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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (529719)	1/26/2004 11:50:34 AM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 769667

that is FAR FAR FAR from HAVING THEM AS THE GOSPEL FROM BUSH RUMMIE AND CHENEY TO GO TO WAR>>>>>>>> if the bullets don't kill the US soldiers...THE STRESS WILL! Stress Epidemic Strikes American Forces in Iraq By Peter Beaumont The Observer Sunday 25 January 2004 The war's over, but the suicide rate is high and the army is riddled with acute psychiatric problems. Up to one in five of the American military personnel in Iraq will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, say senior forces' medical staff dealing with the psychiatric fallout of the war. This revelation follows the disclosure last month that more than 600 US servicemen and women have been evacuated from the country for psychiatric reasons since the conflict started last March. At least 22 US soldiers have killed themselves - a rate considered abnormally high - mostly since President George Bush declared an end to major combat on 1 May last year, These suicides have led to a high-level Department of Defence investigation, details of which will be disclosed in the next few weeks. Although the overall suicide rate is running at an average of 13.5 per 100,000 troops, compared with a US army average of 10.5 to 11 per 100,000 in recent years, the incidence of the vast majority of suicides in the period after 1 May is statistically significant, accounting for about 7 per cent of all service deaths in Iraq. The same, say experts, is true for psychiatric evacuations, the majority of which have taken place after that date, a fact confirmed in recent interviews by Colonel Theodore Nam, chief of in-patient psychiatry services at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington. He says no psychiatric cases at all were evacuated during the major combat. High levels of psychiatric casualties are expected, despite the US armed forces making an unprecedented effort to deal with stress and psychiatric disorders during service in Iraq. At the heart of the concern is that Iraq may repeat the experience of Vietnam, which experienced low levels of psychiatric problems during service there in comparison with the two world wars, but very high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans later. According to Captain Jennifer Berg, the chairman of psychiatric services at the Naval Medical Centre in San Diego, whose staff see US Marines returning from Iraq, military psychiatrists have been warned to expect the disorder to occur in 20 per cent of the servicemen and women in Iraq. Although Berg believes some of the problems already reported - including the suicides and psychiatric evacuations - relate to people's experiences during the invasion rather than its aftermath, she concedes that the forces' present conditions of service in Iraq are producing their own problems. 'I think during the combat phase there was a huge outpouring of support at home. The soldiers were also trained and ramped up for their mission. There has been a change since then. There is a feeling among troops there that they have fallen off the public screen. And the longer people are there, the more we are seeing people come forward with stress reactions.' Berg believes operating conditions for the 'nation-building phase' of the Iraq campaign are creating their own kinds of mental health problems - not least the ever-present threat to US vehicles and troops of the resistance's home-made mines. These are one of the main causes of death among coalition troops in the period after 1 May. 'In comparison with the combat phase, what we are now seeing are conditions of chronic stress which the troops are experiencing every day. It is a combination of danger, boredom and sleep deprivation, and the knowledge that they are a long way from home,' said Berg. 'In addition people are no longer sure when or what the end will be. No one knows when they will be going home. They are also working in an environment where the people they came to help are very hostile.' Already the cases that such doctors as Berg are seeing have what she describes as 'classic reactions, the basic symptoms of combat stress'. The psychiatrists have seen symptoms ranging from disturbed sleep, heart palpitations, nausea and diarrhoea to more obvious behavioural problems, such as forgetful-ness, aggression, irrational anger and feelings of alienation. From the present period of chronic stress to the personnel, the doctors are expecting symptoms of depression and generalised anxiety to develop. These may be exacerbated by underlying existing traumas. The most pronounced cases have already ended in suicide. Among them was Army Specialist Joseph Suell, who wrote a last letter home to his mother before he died of an overdose of the painkiller Tylenol on 16 June. Suell complained to her of the conditions he was living in, without electricity, water to bathe in, as well as a fear that he would be killed by an Iraqi sniper. He complained how badly he missed his wife and daughters during a year-long posting to South Korea before he was sent to Kuwait and then on to Iraq. He had been granted compassionate leave. As he prepared for war it was clear to his family he was in trouble, his worried wife even intervening to try to secure his return. Suell's is one of the few suicides to have been reported in the American media. The Pentagon has refused to say which of its 'non-hostile fatalities' have been self-inflicted. The military psychiatrists are puzzled by the suicide rate in Iraq, saying that it makes little sense in comparison with those in past conflicts. The accepted wisdom in military psychiatry is that the level of suicides - far from increasing during wars - drops as the survival instinct kicks in among the personnel in the conflict zone. Just two suicides were recorded among US personnel during the entire Gulf war in the Nineties. What is also unusual about the rate in Iraq, in comparison with Vietnam, Korea and the Second World War, is that everyone serving in the all-volunteer forces has already been screened for their psychological suitability. They have also been briefed on combat stress and trained to counter any suicidal feelings, following a rash of military suicides which embarrassed the Pentagon in the late Nineties. CC

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (529719)	1/26/2004 11:51:14 AM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

SPeaking of history repeating itself....>WATERGATE!!!!! 2004! Computer Reportedly Seized From Frist's Office By Richard Powelson The Knoxville News-Sentinel Saturday 24 January 2004 Democrats say their computers were infiltrated by GOP staffers. WASHINGTON - Federal investigators reportedly have seized a staff computer in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office in a probe to find Republican aides who improperly accessed Democrats' memos on opposing judicial nominees. Nick Smith, a spokesman for Frist, R-Tenn., would not confirm or deny Friday if an office computer or hard drive was taken by investigators representing the office of the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms. "We're not commenting on the issue while it's under investigation," Smith said. The Boston Globe reported Thursday that federal experts studying any improper access of Democratic senators' computer records had confiscated several computers or computer hard drives of the Judiciary Committee and one in Frist's office. The article also identified a Frist staff member - Manuel Miranda - as being under scrutiny for his computer use. Smith in Frist's office confirmed that Miranda is a Frist employee but is on a leave of absence. Asked if any of Frist's staff computers or computer servers had been seized, Smith said: "I cannot comment on the details of the investigation." Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in late November confirmed that the ongoing probe has found Republican staff wrongdoing. One unidentified staff member was suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation, Hatch said. The office of the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms, which is using computer experts of the U.S. Secret Service to investigate, expects to finish its analysis of who did what within three to four weeks, an office spokesman said. The final report will be given to Hatch and the committee's senior Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Tracy Schmaler, spokeswoman for the committee's Democrats, said the Democrats share Hatch's outrage over the computer security violations. "This is unethical and immoral behavior that cannot and should not be tolerated," she said. Committee Democrats learned late last year that their computer access codes were not set up properly and some Republican staffers knew about the glitch and took advantage of it for two years to view and copy sensitive files relating to the Democratic opposition to some of President Bush's judicial nominees. Schmaler said Republicans could not justify improper access to restricted Democratic correspondence that was mistakenly unprotected by passwords. Doing so, she said, would be like "blaming the victim whose car was broken into by a burglar for leaving the trunk unlocked." Frist, who has completed one year as Senate majority leader, often criticized Democrats last year for repeatedly blocking several of Bush's judicial nominees. But Leahy said Democrats are allowing more of Bush's nominees to be approved than Republicans approved when Democrat Bill Clinton was president. Leahy criticized the "cyber theft" of confidential Democratic memoranda. "This invasion was perpetrated by Republican employees both on and off the committee," he said without naming names. "Members of the Republican staff took things that did not belong to them and passed them around and on to people outside of the Senate. This is no small mistake. It is a serious breach of trust, morals, and possibly the rules and regulations governing the U.S. Senate." -------CC

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (529719)	1/26/2004 12:33:30 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Bald Eagle, re: "This is a regime that never lost its intention to have such programs and have such weapons." The quick answer is "so what." MOST of the "regimes" of the world would choose to have such programs and such weapons, if that were a viable option. This is even more true in view of the announced "preemptive doctrine" of the U.S. Our own nation is still actively engaged in such weapons programs and production to an extent that dwarfs all the other wmd weapons programs in the world. Should we "preemptively" attack every other nation that wants to have such weapons? If not, what exactly is the fair, farsighted and just position that we should take on this complicated and dangerous issue? I'd like to hear your views on this, including your views on what justifies our own tremendous arsenal of wmds and our continuing research and development of more effective wmds while we take every opportunity to remind the world what a scourge such weapons are.