ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov 16 (IPS) – According to a soldiers’ advocacy group at Fort Hood, the U.S. base where an army psychiatrist has been charged with killing 13 people and wounding 30 in a Nov. 5 rampage, the official suicide figures provided by the Army are “definitely” too low. Chuck Luther served 12 years in
Riz Khan Show: The Ft. Hood Shootings Aftermath
Appearance on Al Jazeera English’s Riz Khan Show: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH9qE6GxHj0 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAQTn-B_mwU
Dahr Jamail: Honoring The Vets Who Go Unnoticed
Interviewed by Christian Avard for Air America: Today is Veteran’s Day and every year, veterans are honored on television, in the newspapers, with parades and so on. We salute the American flag, wear yellow ribbons in honor of the troops, listen to “Taps,” watch 21-gun salutes and hear speeches about those who gave their lives
Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
VENTURA, California – U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas. Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is
A Morally Bankrupt Military: When Soldiers and Their Families Become Expendable
The military operates through indoctrination. Soldiers are programmed to develop a mindset that resists any acknowledgment of injury and sickness, be it physical or psychological. As a consequence, tens of thousands of soldiers continue to serve, even being deployed to combat zones like Iraq and/or Afghanistan, despite persistent injuries. According to military records, over 43,000
Laura Flanders Roundtable on Treatment of War Vets
Veterans Day is this week, and the shootings at Fort Hood this week brought to the forefront many questions about soldiers and military personnel: how are soldiers surviving the wars, and readjusting to life at home? What are we doing to help them, and is it enough? With the war in Iraq supposedly winding down
Democracy Now! Interviews Dahr Jamail Re Ft. Hood Shootings
As families and friends mourn the thirteen individuals who were shot dead at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, questions continue to be raised about what might have motivated Thursday’s rampage. The suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was an Army psychiatrist who had spent most of his career at Walter Reed Hospital before
Tomgram: Jamail and Lazare, Who Will Be Sent to Afghanistan?
In a grim November 3rd Wall Street Journal piece (buried inside the paper), Yochi Dreazen reported record suicide rates for a stressed-out U.S. Army. Sixteen soldiers killed themselves in October alone, 134 so far this year, essentially ensuring that last year’s “record” of 140 suicides will be broken. This represents a startling 37% jump in
“War Comes Home” with Ft. Hood Shootings
PHOENIX, Arizona – While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident “brings the war home.” “Fort Hood is pretty much a ghost
Mass Shooting Indicates Breakdown of Military
At approximately 1:30 p.m. CST today, a soldier went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, killing 12 people and wounding at least 31 others, according to base commander Lieutenant-General Bob Cone. Truthout spoke with an Army Specialist who is an active-duty Iraq war veteran currently stationed at the base. The soldier