Veteran and Soldier Suicides

Mr Bush, How Can You Sleep at Night?
Or Don’t Vampires Sleep at Night?

A CBS News investigation found that in 2005 “there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.”

Bowman Testimony
Bowman testified before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in December. He said: “As my family was preparing for our 2005 Thanksgiving meal, our son Timothy was lying on the floor of my shop office, slowly bleeding to death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His war was now over, his demons were gone. Tim was laid to rest in a combination military, firefighter funeral that was a tribute to the man he was.

“Tim was the life of a party, happy-go-lucky young man that joined the National Guard in 2003 to earn money for college and get a little structure in his life. On March 19 of 2005 when Specialist Timothy Noble Bowman got off the bus with the other National Guard soldiers of Foxtrot 202 that were returning from Iraq he was a different man. He had a glaze in his eyes and a 1,000-yard stare, always looking for an insurgent.

“[My son] was not counted in any VA statistics of any kind. He had not made it into the VA system because of the stigma of reporting mental problems, he was National Guard, and he was not on a drill weekend when he took his life. The only statistical study that he was counted in was the CBS study. And there are many more just like him. We call them KBA’s, killed because of action. The unknown fallen.” MIKE BOWMAN, mikebowman@dishmail.net,
http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=11136

YANIA PADILLA, empressyania@sbcglobal.net
Sister of Walter Padilla, Yania said today: “My brother committed suicide on April 1, 2007. He was about to become engaged, they’d bought rings, they had gone house-hunting the day before. He’d been discharged with PTSD in February of 2005. He’d gone to the VA, but they just gave him some pills. He was withdrawn and introspective.” See “Vet’s war continued at home” at:
<http://www.csindy.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A20523&gt;

For background, see:

“Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans” [Nov. 13, 2007]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml

“Suicides Seen Among Vets Treated By VA” [March 20, 2008]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/20/cbsnews_investigates/main3956210.shtml

CNN reported Feb. 3, 2008 that according to the military’s own statistics:
“Every day, five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves. Before the Iraq war began, that figure was less than one suicide attempt a day.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/01/military.suicides/index.html

Source: Institute for Public Accuracy

Murray-Darling River communities

TAKE ACTION On WATER: Sign Waterkeeper Australia’s Murray Darling Basin Petition

In Australia, the Murray-Darling River communities are struggling with massive economic, cultural and environmental losses as water is diverted for wasteful industrial agricultural use. The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s Food Bowl, produces one third of the nation’s food. But the government’s decision to prioritize irrigated crops and pastures is destroying the watershed and the communities who live there.

It’s time for the Australian government, and governments around the world, to put people, communities and the environment first. Instead of crying “drought” it’s time we prioritize sustainable water management.

Click here to sign the petition and add your voice

An injury to one is an injury to all of us!

Longshore Caucus calls for Iraq war protest at ports on May 1

Nearly one hundred Longshore Caucus delegates voted on February 8 to support a resolution calling for an eight-hour “stop-work” meeting during the day-shift on Thursday, May 1 at ports in CA, OR and WA to protest the war by calling for the immediate, safe return of U.S. troops from Iraq.

 

“The Caucus has spoken on this important issue and I’ve notified the employers about our plans for ‘stop work’ meetings on May 1,” said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath.

 

Caucus delegates, including several military veterans, spoke passionately about the importance of supporting the troops by bringing them home safely and ending the War in Iraq. Concerns were also raised about the growing cost of the war that has threatened funding for domestic needs, including education and healthcare. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda J. Bilmes recently estimated that the true cost of the War in Iraq to American taxpayers will exceed 3 trillion dollars–a figure they describe as “conservative.”

The union’s International Executive Board recently endorsed Barack Obama, citing his opposition to the War in Iraq as one of the key factors in the union’s decision-making process.

Caucus delegates are democratically elected representatives from every longshore local who set policy for the Longshore Division.

ILWU International President Robert McEllrath has written letters to President John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO and President Andy Stern of the Change-to-Win Coalition, and to the presidents of the International Transport Workers Federation and the International Dockworkers Council to inform them of the ILWU’s plans for May 1.

Visit ILWU

U.N. Ban Ki-moon Condemns Israel after Gaza Bloodbath

Israeli Occupation Forces Murder 96 Palestinians

Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council after four days of Israeli bombardment in which 96 Palestinians have been murdered, 61 of them in one day, UN chief condemned Israel for using excessive force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a cessation to its offensive. Report