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Report from a group meeting with our Enemies My husband and I did something that I never imagined we would do, we along with other military parents attended a Military Families Speak Out meeting. No, we haven't turned left wing but just took an opportunity that will probably never occur again.  An ad ran in our local paper that a Chapter for Military Families Speak Out was forming in our area. They invited all parents with concerns over the war to attend. We considered this an opportunity because we do have concerns over the war with children deployed even though we...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - As the United States military draws up long-term plans to leave Iraq, top officers are looking to the U.S. intervention in Bosnia's civil war as a model for an American exit strategy here. The United States will keep combat teams in Iraq for the next few years, pulling them gradually out of cities into the countryside, and then perhaps into Kuwait and other countries. Eventually it will leave entirely, said Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack, commander of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division. A slower version of this pullout plan is under way in Bosnia, with...

I am wondering if any of you might have info on email addresses, websites that lead to email addresses, etc. of troops over in Iraq. Anything will be helpful, thanks

American troops forced to buy own wartime gear By TARA COPP & JESSICA WEHRMAN Scripps Howard News Service Sep 12, 2003, 00:51 Last Christmas, Mike Corcoran sent his mother an unusual Christmas list: He wanted night-vision goggles, a global positioning system and a short-wave radio. Corcoran, then a Marine sergeant in Afghanistan, wanted the goggles so he could see on patrols. They cost about $2,000 each. According to an Army internal report released earlier this summer, many ground troops like Corcoran decided to dip into their own pockets to get the equipment they needed to fight in Afghanistan and in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Four US soldiers serving in Iraq have been charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war and are awaiting a decision on whether they will face a court-martial, a defense official said. The charges mark the first time US personnel have been formally accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners since the beginning of the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20. The names of the soldiers have not been released, but they are reported to belong to a military police unit that helped guard prisoners at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq, last May. "They have been charged with...

Iraqis emulate Palestinians by stoning troops A tactic of the Palestinian intifada has spread ominously to Iraq, less than three weeks after US tanks rolled into the middle of Baghdad. American troops are coming under attack from Iraqi children throwing stones, replaying scenes from the West Bank and Gaza Strip that were broadcast on state-run television before the fall of Saddam Hussein. News reports said that children – who at first flocked around the American forces, and were given sweets by the soldiers – have begun hurling rocks in Mosul and the Shia city of Najaf. In one incident this...

The following speech was delivered at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.In remembering why we have come to support our troops today, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on something most of us never think about: our extraordinary luck in being Americans. We are, in a sense, lottery winners. There are something like 6.3 billion human beings currently living on the planet. Assuming that most of us were born sometime in the last half century, this works out to a roughly 1-in-20 chance of being born in the United States of America. There are plenty of other places...

BANGOR — As travelers pass time in the airport lounge, watching television news reports of the impending war in Iraq, Diane Dube talks about all the soldiers she's met here in the past several months on their way overseas. "I love them," she said. "They are so nice."For hundreds of servicemen and servicewomen from all over the country, Bangor International Airport has been the last stop in the United States on the way to Iraq.For those troops who are allowed to step off their transport planes during the refueling stops, Bangor represents a final, brief liberty stateside and a chance...

CHON-GOK, SOUTH KOREA - Late-winter dawn in Seoul brings a sharp chill. But only 40 miles north, in a tight valley that loops and finger-hooks along the Imjin River, it is positively frigid. GIs on military exercise trek through a brown goulash of freezing mud and snow. Tank columns jerk along a foggy ridge, ready to cross the river whose bank was "cleared" at 2 a.m. of a mock enemy by Apache helicopters and night-vision troops. Iowa-born Sgt. Joseph Oakes has been up for 12 hours. He nudges a pontoon bridge into position from a river craft whose V-8 engines...

Kuwait City, January 18 :A Kuwaiti soldier accused of spying for Iraq was working on plans to poison a large number of American soldiers, a well-connected Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Saturday. The alleged spy, Sgt. Mohammed Hamad al-Juwayed of the Kuwaiti National Guards, was also helping Iraqi agents to infiltrate the country with the aim of assassinating Kuwaiti politicians and blowing up oil and power facilities, the newspaper Al-Watan said. The Interior Ministry announced al-Juwayed's arrest on Friday, saying he "provided security and military information to the Iraqis and spied on movements of senior Kuwaiti officials with the intent of...

In a region packed with squeamish U.S. allies, one nation is working overtime to be part of Washington's plans for war against Iraq. Eritrea, a tiny desert nation across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia, has even hired a Washington lobbying firm to press its invitation to American troops. "Eritrea provides the United States with a strategic advantage and hospitable atmosphere that cannot be matched in the region," says the Washington lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, which was hired by Eritrea in May for an estimated $50,000 a month. In a press release titled "Why Not Eritrea?" that reads somewhat...

King Abdullah II denies claims of American troops existence in Jordan Amman, July 15 (PETRA)--His Majesty King Abdullah II Monday denied existence of any American troops in Jordan and any understanding with USA concerning an offensive plan against Iraq. In an interview with NBC , His Majesty said that the Middle East region can not handle striking Iraq , particularly as the consequences of such a step can not be predicted. His Majesty affirmed that, during his contacts and talks with international community, he noticed some expressing reservation while others rejection concerning a military strike against Iraq. The King warned...

Will the Victory of the Ali Quaeda and Taliban be the Radiation of America's Finest? In a macbre since, will the victory of the Ali Quaeda and Taliban be the radiation of America's finest? Has anyone thought about the American, British and Canadian troops stationed throughout Southwest Asia? If Pakistan and India unleash the 50 - 75 warheads they are threatening to deploy from their nuclear arsenals, it will cover the region our troops and our allies are stationed in.