GI Special 4H15: 172nd Betrayed Again - August 15, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

As the summer wears on in Iraq, the attacks on Ramadi's government center are subsiding. But rising in their place are the heat, the boredom and the complaints — about the sandbags Marines must carry, about the Ramadi mission, about the war.Marines often brag that their mission is to kill people and break their toys. But for the Marines of Kilo Company, stuck on the roof of Ramadi's government center and Iraqi police headquarters, simply killing insurgents doesn't feel like progress.And so the frustration rises with the mercury for these troops, most on their second deployment to Iraq and their second summer in Al Anbar province's scorching desert.Insurgents have regularly attacked the government center, trying to prevent the provincial government from functioning. Kilo Company has fortified the posts on the roof, manned around-the-clock by Marines charged with returning gunfire and killing assailants who fire rockets and plant roadside bombs.

continua / continued

GI Special 4H14: " There Are Insurgents Everywhere" - August 14, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

As the summer wears on in Iraq, the attacks on Ramadi's government center are subsiding. But rising in their place are the heat, the boredom and the complaints — about the sandbags Marines must carry, about the Ramadi mission, about the war.Marines often brag that their mission is to kill people and break their toys. But for the Marines of Kilo Company, stuck on the roof of Ramadi's government center and Iraqi police headquarters, simply killing insurgents doesn't feel like progress.And so the frustration rises with the mercury for these troops, most on their second deployment to Iraq and their second summer in Al Anbar province's scorching desert.Insurgents have regularly attacked the government center, trying to prevent the provincial government from functioning. Kilo Company has fortified the posts on the roof, manned around-the-clock by Marines charged with returning gunfire and killing assailants who fire rockets and plant roadside bombs.

continua / continued

GI Special 4H13A: Military Training And Atrocities - August 13, 2006 -
Part 2

Thomas F. Barton

A New Generation Of Activists In Solidarity With Active-Duty Personnel And Military Families "Need Not Be Helpless Before The Power Of Illegitimate Authority . "The elemental truth is that generals and war planners call the shots from air-conditioned building and bunkers far from combat, but wars must be fought on the ground by working-class troops who, when organized, can act on their own political principles rather than on those of their commanding officers.

continua / continued