Iraq

Local vet who killed 16-year-old while driving drunk profiled in the New York Times

Filed under: Iraq

The New York Times published a story about local veteran Tony Klecker this month as part of its series on PTSD, alcoholism, and the domestic causalities of war. Lizette Alvarez writes:

Most nights when Anthony Klecker, a former marine, finally slept, he found himself back on the battlefields of Iraq. He would awake in a panic, and struggle futilely to return to sleep.

Days were scarcely better. Car alarms shattered his nerves. Flashbacks came unexpectedly, at the whiff of certain cleaning chemicals. Bar fights seemed unavoidable; he nearly attacked a man for not washing his hands in the bathroom.

Desperate for sleep and relief, Mr. Klecker, 30, drank heavily. One morning, his parents found him in the driveway slumped over the wheel of his car, the door wide open, wipers scraping back and forth. Another time, they found him curled in a fetal position in his closet.

Yet only after his drunken driving caused the death of a 16-year-old cheerleader did Mr. Klecker acknowledge the depth of his problem: His eight months at war had profoundly damaged his psyche.

"I was trying to be the tough marine I was trained to be — not to talk about problems, not to cry," said Mr. Klecker, who has since been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. "I imprisoned myself in my own mind."

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Posted by Beth Walton at July 9, 2008 4:55 AM | Comments (1)

 

Follow the Story: Soldiers and PTSD

Filed under: Iraq

Amid several new reports pointing to the heightened problem of soldier suicides and increased levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, an army official said Wednesday that suicides increased 13 percent from 2006 to 2007.

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Posted by Beth Walton at June 2, 2008 8:07 AM | Comments (0)

 

MinnPost and "The Burqa Effect"

Filed under: Iraq

I've spent a lot of time in Iraq. Most of it before the invasion, some of it after. I was last there on assignment for a small newspaper out of Kansas City just two weeks after Baghdad fell. I flew into Amman, Jordan and stopped in at a hotel that had become a sort of staging ground for journalists heading into Iraq. I dropped by a lobby bookstore--which, in 2003, was filled with a shockingly useful collection of scholarly books on the Middle East. I asked the kind middle-aged woman who staffed the counter which of these books were selling best. They weren't selling, came the reply. The overnight war reporters, it seemed, were in too much of a hurry to be curious. And, with clear and honorable exceptions, it showed in their reporting.

I stopped reading much of the "on-the-ground" reporting from Iraq two years ago (again, with some exceptions) at about the time that much of the reporting reporting became painfully redundant--narrowed as it was to the reporter reporting on the trials of reportage.

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Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at May 5, 2008 6:37 AM | Comments (6)

 

Follow the story: The wars on Terror and PTSD

Filed under: Iraq

The L.A. Times reported on a RAND study released this month discussing the psychological impact of guerrilla warfare on soldiers and the failure of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to keep pace in the wake of the wars on terror. The study shows one in five veterans suffer from psychological problems and that many are not getting adequate care.

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Posted by Beth Walton at April 18, 2008 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Shouts of wrongdoing: will veterans's protests against the wars be heard?

Filed under: Iraq

Hundreds of veterans will travel to Washington, D.C. this weekend to speak out against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to expose what Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and other peace groups are calling “the human consequences” of failed U.S. military strategy and war policy in the Middle East.

“We broke it, we bought it,” says former army specialist Steve Mortillo in a graphic IVAW video released this week. “But, we’re buying it with American lives. Just what do you think the purchase price is for that damage?"

"There is no forgiveness in my book for someone who sits here in America and orders Americans into battle to die and makes money off of it and profits hand over fist and lies through their teeth to keep it going. I mean at some point it becomes enough.”

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Posted by Beth Walton at March 13, 2008 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Abbas Mehdi

Filed under: Iraq

A helmeted Abbas Mehdi with his South African security guards in Baghdad (Photo courtesy Abbas Mehdi)

As St. Cloud State sociology professor Abbas Mehdi moved into his Green Zone office last year--the beginning of his six months of service in a cabinet-level position in the Iraqi Government, General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker were preparing for testimony before congress and a leaked U.S. Embassy report was bouncing around the internet, first obtained and published by The Nation.

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Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at February 12, 2008 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

 

Just Shoot Me

Filed under: Iraq

The Minnesota National Guard was a key component of the "surge" in Iraq. 2,600 of them recently wrapped up a 22-month tour. On paper, 1,161 of them were serving a 729 day tour, extended for the surge to 22 months. A 730-day tour would have triggered the GI Bill and earned the soldiers money for school back home. But the Pentagon's not paying. Deployments were written for 729 days, and that's that. Now some of the soldiers are speaking out.

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Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at October 7, 2007 8:49 AM | Comments (3)

 

Did the rose-colored glasses come with the kevlar helmet?

Filed under: Iraq

Earlier this month Rep. Michele Bachmann, visited Iraq. This was particularly newsworthy because the freshman Republican had previously made waves by announcing that Iran had a secret plan to take over our Middle East colony. This revelation was either a serious breach of classified military information or delusional speculation.

Since returning from Iraq, Bachmann has been spouting sunny rhetoric about the country. "(Gen. Petraeus) said al-Qaida in Iraq is off its plan and we want to keep it that way," she told the St. Cloud Times.

But Bachmann may as well have been reporting her opinions about this year's soybean crop on Pluto. As Daily Kos pointed out earlier this week, the freshman congresswoman was in the region for less than day. She never left the Green Zone. And she never spoke with an actual Iraqi.

But she did get to wear one of those cool kevlar helmets throughout her stay.

Posted by Paul Demko at July 20, 2007 5:00 PM | Comments (2)

 

The Queen of the Lakes goes to war

Filed under: Iraq

A queen trades her gown for camo | courtesy of Jessica Chayer

When Jessica Chayer (née Gaulke) was crowned Queen of the Lakes at the 2006 Aquatennial, she anticipated that her year-long reign would culminate at the Ten Best Days of Summer celebration where she would pass on her crown to her successor. Her service to the Aquatennial Ambassador Organization came to a halt however when her National Guard unit was called up for a different type of service in Iraq. After representing the Aquatennial in the Rose Bowl and turning her crown over to Jenna Berhhardson, Chayer headed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma where she will be stationed until her deployment in August. She took a few minutes out of her training to talk to City Pages.

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Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at July 13, 2007 2:53 PM | Comments (6)

 

Twin Cities grandmothers take to Nicollet Mall to protest the war

Filed under: Iraq

As downtown suits, shoppers, and workers flooded onto the streets for their lunch breaks late Thursday morning, a group of some 50 people (mostly women, many grandmothers) from Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) marched down Nicollet Mall to protest against the war in Iraq. Their goal, according to organizer Carol Masters, was to "bring attention to the war." The group chose downtown at lunchtime, hoping to make the pro-peace movement more visible to people they may not typically meet.

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Posted by Rhena Tantisunthorn at July 13, 2007 12:45 PM | Comments (1)

 

Local vets advocate wheels across America

Filed under: Iraq

"Hang on, there's a big tractor going by," says the Dutchman, speaking over his cell phone from his electric wheelchair on Highway 12, somewhere between Eau Claire and Black River Falls, Wisconsin. In a journey that has so far resembled a cross between a walkathon and The Straight Story, the Dutchman (Robert William Van Vranken II) has been wheeling across Minnesota since June 1, raising money and awareness for injured war veterans through his website. He's headed for Chicago, and ultimately New York, pitching a tent at campsites along the way.

"I'm in Augusta, Wisconsin, and I'm cruising down the highway and you know what?" he says. "I've got the quietest vehicle on the road."

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Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 9, 2007 11:10 AM | Comments (4)

 

Local Muslims, Franken, Minnesota Libertarian Chair Respond to Bush Speech

Filed under: Iraq

Minnesota Monitor has a trio of reaction pieces regarding President Bush's announcement last night to increase troops in Iraq. The response from the two Muslim leaders and Franken are eminently predictible. Minnesota Libertarian Party Chair Lee Brennise's take, on the other hand, isn't your standard-issue punditry.

Posted by Britt Robson at January 11, 2007 2:38 PM | Comments (1)

 

Dispatches from the flat earth society

Filed under: Iraq

Obfuscation and half-truths have been the norm from the outset with regards to the U.S. military's assessment of what's happening on the ground in Iraq. But the quotes from Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, as reported by Knight Ridder today, would seem to set some kind of new standard for disingenuousness.

Here's the money quote:

"We're not seeing civil war igniting in Iraq. We're not seeing 77, 80, 100 mosques damaged. We're not seeing death in the streets."

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Posted by Paul Demko at February 24, 2006 12:03 PM | Comments (1)

 

Norm Coleman backs off recent Aussie accusations involving the oil-for-food investigations

Filed under: Iraq

ABC News is reporting Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has backed away from earlier accusations that Australian officials were involved in or sought to cover up suspected illicit payments to the regime of ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by the Australian Wheat Board, the main exporter of food to Iraq in the 1990s. Coleman is now giving kudos to the Australian government for their aggressive probe into the controversy. "At this point, all the responses that we have been getting [from Australia] have been thorough, have been very positive, and I anticipate we will continue walking down that path," the senator stated. Australian Prime Minister John Howard emphatically denied complicity by the government and didn't appreciate the junior senator's accusations. "Let's not get starry-eyed about the Americans," Howard harrumphed. "They're going in hard to protect their commercial wheat interests." Read the full story here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 8, 2006 4:35 PM | Comments (0)

 

John Lesch's Iraq adventure

Filed under: Iraq

The Pioneer Press and Checks & Balances both had stories yesterday reporting the departure of state Rep. John Lesch on a two-week backpacking trip to Iraq and Syria. But what exactly the St. Paul legislator hopes to accomplish on this journey remains somewhat murky.

"While it is true that most folks would choose more stable settings for their vacation, I believe the Iraq war is the seminal conflict for our age," Lesch wrote in announcing his departure. "What happens there today will affect many generations of Americans and Iraqis, and I seek to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time."

As both articles noted, Lesch's mission sounds a wee bit like that of Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old Florida rich kid who traveled to Iraq by himself and turned up at the Associated Press office inside the Green Zone.

Whatever Lesch's motives, you can follow his progress on his blog, Down the Rabbit Hole.

Posted by Paul Demko at January 31, 2006 12:41 PM | Comments (15)