Tammy Duckworth, Wounded Iraq veteran rips Bush, McCain

Wounded Iraq veteran rips Bush, McCain
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS | Associated Press Writer
9:23 PM CDT, August 27, 2008
DENVER - Tammy Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq, told the Democratic convention Wednesday that Republican John McCain has unfailingly backed a Bush administration that "let our warriors down."

"Our troops are courageous, strong, fierce. This administration has redeployed them until they are overstretched, stressed and strained," said Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.

She berated McCain for backing President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, calling it a diversion from the true battle -- fighting in Afghanistan to destroy al Qaeda. And Bush has failed to give adequate care to the soldiers injured in that war, she charged.

"Too often they get bureaucracy, not benefits. They find inadequate access, inferior facilities and infuriating paperwork," Duckworth said.
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Texas' Chet Edwards tells veterans: McCain is no friend to you

Texas' Chet Edwards tells veterans: McCain is no friend to you

07:07 AM CDT on Thursday, August 28, 2008
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

DENVER – Waco congressman Chet Edwards assailed John McCain as no friend of veterans Wednesday, while hailing Barack Obama as the champion that veterans and military families need.


Capping seven days that most politicians can only dream of, Mr. Edwards snagged a prime-time speaking slot at the Democrats' convention.

With a video montage of the Alamo as his backdrop, he got four minutes to tout Mr. Obama's record on veterans' health and education benefits.

Mr. Edwards said he has "the greatest respect for the military service and sacrifice of John McCain in the Vietnam War."

But he said the Arizona senator "has received failing grades from some of our nation's most respected veterans' organizations. He has repeatedly voted against health care funding and benefits for his fellow veterans. And if elected, his plan could lead to the rationing of veterans' health care."
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Gen. James T. Conway wants Marines to shift to Afghanistan

Top Marine wants to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan
Gen. James Conway says the insurgent threat in Iraq's Anbar province has decreased and the forces could better serve in violent regions of Afghanistan.
By Peter Spiegel and Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
August 28, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Marines in western Iraq's Anbar province no longer face a serious threat from insurgents and would be better used in increasingly violent regions of southern Afghanistan, the top Marine Corps officer said Wednesday.

Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, said that gains made by two Marine units sent to Afghanistan's volatile southern provinces this year could be lost if the troops are not replaced in November, and suggested that a drawdown in Iraq would allow him to send fresh units to the region.

But a senior military official involved in Iraq troop level discussions said Petraeus has expressed increasing concern about withdrawals by U.S. allies. The unexpected departure of 2,000 Georgian troops, which came as Poland and Britain also announced significant drawdowns, have complicated plans for further U.S. withdrawals, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing internal Pentagon debates.

The official said Petraeus also is worried about the stability of a cease-fire called by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, who in recent weeks has been harshly critical of the Iraqi government's dealings with the U.S. over troop levels.
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Obama camp meets with Iraq war veterans protesting at Democratic convention

Doug Pensinger / Getty Images
The Iraq Veterans Against the War group led the four-mile procession from the Denver Coliseum to the Pepsi Center, the site of the Democratic National Convention, calling for Barack Obama to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and improving healthcare for veterans.

Obama camp meets with Iraq war veterans protesting at Democratic convention
About 50 members of Iraq Veterans Against the War lead 4,000 protesters on a march that ends five hours later outside the Pepsi Center when their request to meet with a liaison is granted.
By Nicholas Riccardi and DeeDee Correll, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
August 28, 2008
DENVER -- About 50 Iraq war veterans led a boisterous crowd of about 4,000 protesters to the gates of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday evening, demanding to speak at the podium inside.

The four-mile march began at the site of a concert by leftist rock group Rage Against the Machine. It ended five hours later, after the Obama campaign resolved a tense standoff outside the Pepsi Center by agreeing to meet with representatives of the group, Iraq Veterans Against the War.


The marchers said they wanted to hold Obama to his promise to end the Iraq war and called for him to pull troops out immediately. The Democratic presidential candidate has instead vowed to bring all combat troops home within 16 months of taking office.

"We're here to hold the Democrat Party accountable," said Jason Hurd, one of the veterans at the front of the procession. "We voted them in to end this war. They've not done that. . . . We want our brothers and sisters to come home now, not later. Now."

The veterans march was the largest demonstration so far in what otherwise has proven to be a generally subdued week; injuries were reported, but no arrests were made.
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McCain's "us" is really "them"

McCain's heart belongs to Bush. Not us.

When McCain says the word "us" most of us think he's talking about us, the regular people. We think he's talking about the men and women who are in fact the backbone of this country. Everyday people who go to work, dealing with problems the majority of the citizens deal with. Yet, when you consider what he's really saying, what he's proven to really be interested in, the "us" is really the people like McCain and not like the rest of us.

Jim Webb is one of us and cared about us while McCain went against us.

McCain, well, he never had to worry about paying for college because he served and the tax payers took care of his bill. Not that he needed the funding but because he earned it. This is one thing he thought was too good for the men and women serving today when he tried to kill Jim Webb's GI bill. He fought against it saying "it's just too generous" and "will hurt retention" by "making it more attractive to leave the military" and then he flipped when the bill was passed saying he thought it wasn't generous enough. Yet if you raise the fact Obama and his wife spent years to finish paying off their student loans, McCain will say that "but I was a POW and spent five years getting an education at the hands of the Vietnamese."

McCain never had to worry about healthcare because yet again, the tax payers took care of his medical care, because he was a veteran and senator. He doesn't think the rest of the veterans in this country deserve the same care and has proven this by voting against the increase needed for the VA to be able to take care of the new veterans and especially the wounded. We've all read how bad it has been for them but McCain, well, they are just not in the same category he's in. If you say that Obama and his wife had to worry about it most of their lives, he'll yet again say, "but I was a POW and instead of having his health taken care of it was jeopardized at the hands of the Vietnamese."

McCain never had to worry about filling his gas tank to get to a job. As a matter of fact, he didn't even know what gas prices were. Speaking of jobs, he never had to stand in an unemployment line either. He's been on government payroll all his life never having held a regular job the rest of us do and the rest of the veterans have to deal with when they are done serving and have to deal with trying to find a job in the economy Bush/McCain policies created. As veterans come back dealing with trying to readjust, the VA has been unable to keep up with the demands of helping them. Then we have the citizen soldiers who are members of the National Guards and Reservists who have to leave their jobs over and over again, their families, their incomes only to return to find their jobs and businesses are no longer there and their homes have been foreclosed on. Yet again if you raise this with McCain he'll say "I was a POW and my job was staying alive" which he ended up doing what it took in order to survive. He's been doing that ever since. Stooping to any level in order to get elected.

While the rest of us are worrying about losing our homes, McCain can't remember how many he has. Again when this was raised McCain did in fact bring up the fact for five years he was living as a POW at the hands of the Vietnamese.

McCain has never been poor and never living off government payroll. When it comes to his term of "us" he means people in his class not the rest of us. When he refers to "us" as in veterans, he's talking about the ones who are not paying attention and not having to fight to survive for over thirty years trying to have their wounds taken care of and their bills paid when they lost the ability to pay them because they were wounded serving in Vietnam, in the Gulf War and in the two occupations going on right now.

McCain is not one of "us" he's proven he's one of them. The people responsible for the hardships we have to live with because he cared more about the "them" that did it all to us. kc

Sgt. James M. Treber died to save the life of his "brother"

Special Forces soldier died saving colleague

Staff report
Posted : Wednesday Aug 27, 2008 19:50:08 EDT

A Special Forces soldier died heroically in a June vehicle accident in Afghanistan when he gave his life to save a fellow soldier from drowning, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command announced in a news release.

Master Sgt. Shawn E. Simmons, Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey M. Rada Morales and Sgt. James M. Treber, all from Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), from Fort Bragg, N.C., drowned June 29 when, under the cover of darkness, their heavily armored mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle dropped off a narrow, unimproved dirt road and rolled upside down into a water-filled canal.

After recovery efforts performed by the rest of the combat convoy, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. Serna was found alive but suffering from hypothermia and hypoxia, the release said.

An investigation into the events that led to the rollover of their RG-31 MRAP was conducted by the Combined Joint Task Force – 101.

Serna’s sworn statement reveals that, in the immediate aftermath of the rollover, he was trapped in the passenger compartment by ammunition cans and unable to free himself as water began filling the vehicle.

“I was covered in ammo cans so I couldn’t release my seatbelt, at which time the water began to fill up inside the cab (and) I became totally submerged in my seat,” Serna said in his statement, according to the release. “I felt a hand come down and unfasten my seatbelt and release my body armor. Sgt. Treber picked me up and moved me to a small pocket of air.”

go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/army_sfherostory_082708w/

Obama meets Chris Dana's family

Family of soldier who killed himself meets with Obama
By LAURA TODE Of The Gazette Staff

Montana National Guard Spec. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.

Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.

Since Dana’s death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans. Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he’s been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife Sandy and their infant daughter Fiona.

Kuntz was heavy with emotion, but hopeful and eager to share Dana’s story, and tell the senator about his work to ensure other Montana veterans aren’t suffering from the same condition that made his step-brother take his life.
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Sgt. Jose Nazario fate in hands of jury now

Fate of ex-Marine accused in Iraqi prisoners' deaths now in jury's hands
The panel in Riverside began deliberations this afternoon in Jose Nazario's trial. Earlier today, jurors heard a tape in which Nazario appears to admit ordering the 2004 killings in Fallouja.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 28, 2008
A federal jury in Riverside began deliberating this afternoon in the trial of former Marine Sgt. Jose Nazario, who is charged with manslaughter, assault and use of a firearm in the alleged execution of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners.

The case against Nazario is highly unusual. It is the first time under a little-known 2000 law that a former member of the military is being tried in federal court in an alleged crime committed in combat. Nazario has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Retired Marine, police officer dies after being hit by car

Officer struck near fair dies of injuries
Marshfield man was 'a great guy'
By John R. Ellement
Globe Staff / August 27, 2008

DUXBURY - When it came time to retire for the third time, Mel Dyer left his part-time job with the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department but kept working as a special police officer for the Town of Duxbury and its police chief, Mark DeLuca.

Yesterday, DeLuca stood outside the police station and announced that Dyer had died from injuries suffered when he was struck by a car while directing traffic near the Marshfield Fair Aug. 16.

"Officer Dyer was quite an officer," DeLuca said of the 67-year-old Marshfield resident, who was working a paid detail at the fair when he was struck by a car. "The Duxbury Police Department will miss him . . . and our prayers are with his family."

Dyer's wife and two adult children attended the press conference, but DeLuca said they did not want to talk with reporters.

DeLuca and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. said Dyer served 20 years in the US Marine Corps before retiring. He then worked in the insurance industry and retired. He started working as a part-time sheriff in 2005 and retired - again - just three weeks ago.
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Fatal house explosion leaves father to cope with scars of girls

A Fatal Explosion Leaves a Motherless Family to Deal With a Multitude of Scars

By SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: August 26, 2008
It should have been a night without tears for the Alghaithi family. But as usual these days, they did not get much sleep.


First, curly-haired Lina, 3, woke up screaming after a nightmare that someone was following her. Then her older sister, Twka, 5, started crying and scratching at her burn scars. Their father, Rassas Alghaithi, 29, “slept and didn’t sleep” as he shuttled from bed to bed, cradling the children, he said in Arabic on Tuesday.

By the morning, the children were calm and happy for a few hours, running through the living room. Duaa, 6, the eldest, practiced the alphabet with Twka, as Lina, blind, learned her way by sound and touch through their new space.

“It’s beautiful,” she said.

After 10 months in a homeless shelter, Mr. Alghaithi (pronounced al-GAY-thee) and his four daughters moved into a light-filled apartment in a two-family home in South Ozone Park on Monday night, sleeping in their own beds for the first time since a gas explosion destroyed their apartment in Harlem in October. The explosion killed the girls’ mother and left them with severe injuries and scars, both mental and physical.
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