"I greatly appreciate everyone’s support and well wishes during this time," [accused leaker Bradley Manning] said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer."I'm also thankful for everything that has been done to aid in my defense," Manning continued. "I ask that everyone takes the time to remember those who are separated from their loved ones at this time due to deployment and important missions.
Click here to sign a letter demanding decent treatment for Bradley Manning:
And while we're talking about soldiers and their loved ones...
Around twenty soldiers have committed suicide at Fort Hood this year, surpassing the record fourteen in 2008. Time magazine recently reported that multiple deployments increase the risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, making veterans six times more likely to commit suicide.To mark this ninth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Against the War [recently marched] in Washington, DC [...] to launch the first veteran-led campaign to stop the deployment of soldiers traumatized by multiple tours of duty.
[...]
ETHAN McCORD: There’s—I know many soldiers who suffered from PTSD and TBI and who are being ignored. This problem—this systematic problem is being ignored. And they’re being redeployed. The unit that I was with, they just got back from Iraq a few months ago. You know, one of the soldiers who was there, they kicked him out, knowing he had PTSD. They kicked me out, knowing I had PTSD, TBI and had metal rods and pins in my back. And they kicked me out on what’s called a Chapter 517, which states that all of my conditions were pre-existing. They’ve done this to over 250,000 soldiers. And it’s time to stop. It’s said between—twenty percent, at the minimum, of troops are suffering from some sort of trauma, whether it be TBI, PTSD or military sexual trauma. That’s an extreme amount of soldiers who are suffering. And they’re being denied their basic human rights to heal. And we’re trying to put a stop to that. It needs to end now. And we need to—we need to stop the redeployment of these troops.
Ethan McCord is one of the soldiers who was on the ground during the infamous Apache helicopter attack (the one Bradley Manning allegedly leaked video of) that killed two Reuters employees. He was berated by his platoon leader for trying to save two Iraqi children rather than “finding other people to kill,” denied military mental health access afterward, and told he would be charged with malingering if he continued to try to seek it. He eventually tried to commit suicide.
Click here to sign a petition/pledge of support for traumatized soldiers:
Click here to read more about “Operation Recovery”:
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