When a NATO troop is killed by an Afghan in uniform, that death is reported. But The Associated Press has learned from a U.S. official granted anonymity in order to give a fuller picture of the “insider” problem, that when an Afghan in uniform wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target, the attack is not reported. Nor are the number of troops wounded who were attacked alongside those who were killed reported.

In recent weeks a soldier in the Afghan National Army (“ANA”) opened fire on a group of American soldiers but missed the group entirely. The Americans quickly shot him to death. Not a word about this was reported by the International Security Assistance Force (“ISAF”).

ISAF also said nothing about an April attack in which two Afghan policemen in Kandahar province fired on U.S. soldiers, wounding two. Reporters learned of it from Afghan officials and from U.S. officials in Washington. The two Afghan policemen were shot to death by the Americans present.

The April attack that killed U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, Staff Sgt. Andrew T. Brittonmihalo, 25, of Simi Valley, Calif., also wounded three other American soldiers. The death was reported by ISAF as an insider attack, but it made no mention of the wounded — or that an Afghan civilian also was killed.

The attacker was an Afghan Special Forces soldier who opened fire with a machine gun at a base in Kandahar province. He was killed by return fire. That attack apparently was the first by a member of the Afghan Special Forces, who are more closely vetted than conventional Afghan forces, and are often described by American officials as the most effective and reliable in the Afghan military.

Coalition officials do not dispute that such non-fatal attacks happen, but they have not provided a full accounting.

Jamie Graybeal, an ISAF spokesman in Kabul, disclosed that in most of the fatal attacks a number of other NATO troops were wounded. By policy, the fact that the attacks resulted in wounded as well as a fatality is not reported because the coalition does not have consent from all coalition governments to do so. “All releases must be consistent with the national policies of troop contributing nations.”

 Graybeal said a new review of this year’s data showed that the 10 fatal attacks this year resulted in the deaths of 19 ISAF service members. Most of those killed this year have been Americans but France, Britain and other coalition member countries also have suffered fatalities.

Graybeal said each attack in 2012 and 2011 was “an isolated incident and has its own underlying circumstances and motives.” Last May, however, an unclassified internal ISAF study, called “A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility,” concluded, “Such fratricide-murder incidents are no longer isolated; they reflect a growing systemic threat.” It said many attacks stemmed from Afghan grievances related to cultural and other conflicts with U.S. troops.

Until now there has been little public notice of non-fatal insider attacks, even though they would appear to reflect the same deadly intent as that of Afghans who succeed in killing their foreign partners.

The insider threat has existed for years but has grown more deadly. The U.S. and its military partners are working more closely with Afghan troops in preparation for handing off security responsibility to them by the end of 2014. Training ANA troops will be a major emphasis of U.S. military personnel in the next 12 years. It is likely that many more of our troops will be killed or wounded by Afghans in uniform.

[see http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/04/ap-isaf-under-reporting-attacks-afghan-allies-043012/ for full story]

by: Anna Berlinrut, Mid-Atlantic MFSO Board Representative

Nine days after Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly massacred 17 unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, including young children, a top-level Pentagon health official ordered an emergency review of the military’s use of mefloquine an anti-malaria drug, commonly known under the trade name of Lariam (made by Hoffman-LaRoche).

The normal dosage of Lariam is one pill before going into an area known to have malaria-infected mosquitoes and one pill each week the patient is in that area. Normally, tourists take only a couple of Lariam pills during a vacation. But our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan take many more pills — the average deployment for Marines is seven months and the average Army deployment is twelve months. Many troops have been deployed over five times in the war zones in more than a decade of war.

Scientific journals reported dangers associated with Lariam to tourists as early as the 1980s. A study in the British Medical Journal (August 31, 1996) found a significant excess of adverse neuropsychiatric events of intermediate degrees of severity associated with the use of mefloquine compared with alternative drugs.

A 2006 study conducted at Walter Reed Medical Center found that rats given a single dose suffered impairment of motor function and degeneration of brain stem nuclei, as well as activity that suggested sleep disorders. The data also suggested the drug could lead to permanent damage to the central nervous system.

The FDA’s website reports: Mefloquine may cause psychiatric symptoms in a number of patients, ranging from anxiety, paranoia, and depression to hallucinations and psychotic behavior. Rare cases of suicidal ideation and suicide have been reported.

“Lariam Action” support groups have been formed in the U.K., the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland by victims of side-effects of this drug. The Roche (Australia) product information website lists side-effects including panic attacks,“epileptic type” seizures, headaches, visual and auditory hallucinations, aggression and thoughts of suicide which have been reported to continue long after Lariam has been stopped.

A recently released report by the U.S. Army entitled “Generating Health and Discipline in the Force” describes a fighting force more prone to inexcusable violence and an “epidemic” of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”). An average of 18 veterans commit suicide every day. Military analysts credit more than a decade of war with repeated deployments as a cause. The report notes that the average infantryman in World War II in the South Pacific experienced a total of 40 days of combat during the entire war. Our troops are in constant danger from IEDs and snipers in a very different type of war. But could Lariam also be a cause of personality changes?

The Army nearly stopped using mefloquine in 2009 because of its dangers and the fact that it should not be given to anyone with symptoms of a brain injury, depression or anxiety disorder, which describes many troops who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The Army’s new choice for anti-malarial protection is doxycycline, a generic antibiotic. The Air Force is no longer giving it to Air Force pilots.

Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a former Army psychiatrist wrote in the Time magazine “Battleland” blog, “One obvious question to consider is whether he [Bales] was on mefloquine .” “This mediation has been increasingly associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, including depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation.”

The Army has refused to say whether Staff Sgt. Bales was taking mefloquine, citing medical privacy issues, but they did leak that Bales had at least one traumatic brain injury and that he was using alcohol the night before the massacre. The Army apparently picks and chooses what information it considers to be a privacy concern.

Knowing the side-effects of mefloquine, should it ever be given to our troops?

*Click here for a downloadable pamphlet of this fact sheet*

No one is paying attention to this war – not even Congress – very few are asking questions – but everyone needs to care about what is happening in Afghanistan.

Lobbyists continually pressure Congress to keep war going, war is a lucrative business

According to a Pew Research Center Poll last summer, 59% of Americans want an Immediate Withdrawal from Afghanistan

If we want the war to end we must pressure our President and Congress. Call, write, email, or visit your local congressional offices. Click here to find your Senators and Representatives contact information.

• The Human Costs of War – Afghanistan – as of March 1, 2012: 1,909 U.S. service members dead and over 15,000 injured (Injuries do not include Post Traumatic Stress or Traumatic Brain Injury)

• Afghanistan is the 2^nd most corrupt country in the world behind North Korea and Somalia which are tied for first place (Transparency International).Why should any more Americans die or be injured in support of the Karzai government? The Karzai government’s corruption actually pushes Afghans to the insurgency.
• We have spent (actually borrowed) $440 billion on Afghanistan alone and will spend another $113 million in 2012.
• The cost of keeping one American service member in Afghanistan costs between $850,000 and $1.4 million a year, depending on who you ask. (CNN, L. Shaughnessy)
• More U.S. Troops Killed by Afghans They Armed and Trained In 2012 (March 4, 2012 by Alex Newman)
  • at least 1 out of 4 coalition troops slain in Afghanistan this year (as of March 4, 2012) was killed by Afghan security forces.
  • Pentagon data cited by the Associated Press show that, since 2007, more than 75 coalition personnel have been killed by Afghan security forces and over 110 have been wounded.
  • A recent Washington Post analysis revealed that the numbers are likely greater than NATO has been willing to admit.
• After $52 billion spent training and equipping the Afghan National Security forces, Pentagon officials estimate that 1% of Afghan units can operate without NATO assistance. (Afghanistan Study Group)
• Afghan Police and Afghan Army members, trained by the U.S., continue to desert in droves
• The SURGE has not worked. As we escalated the war, the insurgency fought harder and got more recruits to fight against us – Afghans consider us foreign occupiers in their homeland. (Information below from interviews with Matthew Hoh and Lt Col Davis)
  • In 2011 there was a 10% increase in IED attacks from the previous high in 2010
  • In 2011 there were 16,000 IED attacks against our troops – 45x a day – a record
  • We have not stopped the insurgency’s momentum if they can carry out 16,000 IED attacks in one year
  • 24 months BEFORE surge – 3,400 Americans killed and wounded (472 killed – the rest wounded)
  • 24 months AFTER surge – 11,000 Americans killed and wounded (917 killed – the rest wounded)
  • Over, 5,500 Americans killed and wounded in 2011 (418 killed – the rest wounded)
  • A ratio of about 1 dead to every 10 wounded – in past wars the ratio was 1 dead to every 3 wounded
• Al-Qaeda is gone and Osama Bin Laden is dead, our presence in Afghanistan is counterproductive. It hurts our national security by creating more enemies and hurts our economy.
• A recent report by U.N. Mission in Afghanistan states that 2011 was the 5^th straight year in which Afghan civilian casualties rose. We are not winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, so obvious in the current rioting over the burning of the Koran.
• Leaked Kabul reports state that the Taliban feel they are winning putting the U.S. in a much more difficult negotiating position
• Our military gains mean very little when up against a corrupt Karzai government and an inept Afghan police and Afghan Army – How Do We Justify Continued Sacrifice for an Unsustainable Result?
• “Our military men and women have succeeded in everything we’ve asked of them. It’s our political leaders – from both parties – who have failed us. It’s Time to Declare Victory in Afghanistan and Come Home – Before we have to Shoot our Way Out, .” KT McFarland, Feb 29, 2012
• Congress has lost sight of their responsibility to learn the truth about war, instead simply deferring to whatever the military generals recommend. Congress has not asked the hard questions getting to the truth about war, demanding that the military backup its recommendations with solid, detailed military evidence.
  • “Both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have exhibited little or no interest in probing behind the official claims of success in Afghanistan. That passive role reflects what many political observers, including some members of Congress, see as cozy relationships among most committee members, military leaders, Pentagon officials and major military contractors.” (quote from Gareth Porter article Army Officer’s Leaked Report Rips Afghan War Success Story – http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106726

• More time, money, and resources will not change the realities in Afghanistan – end combat operations now – work toward a diplomatic political solution for Afghanistan and the region – continue humanitarian aid to independent agencies (not attached to the military) working to assist the Afghan people.

Lt. Col. Davis

• Lt. Col. Davis – a highly respected, active duty Army officer, wrote a scathing report about the actual state of affairs in Afghanistan after his recent return from Afghanistan, his 2^nd tour of duty there.
• Davis was a staff officer of the “Rapid Equipping Force” traveling more than 9,000 miles to every area where U.S. troop presence was significant and had conversations with more than 250 U.S. soldiers from privates to division commanders.

• The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn’t Want you to Read – Rolling Stones, Feb 10, 2012 – http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-afghanistan-report-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-read-20120210

• Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort – The Unclassified Report by Lt. Col Davis – Draft Jan 27 2012 http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/RS_REPORT.pdf

Lt Col. Davis’ remarks:

“Senior ranking U.S. military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the U.S. Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan.”

On Afghan army and police:

”What I saw first-hand, in virtually every circumstance,” “was a barely functioning organization – often cooperating with the insurgent enemy…”

• The inaccurate assigning of the reason for the 2007 Iraq surge’s success has profound implications for our current war in Afghanistan and doubly so for the surge forces ordered by the President in late 2009.
• Had the President known the truth of what really happened in 2007 Iraq it is a virtual certainty he would not have made the decision he did in November / December 2009.
• The turning point in the Iraq War was in 2007 when the heart of the Sunni insurgency turned against Al-Qaeda and joined US forces against them, dramatically reducing the violence in Iraq almost overnight
• We did not win Sunnis to our side with COIN (protecting the population) and the surge in troops (only played a supporting role)
• In 2007 the Sunnis were fighting the U.S. – they wanted us out of their country. The Sunnis only turned to the Americans when Al-Qaeda instituted a campaign of absolute terror against the Sunnis. The Sunnis sided with Americans to stop Al-Qaeda’s slaughter of Sunnis.
• “had Al-Qaeda not turned to such brutality and begin slaughtering what ought to have been their natural Sunni allies, they would have almost certainly never come to the American’s side.”
• The National Intelligence Estimate (signed by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies) backs up Lt. Col Davis’ claims – THE NIE finds the war in Afghanistan a “stalemate”.
• Reps. McGovern, Jones and others are calling for the release of an unclassified NIE report
• Our leaders and the American people need the truth and all the facts about Afghanistan to make informed decisions about the war.

Our troops and all Americans deserve the truth.

Lt. COL. DAVIS RECOMMENDS:

• U.S. Congress – the House and Senate Armed Services Committees – “should conduct a bi-partisan investigation into the various charges of deception or dishonesty in this report and hold broad hearings as well,” “These hearings need to include the very senior generals and former generals whom I refer to in this report so they can be given every chance to publicly give their version of events.”
• “In other words, put the generals under oath, and then see what story they tell.” (quote from Rolling Stones article author, Michael Hastings)
• Testimony should include not only senior military officials but platoon leaders, sergeants, as well as mid- and senior- level intelligence analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies.

TAKE ACTION: IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SPEAK UP FOR OUR BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM

Visit, call, write, or email the President and your Congressional representatives today. Tell them to end combat operations in Afghanistan now and work on a diplomatic political solution for Afghanistan and the region.

How often in our lives have we heard the phrase ‘sick and tired’ either from the mouth of our mothers or from our own mouths for our children? I remember a comedy routine by Bill Cosby when he was referencing his childhood and his mother was scolding him with the beginning of the phrase ‘sick’ and he finished the ‘and tired’ and said he doesn’t remember anything after that. It is a phrase uttered by mothers when they are just at the end of the line and fed up with whatever situation is going on with the family.

I am a mother of a soldier now veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I’m not a politician, lawmaker, general or leader of a country. I do not make the decisions to send soldiers off to war but I do see first hand the destruction that war produces – not only on the body but on the spirit of the soldier as well as the family and those who love them. And yes, I’m sick and tired of wars in our world. As with so many mothers it isn’t the labor of pain that is unbearable, it is watching one’s child in pain – whether physical, mental or spiritual that is the most unbearable pain of all. I can look at my son see gaping wounds in his soul that need to heal for they are festering wounds of the horror the war left behind. I know my son doesn’t see the wounds that his family sees. He believes if he just gets his life back in order everything will be okay as before his multiple deployments.

PTSD falls heavy upon the soldiers but it also falls upon the family and friends of the soldier. My son is a veteran of two terms of deployment in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He was sent to Iraq at the beginning of the war, remaining 12 months; came home for six months, went back for 12 more months, returned home for a year and then was sent to Afghanistan for 15 months. He is now out of the military at his choosing because his young family fell apart while he was at war on his third deployment and his children needed him home. It was a painful decision because he loved being a soldier and the military life. He is the type of soldier the military needs but the destruction that he could not stop, the protection he could not provide was happening to his young family and he made the decision to leave in order to be more for his children.

For so many years I spoke out against the abuse of our soldiers by our government for treating them as robots and androids as though their lives and their families’ lives are expendable. A few years back I had the privilege to sit down with six other military families members to speak to Ohio Senator George Voinovich. I brought the picture of my son and his family and showed him that my son is not a robot or an android but a human being putting his life on the line for our country. I wanted justification for the multiple deployments that ignore the needs of the humanity of the soldier. I also had the privilege of being included in a conference call with Ohio Senator Sharrod Brown in which I asked him when all our soldiers are finally home from these wars and later into their lives when all the horror they experienced comes vomiting out of them – who will be there to help clean it up and to help them heal.

There are two losses from such wars – the physical loss of life and the loss of a part of one’s soul/spirit. The men and women from these two wars have experienced over and over again and again one deployment after another without having a chance to heal from the last deployment. It didn’t help that a representative from Ohio commented that the lives our young men and women was a small price to pay for this war. It doesn’t help that the military and society has this hang-up about seeking mental help – viewed as a weakness more than a definitive need. And it certainly didn’t help when the country was told to look away and ‘pretend’ there is no war and to go about our lives as though everything is just fine, while a certain segment of our society – the military suffered in so many ways.

Those of us in military families who have spoken out against the war are met with ugliness and destructive comments from our fellow citizens among which we are called unpatriotic and un-American. I’ve had friends tell me to stop speaking out because it would ‘hurt my son’s career!’ Really? He’s been thrown into the fires of hell with several deployments for a war that was a lie and I’m hurting his career? Of course none of them had a loved one in the military so I ignored their ‘concern.’ I had other friends tell me that, hey, this war isn’t as bad as Vietnam – there haven’t been that many deaths! I sat and wondered – well tell that to the mother and dad, or the wife and children of the soldier who just died or to the young mother of the warring country holding her dead toddler in her arms and tell them that this isn’t as bad as Vietnam.

As a mother I want to just explode and say to others who seek war, who seek to destroy our world that “I’m Sick and Tired!” Somewhere leaders and fanatic religious within our world have decided that children – our children are needed to fight ‘their wars – their beliefs.’ As mothers of the world, who are we allowing to take our babies we now nurse and turn them into killing machines? As mothers of the world, who are we allowing to convince our children that suicide is a good thing to promote fanatic beliefs? As mothers of the world who are we allowing to use our children as robots while ignoring the humanity our child?

Have we learned nothing from our past histories that violence and killing only causes more violence and more killings? Holy prophets of all the great religions have been sent to give the message of peace and love. Why do powerful leaders and religious fanatics seem to always turn a deaf ear to such messages and why do they seem to have such a fear of these messages? Even in what they call justified wars it often leads to more wars and more killings of the innocents.

As a mother, I want to take these leaders who want war and killings and put them into a room and sit them down. They will be forced to come to a conclusion or never leave the room. Basically a permanent time-out until matters are resolved. However if they insist that fighting is the only answer then they are to strip and be naked of clothing and weapons, along with no food or water; just four walls and a concrete floor. The room could be freezing cold or horrifically hot. There will be no bodyguards, no one protecting them. It’s not about making things nice for them it is about facing their decision and not using others to make it happen. War is ugly and if they choose to fight then so be it – but no longer on their terms of using others. They will have to face each other because mothers around the world have decided that our children are not going to be used by such people for their agenda of violence.

No I’m not a politician, lawmaker, general or leader of a country. I’m also not naiveté of the powers of evil within our world or the need for military presence. I’m an American citizen and a mother of a veteran who has had enough. There is a March for Life happening every year in our nation’s capital with the focus on the life of the unborn. I believe that if people take the time to march for the child within the womb, then they must not stop “marching for life” once the child is born.

I’m a mother who is just sick and tired of the fact that we fail to learn these many years the destruction that war does to a person, to a family, and to a nation and ultimately the world. It must never be a knee-jerk reaction but the very last resort and then think again. I’m a mother who is so sick and tired of those who feed into violence as the only solution to a challenging situation. It is time for mothers to state; ‘not with my child and mean it.’

By Susan Handle Terbay

On December 19, the day chosen by the Obama administration as the official end of the Iraq War, Brian Arredondo took his own life.  His older brother, Alex, who “always wanted to be a Marine” was killed during his second combat tour, in Najaf, Iraq, on August 25, 2004, the day of his father’s 44th birthday.

Alex and Brian’s parents, Carlos and Melida Arredondo, have been longtime active members of Gold Star Families Speak Out.

To contribute to a fund to defray expenses of Brian’s funeral:
Brian Arredondo Memorial Fund
C/O Cooperative Bank
40 Belgrade Ave
Roslindale,MA 02131

To send a card or letter to Melida and Carlos:
11 Seymour St
Roslindale MA 02131

President Obama has declared November 2011 the first ever Military Family Appreciation Month.

What can MFSO do for Military Family Appreciation Month?

Please submit ideas in the comments, or email samantha@mfso.org

The nightmare continues…

From Pat Alviso and Jeff Merrick, Long Beach Ca. Parents of Marine who has been deployed 4 times

As a loving family, along with our son, who is a career Marine, we watched in horror when we invaded Afghanistan and the drumbeat for war lead into the senseless invasion and occupation of Iraq. Military families have paid dearly- over 4,000 of our loved ones are gone forever. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis dead. And it took all this time to finally get out of a war that should never have happened in the first place? People like us who are fighting for justice and against the misuse of our military are telling me they will believe it when they see it.

In our home, we take heart in the fact that our president has announced we will finally be out in December, even though this was a result of not being able to cut a deal with the Iraqi’s regarding troop accountability and that this was President Bush’s signed Status of Forces’ Agreement, not anything President Obama decided. Our son has been deployed twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan. He is scheduled to be re-deployed again in January. For us- and so many others- the nightmare continues.

The War Has Come to an End – for Whom?

From Susan Handle Terbay

Over 30 years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.  I loved him from the moment I felt his movement inside my body and that love has never wavered.  I nurtured him, taught him right from wrong.  My life centered around him and his siblings.

That son went to war and returned a different son and I grieve.  The military taught him how to take a life but not how to live a life after fighting in a war.  The military taught him to disassociate his feelings – to become void of any feelings during a war but did not tell him how to allow feelings of love and joy to return.

The war I protested, the war that provided nothing to the world except destruction of humans from our soldiers to the innocents of the invaded country, has invaded the sanctity of my family and it never goes away.  No one outside the family realizes the depth of wounds within our hearts as we watch my son’s struggles to heal and be normal in a society that praises him in one moment and completely ignores and abandons him in the next.  We are his life-line and yet we are his enemy.  It is a reality of  so many military families of soldiers with PTSD.  While my son suffers from PTSD – so too, do we as his family.

When the President stated that our soldiers were coming home from Iraq by the end of the year, I hesitantly smiled, waiting for the other shoe to drop and the conditions to be laid out.  If it is true then what will our sons and daughters be coming home to in our country?  Praise, of course; heroes, of course and then when all the glitter is gone what is left but a soldier and his/her family struggling to heal the wounds that forever bleed and to find laughter again when overwhelming sadness prevails deep within a soul.  Society has a short memory and will turn on these young men and women if they fail to live up to our high standards of living.  We used them and now we are done with them attitude has to end in this country and it is time we start to respect life of all humans.

The war is coming to an end but is it really?

When will we ever learn? Now is the time.  Now let’s bring them home from Afghanistan.   Now let us learn to live in peace and not have knee-jerk reactions that lead us to war and worse the loss of our young men and women – physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Now is the time to be the country who leads the world in life and living in peace and not the country who leads the world in its destruction.

War destroys so much and it never, ever ends for those it consumes!

In Our Breath and On the Wind

From Celeste Zappala, Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, KIA 4/26/04 Baghdad

I heard the news of the war ending late on Friday.  It seemed an odd time to release such serious news, and made my family and I think that this news was being treated just as the war has been treated for years, it is inconsequential to the American public, a bad after thought not even worth a prime time news conference.

We lost our beloved son Sherwood Baker to the war that never should have happened.  He died protecting those looking for WMD long after everyone knew they were not there.  He never comes back, he never gets to watch his son grow up,  there is no chance for correction, his life was blown out of him on April 26, 2004.  We knew it was wrong when it happened, we know it is still wrong, he and the other 4478 soldiers should have never been in Iraq in the first place.

So we can rejoice that a day will come when soldiers will not be in danger in Iraq, and we can pray that all those injured in body and spirit will be offered the healing they need and deserve.  Can we promise them we as a Nation will never again send them in to wars based on lies? I fear not, I fear the business of war will always require a market, and unless we are all powerfully vocal, the idea of wars of choice will perpetuate.

For me, within my soul, I will always be in the windy cemetary hearing the guns salute my boy lying  in his casket on the ground in front of me;  that moment is as close as my breath, as is the last moment I held him close to me.

Yes the war is over, and for some of us, it will always be in our breath and on the wind.

A Sense of the Bittersweet

From Diane and Neil Santoriello, parents of 1st Lt. Neil A. Santoriello Jr., KIA 8-13-04

We have a sense of the bittersweet. So many lives wasted. Our son was the 930th soldier to die in Iraq  There have been more than 3000 deaths since his. What will be the final total?  Somewhere there is an American soldier who will be the last soldier to die in Iraq. Survivoring families are scarred forever. We welcome our troops homecoming but we hope the government will give them the help and support they need. Now we need to bring our troops home from  Afghanistan  and use our tax dollars to do nation building at home.

Iraq…My Reactions

From Cheryl Felder-Stuart, mother of Cpt Arthur “BO” Felder, killed 4/24/04

I am Cheryl Felder-Stuart my son Cpt Arthur “BO” Felder, commander of the 39th Infantry from Arkansas was killed on April 24, 2004.  I am happy and I am thrilled that no other mother will have to suffer as I have.  I have had two heart surgeries and I had to take a medical retirement since my son was killed.  When we told my mother her oldest grand son was killed in Iraq she died.

THANK GOD this is over.