IN THESE DESERTS:
WAR STORIES FROM AFGHANISTAN

Veterans Day: Denouncing The Insanity Of Permanent War

RETHINK Afghanistan

Suicide Rates Soaring Among WWII Vets

Premiering this evening on HBO, WARTORN: 1816—2010

No proselytizing, no blame, just the truth: War doesn’t work, and though it serves to protect national interests promoting peace, patriotism, national identity, and to stimulate the economy, it also shreds the social fabric, destroys lives, families and futures of the hero victims.

Speaking of suicide and murder, The Silent Truth, a film that Explores Death of LaVena Johnson, screened last night at Webster University in St Louis Missouri. There were reports of standing room only, but in my brief look for links most of the links are no longer there. That film was in progress for some time. I have no idea what obstacles were faced in making it, but should I find out more about the full film I’ll let you know.

I’ve written countless times of Lavena Johnson, starting with
The New Yorker, Obama, and Real Tragedy. I try to keep tabs on this, and it’s not difficult being that the whole case is at a standstill.
[See post to listen to audio]

peace

Found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq in July, 2005, a short time after she began serving there, the United States Army ruled 19 year old Pfc. Lavena Johnson’s death as a suicide resulting from a self-inflicted M-16 rifle shot wound, and sent her home in a box. This ruling despite the fact she was found with a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, acid burns on her genitals (which some suggest were to eliminate DNA evidence of rape), a trail of blood leading away from her tent, and a bullet hole in her head . Five years later I m hard pressed to find any mention of Lavena Johnson, save a rare OMG – WTF post from someone who has only recently discovered the case. There was some coverage in Australia last year, as the story suddenly popped up there as if it hadn’t been heard before.

I wrote of it in The New Yorker, Obama, and Real Tragedy, only a couple of years ago — the first of several posts I wrote on her case. Though the incident occurred in the summer of 2005, that summer of 2008 was the first I had come across it. The coverage at it’s peak was found most often in a few progressive newspapers and blogs. Despite a petition with 50,000 signatures instigated by Color of Change, and in the summer of 2008 an oversight hearing on sexual assault (by the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs) — to address sexual abuse in the military, the hope that Lavena’s case could be presented were shattered. Lavena’s case was not addressed, the case remains a suicide we all know never occurred.

Time passes, I understand. Obama gets elected, banks fail, we lose a our money, tea baggers go nuts, oil gets spilled, Lindsey Lohan gets drunk, Michael Jackson dies, someone is dancing with the stars, and insurance companies win. For all our losses we are preoccupied, and a murdered young solider and the subsequent cover-up, no matter how horrific, slip our mind.

That Lavena Johnson is not the first, and will not be the last, bear keeping in mind, on this memorial day.

Lavena Johnson: The Silent Truth

Link Collection:

Lavena Johnson

LaVena L. Johnson
Lavena Johnson
Press release from Color of Change.org(50,000 sign petition)
Female Buyers Beware of Obama’s Call to Service
Who Murdered Army Pvt Lavena Johnson?
The Cover-Up of a Soldiers’ Death
The tragic story of LaVena Johnson
Defense Dept. Uncooperative in Sexual Assault Hearings
LaVena Johnson’s Update:Oversight Hearing on Sexual Assault in the Military This Morning at 10:00 EST
Color of Change Launches Campaign to Get hearings for LaVena JohnsonTracey Barnett: Women GIs in fear of the enemy in their army
Suicide or Murder? Three Years After the Death of Pfc. LaVena Johnson in Iraq, Her Parents Continue Their Call for a Congressional InvestigationU.S. Army Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, RIP
The Next Pat Tillman-Style Cover-Up?
LaVena Johnson: Raped and Murdered on a Military Base in Iraq
LaVena L. JohnsonLaVena Johnson: Murdered By Her Colleagues, Ignored By The Army
Justice for Pfc. LaVena Johnson

We struggle with making amendments to prevent rapists from getting away with rape, yet we rush to protect those who had a choice.

We have hearings about the consequences of grown men making conscious decisions (no pun intended), to concuss themselves into stupidity for monetary compensation, yet we have a hard time allowing Lavena Johnson’s case in front of even the most insignificant of committees.

If only we spent a fraction of this time asking questions about the murder/cover-ups of women soldiers like Lavena Johnson, and similar incidences, I’d feel a little bit better about Congress’s purpose.

A player entering the NFL is aware that he is going to take a beating, aware he could even end up somewhat more stupid on exit than when he arrived. I am certain that 19 year old Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson did not expected to be lying in a pool of blood, murdered, raped, burned with chemicals, and pronounced a suicide by a gunshot to the head, in a very large cover-up that has yet to be publicly addressed.

You’d think we’d be just as interested in protecting our female soldiers as we are in protecting our football players.