(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, February 7, 2008
18 Percent of Recent Veterans Unemployed A Department of Veterans Affairs study leaked to the Associated Press shows recently discharged veterans are having a harder time finding civilian jobs and are more likely to earn lower wages for years than those who never served in the military.

SHARE        Friday, January 25, 2008
Investigative Report: How Washington Cheats Veterans out of the Benefits They've Earned When young American men and women sign up to serve in US military, our government makes a basic promise to them: that if they are wounded in the line of duty they will get the care they need. Unfortunately, for tens of thousands of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a promise that only exists on paper.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, November 26, 2007
War Vets Fighting Drug Addiction ABC News is out with a very important investigation into alcohol and drug abuse among soldiers who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ABC investigation is centered on Fort Carson, a massive Army base in Colorado Springs, which is home to 17,500 active duty personell.

SHARE        Wednesday, March 5, 2008
New Pentagon Data Shows 73,518 Battlefield Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan We've updated the War Comes Home's embeddable American Casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan widget to reflect the 1,475 battlefield casualties the Pentagon reports for the month of February.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, January 28, 2008
Where the Republicans Stand on Iraq Following up on my story on the Democrats and Iraq, I have a story on where the Republican candidates stand on the war. Basically, Ron Paul is against the war, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain want to keep it going forever and there's no telling where Mitt Romney stands.

SHARE        Sunday, November 18, 2007
Army Neurosurgeon: "Is What We're Doing Worth This?" Dr. Gene Bolles has spent 30 years caring for bodies broken by brutality. As a young man, he witnessed the suffering of both U.S. military personnel and Vietnamese civilians. Yet, despite his extensive experience with war, nothing has shaken him up more than the 26 months he spent working at Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany treating U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

SHARE        Monday, March 3, 2008
Winter Soldier: US Army Sgt. Logan Laituri on the Rules of Engagement Former US Army Sergeant Logan Laituri served a tour in Iraq before returning home and filing to be discharged as a conscientious objector. At the Winter Soldier gathering later this month, he'll describe how the rules of engagement he operated under lead to the approved killings of innocent civilians and the destruction of ancient landmarks.

SHARE        Monday, February 25, 2008
Agent Orange: Federal Court Sides Against Vietnam Vets, Vietnamese People Even as the costs of the Iraq war pile up, the human costs of the Iraq war continue to ripple out. On Friday, a federal appeals court rejectedan effort by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange to reinstate claims that U.S. companies (including Monsanto and Dow) committed war crimes by making the toxic chemical defoliant used in the Vietnam War.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 23, 2008
More than 72,043 battlefield casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan The Pentagon officially reported 72,043 battlefield casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan through Jan. 5, 2008. In addition, VA hospitals and clinics have treated 263,909 unplanned patients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. On top of that, VA reported 245,034 disability claims from veterans of the two wars.

SHARE        Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Winter Soldier: Remembering John Kerry's Testimony in 1971 Senator John Kerry was a young Navy Lieutenant when he attended the first Winter Soldier gathering of Vietnam Veterans in 1971. Afterwards he testified to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and asked: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

SHARE        Friday, November 23, 2007
Only 3% of Veterans Graduate from College Specialist Jorge Reyes served 10 years in the US Army including a tour as a machine-gunner in an infantry unit in Iraq. But when he returned home and tried to go to college, he had trouble. During his decade in the service no one had ever taught him how to use a computer.

SHARE        Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Iraq War Veterans to Launch "Winter Soldier" Investigation Iraq Veterans Against the War is launching a"Winter Soldier" investigation into atrocities in Iraq modeled on a similar effort by Vietnam vets 36 years ago. In March 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital "to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars."

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, February 28, 2008
Iraq and Afghanistan Casualty Widget for Your Website, MySpace or Facebook Account Don't Let the Bush Administration bury the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Embed the War Comes Home Iraq and Afghanistan Casualty Widget on your website, MySpace, or Facebook page. Close to 73,000 American servicemen and women have been killed, wounded, injured or fallen in ill the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 263,000 have received treatment from the VA. 245,000 have filed a disability claim. These a

SHARE        Friday, January 11, 2008
Federal Judge Allows Major Class Action Lawsuit Against the VA A federal court in San Francisco has cleared the way for a major national class action lawsuit on behalf of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The VA had sought to dismiss the lawsuit claiming that the groups bringing the suit, were simply "advocacy organizations" and did not have standing to sue on behalf of the estimated 320,000 to 800,000 service returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with cases of PTSD.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, February 19, 2009
'You Saved My Life' . . . A Reason to Keep Reporting After six years of war in Iraq, it is easy to get exhausted and depressed -- to think that all your repeated exposures to the trauma of war are for nothing, that you are screwing yourself up for next to no money for no reason -- then something happens that suddenly gives all your work meaning, that gives you the strength to continue.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Iraq War Veteran "I Used Meth to Dull the Pain" Staff Sergeant Michael Hall saw so many people die in Iraq he felt guilty about coming home alive. To dull the pain, he started doing, then dealing, methamphetamines. Within two years he was homeless – one of 400,000 homeless vets who sleep on America's streets every year.

(3 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Wounded Soldiers Wait Longer for Disability Checks Wounded veterans are being forced to wait longer and longer for a disability check, according to new data from the Department of Veterans Affairs information obtained by McClatchy Newspapers. According to McClatchy, veterans must wait an average of 183 days for a claim to be decided - up from 177 days a year before.

SHARE        Friday, November 16, 2007
Army Guardsman's Death at Fort Knox an "Isolated Incident" Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, who suffered head injuries in a roadside bombing in Iraq, died Sept. 21 in an Army medical facility at Fort Knox, Ky. An autopsy performed for his family indicated he had been dead for hours before he was found by hospital staff and that he may have been unconscious for two days before that.

(1 comments) SHARE        Sunday, January 27, 2008
Americans Rally for US Soldiers AWOL in Canada Supporters of US soldiers who have fled to Canada in order to avoid service in Iraq are set carried out vigils and visits across the country Friday and Saturday. Supporters will meet with officials at Canadian consulates across the United States and hope to show that many Americans hope the Canadian Parliament votes in favor of a provision to allow war resisters to stay.

(3 comments) SHARE        Friday, April 11, 2008
John McCain: No Friend of Veterans Everyone knows McCain is a former POW, but did you know he refuses to support a bipartisan effort to modernize the GI Billand has voted against nearly every effort to increase funding for health care and disability benefits for wounded soldiers? Did you know that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave him a D+ when they scored his voting record (whereas Obama got a B+ and Clinton an A-).

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, June 30, 2006
Pentagon: Tell Us How Many Civilians You've Killed Why won't the Pentagon tell the public how many civilians they've killed in Iraq?

SHARE        Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Soldier Arranges to be Shot to Avoid Redeployment to Iraq The San Bernardino County Sunreports a soldier trying to avoid redeployment to Iraq had a friend shoot him in the leg and then claimed he'd been wounded in a hold-up. 20 year old Army Pfc. Mathew John Myers of San Bernardino County limped into a minimart about 9:30pm Sunday and reported he had been walking on a golf course when a gunman stole his wallet and miltiary identification and shot him in the right thigh.

SHARE        Sunday, March 2, 2008
Winter Soldier: US Army Medic Perry O'Brien on Civilian Cadavers in Afghanistan Former US Army Medic Perry O'Brien served a tour in Afghanistan before returning home and filing to be discharged as a conscientious objector. He says the corpses of dead civilians were used as medical teaching tools in Afghanistan without the consent of the dead. He says this shows how war is inherently dehumanizing and hopes Winter Soldier will change the conversation in America about the morality of the war.

SHARE        Friday, February 22, 2008
KPFA to Broadcast Historic Winter Soldier Event in Full From March 14th to 16th, KPFAwill suspend regular programming to broadcast the historic Winter Soldier hearings in Washington, DC. The three day live broadcast will be co-hosted by myselfand former Army medic and KPFA Morning Show host Aimee Allison. A live web-stream of the broadcast will be available through the War Comes Home website.

SHARE        Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Bill O'Reilly Doubts There are Homeless Veterans Bill O'Reilly doesn't think there are "many" homeless veterans sleeping on the streets of America. His comments, which were captured by the website BillwasWrong.org, came as he disparaged Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, who's made the indignity of at least 200,000 homeless veterans part of his daily stump speech.

SHARE        Tuesday, February 26, 2008
US Army at the Breaking Point, Schwarzenegger Wants CA Guard Home Top Army officials have told a Senate panel that the Army is under serious strain and must reduce the length of combat tours as soon as possible. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of Staff said, "The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance."

SHARE        Thursday, January 24, 2008
935 False Statements Lead US to War in Iraq President Bush and seven of his top officials made at least 935 false statements in the two years following 9/11 about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. That's the finding of an exhaustive investigation by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity which showed an orchestrated campaign of misinformation marked the march to war.

SHARE        Thursday, November 15, 2007
Canada Rules Against AWOL Soldiers Two U.S. Army deserters who fled to Canada and sought refugee status on grounds of their opposition to the war in Iraq have lost their bids to have the Supreme Court of Canada hear their cases.

(4 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Military Donors Favor Antiwar Candidates On this "Super Tuesday" primary, it's worth noting that members of the US military favored antiwar candidates with their campaign dollars. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, they gave the most money to Texas Republican Ron Paul, who voted against the Iraq war and advocates a complete and immediate withdrawal of all US troops, with at least $212,000 in contributions. Barack Obama was second with about $94,000.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, January 31, 2008
Record Number of Army Suicides At least 121 members of the US Army committed suicide last year. A new Army study found more than a quarter of those -- about 34 -- did so while serving a tour of duty in Iraq. But even these statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. They don't include "accidents" which are really suicides, service-members who "commit suicide by cop" and they don't include veterans, who kill themselves after being discharged.

SHARE        Thursday, September 13, 2007
Petraeus Report Means More Soldier Suicides General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker somehow forgot to mention the tremendous number of American soldiers killed and injured in the war. We're not only talking about those killed by "enemy fire." In addition, to the 3,774 dead, more than 56,000 are listed as wounded, injured, or ill; and another 250,000 have filed for disability. Then there are those that take their own lives.

(1 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Winter Soldier Book Now Available to Preorder All the gripping testimonyand photosfrom Winter Soldier are being compiled into a book Winter Solider Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations which will be published by Haymarket Books this September. Haymarket is a small, activist press so the more copies they sell as pre-orders the more money they'll have to get the word out come September. Please, support these courageous soldiers and veterans and reser

SHARE        Thursday, November 15, 2007
Army Medic Climbs Through Window To Escape Second Tour in Iraq Army medic Augustin Aguayo refused to load his gun in Iraq and then escaped through a base window in Germany rather than be deployed a second time. He said during basic training he realized that he could never use his gun to kill anyone.

SHARE        Thursday, September 6, 2007
Success in Iraq? Try Listening to the Troops I spent parts of three years reporting in Iraq and have been reporting on the stories of American veterans since my return. Most of the troops I speak to believe the war is already lost.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, January 18, 2008
Parsing the Democrats' Iraq Plans Where do the three main Democratic Presidential candidates really stand on Iraq? They all want to take some US troops out and leave thousands of "non-combat" troops behind. Which of them is telling the truth? And what is the definition of a "non-combat" soldier anyway? I tried to figure that our in an article published on OneWorld and in http://warcomeshome.org/...

(3 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Pentagon Forcing Wounded Soldiers to Repay Bonuses Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) revealed the Pentagon is telling wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan repay bonuses as big as $10,000 for not finishing their service commitment.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, February 2, 2008
Take the War Comes Home "Did You Know?" Quiz Did you know? More than 72,043 American soldiers have been killed, wounded, injured, or ill as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan How well do you know your facts about U.S. veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan? Take the War Comes Home "Did You Know?" Quiz and find out!

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Democrats Fail at Promise of VA Budget on Veterans' Day The Democrats in Congress have broken their promise to pass a VA budget by veterans day. The delay is important because hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are being discharged from the military and need care from the VA, which is already stretched far too thin. Democrats talk a good game, but unless they actually do something those who served our country will continue to suffer.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 21, 2006
Normal Life Impossible in Bush's Iraq Living in Iraq is becoming absolutely impossible. The numbers tell part of the story. The United Nations announced Tuesday that, on average, 100 Iraqi civilians died every day in May and June. According to the report, about 2,700 civilians were killed in May and 3,100 were killed in June. Amid the violence, the "Iraqi government" has been next to worthless.

SHARE        Friday, February 8, 2008
Bush Lawyers Argue Veterans Not Entitled to Mental Health Care Hotlist The Bush Administration is arguing in court that veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care. This, in response to a class action law suit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Bush “Surprise Visit,” a Lead Balloon in Iraq George Bush’s much ballyhooed “surprise” visit went over like a lead balloon in Iraq.

(2 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Bush Signs Vets Bill, Won't Ban Permanent Bases President George W. Bush signed a 696-billion-dollar Pentagon spending bill. The bill is a mixed bag for peace activists, since Bush added a so-called "signing statement"saying he would ignore provisions that ban permanent military bases in Iraq and forbid the use of U.S. troops to exercise United States control of Iraq's oil resources.

SHARE        Thursday, March 6, 2008
299,585 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Have Gone to the VA for Medical Treatment So we've had to update the War Comes Home embeddable American Casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan widget for the second time in two days. At a federal court hearing of a class action lawsuit brought by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who allege inferior treatment from the VA, a high ranking VA official revealed 299,585 veterans of the "war on terror" had gone to the VA for medical treatment as of September 30, 2007.

SHARE        Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Presidential Candidates Vow No Withdrawal From Iraq The big news about General Petraeus' testimony before Congress came not from the General himself (what should we expect from someone hand-picked by President Bush) but from the Senators who grilled him. Each of the three contenders for President -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain -- was critical of current policy. But they all also spoke out against removing all US troops from Iraq.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, March 1, 2008
Another high ranking Bush Administration official Resigns Another high ranking Bush Administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organization where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.

SHARE        Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Head of US Central Command Resigns Over War With Iran The top US military commander for the Middle East has resigned. Admiral William Fallon had argued strongly against war with Iran. Now he's quit as head of the Pentagon's Central Command. Coincidence?