Ailing vets turn to charities in larger numbers
Brandon Pelletier sits with his dog, Skylar, Feb. 19 at a park near his home in Chula Vista, Calif. Susan Rocco starts authorizing help on a litany of pleas from wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at 7 a.m. in her home north of Quantico, Va. One is a young Marine veteran living in a shelter who needs clothing and electricity turned on so he can…
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Iraq Back at the Brink
Soon after the joint US-British bombing campaign “Operation Desert Fox” devastated parts of Iraq in December 1998 , I was complaining to a friend in the lobby of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. I was disappointed with the fact that our busy schedule in Iraq – mostly visiting hospitals packed with injured or victims of depleted uranium – left me no time …
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Iraqi government to build 10 orphanages
Support Iraqi Orphans! The Iraqi government on Tuesday (February 12th) announced it will build 10 orphanages for Iraqi children who lost their parents in terrorist operations. The project will cost 12 billion dinars ($10.3 million) and "the new orphanages will be built using modern designs and furnished according to the latest international s…
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A Soldier’s Promise and an Iraqi Family’s Journey to the US
The Iraqi man known as “Roy,” an interpreter for US troops. In 2008, he was killed, along with six US soldiers, by a bomb in Iraq. His family recently arrived to California after receiving threats for Roy’s work with the US. I’m sitting in a San Diego café with former US Army captain Blake Hall. In just an hour, we’ll head to the airport to greet the p…
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Iraq Ten Years On: What You Don’t Hear!
As 2013 marks the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, I feel there are some points of focus which the media and campaigners need to address, if they wish to provide substance, to any area of serious discussion. Children, like many other civilians, are the silent victims of violence in war-torn Iraq, with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs …
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Lawmaker wants more time for vets on VRAP
The architect of the popular Veterans Retraining Assistance Program is proposing a three-month extension to prevent education benefits from being cutoff before a veteran has completed classes. This would not provide any additional benefits, just prevent GI Bill payments from stopping before the end of the school term. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., …
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Ignore Blair's lust for war
Labour leader Ed Miliband should closely examine the views put forward by Tony Blair in a recent TV interview, and have nothing to do with them. Blair, who has hoovered up a personal fortune of up to £60 million since stepping down as prime minister, was unapologetic about the military adventures into which he dragged Britain's armed forces. …
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Iraq: A Broken Justice System
Iraq’s leadership used draconian measures against opposition politicians, detainees, demonstrators, and journalists, effectively squeezing the space for independent civil society and political freedoms in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2013 . The number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq increased in 2012, for the first time sinc…
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Iraq looks to rebuild health care
After years of economic sanctions and wars, the Iraqi healthcare infrastructure is tottering, but that also makes the sector ripe for investment. In the first three days of the 38th Arab Health exhibition in Dubai, a delegation from the Iraqi ministry of health met more than 100 companies, including ones based in the United States, the United Kingdo…
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THE VALUE OF VETERANS
As part of the U.S. Army's Hire a Veteran campaign, the Army recently partnered with the Society for Human Resource Management to conduct a research study on veteran employment. The results indicate that assumptions about veterans often influence employers' hiring decisions—and not always in the veterans' favor. The study finds thre…
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Veterans battling myriad challenges
When Anthony Vidales walked out of a lie detector test as part of his application process at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department earlier this month, he wanted to cry. He failed the test, he said, due to irregular breathing, a condition he contracted from radiation, pollution and burn pits he was exposed to while fighting in Iraq. “They to…
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Iraqis face future of fear
Whenever he leaves his home, Mohammed Jabar, a Sunni Muslim, carries his cellphone so his family can find out quickly whether he is safe if a deadly bomb attack hits. Shukria Mahmud, another Sunni, rarely ventures from her house because of the rash of violence that is gripping Iraq. Laith Hashim, a young Shiite Muslim, is considering moving away from…
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Iraq violence grinds on
Iraqi authorities say bombs have killed four people in two cities as violence continues to surge six months after the last American troops withdrew. A provincial official says three coordinated bombs exploded within minutes Sunday morning in the central city of Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad. One civilian walking by died and two …
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Iraq violence surges
A half year after the U.S. military left Iraq, dire predictions seem to be coming true: The country is mired in violence and the government is on the verge of collapsing. With no relief in sight, there’s growing talk of Iraq as a failed state as al-Qaida’s local wing staged near daily attacks that killed at least 234 people in June. Iraq no longer s…
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Iraq backs off media outlets closure
Iraq has suspended orders to close 44 media operations in the country, including the BBC and Voice of America, after an outcry by press freedom advocates, an official said Tuesday. The Communications and Media Commission that regulates the news media in Iraq will give the targeted organizations more time to pay outstanding fees and renew lapsed lice…
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Robert Fisk: The Children of Fallujah
For little Sayef, there will be no Arab Spring. He lies, just 14 months old, on a small red blanket cushioned by a cheap mattress on the floor, occasionally crying, his head twice the size it should be, blind and paralysed. Sayeffedin Abdulaziz Mohamed – his full name – has a kind face in his outsized head and they say he smiles when other children visit…
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Building Sparks Preservation Movement
In Upstate New York, residents are clamoring to raze down their Government Center, Paul Rudolph’s classic 1970 example of brutalist design. Ostensibly, this is due to flood-damage. But it can’t hurt that, as one resident was quoted in The New York Times as saying, it’s “a big ugly building.” In Minnesota, city officials would rather tear down M. Pau…
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