Progress Report: Looking Out For The Citizen Soldiers

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Center for American Progress - Progress Report

 

 

by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and

Jonathan Baskin

 

 

 

July 19, 2004

TROOPSLooking Out For The Citizen SoldiersIRAQHersh's

New RevelationsIRAQOur Man in Baghdad

UNDER THE RADAR

 

TROOPS

Looking Out For The Citizen Soldiers

 

The war has stretched the American military paper thin

#8211; stop-loss policies are in place to keep

soldiers from leaving units that have received orders

to deploy, 5,600 soldiers have been pulled out of

post-active duty 'retirement' and casualties remain

unbearably high after the turnover. Nowhere is the

strain on the military more evident, however, than in

the National Guard. The Bush administration has had to

rely more and more heavily on National Guard and

Reserve units to fight the ongoing war in Iraq. Nine

months ago, a quarter of the soldiers in Iraq were

from the National Guard and Reserve. Now it's 40

percent and rising. The latest edition of Harper's

Magazine points out, in the past three years, " more

National Guard and Reserve soldiers have been called

to active duty than have cumulatively been mobilized

since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962#8212;including

for the Vietnam War, the Cuban refugee crisis, Haiti,

Bosnia, Kosovo and Gulf War I. " The Army has mobilized

and deployed 55,000 to Iraq and Afghanistan alone.

(For a collection of figures highlighting the

increasing strains placed on the military, American

Progress gives you the National Guard and Reserve: By

the Numbers.)

 

RISING DEATH TOLL: Sadly, fatalities for Guardsmen and

reserve troops are on the rise. According to a review

of Defense Department records conducted by the Newark

Star-Ledger, " nearly a quarter of the service members

killed in action since February 1 in Iraq were from

the Reserve or National Guard. " That proportion is six

times higher than it was before President Bush

famously announced the end of major combat in Iraq in

May 2003. For the Army, that total is even higher; one

out of every three deaths is National Guard or

Reserves.

 

THE AGING GUARD: There is a unique problem to the mass

deployment of National Guardsmen: #160;older troops

with more medical problems. #160;According to the New

York Times, " about 5,570 of the 275,000 American

troops in or about to leave for Iraq and Afghanistan

are 50 and older, nearly all of them members of the

Guard and Reserves. " Of these men, " 10 soldiers age 50

or older have died in the Iraq war, some of medical

ailments that might have excluded them from earlier

conflicts, others under fire in the heat of battle.

That is a small percentage of the nearly 900 American

service members who have died since the Iraq war

began, but it is 10 times the percentage of men in

that age group who died in Vietnam. It is nearly as

many as those of that age who died in the entire

Korean War. " These deaths " raise questions about why

older men, many of them veterans and some in obviously

questionable health, are deployed to a war zone. " They

are also more frequently wounded: According to

estimates, Guard and Reserve soldiers have a disease

and non-battle injury rate (DNBI) nearly double that

of active-duty personnel.

 

CUTTING TRAINING: The Army Reserves is facing a

serious funding gap. According to 7/12/04 Inside

Defense, the Army Reserve " is facing a potential

shortfall of more than $280 million in its budget next

fiscal year that, if left unchecked, would halt all

training drills for soldiers next spring. " (President

Bush cut $280 million from the requested training

budget.) This is a large concern within the Reserve

and Guard; at a May 11 congressional hearing, four

soldiers testified on the dangerous " lack of training

reservists receive in urban environments " before being

sent to fight in cities in Iraq. Our own Lawrence Korb

has offered a plan to update our Reserves.

 

UNDEREQUIPPED: The National Guard and Reserve troops

often have lacked proper equipment. For example, it

wasn't until fifteen months after the invasion of Iraq

that all troops received Interceptor body armor.

Harper's gives anecdotal evidence of equipment issues

faced by the Reserves: One Oregon National Guard

soldier relates how he " was told to man a .50-caliber

machine gun that had been jury-rigged on top of a

Vietnam-era truck, but wasn't given a single round of

ammunition during a dangerous convoy. 'They told me

just look mean,' the soldier said. "

 

HEALTH INSURANCE: The White House fought to keep

reservists from receiving TRICARE - the Pentagon

health insurance plan. While active duty soldiers are

covered under the program, National Guard and Reserves

only have access to it for a limited time. According

to estimates, 20 percent of Guardsmen lack outside

health insurance. The Bush administration formally

opposed giving National Guard and Reserve members

access to TRICARE, saying it was too expensive.

 

THE INDIANA EXAMPLE: As the war in Iraq continues to

exact a toll on the country's citizen soldiers, many

are opting not to reenlist. An example: One Indiana

National Guard battalion spent a year in Iraq.

Two-thirds chose not to reenlist. The usual

reenlistment rate for this battalion? Eighty-five

percent.

 

SOMEONE IS LISTENING: A new study by the National

Military Family Association (NMFA) shows the

increasing frustrations military families are facing

with the ongoing deployment of loved ones in Iraq. One

problem - most existing support efforts " assumed

predictable, limited deployments, not tours of a year

or more for hundreds of thousands of troops, many of

them mobilized National Guard members and reservists. "

The report " took special note of problems for families

in understanding TRICARE, accessing preventive mental

health services and finding childcare. " #160;One of

the innovative ways NMFA is easing the burden:

Operation Purple, special summer camps for military

children aimed at helping them deal with the stress of

their parents being deployed.

 

IRAQ

Hersh's New Revelations

 

In a speech to the ACLU last week, journalist Seymour

Hersh, who first broke the Abu Ghraib story, said

there was " a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing

that was covered up at the highest command out there,

and higher. " Hersh reports, " boys were sodomized with

the cameras rolling " in the prison and said, " What

happened at Abu Ghraib#8230;is not about an academic

debate in long essays between the justice department

and the White House, legal essays about where the

Geneva convention ends and presidential prerogative

begins. "

 

NEW DOCUMENTS REVEALED: As Bush administration

officials continue to blame the Abu Ghraib scandal on

a " few American troops, " new documents obtained by

U.S. News and World Report indicate the abuses took

place " in a chaotic and dangerous environment made

even more so by the constant pressure from Washington

to squeeze intelligence from detainees. " And while

Gen. Antonio Taguba's report " focused mostly on the MP

s assigned to guard the inmates at Abu Ghraib#8230;

the classified files in the annex to his report show

that military intelligence officers-dispatched to Abu

Ghraib by the top commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo

Sanchez--were intimately involved in some of the

interrogation techniques widely viewed as abusive. "

 

DOCUMENTS SHOW ABUSES AT CAMP BUCCA: The new documents

also show the problems at Abu Ghraib may have been

avoided if the Army had reacted more forcefully to

abuses which took place " months earlier at another

U.S.-run detention center in southern Iraq called Camp

Bucca. Evidence showed that MPs viciously attacked

prisoners there, including one who had his nose

smashed in. " One Army official told Taguba that if the

abuses at Camp Bucca had been effectively prosecuted,

Abu Ghraib may have been avoided. Instead, four

soldiers were given dishonorable discharges, and none

were prosecuted. For more on the new documents

obtained by U.S. News, read American Progress's memo

on new evidence on Abu Ghraib.

 

HEARINGS CRAWL FORWARD: Meanwhile, Bush administration

officials continue to stick to their story that the

scandal " represent[ed] the actions of a few people, "

and keep public reminders as scarce as possible. The

Kansas City Star reports, " New information about the

abuse of prisoners in Iraq is emerging in private

briefings to members of Congress, but there will be no

public hearings until fall. " Sen. John Warner (R-VA),

the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee

who has battled criticism from his own party to make

sure hearings on Abu Ghraib continue, said Thursday

" that L. Paul Bremer, the former head of the

American-led occupation in Iraq, may testify about

prison abuse at a congressional hearing next week. "

" I'm not trying to, you know, drop a little hint

here, " said Warner. " I'm just saying . . . each day

that comes along, new incidents that occurred in the

past " are revealed and will need to be investigated.

Warner is pushing for Bremer's testimony to be public.

 

SANCHEZ'S BEST FRIENDS: One thing Warner may want to

investigate is the role of dogs in interrogations at

Abu Ghraib. USA Today reports, " U.S. military

commanders in Iraq authorized the use of dogs for

interrogations#8230;five months after Defense

Secretary Donald Rumsfeld barred the practice for

terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according

to classified military documents. " Beginning in

November, 2003, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the

U.S. commander in Iraq " allowed dogs to be used at the

discretion of interrogators without his specific

approval. " Sanchez has testified that he never

approved a request for permission to use dogs in an

interrogation, " but his rule said his permission was

not required. " It was in the two months after Sanchez

suspended his oversight on the use of dogs for

interrogations " that abuses at Abu Ghraib were

documented, including use of dogs to terrify naked

prisoners. "

 

IRAQ

Our Man in Baghdad

 

Explosive charges against new Iraqi Prime Minister

Iyad Allawi have prompted a formal investigation by

Iraq's new Human Rights Minister. According to this

weekend's Sydney Morning Herald, two alleged witnesses

say Allawi " pulled a pistol and executed as many as

six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station,

just days before Washington handed control of the

country to his interim government. " They say Dr.

Allawi told onlookers the victims " deserved worse than

death. " Bush administration officials have joined

Allawi in denouncing the allegations as " urban

legend, " but an Australian journalist is defending the

story, and says the two witnesses were interviewed

separately and were unpaid. Newsweek notes that the

fact that these allegations even exist #8211; whether

true or not - highlights increasing concerns about

Allawi's commitment to human rights: while the Bush

administration has touted Allawi's respect for human

rights, Newsweek notes that " only weeks after taking

office, [Allawi] is already flirting with

dictatorship. "

 

ALLAWI'S ANTI-DEMOCRATIC ROOTS: President Bush has

called Allawi " a patriot, " someone who " recognizes

human liberty, human rights. " But as Newsweek points

out, the former Baathist " has precious few democratic

credentials. He was first groomed in exile by

Britain's intelligence service, M.I.6, then by the

CIA. His Iraqi National Accord, an exile grouping, had

little support inside Iraq. " And his governing style

has alerted some of a return to " the cold-blooded

tactics of his predecessor. " He has " flooded the

streets with cops, many of them from the old regime.

He's started a new General Security Directorate,

otherwise known as the secret police. Every few days

his troops attack neighborhoods where criminals have

gathered, rounding up men by the hundreds, cracking

heads and sometimes fighting running gun battles.

Iraqi TV shows footage of exultant policemen firing

their guns into the air as they leave the scene of a

roundup. " It's possible, writes Michael Hirsh, " that

Iraqis may end up with a pro-American dictator " in

Saddam's place. " Then one of the last good reasons to

have invaded Iraq will have proved as illusory as

those long-lost weapons of mass destruction. "

 

 

MEDIA #8211; FOX CITED FOR ITS DISHONESTY: The British

Government's Office of Communications (Ofcom) #8211;

the official regulator of the UK's communications

industries - recently chastised Fox News and found it

in violation of various regulations in that country

aimed at preventing the media from deliberately

spreading misinformation. Ofcom found that Fox News

anchor John Gibson made " false statements by

undermining facts. " Its report stated, " Fox News was

unable to provide any substantial evidence to support

the overall allegation that the BBC management had

lied and the BBC had an anti-American

obsession#8230;Even taking into account that this was

a 'personal view' item, the strength and number of

allegations that John Gibson made against the BBC

meant that Fox News should have offered the BBC an

opportunity to respond. " Ofcom concluded, " Fox News

was therefore in breach of Sections 2.1 (respect for

truth), 2.7 (opportunity to take part), and 3.5(b)

(personal view programmes - opinions expressed must

not rest upon false evidence) of the [british]

Programme Code. "

 

CORRUPTION #8211; SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS: Last week,

evidence surfaced that#160; four of the five House

ethics committee Republicans investigating Majority

Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) have accepted money in the

past from the fundraising operation involved in the

complaint against him. That has now prompted calls for

the appointment of an independent counsel from two

non-partisan watchdogs, Common Cause and Citizens for

Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). And

the Dallas Morning News editorial board concurred: it

noted that because DeLay is the House member " with the

greatest ability to reward friends and punish

enemies, " an independent counsel should be appointed,

just as it was during the investigations of former

speakers Jim Wright and Newt Gingrich.

 

THE WAGE PINCH: Still feeling an economic pinch?

You're not alone. The NYT reports, " the amount of

money workers receive in their paychecks is failing to

keep up with inflation. " On Friday, " the Bureau of

Labor Statistics reported that hourly earnings of

production workers - nonmanagement workers ranging

from nurses and teachers to hamburger flippers and

assembly-line workers - fell 1.1 percent in June,

after accounting for inflation. The June drop, the

steepest decline since the depths of recession in

mid-1991, came after a 0.8 percent fall in real hourly

earnings in May. " After accounting for inflation,

workers are pocketing about $8 less than they were

last January, the " lowest level of weekly pay since

October 2001. " Why is this happening? High

unemployment means #160;little pressure on businesses

to raise wages.

 

RELIGION #8211; ENVIRONMENTALISM AT CHURCH: The New

York Times reports that a new phenomenon is building

in churches throughout Maine: religiously-motivated

environmental activity. Last fall, the Maine Council

of Churches' Environmental Justice Program and Maine

Interfaith Power & Light, Inc. asked local

congregations to choose two or three new environmental

tasks #8211; and about 36 congregations now have

environmental groups called " EarthCare " teams, with

many " introducing environmentalism into Sunday

schools, undergoing energy audits of their churches,

reducing cars idling and changing the very buildings

in which they meet, with window replacements and added

insulation. " Said one of Maine's environmental

leaders, " What's exciting about our teams and similar

movements around the country is that we're taking

actions with people who see themselves as church-going

people, not environmentalists. They're beginning to

see saving the planet through new eyes, through a

faith journey. " See more on American Progress's faith

and progressive policy initiative.

 

NATIONAL SECURITY #8211; REPORT URGES IRAN POLICY

SHIFT: The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) today

will publish a report analyzing the U.S. relationship

with Iran and, according to Reuters, the report will

state that " the lack of sustained engagement with Iran

over the last 25 years is harming U.S. interests. " CFR

warns that " overcoming the absence of any U.S.-Iranian

contacts may be the only alternative to ... force " to

assuage U.S. concerns about Iran's behavior. It

recommends the Bush administration change its approach

to a " selective " engagement with Iran that includes

incentives, like the prospect of U.S. commercial ties,

as well as penalties, in an effort to resolve a

growing nuclear problem and stabilize the Middle East.

The CFR panel that authored the report was chaired by

Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's national

security adviser, and Robert Gates, director of

central intelligence under former president George

Bush. The Financial Times reports that over the

weekend " Iran's reformists have attempted to ease

rising tensions with the US. " Specifically, Mohammed

Ali Abtahi, one of Iran's vice-presidents, called for

d#233;tente with Washington, while Ali Yunesi, the

reformist intelligence minister, told state television

that Iran had dismantled all al Qaeda branches in the

country.

 

#160;Don't Miss

DAILY TALKING POINTS: Neglecting the National Guard

and Reserves

 

AMERICAN PROGRESS REPORT: Was the Bush 'Job Boom'

Merely Hype?

 

MEDIA: U.S. House members urged to sign letter calling

for meeting with Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch to

discuss how to make the network more objective.

 

MEDIA: American Progress-sponsored movie " Outfoxed "

premieres at 3,000 house parties nationwide.

 

AFGHANISTAN: U.S. detains Taliban-linked Afghan

commander just two months after praising him.

 

Contact The Progress Report:

pr.

 

 

 

 

#160;Daily Grill

 

" We should and must provide the best care for anybody

who is willing to put their life in harm's way. "

 

#8211; President Bush, 1/17/03

 

VERSUS

 

" It wasn't until fifteen months after the invasion of

Iraq that all troops received Interceptor body armor. "

 

#8211; AP, 6/8/04

 

#160;Daily Outrage

Tom Delay

 

#160;Archives

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