Pentagon Holds Thousands of Americans "Prisoners of War"

[Crazy Horse]

  Winter Soilder traitors

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x348200

babylonsister  (1000+ posts)       Wed Mar-26-08 06:59 AM
Original message
Pentagon Holds Thousands of Americans "Prisoners of War"
 Advertisements [?]Pentagon Holds Thousands of Americans "Prisoners of War"

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted March 26, 2008.

There are at least 60,000 of them, but they're not on the DoD's list of soldiers missing in action.


Sgt. Kristofer Shawn Goldsmith was one of the many soldiers and Marines, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, who gave testimony at last weekend's Winter Soldier investigation. They spoke from personal experience about what the American military is doing in those countries. They gave examples of what they had done, what they had been ordered to do, what they had witnessed, how their experiences had wounded them, both physically and psychically, and what kind of care and support they have, or most often have not gotten since coming home. The panel Goldsmith was on was called "The Breakdown of the U.S. Military," so he surprised the audience when he said that he was going to talk about prisoners of war.

He was not, however, going to talk about the three soldiers listed as missing in action on the Department of Defense website. He was referring to those who have been the victims of stop-loss, the device by which the president can, "in the event of war," choose to extend an enlistee's contract "until six months after the war ends." The "War on Terror" is this president's excuse for invoking that clause. Because that war will, by definition, continue as long as we insist that there is a difference between the terror inflicted on our innocents and the terror inflicted on theirs, American soldiers are effectively signing away their freedom indefinitely when they join the military. They are prisoners of an ill-defined and undeclared war on a tactic -- terrorism -- that dates back to Biblical times and will be with us indefinitely.

According to U.S. News and World Report, there are at least 60,000 of them.

"I was a great soldier once upon a time," Goldsmith says. He graduated at the top of his class in basic training and was on the commandant's list in the Warrior Leadership Course with a 94.6 percent average. He aced every test, mental and physical, received commendations and medals and promotions, but by the end of his first deployment he knew he was in serious trouble. His CSM (command sergeant major) Altman, however, had told his battalion, "If any of you go try to say you're depressed and thinking about killing yourself, you're going to get deployed anyway, and when we get there, you'll get to be my personal I.E.D. (improvised explosive device) kicker!" So he self-medicated; he drank. A lot. "All I wanted to do was black out."

What kept him going was the end that was in sight. He just had to hang on till his contract was up, and then he could go home, go back to school, and finally be a 20-year-old kid. Then days before he was scheduled to get out, his unit was locked down, stop-lossed as part of the surge. He was looking at another 18-month deployment.

At first he thought he was having a heart attack. It turned out to be a panic attack. He was diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder, given a lot of pills and told he'd be fine. Or at least fine enough to go back.

The day before his unit was to deploy, Memorial Day 2007, he went out onto the memorial field at Ft. Stewart, where trees are planted for every soldier from 3rd Infantry Division killed in Iraq. He mixed pills and vodka, and tried to die.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80461/?page=entire

 
Shame this piece of shit didn't die.............bunch of lieing pieces of shit, dishonoring all who have given their all   

fasttense (1000+ posts)      Wed Mar-26-08 07:50 AM
Response to Original message
1. Thanks for posting
 To think how my military experience was so different from what these men are going through. How exciting and challenging my experiences were and how devastating their experiences are.

What have the bushes turned our military into?

 

  ...................the military is still the finest all volunteer military in the world.

I bet the people in these jobs that are being stop/loss didn't mind that undermanned SRB and advancement rates they got for being undermanned. Oh yeah..........................the entire unit was stop loss

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Stop loss = prisoner of war???

Libs always have their useless analogies.

Employment = Indentured Servitude

heterosex = rape

abortion = liberty

 

[Uhhuh35]

When I joined the Air Force in 1982 it was spelled out for us on the contracts we signed. I remember, at Lackland AFB, a TSgt coming in and explaining to all of us that if war broke out during our term of enlistment, that we could be extended indefinitely until the hostilities are over. She then gave us a chance to back out, no one did.

I know it's still the same today.