Asheville anti-war rally commemorates war dead

On Sept. 25, in Asheville’s Pritchard Park, about 200 people gathered for a demonstration against the Iraq war. The event was timed to take place after US fatalities passed the 1,000 mark.

Bob Strott kicked off the event with a poem excoriating unthinking patriotism in war-time. Ken Ashe, a member of Veterans for Peace, spoke against the merger of corporate and governmental power, and described radiation poisoning from the use of depleted uranium in both Gulf wars. Speakers acknowledged the Iraqi death toll (up to 30,000); media in wartime, the resistance movement in the US, Iraq’s oil, and other topics were also covered. At the rally’s end, participants marched to the Vance Monument with a handbuilt coffin draped in a flag, symbolizing the deaths of troops which the Pentagon has forbidden American media to show the public.

The event’s sponsors, Veterans for Peace and the Peace Park Project, announced the imminent construction of the “Iraq Wall,” to consist of stones engraved with the names, ages, and birthplaces of each soldier killed in Iraq. (AGR)

Child abuse deaths higher on NC military bases

New statistics show that children from military families located in two North Carolina counties are twice as likely to be killed by their parents or other caregivers than other children statewide. Cumberland County is home to Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, while Onslow County has Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and New River Marine Corps air station.

The North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute looked at child abuse homicides in North Carolina between 1985-2000 and found an annual rate of 2.2 deaths per 100,000 children. The two counties in question had seven percent of the state’s children but 15 percent of the child abuse homicides.

It is unknown if higher child abuse homicide rates are a national problem for the military. (AP)

Lockdown rankles SC unit bound for Iraq

The 635 soldiers of a battalion of the South Carolina National Guard, who departed Sept. 20 for Iraq, spent their last two weeks under a disciplinary lockdown in their barracks.

On Labor Day weekend, 13 members of the 1st Battalion of the 178th Field Artillery Regiment went AWOL, mainly to see their families again before shipping out. Later, an ugly confrontation between members of the battalion required base police to intervene. A barracks inspection discovered alcohol, resulting in a lockdown that kept soldiers in their rooms except for drills, barred even from stepping outside for a cigarette, until their scheduled deployment.

This particular Guard unit was put on an accelerated training schedule because the Army is severely short-handed, especially on military police units, so these artillerymen were re-trained to provide security. Some said they were angry, or reluctant to go, or both. (Washington Post)