By Dave Lindorff

I’m certainly no hero, but since some readers of my last post have
reacted by attacking my courage and integrity on the grounds that I
“never served,” I want to at least set the record straight on my
youthful response to war.

Some things for any military personnel (and all of us) to contemplate in resisting Bush's illegal global wars of aggression... from TomJoad..org

Our duties to humankind: The Nuremberg Principles

Nuremberg Principles - Individuals have International Duties which Transcend National Obligations of Obedience

To choose to refuse orders, to not cooperate with established authority, carries legal and personal risk. For those in the military this is especially true. Such action should be done only after much careful reflection, and exploration of the consequences of a chosen path of resistance. We hope that people who are considering such actions take full advantage of the resources available to them... (more)

This goes back to an idea I floated on a forum node that discussed why there is not a mass upheaval in the public square. As was posited by Bill Harding – and I supported – there are not enough body bags coming out of Iraq and currently we do not have a draft. My point at the time was in Vietnam, we had throngs of protests because people did not have a choice, there was a draft in place, – and the choice to participate (get your ass shot off) was not available to those of draft age. Today, all circular arguments aside as to why we are in Iraq, the soldiers are there of their own free volition.

Last night’s episode of The Daily Show could have been written by an extremely savvy political consultant in the way it handled the hoopla over John Kerry’s recent misstatement vs. the Bush administration’s purposeful insults to both the nation and the troops. Watch the replay at 2:00 or 8:00 PM ET today, November 2, on Comedy Central. Later today or tomorrow it will be available on the Comedy Central website.

Good luck getting their mothereffing Motherload to work, though. I’ve followed all the troubleshooting instructions, and I can only get the sound, not the video. Just getting the sound is still a good thing, though.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

(WashPost) In their Ellicott City kitchen, Jeff Amoros's parents handed their son the Selective Service registration form that arrived shortly after his 18th birthday. For them, it evoked dark memories of the Vietnam era. For Amoros, it meant: "I'm old enough to die for my country now."

At a Montgomery County Friends meeting house, peace activist J.E. McNeil explained to an audience how to convince draft boards that they are conscientious objectors. "Let me tell you why I think there's going to be a draft," she said.

"As the death toll of troops mounts in Iraq and Afghanistan, America's military recruiting figures have plummeted to an all-time low. Thousands of US servicemen and women are now refusing to serve their country. Andrew Buncombe reports"...

The deserters: Awol crisis hits the US forces
Independent News(UK) Sergeant Kevin Benderman cannot shake the images from his head. There are bombed villages and desperate people. There are dogs eating corpses thrown into a mass grave... Last January, these memories became too much for this veteran... Informed his unit was about to return, he told his commanders he wanted out and applied to be considered a conscientious objector. The Army refused and charged him with desertion... The case of Sgt Benderman and those of others like him has focused attention on the thousands of US troops who have gone Awol (Absent Without Leave) since the start of President George Bush's so-called war on terror. The most recent Pentagon figures suggest there are 5,133 troops missing from duty. Of these 2,376 are sought by the Army, 1,410 by the Navy, 1,297 by the Marines and 50 by the Air Force... But campaigners say the true figure could be far higher. Staff who run a volunteer hotline to help desperate soldiers and recruits who want to get out, say the number of calls has increased by 50 per cent since 9/11. Last year alone, the GI Rights Hotline took more than 30,000 calls...

WASHINGTON (USA Today) - The Army, faced with a severe and growing shortage of recruits, began offering 15-month active-duty enlistments nationwide Thursday, the shortest tours ever. The typical enlistment lasts three or four years; the previous shortest enlistment was two years.

But wait a sec...can new recruits be so sure that it will be 15-months only? 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. military has the right to keep soldiers in service beyond their original contracted time by issuing so-called emergency stop-loss orders, a U.S. appeals court said on Friday.

First is an obscure report from AP: U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth for the District of Columbia has nixed the lawsuit against the Pentagon's "Stop Loss Policy".  This the backdoor draft forcing tens of thousands of US service personnel, guard, and reserves to do an extra year or so of service beyond their contracted commitments. Says ya shoulda read the fine print...

Next comes word that Smirk's new budget, with two thirds of a trillion in defence and security spending ($420B plus $80B extra for ongoing wars of aggression for the Pentagon, another $70B for the VA, $40B for "Intelligence", and $35B or so for Fatherland Suckurity), is calling for veterans of Smirk's foreign wars of aggression having to ante up an extra $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care, plus "... increase the co-payment for a month's supply of a prescription drugs to $15, from the current $7." So let me get this straight...

Will Pitt writes:

In the last three years, PNAC has gotten every single thing it placed on its wish list back in 2000. This is why their letter to congress last week is so disturbing.

[...]

Brush aside the patriotic language, and you have the ideological architects of this disastrous Iraq invasion stating flatly that the American military is being bled dry, and that the ranks must be replenished before that military can be used to push into Iran, Syria and the other targeted nations. The 'D' word is not in this letter, but it screams out from between the lines. All the lip service paid to the Iraq elections by these people does not contrast well with their cry for more warm bodies to feed into the meat grinder.

Speaking of the PNAC, remember the Neocons favorite Iraqi, the disgraced Ahmed Chalabi -- embezzler of millions from Jordan, passer of our secrets to Iran...well...he's baaaacckkkk!!!