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Military Resistance 7L15

The Soldiers Truce: A Hidden History From The First

World War

German and British soldiers fraternize – Christmas 1914

[Thanks to Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace 50 Michigan, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree, in Perry, Michigan] “To many, the end of the war and the failure of the peace would validate the Christmas cease-fire as the only meaningful episode in the apocalypse. “It belied the bellicose slogans and suggested that the men fighting and often dying were, as usual, proxies for governments and issues that had little to do with their everyday lives. A candle lit in the darkness of Flanders, the truce flickered briefly and survives only in memoirs, letters, song, drama and story.” December 1, 2005 by John V. Denson, 2005 LewRockwell.com [Excerpts]

The Christmas Truce, which occurred primarily between the British and German soldiers along the Western Front in December 1914, is an event the official histories of the “Great War” leave out, and the Orwellian historians hide from the public. Stanley Weintraub has broken through this barrier of silence and written a moving account of this significant event by compiling letters sent home from the front, as well as diaries of the soldiers involved. His book is entitled Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce. The book contains many pictures of the actual events showing the opposing forces mixing and celebrating together that first Christmas of the war. This remarkable story begins to unfold, according to Weintraub, on the morning of December 19, 1914: “Lieutenant Geoffrey Heinekey, new to the 2ND Queen’s Westminster Rifles, wrote to his mother, ‘A most extraordinary thing happened. . . Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men . . . . It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours.” (p. 5) Weintraub reports that the French and Belgians reacted differently to the war and with more emotion than the British in the beginning. The war was occurring on their land and “The French had lived in an atmosphere of revanche since 1870, when Alsace and Lorraine were seized by the Prussians” in a war declared by the French. (p. 4). The British and German soldiers, however, saw little meaning in the war as to them, and, after all, the British King and the German Kaiser were both grandsons of Queen Victoria. Why should the Germans and British be at war, or hating each other, because a royal couple from Austria were killed by an assassin while they were visiting in Serbia? However, since August when the war started, hundreds of thousands of soldiers had been killed, wounded or missing by December 1914 (p. xvi). It is estimated that over eighty thousand young Germans had gone to England before the war to be employed in such jobs as waiters, cooks, and cab drivers and many spoke English very well. It appears that the Germans were the instigators of this move towards a truce. So much interchange had occurred across the lines by the time that Christmas Eve approached that Brigadier General G.T. Forrestier-Walker issued a directive forbidding fraternization: “For it discourages initiative in commanders, and destroys offensive spirit in all ranks . . . Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices and exchange

of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting and occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited.” (p. 6–7). Later strict orders were issued that any fraternization would result in a court-martial. Most of the seasoned German soldiers had been sent to the Russian front while the youthful and somewhat untrained Germans, who were recruited first, or quickly volunteered, were sent to the Western Front at the beginning of the war. Likewise, in England young men rushed to join in the war for the personal glory they thought they might achieve and many were afraid the war might end before they could get to the front. They had no idea this war would become one of attrition and conscription or that it would set the trend for the whole 20TH century, the bloodiest in history which became known as the War and Welfare Century. As night fell on Christmas Eve the British soldiers noticed the Germans putting up small Christmas trees along with candles at the top of their trenches and many began to shout in English “We no shoot if you no shoot.”(p. 25). The firing stopped along the many miles of the trenches and the British began to notice that the Germans were coming out of the trenches toward the British who responded by coming out to meet them. They mixed and mingled in No Man’s Land and soon began to exchange chocolates for cigars and various newspaper accounts of the war which contained the propaganda from their respective homelands. Many of the officers on each side attempted to prevent the event from occurring but the soldiers ignored the risk of a court-martial or of being shot. Some of the meetings reported in diaries were between Anglo-Saxons and German Saxons and the Germans joked that they should join together and fight the Prussians. The massive amount of fraternization, or maybe just the Christmas spirit, deterred the officers from taking action and many of them began to go out into No Man’s Land and exchange Christmas greetings with their opposing officers. Each side helped bury their dead and remove the wounded so that by Christmas morning there was a large open area about as wide as the size of two football fields separating the opposing trenches. The soldiers emerged again on Christmas morning and began singing Christmas carols, especially “Silent Night.” They recited the 23RD Psalm together and played soccer and football. Again, Christmas gifts were exchanged and meals were prepared openly and attended by the opposing forces. Weintraub quotes one soldier’s observation of the event: “Never . . . was I so keenly aware of the insanity of war.” (p. 33).

The first official British history of the war came out in 1926 which indicated that the Christmas Truce was a very insignificant matter with only a few people involved. However, Weintraub states: “During a House of Commons debate on March 31, 1930, Sir H. Kinglsey Wood, a Cabinet Minister during the next war, and a Major ‘In the front trenches’ at Christmas 1914, recalled that he ‘took part in what was well known at the time as a truce. We went over in front of the trenches and shook hands with many of our German enemies. A great number of people (now) think we did something that was degrading.’ “Refusing to presume that, he went on, ‘The fact is that we did it, and I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot fired. For a fortnight the truce went on. We were on the most friendly terms, and it was only the fact that we were being controlled by others that made it necessary for us to start trying to shoot one another again.’ “He blamed the resumption of the war on ‘the grip of the political system which was bad, and I and others who were there at the time determined there and then never to rest . . . Until we had seen whether we could change it.’ But they could not.” (p. 169–70) Two soldiers, one British and one German, both experienced the horrors of the trench warfare in the Great War and both wrote moving accounts which challenged the idea of the glory of a sacrifice of the individual to the nation in an unnecessary or unjust war. The British soldier, Wilfred Owen, wrote a famous poem before he was killed in the trenches seven days before the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. He tells of the horror of the gas warfare which killed many in the trenches and ends with the following lines: If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues – My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (The Latin phrase is translated roughly as “It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country,” a line from the Roman poet Horace used to produce patriotic zeal for ancient Roman wars.)

The German soldier was Erich M. Remarque who wrote one of the best anti-war novels of all time, entitled All Quiet On The Western Front, which was later made into an American movie that won the Academy Awards in 1929 as the “Best Movie” of the year. He also attacked the idea of the nobility of dying for your country in a war and he describes the suffering in the trenches: “We see men living with their skulls blown open; We see soldiers run with their two feet cut off; They stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell-hole; A lance corporal crawls a mile and half on his hands dragging his smashed knee after him; Another goes to the dressing station and over his clasped hands bulge his intestines; We see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces; We find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to bleed to death.” I would imagine that the Christmas Truce probably inspired the English novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy, to write a poem about World War I entitled “The Man He Killed,” which reads as follows: Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet Right many a nipperkin! But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place. I shot him dead because – Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough; although He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps, Off-hand like – just as I – Was out of work – had sold his traps – No other reason why. Yes, quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You’d treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown. Many leaders of the British Empire saw the new nationalistic Germany (since 1870–71) as a threat to their world trade, especially with Germany’s new navy. The idea that economics played a major role in bringing on the war was confirmed by President Woodrow Wilson after the war in a speech wherein he gave his assessment of the real cause of the war. He was campaigning in St. Louis, Missouri

in September of 1919 trying to get the U.S. Senate to approve the Versailles Treaty and he stated: “Why, my fellow-citizens, is there (anyone) here who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?. . . This war, in its inception, was a commercial and industrial war. It was not a political war.” Weintraub alludes to a play by William Douglas Home entitled A Christmas Truce wherein he has characters representing British and German soldiers who just finished a soccer game in No Man’s Land on Christmas day and engaged in a conversation which very well could represent the feelings of the soldiers on that day. The German lieutenant concedes the impossibility of the war ending as the soccer game had just done, with no bad consequences – “Because the Kaiser and the generals and the politicians in my country order us that we fight.” “So do ours,” agrees Andrew Wilson (the British soldier) “Then what can we do?” “The answer’s ‘nothing.’ But if we do nothing . . . . like we’re dong now, and go on doing it, there’ll be nothing they can do but send us home.” “Or shoot us.” (p. 110) The Great War killed over ten million soldiers and Weintraub states, “Following the final Armistice came an imposed peace in 1919 that created new instabilities ensuring another war,” (p. 174). This next war killed more than fifty million people, over half of which were civilians. Weintruab writes: “To many, the end of the war and the failure of the peace would validate the Christmas cease-fire as the only meaningful episode in the apocalypse. “It belied the bellicose slogans and suggested that the men fighting and often dying were, as usual, proxies for governments and issues that had little to do with their everyday lives. A candle lit in the darkness of Flanders, the truce flickered briefly and survives only in memoirs, letters, song, drama and story.” (p. xvi). He concludes his remarkable book with the following: “A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war. A very minor Scottish poet of Great War vintage, Frederick Niven, may have got it right in his ‘A Carol from Flanders,’ which closed, O ye who read this truthful rime From Flanders, kneel and say: God speed the time when every day Shall be as Christmas Day. (p. 175) MORE:

British And German Soldiers Arm-In-Arm

The Illustrated London News of January 9, 1915 [Thanks to June VI, who sent this in.]

BRITISH AND GERMAN SOLDIERS ARM-IN-ARM AND EXCHANGING HEADGEAR: A

CHRISTMAS TRUCE BETWEEN OPPOSING TRENCHES. DRAWN BY A. C. MICHAEL

SAXONS AND ANGLO-SAXONS FRATERNISING ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE AT

THE SEASON OF PEACE AND GOODWILL: OFFICERS AND MEN FROM THE GERMAN AND BRITISH TRENCHES MEET AND GREET ONE ANOTHER - A GERMAN OFFICER PHOTOGRAPHING A GROUP OF FOES AND FRIENDS.

The spirit of Christmas made itself felt in at least one section of the trenches at the front, where British and German soldiers fraternised, and for a brief while, during an informal and spontaneous truce, there was “peace on earth and goodwill towards men” among those who a few hours before had been seeking each other’s blood, and where bound to do so again after the truce was over. The part of the British lines where these incongruous scenes occurred, was, it is said, at a point where the enemy’s trenches, only about eighty yards away, were occupied by a Saxon regiment. Further along the line, where Prussian troops were said to be stationed, there was a certain amount of fighting. It was apparently towards the British left that the friendly truce was observed, while officers and men from both sides left their trenches and met in No Man’s Land between, where, as a rule, no man dares to show so much as the top of his head.

British and Germans met and shook hands, exchanged cigars and cigarettes, newspapers and addresses, and wished each other the compliments of the season, conversing as far as possible with the aid, as interpreter, of a German soldier who had lived in America. A group of British and German soldiers, arm-in-arm, some of whom had exchanged head-gear, were photographed by a German officer. The figure on the extreme left in our drawing, for instance, is a German soldier in a British service-cap, while the fourth figure from the left is a British soldier in his goat-skin coat wearing a Pickelhaube, or German helmet. Some of the British, it is said visited the German trenches and an Anglo-German football match was even played. The dead who lay in front of the trenches were buried, and a party of German brought back the body of a British officer.- [Drawing Copyrighted in United States and Canada.]

German and Russian soldiers fraternise on the Eastern Front

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Muncie Man’s Son Dies In Iraq: “This Is The Second Family Member I’ve

Lost In This Stupid War” December 17, 2009 By IVY FARGUHESON, The Star Press MUNCIE -- A man who moved to Muncie two years ago to be closer to his family has now lost his only son in the Iraq War.

Pfc. Jaiciae L. Pauley, 29, of Austell, Ga., son of Muncie residents Roger and Teressa Pauley, died Dec. 11 in Kirkuk, Iraq, as a result of a “non-combat related incident,” according to a military press release. The death is still being investigated by the U.S. Army, but for Roger Pauley, the manner of his son’s death isn’t important. “It bothers me (knowing the death is still being investigated), but whether it’s a suicide or an accidental discharge of a gun, my son is still gone,” the elder Pauley said. “He was a typical man in his 20s and he was my best friend who I could talk to about anything.” Jaiciae Pauley enlisted in the Army during the summer of 2008, after his father and stepmother moved from the Atlanta metropolitan area to Muncie. The family had begun to struggle financially, prompting the Pauleys to choose to live with family in Indiana. Roger’s mother, Floffie, and stepfather, Marshall Bias, have lived in Muncie for the past 23 years. The couple, who have been married for 53 years, welcomed their son into their new home with open arms, although they were sad that their grandson opted to stay behind in Atlanta. And although the family was supportive of Jaiciae’s decision to enlist in the Army, they were concerned about the dangers of combat, wondering whether they would see their loved one again. “I was a protective parent,” Roger said. “I personally didn’t want him to go, because I was worried about the outcome. But I was supportive.” Family members miss the man they knew as loyal and fun, a man who enjoyed having philosophical discussions and who was always there to help family and friends. Nothing will bring Jaiciae back, but memories of him will go on forever. “I was pretty hurt when I heard Jaiciae died,” said his stepgrandfather, Bias. “This is the second family member I’ve lost in this stupid war. And we’ll all miss him. I know his dad will really miss him.”

Attack On Pipeline Halts Iraq Oil Exports:

34 Mile Long Section Damaged December 20, 2009 AFP & DPA Oil exports from northern Iraq have been halted by a sabotage attack on the pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad says.

A 55 kilometre section of the pipeline was damaged [55 kilometers is equal to 34.18 miles] in the attack, causing a large oil spillage. Exports have stopped and technicians from the northern oil company (NOC) have gone to the site to survey the damage,” Jihad said on Sunday. The attack took place around 325km north of Baghdad. All of Iraq’s crude oil exports from the north flow through the pipeline to Ceyhan, which has been repeatedly targeted by bombings since the US-led invasion in 2003. Some 420,000 barrels a day normally flows through the line.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Taliban Attacks California Guard Soldiers Near Naray

December 20, 2009 By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times [Excerpts] Reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates - A California Army National Guard group was attacked Saturday by a “complex double ambush” from Taliban fighters along a treacherous mountain road in eastern Afghanistan while the unit was returning from helping farmers in isolated villages, the Army reported today. The Californians’ slow-moving six-vehicle convoy was attacked by two groups of Taliban militants firing medium machine guns and AK-47s. Most of the vehicles were hit and one was slightly disabled with a flattened tire and a bullet hole in the windshield, the Army said. The Guard soldiers, from the 40th Infantry Division, returned fire at the groups, one in a cave in the mountain, the other hiding across the Kunar River. The U.S. estimates that 15 to 20 Taliban fighters were engaged in the ambush. Spc. Kathy Tanson, the only woman among the soldiers, raked one of the ambush sites with fire from a 50-caliber machine gun mounted atop one of the U.S. vehicles. There were no reported injuries among the California group. The troops had gone to the village of Naray in Kunar province to hold an inoculation program for more than 400 cattle, goats, donkeys and sheep. To get to the site, their

convoy had to venture along a winding, boulder-strewn 60-mile road, which follows the wide, fast-moving river. The road is littered with three dozen wrecks of civilian convoys destroyed by Taliban attacks in recent months or by drivers’ inability to negotiate sharp turns. Kunar has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting between U.S. troops and the Taliban -- including one attack on an outpost that killed eight soldiers. The livestock vaccination visit occurred Thursday and the attack came Saturday as the troops were returning to their home at Forward Operating Base Wright. Tanson, 20, from Corning in Northern California, volunteered to be part of the unit because of her expertise in farming techniques and managing livestock. All 64 members of the team are volunteers.

“Only 10-15% Of Taliban Funding Is Drawn From Drugs” “The Total Revenue Generated By

Opiates Within Afghanistan Is About $3.4 Billion Per Year”

“According To UNODC, The Taliban Get Only 4% Of The Sum.

Most Drug Money “Captured By Government Officials, The Police, Local

And Regional Power Brokers” And “Enormous Amounts” Are “Swallowed

By The World Financial System, Including Western Banks”

[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. She writes “Seems to me it would be cheaper just to buy the drugs and forget about the war.”] Dec 16, 2009 By Julien Mercille, Asia Times [Excerpts]

As United States President Barack Obama and his advisors debated future troop levels for Afghanistan - which resulted in the decision to send an additional 30,000 troops - a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) muddied the water on one of the most important issues in the debate - the effects of Afghanistan’s drug production. The report, entitled “Addiction, Crime, and Insurgency: The Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium,” gives the false impression that the Taliban are the main culprits behind Afghanistan’s skyrocketing drug production. UNODC states that a decade ago the Taliban earned $85 million per year from drugs, but that since 2005 this figure has jumped to $125 million. Although this is pitched as a significant increase, the Taliban play a more minor role in the opium economy than UNODC would have us believe and drug money is probably a secondary source of funding for them. Indeed, the report estimates that only 10-15% of Taliban funding is drawn from drugs and 85% comes from “non-opium sources”. The total revenue generated by opiates within Afghanistan is about $3.4 billion per year. Of this figure, according to UNODC, the Taliban get only 4% of the sum. Farmers, meanwhile, get 21%. And the remaining 75%? Al-Qaeda? No: The report specifies that it “does not appear to have a direct role in the Afghan opiates trade,” although it may participate in “low-level drugs and/or arms smuggling” along the Pakistani border. Instead, the remaining 75% is captured by government officials, the police, local and regional power brokers and traffickers - in short, many of the groups now supported (or tolerated) by the United States and NATO are important actors in the drug trade. In fact, buried deep in the report, its authors admit that reducing drug production would have only “minimal impact on the insurgency’s strategic threat”. The Taliban receive “significant funding from private donors all over the world”, a contribution which “dwarfs” drug money. Although the report will be publicized by many as a vindication of calls to target the opium economy in order to weaken the Taliban, the authors themselves are not convinced of the validity of this argument.

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Of the $65 billion turnover of the global market for opiates, only 5-10% ($3-5 billion) is estimated to be laundered by informal banking systems. The rest is laundered through legal trade activities and the banking system. This is an important claim that points to the enormous amounts of drug money swallowed by the world financial system, including Western banks. The report says that over the last seven years (2002-2008), the transnational trade in Afghan opiates resulted in worldwide sales of $400-$500 billion (retail value). Only 5-10% of this is estimated to be laundered by informal banking systems (such as hawala). The remainder is laundered through the legal economy, and importantly, through Western banks. Yes, the Taliban surely take a cut out of the precursor trade (the chemicals needed to refine opium into products like heroin and morphine). However, Western countries and some of their allies are also involved: The report identified “Europe, China and the Russian Federation” as “major acetic anhydride sources for Afghanistan”. For instance, 220 liters of acetic anhydride were intercepted this year at Kabul airport, apparently originating from France. In recent years, chemicals have also been shipped from or via the Republic of Korea and UNODC’s 2008 Afghan Opium Survey pointed to Germany as a source of precursors. It is unclear what the total value of the Afghan trade in chemical precursors is, but from the report’s data it can be inferred that the retail value of just one precursor, acetic anhydride, was about $450 million this year. Part of that money goes back to Western chemical corporations in the form of profits.

Troops Invited: Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email to contact@militaryproject.org: Name, I.D., withheld unless you request publication. Same address to unsubscribe. Phone: 888.711.2550

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE END THE OCCUPATIONS

ENOUGH OF THIS USELESS SHIT; ALL HOME NOW

United States Marines during a patrol near Khan Nashin in the province of Helmand,

southern Afghanistan, Dec. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

United States Marines during a patrol in Khan Neshin, in Helmand province of southern

Afghanistan, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

United States Marine during an operation near Khan Neshin in Helmand province of

southern Afghanistan, Dec. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

A United States Marine tries to keep warm g during an operation in the Garmsir district of the Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Dec. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;

RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

A foreign occupation soldier from the USA searches a baby crib during a home invasion in the Garmsir district of Helmand Province December 17, 2009. REUTERS/Adrees Latif Afghani citizens have no right to resist home invasions by occupation soldiers from the USA. If they do, they may be arrested, wounded, or killed. [There’s nothing quite like invading somebody else’s country and busting into their houses by force to arouse an intense desire to kill you in the patriotic, self-respecting civilians who live there. [But your commanders know that, don’t they? Don’t they?]

“The single largest failure of the anti-war movement at this point is the lack of outreach to the troops.” Tim Goodrich, Iraq Veterans Against The War

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW OBAMA BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The casket of Spc. Joseph Lewis Nov. 28, 2009, in Terrell, Texas. Lewis died on Nov. 17 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

In Defense Of Marc Hall: “Marc Hall Is A Patriot And Those Who Stop Loss Our Soldiers Are Like Feudal

Lords Abusing Their Serfs” [This letter in defense of Marc Hall is by Sandy Kelson, Veteran and member of the Military Resistance organization. [IVAW reports: Marc Hall is a father serving on active duty at Ft. Stewart, GA. He’s already completed 1 tour of duty in Iraq and is set to deploy again in another week. Marc’s military contract ends this February, but he has been Stop-Lossed for his unit’s up-coming deployment back to Iraq. [Marc is also a hip-hop artist and recently recorded an angry song entitled “Stop Loss” as an artistic outlet for his frustrations about his situation.

[He explains on his website, “I am a political artist. I rap about real issues in life in hopes to recover a solution.” [News of the song reached Marc’s chain of command at Ft. Stewart which claims that the song’s lyrics amount to the “communication of a threat.” [The Army placed Marc in jail last Friday charging him with an Article 134. ]

******************************************* From: Sanford Kelson – Attorney at Law 8231 South Canal Road Conneaut Lake, PA 16316 December 20, 2009 Captain Jacob Cross Commander B 2-7 INF BN Fort Stewart, GA 31314 Re: Marc Hall Dear Captain Cross: Many military members are stressed out beyond what a competent, loyal and caring command would tolerate. Suicides, fratricide, spousal and other violence, divorce, alcohol and other drug abuse, antisocial behavior, desertions, exodus from the military, (especially captains like yourself), jobless and homeless veterans and post traumatic stress are some of the major symptoms of the stress so many suffer. The Department of Defense cannot get enough soldiers to volunteer for these wars. The causes/symptoms of this include the illegality and immorality of the current resource wars, stop-loss, hiring mercenaries and fighting without the necessary number of soldiers. The US government and military don’t want a draft because the public is likely to, well, like Marc Hall, become politically active and protest. In other words, it is known, and polls show it, that a significantly large number of Americans, in and out of the military, do not support these wars. If America were a healthy democracy, this would count for something and instead of continuing these wars, all based on deception just like the Vietnam War was, they would be stopped. Instead soldiers are being stopped and lost: stop-lost from the service and lost to death, horrendous injuries and the stresses set forth in the first paragraph of this letter.

The US government, including the Department of Defense, cares not for our men and women in uniform. This is evidenced by a 1973 White House conversation between Kissinger, the national security adviser, and General Al Haig, then Nixon’s chief of staff. Kissinger said military men are “dumb, stupid animals to be used” as pawns for foreign policy. General Haig did not take issue with the statement. The treatment of our troops today confirms that Kissinger’s belief is still in vogue. Marc Hall is justifiably rebelling against being considered a “dumb, stupid animal” and for that he is in jail! Shame on our leaders (read: oppressors). I served in the Army from 1963-66 and attained the rank of sergeant E-5 in an infantry unit. I was fortunate to have had some excellent leaders. I suspect my leaders, who cared less about their careers and more about their men (we had no women soldiers in our outfit), and about what was right, would, if in the military today, stand up and support their soldiers. This means they would be defiant of the green machine that is chewing up the soldiers and demand that this fratricide cease. This means that Marc Hall would not be in jail. Marc Hall exercised his freedom of speech to express his stress, frustration and plea for understanding and justice. It is a logical and patriotic cry for the military to support, instead of abusing, its soldiers. Marc Hall is a patriot and those who stop loss our soldiers are like feudal lords abusing their serfs. This is the direct result of the nation engaging in illegal, immoral and unnecessary wars. Great shame, indeed. Thank you. Very truly yours, Sanford Kelson cc: Lt. Col. Greg Sierra, Cmdr., 7th Infantry Bn. Ft. Stewart GA 31314

Marc Hall, Inmate Liberty County Jail 180 Paul Sike Drive Hinesville GA 31313

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE MILITARY?

Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the wars, inside the armed services and at home. Send email requests to address up top or write to: The Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657. Phone: 888.711.2550

National Guard Officer In Suit Over Chemical Poisoning Is Dead: Commander Said Exposure To

Carcinogen By KBR In Iraq Caused His Cancer:

“His Loyalty To His Soldiers, Even When He Passed Away, Was Still There”

[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. She writes: “Obama is going to send extra troops to AfPakIraqistan. This soldier must have been extra, too.”] December 1, 2009 By Jason Thomas, IndyStar [Excerpts] A funeral is set today for a retired Indiana National Guard commander who testified in October that exposure to a lethal carcinogen in Iraq caused his cancer. Lt. Col. James C. Gentry, 52, Williams, Ind., died of lung cancer Wednesday. His death is a poignant marker in a pending federal lawsuit; his life inspired a federal bill working its way through Congress. Gentry, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, last spring joined a federal lawsuit filed in December 2008.

It accuses Texas-based KBR and several related companies of concealing the risks faced by 136 Indiana National Guard soldiers potentially exposed to a cancer-causing agent, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The suit originally was filed on behalf of 16 Indiana soldiers but has grown to 47 plaintiffs, including the family of a soldier, David Moore, Dubois, Ind., who died of a lung disease in 2008. Most of the plaintiffs served with a Tell City unit sent to Iraq with the Indiana National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry Regiment, based in Jasper. For three months beginning in May 2003, the unit provided security for KBR employees charged with rebuilding the Qarmat Ali water-pumping plant near Basra. The lawsuit says sodium dichromate, an industrial chemical normally used to remove pipe corrosion, contained heavy doses of the toxin and had been spread around the site, possibly by fleeing loyalists of ousted President Saddam Hussein. The carcinogen, hexavalent chromium, is known to heighten the risk for cancer of the lungs and respiratory tract and is one of the most dangerous carcinogens rated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Mike Doyle, the Houston-based lead attorney on the lawsuit. Gentry, who commanded more than 600 soldiers, did not smoke. The Indiana lawsuit is one of five across the country involving several hundred soldiers potentially exposed to the carcinogen, according to Doyle. Lawsuits have been filed in Oregon, West Virginia and Pittsburgh. In all, more than 600 troops from Indiana and three other states could have been exposed, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Indiana suit claims many soldiers who served at the plant are developing rashes and other health problems. “I don’t know what kind of impact it will have on the lawsuit, but it’s a terrible loss for his family and Indiana and the soldiers who served with him,” Doyle said of Gentry’s death. The original complaint claims KBR had early indications of a chemical risk before the soldiers arrived. The last of Gentry’s two depositions in the case came in October at his Southern Indiana home, where he had hoped to live out his retirement with his wife, LouAnn. “His wife,” Thombleson added, “does not want his death to be in vain.” A few weeks after the deposition, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., spoke with Gentry on the phone. His story and that of his fellow soldiers stirred Bayh to write the Health Care for Veterans Exposed to Chemical Hazards Act of 2009, which is now with the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

The legislation would make affected soldiers eligible for medical examinations, laboratory tests, hospital care and nursing services. It also would recognize a veteran’s own report of exposure and include it in a Department of Defense registry. Passage of the legislation would be a fitting tribute to a soldier who gave all, those who knew Gentry say. “He was just a great people person and cared about his soldiers,” Thombleson said. “His loyalty to his soldiers, even when he passed away, was still there.”

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

POLITICIANS CAN’T BE COUNTED ON TO HALT THE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE

WARS

CLASS WAR REPORTS

“Big Banks Are Pulling Out All The Stops To Squeeze Families And

Boost Revenues” “If Those Practices Crush Millions

More Families, Who Cares -- So Long As The Profits Stay High And The

Bonuses Keep Coming” “Pundits Talk About ‘Populist Rage’ As

A Way To Trivialize The Anger” December 3, 2009 Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the banking bailouts, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. [Excerpts]

Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street. Families today spend less than they did a generation ago on food, clothing, furniture, appliances, and other flexible purchases -- but it hasn’t been enough to save them. Today’s families have spent all their income, have spent all their savings, and have gone into debt to pay for college, to cover serious medical problems, and just to stay afloat a little while longer. The contrast with the big banks could not be sharper. Consumer banking -- selling debt to middle class families -- has been a gold mine. Boring banking has given way to creative banking, and the industry has generated tens of billions of dollars annually in fees made possible by deceptive and dangerous terms buried in the fine print of opaque, incomprehensible, and largely unregulated contracts. And when various forms of this creative banking triggered economic crisis, the banks went to Washington for a handout. All the while, top executives kept their jobs and retained their bonuses. Pundits talk about “populist rage” as a way to trivialize the anger and fear coursing through the middle class. But they have it wrong. Families understand with crystalline clarity that the rules they have played by are not the same rules that govern Wall Street. They understand that no American family is “too big to fail.” They recognize that business models have shifted and that big banks are pulling out all the stops to squeeze families and boost revenues. And if those practices crush millions more families, who cares -- so long as the profits stay high and the bonuses keep coming. America today has plenty of rich and super-rich. But it has far more families who did all the right things, but who still have no real security. Going to college and finding a good job no longer guarantee economic safety. Paying for a child’s education and setting aside enough for a decent retirement have become distant dreams.

Tens of millions of once-secure middle class families now live paycheck to paycheck, watching as their debts pile up and worrying about whether a pink slip or a bad diagnosis will send them hurtling over an economic cliff.

“Revolution Now” Leading Financial Service Warns Of Year

Of “Social Unrest In A Range Of Countries From The Developing To The

Developed World”

The slogan reading in Greek ‘Revolution Now’ is spray-painted onto the wall in central Athens, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009. Athens is facing its worst debt crisis in decades. (AP Photo/ Petros Giannakouris) [Thanks to Linda O, who sent this in.] Greece, where the government has committed to drastic cuts in public expenditure, has suffered a series of riots over the past year which are thought to have been fuelled by economic pressures. 15 Dec 2009 By Edmund Conway, Telegraph Media Group Limited [Excerpts] Britain and other countries with fast-rising government debts must steel themselves for a year in which “social and political cohesiveness” is tested, Moody’s warned. In a sombre report on the outlook for next year, the credit rating agency raised the prospect that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger social unrest in a range of countries from the developing to the developed world.

It said that in the coming years, evidence of social unrest and public tension may become just as important signs of whether a country will be able to adapt as traditional economic metrics. Signalling that a fiscal crisis remains a possibility for a leading economy, it said that 2010 would be a “tumultuous year for sovereign debt issuers”. Strikingly, however, it added that even if countries reached agreement on the depth of the cuts necessary to their budgets, they could face difficulties in carrying out the cuts. The report, which comes amid growing worries about Britain’s credit rating, said: “In those countries whose debt has increased significantly, and especially those whose debt has become unaffordable, the need to rein in deficits will test social cohesiveness. The test will be starker as growth disappoints and interest rates rise.” It said the main obstacle for fiscal consolidation plans would be signs not necessarily of economic strength but of “political and social tension”. Greece, where the government has committed to drastic cuts in public expenditure, has suffered a series of riots over the past year which are thought to have been fuelled by economic pressures.

Statuette Used To Hit Prime Minister Berlusconi Does Brisk Trade

A statuette of Milan’s Duomo gothic cathedral, similar to the one which hit Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in downtown Milan, December 14, 2009. REUTERS: Alessandro Garofalo [Thanks to Pham Binh, Military Resistance & Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. He writes: “He must really be hated there. He got off lucky - look at what they did to Mussolini...”] Dec 15 MILAN (Reuters) Souvenir vendors reported brisk business on Tuesday in statuettes of Milan’s cathedral like the one hurled at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in an attack at the weekend.

“Sales have definitely gone up,” stall owner Mario said in the cathedral square where the attack took place on Sunday. “People are definitely buying it as a souvenir of the event, it seems to be one of the most popular Christmas gifts.” A spiky replica of the gothic Duomo was used by an Italian man with a history of mental illness to strike 73-year-old Berlusconi in the face, breaking his nose, two of his teeth and gashing his lip. “I had to get a souvenir, it will be a Christmas gift,” said Brazilian tourist Manuel Magalhaes. The souvenirs come in different materials, with the heavier marble model costing about 10 euros and the lighter resin model 5-6 euros. It was not clear which one was used by Berlusconi’s assailant, 42-year-old Massimo Tartaglia. “People keep passing by and picking it up to see how heavy it is, to see if the weight of the object could really have caused all that physical damage to Berlusconi,” said Mantuzzi.

Fascist dictator Mussolini killed by Italian citizens, May 1945.

[stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2009/03/]

RECEIVED

“People Like You Will Never Know What It’s Like To Serve A Higher Purpose Than

Yourself” From: Lytle Cpl Richard F To: Military Resistance Sent: December 04, 2009 Subject: Iraq war pic I’m marine on active duty serving in the infantry. I deployed to Iraq from 07-08, and witness a nation held down by fear and pain blossom into a nation of freedom with a new valve for human rights. Millions of men, women, and children will live much better lives due to the hard working men and women of our armed services. People like you will never know what it’s like to serve a higher purpose than yourself. All I ask is walk a mile in someone’s shoe before you form an opinion. Respectfully, Cpl Rick Lytle USMC REPLY: For some people who know:

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION ALL TROOPS HOME NOW!

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