*From The PFC Bradley Manning Defense Website- Rally August 8th In Quantico, Va.- Blessed Are The Whistleblowers

Click on the headline to link to a Bradley Manning Support Network website notice of a support rally in Quantico, Virginia on Sunday, August 8, 2010 at noon.


Markin comment:

I recently made the point (see, Wednesday, July 28, 2010
*A Tip Of The Hat To "Wikileaks"- Blessed Are The Whistleblowers- Troops Out Of Afghanistan Now!)that are important in whistleblower Manning's case in a commentary on the Wikileaks revelations reposted below. Free PFC Manning Now!

No bourgeois government, liberal, conservative, centrist or what not likes whistleblowers, in any shape, size or form, period, although we of the extra-parliamentary left certainly do if for no other reason that to see just how grimy and bad the inner workings of the governments we oppose propagandistically day in and day out really are. The Stalinists, as we also know were, and in places like China and Cuba today, are just slightly behind in their scornful attitude toward the species. Nevertheless more knowledge is always a good thing. As 19th century revolutionary, Karl Marx, was fond of saying, “ignorance never did anybody any good.” A very worthy tip of the hat to Wikileaks and to their whistleblowers.

Of course, that is not the end of the matter. The material provided here, unlike the Daniel Ellsberg-leaked Pentagon Papers during the height of the struggle against the Vietnam War, is not an expose of the Bush and Obama administrations' high inner-circle deliberations about the direction of the Afghan War. But, we will take what we can get. On the surface, at least, this material gives us plenty of ammunition to expose the duplicity of the Americans, the Pakistanis, and all factions of the Afghanis (including the Taliban) and, when the deal is finished, who knows who else. But here is the clincher- None of that material does us any good, or little good, if we don’t get a massive opposition organized (something coming off of last spring’s anti-war drive in Washington, D.C. on March 20th we have not done yet) to the Obama/Allied Afghan War policies. Thus- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan (And Iraq)!

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Phil Och's "Sailors And Soldiers Song"

Click on the title to link to a site to hear Phil Och's Sailors and Soldiers Song.

In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.

**********

Sailors and Soldiers Lyrics
Phil Ochs

Sailors and soldiers
uniformed shoulders
they're growing older
over the sea

The troops they are leaving
firmly believing
no reason for greiving

Far from the banners,
Far from the glamour,
Far from the planners,
Who sent them to die

herded like cattle
they head for the battle
their rifles will rattle
over the sea

Too young to be shaving
yet the flags they are waving
for the fury they are braving
over the sea

proudly parading
with their medals they are
but their glory is fading
over the sea

Sailors and soldiers
Sailors and soldiers
Sailors and soldiers
&c...

*Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By-Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn"

Click on the title to link a YouTube film clip of Pete Seeger and Judy Collins perfroming Turn, Turn, Turn from his 1960s Rainbow Quest television show.

In this series, presented under the headline “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”, I will post some songs that I think will help us get through the “dog days” of the struggle for our communist future. I do not vouch for the political thrust of the songs; for the most part they are done by pacifists, social democrats, hell, even just plain old ordinary democrats. And, occasionally, a communist, although hard communist musicians have historically been scarce on the ground. Thus, here we have a regular "popular front" on the music scene. While this would not be acceptable for our political prospects, it will suffice for our purposes here. Markin.

********

Markin comment:

I would add here, if I were a song writer- a time for class struggle and a time for anti-imperialist, anti-war struggle. You figure out the melody, okay.

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)-Pete Seeger lyrics

There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "End Us War. Org." Website-Troops Out Of Iraq And Afghanistan Now!

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Markin comment:

I think that we need to "speak" a little more Bolshevik on this issue than what is offered here by this group but at this point in the anti-war struggle every point of opposition accrues to our benefit. Obama-Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal From Afghanistan and Iraq!

Friday, July 30, 2010

House approves $37 billion war-funding bill, 308-114.


War Is A Crime: SIGN THE END US WARS PLEDGE!
Please add your name and district by writing to sign [at] enduswars.org to be published on the Pledge page.

For All Voters:

I will actively oppose any candidate who has, during the current 111th Congress (2009-2011), voted for (or otherwise facilitated) appropriations to fund the criminal and illegal US military adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, or Georgia; for kidnappings, assassinations, and other acts of war carried out by the US government on foreign territory; or for any bill or measure intended to support military actions and/or covert operations against Iran. I will make every effort to identify, recruit, fund, publicize, and support anti-war candidates of any party whatsoever. To earn my support, these candidates must pledge in public and in writing that they will vote and speak out against, and oppose by all available means any bill which includes funding for the policies and acts of aggression enumerated above.

For All Congressional Candidates:

I hereby pledge that if elected I will vote, speak out against, and oppose by all available means any bill which includes funding for all policies and acts of aggression including the criminal and illegal US military adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, or Georgia; for kidnappings, assassinations, and other acts of war carried out by the US government on foreign territory; or for any bill or measure intended to support military actions and/or covert operations against Iran.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "G.I. Voice (Fort Lewis)" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.


Soldier who refused Afghan tour released
Submitted by mgibbs on Sat, 04/03/2010 - 9:03pm. Scott Fontaine;
Tacoma News-Tribune
April 2, 2010

Pvt. Travis Bishop left his jail cell at Joint Base Lewis-McChord last week with no job, a criminal conviction and just one regret.

“I wish I had known about applying for a conscientious objector status a lot sooner,” said Bishop, a 26-year-old Louisville, Ky., native.

The former sergeant made headlines when he went absent without leave and refused to deploy to Afghanistan with his Fort Hood unit last year. Bishop cited his Christian beliefs in making the decision – a move that ultimately cost him 71/2 months of freedom and led international human-rights group Amnesty International to label him a prisoner of conscience.

He also became a rallying point for the local peace movement, with calls for his release increasing after Fort Lewis Lt. Ehren Watada – who refused to deploy to Iraq – was discharged last fall. Bishop spoke to supporters last weekend at Coffee Strong, a Lakewood resource center for war resisters and disaffected soldiers.

Bishop was released three months early after Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the top commander at Fort Hood, granted Bishop’s request for clemency in February. Bishop is now effectively out of the Army. He retains the rank of private while an appeal to overturn his conviction and reverse the military’s plan for a bad-conduct discharge works its way through the military judicial system.

He now finds himself in the same place as countless others who left the military under less controversial circumstances: looking for a job, planning to enroll in college and adjusting to life without morning formations and buzz-cut requirements.

“I’m just trying to feel normal again,” Bishop said Tuesday in an interview with The News Tribune.

Bishop didn’t hold the same reservations about war when he enlisted in April 2004 or when he deployed to Iraq in 2006-07.

But as his unit prepared for an Afghanistan deployment early last year, he began asking himself tough questions.

“I had to get right with God in case I died or in case I had to kill someone,” he said.

He found answers in the Bible. Bishop, who was raised Baptist and considers himself a nondenominational Christian, came to believe Jesus preached a strict pacifist philosophy.

He felt trapped between his belief in the immorality of war and the duty to his friends to deploy with them. Some peace activists in Texas told him he could apply for conscientious-objector status. It was the first he’d heard of it outside the context of the Vietnam War, he said.

Bishop eventually made contact with James Branum, an Oklahoma-based lawyer, a day before the soldier was scheduled to fly to Afghanistan. Branum couldn’t advise him whether to go AWOL but did tell him the potential consequences, including jail time.

A sleepless night followed, and Bishop still struggled with the decision the morning before he was scheduled to leave.

“It’s easy to say, ‘I’m not going,’” he said. “But really, it’s hard – my best friend was going to go in my stead if I left.”

Bishop went AWOL hours before his flight left. He stayed with a friend while he filled out the conscientious-objector application. He turned himself into his company building a week later.

He was assigned a job with the company rear detachment. Almost everyone in his unit treated him professionally, he said, though small talk stopped with some people he once considered friends.

Authorities at Fort Hood turned down his request. He appealed to the Pentagon and was denied on that level as well.

Bishop blamed the timing of it, objecting as his unit prepared to go to war.

“I understand it hurt the validity of my claim,” he said. “I get that. But I didn’t know about CO status before then, and most of the military doesn’t know.”

His court-martial began in August, and he was found guilty and sentenced to a year in detention after a two-day trial. He arrived at the Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in September.

He was held at Lewis-McChord’s 190-bed, medium-security facility because Fort Hood doesn’t have a detention center. Where a prisoner serves his sentence is based on the length of the sentence and the space available at various military lockups.

Branum alleged mistreatment of Bishop and other detainees at the facility during an October news conference – charges Lewis-McChord public affairs officials have denied.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/04/02/1132402/soldier-who-refused-afghan-tour.html|

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "Under The Hood G.I. Support" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.


*********

Injured Hearts, Injured Minds
by Forrest Wilder Font Size decrease font size increase font size Print Facebook Twitter Share Published on: Monday, August 03, 2009

In March, Army Spc. Michael Kern, 22, returned to Fort Hood after a year and a day in Iraq.

Shaken by his experience and disgusted with the war, Kern, a native of Riverside, Calif., tried to readjust by getting as hammered as possible. "Put it this way: For the first month, I was drunk at work, I was drunk 24/7."

In Iraq the violence had been fast and furious. "We were going through all sorts of bad shit: mortars, IEDs, indirect fire. Anything you can think of we experienced the first day."

On his second mission, Kern drew the short straw to drive the lead vehicle—a "mine resistant ambush protected" vehicle—in a convoy looking for a weapons cache near Baghdad. An IED exploded next to his vehicle, damaging his door. The platoon pulled back to base. The next day, April 7, on an identical mission, insurgents came after his unit with AK-47s, machine guns and IEDs. During the nine-hour firefight, a sniper killed Kern's buddy, Sgt. Richard A. Vaughn. Two others, including Kern's lieutenant, were seriously injured.

Kern tells me his story over two days in July at Under the Hood Café, a new GI coffeehouse and soldier-outreach center that opened in February. Since mid-May, when a drunken Kern first dropped in, Under the Hood has become his second home. While awaiting a medical discharge for PTSD and traumatic brain injury, he's here almost every day, working out what happened to him in Iraq, planning anti-war events and helping other soldiers come to terms with their combat experiences. The coffeehouse provides a support network, friends who've helped him quit drinking, people he can call on day or night, and provides what Kern appreciated most about the military: a sense of camaraderie.


"If it wasn't for this place, it's sad to say, I feel like I would be dead. I feel like I would have killed myself," Kern says.

Under the Hood is a rifle shot from the east gates of Fort Hood in a grim commercial zone of tattoo parlors, pawnshops, car lots, payday lenders, bars, strip clubs, and a place advertising "gold grillz" for teeth—establishments eager to drain young soldiers of their earnings. In this garrison town, the café has become a gathering place for dissident GIs, peace activists, veterans and active-duty soldiers who need help.

Inside, the walls are decorated with peace propaganda, including a map of the world pinpointing U.S. military interventions and a poster that reads, "You Can't Be All that You Can Be if You're Dead." A bookcase is stocked with anti-war literature. For entertainment, there's a dartboard, a foosball table and a big-screen TV with PlayStation. No alcohol is allowed, but there's no shortage of cigarette smoke.

Under the Hood is a gathering place for Ft. Hood soldiers, veterans and military spouses who are against the war or in need of help. Meet some of the patrons and organizers in this short documentary film by Matthew Gossage.

I came here to suss out efforts to build an anti-war movement within the Army. Fort Hood, the largest military installation in the country, has produced a smattering of war resisters in recent years. I met some of them at the coffeehouse, including Victor Agosto, an Iraq War veteran who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan, and Casey Porter, a mechanic who did two tours in Iraq. Porter, preparing to attend film school in Florida, recorded local life in Iraq, posting interviews with military personnel, battle footage and unvarnished street scenes.

Over the past four years, I've come into contact with scores of military personnel through my involvement with the Austin GI Rights Hotline, a group of volunteers trained to counsel service members about their rights.

Once a week, I sit on my couch and talk on the phone to soldiers, Marines and airmen who call with a dizzying array of issues, from the mundane to the impossibly complex. Many are stationed at Fort Hood. We get AWOL cases, people with untreated PTSD, 18-year-old enlistees who've found out their recruiter lied to them, middle-aged soldiers who've been stop-lossed, moms and dads calling on behalf of their kids, gay officers who've been outed—you name it. Some have made poor decisions; others are victims of a sometimes capricious, even cruel military system.

I got into it through my girlfriend. Katherine was in the news some years ago for being the first female conscientious objector to emerge from the war in Afghanistan. The military refused to recognize her as a conscientious objector, and after a long and painful process she was court-martialed and sentenced to 120 days in the brig. She ate lunch every day with Lynndie England, the young West Virginia woman best known for holding the leash in the infamous Abu Ghraib photos.

Joeie Michaels, Michael Kern's roommate and an Under the Hood regular, used to dance at Babes, a Killeen strip club popular with GIs. Performing there, she made sure the troops left with a flier for the coffeehouse.

Under the Hood's signal event was a Memorial Day peace march in the streets of Killeen, the city's first since Vietnam. The Killeen newspaper reported about 70 participants. Cindy Thomas, the military spouse who manages the coffeehouse and plays den mother to the young, often-raucous soldiers, estimates about 10 to 15 were locals, including veterans and active-duty soldiers.



"It's like a mother with a child," Thomas says. "It's unconditional love, and we help them any way we can."

The building housing Under the Hood's local antecedent, the Killeen coffeehouse Oleo Strut, is a few blocks away; it now houses an office complex. The Oleo Strut had a four-year run from 1968 to 1972, according to a history on Under the Hood's Web site. Run by civilians and veterans, the Oleo Strut plugged Fort Hood soldiers into the Vietnam anti-war movement and spread their ideas in the barracks. An underground newspaper circulated from the coffeehouse, and the crowd there organized demonstrations and teach-ins. Musicians passed through, purportedly including a young Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"The tinder was very dry," says Tom Cleaver, an Oleo Strut alum, Vietnam veteran and Hollywood screenwriter who helped raise money to start Under the Hood. "They ended up in '69 and '70 having big demonstrations there, a thousand guys marching in Killeen against the war."

Fort Hood at that time was a holding station for soldiers returning from Vietnam with less than six months left on their enlistments. Before being discharged, many were deployed to suppress domestic riots and protests, including those at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

"Here they come back to America, and what does the Army want them to do?" Cleaver asks. "Fight a war in America. That radicalized a lot of guys. They came back with bad feelings about the war, and now they were supposed to go defend the war."

There's no draft now, nor is there a broader social counterculture, to tap into. Given that, Thomas says, one of Under the Hood's primary functions is giving soldiers a place to speak openly.

"The military, they don't want you to think for yourself," Thomas says. "They don't want you to be informed; they don't want you to know that you have support because they function by fear and intimidation over these soldiers. So when you have a space where you can talk freely and find out what your rights are, you have that support, you have that kindness. It is a threat to them."

One coffeehouse regular, Spc. Ben Fugate, told me that after his commander spotted his name in a Killeen Daily Herald article about the Memorial Day peace march, his unit was lectured for two hours on the dangers of protesting.

Fugate, who describes himself as "very conservative," had been quoted in the paper saying, "I lost three buddies in my platoon in Iraq, and for what? Why lose more when we don't have to?"

Kern, seated on a couch in a cozy back room at Under the Hood, explains how he became a coffeehouse fixture. It's a Thursday in July, and he's wearing a T-shirt that asks, "Got Rights?" He's pale and swallowing tranquilizers to suppress panic attacks.

"I'm fucked up," he says. "I know it." Later, he says, "You know how they say a teenage boy thinks about sex every eight seconds. Every eight seconds I think about Iraq."

Kern, a tanker, says his unit averaged about two and a half missions per day.

At first, Kern says, he was gung ho: "I was an excellent soldier. I took joy out of killing people in Iraq. It was such an adrenaline rush. I craved it."

Over time, bravado faded into depression, guilt and a strong feeling that the war was wrong. When Kern deployed to Iraq he took a small handheld digital video camera and a laptop with editing software. He fixed the camera to his vehicle's turret and captured hours of patrol footage.

Some of that raw video has been distilled to a 10-minute film called Fire Mission that's available online.

In the film's last minutes, Spc. Steven Pesicka, a soldier in Kern's unit, narrates what he calls a "mortar mission for shock and awe" near an Iraqi village. The first mortar lands near a house, and the forward observer calls for the next one to be targeted 200 meters farther from the village. The mortar team thought that was too far away, Pesicka says. The film shows the second mortar hitting the town. "Oh fuck," the forward observer is heard to say. "They did not drop 200 [meters], over. They hit the town."

Minutes after the explosion, the soldier describes dead bodies being loaded into the back of trucks.

Such experiences led Kern to a radical form of empathy.

"If you just take a step back and you think, I mean, I'd be doing the same thing if Iraqis were in the United States," Kern, dressed in battle fatigues, says in Fire Mission. "I'd be the dude trying to plant a bomb under the road. I'd be trying to kill them. Oh, hell yeah, get the fuck out of my country."

Beginning in May or June, Kern started having nightmares, sometimes while he was awake. On several occasions he hallucinated an Iraqi child with half his skull missing, as real to him as the desert heat. His psychiatrist says the child might represent guilt, but all Kern knows is that it scared the shit out of him. In January, on his birthday, while his unit was on patrol, he told a commander—in confidence—that he was going to see a mental health specialist. The doctor prescribed Zoloft and sent him on his way. Back with his platoon, Kern discovered that the commander had ratted him out to his platoon sergeant.

"I was called out in front of the entire platoon, was made an example of, saying why are you going to mental health. This isn't a war. This isn't bad." The next day, on a mission, Kern talked openly of suicide. "Still to this day, my buddy doesn't know he talked me down, but I really wanted to kill myself on that mission. I had three loaded weapons sitting right next to me. I could have done it real easy."



Back home, Kern avoided his demons, drowning them in drink. Thomas and Michaels encouraged Kern to open up.

"They'd be like, 'How was Iraq?' I'd say 'Oh, it was just Iraq.' I kept brushing it aside and stuff. They kept telling me, 'You're gonna break, you're gonna break. You need to get help.' " Kern relented.

Michaels found a psychiatrist in Austin whom Kern has been seeing twice a week for free. In May he visited Fort Hood's mental health services office, but was told he'd have to wait six weeks to see a doctor.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi child had followed Kern back to Texas. On the first of June, Kern was in the bathroom at Under the Hood when the child made an appearance. Afterward, Thomas and Michaels found Kern sitting outside under a tree. "The look on his face was just empty. His eyes were hollow," Thomas says. Kern entered the 12-bed psychiatric ward at Fort Hood's military hospital. He spent the next week there, emerging with a diagnosis of PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Doctors put him on five medications, including tranquilizers, antidepressants and antipsychotics, which he carries in a small orange pillbox.

A week after being released, Kern started a blog, "Expendable Soldier." In his first post he wrote, "I still hate myself and everything I do. No matter what I am doing any day of the week I some how am still reminded of the things I did while I was in Iraq, and sometimes it gets so bad that I believe I am still in Iraq. ... Sometimes I wish I never came back."

Still, Kern reports for duty at the coffeehouse every day. He's working on restarting an Iraq Veterans Against the War chapter in Killeen and talking to other soldiers about the coffeehouse. Does he feel like he's become part of an anti-war movement? "I am part of an anti-war movement," he says. "There's no 'feeling' about it."

*A Tip Of The Hat To "Wikileaks"- Blessed Are The Whistleblowers- Troops Out Of Afghanistan Now!

Click on the headline to link to a Wikileaks entry for the some 75,000 2004-2009 Afghan War documents that were laid at their doorstep.

Markin comment:

No bourgeois government, liberal, conservative, centrist or what not likes whistleblowers, in any shape, size or form, period, although we of the extra-parliamentary left certainly do if for no other reason that to see just how grimy and bad the inner workings of the governments we oppose propagandistically day in and day out really are. The Stalinists, as we also know were, and in places like China and Cuba today, are just slightly behind in their scornful attitude toward the species. Nevertheless more knowledge is always a good thing. As 19th century revolutionary, Karl Marx, was fond of saying, “ignorance never did anybody any good.” A very worthy tip of the hat to Wikileaks and to their whistleblowers.

Of course, that is not the end of the matter. The material provided here, unlike the Daniel Ellsberg-leaked Pentagon Papers during the height of the struggle against the Vietnam War, is not an expose of the Bush and Obama administrations' high inner-circle deliberations about the direction of the Afghan War. But, we will take what we can get. On the surface, at least, this material gives us plenty of ammunition to expose the duplicity of the Americans, the Pakistanis, and all factions of the Afghanis (including the Taliban) and, when the deal is finished, who knows who else. But here is the clincher- None of that material does us any good, or little good, if we don’t get a massive opposition organized (something coming off of last spring’s anti-war drive in Washington, D.C. on March 20th we have not done yet) to the Obama/Allied Afghan War policies. Thus- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan (And Iraq)!

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace- The Latest From The "Courage To Resist" G.I. Anti-War Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.


I thought the winds of change were coming...

US Army Private. July 21, 2010

I would just like to say this website is a safe-haven for me when i thought there was none. I recently joined the National Guard because i was looking to serve the people in my community, state, and country. After President Obama's campaign two years ago in which he criticized supporters of these illegal wars I thought the winds of change were coming. I was naive to think so. I was lied to. We were all lied to. Now I'm facing the possibility of having to go all the way overseas to kill and destroy another country. This is wrong and it makes me physically sick at night. It also makes me sick knowing that there are people out there who still support these wars. I would just like to thank you for listening and for giving people like me a safe-haven to come to.

Published with permission by the author.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "Different Drummer (Fort Drum)" Website-Troops Out Of Afghanistan Now!

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

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THE NEW GULF WAR SYNDROME

US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are being exposed to toxic chemicals that pose serious health risks

By Nora Eisenberg
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 11 2008 14.00 GMT

What does a war injury look like? In the case of Iraq, we tend to picture veterans bravely getting on with their lives with the help of steel legs or computerised limbs. Trauma injuries are certainly the most visible of health problems – the ones that grab our attention. A campaign ad for congressman Tom Udall featured an Iraq war veteran who had survived a shot to his head. Speaking through the computer that now substitutes for his voice, Sergeant Erik Schei extols the top-notch care that saved his life.

As politicians argue about healthcare for veterans, it is generally people like Sgt Schei that they have in mind, men and women torn apart by a bullet or bomb. And of course, these Iraq war veterans must receive the best care available for such complex and catastrophic injuries.

Unfortunately, the dangers of modern war extend far beyond weapons. As Iraqis know only too well, areas of Iraq today are among the most polluted on the planet – so toxic that merely to live, eat and sleep (never mind to fight) in these zones is to risk death. Thousands of soldiers coming home from the war may have been exposed to chemicals that are known to cause cancers and neurological problems. What's most tragic is that the veterans themselves do not always realise that they are in danger from chemical poisoning. Right now, there is no clear way for Iraq war veterans to find out what they've been exposed to and where to get help.

In October, the Military Times reported on the open-air pits on US bases in Iraq, where troops incinerate tons of waste. Because of such pits, tens of thousands of soldiers may be breathing air contaminated with burning Freon, jet fuel and other carcinogens. According to reports, soldiers are coughing up blood or the black goop that has been nicknamed "plume crud".

In other cases, soldiers may have been exposed to poisons spread during efforts to restore Iraq's infrastructure. In 2003, for instance, members of the Indiana national guard were put in charge of protecting a water-treatment plant. They were told not to worry about the bright orange dust lying in piles around the plant, swirling in the air and gathering in the folds of their uniforms. In fact, Indiana soldiers spent weeks or months in a wasteland contaminated with sodium dichromate. The chemical, made famous after its role as the villain in the movie Erin Brockovich, is used to peel corrosion off of water pipes. It is a carcinogen that attacks the lungs and sinuses.

Today, a decade and a half after the first Gulf war, we know that such exposure may lead to widespread suffering. In 1991, veterans began to exhibit fatigue, fevers, rashes, joint pain, intestinal problems, memory loss, mood swings and even cancers, a cluster of symptoms and conditions referred to now as Gulf war syndrome (or illness). For years, the US department of defence maintained that stress caused the veterans' symptoms. Veterans groups blamed war-related toxins. This year, the National Academy of Sciences published an extensive review of years of scientific study of Gulf war illness that concluded a cause and effect relationship existed between the widespread illnesses among veterans and exposure to powerful neurotoxins. Complementing the US studies is an emerging body of epidemiological data linking increased incidence of Iraqi cancer, birth defects, infant mortality and multi-system diseases to toxic exposure.

Strangely enough, though, there has been almost no discussion of whether today's soldiers – those fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan – have also been injured by wartime poisons. We don't have a word yet for the constellation of cancers, psychological ills and systemic diseases that may be caused by toxins in today's wars.

In order to care for our veterans, we must do more than offer state-of-the-art hospitals and high-tech prosthetics. Veterans will need information about what poisons they have breathed or touched or drunk and when.

What would such an effort look like? First the military would need to disclose all known incidents of toxic exposure. Then it would have to reach out to veterans and give them information about how to receive care for conditions that arise from this exposure.

This summer, senator Evan Bayh made a first stab at such a system. Bayh pushed the national guard to track down hundreds of those Indiana soldiers who may have breathed orange dust back in 2003. Most of the soldiers are now civilians scattered across the US, unaware that they are at high risk for lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Some of them may already be struggling with illness. The national guard is making an effort to search for these veterans and provide them with a phone number to call in order to seek medical help.

That's a good first step. But what about all the other veterans who believe that they have returned home from the war healthy? Without knowing it, they may be carrying a small bomb inside them. And they have a right to know.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace- The Latest From The "Socialist Action" Website

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

Markin comment:

I will be commenting more on the various stands of the Fourth International movement, the now very broken, organizationally broken although not progammatically broken (think the Transitional Program), movement founded by Leon Trotsky and his co-thinkers in 1938 in the future.

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Fourth International Debates Party-Building Strategy

by Jeff Mackler / July 2010

More than 200 delegates, observers, and invited guests from some 45 countries attended the 16th World Congress of the Fourth International (FI), Feb. 23-28 in Belgium. The FI is the world socialist organization founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky with the help of cothinkers worldwide, including James P. Cannon, the pioneer of American Trotskyism.

The draft reports prepared by the FI leadership to initiate the pre-World Congress on-line discussion appear in the International Viewpoint website under “Documents of the FI.” A critical assessment of these texts, entitled, “Socialist Action USA: A contribution to the pre-World Congress discussion,” appears in the same place.

Three main resolutions were presented for discussion and debate. The first two, on “The World Political Situation” and on “Capitalist Climate Change and Our Tasks” were accepted with little dissent and accompanied by a generally rich and productive discussion.

But there were sharp disagreements with regard to the third report on “The Role and Tasks of the FI.” Socialist Action cast its fraternal vote in favor of the first two resolutions and against the “Role and Tasks” text. Reactionary U.S. legislation bars Socialist Action’s formal membership in the FI. Its delegates therefore participate in a fraternal capacity only.

“The World Political Report” contained a description of the terrible effects on the world’s working classes due to the international capitalist economic crisis, a crisis that was properly judged as flowing from fundamental structural flaws in the capitalist system itself.

The second resolution and reports on the world climate crisis represented an important theoretical advance, as well as an important contribution to the world workers’ movement more generally. The text on climate change combined a thoroughgoing Marxist analysis with the science of ecology, a wealth of factual material, a rejection of a “productivist” (capitalist or Stalinist) way out, a series of transitional and immediate demands, proposals for united mass actions, and a broad appreciation of the magnitude and importance of the climate crisis issue.

The resolution began with a clear and unequivocal statement of the magnitude and importance of the issue: “The climate change that is underway is not the product of human activity in general but of the productivist paradigm developed by capitalism and imitated by other systems that claim to be alternatives to the former. Faced with the danger of a social and ecological catastrophe which is without precedent and is irreversible on a human timescale, the system, incapable of calling into question its fundamental logic of accumulation, is engaged in a dangerous technological forward flight from which there is no way out.”

Debate on “Tasks” resolution

The third resolution debated at the World Congress, “The Role and Tasks of the Fourth International,” drew serious criticism from a number of delegates. The text expressed the view that the priority of the FI today must be the construction of “broad anti-capitalist parties” everywhere—as well as a “new international based on such parties.”

The FI’s primary objective since its founding has been to build mass revolutionary Leninist parties worldwide aimed at the organization of the working class and its allies among the oppressed to take political power and construct socialist societies. Unclear in the resolution was whether its call for “broad anti-capitalist parties” was meant to supplant the FI’s historic party-building strategy.

The debate also concerned the role of FI parties that would participate in these “broad anti-capitalist parties.” Were they to organize as a tendency, caucus, or some such formation designed to win new FI members to a clear revolutionary program and party—or were they to become absorbed into such parties without a clear revolutionary program and Trotskyist identity?

This issue was particularly relevant in light of last year’s dissolution of the French section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Communist League, into the New Anti-Capitalist Party, and the absence of any organized FI current within the organization. Was the NPA to be the new model for revolutionaries as opposed to building a Leninist party?

The text had been prepared by the FI’s International Committee after deliberations over the course of more than a year. Some 72 comrades took the floor to express a wide range of views on the resolution.

As the discussion proceeded, it became obvious that there was little agreement among the delegates as to the meaning and purpose of “broad anti-capitalist parties.” Neither the ambiguous language of the text nor the reporter explained whether these parties were envisioned as an alternative to building revolutionary parties based on the historic program of the FI or even whether these parties were to be socialist at all.

In Socialist Action’s view, a tactical decision as to what kind of formations revolutionary socialists participate in must be subordinate to our strategic objective—the construction of revolutionary parties aimed at the organization of the working class and its allies in the struggle for socialism. Of course, party-building can take many forms, from participation in reformist or social-democratic parties, to principled fusions, or unifications with currents with whom we find major programmatic agreement and with whom we find ourselves working together toward the same goals in the mass movement.

Indeed, the struggle to unify the working class in united-front mass actions that challenge specific polices of the capitalist class (such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or attacks on immigrant rights) is a central tool of revolutionaries throughout the world to advance our common cause and simultaneously win the best fighters to socialist politics.

Build the Fourth International!

While the “Role and Tasks” text was approved by the great majority of the delegates, the vote was not without major reservations and also reflected a view that the discussion would be continued.

It was clear from the concluding remarks of the reporter for “The Role and Tasks of the FI” text that the sharp World Congress debates had an important impact on the FI leadership. The reporter essentially accepted an amendment to the text indicating that the disparate views were far from resolved and that the debate would continue at future FI meetings.

A significant number of World Congress participants were enthusiastic, serious, and well-informed youth, an indication that FI sections have been able to assemble a layer of young fighters to replace the older cadre in the years ahead.

The World Congress took place at a difficult time for revolutionaries throughout the world—a time when the attacks on the world’s working classes have taken a great toll while resistance has been generally limited. These defeats undoubtedly weighed heavily on the Congress deliberations, leading some to look for shortcut solutions that ignore the rich lessons of the past.

It became increasingly evident during the World Congress that the critical need to build the Fourth International, based on the construction of revolutionary socialist parties of the Leninist type, will remain central to the FI’s future discussions and debates.

*From The Wilds Of Cyberspace-The Latest From The "National Assembly To End The U.S. Wars And Occupations" Website-Troops Out Of Afghanistan Now!

Click on the title to link to the website mentioned in the headline for the latest news and opinion from that site.

*From “The Rag Blog”- “Bob Feldman 68” Blog- A People’s History Of Afghanistan, Conclusion

Click on the headline to link to a “The Rag Blog” entry from the “Bob Feldman 68” blog on the history of Afghanistan

Markin comment:

This is a great series for those who are not familiar with the critical role of Afghanistan in world politics, if not directly then as part of the history of world imperialism. Thanks, Bob Feldman.

And, speaking of world imperialism, let us keep our eyes on the prize- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./ Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan!

*From The Archives Of "Women And Revolution"- Iraq: Women’s Liberation and the Struggle Against Imperialist Subjugation

Click on the headline to link to the article described above

Markin comment:

The above-linked article is from an archival issue of Women and Revolution that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of Women and Revolution during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.

*Straight From The Horse's Mouth- Even Senator Kerry Says Obama's Afghan Policy Is Off Course

Click on the headline to link to an Associated Press (via The Boston Globe online) article concerning Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Forbes Kerry's remarks on the Obamian Afghan war policy.

Markin comment:

On a day when I am writing about united fronts, and who is and who isn't included (or, at least, should or shouldn't be) up steps Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to want to "join us" (with one hand, at least) in our opposition to the Obama Afghan war policy. Never let it be said that "Brother" Kerry ever got out front on any war issue, including his rather belated, if well-publicized, opposition to his war, the Vietnam War. If memory serves though, this time last year Senator Kerry was waving both hands and both feet (or, maybe, as is his preferred method, one hand and one foot)in defense of the Obama troop build up in Afghanistan. Well, just to kick off the good Senator from our bus let us anti-war militants raise this slogan in his face, and his boss's- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./ Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan!

*On The United Front And Political Action- A "Teachable" Moment, Perhaps- A Short Note

Click on the headline to link to a Workers Vanguard article, dated August 28, 2009, The United Front Tactic: Its Use and Abuse by Joseph Seymour as interesting background for the note below on the question of the united front.

Markin comment:

Apparently the rich lessons, politically rich lessons that is, to be derived from a short note added to a commentary on the need to boost our efforts in the struggle against the Obama Afghan war policy are endless. (See, The Streets Are Not For Dreaming - We Need An All Out Anti-War Push To Get Out Of Afghanistan- And We Need To Start Now, dated July 3, 2010.) Recently I posted an additional commentary based on that notion, the notion that the times were on our side in that struggle against the Afghan war policy but that we had better get moving to organize the opposition, including the now “famous” note that explained why I was less than enamored of the recently held U.S. Social Forum in Detroit in late June. (See, Once Again, On The U.S. Social Forum- A “Teachable” Moment, July 12, 2010.)

As part of that explanation I also mentioned a political action 2004, at a time when the Social Forum held a previous conference that coincided, not coincidentally, with the Democratic Party National Convention that was held in Boston that year. That action, an anti-war march on the convention site the day before the opening of the convention was called by the ANSWER coalition (and some other independent groupings). Given the opportunity to vocally oppose that party’s commitment in the still somewhat popular Iraq war and it nominee Senator John Kerry’s early endorsement of the Iraq war and other aspects of then-President Bush’s war policy it seemed like a “no-brainer” for anti-war militants to attend the event.

The local ad hoc anti-imperialist committee that I am a member of, and that had been formed in 2001 in opposition to Bush’s Afghan war policy, answered the call and attended the event, although we did not officially endorse the action. The main reason for that stance was that some of our members did not support the slogan of "Hands Off North Korea" that was included in the call for the demonstration. Or, at least, did not support the slogan in the uncritical sense that the organizers placed on it. That non- endorsement stance is not an unusual one, and we have all, I am sure, attended marches, rallies demonstrations and other action where we attended based on our own slogans without being part of an official endorsement. On some issues, and that included Iraq at that time, the need for militant action trumped the behind-the-scenes political wrangling.

What prompts this posting, however, is that a member of our local anti-imperialist committee, a newer member who was not then involved with our group, didn't understand why, after reading my post, if we were attending the demonstration, recruiting people to attend it, publicizing the event and all the other things that go into preparing for a political action, large or small, why we did not endorse the event. Hence I get another, "teachable" moment, perhaps.

Over a long life time of political activity, including attending marches, workshops, rallies, picket lines, and the like the notion of the united front, a true united front, has probably been the most difficult one to understand, and to deal with, in our small leftist political universe. I include myself in that category because for a long time I was very mushy (nice precise political term, right?) on the question, as well. I would characterize my own earlier positions as a “family of the left” non-aggression pacts that in the end prohibited any political clarity, or sorting out of political differences, between the myriad groups, leagues, tendencies, et al. that inhabit our American left landscape. In short, we are not all necessarily pulling in the same direction, strategically or tactically. Certainly political neophytes, like our newer member, could not then be accused of opportunistic naivete if they did not automatically understand such a concept.

In the communist movement, mainly from the work of the Communist International that emerged on the world labor scene in the aftermath of the Russian revolution of 1917, the original sense of the united front tactic was to try to get mass Communist organizations to outmaneuver mass Social Democratic organizations by proposing join actions on major issues in the interest of the working class and of pushing the class struggle forward. And, importantly, most importantly, showing in those join actions that the Communist organizations were more doggedly committed to seeing the actions through to the end, to being the best fighters for the class, up to and including revolutionary struggle.

Obviously in America, with its historically-deforming lack of a mass-based communist party (or, for that matter, the lack of a mass-based reformist labor party either), even in the heydays of the 1930s and 1940s when such formations were not without some influence in this country the use of the united front has not conformed to that Comintern notion mentioned above, or mainly does not apply to the tasks of the small propaganda groups that dot our political milieu , or has had to be modified to fit the American political scene.

Thus, in America, the united front really stands for the proposition that we communists are weak and that we need to unite as many organizations and individuals as possible by using this modified means. Of course, as every communist knows, or should know, the concept of the united front has taken a severe beating as a tool to forward the aims of the class struggle. It has been turned, for the most part, by Stalinists, ex-Stalinists, wanna-be Stalinists, Social Democrats, wanna-be Social Democrats, and not a few anarchists into a parliamentary tool that includes capitalist and pro-capitalist formations. In short not a united front but a popular front, and there is a difference, historically written in blood in such places as Spain in the 1930s and Chile in the 1970s, between those two concepts. That popular front strategic conception has, however, continued, in one form or another dominate the leftist landscape for the last fifty years, or more.

Look, let's make it simple. The united front is merely a basis for an action, one time or on-going depending on the issue (on-going, for example, in legal defense cases) by different organizations that join together for a common purpose. The best example of that is an anti-war protest based on a slogan of immediate withdrawal from one or another of America’s imperial adventures. Around that issue everyone can unite, make their own analysis and draw their own strategic conclusions, make their own propaganda and fight for their other programmatic points. Beyond that “minimum” the united front makes no sense.

And that is where the question of 2004 comes in. The ANSWER coalition’s call for the demonstration included a grab bag of slogans on a range of issues, some supportable, some not. In realty the political program presented by the ANSWER coalition represented a call to support their slogan and to form a propaganda bloc on that basis. As I mentioned above some of our members were not committed to defense of North Korea, critically or otherwise. Actually, although that was the main question in dispute over endorsement there was also controversy on the question of Haiti and ANSWER's semi-support of a return of Astride. There were also organizational considerations centered on whether we could have a speaker at the pre-march rally. All in all there were plenty of grounds for not officially endorsing the action.

That, however, is a far cry from not attending, or ordering one's members not to attend a demonstration under one's own banners and with one's own propaganda. Hell, it is done all the time. Most of the leftist political actions over the last few decades have been done that way. So the question of not attending in those circumstances comes down to this- the U.S Social Forum/UJP/Green leaderships were making a conscious decision not to offend the Democrats, or at least not "embarrassing" that organization in the public’s eye by taking a political dive on confrontation that covention week. You know, and here is the "perhaps" part of the "teachable" moment mentioned in the headline such opportunism doesn't really pay in the end. For all their kowtowing to the Democrats, then or later, what did they get- a now vastly expanded war in Afghanistan, among other miseries, by the Democrats led by one former self-described “anti-war activist” of uncertain provenance, President Barack Obama. You reap what you sow.

*From “The Rag Blog”- “Bob Feldman 68” Blog- A People’s History Of Afghanistan, Part Thirteen

Click on the headline to link to a The Rag Blog entry from the Bob Feldman 68 blog on the history of Afghanistan

Markin comment:

This is a great series for those who are not familiar with the critical role of Afghanistan in world politics, if not directly then as part of the history of world imperialism. Thanks, Bob Feldman.

And, speaking of world imperialism, let us keep our eyes on the prize- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./ Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan!

*The Streets Are Not For Dreaming - We Need An All Out Anti-War Push To Get Out Of Afghanistan- And We Need To Start Now

Click on the headline to link to a UJP website entry on the recent House vote to approve an Afghan War supplemental war budget. That's extra dough on top of the "regular" Afghan war budget. We won't even mention the "regular" regular war budget-the 700 billion one.

Markin comment:

Damn right the streets are not for dreaming now. If they ever were, except for a couple of minutes in the 1960s before the American imperial state, Johnson/Nixon version front and center, pulled the hammer down and we barely got off of those streets with our lives. But enough of talk of those ancient times. Enough also, for the moment, of the dreamy 1960s remembrances of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters acid tests, of fast souped up 1950s vintage cars revving up for the Saturday night “chicken run”, of oldies but goodies records from the dawn of rock and roll, of end of the night songs at school dances and what to do when that time comes and you have two left feet, and of other such sentiments that have filled the space of late.

We are at war now. No, not in the way you think, the obvious way, with the Obama version of the American imperial state endlessly pouring men and materials into his Afghan adventure that will stretch out to infinity. We know, and know painfully well, what we have to do in opposition to that adventure. Nor am I speaking of the complacency of a Congress that keeps the fires of the war machine stoked with every appropriation the Obama administration asks for, most recently with the House approval of the “supplemental” Afghan war budget (not to be confused with the “regular” Afghan war budget, or, heavens, with the “regular” regular war budget). We too know how to deal with that.

What we are war with, first and foremost, is the complacency of the genetic anti-war movement, if the scattered remnants, individuals and clots of anti-warriors that we have been reduced to warrant that title. A “movement” that draws many thousands to Detroit for the U.S. Social Forum talk/slugfest but cannot draw that number to the streets of Washington for a protest of a vicious Obama-driven imperial policy is hardly worthy of the name.

There, I got that off my chest. And that’s all I needed to do, for openers. I have been in politics of one kind or another practically all of my conscious life and one thing that I have learned is that you don’t get people, especially political people, moving based on trying to guilt trip them, at least not for the long haul that we need them. And that is my real point. The polls of late, to the extent that they are indicative, point to something of a shift in sentiment (and much else) about Obama's Afghan war policy. American war allies are deserting the ship like rats. The McChrystal expose demonstrated that the generals at the top are still clueless on the question of kicking down every door in some benighted Afghan village to “win” friends. Hell, even the ever so tepid and pliant Congress is beginning to question (theoretically, but not in cold hard cash department) the “mission.”

In short, we are, or should be, in the catbird seat. So, forget the past half-heartedness in the face of earlier “deaf” ears, the fear of breaking with the Obama administration, the fear of alienating the black liberation movement, the fear of… well, you know the rest. Back to the struggle, back to the streets and back to our fighting slogan- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries (Not Just General McChrystal) From Afghanistan!


Note: For those who wince at my characterization of the recently held U.S. Social Forum as a talk fest I will give a very compelling reason for that usage. And I will not even mention the various “anti-imperialist”, “anti- capitalist” sources, like the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, and who knows who else, that funded this confab. I will make a strictly political point here.

In 2004, a presidential election year and a year when the Democratic Party national convention was held in Boston. That was the year, if you recall, that one Massachusetts U.S. Senator John Forbes Kerry was proclaimed the Democratic nominee. Senator Kerry, if you will also recall, voted with both hands and feet (or was it one hand and one foot) for President George W. Bush’s 2002 Iraq War resolution, among his other sins. Clearly a situation, in any case, for anti-war militants and others to stage a protest, a vocal one to boot, against the Democratic Party and its nominee.

2004 was also a year that, not by chance, that the U.S. Social Forum (made up of many anti-war and progressive organizations and individuals, as least that is what they allege in their written propaganda) was held in Boston at the nearby University of Massachusetts/Boston campus at the same time as the convention. A perfect lash-up for a very strong and well-attended protest (that was set, moreover, the day before the convention started, a Sunday), right?

No such luck. The vast bulk of the attendees at the Forum could not find the time to tear themselves away, for a couple of hours, from some pressing anti-war or anti-imperialist workshop in order to hit the streets. Or, and here is the real crux of the matter, were ordered not to or discouraged from attending that protest by the Forum leadership or their organizations. My group of local anti-war militant and I had political differences with the organizers of the protest (ANSWER) but when the deal when down and a simple anti-war statement had to be made the place for all militants was in front of the Democratic Party Convention Hall chanting our opposition to the Bush/Kerry (now Obama) Iraq and Afghan Wars. Simple right?

Fortunately this year’s Forum was not interrupted by the need to deal with presidential elections; although I would make a very strong case that the not very distant (from Detroit) Toronto meeting of the G-20 could have used a few thousand more protesters, if they could have torn themselves away from those lovely workshops.

*From The UJP Website- House Approves Extra Afghan War Budget

Click on the headline to link to a UJP website entry on the recent House vote to approve an Afghan War supplemental war budget. That's extra dough on top of the "regular" Afghan war budget. We won't even mention the "regular" regular war budget- the 700 billion one.


Markin comment:

"...And, speaking of world imperialism, let us keep our eyes on the prize, including the recent news that the beloved House that liberals and reformists see at the last refuge of hope and who just gave away the store on the Supplemental Afghan War budget. Here is our resp one- Obama (and friends in the Congress)- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./ Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan!

*As Obama Wades Neck Deep In The "Big Poppy"- A Cautionary Tale- Pete Seeger's ""Waist Deep In The Big Muddy"- An Encore

Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Pete Seeger performing his classic anti-war song, "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy".

Markin comment:

In a week where American President Obama has indeed entrenched himself deeper in Afghanistan (the "Big Poppy") and has gone out of his way, way out of his way, to make it his own "splendid little war" this song seems very, very appropriate.


Pete Seeger Lyrics

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy Lyrics

It was back in nineteen forty-two,
I was a member of a good platoon.
We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna,
One night by the light of the moon.
The captain told us to ford a river,
That's how it all begun.
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place.
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie,"
The Captain said to him.
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.

We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand.
I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper
Than the place he'd once before been.
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone.
We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on.

Well, I'm not going to point any moral;
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!

*From “The Rag Blog”- “Bob Feldman 68” Blog- A People’s History Of Afghanistan, Part Twelve

Click on the headline to link to a “The Rag Blog” entry from the “Bob Feldman 68” blog on the history of Afghanistan

Markin comment:

This is a great series for those who are not familiar with the critical role of Afghanistan in world politics, if not directly then as part of the history of world imperialism. Thanks, Bob Feldman.

And, speaking of world imperialism, let us keep our eyes on the prize- Obama- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./ Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan!