This week's Global Research News Hour (link is audio) takes a look at the Iraq War in terms of violence, law, Depleted Uranium and more. The guests are former United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Denis Halliday, international law and human rights expert professor Francis A. Boyle and Lawyers Against The War's Gail Davidson. Though forgotten by many, a number of US War Resisters went to Canada. Some, like Darrell Anderson, elected to return to the US. Others, like Robin Long and Kim Rivera, were forced out. Many remain in Canada -- like Joshua Key, Jeremy Hinzman and Kyle Snyder -- in Canada. Boyle stated that Canada should allow war resisters to remain in Canada.
Francis A. Boyle: Staff Sgt Camilo Mejia who was the very first member of the US armed forces to refuse to participate in Iraq because he was there and he saw that when he captured insurgents and turned them over to MPs they were being tortured and he concluded he could no longer in good faith and conscience aid and abet torture and war crimes And after a, I regret to say, we couldn't get him off. After a kangaroo court proceeding, he did get eight months -- he was facing two years -- and we did get him adopted a prisoner of conscious by Amnesty International -- which shows you who was right here, Staff Sgt Camilo Mejia. And unfortunately Staff Sgt -- to show you the perversity here of military court-martial proceedings in the United States -- Staff Sgt Mejia spent more time in prison for his courageous principles -- refusing to participate in torture, speaking out about it -- than many of the torturers who were either let off or got off or got less time than he did. So I think that shows you the sheer perversity of these military court-martial proceedings in the United States. And precisely why Canada must not and should not force out or turn over any GI resisters who have come up there to Canada as a matter of principle and conscious.
Camilo Mejia served in the Iraq War. He was ending his time of service when he was stop-lossed. Camilo wasn't then a US citizen and legally could not be stop-lossed. These and many more issues were ignored by the 'judge.' Camilo did not go to Canada. He is the first veteran of the Iraq War to publicly refuse to continue serving in the illegal war. The first member of the military to refuse to serve in the illegal war was Stephen Funk. Funk refused to go to Iraq and never went.
It's a strong hour and worth listening to and Boyle and the program deserve strong credit for remembering the war resisters in Canada.
Remembering?
Yeah, look what just went up.
Is Ms. really going to remember Afghanistan?
Please. They're not going into all the 'leaders' of the feminist movement who met with Bully Boy Bush and cheerleaded the Afghanistan War. They won't even name one. (I will: Eleanor Smeal.)
Can it get any worse?
Of course it can. Marzia Nawrozi chooses to open her piece quoting 'noted' 'feminist' and proud woman Nicholas Kirstof. WTF?
And let's remember, Afghanistan women were used as a pretext to start a war. That's why there's never been any improvement for Afghan women in that country.
So stop perpetuating the lie. And Nawrozi, learn your damn history. You are not the first woman in Afghanistan to get a college degree or even part of the first wave. How sad that you act as if your country's history began in 2001. Are you working for the US government? Are you being paid for this whorish propaganda?
I know several Afghan feminists and they already felt betrayed by Ms. and feminist 'leaders' in this country. That little ignorant blog post? It's only going to add to suspicions that, in the US, the feminist movement is government controlled.
Let's also remember that 14 hours ago I wrote about International Day of the Girl Child -- "Girl Child" -- I'm not crazy about the title but that's what UNICEF went with so maybe Ms. magazine should stop trying to change the title of the day? And maybe they should post during the day and not as the day is ending to 'alert' people to what already passed. Trina and Ann have rightly called the Ms. blog out for fawning over an anti-choice, anti-abortion homophobe. Now we've got a woman who thinks the height of feminism is to quote Nicholas Kirstof.
It's not going to play. Too many of us have given too much to stay silent while the Ms. blog gets worse every day and now seems to think feminism is about glorifying men. Any writer for Ms. needing to cite an authority should find a woman or just say, "I'm a dumb useless bitch who will stab other women in the back because I'm too damn lazy to support other women." I'm not in the damn mood. For those who will sigh, "Oh, she's Afghan!" -- yeah and I'm damn well aware of which Afghan women Ms. will publish and which they won't. Again, I'm not in the damn mood. International Day of the Girl Child was not created to glorify a man -- not even the vagina-envying Nicholas Kirstof. Remember, for War Hawk Whores of the female gender, Nicky K is their patron saint. We've warned you before, we'll warn you again.
Away from propaganda, in the real world, Wassim Bassem (Al-Monitor) reports:
Although Ahmad is in prison, he considers what happened an “honor.” Friends and relatives see him as a courageous man who washed away the shame of a “deviant” girl who strayed from religious and tribal values.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, social worker Qassem Hussein says honor crimes are still legally applicable to many girls who declare their “forbidden” feelings for foreign men, not only in Iraq, but also in other Arab and Muslim countries.
However, what is exceptional about this crime in Iraq is that it has become more deeply rooted than ever, although the opposite should have happened, given social and cultural developments and media openness, as Qassem notes.
He adds that the commonality between victims — who number in the dozens yearly — in Iraq and other countries is the barbaric ways they are killed to “settle” the matter. They are strangled, stabbed with a knife or sword, shot or set on fire. Then, the authorities are notified that the victim has committed suicide.
Feminist activist Maeda Abdel Hussein told Al-Monitor, “The most dangerous aspect of the phenomenon is its religious, social and legal legitimacy.”
She added, “The secrecy of the crimes makes them go unseen, thus contributing to their continuous occurrence as they do not stir public uproar. The perpetrator commits his crime slowly, with encouragement from the people concerned who fear for their honor and the reputation of their tribe, pushing the person to commit murder.”
'Honor' killings are not vanishing. They're increasing. Part of the reason is the Iraqi 'judicial' system refuses to punish the killers. Just another example of the realities Iraqi women have to deal with. In their most recent gender equality profile of Iraq, UNICEF notes:
Political representation.
Women occupy 82 out of 325 seats in the lower house of parliament following the 2010 elections (25 per cent of the seats). Women gained the right to vote and stand for election in 1980, and that same year the first woman was elected to parliament. Iraq has introduced legislated quotas to increase women’s representation in the lower house of parliament. The electoral laws that govern the provincial elections also include provisions to encourage women’s representation in provincial councils. Among the country’s 18 governors there are no women.
Representation in the legal system.
Women in Iraq have been active in the legal field since the 1920s. The first female judge was appointed in 1959. In 1976 women were admitted to the Judicial Institute in Bagdad. In 1984 Saddam Hussein stopped women from entering the Judicial Institute and the women that were serving as judges at the time, were retrained. Women could still work as lawyers and prosecutors. Since the fall of the Ba’athist regime in 2003 women are again serving as judges, but they are few in number (as of 2006 there were 16 female judges in the whole of Iraq).
Civil society.
Women’s organisations in Iraq face security risks and have faced bureaucratic obstacles in, for example, establishing shelters for battered women. Yet women’s rights activists have been successful in blocking the implementation of the constitutional article which would allow personal status matters to be governed by the rules of each different religious group. NGOs are making efforts to increase women’s civic participation but the difficult security situation in Iraq and the lack of protection against violence limit women’s participation.
On political representation, three things. First, as Iraqi MP Susan al-Saad pointed out earlier this week, the quota, in 2010, was supposed to be in addition to women who ran openly for seats in Parliament. Instead, these women were later included in the quota thereby lowering women's representation. Iraq is supposed to hold parliamentary elections at the end of April. al-Saad is saying this practice does not need to repeat.
Second, it should also be noted that Nouri built his 2010 cabinet without a single woman in it -- this despite the vocal objections of women across Iraq. In his first term as Prime Minister, Nawal al-Samarraie served as Minister of Women's Affairs. February 6, 2009, she was in the news when she resigned because her ministry was not properly funded (a meager monthly budget of $7,500 a month was slashed to $1,400) and she stated, "I reached to the point that I will never be able to help the women." Nouri didn't care for Nawal al-Samarraie or the needed attention she raised.
This animosity was reflected in his second term when he tried to erase women completely. From the December 22, 2010 snapshot:
Turning to Iraq, Liz Sly and Aaron Davis (Washington Post) note, "A special gathering of the nation's parliament endorsed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a second term in office, with lawmakers then voting one by one for 31 of the eventual 42 ministers who will be in his cabinet." AFP notes that all but one is a man, Bushra Hussein Saleh being the sole woman in the Cabinet. And they quote Kurdish MP Ala Talabani stating, "We congratulate the government, whose birth required eight months, but at the same time we are very depressed when we see the number of women chosen to head the ministries. Today, democracy was decapitated by sexism. The absence of women is a mark of disdain and is contrary to several articles of the constitution. I suggest to Mr Maliki to even choose a man for the ministry of women's rights, as you do not have confidence in women." Ala Talabani is the niece of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Imran Ali (Womens Views On News) reminds, "The new constitution stipulates that a quarter of the members of parliament be women and prohibits gender discrimination." Apparently concern about representation doesn't apply to the Cabinet (and, no, Nouri's attempts at offering excuses for the huge gender imbalance do not fly).
Oh, wait Bushra! A woman.
No. Yes, she's a woman but she has no position. She's a token and a flunky. Nouri bribed to get his second term and that included overpromising on the Cabinet so he had to increase the number of people serving on the Cabinet (from 31 in his first term to 42). Bushra Hussein Saleh is Minister of State -- which sounds great. But Yassin Mohammed Ahmed is . . . Minister of State. And Hassan Radia sl-Sari is . . . Minister of State. And Abd al-Mahdi al-Mutayri is . . . Minister of State. And the three men and Bushra are trumped by Safa al-Safi whose title is Minister of State for Parliament Affairs and is actually of a higher rank than the other three men and Bushra. (Saf al-Safi is alo a member of Nouri's State of Law coalition.)
Kurdish MP Ala Talabani: We congratulate the government, whose birth required eight months, but at the same time we are very depressed when we see the number of women chosen to head the ministries. Today, democracy was decapitated by sexism. The absence of women is a mark of disdain and is contrary to several articles of the constitution. I suggest to Mr Maliki to even choose a man for the ministry of women's rights, as you do not have confidence in women.
But Nouri did just that, having Hoshyar Zebari fill the role of Minister of Women's Affairs (he was 'acting' -- even Nouri knew not to nominate him to Parliament). Zebari only 'left' the post when Nouri was able to find the great gender traitor Ibithal al-Zaydi.
This little creep was greeted with outcries when she declared that Iraqi women had no rights. As noted in the February 3, 2012 snapshot:
Reuters notes
Halima Dakhil who pays $210 for rent for her and her children. And that
Iraqi widows receive $85 a month from the government and $13 a month
for each child. This is ridiculous and shameful as Nouri spends billons
on toys for warfare. Gender-traitor Ibtihal al-Zaidi shows up in the
story to insist, "I agree it is little. But there is a real plan to
increase these benefits." Let's hope all the widows and children living
in poverty can afford to wait for al-Zaidi to get around to addressing
the "real plan."
Who is this woman who goes
along making excuses? Now in his second term as prime minister, Nouri
appointed his stooge, Ibtihal al-Zaidi, to be Minister of the State for
Women's Affairs. . She's gotten herself in trouble in the last weeks in
Iraq. She's declared that she doesn't believe in equality, that Iraqi
women need their husband's permission before doing anything (presumably
their son's or father's permission if they're widowed, divorced or
unmarried) and has come up with a little dress code for Iraqi women
employed by the government. Al Mada reports
today that MP Safia al-Suhail is calling the gender traitor out and
asking that al-Zaidi appear before Parliament to explain this dress code
(which bans certain skirts, t-shirts and sneakers among other items --
but only for women) and al-Suhail points out that al-Zaidi's remarks
are troubling and run contrary to the oath the Minister of Women's
Affairs took when assuming her office.Last week Abtihal Alzidi, the Iraqi minister for women’s affairs in Nuri Al Maliki’s government, told a local news agency that she does not believe in equality between women and men in Iraq.
”I am against the equality between men and woman”, she said. “If women are equal to men they are going to lose a lot. Up to now I am with the power of the man in society. If I go out of my house, I have to tell my husband where I am going. This does not mean diluting the role of woman in society but, on the contrary, it will bring more power to the woman as a mother who looks after their kids and brings up their children”.
This statement has caused a lot of outrage. MP Mrs Hala Safia asked the deputy of the Iraqi parliament to call the women’s affairs minister to parliament for questioning. Hala Safia’s father was assassinated by Saddam’s thugs in Beirut in the 1980s and she has since become active in politics, working with Dr Alawi’s Aleraqia list. She is married to the Kurdish human rights activist Bhaktyar Ameen.
The Organisation for Woman’s Emancipation in Iraq also condemned Abtihal Alzidi’s outrageous statement and called for the dissolution of her ministerial department.
Let's be real clear on something. We covered when it happened and were only able to do that because I read Arabic. English language media treated it as a non-story. They never really addressed what the gender-traitor said, that it was against Iraqi law or that it was a betrayal of Iraqi women.
Since the US invasion of Iraq, there has been no female prime minister, no female president or female vice president. It briefly appeared a woman might be vice president (February 2011). President Jalal Talabani was calling for the vice presidency to be expanded to four people (after it had already been expanded to three). But that effort went nowhere.
Third,as noted in the September 27th snapshot, "Al Mada reports feminists in the province are planning to form a collective to run for office with the goal of advancing women in all fields. Dad Hasnawi tells Al Mada that the slate would be the first of its kind in the province, in Iraq and in the Arab world and that it would embrace women's issues."
These are realities for women in Iraq where life is pretty damn bad but the strong Iraqi women continue fighting for a better life for themselves and the women who will follow them.
As noted in yesterday's snapshot, the 42 executions in Iraq this week brought the total to 132 for the year so far, three more than were executed in Iraq in 2012. UN Humans Rights Office spokesperson Rupert Colville declared today:
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has repeatedly stressed, after earlier mass executions in 2012 and 2013, that the justice system in Iraq is "too seriously flawed to warrant even a limited application of the death penalty, let alone dozens of executions at a time." Large-scale executions of the sort that have been carried out on a number of occasions over the past two years in Iraq are not only obscene and inhuman, they are most probably in contravention of international law. They are also undermining efforts to build a more stable, less violent society in Iraq. The mass execution carried out over the past two days is particularly perverse given that yesterday was World Day Against the Death Penalty.
France's Foreign Ministry issued the following statement:
France condemns the execution of 42 people in the
last two days in Iraq and expresses its deep concern at the scale of the
use of the death penalty in this country. These executions contradict
the global trend toward the abolition of this inhuman punishment, the
deterrent value of which has never been established. France again urges
the Iraqi authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on the death
penalty with a view toward its definitive abolition.
The parliamentary seminar hosted by France this week on the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty brought together more than 40 representatives from the North Africa/Middle East region, including Iraqi parliamentarians. It provided an opportunity to reaffirm the universal nature of this priority.
In October 2012, Mr. Laurent Fabius launched a campaign for the universal abolition of the death penalty. France expresses its firm and constant opposition to the death penalty everywhere and under all circumstances.
The parliamentary seminar hosted by France this week on the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty brought together more than 40 representatives from the North Africa/Middle East region, including Iraqi parliamentarians. It provided an opportunity to reaffirm the universal nature of this priority.
In October 2012, Mr. Laurent Fabius launched a campaign for the universal abolition of the death penalty. France expresses its firm and constant opposition to the death penalty everywhere and under all circumstances.
Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 362 violent deaths so far this month. What might make violence increase? How about Nouri al-Maliki stripping security chiefs of their powers? Kitabat reports Nouri's doing just that, that he doesn't trust them and is giving their powers to his oldest son Ahmed. Wow. That'll really lower morale.
Today's violence?
All Iraq News reports 1 man (alleged to be former al Qaeda) was shot dead in Ramadi, 1 person distributing food was shot dead in Falluja, and 1 police officer was shot dead In Mosul. Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports a Baghdad bombing targeting a car lot claimed 3 lives and left nine people injured. Press TV reports a Tuz Khormato market bombing left 3 people dead and eleven injured. Alsumaria adds that late last night 1 doctor was shot dead in Mosul. NINA notes an armed Shirqat attack left two police officers injured, a Shirqat car bombing left seven people injured, an Imam was also assassinated in Mosul, 2 people were shot dead in downtown Baquba, 1 person was shot dead leaving his Baquba home and a Tikrit bombing left one police officer injured.
We've been noting the failure of the Parliament to pass a voting law and how Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujiaif has declared that parliamentary elections will take place April 30th and, if necessary, will be conducted under an old elections law. At the Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates, Ahmed Ali offers these thoughts:
The date for Iraq’s
national parliamentary elections has been set for April 30, 2014. However, the
law governing the conduct of these elections has not yet been passed. Debate
over this law provides a venue for major political groups to establish
conditions that will favor them in the upcoming elections. The debate also has
the potential to cause tensions between the Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds. If
these tensions become too heated, they risk providing an opening for Al-Qaeda
in Iraq.
On October 7, the Iraqi parliament, known as the Council of
Representatives (CoR), voted
to set April 30, 2014 as the latest date to hold the 2014 national parliamentary
elections, which will determine who is the next prime minister. This vote came after
several rounds of delays in voting on a law that will govern the conduct of the
elections. In its statement, the CoR indicated that if an elections law is not
passed by October 30, 2013 it will initiate “legislative measures” to amend a
previous elections law. The passage of an elections law in Iraq is an opportune moment for Iraq’s various political groups to establish conditions that will favor them in the upcoming contest. The process normally takes extensive negotiations and attempts to build consensus among the various factions. The negotiations over the 2014 elections law will follow a similar process. However, they are shaped by the aftermath of the 2013 provincial elections and are currently characterized by renewed political tensions between the Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance (SLA) underperformed in the provincial elections and has since been reaching out to the Iraqi Kurds. Thus, the debate over the elections law is a test for the rapprochement between Baghdad and Irbil. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Sunni electorate was fragmented in ways that benefited the Iraqi Kurds, especially in Ninewa province. At the moment, Iraqi Sunnis view the elections law debate as an opportunity to regain unity on important issues such as elections in Kirkuk.
Next week will be the tenth month of continuous protests in Iraq -- not that this will be noted by the non-Iraqi press. The foreign press ignores over nine months of continuous protests. Protests have been taking place non-stop since December 21st. Iraqi Spring MC reports that protests took place in Samarra today, Baquba, Jalawla, Falluja, Ramadi, Mosul, and Balad Ruz. NINA notes:
Sheikh Mohammed Fayyad, one of the organizers of Anbar sit-ins ,said to NINA reporter : "The citizens participated in the prayers that held in the courtyard northern Ramadi and eastern Fallujah cities , stressing that the goal of this trickle is to send one again a message to the governing in Baghdad that our demonstrations are peaceful and backed by citizens deep conviction.
Gwynne Dyer (Columbus Dispatch) notes today:
Mass Sunni protests began almost a year ago, and until last April they were almost entirely nonviolent. Sunni terrorists belonging to al-Qaida-related jihadist organizations — another byproduct of the American occupation — were killing about 300 Shias a month, but they had little support in the broader Sunni community.
Then in April the Iraqi (i.e. Shia) army raided a peaceful protest camp in Hawijah, killing about 50 Sunnis, and suddenly the violent minority of Sunni jihadists came to be seen as defenders of Sunni rights.
Dyer's referring to the April 23rd massacre of a sit-in in Hawija which resulted from Nouri's federal forces storming in. Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk) announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault. AFP reported 53 dead for several days now -- indicating that some of the wounded did not recover. UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).
Mass Sunni protests began almost a year ago, and until last April they were almost entirely nonviolent. Sunni terrorists belonging to al-Qaida-related jihadist organizations — another byproduct of the American occupation — were killing about 300 Shias a month, but they had little support in the broader Sunni community.
Then in April the Iraqi (i.e. Shia) army raided a peaceful protest camp in Hawijah, killing about 50 Sunnis, and suddenly the violent minority of Sunni jihadists came to be seen as defenders of Sunni rights.
Dyer's referring to the April 23rd massacre of a sit-in in Hawija which resulted from Nouri's federal forces storming in. Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk) announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault. AFP reported 53 dead for several days now -- indicating that some of the wounded did not recover. UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).
Yesterday's "Iraq snapshot" covered the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health where widows Heather McDonald and Kimberly Stowe Green explained how the VA's 'treatment' (over medication) killed their husbands Scott McDonald and Ricky Green. For those who missed it, we'll note some of Heather McDonald's testimony.
Heather McDonald: For 15 years, he served honorably in the uniform of his country and was proud to serve as a UH-60 Blackhawk mechanic and Crew Chief for MEDEVAC Unit. Bosnia, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan are only a few of the war-torn countries he dedicated his life to changing. In his career, he experienced heartache, unimaginable violence, death and the overall devastating effects of war. He saw many of his fellow soldiers give the ultimate sacrifice -- narrowly escaping many times himself. He loved his country and what the American flag stands for. He was a brothers in arms to thousands of fellow soldiers and a truly remarkable man that never met a stranger. Scott had larger than life expectations for his children. And because of his commitment and honor, in January of 2011, we married. On April 30, 2011, Scott's career with the army came full circle and he hung his uniform up for good. He began seeking the treatment from the VA for back pain and mental illness. The Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center in Columbus, Ohio immediately started prescribing medications beginning with ibuprofen, nurofen, meloxicam and graduating to vicodin, klonopin, celexa, Zoloft, valium and Percocet. This is where the rollercoaster began. My husband was taking up to 15 pills a day within the first six months of treatment. Every time Scott came home from an appointment, he had different medications, different dosages, different directions on how to take them. And progressively over the course of a year and a half of starting his treatment, the medications had changed so many times by adding and changing that Scott became changing. We researched many of the drugs that he was prescribed online and saw the dangerous interactions that they cause. Yet my husband was conditioned to follow orders. And he did so. On September 12th of 2012, Scott attended another of his scheduled appointments. This was when they added Percocet. This was a much different medication than he was used to taking and which they prescribed him not to exceed 3,000 milligrams of ibu -- acetaminophen, I'm sorry. Again, my husband followed orders. Approximately zero-one-hundred hours on the 13th of September, I arrived home from my job. I found Scott disoriented and very lethargic. I woke him and asked him if he was okay? He told me he was fine and that he just took what the doctors told him to take. At approximately zero-seven-thirty, I found my husband cold and unresponsive. At 35-years-old, this father of two was gone. I ask myself why everyday. And when I ask the VA why more tests weren't performed to make sure he was healthy enough, they responded by saying: "It is not routine to evaluate our soldiers' pain medication distribution." A simple "I am in pain" constitutes a narcotic and a "This isn't working" constitutes a change in medication. I was sickened and disturbed by their response and I decided at that point no one else should die. I have no doubt that if the proper tests were being performed on our men and women, I would not be here today -- because my husband would be. I have no doubt that for thousands of the soldiers that have fallen after coming home from war would be here today. [Wiping tears] I'm sorry. As the silent soldiers and spouses of our military members. we almost expect the possibility that they won't come home from war. But we cannot accept that they fight there for their country and after the battle is over they come home and die.
As Ava noted last night in "The VA killed Heather McDonald's husband (Ava)," the press had a real problem with those women's testimony and rushed to tie pretty bows around it as if widowhood was a wonderful vista to new career choices. Today, some of those same outlets (NextGov, for example) appear to have realized how horrible their reporting was and gotten a little more honest. Wally covered the second panel in "VA bullied doctors into prescribing narcotics" -- where two of the three medical witnesses shared that the VA compelled doctors to over-medicate and that whistle-blowing got you fired. From yesterday's snapshot:
You can't just dispense pain killers like they're Flintstone chewables or candy out of Pez dispenser. This attitude was overcome long ago everywhere except the VA. It's why former First Lady Betty Ford went public and set up The Betty Ford Center.
When it comes to addiction, there may not be a more vulnerable population than veterans. The reasons for that are they are taught to mask the pain while serving and, as both widows pointed out, to follow orders -- the following of orders often carries over the medical treatment from the VA. The VA doctors are prescribing like it's 1947 and, as a society, we've never heard of pain killer addiction.
People in pain need help and need treatment. They do not, however, need to develop an addiction because a bunch of lazy or quack doctors don't want to do their job.
Under Shinseki, the prescriptions are killing veterans, yes. But also under Shinseki, the prescriptions are resulting in addictions that will have be treated years from now.
That's unacceptable -- from a health standpoint and from a taxpayer standpoint.
Shinseki is supposed to be on top of things. He shouldn't need a Congressional hearing to take action.
It was really distressing to hear Josh Green detail his objections to the pills and how, when he would raise these objections, he would be prescribed more pills.
Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran Justin Minyard suffered from chronic back pain (tied to a 72 hour continues shift at the Pentagon, searching for any survivors after the Pentagon was hit on 9-11). The existing back pain was amplified by his later service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The treatment? Pills, pills and more pills. That's all the VA offered him. He explained, "My life revolved around when is my next pill, when is my next dosage increase and when can I get my next refill? At my worst point I was taking enough pills daily to treat four terminally ill cancer patients."
Repeating, this isn't just medical malpractice with effects people see and feel now, this is medical malpractice that is turning veterans into addicts. That is unacceptable. Civilian doctors prescribing in this manner risk loss of license and criminal charges but the VA just looks the other way. The VA motto appears to be: "Addiction gets you out the door!"
A number of e-mails asked about the over-prescribing and insisted this would trigger state investigations. No.
This was addressed in the hearing by Dr. Pamela Gray. In the civilian world, to practice medicine in Rhode Island, you need to be state licensed in Rhode Island. In the VA world? If you are licensed in any state, the VA circumvents the rules and allows you to practice in any state. So you're licensed in Georgia, hired by the VA and assigned to Oregon, you don't have to get licensed in Oregon and the state board has no say over your actions.
One of the easiest ways to improve and ensure functional treatment at the VA would be to require the doctors to meet the same conditions and guidelines required of civilian doctors. Eric Shinseki could issue an order to make that happen. Or Congress could pass a law. But something needs to happen.
Kat's "The fake apology from Dr. Jesse" covered the third panel, the VA's Dr. Robert Jesse. No, his apology did not seem for real. It was further cheapened by his defensive nature and obvious inability to take accountability on behalf of the VA.
This week, community evening bloggers had a theme post. In 2009, at Third, we named Bette Davis "The Best Actress of the 20th Century" and this week's theme was favorite Bette Davis film. These were the posts and picks: Ann's "Old Acquaintance," Betty's "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?," Trina's "The Letter," Rebecca's "beyond the forest," Ruth's "Dark Victory," Kat's "All About Eve," Marcia's "Jezebel," Stan's "Dead Ringer," Elaine's "Now, Voyager," Mike's "The Little Foxes" and Isaiah's "Working It For BP (Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte)."
iraq
unicef
Iraqi spring mc
the associated press
sameer n. yacoub
the Columbus dispatch
Gwynne dyer
all iraq news
national iraqi news agency
global research
global research news hour
denis halliday
francis a. boyle
