the government to action.”

In a report published earlier Wednesday, Lt. Col. Michael Callanan told United Press International that following an inspection of the prison by Kelly, US forces decided to “advise and assist” Iraqis managing the jail and are providing food to the prisoners.

“They are being fed now,” Callanan told UPI.

The US military turned over control of Fallujah to the 1st Iraqi Army Division in December 2006. Since then. the US military and top White House officials have cited Fallujah as a city where efforts to install democratic values and the rule of law have paid off. Hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent in that city alone to train Iraqi police and security forces.

But Kelly’s memo contradicts the Bush administration’s claims.

He describes how the US military, after five years since the US invaded the country and more than half-a-billion dollars spent by US taxpayers, still cannot seem to find success training Iraq security forces.

“The Iraqi police will ultimately be the ones whose shoulders the burden of winning or losing the fight will be carried,” the classified memo says. “To date, little attention has been paid to the Iraqi corrections system in Anbar and its current discrepancies will prevent the [Iraqi police] from becoming a professional law enforcement force unless immediate and significant support is provided.”

March 31, 2008 – Last week the VA issued a press release touting their care for women veterans.  Press release here…
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/vap08/vap032708-2.htm

I questioned this information because of the large number of emails I receive from women veterans who think that the VA’s care is far from great.  That story here…
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfMAR08/nf032808-4.htm

I asked for, and received, many emails from women veterans regarding VA care.  And, I’ll post some of those below.

But, there’s another story here.

Why would the VA jump on the issue of women’s care at this point in time?

It was a “preemptive strike” press release.

The VA knew that a bipartisan group of women Senators, including Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), would be holding a press conference on Wednesday, April 2, 2008, and introducing legislation to offer more to women veterans.

The VA looked at this as “bad news” because to offer more to women veterans means that the VA is not doing their job.

So, the “preemptive strike” press release was generated to garner media attention ahead of the scheduled press conference by the Senators.

This is an old public relations trick.  I know, because when I was on active duty in the Army, I was an instructor at DINFOS (Defense Information School) where the military and civilian government agencies train their journalists and public affairs types.  The “preemptive strike” press release has been part of the DINFOS curriculum for decades.

The VA hopes that their “preemptive strike” press release will be gobbled-up by the media and that the Senators’ press conference will then get little attention.

I certainly hope not.

Some comments I received from women veterans below:

NOTE:  The comments below were sent to me by women veterans.  I have removed anything that might identify the veteran and comments have been edited for clarity only.

From the comments posted below, and others, it’s obvious that the VA has a long way to go in caring for women veterans.  I have heard VA personnel says it’s just because there are so many men and so few women in the system.  Is that a good reason?  No!  It’s not even a poor excuse.

Veteran #1: 

Before a female Psychologist: the individual got angry with me because I was overly emotionally ( in tears) while attempting to recount a MST (Military Sexual Trauma) event by a Saudi soldier. Surprised at the Psychologist’s hostility, I ran out of the office.

Before a male Psychologist: I was told there was only 40 minutes available, this was not enough time for counseling. I was given medications I required and was quickly dismissed from the office.

Veteran #2:

I have often come out of my appts. thinking because I am a women, overweight, they don’t want to do anything, but my male counterparts are given more time and choices it seems.

Male veterans can get [medication] for ED (erectile dysfunction), but the VA makes it very difficult for women to do so [get medication for sexual dysfunction] unless they have a hysterectomy or close to it and it has to be service-connected. It doesn’t matter what age the male veteran is 20 or 90. If they have ED, they get it. [But, not the women.]

Veteran #3:

As for me, I can tell you from personal experience that there is little to no outreach to women veterans. Additionally, women with PTSD due to Military Sexual Trauma (MST) do not receive the same level of care or services as men suffering from combat PTSD. And try having THAT stamped all over your records!

Female veterans would do well to make friends with other veterans who can help them navigate the VA system because the VA surely isn’t going to give you much help.

Veteran #4:

I am a female veteran with 20 years of service in the Navy. I have been diagnosed with, and getting VA compensation for major depressive disorder and glaucoma. I have also been diagnosed by the VA with a personality disorder 10 years after being honorably discharged for my 20 years of service. How they came up with this diagnosis is a mystery to me because I also had a top secret clearance most of my career.

I have asked VA mental health in both BLANK and BLANK for MST counseling. Both clinics tell me I do not qualify for MST treatment. I have never been screened for PTSD or MST. To my knowledge, I have never been given any type of personality tests. Yet the VA mental health professionals seem to think I have a personality disorder. I guess only men get PTSD.

Veteran #5:

I am frustrated with the system. I truly believe that the VA is trying to meet as many demands as they can, but they are totally swamped at this point… They need more people and more money… Other than what I have mentioned in the Mental Health (problem getting local services), I have had no trouble accessing care at the clinic in BLANK.

Veteran #6:

Trying to get regular patient care appointments is extremely difficult often taking more than three months, with six months or more being typical for female veterans. Guys get appointments scheduled more often and much easier, they also get surgical or inpatient priority. I questioned why this was so and was told it wasn’t intentional really but that’s just the way it happens. If it’s not intentional then why does it happen.

 I didn’t ask to be disabled. I want my health back. I held up my part of the contract, I served honorably for 16+ years.

March 25, 2008 – The bomb’s blast threw Army Specialist Matthew Stanley from his gunner’s turret, leaving his body lifeless on a dusty road in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle. When his commander arrived minutes later, the slumping soldier looked asleep, resting in his full body armor.

Nine months after his December 2006 death, Stanley’s name was given a new life in the U.S. presidential campaign, etched into a black bracelet his mother gave to Senator John McCain.

“I asked him to wear Matthew’s bracelet not just for Matthew but all of the other soldiers,” said Lynn Savage, his mother. “I think we need to finish what we started.”

Like Stanley, Sergeant Ryan Jopek of the National Guard was hurled posthumously into the debate about how long U.S. forces should remain in Iraq. His mother asked Senator Barack Obama to accept her son’s bracelet at a Green Bay, Wisconsin, rally in February, 18 months after Jopek’s death, also from a roadside bomb. “All gave some — He gave all,” reads the bracelet Obama wears on his right wrist.

Tracy Jopek wanted “to show him that the war is real, it affects real people in real places,” said her 17-year-old son, Steve. She thought Obama should know “he had support from families of the fallen, too,” he said.

Both senators say they wear the anodized aluminum bands to honor fallen soldiers. They also use the names to help frame their competing positions on the war.

`Not in Vain’

McCain, 71, an Arizona Republican, invokes Stanley’s name to show the U.S. is capable of sacrifice and that he is prepared to call for more. Obama, 46, an Illinois Democrat, channels Jopek’s mother to inveigh against a war he never supported.

On the stump, McCain recounts how Stanley’s mom implored him to “make sure my son’s death was not in vain” and pledges to achieve victory in Iraq. Speaking yesterday at a veterans hall in Chula Vista, California, he said he wears the bracelet “not only as a symbol of the sacrifice of a brave young American, Matthew Stanley,” but of the 4,000 U.S. troops who have been killed in Iraq.

Obama also reprises his meeting with a grieving mother to launch into a discussion of Iraq. “It has cost us thousands of precious lives,” he said last week in Pennsylvania. “Like the life of this young man, whose mother gave me this bracelet, commemorating her 20-year-old.”

In death, Jopek and Stanley, who was 22, have assumed opposing roles. In life, they traveled a similar path.

In August 2006, two weeks from returning home, Jopek volunteered for a final mission: a convoy run to Mosul. He wanted to see the city where his father, Brian, also a Wisconsin guardsman, had been stationed for the first year of the war.

`Too Late for Ryan’

Barreling back along Main Supply Route Tampa, Jopek was perched in the gunner’s nest when an improvised explosive device detonated outside Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s ancestral town.

Jopek absorbed most of the IED’s blast. “The driver was able to move the vehicle outside of the kill zone,” said his father. “But it was too late for Ryan.”

Four months later, on Dec. 16, Stanley would meet his own IED. Outside Taji, in the heart of the Sunni insurgency, his team was charged with sweeping a road so civilian engineers could fix a pipeline sabotaged by insurgents.

Stanley’s up-armored Humvee, the same M1114 model as Jopek’s, had driven over the bomb three times before stopping to probe what turned out to be a decoy. Buried six feet below was a wired quartet of 152-millimeter artillery shells — the equivalent of a 1,000-pound bomb.

Final Sleep

The percussion disgorged the Humvee’s four occupants, ejecting one 50 feet away. Three, including Stanley, died before they landed. The fourth succumbed the next day.

“They looked like they were sleeping,” recalled Captain Christopher Wehri, marveling that the IED had vaporized everything but the vehicle’s engine and tires, yet left his men “completely intact in their body armor.”

Lynn Savage, Stanley’s mother, was spared the details. “They don’t give you too much information, only what you need to know,” she said, recalling how two uniformed men appeared at her door in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, days before Christmas with the news.

During the Vietnam War, she had worn a silver wristband to signal support for prisoners of war, like John McCain. When she attended a town hall meeting last August and heard McCain discussing his support for President George W. Bush’s plan to dispatch more troops to Iraq, the parallels overwhelmed her.

Handed Over Bracelet

She approached the senator and told him about her son. Then she handed him her bracelet with Matthew’s name, his visage and the date of his death, cut by laser into the curved black bracelet.

Both Stanley and Jopek left for basic training shortly after high school, ambivalent about what they wanted from the military, say their families and friends.

The two believed in their mission, yet it was a commitment to their comrades that sustained them. Jopek dreaded returning to Iraq after a short break at home in Wisconsin to attend his sister’s high school graduation, according to his father.

On leave, he bought a midnight-blue Ford Mustang, logging 1,800 miles before he boarded the plane back to Iraq. His last face-to-face words to his father were: “I love you, Dad. Don’t blow my speakers.”

Planning to Leave

Stanley, newly married at his death, told friends in the 7th Cavalry that he planned to leave the Army when his second tour was finished. He would join KBR Inc., a contractor, perhaps back in Iraq. He wanted to “make a little bit more money,” said Specialist Kyle Lehmann, who served with him in Taji.

Jopek talked about making a career of the military. “He was getting a great sense of accomplishment and felt that he was contributing to the effort,” said his father, Brian.

The father, who is divorced from Jopek’s mother, said she is declining media interviews because “she wants to avoid the Cindy Sheehan situation,” referring to a mother who has publicly crusaded against the war since her son was killed.

The father is leaning toward McCain and said his ex-wife “would like to see the troops come home a little sooner than I would.”

Tracy’s younger son, Steve, plans to follow his brother’s footsteps into the National Guard. “It’s an iffy situation and mom doesn’t like me talking about it,” he said. “But more than likely I am looking at it.”

March 26, 2008 – While he was busy amassing the wealth that made him one of the world’s richest men, Jerome Kohlberg didn’t realize how much things had changed since the original GI Bill sent him to college 60 years ago.
In his retirement, it was a conversation with a man whose job it is to help him give away chunks of his fortune that has made him press for a new GI bill for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Matthew Boulay spent much of 2003 in Iraq with his Marine Corps reserve unit, then had to foot much of the bill for his ensuing education.

“I thought that was awful. It just made me angry, and I’m angry to this day,” Kohlberg, 82, said yesterday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, where he lives part of the year.

He has spoken to senators from three states to press for passage of a bill that would cover all educational expenses, including room and board, for anyone who has served in the military, reserves or National Guard since Sept. 11, 2001.

Kohlberg believes that because of the sophistication and power of today’s weaponry, veterans of the two current wars face much more danger than those who fought in World War II.

Late last year, Kohlberg started the Fund for Veterans’ Education with $8 million for the purpose of granting scholarships to veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He assigned Boulay, who had been an administrator for one of his philanthropic foundations, to run the fund.

Kohlberg recently started distributing that money to 96 veterans who will get $500 to $14,000 per semester for their undergraduate studies.

Today’s GI Bill tops out at about $39,000 for veterans’ college tuition and books. It’s much less for reservists such as Marine Sgt. Evan Aanerud.

“Obviously that’s not enough to finish school with,” said Aanerud, an engineering student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who will meet his benefactor today at a ceremony at Southwestern College in Chula Vista.

Aanerud said that when he was an 18-year-old enlisting in the Corps five years ago, “I thought I was going to get a lot more benefits than I actually received.”

Aanerud served as a machine gunner in Iraq in 2003. His government benefits ran out in December. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates the cost of a four-year degree at a public university at about 50,000, including room, board and all expenses, and $100,000 at private universities.

Senators Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jim Webb, D-Va., have sponsored legislation that would increase veterans’ benefits to cover the cost of public university tuition, books and housing.

It has the endorsement of several veterans organizations, and the national advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has taken it up as one of its leading causes.

Locally, U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, also supports increasing education benefits.

“This is something we owe,” Kohlberg said. Taking care of returning veterans is part of the cost of war as Kohlberg sees it, just like after World War II.

Back then, Kohlberg had just finished three years in the Navy, a lieutenant in charge of the stores the U.S. military shopped at in Panama. When he returned, the U.S. government sent nearly 8 million veterans, including him, to school.

Kohlberg the veteran makes the moral argument that Congress needs to restore the compact between the warriors and their government. Kohlberg the capitalist makes an economic argument. The original GI Bill’s massive swords-to-plowshares effort converted the world’s mightiest military into a nation’s middle class.
With the aid of the U.S. government, Kohlberg got a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, a master’s degree from Harvard Business School and a law degree from Columbia University School of Law. In part because of the help they got from the government, Kohlberg said, his peers got better jobs and spent more money, paid more taxes and assumed more leadership roles in civilian life.

A new GI bill that covers all educational expenses of veterans is a good investment, one he estimates will pay five to 10 times its upfront amount.

Kohlberg knows something about investments. As a pioneer of the leveraged buyout, he has amassed a $1.5 billion fortune that according to a Forbes list published this month makes him the world’s 785th richest person.

Until Congress agrees to make that investment, Kohlberg will invest on his own.

There is another difference between now and then, Kohlberg said. The current wars have been financed largely by debt, while seemingly everyone in the nation sacrificed for the World War II effort, he said.

Kohlberg said he believes that even those who oppose the Iraq war as he does would agree that the nation must do more to support veterans of that war.

“We’re lucky we’ve been just sitting here on our duffs, all of us doing nothing for the war,” Kohlberg said. “We haven’t even been asked.”

_________

DETAILS

The Fund for Veterans’ Education

What: Organization that grants scholarships ranging from $500 to $14,000 per semester

Who’s eligible: Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars

How to apply: Visit veteransfund.org. The next application period starts April 1.

March 25, 2008 – A new government report paints a dire picture of the employment prospects of returning military veterans, concluding that young veterans earn less and have a harder time finding work than do civilians in the same age group.

The report prepared for the Veterans Affairs Department found that the percentage of veterans not in the labor force — because they couldn’t find jobs, stopped looking for work, or went back to school — jumped to 23{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} in 2005 from 10{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} in 2000. Half of the young veterans — ages 20 to 24 — with steady employment earned less than $25,000 per year, it found.

Young veterans “face career challenges when transitioning from the military service to the civilian workforce,” and suffer from higher unemployment than their civilian peers, the report said.

“Transitioning into civilian life and the workforce requires help and guidance,” the report concluded. “The federal government might consider reevaluating or refining how it serves…these returning young service members to ensure a successful transition process.”

Public attention has long focused on the death toll from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of Americans killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion rose to 4,000 Sunday, a milestone the White House described as a “sober moment.” Last year was the deadliest year for U.S. forces fighting in the two countries.

But military and civilian policy makers increasingly are concerned about a different aspect of the long wars — the physical, mental and financial well-being of the young veterans who leave the military and attempt to reintegrate into the civilian world.

Many veterans are struggling with physical wounds and psychological maladies such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which can cause depression, sleeplessness and even suicide. Arthur Blank, a national expert on PTSD, testified in federal court this month that as many as 30{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of the combat veterans from the two wars eventually could be diagnosed with the disorder.

Even for military personnel who make it through the wars unscathed, adjusting back to civilian life — and finding a stable job — can be difficult.

A survey in November by military.com, a division of online recruitment site Monster.com, found that 81{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of returning military veterans didn’t feel fully prepared to enter the work force. Of that figure, 76{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} said they were unable to translate their military skills to the civilian world, and 72{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} felt unprepared to negotiate salary or benefits.

“They come from a lifestyle where every day they’re told what to wear and what to do, and suddenly they’re on their own,” said Todd Bowers, the director of government affairs for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit organization in New York.

The new government report, which hasn’t been publicly released, highlights some of the challenges facing veterans seeking stable employment in the civilian world.

The Army has long pitched military service as a way for recruits to gain valuable work experience, but the report found that most of the returning veterans were unable to find civilian jobs that matched their previous military occupations.

The only exceptions were the veterans working for private-security firms such as Blackwater or in the maintenance and repair fields, and the report suggested that the government steer veterans to those types of jobs.

“Perhaps it would be helpful to promote jobs…that match their military skills and in which their military skills can be applied,” the report said.

Many of the government’s efforts to help returning veterans find work appear to be falling short, the report found.

The Veterans Affairs Department offers educational-assistance programs for young veterans, but the report said the initiatives had little impact on the employment status or salaries of the former military personnel.

VA spokesman Matt Smith said the report was “an important first step in identifying issues so we begin to address some of the obstacles” facing veterans seeking to enter the job market.

“The VA’s interest is in ensuring a veteran’s road to employment after military service is smooth and successful,” he said, adding that the VA itself hired more than 9,000 veterans last year.

March 19, 2008 – Merry Lane, a cul-de-sac shaded by redwoods in Sonoma County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey’s dream is to set up a group home there for veterans plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder.

But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only object to the brand-new structure itself, which looks like a four-story apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that deranged veterans will move in.

At a community meeting in December, “one person was concerned that even firecrackers would set these people off,” said Andrew Eckers, 54, who lives across the street.

McCaffrey, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she has tried to reassure the neighbors, but “they are afraid of it because they don’t want to understand it.”

Projects similar to McCaffrey’s have cropped up in other communities across the country, with some also raising concerns from neighbors, in part because of the many news accounts of traumatized veterans committing suicide or murder.

“We’re all, frankly, failing in properly educating society about what PTSD is and what its effects are,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group.

McCaffrey wants to set up at least three group homes around the country where vets with PTSD could live temporarily, and virtually for free, while they study at a college or work at a farm. Donations are paying for the projects, she said.

In Guerneville, a community of about 2,500 where the Russian River draws tourists in the summer, the light green building nestled into a carved-out hillside stands empty.

The county issued a stop-work order because the project exceeded the scope of the plans that were filed, said Shems Peterson, Sonoma County supervising building inspector. Among other things, the project had unauthorized plumbing. Also, a wall meant to divert landslides was deemed insufficient.

Neighbors have raised complaints about the cutting down of several redwoods to make way for the home, the lack of parking and the size of the building, which would house a half-dozen veterans.

“They are inappropriate buildings for the neighborhood. They’re not single-family residences,” said Mark Mondragon, 41. “This could have been Grandmothers for Harmonious Peace and it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Jan De Wald, who lives a couple houses down Merry Lane, said too many questions remain unanswered about the project, including who sits on the board, who is the president and what is the staffing.

Most residents said worries about unhinged veterans are not driving the opposition. Eckers emphasized that his primary concern is that the project would open the door to more apartment buildings. But he also raised questions about the screening and supervision of the veterans.

“Generally PTSD guys are normal people,” Eckers said. But he added: “Some are shell-shocked and they need to be in an institution.”

McCaffrey said screening would be done by veterans and a psychiatrist, and supervision would come from volunteers from a nearby veterans clinic.

“We will not accept anyone who’s not completely functional,” she said.

Rogelio Martinez, 26, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army Airborne Ranger, said he was diagnosed with PTSD and sought counseling at the urging of his older brother, a military officer. But he said he would have benefited from the type of group housing that McCaffrey is proposing.

“If it wasn’t for my brother, I might be one of those homeless vets on the street,” Martinez said in a telephone interview from San Antonio. “A place like that would be ideal for a person like me or a person in my shoes who didn’t have someone to lean on like an older brother to get help.”

March 24, 2008 – Washington, DC — A salute is due Adm. William Fallon, who tried to prevent a wider war with Iran.

After serving one year as commander of U.S. Central Command, Fallon has resigned, saying he was quitting because his differences with official U.S. policy had become a “distraction.”

But there is a widespread perception that he was pushed out by the neo-conservatives among President Bush’s aides, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, because of Fallon’s reluctance to go along with the administration’s hawkish moves toward Iran.

Cheney, who took five consecutive draft deferments to stay out of the Vietnam War, does not mind keeping the U.S. in the Iraqi quagmire he helped create. The same goes for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, who said that leaving Iraq is not a U.S. option.

McCain once said the U.S. could stay in Iraq for 100 years.

As head of Centcom, Fallon’s command ran from the Mediterranean to South Asia and included Iraq, where he ran afoul of Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander there.

Petraeus would maintain the 130,000 pre-surge U.S. troop-level in Iraq, probably till the end of the Bush presidency. Fallon was concerned that keeping so many troops in Iraq could leave the U.S. unprepared for any new crises that might occur elsewhere.

Petraeus is scheduled to report on the war in Iraq to Bush in early April and, in view of the lessened violence there, is expected to present his usual upbeat assessment of how things are going. Petraeus plays ball and gives the president the answers he wants.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also on the team, indicated Fallon was right to quit.

“Admiral Fallon reached this difficult decision on his own,” said Gates. “I believe it was the right thing to do, even though I do not believe there are, in fact, significant differences between his views and administration policy,” Gates added.

The Pentagon chief, who has held top jobs in government for years, is a survivor who learned long ago to ride the right horse.

He praised Fallon, saying he was “enormously talented and very experienced, and he does have a strategic vision that is rare.”

While the differences between Fallon and the bellicose White House were well known, they came to a head in an article in the April issue of Esquire magazine written by Thomas Barnett, a former professor at the Army War College.

Barnett wrote that if Fallon left his job anytime soon, it could signal that Bush intends to go to war with Iran.

Gates called that assertion “just ridiculous.”

“Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time,” Fallon said in a statement. He said it would be “best to step aside and let our military leaders move beyond this distraction.”

Fallon appears to be a military man with peaceful intentions. The Esquire article quoted him: “What America needs is a combination of strength and willingness to engage.”

The change of command in the Persian Gulf also comes as a time when the U.S. is marking the fifth year in a mindless war with no end in sight.

Fallon was a rarity in the top military ranks. To tell the truth to the commander in chief often has a price.

Ask Gen. Colin Powell, former secretary of state, who sacrificed his credibility when he spoke to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, and delivered a pack of falsehoods to justify the U.S. attack on Iraq.

Powell later called it a “blot” on his career.

March 24, 2008 – Columbia, SC — The American
Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) today challenged the Department
of Veterans Affairs to remove Carl Hawkins, Jr., regional director at the
Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) in Columbia, S.C. amid allegations
of sexual harassment, age discrimination, and racial discrimination. Over
the last two years, the VBA regional director and his managers have been
named in dozens of discrimination suits including allegations of pay
disparity, retaliation and violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, resulting in civil and administrative settlements of over
$500,000. However, instead of being removed from his post, Hawkins received
$50,000 in bonuses over the same two-year time span. AFGE has called on the
National VA to launch an investigation to uncover Hawkins’ abuses of
authority since taking office.

    “The tragedy here is not just that the VA has not held Mr. Hawkins
accountable for the $500,000 dollars he has cost the American tax-payers,
but that as a result of his despicable actions, the quality of service at
our facility is suffering,” said Dan Brockway, president of AFGE Local 520,
which represents 200 employees at the Columbia facility. “We are here
because we want to serve Veterans that have so courageously served this
nation. The harassment and discrimination perpetrated by Mr. Hawkins
tarnishes everything that the VA is supposed to be about.”

    According to local union representatives, Mr. Hawkins continually
ignored directives from the National Department of Veterans Affairs aimed
at eliminating pay disparity among certain employees. “We have to be the
only facility in the country where GS-4s hold degrees,” added Ron Robinson,
executive vice-president at AFGE Local 520.

    Mr. Hawkins has removed several bridge positions, denying employees
with college level education an opportunity to elevate their positions and
grade levels. The employees being denied are overwhelmingly
African-American. “Of the 34 management positions filled by Mr. Hawkins
since January 2002, none of them are African-American women and only three
are African-American men,” said Robinson.

    AFGE Local 520 is working closely with AFGE National’s Women’s and Fair
Practices departments to continue to challenge the discriminatory workplace
conditions. The Women and Fair Practices department recently held a summit
at the location along with representatives from AFGE’s 5th District, to
educate employees on their rights to a hostile free workplace environment.

    The American Federation of Government Employees is the largest federal
employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and
the government of the District of Columbia.