Front Page Today of the Fayetteville (Ft. Bragg) Observer

Here is all of what is on the front page of today's Sunday edition of the Fayetteville Observer, the hometown newspaper serving Fort Bragg. This from the paper as late as last September put the huge Washington D.C. march on the FOURTH PAGE and even cut the AP article copy in half. Why is it o.k. NOW to do stories on brain injuries and war protestors and the administration's corruption? The time to do it was FOUR YEARS AGO, THREE YEARS AGO, TWO YEARS AGO, when something could be done! (Sorry, starting to rant, it's good they are doing this, but it's also pathetic, I'm just getting pissed putting this post together.):


http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=228712



Matthew Uran spends hours a day at Fayetteville’s VA hospital relearning how to walk, talk and do other everyday things. He was 10 days into his deployment when his helicopter crashed during training in Kuwait.

‘Nothing is easy’

By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer
Matthew Uran’s body is a prison.

He thinks clearly, but his arms and legs respond erratically. Uran used to pilot Apache attack helicopters. He once could run for miles. Now his feet drag; he has to will them to move a step at a time. His eyes sparkle, but his speech comes haltingly and his hands just hang at his sides.

“It is very difficult for me to do anything,” he says. “Nothing is easy.”

The crescent-shaped scar on the left side of his head tells his story in summary — Uran has a brain injury. He is one of the hidden costs of the war.

Dr. Deborah Warden is the national director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. She told United Press International last year that the military is treating more brain injuries from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan than in previous wars. In the past, people hurt as badly as Uran would likely have died. Now, brain injuries account for as much as 20percent of combat casualties, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

MORE


http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=228909



Matt Ivey, left, and Ben Lassiter of Greensboro chant during an anti-war protest at Rowan Park on Saturday.

Protesters says Iraq war policy is flawed

By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer
Former paratrooper Blake Callens told anti-war protesters rallying in Fayetteville on Saturday that the U.S. is not winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. The war, he said, is unwinnable.

Callens was one of several speakers at a demonstration to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. About 1,000 protesters took part, making this year’s gathering in Rowan Park smaller than last year’s. Roughly 60 people showed up for a counterdemonstration across the street. Police reported no arrests or other problems between the two sides.

Callens, a 28-year-old former sergeant turned guitar instructor, served with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004. Unlike in Afghanistan where he said troops were allowed to help local citizens, Callens said a hostility between the soldiers and the Iraqis is undermining the war effort.

Callens told the crowd about an Iraqi man who came to the gate of an American base looking for medical help for his two seriously ill children.

MORE




This photo was on the inside of the paper:



Counterprotester Doug Harris, 8, watches anti-war protesters enter Rowan Park.

Look at that poor kid. What his parents must be doing to his brain.


Leak case may reveal larger chaos

By Pete Yost
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Ten months ahead of his scheduled trial in the Valerie Plame affair, Lewis "Scooter" Libby seems intent on zeroing in on three little letters the bush White House would like to forget forever: WMD.

To hear Libby's lawyers tell it in the latest court filing, Plame's CIA status was barely a blip on the radar screen as the administration tried to dodge incoming criticism. Libby's legal team descrived her CIA identity as "at most a peripheral issue" to "the media conglagration over the failure to find WMD" - weapons of mass destruction - in Iraq.

C'mon, They're all volunteers - like mercenaries you know - the thing that used to be illegal in the USA Mercenaries professional soldiers. The USA made it illegal in the 1700's after the Hessians caused so much trouble here.

Many in our military join up hoping for a war.

My brother - a progressive.

He had a life going nowhere and joined to get money to go to college. He's about to graduate with a master's in Religion Studies and is a member of Veterans Against The War.

I would guess that half have joined because they want war and want to kill. The other half were stuck in the military when war broke out.

I know very, very few that hope for war and very, very few that want to go to (or go back to) Iraq.

That there is glory in war. Actually the majority of the kids I know who have joined have joined for the glory. They want the war.

I have a young man who is 17, his father is a DR. his mother is an therapist and this Kid has already joined the Army. He will, upon graduation from High School, go into the army, go to basic and go to Iraq.


What is wrong with this picture?

Now I want to get my hands on a copy of this year's print edition.

Hmmm,.....

on edit: Thank you for going. I wish I could have made it. I'm still pretty sick and can't do a whole day away from my own house/couch yet.