Saturday, June 18, 2011

Another US soldier dead from the Iraq War

Today the Defense Dept issued the following:

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.
Spc. Marcos A. Cintron, 32, of Orlando, Fla., died June 16 at a medical facility in Boston, Mass., of wounds suffered June 6 at Baghdad, Iraq, when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.
For more information, the media may contact 1st Infantry Division public affairs office at 785-240-6359 or 785-307-0641.


Let's drop back to USF's announcement of the June 6th attack:


RELEASE No. 20110606-01
June 06, 2011
Baghdad, Iraq - Five U.S. service members were killed Monday in central Iraq.
The names of the deceased and details of the incident are being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.
The names of deceased service members will be announced through the U.S. Department of Defense official website http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/. The announcements are made on the website no earlier than 24 hours after notification of the service member's primary next of kin.

The Orlando Sentinel has a photo of Spc Marcos A. Cintron here. KTKA has another photo here. As does KTAK.

As we've noted before, there were reports that as little as 5 and as many as 15 soldiers were injured in that attack. But USF has a new policy to bury news of wounded. Bush hid the coffins, Barack hides the wounded.

That's 9 reported deaths for the month so far. John Milburn (AP) observes, "The deaths from June 6 surpass those in a 2004 attack to become the highest single-day casualties for Fort Riley soldiers since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began." Spc Robert Hartwick died in that attack and his service was today. Mary Beth Lane (Columbus Dispatch) reports: "Mourners filled the pews of the Logan Church of the Nazarene this morning as Hartwick, of Rockbridge in Hocking County, was eulogized as an American hero." Chelby Kosto (ABC 6 -- link has text and video) adds, "Thousands lined the streets near the church with flags. They had their hands over their hearts and they saluted the local hero." Emilo Campo Jr.'s service was yesterday. Dan Linehan (Mankato Free Press) reports:

Friends, family, a two-star general and a priest remembered Campo Friday during his funeral Mass in Madelia as a free spirit, a soldier and a Catholic. He died earlier this month in a rocket attack in Baghdad at the age of 20.

“He was very proud about what he was doing,” his mother said. She was proud, too, even when Emilio’s 2008 enlistment in the National Guard meant two of her three sons were in the military.


And, pay attention to this if you live in Illinois where the politicians love your votes but betray you, if you click here and go through the photos by Pat Christman of the funderal for Emilio Campo, you'll see a photo of some of the attendees including a photo feature the Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton, US Senator Al Franken and US House Rep Tim Walz. If you die in a war and your from Illinois, Dick Durbin, by contrast, seems to feel something he said a year or two ago covered it. Apparently Governor Pat Quinn feels the same. In Minnesota, the politicians care a lot more about the citizens of the state. [If you're late to the party on that, refer to "Respecting and (for some officials) disrespecting the fallen."]

The following community sites -- plus War News Radio, the Center for Constitutional Rights, New Statesman and Jane Fonda -- updated last night and this morning:





We'll close with this from David Swanson's "Tim Kaine Avoids Topic of Wars" (War Is A Crime):

Did you hear the one about the Ex Democratic Party Chairman and the peace activist walking into the coffee shop?

That was Tim Kaine and me on Saturday.

He's the former governor of Virginia, former DNC Chair, and current candidate for the US Senate.

He arrived nearly an hour late for his event here in Charlottesville at a local coffee shop. I met him outside and walked in with him to ask him a question on the way, knowing I'd have to leave before he got around to taking questions as part of the event itself.

I pointed out to him that the US Conference of Mayors was expected to vote on Monday to ask Congress to end its unpopular wars in order to direct the spending to something useful. Would you, if elected, I asked him, vote to continue funding these wars?

One possible answer, a democratic if not Democratic one, would have been this: "No."

Another would have been: "That depends . . . . "

Instead, Kaine said he wanted me to ask him that question during the event. Whether he would have taken my question, I don't know, but I couldn't stick around. A friend who did told me that Kaine did not say one word about our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, etc., or about the military budget.

Other than his cheering for the killing of Osama bin Laden, I can't find any mention of wars or the military on Kaine's campaign website either.

Kaine began his speech (I was there for part of it) by claiming to be Christian and religious and to care about values and to want to look out for everybody including the least of these and to follow the example of the Good Samaritan.

One has to wonder who Jesus would bomb.



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thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends


























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