contributions

One bad day in Iraq and a 19-year-old boy faces a lifetime without his right hand. This veteran speaks about his hopes and fears - and the long, hard road ahead.
By Lakshmi Chaudhry
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of profiles of some of the tens of thousands of Iraq War veterans who have come home bearing the scars of battle - emotional and physical wounds that may never heal unless the nation pays them the attention and care that they deserve. We at AlterNet believe that in (…)

By Ian Williams
Bush has failed the military on almost every level - marking the difference between being militaristic and pro-military.
George W. Bush so often invokes his nominal title of "commander in chief" at veterans’ rallies, on military bases and during presidential debates that he now appears like some latter-day caudillo. But his claims to be a commander of any kind in any serious way are a figment of his imagination.
Discounting that he sent American troops into Iraq on (…)

The New Anti-War Protesters
By Joseph Rosenbloom
SANDWICH, N.H. — By the end of last week, Maggie Porter’s brick collection totaled 1,099 — and counting.
The bricks are meant to depict the coffins that the United States has been transporting to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware since the Iraq War began. Each brick is wrapped in a miniature American flag and labeled with the name of a serviceman or woman who has died in the war.
Over Columbus Day weekend this month, there was a popular (…)

Vice President Dick Cheney was at it again the other day, insisting that the occupation of Iraq is "a remarkable success story."
This raises the question of how much success the United States, and Iraq, can stand.
But there is also the issue of whether such an inane claim means that Mr. Cheney and President Bush are willing to say anything to get elected, or that they so separated from reality that they now can make themselves believe anything? And, which would be worse?
Anyway, news (…)

By ROBERT BURNS
WASHINGTON - The Army has extended by two months the Iraq tours of about 6,500 soldiers, citing a need for experienced troops through the Iraqi elections scheduled for late January.
About 3,500 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, and 3,000 from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will remain in Iraq two months longer than planned, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday.
The purpose, Whitman said, is to "maintain continuity of forces in the (…)

by Mike Schiller
2 days from today, we will finally get to do something we have not done since 1996... pick a President. It’s been a long wait, but the moment is about to arrive. During the summer of 1999, I was living in a different world than the one I live in now. My life revolved only around my needs, my goals, my ambitions, my desires and my pains. Around that time, a person said to me, "In another year, Bush is going to be President", and I laughed. I said, "This is 1999, not 1989, (…)

By Patricia Wilson
TOLEDO, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry turned President Bush’s own words into a weapon on Thursday and said it was the Republican incumbent who had jumped to conclusions in Iraq, disqualifying him from being commander in chief.
The Massachusetts senator, energized by his beloved Boston Red Sox’s long-awaited win in baseball’s World Series and a joint appearance with rocker Bruce Springsteen, launched a withering attack on Bush over 380 tons of (…)

(Camp Lejeune, North Carolina-AP) Oct. 28, 2004 - Officials say about 14,000 Marines and sailors, including some from South Carolina, will head to western Iraq beginning in January.
Camp Lejeune in North Carolina has announced that the troops of the Two Marine Expeditionary Force should be in control of its assigned area by late March.
Most will come from units based in North Carolina, though some other Navy and Marine personnel, including reservists and aviators from South Carolina, (…)

By John Solomon
Inquiry to determine whether pentagon improperly awarded bids.
The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices.
The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it elevates to a criminal matter the election-year (…)

A NASA Photo Expert’s Analysis Makes It Clear: Bush is Lying — he wore some kind of device in each of the three debates. So why won’t the media go near this story?
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/11/10_407.html
By Dave Lindorff October 30, 2004
A leading NASA scientist who normally spends his days analyzing and enhancing photo images sent across the depths of space by the Cassini and other space probes has turned his expertise to images of the president in his three (…)