Los Angeles Times

Study’s findings on longer deployments raise questions about Pentagon’s decision to extend tours

By Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writer
2:54 PM PDT, May 4, 2007

WASHINGTON — Longer deployments of soldiers and Marines in Iraq erode the morale and mental health of service members, an Army survey released today has found. The conclusion raises new questions about the Pentagon’s recent decision to extend Army tours to 15 months.

The report found that soldiers, who have tours that are twice as long as Marines, have lower morale, more marital problems and higher rates of mental health problems. The report also found that soldiers who had been sent to Iraq more than once were more likely to screen positive for acute stress and mental health problems.

About 10% of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property. And a majority of soldiers and Marines said they would not report a fellow service member for mistreating an Iraqi.

The study found that soldiers who had high levels of anger, experienced high levels of combat or screened positive for a mental health symptom were nearly twice as likely to mistreat non-combatants as those who reported low levels of anger, said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the acting Army surgeon general.

Experts said those findings raised warning signs about the possibility of more incidents like the massacre of civilians at Haditha or the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib as tours grow longer to accommodate the current buildup in forces.

“What it says to me is, we should get out of Iraq before a real disaster happens for us,” said Cindy Williams, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an expert on military personnel policies. “Iraq is already in chaos, but for us to stay there and continue to wreck our Army over this is a big mistake.”

At a news conference to discuss the report, Pollock acknowledged that longer tours would be an added stress. But she said that in the wake of the report, the military was doing more to train its leaders to help support troops and lessen the stress. She suggested, however, that the real solution to the problem was a larger Army.

“The Army is spread very thin, and we need it to be a larger force for the number of missions that we were being asked to address for our nation,” she said.

The new report also contained some troubling data about suicides. The average suicide rate in the army is 11.6 per year for every 100,000 soldiers. The rate in Iraq however is 16.1. And military officials said the report found that the suicide prevention efforts being carried out in Iraq was not designed for a war zone.

The full report can be found at http://www.medicine.army.mil/news/mhat/mhat_iv/mhat-iv.cfm

Portfolio: Billy Brown
(intended for publication in now-cancelled Arthur No. 26)

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor will present its 12th Annual Exhibition of Prison Art opening March 27, featuring more than 300 works of art by over 200 artists. Longtime participant Billy Brown’s work caught the eye of Arthur’s art directors for its wholly unique style of energetic lines, warm kaleidoscopic palette, and obsessively detailed textures. The work’s dense pencil-work and heavy patterning give the appearance that one is looking at richly woven textiles.

With the assistance of The Prison Creative Arts Project founder Buzz Alexander, program coordinator Emily Harris, and the cooperation of the warden where Billy is currently incarcerated, we were able to ask Billy a few questions about his work.

Billy began making art in 1995 and has exhibited his work in every PCAP exhibition since the first one. When asked about the origins of his work’s style, he explains, “I was in an art program at Ionia Maximum Facility. The Art Teacher told me I had to sit down and come up with something of my own. With the help of the good Lord and me not giving up, came ‘Billy Art.’” He draws his inspiration from “making people happy with my art” and explains that “when one learns art, he learns a lot.” Each of Billy’s works are clearly the result of hours, if not days and weeks, of intense and focused drawing and he describes the healing process of art as one of “patience” and “understanding” where he “can learn about myself and others, and you make changes in your life. ‘Cause you just don’t get up and do things, you have to sit down and think about what you are going to put on that paper. So it becomes a part of the way you look at life, and go about life.”

In addition to his art, Billy says he “came up in the church” and loves to sing gospel music, desribing it as “a healing in itself.” When asked if there’s anything he would like to share with the readers of Arthur magazine, he says he “would like our society to know this art program has been a blessing to me and I believe I can say for other prisoners also.“

You can learn more about PCAP and see more of Billy Brown’s art at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/pcap/

“Secret Bullshit”
by Paul Krassner

I’ve been alternating between reading The Secret and The Truth About Bullshit. Funny how complementary these two disparate books can be, which has led me to the concept of Secret Bullshit, based on a psychological notion that in order to deceive others you need to deceive yourself.

So, take the CBS lawyers who agreed to the stipulation in Don Imus’ contract that he be given a warning before being fired for doing what they hired him to do in the first place, known as the “dog has one bite” clause. Well, their secret bullshit–bound to become their defense in court–is that although Imus wasn’t warned after referring to Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz as a “boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jewboy,” they still had the right to fire him for saying “nappy-headed hos.”

Now there’s Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the D.C. Madam, who wants all those former clients to follow the lead of ex-Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias and testify that they also hired those gals only for a massage, never for sex. OK, everybody say, “Yeah, right.” Ironically, once they’re outed, won’t they gladly reinforce Palfrey’s secret bullshit with their own in order to correspond with what they must now tell their wives?

And finally, the spectacle of ten white male Republican presidential candidates all vying to become the leader of the western world by competing to see which one most disbelieves in evolution, has itself become the Dinosaur Follies. Their utter disdain for stem cell research and their unquestioning support of the invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq are two sides of that same secret bullshit.

You can watch secret bullshit becoming public bullshit as the language becomes increasingly perverted, ranging from the Bush doctrine that the new winning is not winning, to the cavalier morphing of the word ‘debate’ to mean that candidates are not permitted to ask each other any questions–the very antithesis of what a debate originally meant.

“They should call it an AA meeting,” my wife Nancy observed. “No cross-talk allowed.” She is an instinctive detector of secret bullshit when expressed publicly, that transcends political correctness. As the pundits discuss the merits of stiffer sentences for hate crimes, Nancy wonders aloud, “And what are the others–love crimes?”

———–

Paul Krassner is the author of One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist and publisher of the Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, both available from www.paulkrassner.com

Japrocksampler: How the post-war Japanese blew their minds on rock ‘n’ roll
by Julian Cope

Available 3 Sep 2007 (subject to change).

Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 9780747589457
Format Trade paperback, B format

A unique account of the Japanese rock phenomenon from a legendary rock musician with an army of fans

Julian Cope, eccentric and visionary rock musician, hip archaeologist and one time frontman of Teardrop Explodes, follows the runaway underground success of his book Krautrocksampler with Japrocksampler, a cult deconstruction of Japanese rock music.

Japrocksampler reveals what really happened when East met West after World War Two and the mayhem that ensued … and is a must for anybody interested in modern music and Japanese culture. It explores the clash between traditional, conservative Japanese values and the wild rock ‘n’ roll renegades of the 1960s and 70s and tells the tale of six seminal groups of artists in Japanese post-war culture, from itinerant art-house poets to violent refusenik rock groups with a penchant for plane hijacking. The book concludes with enticing reviews of Julian’s Top 50 Jap Rock albums.

Julian Cope was born in Deri, South Glamorgan, and grew up in Tamworth. After forming a succession of half-groups and writing songs with Ian McCulloch (later of Echo & the Bunnymen), he eventually formed Teardrop Explodes with Gary Dwyer in 1978. He is the author of Krautrocksampler, Megalithic European, The Modern Antiquarian, Head-On and Repossessed. His website, http://www.headheritage.co.uk, contains some of the most entertaining and insightful album reviews on the web.

All 18 pages…

Thanks to Wonder!

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — A man who was shot in the wrist when National Guard troops killed four Kent State University students during an anti-war demonstration says he has found an audiotape that reveals someone gave a command to fire.

Alan Canfora wants the government to reopen the 37-year-old case because he thinks it will give both the victims and shooters a chance to heal.

“We’re not seeking revenge; we’re not seeking punishment for the guardsmen at this late date,” Canfora said Monday.

“All we want is the truth because we seek healing at Kent State for the student victims, as well as the triggermen who were ordered to fire. And healing can only result from the truth, and that’s all we want.”

Canfora planned to release CD copies of the recording Tuesday at a news conference at Kent State, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Four Kent State students were killed and nine were wounded in the 1970 clash, which followed several days of Vietnam War protests. Four years later, eight guardsmen were acquitted of federal civil rights charges.

Canfora said he recently requested a copy of the nearly 30-minute tape from Yale University, where a government copy has been stored in an archive.

He said that just before the 13-second volley of gunfire, a voice on the tape is heard yelling, “Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!”

“I was shaking when I first heard it,” Canfora said. “I shed tears.”

He said he was convinced from his research — including other tapes and photos — that the command was issued by one of three Guard officers at the shooting site.

“The time has now come to where it’s impossible to deny the verbal command to fire,” Canfora said.

The government should analyze the recording using new technology, he said.

After the shooting, the FBI investigated whether an order had been given to fire, and said it could only speculate. One theory was that a guardsman panicked or fired intentionally at a student and that others fired when they heard the shot.

The FBI would look into any new inquiry about the shootings, spokesman Scott Wilson said.

The Ohio National Guard had no comment on the tape, spokesman James Sims said.

Canfora said the reel-to-reel audio recording was made by Terry Strubbe, a student who placed a microphone at a windowsill of his dormitory that overlooked the anti-war rally. Strubbe turned the tape over to the FBI, which kept a copy.

Strubbe, who still lives near Kent, keeps the original tape in a safe deposit box, said Canfora, who heads a nonprofit organization at Kent State that leads a candlelight vigil every May 4 to mark the anniversary of the shootings.

Strubbe didn’t return a message seeking comment Monday. Joe Bendo, a friend who spoke for him, said Strubbe has not listened to the tape in years and does not know whether a command to shoot can be heard.

“He’s just curious, like everybody else. Is it possible? Yes, it’s possible,” Bendo said.

When government officials listened to the tape, it was to evaluate such things as how frequently shots were fired and for how long, Bendo said.

He said Strubbe isn’t sure what he will eventually do with the original recording.

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