U.S. settles lawsuit with parents of Iraq war vet who committed suicide
Jason Leopold (The Public Record, 1.20.09)
The federal government has settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of an Iraq war veteran who hung himself in his parents’ basement in June 2005 after being turned away by doctors at a Veterans Administration hospital in Massachusetts where he sought help for post-traumatic stress disorder.
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I’ve attended the DOD taskforce hearing on mental health in 2006 held in Burlingame, part of the Veterans for Common Sense court hearing last year, Eyes Wide Open (AFSC) exhibit in SF and many other events concerning veterans and the loss of life in Iraq and Afghanistan. The level of deliberate neglect and abuse active duty service members received was taken to new depths by the Bush administration.
Aaron Glantz has a new book, The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans. It is only by changing policy in Washington that we will improve treatment for veterans and active duty service members.
City Lights Bookstore presents Aaron Glantz
Wednesday, January 28th @ 7 PM
Columbus & Broadway, SF
The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans
Aaron Glantz, unembeded journalist, broadcaster from Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan has just come out with his new book
The War Comes Home: Washington ’s Battle Against America’s Veterans.
The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle against America’s Veterans is the first book to systematically document the U.S. government’s neglect of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan . Aaron Glantz, who reported extensively from Iraq during the first three years of this war and has been reporting on the plight of veterans ever since, levels a devastating indictment against the Bush administration for its bald neglect of soldiers and its disingenuous reneging on their benefits. The book also supplies the reader with extensive, easy-to-use resource information for those who need help now, not when policy has changed.
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“The War Comes Home”
With Aaron Glantz and Norman Solomon
Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans
With San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar + US Army vet Walter Williams
Saturday, January 31, 2009, 8:00 PM
First Congregational Church of Oakland
2501 Harrison Street, Oakland
Tickets: $12 advance, $15 door, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/52728
or at supporting bookstores
Benefits KPFA Radio
Info: 510.848-6767X611
http://kpfaweb.kpfa.org/events/kpfa-sponsored-events/aaron-glantz-norman-solomon-war-comes-home
Co-sponsors: * Courage to Resist * Craig Newmark (Craig’s List) * Global Exchange * Institute For the Study of Natural and Cultural Resources * Iraq Veterans Against the War * Military Families Speak Out * Military Law Task Force * National Lawyers’ Guild * Pace e Bene * Swords To Plowshares *Veterans for Peace * Veterans for Common Sense
Aaron Glantz, well known to KPFA listeners for his brilliant work on Winter Soldier, is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in The Nation and The Progressive, is the author of How America Lost Iraq and co-author of “Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations.”
The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans, published by University of California Press, is the first book to systematically document the government’s neglect of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Glantz reported extensively from Iraq during the first three years of the war, and has been reporting on the plight of veterans ever since, a devastating indictment of the Bush administration.
Norman Solomon, has written twelve books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. A nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics, he is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
Comments on Aaron Glantz’s work:
“A must-read for those who claim to support our troops.”—Robert G. Gard, Lt. General, U.S. Army (ret.)
“Glantz reports on the human cost of the war, what it does physically and emotionally to those young men and women who carry out industrial slaughter- He reminds us that the essencese of war is not glory, heroism, and honor but death.”- Chris Hedges- former NY Times foreign correspondent, author of War is Force that Gives Us Meaning.
“This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to make the phrase, ‘Support the Troops,’ more than a slogan.” —former US Senator Max Cleland
“One of the many scandals of the war in Iraq is how the administration has betrayed our returning servicemen. I’m grateful that the facts surrounding these tragedies finally being exposed.” -Paul Hagis, Academy-Award-winning director of Crash and In the Valley of Elah, screenwriter of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.”
Aaron’s Schedule so far Online calendar with additional information http://calendar.yahoo.com/aaronfglantz
1/28 - San Francisco - City Lights
1/31 –Oakland with Norman Solomon- KPFA Event
2/2-3 - Events in Boulder/Denver Sponsored by KGNU
2/12 - Skylight Books, Los Angeles
2/17- Atlanta
2/20- Tampa, Fla
2/26- Seattle Town Hall
3/1 - UC-Santa Barbara
3/4 - Hofstra University, Long Island
4/7-Palo Alto
My specific efforts will be doing fundraising, developing speaking, book store, community and veteran/ active duty community events.
I’m going to be networking with a wide range of veterans and related organizations, political and peace groups, and those affected by unmet needs. Families, communities, law enforcement and first responder workplaces disproportionally affected by call ups of reserves and the misuse of the National Guard.
Your support and assistance in getting The War Comes Home the broadest possible audience will help change the abusive system of care and disability evaluation going on in the US military right now.
Wage Peace,
Bill Schwalb, Associate member VFP
Former Communications Officer,
Veterans for Peace SF Bay (Chapter 69)
And staff person Vietnam Agent
Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.