That's from a brief journal C.I. keeps on the road. As noted on The World (PRI) Friday, "The war in Iraq is not over and we as a nation will be dealing with its aftermath for a long time."
And last week, the Commission on Wartime Contracting [see "Iraq snapshot," "Fraud and waste," "The arrogance and waste of KBR" and "Commission on Wartime Contracting"] and the Justice Department seemed willing to start sorting out a little of the aftermath. KBR. America went to war and Americans and Iraqis died. KBR just got richer.
Last Monday, at the Commission hearing, KBR's Guy LaBoa laughably testified (under oath, no less) that "never, ever" had he heard anyone discuss the bottom line at Iraq, not once in his thirty months with the company. It was about helping because when it comes to compassion, KBR is our modern day International Red Cross, apparently.
Thursday, the Justice Department filed charges against KBR for false billing. Friday came news that the dismissed case in Indiana of the Indiana National Guard members exposed to toxics chemicals by KBR had been refiled in Houston on Wednesday. Mike Doyle (Doyle Raizner LLP) noted, "The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where KBR maintains its corporate headquarters. The case was assigned to United States District Judge Vanessa Gilmore, and the judge ordered a Scheduling Conference on July 9, 2010, to select a trial date for the case. Judge Gilmore at the time of her appointment by President Bill Clinton was the youngest sitting federal judge, and she has presided over a number of important trials (including the Enron Broadband trial) during her tenure on the bench."
Last week also saw the death of one US service member in Iraq. It saw Iraqis from Ayad Allawi's winning political slate be attackedand have to go underground. Already this morning, Iraq's been rocked by the type of bombing that's become a bi-monthly occurence.
Springfield, Mass. Thursday. An angry teenager explains how his brother should have been out of the military over two years ago but got stop-lossed and now is headed back to Iraq. About half the students present are hearing about stop-loss for the first time.
Marc Hall is an Iraq War veteran. He got stop-lossed. He was supposed to be out. He'd done his duty. But he got stop-lossed. He responded by recording a rap song to deal with what he was feeling. The mililtary eventually decided they had a problem with that (after initially having no problem at all with it) and that he needed to be court-martialed. Instead of doing so in the US, they pulled him over to Iraq for the court-martial thereby depriving him of many witnesses who could testify on his behalf.
In a mailing last week, Iraq Veterans Against the War explained:
U.S. Army Specialist, Marc Hall, has been incarcerated for over 15 weeks for his song, "Stop-Loss" which angrily criticizes the military's Stop-Loss policy of involuntary extensions. The Army recently transferred Marc to face court martial in Kuwait, an extraordinary move that isolates him from his civilian lawyer, family, and friends.
At his pre-trial hearing last week, the judge recommended dropping five of eleven of the charges against him and expressed his judgment that Marc get a Special Court Martial. Marc's command accepted the reduction of charges, but has forwarded the six remaining charges for a more serious General Court Martial.
A Special Court Martial would have limited Marc's possible jail sentence to one year, and a Bad Conduct Discharge. The General Court Martial could possibly sentence Marc to at least six years and a Dishonorable Discharge.
In response, Marc's civilian lawyer, David Gespass, and his JAG are now beginning to prepare seriously for trial and will be filing pre-trail motions that cover witnesses, travel expenses, mental health evaluations, independent experts, and more.
We will keep you updated as Marc's case progresses. If you haven't done so already, please consider donating to Marc's legal defense Any amount helps. Donate here.
Allentown, Penn. Wednesday. A college student says she can't remember when the Iraq War wasn't taking place leading to an intense and lively discussion of just how long the illegal war has lasted. A 21-year-old man points out that the war has now lasted a third of "my entire life."
And it still it drags on.
And among the many who don't forget and who can't forget are those who personally suffered. Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan wrote last week of a memory still fresh and one she'll never forget:
A few hours later, I was walking our dogs and sobbing all the way around our nightly route. I knew if Casey wasn’t dead that he was horribly wounded and our family was in for a lot of heartache.
When I rounded the corner, I saw that my oldest daughter, Carly, was already home from work -- I was happy that she was home, but when I rounded the corner of the garage, I could see into my house, and what I saw was going to inalterably change my life forever: three Army officers standing in my living room -- I ran into the house and saw the shocked looks on Carly and Pat’s faces, and I collapsed on the floor screaming hoping I could scream loud enough and long enough that my heart would physically shatter and I would die, too.
I obviously didn’t die, but I have never been the same. How can one go on the same when a very important part of ones life has been violently stolen?
My life will never be able to achieve April 3, 2004 status, again. Before I even camped out in Crawford and my life changed, it had already been turned upside down.
Palm Sunday was on April 04, 2004 that year -- 04/04/04 --the date that will live in infamy to our family -- and to the other families, American and Iraqi that were killed that day.
Six years and hundreds of antiwar events later, the wars rage on and people's lives are still being destroyed.
My question was then, and will always be the same: "For what noble cause?"