THE TRUTH FROM OUR OWN SOLDIERS ABOUT IRAQ:
Letters and audio from soldiers speaking out
11/28/05
Published by Jay Shaft- Coalition For Free Thought In Media
A few months ago I put out a request for letters from soldiers being redeployed to Iraq for a second or third tour. I received about ten letters so far and will be publishing them over the next several weeks.
I am publishing the first three letters today and also including some audio files from interviews of Iraq vets who have PTSD or are having problems getting health care or benefits from the VA.
I am in the middle of a series of articles about OIF/OEF vets who are suffering from PTSD or have had traumatic injuries or ongoing problems with getting treatment or having claims denied or delayed. The response on that has been absolutely overwhelming.
I expect to be able to release over 20 full length interviews, and about 30 letters and stories from soldiers who are going through hell after coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan.
I felt that now was the time to put this out after watching Meet The Press and the Sunday news shows with all the opinions about withdrawal and slurs of treason and supporting terrorists by questioning our mission in Iraq.
I have included two audio files of the PTSD/Traumatic Injury interviews.
The first audio file is the third part of a very long interview with Specialist Douglas Barber who served with the 1485th Transportation Company, Ohio National Guard.
The full length interview with Specialist Barber will be released tomorrow on hundreds of web sites around the world.
The other audio is a short interview I did with Staff Sgt. Raymond Ramos of the 442nd MP Company, NY National Guard. It is mainly about the budget cuts and failure to fund the VA programs for returning vets and vets of previous wars. He also goes into some of his beliefs about the current state of affairs in regards to Iraq and those who call the outspoken US troops and veterans things like traitors and cowards.
Staff Sgt. Ramos also has some critical comments on Bush's words about support for the troops. Staff Sgt. Ramos is not suffering from PTSD or related problems of that nature. He is suffering from long term health care issues from exposure to Depleted Uranium. He is having difficulty getting treatment from the VA and they are billing his insurance for medically necessary services they are supposed to provide for free.
LETS JUST LISTEN TO THE SOLDIERS WHO ARE THE REAL EXPERTS HERE!
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PT 3: INTERVIEW WITH SPC. DOUGLAS BARBER- OIF VET WITH PTSD:
IN THIS PART HE SLAMS SEAN HANNITY AND THE KNEE JERK REACTIONARY PUNDITS, TALKS ABOUT HIS REASONS FOR SPEAKING OUT AND WHY HE IS NOT A TRAITOR OR COMMITTING TREASON, AND HOW HE IS AN EXPERT ON IRAQ AND THE PUNDITS ARE NOT
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/sFOLQ0TNwPBhEiBdMOs-2kVVclr_443Lcs-W522N...
AUDIO OF INTERVIEW WITH SSGT. RAYMOND RAMOS: OPINIONS ON VA CUTS, FAILURE TO TAKE CARE OF THE RETURNING TROOPS, AND HIS IRAQ WAR VIEWS AND ISSUES OF CONTINUING THE MISSION IN IRAQ
http://f4.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/sFOLQ4HIkqdhEiBdOD36iMJmPng8GXC8G2Thww2Y...
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Letters from a Three US soldiers that were redeploying for another tour of combat duty in Iraq:
I AM GOING ON RECORD AND SAYING RIGHT NOW THAT THESE OFF RECORD LETTERS HAVE BEEN SEEN BY Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against War, Operation Truth, AND NUMEROUS VETS AND OTHERS WHO CAN VERIFY THEM. I SENT A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL LETTERS TO THESE GROUPS AND TO SEVERAL VETS WHO I KNOW WILL CALL IT LIKE IT IS.
I HAVE HAD A LOT OF SH*T IN THE PAST ABOUT HOW I FABRICATED LETTERS AND INTERVIEWS. THAT IS UTTER B.S. AND WRONG ON ANYONE'S PART WHO TRIES TO DISCREDIT THE TRUTH AS THE TROOPS ARE SPEAKING ABOUT IT.
CERTAIN PERSONAL DETAILS HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INDENTITY OF THE SOLDIERS WHO WROTE THE LETTERS. THEY WERE THE ONES THAT HELPED ME TO MAKE SURE IT WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO BE TRACKED BACK TO THEM AND CHANGED ALL THE DETAILS BEFORE PUBLICATION.
I can and will back up anything I put out, unless it puts a soldier in danger, or hurts his career or family members. I have done everything in my power to make sure that these letters came from real troops who are redeploying.
Any letter I have doubts about will not be published, or will be verified by vets who were in Iraq.
I felt that now was the time to put this out after watching Meet The Press and the Sunday news shows with all the opinions about withdrawal and slurs of treason and supporting terrorists by questioning our mission in Iraq.
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Letter #1 from Captain Courage:
http://groups.google.com/group/Coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/browse_...
Dear Jay Shaft and Coalition For Free Thought In Media,
I received your request to interview or get letters from the troops who are redeploying for a second combat tour in Iraq. I am happy to talk to you, as long as you can keep me off record and protect me from having my name discovered by the Army and DOD. I cannot afford to get caught doing this because they will take my rank and service time and shit all over them.
I am an officer with an MP unit and have almost twenty years in service. I am almost ready to retire, but the Army felt it necessary to the mission in Iraq to send me over for at least a year, even though my enlistment is technically done after the beginning of next year.
I am redeploying for my second tour in Iraq and my fourth overseas assignment in the past four years. I have been home with my family a total of eleven months in that time, and it looks like I will spend less than a year with them out of a five-year period.
The Pentagon claims that we have plenty of troops to meet our obligations around the world, but they are redeploying as many as 100,000 more troops to Iraq by the end of 2006. Right now over 30,000 have been redeployed, and that's just over the last few months. In the beginning of this year there were about 20-30,000 that had to redeploy, I don't know exact numbers, but it was a lot.
They claim that they are meeting their recruiting demands and keeping enough soldiers in service to respond to any mission profile or duty response that is needed. They claim that our time frame in Iraq is only temporary, until the elections are over. Yeah, well we have already stayed through two elections and several attempts to draft a constitution. How many more times will we have to send thousands of troops over to secure democracy yet another time? Is it ever going to be secured? We will ever be allowed to leave Iraq?
This is the same Pentagon that says the Army and other branches are at their optimum size and they have been insisting all along it had plenty of troops to do the job, and to finish the job?
Does it look like we have enough troops that they can use without redeploying the same units that have taken mass casualties and had their strength depleted through bloody and life changing injuries? No, they are sending us back to the same meat grinder that me and my fellow brothers and sisters in arms were lucky to return home from.
Some of us made the ultimate sacrifice by dying for our country in military service, and others have had their lives forever changed by injuries and suffering from PTSD and combat stress. We will never be the same again, even if we won't even admit it to ourselves. We have come home only to face the imminent prospect of going back and dying for our country and their misguided policies and drive for oil and profits.
How do you tell a soldier he has to go back and put his life on the line again? How do you ask him to possibly give up his legs or arms or get permanent brain damage or other life damaging injuries? How can you be the one to ask a man or woman that, especially if they have children?
Maybe we should make an individual who supports the war without question be the one to notify the soldier he has to redeploy. Then if that soldier dies or gets hurt that same person would be responsible to go and notify the family that their soldier is dead or maimed for life.
Maybe that would change the minds of some of the people who do not know or care of the costs the troops pay every day they are being kept in Iraq. I am not saying that they shouldn't Support The Troops; you should do that no matter what your views on the war.
Regardless of a soldier's take on the politics and opinions of this war and its cost, each soldier will carry this experience in his or her heart and mind forever. You can never get the sight out of your mind's eye of the wounded and bleeding U.S. soldiers, and the ones who died right there in front of you or came back to the FOB in a bag.
The deaths of soldiers and civilians, and what is happening now in Iraq with the raids on the insurgent strongholds are not a reality TV show. It costs us lives, and and will be continuing to cost a lot of lives on both sides. How much more can they expect us to endure?
Enduring Freedom is an ironic name for continuing operations in the war on terror. It should be Operation Enduring Deaths and Injuries, because the death toll and number of injuries is growing like a cancerous tumor on our lives.
We should make sure that the rich kids and the wealthy young Turks
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