Those who follow politics, and the theatrics of extreme voices on our televisions and radios, know that some time ago, Bill O’ Reilly came under fire from veterans groups when he made the arrogant and ignorant claim that homelessness was not an issue with which veterans struggled– at least not in meaningful numbers. But actual evidence shows that while only one percent of U.S. citizens choose to serve in the military, one in every three homeless Americans is a military veteran. The VA backlog is now more than one million. And veterans are suffering more than ever, with unemployment and suicide rates higher than those of civilians for the first time since the Vietnam era. This week, the L.A. local media gave some much deserved exposure to New Directions – a group who housed its first veterans in 1992, in a house equipped to handle eight occupants at a time. Learn more about this fabulous organization, and learn how you can help by scrolling down to this headline update, 20,000 Homeless Vets in L.A. County Alone, on our VAE page. You can go directly to that page by clicking on our name, www.CAMMMO.org

Last month, CAMMMO newsletter subscribers read the story of Jomar Falu-Vives, a Fort Carson soldier going to trial for opening fire, with an AK-47, on two adults posting a garage sale sign in a suburban U.S. neighborhood. But when it comes to murder trials, felony charges, rapes, kidnappings and suicides– sadly these are regular occurrences in Colorado Springs since Fort Carson’s U.S. Army 4th Brigade Combat Team returned home from Iraq. And the struggles of the young men and women, in this unit and in others, was picked up by the Colorado Springs Gazette and made into a two-part series called Casualties of War. With a murder rate one hundred and fourteen times higher than the rest of the Colorado Springs community, could this troubled unit be a warning sign about the large numbers of troops, who were trained to fight and kill on the front lines in an urban war, and are about to come home to find all that they fought for mired in corruption, greed and hate? Join the fight with us and learn more about posttraumatic stress disorder by clicking on our name, www.CAMMMO.org

What else can be said about Guantanamo? Children were held there. Torture was carried out there under the U.S. flag, and by U.S. soldiers and government employees. Even medical professionals were complicit in standard operating procedures that the American people did not and do not advocate. And then there was Abu Ghraib. Lynndie England went public this past month with interviews attempting to play down the behavior she participated in while wearing the uniform of the American soldier, the same uniform worn by the men who defeated the Nazis. And now Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files, reports on Bagram. Is it as easy as switching the location of the crime? Is it as easy as rebranding? Xe instead of Blackwater? Non Combat Injury instead of Suicide? Bagram instead of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo? Help us reach more young people with the message that joining the U.S. military today could very well be the worst decision they will ever make. Share these newsletters with your friends, and send them to join and support www.CAMMMO.org