Peace Vets

10:31AM - [mod] Restrictions

Due to harassment of one of our members in good standing via a troll in this community, all posts will be moderated for the time being.

All attempts to harass this community will be reported to LJ Abuse.

10:06AM - [mod] Spammer Kenny

If you track this community, you likely saw the five posts from officer_kenny that spammed our fair community, and you may have also noticed that these posts have been deleted. The poster has also been reported to LJ Abuse as a spammer. As a summary:

• First and foremost, his posts (even if truthful) were irrelevant to this community.
• officer_kenny claimed to be on the police force of Olympia, Oregon, a municipality that does not exist.
• officer_kenny gave us the email address of officerkenny@yahoo.com. A google search on this address turns up more than 548,000 hits. The first two pages of these hits are filled with posts at many "liberal" sites similar to the ones he left here.
• Searches in Google news, using information that he provided in his posts, do not turn up any results that appear to be relevant to his story of "anti-cop riots". In fact, I can't find anything about anti-cop riots. Anywhere.
• The photo he used of himself was actually of a police officer in Missouri.

Now to go back through the sitemap and remember how to kick-ban a user.

Peace, Out.
SeanT

2:17PM - McCain's role in POW coverup

http://www.nationinstitute.org/p/schanberg09182008pt1

I suspect that the vast majority of people with "POW/MIA -- You Are Not Forgotten" bumper stickers will be voting Republican this year (again) because, you know, McCain's such a war hero and all that. On behalf of the GOP, let me be the first to say: thanks, suckers!

(x-posted to danielmedic)

12:32PM - Caution: (Karl) Rovism is alive and well

[REFERENCE]

I smell a Rove. It hurts, but I have to admit a grudging admiration for the clever nature of this uniquely Rovian tactic.

Let's look at this a moment.

Mayor Sarah Palin fired the city librarian for refusing to pull certain books from the shelves. The citizenry protested, and got the librarian's job back. [LINK] (Kilkenny letter)

Running for VP, this could be an embarrassing bit of personal history, so how to make it a non-story?

You create a public meme that actually *lists* the books she wanted banned, but make sure that the list itself is false. Let simmer for a few days, then declare it to be a HOAX intended to malign the candidate. It's an obvious hoax because some of the titles weren't even published yet when she was mayor of Podunk.

Story fades, and is never brought up again.

Same thing happened when 60 Minutes did a story on Bush's AWOL status from the Texas Air National Guard in 2004. The story exhibited plenty of proof,including an Officer Efficiency Report from 1972 in which his commander said that he couldn't evaluate First Lieutenant Bush's performance since he hadn't seen 1LT Bush in a year. BUT,there was also a planted document, one which was forged. It was generally a good forgery, and according to the retired secretary who would have been the one to type it, it seemed like something that would have gone into Bush's record at the time, though she couldn't remember specifically typing that letter. It turned out to be a forgery, with a handy technical "gaffe" that once illuminated (typed on a typewriter that hadn't been invented yet), made it obvious that this one document in a pile of hundreds was false. From that point on, no one in the media dared question Bush's military record again.

Beware. This is going to get nasty.

Just in the past week, I've seen several Internet-spread rumors and hoaxes that can be easily disproven, yet are still being circulated by people who are willing to believe anything that will support their predetermined beliefs. More importantly, these same believers continue to spread unverified stories. With the example above, many people would have seen the line "Palin's banned book list", and propagated it to their friends like a socially engineered Trojan virus, which is exactly what it is! Another obvious case came across my Inbox today:

"16 US troops commit suicide in Iraq: Sixteen US troops from the 57th Unit of the Airborne Division have committed
suicide inside a military base in Iraq, security sources say."

This is utter bullshit. Yes, soldiers are committing suicide both there and here, but there is no "57th Unit" of "the Airborne Division". First off, there is no "the Airborne Division". There's the 82d Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division, both part of XVIII Airborne Corps, both with brigades over there right now. Second, the Army (only service with large airborne units) is divided into Corps, Divisions, Brigades, Battalions, Companies (or Batteries), Platoons, Squads, and Teams. Each of these is a "unit" (not capitalized); the only "57th" anything of any size that I can find reference to is the 57th Cav Recon which disbanded years ago.

These things matter. Please, please, please! Before you forward anything that comes your way, make an effort to verify its contents. Then, if you are able to verify it, be kind enough to include references to your research for the benefit of your recipients, and anyone else they may send it along to. Helping to spread falsehoods because they appear to support our position is doing everyone a disservice! As with the examples above, one small bit of misinformation can destroy an otherwise perfectly legitimate story that people need to read, hear and see.

Thank you.

10:43PM - It's easy to write a letter to the Governor ...

... and here's why you should.

Dear Gov. Ritter,

It is my understanding that the Secretary of State's office has recently conducted an unprecendented purge of registered voters, removing fully one-fifth of voters registered in Colorado from the rolls. These voters are overwhelmingly low-income and minority voters who are likely to vote Democratic. With Colorado being a "swing state" in an election year, the timing of this move makes it difficult to believe that it is not a partisan move by Republican Secretary of State Coffman to move the state's electoral votes into the Republican column in November. As a Democrat, a veteran, a Coloradoan, and an American, I urge you to ensure that the upcoming election gives a fair voice to all the voters of our great state.

sincerely,
Daniel Dvorkin

http://www.colorado.gov/apps/oit/governor/citizen/assistanceUtility/welcome.jsf

It's not just Colorado, of course; Florida, Ohio, and New Mexico are other states notably undergoing such purges. Now, what do all these states have in common? Hmmm, let me think ...

(x-posted to danielmedic and gothnation)

7:18PM - Hello everyone

I just found your group and warmly embrace the ideas behind your group. I hope you have been treated well here in the online world.

While you would be hard-pressed to find someone more against the current war being raged in Iraq, and while I was against attacking Afghanistan after 9/11, I am one of those cliches...against the war but for the troops.

Back in the beginning of this year, a friend of mine and I joined together to form a group, she inspired by the fact that she has many friends and loved ones in the military, me inspired by several documentaries about the war in Iraq which showed the bleakness of serving there. Our group, Operation Bag of Home, is working to send small, pocket-sized bags filled with small toiletries and other necessities to our men and women serving overseas.

Those of you who are vets could likely give us excellent advice on what is most desired as signs of home that could fit into a bag that could be carried in a pocket. Right now we are trying to collect things like travel-sized toothpaste, wet ones, and powdered beverages.

If this sounds at all interesting to you, please visit operationboh.

I hope this post is okay...if not please feel free to delete.

Thank you so much!

12:15PM - A letter to the VFW

The latest electronic newsletter from the VFW asked me, "What did you do to celebrate the Fourth of July?". Specifically, they were asking for submissions for a US flag photo contest, but the question in the title required an answer.

How I celebrated Independence Day 2008

Throwing on the previous night's clothes even before starting up my coffee, I unfurled my United States flag, and posted it on the front beam of my house. I winced at the sound of a low-flying fighter jet. "Probably on its way to Ft. Vancouver," I thought to myself.


Read the rest at VeteransToday.com. [LINK]

10:28AM - The letter I just wrote to the Obama campaign

Dear Sen. Obama,

I am writing to urge you to support, rather than distance yourself from, Gen. Wesley Clark and the criticisms he has recently made of Sen. McCain's qualifications and experience. Gen. Clark's remarks were absolutely accurate and contain an important truth that the American people need to understand in this election: surviving being held as a POW, and the rest of Sen. McCain's military service, does not qualify him to be President. No matter what he may have done as a pilot, as a politician he has made the wrong choices over and over again on foreign and defense policy and on veterans' issues -- the very areas where his experience should be supposedly be most useful.

Gen. Clark spoke truth, and is courageously standing by his statements in the face of withering criticism. He would be a great choice for a Vice Presidential candidate for your campaign. At the very least, you should see the justice in his remarks and support conveying this message to voters.

As a veteran, a Democrat, and an American, I support both you and Gen. Clark in your continuing hard work to make America a country we can again be proud of. Please do not miss this opportunity to work together.

sincerely,

Daniel Dvorkin

...

A number of other vets -- mostly much younger than me, and correspondingly blunter -- have some words to say here.

(x-posted to danielmedic)

2:19PM - Why speak out?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/12/aschs-conformit.html

Read this article, and then never again have to wonder why it is so important for you to speak truth in the face of opposition.

At least, that's what I took away from the article.

10:47PM - IVAW detained at Fort Bragg

Brownies Will Get You Five to Ten

A Boondocks Chapter Christmas at Fort Bragg
By Jason Hurd
http://www.ivaw.org/node/2230

On the morning of December 17, 2007, Steve Casey and I awoke bright and early at the Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Steve and I had driven nearly three hundred miles from our home-base in Asheville, North Carolina to distribute holiday gift bags to the wonderful servicewomen and men stationed at our nation's busiest military post--Fort Bragg. Our friends and supporters in Asheville stuffed nearly three hundred small lunch bags full of holiday cards, chocolates, cookies and home-made brownies. The gift bags had a humble feel to them: brown paper lunch sacks with the tops folded down, green and red ribbons, a copy of our newsletter Sit-Rep stapled to the outside and a small sticker that said, "To: A Warrior, From: IVAW." Our mission was to ensure that these bags--each made with love and kindness--got into the hands of our deserving soldiers.

( Read on )

2:13PM - Anti-WAR Protest in Los Angeles This Saturday

this web site has all the info for you

3:11PM - Rest in Peace, David Cline

David Cline, co-founder of Veterans for Peace, long time leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and lifetime peace warrior passed away Saturday morning. In death as in life, David will continue to be an inspiration to all of us whom he has charged to carry on the struggle for peace and social justice.

More information and tributes at http://www.ivaw.org , http://www.veteransforpeace.org.

Memorial page at VFP here.

I met Dave a few times in recent years, though I doubt that he would have remembered my name. The last time I met him, though was fun. At the 2006 VFP convention, I was outside at a press conference wearing my "peace uniform": black BDUs with a variety of military decorations and peace symbols, and my red beret.

Dave sidled up to me, and asked, "Hey, Airborne. Special Ops?"

"No, sir. I'm just allergic to camouflage." He laughed, and then I continued to explain the uniform: black being the color of mourning, wearing a patch from a humanitarian mission instead of my actual combat patch, etc. He seemed to like the idea of it, but I think he enjoyed my first answer best.

1:57PM - Songs About War

Brickfish has a really cool music competition going on now for songs about war. Some of the entries are really good- they’re definitely worth checking out. Lets show some love for these artists who are supporting our troops! Don’t miss “Freedom Ain’t Free” and “She’s an American Soldier”; you can listen here http://www.brickfish.com/politics/warsongs?tab=1&cpn=politics/war 

10:08PM - IVAW membership criteria?

So, there's been a long running debate within IVAW of who should get to be a member, basically. Last I heard, it was open to anyone in the service on any date after 9/11/01 (i.e., serving in the War of Terror), regardless of combat service. Some folks wanted Gulf War 1 vets included. Some say it should be open to ALL vets of the last 17 years, since we were waging just as vicious an economic war plus bombing campaigns during Clinton's reign. Some say it should be limited as it has been, to reinforce the notion that what they're saying about the genocide in Iraq is current, and not the concerns of 1990. The idea of "associate membership" for other vets has been bandied about.

I know that this gets brought up within IVAW every year at the Veterans for Peace convention. Does anyone know if the criteria changed this year?

11:49PM - Troops Tell True 'Tall Tales' around Barbecue Fire

From IVAW, stories from actual soldiers about the war

4:31AM

I'm teaching a class this coming semester on rhetoric, so I've been finding essays to include.

So I'm reading through one of the books I got and can take essays from for class (entitled Writing Without Formulas, by William H. Thelin), and I find an article entitled "The Top Censored News Stories of 2005-2006," by Peter Phillips, Trish Boreta, and Project Censored. So I start reading it, and I get to section 8 and a chill falls over me...

8. Pentagon Exempt from FOIA

The Department of Defense has been granted exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In December 2005, Congress passed the 2006 Defense Authorization Act, which renders Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) "operational files" fully immune to FOIA requests, the main mechanism by which watchdog groups, journalists, and individuals can access federal documents. Of particular concern to critics of the Defense Authorization Act is the DIA's new right to thwart access to files that may reveal human-rights violations tied to ongoing "counterterrorism" efforts.

The rule could, for instance, frustrate the work of the ACLU and other organizations that have relied on FOIA to uncover more than 30,000 documents on the U.S. military's involvement in the torture and mistreatment of foreign detainees in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and Iraq--including the Abu Ghraib scanda.

Several key documents have surfaced in the advocacy organization's expansive research originate from DIA files, including a 2004 memorandum containing evidence that U.S. military interrogators brutalized detainees in Baghdad, as well as a report describing the abuse of Iraqi detainees as violations of international human rights law.

According to Jameel Jaffer, and ACLU attorney involved in the ongoing torture investigations, "If the Defense Intelligence Agency can rely on exception or exemption from the FOIA, then documents such as those that we obtained this last time will not become public at all." The end result of such an exemption, he told TheNewStandard.com, is that "abuse is much more likely to take place, because there's not public oversight of Defense Intelligence Agency activity."

Jaffer added that because the DIA conducts investigations relating to other national-security-related agencies, documents covered by the exemption could contain critical evidence of how other parts of the military operate as well.

The Newspaper Association of America informs that due to lobbying efforts of the Sunshine in Government Initiative and other open-government advocates, congressional negotiators imposed an unprecedented two-year "sunset" date on the Pentagon's FOIA exemption, ending December 2007.

Source: "Pentagon Seeks Greater Immunity from Freedom of Information," by Michelle Chen. TheNewStandard.com. May 6, 2005.

So in four and a half months, the Pentagon will have license to do anything it wants without fear of scrutiny by the public. Am I the only one this terrifies?

Why has there not been coverage of this??

x-posting to liberal_bias

EDIT: I read this wrong. Apparently they will no longer be exempt as of December 2007, but the fact that there has been little media coverage of their exemption in the YEAR AND A HALF that it's been in place really concerns me. Not to mention there's no guarantee that the exemption won't be extended.

6:47PM - Rest in Peace, Nestor

Nestor Perala Aug. 21, 1922 - July 19, 2007

It is with great sadness that VFP 72 announces the passing of Master Sergeant Nestor Perala (US Army, Ret.), friend, comrade in arms, and comrade in peace.

For those of you who have met Nestor, I'm sure you know what an honor that was. For the past few years, knowing that his time with us was coming to a close, Nestor consented to every interview request, and every opportunity to speak out publicly in support of peace and justice. He was my first guest speaker for "Keepers of the Peace" in 2006, choosing to speak about his time during World War II in the Military Police, the Geneva Conventions, and his retirement in 1965 as a protest against the war in Viet Nam. The annual event will from this time forward be named in his honor.

From The Oregonian:

Nestor Olavi Perala 1922-2007

Nestor Olavi Perala passed away gently July 19 at age 84 in Portland. Born Aug. 21, 1922, in Island Heights, N.J., of two Finnish immigrant parents, he graduated from high school in Bremerton, Wash., in 1939. In 1948 he married Myra Jean Kendrick of Glendale, Ariz. Together they lived in Portland for over 50 years, had three children and two grandchildren.

Nestor received a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and his master's in education from Northern Colorado. During World War II, he served the U.S. Army in administration of a German POW camp in Colorado. As a retired master sergeant, he was involved with Veterans for Peace, Chapter 72.

He retired from teaching in Parkrose elementary schools in 1978.

A founding member of the Finnish American Historical Society of the West, Nestor was also active in other Finnish and Scandinavian organizations. He received Finnish citizenship in 2006. His writings were published in the Oregonian and other publications. Among his diverse interests, he led the Queen of Heaven Gnostic Church for 15 years, served as organist for several churches over 30 years, was treasurer of the Oregon Mycological Society, and volunteered on the Suicide Prevention Hotline. Nestor reached many individuals with his compassion and wisdom. As he requested, Nestor's whole body was donated to OHSU for medical research.

Survivors include his daughters, Christine Perala Gardiner and her husband, John; Julia Hanfling and her husband, Seymour; and two granddaughters, Naomi and Mira. He was preceded in death by his wife, Myra, in 2004; and his son, Kendrick, in 2006. A memorial service will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27, at St. David of Wales' Episcopal Church on SE 28th and Harrison, Portland.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Finlandia University, Hancock, Mich., www.finlandia.edu, or Wy'East Unitarian Universalist Congregation, wyeastuu@qwest.net.
Published in The Oregonian on 8/12/2007.

11:31PM - Veteran Status as Privilege

http://www.olywip.org/wip/node/623

Veteran Status as Privilege
By Wally Cuddeford, US Navy veteran

It's no secret the high esteem our society holds for veterans of the armed forces. One need only look at one's nearest calendar to see the exorbitant number of holidays devoted to soldiers, veterans, and the military, especially when compared to the number of holidays set aside for causes of social justice and popular liberation. Parades and patriotic music fill the streets in celebration of our contracted mercenaries, while the people who fight and die in popular struggles in Oaxaca, Palestine, and Chiapas are forgotten. Prisoner of War flags abound, while people who are domestically incarcerated, and sometimes executed, under unjust motives go nearly unspoken of in the mainstream. Even the word "veteran," unspecified as it is, has been reserved by society to mean "veteran of war or of the armed forces," a bias if ever there was one. This saturation of war glorification is of course no accident, but rather part of the pro-war propaganda mill at work. The goals are more support for imperialist wars, more acceptance of the military-industrial complex, and higher recruitment numbers.

What's strange is how the anti-war movement, ostensibly a movement with the long-term goal of breaking our society's addiction to and obsession with fascist militarism and the myth of heroism-through-warfare, has echoed these same sentiments time and again. "Support our troops" has been attached as a preamble to nearly everything the movement ever says. Every action is weighed in terms of how it may offend soldiers, veterans, and their families, instead of how effective it is in helping end war and empire. And the true victims of our continued war campaigns, the millions of indigenous people here and abroad who have been murdered, raped, brutalized, and subjugated by our missiles and muskets, continue to be left out of our rhetoric.

This "support our troops first" ethic is reflected in many movement veterans. Many "anti-war" veterans condemn the current war in Iraq, while glorifying past conflicts (perhaps the ones they fought in). When asked why the Iraqi occupation is so criminal, many will say it's because of "bad intelligence," "poor planning," "lack of material support (bullets and armor) for our troops," and, conveniently, "failure to take care of our vets when they get back." They shout Marine Corps slogans, wear their "I helped kill lots of people" medals and decorations as badges of honor, and run their anti-war organizations like mini-militaries with authoritative hierarchies. And they love waving that flag. You know the one: The most murderous, genocidal, and imperialist flag in all of human history. Woe to those who would challenge, desecrate, or speak ill of the troops, the military as an institution, or that flag in their presence.

Why do we think of people who would glorify the military and exalt soldiers as anti-war allies? Contrary to popular belief, the anti-war movement is not in the habit of working with any old group that claims opposition to the occupation of Iraq. The Minutemen (racist border-patrollers), the Westboro Baptist Church (the "God Hates Fags" people), and various neo-Nazi groups all claim opposition to the occupation of Iraq, but their opposition is grounded in hate and bigotry. We don't let them anywhere near our organizing, not even as temporary issue-specific allies. We know that once we wed our movement to racism and hate, it's very hard to divorce them. So it seems odd that we would so willingly wed our movement, aimed at ending the occupation of Iraq as the first step toward ending war, imperialism, and militarism at large, to the notion that soldiers are inherently heroic, that military service is to be glorified, and that the criminality of war lies on the shoulders of those who give criminal orders and not on those who follow them. Given our immediate rejection of other counter-productive alliances, it seems that we, on some level, truly do know better.

The reasons behind our acceptance of such a skewed view as being "anti-war" are nuanced, but one key reason is that we have long since established veteran status as a movement privilege. People in the movement treat your average veteran activist as automatically having accomplished more for the cause of social justice than your average non-veteran activist. Well-intentioned activists, and even some respected anti-war veterans, frequently say that vets should be the "leaders" of the anti-war movement. Veterans are bussed and flown around the country just for being vets (not even necessarily for being combat vets of the particular war in question). For my part, I can say I've been chosen to do interviews and speak on behalf of groups as large as 22 people just because I was the vet of the group.

As with any class of people given unquestioned deference, many veterans have taken their privilege and, instead of challenging it, or at least trying to use it for the good of all, have consolidated it and used it to entrench their power. Some "anti-war" veterans organize into cliques, without any particular strategy other than to simply exist as groups of anti-war vets. Veterans are routinely identified within anti-war organizing meetings, where there is no public credibility gain to be had. I've even been told horror stories of veterans in meetings actually pulling out their I.D. cards to claim some sort of higher authority over the non-veterans.

Many anti-war veterans groups and soldiers' families groups (who enjoy the same privilege) routinely dictate to groups they work with what the message from an action will be. The same groups that practice this sort of message orchestration seem obsessed with making the salvation of imperialist soldiers the focus of war opposition, with finding every reason to forgive soldiers for their criminal participation in war, and with making sure words like "murder" are only used in reference to certain Presidents. Individuals who openly challenge this skewed rhetoric are frequently targeted for discredit and removal by these groups, putting non-veterans in the position of either standing up for viewpoint diversity or losing their more valued allies.

Most counter-productive of all, veterans groups have had a recent history of selective support of other anti-war organizers. A local chapter of Veterans for Peace (the largest and most diverse umbrella group for anti-war veterans) refused to endorse a student march from Olympia to Fort Lewis two years ago on the grounds that the soldiers might think organizers were confronting them. A year later, the same chapter refused to endorse the protests at the Port of Olympia, once again because they thought it might appear anti-troop. Chapters of other soldier-related groups, such as Military Families Speak Out, have threatened to withdraw support for key coalitions if the other groups don't toe their line.

The movement is then coerced into operating on an agenda formed not through discourse, or through an objective look at our goals and what we need to do to achieve them, but through a UN Security Council style system of permission and denial, with veterans groups and soldiers' families groups as the vanguard. Such a system has dangerous consequences for our movement, and for the positive goals we hope to achieve. It can only serve to cease discussion, limit diversity of tactics, and to alienate our allies who will never be in "the club." Is it any wonder a few anti-imperialists, frustrated with unfair treatment and a skewed focus, have taken to retaliating with banners and postings that say "Fuck the troops"?

Unlike most privileges we have to deal with, which are multi-layered and complex, veteran privilege within the movement is rather straight-forward. Veteran privilege starts when the movement decides to oppose war primarily for the soldiers who choose to fight it, and not for the victims whose voices we don't hear. When the soldiers are the focus of the anti-war movement, it only makes sense that veterans would lead the charge. Veterans have been there, if not in direct combat, then at least as prisoners of the institutions we are fighting against. Veterans can better relate to soldiers (and vice-versa), because they've been in the soldiers' boots.

But when the focus becomes the true victims of war, the indigenous peoples of the nations we're bombing, exploiting, and subjugating, that dynamic changes. It's absurd to assume that someone who once signed up to help kill poor people for money automatically knows what's best for indigenous peoples. It's illogical to assume a combat veteran has a clearer perspective into the politics of empire and the subjugation of societies than someone who has spent years studying these issues. And finally, veterans are simply too close to the subject of war criminality to be truly objective.

This is not to say that veterans don't have a place in the movement, or that we shouldn't identify or organize as vets. Indeed, Iraq Veterans Against the War continues to be one of the loudest voices in the call to escalate our active resistance, and veterans and vet groups have been significantly represented in the GI resistance support movement, which is a key front in the struggle to end war.

In a society that holds veterans to such high regard, we do have a powerful voice with which to challenge empire, but that power must be used for the good of others. We must relinquish our desire to "own" the issue of war, as painful as it may be to do so. We must throw our support behind our allies' struggles, even if theirs are not the struggles we would engage in ourselves. When we wear our uniforms and medals, we must do so to challenge assumptions and to lend credibility to our non-veteran allies, and not to reinforce our own privileges. And we must never withhold our solidarity from our allies for any but the most destructively misguided expressions of personal frustration.

If we are to stop not just this war, but every war, veterans and soldier-aligned groups must forfeit ownership of the issue of war. We must acknowledge that, no matter our pain, the people directly victimized by war and empire will always have it worse. We must learn to work as equals with students, labor, and the anti-war community at large. By giving our unconditional support to these allies, the discussion will become more honest and enriching, and tactics and strategies will be more easily weighed by their effectiveness and not by sentimentality. Ensuring that kind of solidarity is a key step in turning dissidence into resistance.

10:46PM - A Soldier's Heart in a Mad Eye

cross-posted to hp7_divination and veterans

My latest article at Veterans Today has been posted, a "special episode" if you will, in honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.