Monday, January 23, 2012

PTSD and sexaul assault

Starting with PTSD and, for background, we'll quote from a recent federal court ruling (National Organization of Veterans Advocates, Inc. v Secretary of Veterans Affairs),"The rule at issue here concerns PTSD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition ("DSM-IV"), classifies PTSD as an anxiety disorder. A person may develop PTSD after exposure to a stress inducing event, such as threatened death or serious injury. Persons suffering from PTSD reexperience the traumatic event in several ways, including nightmares, flashbacks, and physiological or psychological reactions to stimuli reminiscent of the damaging experience. As a result, those suffering from PTSD may remove themselves from the world and those around them in an effort to avoid that which could trigger a response. Tragically, an estimated ten to thirty percent of United States Armed Services personnel will develop PTSD within a year of leaving combat. See Nat'l Council on Disability, Invisible Wounds: Serving Service Members and Veterans with PTSD and TBI 2-3 (Mar. 4, 2009), available at http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2009/March042009 ("Invisible Wounds"). The United States has deployed over 1.6 million troops in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Id. at 8. Those conflicts have been characterized by guerilla warfare tactics and the inherent uncertainty that comes with it. Moreover, many troops have served multiple tours of duty with little respite in between. It is no surprise that these conditions are particularly likely to lead to increased incidences of PTSD. See id. at 21-23. The troops who return home and develop PTSD are often faced with more than reliving the horrors of war. Veterans with PTSD suffer from more chronic conditions and have shorter life spans than veterans without PTSD. PTSD has also been linked to higher divorce rates and joblessness. Id. at 18."

Addressing mental trauma deriving from the wars is not easy when, just noting a few extreme cases, leads to an attack (ask CNN or the Christian Science Monitor) but the reality is that those cases do exist. They are not typical of those suffering from PTSD, but they are actual events. Braving her way into this terrain, Julie Watson (AP) examines trauma among veterans with a special emphasis on the Marines and her article concludes with:

Paul Sullivan, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization of Veterans' Advocates, said the military only started administering medical exams of service members before and after deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 to identify problems early so they can be treated more effectively and less expensively.
"It's good their implementing it now, yes; however, what's the military going to do with all of the veterans the military didn't examine?" he asked. "That's the problem."


Watson offers a very even handed look. John Lasker (Truthdig) reports on Spc Gena Smith who is an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD and dealt with sexism, harassment and assault:

At times the abuse became physical and violent. She says that sometimes her crotch was grabbed and that several times the sexual violation was terrifyingly worse: She says she was raped by men whom she described as junior enlisted infantry.
[. . .]

"This matter [sexual assault] is a laughing stock among men in the military,” says Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel who quit the State Department in protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has since dedicated herself to the struggle against rape in the military. "It's a joke for the guys because they know they'll never get prosecuted. The atmosphere in the military is you know you can get away with it."
Here are the Defense Department's own numbers: It estimates that 19,000 incidents of sexual assault occurred within the armed services in 2010 but that only 13.5 percent of those were reported, because victims in some cases either feared retaliation from commanding officers or believed nothing would come of a report.

Last week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta became the first sitting US Secretary of Defense to call a press conference on sexual assault that was not in response to an immediate incident (such as Tailhook). In doing so, he became the first Secretary of Defense to treat the issue seriously. He concluded his opening statements with this, "Let me close by speaking directly to the victims of sexual assault in this department. I deeply regret that such crimes occur in the US military. And I will do all I can to prevent these sexual assaults from occurring in the Department of Defense. I'm committed to providing you the support and resources you need and to taking whatever steps are necessary to keep what happened to you from happening to others. The United States military has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault. And we will hold the perpetrators appropriately accountable. I expect everybody in this department to live up to the high standards that we have set and to treat each other with dignity and respect. In a military force, where the promise is to help each other in battle and to leave nobody behind, that promise must begin by honoring the dignity of every person on or off the battlefield."

PTSD effects different people differently. Therefore there is a wide assortment of treatments -- some of which will work for some, some of which won't. In addition to therapy and peer-to-peer groups, creative writing classes such as those run by novelist and poet Maxine Hong Kingston may assist some. (Maxine's workshop for veterans and families produced the book Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. You can read Maxine's intro to the collection here. Gated Grief author Leila Levinson has a list of writing programs for veterans here.) Some may benefit from a variety of programs. Less intensive than Maxine's writing workshops is a songwriting camp, Colleen O'Connor (Denver Post -- text and video) reports on the Songwriting Camp for Veterans in Colorado Spring:

The music camp is a new program from LifeQuest Transitions, a Colorado Springs nonprofit that helps wounded veterans transition from the military to civilian life. Founder CW Conner came up with the idea of the camp after a presentation to the Colorado Springs Executives Association, he said, attended by about a dozen business leaders.
"I asked how many of their companies had HR (human resources) solutions for post-traumatic stress syndrome or for traumatic brain injury. Zero," he said. "We're in the mecca of a military town, and we've not thought about what to put together for military vets whom we've asked to be at war for 10 years."


Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "State of the Union" went up last night. This week on Law and Disorder Radio -- a weekly hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) -- topics explored include an update on Mumia Abu-Jamal, Guantanamo Prison, the murder of Iranian scientists, Occupy Chicago Tribune lawsuit, Bradley Manning, the whistle blower site Honest Appalachi (with Jimmy Tobias as guest) and more. (No link to Honest Appalachi because -- listen to the broadcast -- you need to install something on your computer first to interact with the site.)

this is where we take our stand

David Zeiger directed the award winning documentary Sir! No Sir! about resistance within the ranks during Vietnam. His new documentary is This Is Where We Take Our Stand about the 2008 Winter Soldier hearings. Iraq Veterans Against the Wars notes a benefit screening ($15 a ticket) in NYC on February 1st, 7:00 pm, at the IFC Center and:

The film will also air on PBS around the country, thanks to generous support from the National Educational Television Association. Due to the controversial nature of the film, many local PBS stations will relegate 'This is Where We Take Our Stand' to their smaller and less widely available affiliates. We urge you to contact your local PBS station and encourage them to air the film on their major channel. http://thisiswherewetakeourstand.com/?p=376

The movie's NYC debut isn't the only veterans events in February. Next month is also the first ever scientific symposium on Burn Pits:


1st Annual Scientific Symposium on
Lung Health after Deplyoment to Iraq & Afghanistan
February 13, 2012

sponsored by
Office of Continuing Medical Education
School of Medicine
Stony Brook University

Location
Health Sciences Center, Level 3, Lecture Hall 5
Anthony M. Szema, M.D., Program Chair
Stony Brook
University
Medical Center


This program is made possible by support from the Sergeant Thomas Joseph Sullivan Center, Washington, D.C.


2 WAYS TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE

* Register with your credit card online at: http://www.stonybrookmedicalcenter.org/education/cme.cfm

* Download the registration form from:
fax form to (631) 638-1211

For Information Email: cmeoffice@stonybrook.edu


1st Annual Scientific Symposium on
Lung Health after Deployment to Iraq & Afghanistan
Monday, February 13, 2012
Health Sciences Center
Level 3, Lecture Hall 5

Program Objective: Upon completion, participants should be able to recognize new-onset of lung disease after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

8:00 - 9:00 a.m. Registration & Continental Breakfast (Honored Guest, Congressman
Tim Bishop

9:00 - 9:30 Peter Sullivan, J.D., Father of Marine from The Sergeant Thomas Joseph
Sullivan Center, Washington, D.C.

9:40 - 10:10 Overview of Exposures in Iraq, Anthony Szema, M.D., (Assistant
Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Stony Brook University)

10:10 - 10:40 Constrictive Bronchiolitis among Soldiers after Deployment, Matt
King, M.D. (Assistant Professor of Medicine, Meharry Medical College,
Nashville, TN)

10:40 - 11:10 BREAK

11:10 - 11:40 Denver Working Group Recommendations and Spirometry Study in
Iraq/Afghanistan, Richard Meehan, M.D., (Chief of Rheumatology and
Professor of Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO)

11:40 a.m. - Microbiological Analyses of Dust from Iraq and Afghanistan, Captain Mark

12:10 p.m. Lyles, D.M.D., Ph. D., (Vice Admiral Joel T. Boone Endowed Chair of
Health and Security Studies, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI)

12:10 - 12:20 Health Care Resource Utilization among Deployed Veterans at the White
River Junction VA, James Geiling, M.D., (Professor and Chief of Medicine,
Dartmouth Medical School, VA White River Junction, VT)

12:20 - 1:20 LUNCH AND EXHIBITS
Graduate students Millicent Schmidt and Andrea Harrington (Stony Brook
University) present Posters from Lung Studies Analyzed for Spatial
Resolution of Metals at Brookhaven National Laboratory's National
Synchrotron Light Source

1:20 - 1:40 Epidemiologic Survey Instrument on Exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Joseph Abraham, Sc.D., Ph.D., (U.S. Army Public Health Command,
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD)

1:40 - 2:10 Overview of the Issue Raised during Roundtable on Pulmonary Issues
and Deployment, Coleen Baird, M.D., M.P.H., (Program Manager
Environmental Medicine, U.S. Army Public Health Command)

2:10 - 2: 40 Reactive Oxygen Species from Iraqi Dust, Martin Schoonen, Ph.D.
(Director Sustainability Studies and Professor of Geochemistry, Stony
Brook University)

2:40 - 2:50 BREAK

2:50 - 3:15 Dust Wind Tunnel Studies, Terrence Sobecki, Ph.D. (Chief Environmental
Studies Branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research
and Engineering Laboratory, Manchester, NH)

3:15 - 3:45 Toxicologically Relevant Characteristics of Desert Dust and Other
Atmospheric Particulate Matter, Geoffrey S. Plumlee, Ph.D. (Research
Geochemist, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO)

3:44 - 4:15 In-situ Mineralogy of the Lung and Lymph Nodes, Gregory Meeker, M.S.
(Research Geochemist, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO)


Continuing Medical Education Credits

The school of Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brook, is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The School of Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brooke designates this live activity for a maximum of 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.





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wbai
law and disorder radio
michael s. smith
heidi boghosian
michael ratner






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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "State of the Union"

state of the union


Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "State of the Union." Americans watch Barack deliver another speech and react. "What's he saying?" asks one. "I don't know," replies another. "'I think I can. I think I can.'? 'Packers for the Super Bowl win.'?" A third disagrees, "No, no. Something about 'recovery.' Is he going into rehab?" Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.






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And the war drags on . . .

Jane Arraf (Al Jazeera -- link is video) reports on the ever-closing society in Iraq.

Jane Arraf: These days at Baghdad's Liberation Square, there are more soldiers and police than protesters. Not just these but dozens of riot police waiting just under the grid. But they won't have any trouble from these demonstrators. With the killings and arrests of anti-government protesters, these young men chanting support for Nouri al-Maliki have taken over the square. A few won't give up.

Iraqi female protester: I can talk freely, right? This is Tahrir Square. And it's about freedom.

Jane Arraf: But it's not. These men drown her out when she starts criticizing Maliki. They won't give their names. Here at Radio al Mahaba, an independent women's radio station, the staff used to see all their friends at the Friday protests. That's until Hadi al-Mahdi, a controversial radio host, was arrested and badly beaten and then killed at home. And before the first set in the station's cafeteria last fall.

Kamal Jabar (showing the remains of the bombing): This was an in door.

Jane Arraf: One of the founders of the station who was beaten up after a protest last year says they've had enough.

Kamal Jabar: And we got the message. We are moving out of here. I don't feel secure. I don't want to be responsible for any death or injury or harm to any of the staff.

Jane Arraf: There were high hopes for the democracy meant to take root in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled. But in between the fall of Saddam and an increasingly authoritarian government, the freedom to say what you want has been shrinking. Hundreds of activists have either left the country or gone underground. While some of the radio staff have quit, Ahlam al-Daraji wants to continue her show at a new, safer location.

Ahlam al-Daraji: Life is meaningless if you remain afraid and worried all the time. And if I say, "I can't say this because someone might object"? If that's the case, why are we living? Maybe I should leave Iraq?

Jane Arraf: They're staying for now. With fewer voices left, they believe they need to speak up for the rest. Jane Arraf, Al Jazeera, Baghdad.


As we noted at Third this morning, "Today the Associated Press quotes Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah Whitson stating, 'Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism. Despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy (in Iraq), the reality is that it left behind a budding police state'." The opening of the section on Iraq in HRW's [PDF format warning] World Report: 2012 notes:

Human rights conditions in Iraq remained extremely poor, especially for journalists, detainees, and opposition activists. In part inspired by peaceful uprisings elsewhere in the region, thousands of Iraqi demonstrated in the streets to demand better services and an end to corruption. Security forces and gangs responded with violence and threats.
Reports continued of torture of detainees unlawfully held outside the custody of the Justice Ministry. In late June or early July United State forces handed over the last of the 192 detainees in Iraq who were still under US control at the end of 2010, including some former members of Saddam Hussein's government. Attacks by armed groups killed hundreds of civilians as well as the police. The US continued to withdraw troops as part of a 2008 agreement that calls for complete US withdrawal by the end of 2011.


2010 mattered so much to Iraq. But our 'brave' panhandle media (Pacifica Radio, The Nation, etc.) either ignored Iraq or brought on trash like Nir Rosen to offer 'expertise.' Trash that opnely disrespects women, they're not really interested in humanity or equality. They're interested in their own thuggish behavior and in supporting other thugs.

Which is how the 'analysts' paying attention wanted you to know that Nouri al-Maliki was the answer.

There's a mistaken opinon by some visitors that I "love" Ayad Allawi or that I think he's "heroic" or some thing else. The only Iraqi politicians I've had any dealings with is a member of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc. I'm fully aware of Allawi's histroy and, check the archives, we've covered it here.

But unlike Nir Rosen, I never approached Iraq as something to quickly cross of a things-to-do list. Unlike Nir and his peers, I didn't praise Nouri because he was "authoriatarian" and would scare the Iraqi people into submission. Nouri is trash. (Like his American supporters.)

But I don't live in Iraq. I don't vote in Iraqi elections. If Nouri had been the choice of the Iraqi people, then so be it. But he wasn't.

People voted. At great risk to themselves. Candidates ran for office -- at great risk if they were Iraqiya -- they were banned, they were arrested, they were assassinated in the lead up to the March 2010 elections.

Nouri and his thugs insisted that Iraqiya was "Ba'athist" and "terrorist" and would destroy Iraq. And, look at the only real in depth report on the elections (written by Deborah Amos), Nouri had the bulk of the media on his side.

State of Law, his political slate, was supposedly going to destroy all the other choices. But that didn't happen.

Iraqiya came in first.

Some little Nirs and friends of Nir like to hiss like alley cats that Iraqiya only won 2 more seats in the Parliament.

First, that's two districsts full of people voting, that's not "Iraqiya only got two more votes from the Iraqi people than State of Law!" It's also true that Florence Griffith-Joyner won the Gold for the 100 meter in the 1988 Summer Olympics. Yeah, she only beat Evelyn Ashford by 0.3 seconds, but she still won. No one tried to argue, "Evelyn shold get the gold because she almost won!" Flo-Jo was the winner because she came in first. Didn't matter by how much.

And Iraqiya won the 2010 elections. That's how it goes.

More Iraqis elected to support Iraqiya than elected to support State of Law. A decision was made, the will of the Iraqi people was voiced.

But the White House ignored that to insist upon their fellow Nouri al-Maliki -- of whom Roy Gutman (McClatchy Newspapers) notes today, "Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, is driving to consolidate control and sideline more secular politicians in a battle that increasingly appears to be a fight to the finish in which there can be no compromise."

Now back in 2006, I had a heated argument with a friend at the State Dept over Nouri. The 2005 Parliament was stating that they wanted Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister. The US imposed Nouri on the Iraqi MPs. And shouldn't have been able to. But, I was told by my friend, "al-Jaffari was prime minister and if he continued as prime minister, that might send the wrong message." Yet the same basic State Dept (only the appointees change, most are career government employees) wasn't at all concerned in 2010 about a message being sent by keeping Nouri -- even when Nouri lost the race.

The Constitution was clear about who should have first choice at trying to pull together a coalition which should then trigger the President (of Iraq) to name a prime minister-designate. But just as Nouri would use the Superme Court he controls to aid him in power grabs in 2011, he did so in 2010 with the Court offering a 'unique' interpretation.

If the White House had refused to support Nouri -- and intelligence assessment reportedly recommned strongly that they not support Nouri -- then Nouri wouldn't be prime minister now.

And he shouldn't be. He's in violation of the Constitution, of the will of the Iraqi people and of the democratic process itself.

The White House backed him and really damaged any hopes of democracy in the process. If risking your own safety to go to the polls and vote doesn't result in any change -- even when the results put Nouri in second place, not first, if the Constitution is tossed aside to keep the second place choice in office, if everything is violated to make him prime minister-designate and he still can't name a full Cabinet in 30 days as required by the Constitution but he gets to be prime minister, then what the hell does any of it matter?

Not just the what the hell does voting matter, but what the hell does the Constitution matter, why bother with the legal process at all.

A message was sent by the White House when it elected to back Nouri -- after warnings from human rights group and, reportedly, warnings from the CIA.

If everything that was going on in Iraq right now was going on under Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the US could say, "Well, that's who the Iraqis picked when they went to the polls." But everything's going on right now -- the political crisis, the increase in violence -- with Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister and he's only prime minister because he was the White House's choice, the Iraqi people chose someone else.


They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, the number of US military people killed in the Iraq War since the start of the illegal war was 4487. Tonight? PDF format warning, DoD lists the the number of Americans killed serving in Iraq at 4487. Here's the screen snap.

12212

Violence continued in Iraq today. Reuters notes an attack on a Baquba checkpoint which left 2 police officers dead and 2 suspects killed as well as 1 Sahwa injured and, dropping back to Saturday, an attack on an Iskandariya checkpoint left 1 police officer dead and two more injured. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) adds that the Sahwa injured in the Baquba attack died and reports a Mosul car bombing which claimed the life of 1 person and left three more ("including two police officers") injured.





New content at Third:


Isaiah's latest goes up after this. Pru notes this from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:


British intelligence covers up, again

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The British intelligence services are bogged down in accusations of torture and collusion.


Two Scotland Yard inquiries concluded last week. One looked into the treatment of Binyam Mohamed by MI5. The other looked at MI6-led interrogations at Bagram prison in Afghanistan in 2002.

In both cases the Crown Prosecution Service claimed there was not enough evidence to press charges.

Binyam Mohamed is a British citizen. He was detained in Pakistan and interrogated by an MI5 operative. The CIA reported that he was “continuously deprived of sleep”, shackled and threatened.

In a court case in 2010, documents exposed that the security services were aware of Binyam’s torture—and supplied 70 questions to his interrogators.

A parallel investigation looked into the actions of MI6 interrogators at US-run Bagram prison.

Detectives did not take a statement from Shaker Aamer, who is thought to have witnessed the incident under investigation.

And US intelligence officers present refused to give statements.

On Thursday of last week Scotland Yard launched an investigation into the torture and rendition of two Libyan rebels in 2008. MI6, with the knowledge of Tony Blair, launched the operation in conjunction with Gaddafi’s security services.

But this is a cynical move. One of those accusing the government of torture, Abdul Hakim Belhaj, is a key rebel leader in Libya. The British government has once again switched sides.

© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.




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