Collateral damage on the Homefront: We must hold George W. Bush accountable for his crimes
as Trump takes power.
While much of the country was trying to figure out how Donald Trump had become president-elect,
CodePink was convening an event with the potential to change the culture that created a Trump-sized
hole in the White House.
Because really, how could he not have been elected?
In an increasingly careless, narcissistic, no-accountability nation, the electoral slide
to this crass man who has never been held accountable for his lies, his bottom-feeder
language, his lack of ethics and his potentially illegal business dealings was virtually inevitable.
We lowered the political bar to the point where even Trump could clear it when we allowed
Bush, Cheney & Co. to instigate an illegal war in Iraq.
We don�t get do-overs, but we can do differently, and we started with the People�s Tribunal
on Iraq.
Hundreds of experts, analysts, journalists, researchers, veterans, military family members,
Iraqis and civilians testified about the lies that led to that war and the horrific price
that has been paid.
Two days of testimony took place at the University of the District of Columbia�s Moot Court
on Dec. 1-2.
But this was no exercise in futility.
I have lost far too much for that.
I am advancing the case for a class-action lawsuit against the architects of a war based
on lies, using some of the testimony from the Tribunal, including mine.
When my husband, a veteran of the Iraq war, strangled me to the point of unconsciousness,
I thought I was the only one.
I was not.
A 2006 study found that over 80 percent of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder
had committed at least one act of violence in the previous year; nearly half of those
committed a severe act such as shooting, stabbing or strangulation.
A 2010 Army Report noted a 177-percent increase in the number of soldiers who had committed
spousal or child abuse in the previous six years.
When my friend Kristy Huddleston was murdered by her Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran husband,
who shot her and left her bleeding out on the kitchen floor while their 10-year-old
son called 911, I thought she was the only one.
She was not.
According to the Pentagon, cases of child neglect, abuse, sexual assault and murder
in military families increased by 40 percent from 2009 to 2012.
There have been many months when the casualty rate of military family members killed on
the American Homefront has far exceeded the casualty rate of American service members
killed on the Iraq war front.
A lot of those casualties were children.
Military kids in North Carolina (home to Fort Bragg and Camp LeJeune) are twice as likely
to die of severe abuse as civilian kids, according to the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute.
The number of military children killed by their parents has more than doubled since
2001.
When 12-year-old Daniel Radenz hanged himself during his father�s second tour in Iraq,
I thought he must be the only one.
He was not.
Studies of California secondary school students revealed that nearly 18 percent of military
kids had attempted suicide, more than double that of civilian youth.
By 2014, an estimated 1.5 million (a third of) military kids had developed a mental health
issue after the deployment of a parent or sibling.
For the first time in U.S. history, there were more military kids struggling with the
behavioral consequences of war than warriors themselves.
Genetics are a key factor in the heritability of mental illness and susceptibility to addiction.
In a random survey of adult children of combat vets with PTSD, more than 80 percent of those
kids demonstrated hyper-vigilance, 65 percent began using alcohol during childhood and over
half reported drug use.
A report published by the Australian Institute for Health & Welfare (2000) revealed that
suicide rates of children of male Vietnam veterans, most of whom served a single tour,
are triple that of civilian youth.
Time will tell if multiple tours raise that rate even higher in the children of Iraq war
veterans.
This nation�s moral compass
If this nation�s moral compass has retained any magnetism whatsoever, the biological collateral
damage of combat in the family members of veterans should point it toward ending endless
wars.
Accumulating evidence shows that America has sentenced the caregivers, children and grandchildren
of today�s wounded warriors to sadder, sicker, shorter lives.
After several years of caring for my 80-percent disabled Iraq vet, I was getting sicker and
sicker, fighting one infection after another.
When I was hospitalized with a cellulitis infection so dangerous doctors asked for my
advance directive, I thought I was the only one.
I was not.
When my caregiver friends kept getting diagnosed with cancer, or anxiety symptoms so severe
that they resembled a heart attack, I thought they were the only ones.
They were not.
Studies link chronic stress, caregiving and PTSD to significantly shortened life spans
in both the veteran and the spouse.
Research by Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn found that female caregivers with very high
stress levels have severely compromised immune systems and cellular damage (shortening of
the telomeres) equivalent to a decade of additional aging.
I used to say the Iraq war was aging military families in dog years.
I meant it as a joke.
Turns out I was right.
It�s not so funny now.
Two years ago, I had a husband, a home on some land that felt like heaven to me and
a small herd of companion animals that were my surrogate children.
I had a job helping my husband and other veterans; I had a really good credit rating and a combined
household income of nearly $100,000.
I had a life.
About a year ago, my now ex-husband was back on crystal meth and threatening me with an
M4 before trying to commit suicide-by-cop.
I had fled my home in terror, sacrificing everything I ever loved in this world just
to stay alive.
While I was wandering, lost on the streets of southern Oregon, my identity was stolen
by a crystal meth drug user my husband got high with.
She destroyed my credit rating, costing me thousands of dollars.
In less than 90 days, I was robbed of my home, husband, job, companion animals, health care,
social and economic status, and finally my identity, too.
It was as though I didn�t even exist.
I am the collateral damage of America�s war in Iraq.
I don�t know if there will be justice for me.
But there is a case for a class action on behalf of the families of Iraq war veterans.
Earlier this year, Congress overrode the presidential veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism
Act, clearing families and survivors of the 9/11 attacks to sue governments for failing
to prevent terrorism.
I believe that provides the legal framework for me and hundreds of thousands of other
families of Iraq war veterans to sue the United States government, members of Congress and
the State Department for failing to prevent George W. Bush from committing a sustained
act of terrorism that illegally required our loved ones to serve in Iraq, where they were
injured or died.
Furthermore, because of the government�s affirmative actions in causing the Iraq war,
which was an arbitrary war that resulted in the death or injury of Iraq war veterans,
the families of those veterans have been denied their constitutional rights to life, liberty
and property.
Iraq was a war of choice, not necessity, and government officials knew that and went to
war regardless.
In doing so they violated the 5th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution
containing due process clauses asserting that the administration of justice should act as
a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty or property by the government outside
the sanction of law.
I have sustained major material and emotional damages and losses, including loss of property,
loss of identity, loss of income, loss of marital consortium, physical injury and other
damages.
I am not the only one.
That is why I support CodePink�s call for a Commission on Truth and Accountability on
the Iraq war on behalf of the families of veterans who have a Freedom Medal now where
their soldier used to be.
That is why I am advancing a class action on behalf of the families of veterans who
were wounded or died for a lie.
But America�s got skin in this lawsuit too.
Because when we create a culture that refuses to tolerate illegal, immoral behavior from
presidents who sentence others to suffer for their lies, we won�t elect presidents who
behave that way.
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