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Among combat veterans acronyms possess an almost prophetic identity. The very spare lettering conceals the pain and spiritual agony once the meaning is clear. BNR(body not recovered), KIA (killed in action, MIA (missing in action), WIA (wounded in action) and SIW (self inflicted wound) are all standard military connotations dealing with casualties of war. As a combat medic in Viet Nam I had total responsibility for the lives under my hands and none of the power to save them. The current wars are invisible to the American public, just as we the warriors are. This detachment from the killing ground, this abandonment of us is the root cause of the suicide epidemic among returning Iraq and Afghan veterans. It has also re-invoked the ghosts of Viet Nam and as a national remembrance fired the discussion of the Civil War.

The American Civil War (1861-1865) happened as a result of the self inflicted wound crippling the nation at birth. The US Constitution enshrined chattel human slavery in its document and thus knowingly and consciously prepped us for bloody conflict. James Madison, a

founding father and President remarked that slavery was a time bomb waiting to explode. The explosion when it came was almost apocalyptic for the nation. The highest loss of life in any American war, 625,000 dead and the first total war waged not only on the battlefield but in the towns and cities. Washington DC, Richmond, Atlanta, Vicksburg and Fredericksburg all were besieged and shelled. On a single day in September of 1862 at Antietam (Sharpsburg) Md. 23,000 Americans killed each other. It is still the greatest loss of life in battle for Americans of any war. Like many Americans raised in the crucible of war time I visited Civil war national battle fields as a child with my family. Gettysburg was one. As an adult and father I took my children to Manassas (Bull Run) and Antietam. These visits were after my own participation in war. It was Bloody Lane at Antietam that conjured the ghosts of Viet Nam. I could hear the cries of the dying and see the faces of the dead I knew. It is these wounds that never heal.

In my unit during my tour in Viet Nam we had several suicides and self inflicted wounds. The SIW’s were done in the attempt to get home, alive. One of my comrades pointed the muzzle of an M-16 at his foot thinking to blow off just the little toe. He failed to remember that the rifle barrel is beveled to cause the round to tumble and inflict maximum damage. It took his foot off. I am confounded by the psychology of maiming oneself to escape untenable conditions, but I have seen it over and over. Pain, physical or spiritual, can cripple our thinking, and thus magnify injury. In order for us to heal there has to be an admission of wrongdoing. We have to look in the mirror of our history and accept that the Constitution was warped and that we need to set it right.

Dave Ionno
Veteran for peace and against all wars

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“Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”
- Saying attributed to the Old Man of the Mountain, leader of the assassins, the Hashishin

The events in Manchester Ct. at Hartford Distributors on August 3rd and what happened on September 11th in New York are bound together by a history of violence. The history in question is the past history of this nation, my nation, America. Born out of Revolutionary War and having waged the longest guerrilla war against the native indigenous people, 300+ years, we were born out of violence. As a young male during the 50’s and 60’s, Viet Nam was where I was going. I was raised inside the war machine as a military dependent (Army brat) for 14 years and on my 18th birthday in 1969 enlisted and volunteered for Viet Nam. I was born and bred for war, fed a daily diet of war programs disguised as high school sports. Filled with pride in our always victorious results we were suckled at the teats of wolves on the milk of violence.

This early psychological conditioning has been augmented by the use of even more intrusive and ubiquitous technology, the Internet, cell phones, i-pods and Black Berry’s. War games and interactive video have taught the bravery of being out of range and fed the vicarious hunger of voyeur killers. Americans have been conditioned to respond to any threat, real or perceived with violence.

There is a correlation between the rise in violent actions within society and the return to society of millions of veterans bringing their wars home with them. Civil society is pressured when our leaders respond with military actions by stoking fear and paranoia. Fear and suspicion is visible in every workplace, security officers are now the fastest growing career and the Office of Homeland Security by its very title reflects that paranoia. Do not think that our children do not see how we respond. They watch us and emulate us.

The Teeth of the Dragon is a reference to mythology. The Greek Jason of Argonaut and Golden Fleece fame, was tested by the King of Colchis. He was given the ensorcelled teeth of a dragon to plant on a field of battle. From the bloody soil sprang full grown warriors that he must then destroy. The test required violent response to violence conceived. This is the never-ending forever war that leaders of our nation nurture. It is replicated in society at large. One of my brothers-in –arms from Viet Nam says it succinctly, “What you do, you become.”

Dave Ionno
Veteran for Peace and Against the Wars

This article by Ryan Harvey of the Civilian Soldier Alliance raises some insightful points about what we are really celebrating on Independence Day. Thanks to Dave Ionno for the tip.

Five to one, Baby
One in five
They got the guns
We got the numbers
Doors Jim Morrison

The muted rumblings in Greece, site of the Athenian Acropolis and birthplace of democracy, precedes the perfect political storm.  Olga Stefan, a 20 year old Greek university student thinks her government is in ..“someway afraid of us.  There are too many of us.”   This simple equation will soon reach critical mass across the industrialized developed world.  The concentration of wealth in the United States has become an obscenity.  The top 4% own outright 55% of the wealth.  This was not accumulated by hard work and savings over time.  This wealth was taken by stealth and force and generated by insider Wall Street stock market access and high speed computer trading in bogus derivatives (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot).  What The Fuck are they?  A tsunami of rage is coming.

The Doors song, “5 to 1” is prophetic.  Jim Morrison was the son of a career Naval officer, a military brat like myself.  The Doors music along with Jimi Hendrix, an Airborne veteran, was the sound track of the GI’s in Viet Nam.  We killed and died as the blood and wealth of the nation was soaked up on foreign ground in Viet Nam.  Martin Luther King Jr., an American hero, said it clearly, “ The Great Society has been shot down on the battlefields of  Viet Nam.”  Today, now as we breathe, our future and our children’s future is being shot down on the battlefields of iraq and Afghanistan.

The American middle class, built out of the GI Bill after WW II and inherited by the sons and daughters of the “Greatest Generation” has been eviscerated by the Wall Street and Pentagon ghouls  in their multinational corporate star chambers.  We are like a snail crawling along the edge of a straight razor, unable to see it and unwilling to drop off.

The so-called wealth generators in their gated communities are beginning to tremble in fear. The wars and the warriors are coming home.  Those of us in the public sector unions, those of us in the working class jobs, those of us who are small business owners, we fought your wars for you and we kept that knowledge.  If we send men off to war, don’t be surprised when they come home talking dirty.  Be careful how you vote.

Dave Ionno
Viet Nam Veteran for Peace against the Wars

On May 30, 2010, at 10:06am, the National Priorities Project Cost of War counter – designed to count the total money appropriated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – reached the $1 trillion mark.

To date, $747.3 billion have been appropriated for the U.S. war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

The pending supplemental making its way through Congress will add an estimated $37 billion to the current $136.8 billion total spending for the current fiscal year, ending September 30.

What Can You Get For $1 Trillion?

Federal Funding For Higher Education — $1 trillion would give the maximum Pell Grant award ($5,500) to all 19 million U.S. college and university students for the next 9 years.

For $1 trillion, you could provide:

294,734,961 people with health care for one year, or

21,598,789 public safety officers for one year, or

17,149,392 music and arts teachers for one year, or

7,779,092 affordable housing units, or

440,762,472 children with health care for one year, or

137,233,969 head start places for children for one year, or

16,427,497 elementary school teachers for one year, or

1,035,282,468 homes with renewable electricity for one year

WHAT DOES $1 TRILLION LOOK LIKE?

$1,000,000,000,000 (“1” and twelve zeros)

If you earned $1 million a year, it would take you 1 million years to earn $1 trillion.

In Dollar Bills:

If you converted $1 trillion into one dollar bills, and laid them end to end, it would reach 98 million miles. That’s 4,000 times around the Earth. Its 205 trips to the Moon. And back. It’s more than the distance to the Sun.

In Silver Dollars:

If someone handed you a silver dollar every second, it would take almost 32,000 years for them to hand you $1 trillion. Not that you could hold them – they’d weigh nearly 9 million tons.

About NPP’s Cost of War Counters

NPP’s Cost of War counters provide information on the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for each of the 50 states.

The counters also provide cost amounts and “trade-off” data for hundreds of U.S. cities and towns.

To see NPP’s Cost of War counters and our Notes & Sources, visit http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent.  Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels.  For more information, visit http://www.nationalpriorities.org.

Contact: Christopher Hellman, Communications Liaison, 413.584.9556 (o); 703.945.3950, or

Jo Comerford, Executive Director, 413.584.9556 (o); 413.559.1649 (c)

National Priorities Project office located at:
243 King Street
Suite 109
Northampton, MA, 01060
United States

I am here as always to exercise my constitutional right to speak as an American citizen, a Hartford resident and home owner and as a combat veteran of Viet Nam. I will first of all read the names of the KIA in Iraq and Afghanistan for the month of April. I do this because no one else will. It is fitting to do this as this month is the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. The Wars are invisible as are the veterans and the dead. All of you on Council and every citizen in this audience are complicit by your Silence. Silence has become the weapon by which you rid yourselves of your guilt. I will now read the names of the dead.

As a contrast to the deconstruction and dismantling of the public schools and libraries of the city of Hartford we are financing the building of a new school in Senjaray Afghanistan near Kandahar. So we take from our own children, who have no Music, Art or sports and crowded classes, to build in a country, whose people we

kill and who don’t want to be like us. The returning veterans and GI’s are telling you what is happening and you refuse to listen. One Iraq veteran has related to me this story. Truck convoys, driven by contractors, have to swipe a card at the gate as they enter. Every swipe pays $40,000 to the company, KBR, Triple Canopy, Dyne Corp, Blackwater(XE). On inspection by the GI’s it was found that half the trucks were empty.   This is only the tip of the iceberg of corruption and waste by the military and defense contractors.

How much of my tax dollar is diverted to this instead of to the city budget? Can any of you find out the answer? It is your fiduciary responsibility to find out. I will assist you with the handouts I have and provide you with the website of Nationalpriorities.org.

Understand one thing. The Wars are coming home everyday. As you sow you shall reap.

Dave Ionno
Veteran for Peace and Viet Nam Veteran against the Wars