Iraq War is an Illegal War - Outcome of all this is that terrorist Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan

Hubris is an MSNBC documentary for the ages. Clearly, this expose shows how the Bush 2 Administration created the Iraq War with no evidence of aggression.

Americans continue to unravel the convoluted circumstances that led our nation into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but the tragic facts are really quite simple:

1.  President George Bush II ordered the American invasion of Iraq without evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
2.  Americans engaged in a war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, after our nation had already defeated the terrorist group once - they resurrected when the US was snarled in Iraq.
3.  Both wars were the response to the attack on our nation on September 11, 2001.
4.  The perpetrator of this heinous 9-11  attack was Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who was eventually found and killed in Pakistan on May 1, 2012.  
5.  Both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the very least, were a complete wast of money and lives lost.
6.  America now suffers the consequences of waging two unnecessary and wasteful wars. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our schools are suffering from lack of sufficient funding, health care is at risk of loosing reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid and Veterans benefits are constantly being threatened.  

Nevertheless, even given the preponderance of evidence as presented in the Hubris documentary, Republicans continue to defend the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.   Rather than admit to the mistakes of the Bush administration, including Vice President Richard Cheney, they continue to obstruct wealth sharing initiatives (aka taxes) to pay for the illegal wars for the purpose of protecting middle class earned benefits like Social Security, Medicare, Veteran's Benefits and anti poverty programs.

Compassion Fatigue - Dr. Pete Linnerooth Obituary

What could have saved Dr. Linnerooth?

(Another- preventable - casualty of Iraq War.)

Dr. Pete Linnerooth (1970-2013)

MANKATO, Minn. (KMSP) - Peter Linnerooth, a U.S. Army psychologist, took his own life on Jan. 2 in Mankato. 

Although the 42-year-old Bronze Star recipient is credited with helping hundreds of soldiers cope with post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues, but he may have been the victim of "compassion fatigue",  meaning, in lay terms, an underlying post traumatic stress disorder whereby a person is stoic or seemingly unconcerned about the emotional state of others.

In other words, he burned out and there was, apparently, no where he could turn when he needed "care for the caregiver".

As an Army psychologist, Linnerooth faced the challenge of preventing soldier suicides during their tour of duty, as well as two more years helping veterans in California and Nevada. 

But after five years in the Army, including 12 violent months at the height of the Iraq troop surge, Linnerooth returned to Minnesota suffering PTS himself.

Linnerooth was published in a 2011 edition of the American Psychologist, as the lead author of an article on professional burnout among military psychologists.

Along with Dr. Linnerooth's suicide, the Pentagon revealed, on the day he was buried, that a RECORD 349 MILITARY SUICIDES were reported in 2012, in Iraq.  The Associated Press reports that this record exceeded 295 American combat deaths in Afghanistan in 2012.  There were 301 military suicides reported in 2011.

The Army had the highest number of suicides among active-duty troops in 2012, with 182, but the Marines had the largest percentage increase -- up 50 percent to 48. The Air Force recorded 59 suicides and the Navy had 60.

Obviously, real people with families are the faces behind the numbers of deaths.  Cold statistics bandage a much bigger problem. Children are deeply impacted, for the rest of their lives,  after loosing  parents, especially by suicide.  Also, spouses experience the grief of wondering if anything could have been done to prevent these untimely deaths.  

But, to loose a highly trained clinician like Dr. Linerooth is tragic and costly.  Not only is his young death a monetary loss to the military (a good deal of his specialized training was likely paid by the Pentagon), but, the collateral emotional damage can't be measured. Typically, the people he saved from suicide will likely engage in a renewed grief about their own survival chances.  It's like, "Oh my God, if Dr. Linnerooth can't make it, what are my chances of staying well?"

This is what Mark Thompson writes in Time Magazine about Dr. Linnerooth, former Army psychologist, in the January 28, 2013, special report, on page 20, of the Briefing section:  

"They buried one time Army captain Pete Linnerooth on Jan. 14, at Minneapolis' Fort Snelling National Cemetery.  You won't find him listed among the US troops lost in Iraq since 2003.  Yet, the war killed Linnerooth, as surely as if he'd been hit by a sniper's bullet.  Then again, there's no roster of the lives the Army psychologist saved during his year there, either. Nor, sadly, the hundreds of haunted minds he patched back together, before his own failed him."

Thompson goes on, "Few people have better understood the perverse alchemy that can turn the rush and glory of combat into a darkening cloud of anxiety and depression.  Linnerooth watched as the military's suicide rate escalated to nearly one per day in 2012.  But, he also warned colleagues and reporters that even mental-health professionals are vulnerable.  When he shot himself at home in Mankato, Minn., on Jan. 2nd, he became the first Army psychologist deployed in the post 9/11 wars known too die by suicide."

One contributing factor to his death may have been "compassion fatigue", said Brock McNabb, who served alongside Linnerooth.  "Pete struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression after his deployment to Iraq," said another Army comrade.  After his five years in the Army, the Veterans Administration grated him 100 percent disability for his post traumatic stress.

Sergeant Rob Kumpf was among Dr. Linnerooth's veteran clients, who expressed grief over the loss of the man he called "Doc". "We do nothing t help people like Pete, who give their all to help those of us suffering," he said in Thompson's article.  "I hope he finds the peace in heaven that he could never find here on earth.  Rest in Peace, sir," he said.

 

Although the War in Iraq will not include the name of those who took their lives by suicide, these victims are as much a part of the statistics as if they were killed by a road side bomb.  In the absence of the Iraq War, we can assume that a vast majority of these preventable suicide deaths would not have happened.

History will, undoubtedly, be justifiably a very harsh judge of the second Iraq War, begun on 2003, where the premise for invasion was Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). But, these threats never existed.  The suicide death of Dr. Pete Linnerooth and the 349 other lost lives to suicide are among the statistics that won't be among the fatalities reported in the Iraq War, but, hopefully, the reality of this kind of collateral damage will bring much more awareness to the untended collateral damage of any, God forbid, future wars.

Meanwhile, the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon support interventions to mitigate the growing number of suicides:

CALL FOR ANNUAL PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress) SCREENING

Of the 2.6 million U.S. military service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, it's estimated 13 percent to 20 percent have symptoms of PTS. And barely half of those diagnosed with PTS actually get treatment, often because many soldiers worry it could jeopardize their careers.

Those numbers led to a recommendation for the Institute that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan undergo annual screening for post-traumatic stress disorder and that federal agencies conduct more research to determine how well the various treatments for PTS are working.

READ MORE:  Panel calls for annual PTS screening of returning soldiers
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/19020533/nih-ptsd-screenng-for-returning-soldiers


U of M researchers find possible key to treating, understanding PTS
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/17628282/u-of-m-researchers-find-possible-key-to-treating-understanding-ptsd

Read more: Peter Linnerooth helped hundreds of soldiers cope with PTS - KMSP-TV http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/20581691/peter-linnerooth-army-psychologist-ptsd#ixzz2LjsFt5fY

Iraq and AIG - If Only?

Americans are finally united in outrage about something. We agree about the ridiculously obscene bonus money AIG corporate executives claimed at taxpayers expense. Indeed, the money should be given back voluntarily, but there's slim chance of this given the people who stole the funds have no conscious.

It's called bank robbery when ordinary people steal money from financial institutions. When corporate executives take money, the rules change and it becomes unethical or selfish. It's still bank robbery, nonetheless.

My question is more about how we arrived at the mess we are in today?

Americans should have been as united in outrage about invading Iraq in 2003, simply because we didn't like the dictator, as we are about AIG thieves today. We were lied to about the Iraq War, by our most trusted leaders. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We invaded a country without a reason to do so; and now this war is not winnable. It won't take long after American troops leave for the Iraqi government to become just as tyrannical as it was before we showed up. It's like Animal Farm 2009 - we wanted to make it better, but it's not going to improve when we leave. Unfortunately, the cultural forces in place during the time of the evil dictator are still present. They will rise again with different names.

My point is this. If we showed the same outrage at the invasion of Iraq as we have with the AIG bonus debacle, maybe we'd have billions of dollars less national debt and many thousands of lives saved.

Moreover, it goes beyond Iraq. If enough people were outraged in 2003, by the mention of invading Iraq, maybe we would have won a lasting peace in Afghanistan. Instead, we're re-fighting a war that was once won and is now lost. Instead, we invaded the wrong country to find the perpetrator of the September 11, 2001 attacks on our nation.

A perpetrator who is still hiding and at large as this is written.

If only we shared this AIG outrage with the invasion of Iraq, it is possible we could be a world more at peace than at war. It's a possibility.

Nevertheless, history won't save us from what is happening right now. AIG is the tipping point for an accumulation of misplaced outrages. Psychologists might say this is the classic defense mechanism of projection. "It's all the fault of AIG!"

Well, AIG is wrong for taking money that doesn't belong to them. Nevertheless, the root culprits are us. Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and they are us".

Our future must collect the best and brightest people in the world to fix our economy and our foreign policy. Although I have confidence in President Barack Obama, he is only one person who cannot possibly solve all of our global problems by himself. We need a new way of thinking about ourselves and the planet we live on.

Perhaps, Americans need to re-invent ourselves.

First, let's demand our tax money be returned from AIG - or the thieves go to jail (forget punitive tax laws). Second, let's help the Iraqi people to understand peace instead of war. Third, let's create an economy based upon opportunity and trust, rather than greed and avarice. Amen.

Iraq in Honolulu: Paradise Short Lived

A vacation in Honolulu, in the beautiful state of Hawaii, is intended to transport stressed people into a snippet of tropical paradise. Hawaii's gentle breezes and emerald colored oceans invite respite and renewal. Consequently, I was surprised by how much I quickly learned about the American War in Iraq, while in Hawaii.

My husband Richard and I took advantage of an early spring get-away opportunity, using the last of our Delta Airlines frequent flyer miles, to luckily escape the worst stormy weather Maine has seen in over a decade.

We booked a trip to visit San Francisco and then Honolulu.

This trip was our third visit to the Aloha state. Our first Hawaiian family vacation was taken when returning home after living 3 years in the Philippines on Luzon Island. At that time, in the late 1970's, Honolulu was like a decompression chamber, allowing us to orient ourselves to living in the United States again. On our 1st trip, we stayed at the newly opened, 5 star military resort, at Fort DeRussey, called the Hale Koa Hotel, on Waikiki Beach.

As military installations go, the Hale Koa is a nirvana experience where rank, rate, regimental structure and uniforms are cast aside. Everyone is equally invited to enjoy a first class vacation at the Hale Koa; a benefit offered to military personnel both active duty and retired. No tax dollars are used to support the Hale Koa because the buildings and tropical gardens are landscaped on federal land at Fort DeRussy, a piece of real estate the investment developers passed on when Waikiki
Beach became a tourist Mecca.

We returned to the Hale Koa on our 3rd recent vacation because we fit the prototype as a retired military family.

Oftentimes, it's difficult to return to past experiences and regain the same ambiance as with the first charmed encounter. This was not at all the case with our Hale Koa vacation. We were even more charmed this second time around because the Hale Koa expanded in size, beauty and scope of services.

Nevertheless, my delusion of visiting a paradise was abruptly checked when I met a young man in the elevator who was only 18 hours in time removed from Baghdad in Iraq. It was a quiet 5 AM encounter. The young solider, dressed in t-shirt and shorts, serendipitously joined me in a "jet-lag" jaunt to get a cup of Hawaii's famous Kona coffee, going out while most hotel residents, including my husband, were still sound asleep.

"Where are you from?," I asked him. He said, "I just came from Baghdad!"

He and his wife met up at the Hale Koa for a 2 week "R&R" vacation. His war time vacation is a repeat of the thousands of liaisons of the Korean and Viet Nam wars whereby the military flies active duty personnel directly from the battle fields to Hawaii for specific reunion purposes. It's a fabulous morale booster and one of the principal reasons why the Hale Koa maintains a supremely romantic get-away reputation.

Actually, the young solider on the elevator turned out to be one of dozens of other Iraq military personnel we subsequently met while at the Hale Koa. In fact, at the ritual Luau performance, one young solider proposed marriage to his fiancé on an outdoor stage with about 700 people in the audience applauding while wiping tears from our eyes.

I never felt closer to the American War in Iraq then while vacationing at the Hale Koa. We made it our responsibility to support and love these families during their liaisons. Moreover, the specter of their personal anguish at fighting in war was evident during every second of their time spent quietly walking around the grounds with loved ones. Like watching the same movie over and over with different characters, each family's brief 2 weeks in paradise played out like it could be their last chance at happiness. Their short time together was, truly, more precious than
gold.

Unfortunately, the young man in the elevator told me he didn't trust the way the American media was covering the war effort in Baghdad. He said, "I don't think the media likes us".

Not so, I responded. "We pray for you in Baghdad. Everyone is praying for you. In fact, the media is looking out for your well fare," I said. "The Portland Newspapers, in Portland Maine, even has a journalist in Baghdad. He's Bill Nemitz," I told him. In fact, Bill takes time to report on troop welfare, I told him.

I don't suspect he believed me.

Anyway, by that time, we both had our Kona coffees in hand and were walking back into the tropical night breezes to our respective rooms.

When we left Honolulu, we saw another young soldier tearfully saying good-bye to his wife and child at the airport. It was the bittersweet, yet inevitable, outcome of a 2 week R&R in paradise.

A flight attendant, on our return flight from Honolulu to Atlanta, George, asked passengers to pay tribute to the number of Iraq personnel who were on the plane. They were obviously melancholy having just left their loved ones after 2 weeks at the Hale Koa. Everyone applauded, but we obviously didn't lift their sadness.

Our second visit to the Hale Koa was two generations removed from our first one, but there were wistful similarities. No doubt, other people looked at us back in the 1970's, as though we were a Viet Name liaison (although we just happened to be in transit). Our movie played out in two generational theaters.

Back in Maine, we found our house had electric power on after being off for three days due to the spring Nor'easter. Our reality was, of course, far removed from those hotel guests from Iraq, whose "real-world" re-entry includes the dangers of facing war on a daily basis or living at home without loved ones. Certainly, we will pray for those soldiers in Iraq and their families.

Unexpectedly, we found Iraq in paradise and I'm affected by the experience.

For good or ill, whether we agree with this Iraq war or oppose it altogether, we are all in it together, paradise notwithstanding.