"Third Country Nationals" An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionst Journey (Pt. 10)

(This is the 10th dispatch from my friend Andy, an American doctor serving in Iraq with the Air Force Reserves)

Hello!

A part of this war (actually a phenomenon throughout the A.O.R) is the tremendous work done by third country nationals. 

This is a term used for people who work on the base ( for the us military) but are not from either Iraq or the allied countries. They are usually from developing countries and are hired by the contractors (Haliburton, KBR, multiple Turkish companies) to come here and do jobs that keep the base running. The do Laundry, cook the food, work at all the shops and restaurants, cut hair, pump gas, clean everything from the hospitals to bathrooms, maintain the rooms, provide internal base security ,work at the gyms, swimming pools and movie theaters, base exchange, drive the buses around base, etc.

They are mainly from countries that speak some English like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines or have specific skills like the soldiers from Sierra Leone, Honduras, Columbia and Uganda.

In many ways these folks lives are much tougher then ours. They live in (for us) cramped conditions, work (SOMETIMES) longer hours and have significantly less amenities. There salaries are a fraction of ours although the countries from which they come have a significantly lower cost of living. The also typically stay here for years in order to make money for their families.

While here they are subject to the same risks as the rest of as as missiles lobbed at our base do not discriminate between a Nepali and an American.

They deal with being here because they are making much more money then they could at home and spend almost no money here.

There is a slight tension between the military and the contractors as they hypothetically could be a security risk. The thought is somebody could either offer them a lot of money or threaten their family back home (or a combination) in order to induce them to participate in an attack on the base. There are very strict rules about individual friendships between our troops and third county nationals.

Still, the combination of intercultural gatherings and ethnic food is too much for me to pass up so I organized a dinner with a group of air force medical folks (Americans), TCN employees (mainly south Asians) and TCN management (Turkish) at a large Turkish contracting firm.

Essentially a Pakistani guy named Jay who cleans our section of the hospital was telling me about the food in his camp. I asked him to meet the boss  (Turkish) who came over to meet me at which point I told them I would bring the desert if they would provide the food. They said it would be an "honor" so I gathered 10 of my friends and we went to dinner.

The food was absolutely awesome!

Turkish salad and fish, Indian chicken,lamb rice and bread, and soft drinks. I brought an American desert--cinnabons!

We had an absolutely wonderful time!!!

The funny thing (if you can say "funny") is that as the US army has largely returned to the bases the folks who lob up the rockets have more room to maneuver. So we sat outside eating and talking while my radio periodically crackled about attacks on different parts of the base..but nobody seemed the slightest bit concerned. So our group of Hindus, Muslims, Jews (at least one) and Christians would not be deterred from our dinner together by remnants of Al Qaeda (or whomever was behind firing the rockets.)..so score one victory for intercultural (including Muslim)brotherhood over Islamic extremism!

It was nice to eat food outside our dining hall and learn about these folks who serve alongside us here in Iraq!

I gave my obligatory Pitt shirts to our hosts as we departed! 

"Mental Health in the Army" An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 9)

Hello.

I am now safely back at Balad Air base and am back to my usual schedule which means I work 4 days shifts followed by 7 night shifts after which I will leave for another part of Iraq on a short term basis. Either to the green zone to do some work with a navy officer who is training Iraqi Special forces,a base called talil near Baghdad to train army medics, or just do some c-130 missions to pick up patients throughout Iraq.

As mentioned before I wanted to briefly write about mental health issues in the army as I have written about a suicide and a suicide attempt and have evacuated a very large amount of soldiers to Germany for mental health issues.

The facts are the following: The army has gone from having a suicide rate lower then the general population to having a suicide rate that is HIGHER than the general population. As casualties fall here mental health issues are on the rise. The army knows this is a problem and recently finished a very large intensive study about suicide and mental health in the army. They know it is a problem and are desperately trying to make a dent. Their findings (if you Google army suicide study you can read about it yourself) essentially placed the blame on support services and the higher level enlisted and officer corps for not being sufficiently attentive. But the study did not really talk about WHy this is happening. In my conversations with psychologists, enlisted, the medical community and the patients themselves I have gathered my own opinions.

Let me begin by saying the army has done a wonderful job here. They have born the brunt of the fight and have been responsible for really defeating the insurgents as a force that could fight and hold territory. The insurgents still cause frequent death and destruction but it is always via suicide bombings and roadside bombs and is extremely scattered. They do not threaten the political or social system like they did back in 2007-08..Additionally the vast majority of army troops seem to be in excellent mental health. Still, a growing number have very dire mental health issues. It seems important to understand the reason.

(1) Prolonged deployments-Where the AF deploys for 90 to 180 days the Army deployments are always for 12 to 15 months and occur very frequently. In a cumulative fashion these deployments cause family stress and difficulties with relationships. The Army understands this fact and has shortened tours from 15 months to 12 months and are trying to decrease further to 9 months.

(2)Lower operational tempo in Iraq-Paradoxically the changing war in Iraq has led to challenges from a mental health perspective. In the past Iraq was a very "hot" war. Soldiers were outside the wire (base) every day being shot at, knocking down door and going directly after the insurgents. These kind of operations were intense, made time go quickly, did not leave time for brooding about personal issue and helped the soldiers develop a strong feeling of camaraderie. The situation now is different in that they are mainly supporting the Iraqi army, going on patrols for months and months without enemy contact and doing 'busy work" at the base. Many soldiers report a lack of fulfillment in this job as well as large ammount of time to focus on problems at home. Also with the decreased sense of camaraderie (which came from being in combat together) relationships among the troops tend to fray. This increases the risk of mental health issues

(3) PTSD-some soldiers have underlying PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) that is made worse by being back in Iraq. When they were in combat the PTSD sensations of being on the edge and being hyper alert was actually in some way beneficial. but with decreased combat but being back in Iraq their sensations are triggered in a more peaceful environment. This is obviously very stressful for those affected

(4)"YOUNG" Army-It is seems to me that a large portion of the young soldiers with mental health issues would not have been deployed 3 or 4 years ago. The army faced a need for more troops at a time when the war here was going poorly and the us economy was good. As a result some soldiers enlisted who may have not been allowed to enlist in prior years. The included some troops with prior histories of mental illness who (in retrospect) may have been more prone to have problems.

Again, the army is heavily engaged in reversing this problem. We have briefings constantly about mental health and suicide as well as pamphlets throughout the base and commercials around the clock on armed forces network. They have policies in place for all soldiers to meet with counselors and also to be confined to the home base upon return to be observed and meet with mental health teams.

On a lighter side..I have included some pictures of me being given a tour of an F-16 ("VIPER") by one of the pilots and a picture of us filming a commercial for the university of Pittsburgh to be played before the game on 11sept.

Thanks,

PS-almost 70% done!!

The Guardian's Jewish Defamers of Israel, and A Letter To My Teenage Nephew

This essay was published at CiF Watch, and cross-posted at Augean Stables, and Solomonia.

CiF’s Jewish Israel defamers

When joining the team here at CiF Watch, and attempting to understand why Jewish writers for the Guardian are often among the most vociferous in expressing their contempt for Israel, and so willing to demonize the state’s Jewish supporters, I had to get up to speed on the term “Theobald Jew.”

I soon learned that:

According to the Benedictine monk Thomas of Monmouth in his The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich (1173), it was an apostate Jew, a certain Theobald, who, swore that Jews had killed twelve-year old William, a tanner’s apprentice, to fulfill their “Passover blood ritual” in the fateful year of 1144—the first recorded such episode in a long line of murderous defamations.

The CiF contributors I refer to include Naomi Klein, Neve Gordon, Richard Silverstein, Antony Lerman, Seth Freedman, Tony Greenstein, among others. These Jewish writers don’t merely critique Israeli policy, but routinely engage in hyperbole, vitriol, and gross distortions. Their rhetoric is often spewed with hate towards the Jewish state, all but ignoring the behavior of her enemies - the terrorist and reactionary movements who openly seek her annihilation. Such commentators often infer that the democratic Jewish state (the most progressive nation, by far, in the region) is almost always in the wrong, is usually motivated by a hideous malevolence, and represents a national movement which they, as Jews, are ashamed to be associated with.

Freedman, for instance, has suggested that Israel is a theocracy – one which is on moral par with Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda. Gordon has on several occasions accused Israel of ethnic cleansing - once advancing such an ugly calumny in the radical anti-Zionist magazine, Counterpunch. Tony Greensteinhas ardently defended the ugly comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, typically advanced by extremists. Richard Silverstein has called the behavior of Israelis serving in the IDF “subhuman“, and has defended Hamas from “charges” that they are an extremist movement. Naomi Klein actually accused Israel of being so cruel and sadistic as to “bury children alive in their homes.”

While, for the Guardian, employing the services of Theobald Jews serves to inoculate them from charges of anti-Semitism, such Jewish writers, in return, receive the progressive and universalist credentials they so eagerly seek.

The Misnomer of the “Self-Hating Jew”

To be fair, I always found the term “self-hating Jew” to be at best misleading, at worst a complete misnomer. First, because we typically have no way of knowing these writers‘ inner-thoughts. But, more importantly, I never thought that it was an apt description of the anti-Zionist Jews I’ve met over the years. If anything, most seem to possess a belief that they are indeed “better Jews” for being hyper-critical of Israel, opposing their own community, and rejecting the very idea of a Jewish nation-state.

Many seem singularly focused on being seen as a “progressive”. And, as the progressive movement has moved further and further away from identification with Israel – and, to some degree, further away from identification with Jews as such – the need to be seen as progressive (“righteous”) in the eyes of others, has taken precedence over the seemingly parochial desire to identify with, and defend, their own community.

I have thought long and hard about the phenomenon of Jews who oppose their own community, have read and written about it, and there appears to be four dynamics worth exploring:

1. Moral Vanity

I was particularly inspired by Anthony Julius’s long two-part essay published at the American Jewish Committee site, Z Word. The piece was called Jewish anti-Zionism Unravelled: The Morality of Vanity. (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2). Julius also rejects the notion of such Jews as being “self-hating”. Instead he refers to them as moralisers who continually desire affirmation from the non-Jewish world as to their righteousness.

The moraliser makes judgments on others, and profits by so doing; he puts himself on the right side of the fence. Moralising provides the moraliser with recognition of his own existence and confirmation of his own value. A moraliser has a good conscience and is satisfied by his own self-righteousness . He is not a self-hater; he is enfolded in self-admiration. He is in step with the best opinion.

2. The Temptation of Innocence

Ruth Wisse, in her book “Jews and Power“, identified the tendency of some Jews to vociferously oppose their own community as a dynamic which she, in part, attributes to a Jewish uneasiness with the projection political power and a tendency to almost fetishize the Jews’ history of powerlessness. Wisse concludes that Jews who endured, or know the history of, the powerlessness of exile are in danger of mistaking it for a requirement of Jewish life or, worse, for a Jewish ideal. This puerile desire not to be corrupted by the complexities, and occasional compromises, necessitated by possessing moral agency is described by Pascal Bruckner as “The Temptation of Innocence.”

3. Jewish Fear: Assimilation and Altruism as an Inoculation from Harm

More recently, Barry Rubin, director of the GLORIA Center (Global Research on International Affairs), in an illuminating and penetrating piece, entitled“Explaining Jewish Political Behavior“, said:

"[historically] Jews were attacked for allegedly having too much power, even when they had little or none, the emphasis was on being eager to make concessions, not to gain victories through threat or pressure.

…How would this strategy try to succeed? By proving Jews were good citizens, by showing they were unselfish and sought nothing for themselves, by demonstrating their willingness to dissolve the bonds and customs of their own community…and by showing that being nice to them would benefit everyone or almost everyone. In other words, altruism was a central element in the strategy

“…A key element of the assimilationist doctrine has been to deny there was a [Jewish] collective communal interest, and to avoid making collective demands.

Rubin, who, it should be noted, fleshes out his argument more fully in his book, Assimilation and Its Discontents, continues:

large parts of the Jewish elite are proud to stand aloof from their own people and deem it virtuous to abandon it and reject any notion of communal interests (including Israel and religion). Indeed, they think they can best prove their credentials by championing the causes of other groups even–sometimes especially–those in conflict with Jewish interests.

…The elite Jew’s emphasis is often to escape identification with the community, proving he is a cosmopolitan with a universalist identity, being the first to demand the dissolution of any community loyalty and viewing the embodiment of Jewish peoplehood—Israel—as an impediment to those goals. While antisemites charge that all or almost all Jews in positions of power pursue a distinctively Jewish interest, the exact opposite is the truth. This explains how left-wing Jews extol multiculturalism and self-determination for other peoples even as they hold the exact opposite attitude toward their own people, whom they are determined to show are not their own people.

…many Jews, particularly in elite positions, are eager to prove their credentials by criticizing their own people or Israel.

4. The Adversarial Jew: Skepticism and relativism disguised as reasoned political thought

I think there’s one last dynamic at play – an insight I came upon as a result of an email exchange I had with my 16-year-old nephew recently.

He reached out to me to seek my advice on this phase he was going through.It seems that he’s going through an early “existential crisis” of sorts – a frame of mind (I warmly noted to him) that most don’t arrive at until college. He mentioned that, lately, he’s been questioning everything – every social convention, everything he’s ever been told, and wondering whether the wisdom, mores, and customs he‘s been brought up by his parents to believe in and abide by are indeed worthy. He said that, since this struggle, he wasn’t misbehaving, but had resigned himself to merely “going through the motions” – but wasn’t really buying into what he always believed to be true. He wanted to know what I thought.

In my reply, I assured him that what he’s going through is perfectly normal, and was a sign that he possessess a vibrant, active, and healthy mind – and, that, indeed, such existential crises were the inspiration for great works of poetry, literature, and philosophy through the ages. I said that I also went through a similar mental orientation - that I, during the first couple years ofcollege, questioned everything ever taught to me by my parents and my community. I even looked down on the adults in my life, and their seemingly conventional thinking. In my arrogance, I said, I believed that I saw things they didn’t see…had arrived at answers to questions that had perplexed not only my a parents and relatives, but the most brilliant minds in my time and in generations past.

However, I also told him that I eventually learned to have a bit of humility about it all, and eventually realized that I didn’t know much about life, at that early stage in my life, at all. And, that my parents, the older I got (and as my adolescence receded) seemed to become wiser and wiser with each passing year – in what I increasingly identified as their decency, sobriety, and plain common sense.

So, I asked my nephew if he would at least try to avoid the audacity of imagining that he alone possessed the wisdom and insight that has eluded his community – the Rabbis, sages, political, and community leaders – in his generation and though the ages. I asked that he not assume that because his father claims that something is true, that the opposite must indeed be what’s actually correct. I asked that he be patient and assured him that, with time and experience, he’ll eventually not be so quick to question the intentions of those who guide him. I expressed confidence that he will come to see that a healthy skepticism about “conventional thinking” is indeed normal, but that he’ll eventually understand that such thoughts need not devolve into a knee-jerk rejection of all the traditions and values of those who have come before him and have guided generations of Jews through often dark and harrowing times.

Julius, in his Z Word essay, dissected the potential moral pathos of many such renegade Jews:

He holds that the truth is to be arrived at by inverting the “us = good” and “other = bad” binarism. He finds virtue in opposing his own community; he takes the other point of view. He writes counter-histories of his own people. It is not enough for him to disagree, or even refute; he must expose the worst bad faith, the most ignoble motives, the grossest crimes. He must discredit.

My nephew is a smart, decent, and level-headed young man. And, I have no doubt that he’ll maintain his bearings during this intellectual “crisis” and not allow himself to surrender to hubris, nor develop a malevolence towards the family and community that has supported, nurtured, and guided him through the complexities of everyday life – those who love him dearly and have tried with all their heart to provide a path to protect him from the maddeningly complicated world he lives in.

It’s a simple lesson perhaps, but a vital one. And, its wisdom that many of the Jews who write for the Guardian, quite shamefully, don’t even meagerly possess.

Deheisheh Refugee Camp, Revisited: "My enemy, enemy of the sun, I will not compromise and I will resist till the last pulse in my veins”

Back in July I posted an essay, on this blog, about a personal tour I was given of the Palestinian Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, called Deheisheh. In the post, I noted both the hospitality of our host, and others we met on the tour, as well as the disturbing messages, throughout the community, often displayed on public buildings, promoting violence and hate. Well, due to a show aired on Israeli TV alleging that other educational institutions at Deheisheh promoted such messages, Haaretz wrote a story about the issue - which was then picked up by the blogger, Elder of Ziyon. Since I took photos at the camp, I was able to provide Elder with an image which at least confirmed that such messages were certainly part of the Deheisheh landscape. 

So, here's my blog post at CiF Watch on the incident.

The indispensable Elder of Zyionbrought to our attention to a story in Haaretz concerning a show aired by the Israel Broadcasting Authority which was deeply critical of UNRWA activit ies in refugee camps

UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency), it should be noted, was established by United Nations General Assembly 1949 as a temporary measure to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestinian refugees. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of their funding comes from the EU.

Research by NGO Monitor has demonstrated that such funds are often used for nefarious purposes:

UNRWA schools and other facilities are often used to teach hatred and encourage incitement; the evidence demonstrates that UNRWA staff allowed terror related activities in its camps.

The Haaretz story reported:

The United Nations’ relief agency for Palestinian refugees, lashed out Tuesday at the Israel Broadcasting Authority for airing what it called a dishonest portrayal of the organization on Saturday in “Ro’im Olam” on Channel 1 television. 

Right-wing journalist David Bedein's "For the Nakba", UNRWA said, contains numerous inaccuracies about its operations in Palestinian refugee camps and educational institutions. It depicts large graffiti that lionize Palestinian suicide bombers and includes an interview with Palestinian children who profess a desire to become "martyrs."

…Bedein [said] Palestinian kids…study the materials from the textbooks at a young age, and the mural of the suicide bomber was seen at the entrance of the UNRWA school at the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. 

…Prior to the airing of the show on Channel One, UNRWA’s [Christopher] Gunness wrote that, “UNRWA schools do not contain murals of suicide bombers.” 

Elder then presented evidence which contradicts the denials by Gunness about UNRWA concerning the “Nakba” narrative by linking to an official UNWRA newsletter which indeed promotes the “Nakba.”

Elder does note, however, that he has no way to verify whether the specific institutions in question, at Deheisheh, contain such murals, nor whether the charges concerning school textbooks are indeed accurate. I, also, don’t have any specific information on the educational institution in question.

However, last year, I was taken on a personal tour of Deheisheh and took this picture at this UNWRA sponsored community center, near the entrance of the camp.

It should be noted that the community center where this very large mural appears, depicting a Palestinian who’s about to throw an explosive device, was filled with Palestinian children on the day I visited.

Perhaps Chris Gunness should visit such places before launching into expressions of outrage in response to future reports on UNRWA funds being used for incitement against Israel.

Per Elder of Ziyon, here’s an English translation of the Arab writing on the mural:

“My enemy, enemy of the sun, I will not compromise and I will resist till the last pulse in my veins”

To remind my fellow immigrants what we are doing, why we are doing it, and that we are neither the first nor the last

"Shall I compose an idyll of the Land of Israel for him? And the other one said, That I leave to the poets and the tourists and I ask you all, are you the only ones sufering? Aren't there people here who came before us, and if we tell all the troubles that befell them, time would run out. They came to a wilderness, a place of harsh malaria, and gangs of highwaymen, and harsh laws and evil governors. If they built themselves houses, the king's oficials came and destroyed them. If they sowed, their neighbors came and threw their beasts on the grain. If they drove them out, they went to cry to the government that the Jews attacked them....

"But they didn't despair and they endured all the troubles and they maintained the Yishuv through their suering and turned the deserts of the Land of Israel into homes and vineyards and fields. And as he mentioned their sufering, he told of their heroism....Thus they sat and told tales about afflictions and tales about heroism,....It is small our Land, and how great are its troubles. And since they were tell about the settlements, they told about their founders. And as they were telling, they were amazed at themselves that they hadn't noticed the hoerism of those founders before now.

"How Isaac loved that hour when he sat in the Land of Israel in the presence of laborers of the Land of Israel who were telling of the building of the Land o Israel. The Land of Israel was acquired with sufering, and he who loves the Land of Israel and lovingly accepts her suffering, is privileged to see her being built."

Shai Agnon, Only Yesterday, completed in 1943, published first in 1945.

"Extraction Training" An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 8)

(This is the 8th dispatch from my friend Andy, an American doctor serving in Iraq with the Air Force Reserves)

Hello. Today we had training with the Army, but I hope I'll be leaving before I have to use what I've learned. It is called "extraction training" used when a patient has to be extracted from a "hot" (under fire) LZ (landing zone). The training took place in our customary 120-130 degree heat - while wearing full battle regalia.

As the team medic, I had to be comfortable (or more comfortable) functioning in this enviroment. First we were given a 30 minute lecture explaining the differences between trauma response in the military vs. the civilian side. The first point reieterted over and over was to supress enemy fire before caring for the patient.They showed footage from early in the Iraq campaign of a well meaning medic going out to help a fallen comrade and subsequently being shot. The main emphasis was to stop the bleeding using either local pressure or a tournequiet, starting an IV quickly if pulses were decreased (signalling decreased BP) and attending to the airway last as, reportedly, hemorrhage is the cause of 90% of battle deaths.

After the lecture they brought us outside and had our team of 4 leave the helicopter..go to a hot landing zone..supress enemy fire and care for our patient. We had to make sure not to be so focused on the patient that we forgot about what was going on around us. Also if we were attacked, and the patient could not move on his own, we were to (against our better instincts as physicians) leave the patient until the enemy was "supressed" or, at least, out of the area.

I felt like a poorly prepared extra in a war movie while I was stalking through the LZ with my M-16 Rifle..which I had only touched once on a deployment with the Marines, while in the nation of Chad. But the army guys were taking this very seriously and having us walk in staggered formation with 360 degree coverage.

When we identified the patient we first had to win the firefight (they were firing blanks from rifles and, frankly, I HAD NO CLEAR SENSE OF WHERE THE FIRING WAS COMING FROM) and then manuuver the team to the patient.

With the heat, the army guys (who have fought in two wars) instructing us, and sporadic blanks in the distance, it was as close a sensation to a real firefight as I ever want to have. The patient had a right leg amputation for which we applied a tournequit, he than lost his pulse - for which I started an IV (a real IV-these guys are tough). And, after abandoning the patient while under attack (as instrcuted) we dragged him to the waiting chopper.

I frankly felt hapless as a soldier but the army guys were very charitable in saying that I hit the ground quick under fire and abandoned my patinet as required. They kindly said I should probably shoot my weapon every now and again "just to help the team and keep the enemy honest". They were very impressed with my effeciency in starting an IV in the field quickly on the first try. After that we had an opportunity to teach the army folks some basic theory about drugs, management of low blood pressure and respiatory failure.

These guys absolutely love their job. They also speak glowingly of their wives and little kids but are away from them way too long. While some of those serving here in the Army have serious mental health issues (as noted before..which I will address), the vast majority of troops I have met absolutely LOVE their jobs..despite the sacrifice.

It was somewhat touching that these hardened warriors were spending so much time (and taking seriously) teaching me how to function in their environment - and, in a very respectful fashion. They were great teachers. Its yet another experience I will simply never forget.

Andy

"My First Chopper Mission": An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 7)

Hello from F.O.B (Forward Operating Base Warrior) at a location in Iraq.

I arrived here 17 July at 0500 after a flight that left Balad at 0400. I was welcomed by Major G. - a Nurse Anesthesiologist - gave me a quick briefing about the base. The base is quite small and is predominantly US Army. They actually have no dedicated airplanes..only helicopters from the 1st Air Calvary Division.

The base is nestled into the southern part of a city which is a fairly large city that is a mix of Kurds, Turks and Arabs..somewhat volatile with ethnic tensions high because of a electoral standoff here - I dont know if you guys are follwing Iraqi politics..but it is incredible they actually have (democratic) "politics" here, after [so many] years of dictatorship in the region.

Like most of Iraq - despite the tensions - violence levels are still way down. Although scattered incidents (both against ordinary Iraqi citizens and us/iraqi troops) still occur.

I found thast my mian goal here is to fly Medivac missions. Aerovac is an airplanes..Medivacs are (Army) helicopters.

The reason to fly in a Medivac (as opposed to a Aerovac) is that its quicker. If sombody in the vicinity of this F.O.B is critically ill a C-130 would have to arrive from another location and would take a minimum of 3 hours to fly here and pick the patient up for transport to a Hospital. A helicoipter which is based here takes about 40 minutes to get the patient to the location.

The Medical Corps here is pretty thin..we have a emergecny medicine doc, internal medicine, general surgery and myself. They have an OR and basic labs and imaging. If a patient is sick they need basic stabilization here and then trasnport to Balad.

Having no rotary wing (helicopter) experience my first job was to go to the 1st Calvary and get a short lession from the Medivac team. (picture 3). I met the pilots, crew chief (folks in charge of aircraft maintenance and the back of the aircraft during flight) as well as the medics. They taught me where to sit, how to manuver, my job in the aircraft (aside from medical care it is watching out the back of the aircraft for other aircraft, wires, "Safire" (surface to air fire), etc. I also saw the wall featuring all the aircrew who had been killed in action in Iraq. Unlike the fixed wings aircraft, rotary aircraft had been shot down (fortunately, though, not in the past 2 years!)

I was hoping to have time to digest my new job but on 18 July (new city, day #2) my first mission began when a army solidier with a testicular torsion came to the ER. That is a potential emergency when you get decreased blood flow to the testicle. It is very painful. I put the drugs I would need on my vest (Morphine, Slaine, nausea drugs ) and a heart and oxygen monitor and oxygen with the patient and the patient was taken out to the waiting chopper

(I snapped a picture of myself and the flight medic while the patient was being loaded.)

The helicopter ride was pretty intense as unlike an airplane you feel every move the helicopter makes and cannot communicate due to the noise. I did have a wire that allowed me to hear and speak with the aircrew but not the patient. I basically communicated via thumbs up and thumbs down signs. The patients oxygen levels started to drop (due to shallow ventilations from the morphine and the fact that the cabin is not pressurized and oxygen levels are lower high in the sky). But this was correctred with more oxygen.

Because we are a medivac aircraft and cannot carry weapons we had an excort helicopter gunship the entire flight. It was reassuring to see them on the left. (pic #5). The pilots were in constant conversation about recent atacks and discussed what areas to avoid (populated centers, hill tops).

When we landed at our destination to refuel and drop off the patient I met the person manning the large caliber weapon on the helicopter gunship. It was a 22 year old woman! (1st picture below the text). I am always amazed in the military how so much responsibility is sucsessfully handled by such young people. Both of our pilots were mid 20's and the medic as 23 while the crew chief was 27. Over the hum of the rotars I had a brief conversation with this 22 year old woman who was defending my helicopter round-trip. She was from a small town in New York and wanted to eventually be a nurse. When I asked her why she did not want to be a doctor she said "I want to care for people, sir"..and with that bid me farewell and went back to protect us with her machine gun!

We dropped off the patient to the folks in the ER and then flew back.

I'll send more emails later.

Andy

"My First Flying Mission": An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 6)

(This is the 6th installment of my friend Andy's dispatches from Iraq, where he serves as a doctor in the Air Force Reserves)

I flew my first flying mission today and it was uneventful from a medical perspective but quite an experience otherwise. It gave me the opportunity to see a broad swath of Iraq from the air. We started out in the pre- flight briefing (where I was told where my new home will be in about 48 hours!) and then went to a small base on the iranian border than back to Balad and off to Mosul and back to Balad. All these bases are in the north of the country. 

My role was to provide medcial support for certian high level passengers (ususaly generals) who I actually never got to meet because the back of the plane was so crowded. The pre-flight report was actually reassuring as there were no reports that SAMs (surface to air missles)  were being used against C-130's. 

I also met the flight crew and was suprised to find out that the co-pilot was a pittsburgher from Bethel Park who went to the air force academy. We talked about Pittsburgh sports and food for a long time and it tuned out a high school teacher of his was one of my patients when I was a resident!

We took on about 50 army soldiers armed to the teeth with and loaded"pallets" (which means gear) (pic #2), and took off for the North. The Iraqi countryside was EXTREMELY dry and barren. We landed at our first destintion and droped off some packages. For some reason after flying over this baren, inhospitable countryside for miles (picture #3) it was great to land at a distant base and see the American flag flapping in the breeze (picture 4) at the Air Base. 

We than flew to the small base on the iranian border and dropped off 50 soldiers stating their tour and picked up 50 mor who were going home. The soldiers told me they had been in iraq for about 14 month and essentially stood guard at the base and watched the iranians across the border...who peered straight back at them. 

We then drove some more and dropped off the soldiers and re-loaded AGAIN to drive to our next destination. When we were close, a sandstorm hit and the pilots had to land with vitually no visibility.  It was incredible as the pilots used radar and instruments and instructions from the control tower to land..it took 3 aproaches as they over shot the runway the first two times. It was strange to look down (pictures 5 & 6) at both cities, as they appeared peaceful from the air - but down below there were terrorists present who were often setting car bombs and IED's and killing many inocent people. It was hard to imagine there was a low level war going on below me. We then flew back to our base (picture 1 and 7).

Me and my Pittsburgh compatriot than went up the escape hatch and got a picture on top of the plane by the tail wing. This plane was so huge!

It was really a unique experience to be in the front of the airplane with the pilot and aircrew as the discussed flying the plane and how to handle the problems presented by the environment.

Goodbye for now,

Andy

"Shabbat Dinner In Iraq" An American doctor, and personal friend, serving as a doctor in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 5)

(This is the 5th installment of my friend Andy's dispatches from Iraq, where he serves as a doctor in the Air Force Reserves.)

I may be out of touch for a week or two (or maybe not!) as I am being "forward deployed" to a smaller base  in northern Iraq. It seems a ER doc there had a family emergency so I will be going there until they can find somebody else. It should take no more than 1 to 2 weeks as I am desperately needed here as throughout the theater there is a skeleton number of docs (and everything else) as the draw-down continues.

My understanding is that this base is far smaller and has less amenities then my current base which is the hub in Iraq. I believe the hospital is a field (tent) hospital and the labs and imaging are very rudimentary.

As opposed to my own with air-con and a TV I will likely share a tent with 1-2 other docs. My responsibilities will be ER shfts, taking care of the army helicopter pilots and support staff, and in the event we get a critically ill patient fly with the medivac (Blackhawk) helicopter back to balad with the patient.

My job today was to find transportation to my new location. I first checked and saw the C-130's would leave at 0230..in about 90 minutes from now. It would be a comfortable flight for me and I could use the NVG's (night vision goggles) as part of the flight crew..but I didn't want to go without sleep before starting at a new job.

My other option was a blackhawk helicopter. I called the blackhawk squadron and they said a flight to was leaving at 0430..but would first stop in Tikrit (Saddam Husein's hometown) to pick up some VIP's.

My feeling was 2 extra hours of sleep was not worth the risk of flying with VIP's in an airframe that HAD been shot down in Iraq..so I will stick with my C-130 crew. I arrive at my new base at 0600 (approximately) and somebody will be waiting to pick me up. A new adventure awaits.

We had my final Shabbat dinner/service tonight until I return and it was again very nice. Out of a base of 24,000 people (half US soldiers) we have a Jewish contingent of 5-6 at our services. We have a female "Cantor" who runs th service and has a beautiful voice. We also have a orthodox enlisted guy who serves as the rabbi and we all participate. Generally we in unison sing the blessing of the wine and bread and the kaddish and sing all the Shabbat songs.

They are a extremely nice bunch of people and l look forward to going to dinner together every friday night (meet at 530PM) and then go to the services at 700PM.

The bread is made fresh by the orthodox guy in a bread maker and the wine is supplied by the us military. The prayer books on the inside say:

"Dedicated to the gallant men and woman of Jewish decent who choose to defend our country."

They are from the Jewish War Veterans of America.

I realy love going to the services and I feel a very intimate connection with the people. It is another surreal experience. We have 5 Jewish professionals (2 docs, a dentist a nurse and a psychologist) which is not surprising. But we are in Air Force or Army fitness gear, are all (excpet for me-I'll wait until its DEMANDED) wearing sidearms and as the chapel is next to the fight line the background music to the service is often the roar of F-16's.

The location-a base in the middle of Iraq that was once home to Saddam Hussien (hardly a fan of Israel or a friend of his own Jewish population) is another unique variable. When we join together to sing Hebrew songs together that I have been singing since childhood in this environment I really get choked up. It feels nice to belong to a small group where you can have such an immediate and intimate connection with other people. Its nice to be in such an unfilmilair enviroment and be involved in somethng that is like a old blanket since childhood. It reaffirms to me that my faith is important and I am greatful for my childhood Jewish education.

Good Shabbos to all, and happy Friday!

-Andy

1493 Days, 3 Hours, 27 Minutes, and still counting...

A poster I saw in the Gilad Shalit tent outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem

On Charges of "Jewish domination of the Media"

This originally was posted at CiF Watch

Occasionally, thinly veiled covers for anti-Semitic invectives wear down, and the explicit hate is laid bare for all to see. Many of us have noted a disturbing ideological trend, in which classic anti-Semitic tropes about the dangers of Jewish power and influence in politics have become increasingly popular by some on the Left - rendering such bigotry nearly banal within some circles.

Typically, this narrative is advanced using the rhetoric of human rights and anti-imperialism, and carefully avoids making such charges against Jews as such – referring instead to the injurious effects of the “Israel Lobby.”

Glenn Greenwald, who blogs at Salon.com, (and is a member in good standing of the Walt and Mearsheimer brigade of “dissidents” who bravely “expose” the injurious effects of the organized Jewish community on the American body politic) has honed such furtive rhetoric to an art.

However, even his respectable veneer has occasionally been eroded. In 2007, he said

“…the influence of self-proclaimed “pro-Israeli” American Jewish groups in helping to push the country into what looks more and more every day to be an inevitable conflict with Iran is very significant and cannot be ignored.”

Antony Lerman, writing in Comment is Free, in defense of C4s documentary which “investigated” The Israel Lobby, stated cooly that wealthy British Jews are indeed linked to “payments of large sums of money to politicians, power and influence.”

And, as any reader of CiF Watch is well aware, reader comment threads in response to almost any Israel-related essay at Comment is Free often reveal a slew of vile accusations that the UK is held captive by the organized Jewish community.

Oliver Stone – film-maker, conspiracy enthusiast, and ardent defender of South American Narco-Terrorist Movements - has recently “revealed” the real reason there is so much “talk” about Jewish victims of The Holocaust. (Hint: It apparently has nothing to do with natural human compassion for the millions of innocent victims, which included 1.5 million children, slaughtered by the Nazi regime.)

From an interview with Oliver Stone in The Sunday Times (Courtesy of Normblog):

The 10-part documentary [which Stone is planning] will address Stalin and Hitler “in context”, he says. “Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.”

He also seeks to put his atrocities in proportion: “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m.”

Why such a focus on the Holocaust then? “The Jewish domination of the media,” he says. “There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”

I can assure the readers of this blog that CiF Watch’s cadre of writers are indeed very hard workers, and, fully intend to continue staying on top of every comment inspired by such bigotry – this insidious, and seemingly immutable, belief that the Jewish community represents some sort of organic obstacle to peace and progress in our time.

- Adam Levick

"Saying Goodbye to my Crew": An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 4)

(This is the fourth dispatch from my good friend Andy, an American serving in Iraq as a doctor in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.)

As I inch to the half way point of my tour, the staff at the military hospital has undergone a near 100% transition over the past 96 hours. Included in that process was the need to say goodbye to the people who I've been working with so closely for the past 6 weeks.

Its interesting how quickly you develop a bond with people when you work in such an intimate, and yet inherently inhospitable, environment. Although this hospital has been staffed by thousands of people since the war began in 2003 nobody can imagine a group as close, hard working and fun as their own!

Because I came in the middle of their rotation I was lucky to be a fresh face in a group that was already a well-oiled machine. Because of their competence and unity, I only had to focus on being a good physician, and my transition was realtively easy. They also were able to advise me about ways to neutralize problems that periodically crop up - such as rolling power outages in 120 degree heat, dust storms, the location of all saftey bunkers on any given route, and (most importantly) the sadness of being so, so far from the ones you love - a distance that Skype simply cannot diminish.

I greatly enjoyed working will never forget this cast of characters who introduced me to Iraq:

Wally is an Air Force PJ (Para Jumper rescue team) and my work out partner. His regiman increased my pull up capabilities from 0 to 6 by the time he departed. Wally recently received a "Dear John" letter during my time here. His wife sent him a message via Skype telling him that she, and their daughter, was leaving him. Its a profound understatement to note that he was dreading the thought of going home to an empty house.

Tod is a Psychiatric Nurse and one of the most compassionate patient advocates I had ever met. He truly challenged the sytem by publishing reports of the Army's rising mental health issue and suicide rates and some solutions he developed to stem the tide. His enthusiasm for his job was infectous.

Chaplain B., who was a Christian minister that went out of his way to be inclusive to all religions. He almost functioned as a match maker for Jewish soldiers, and kept our friday night Shabbat services on track.

Captian D. - She was the lone person from my unit who was from my home town of Pittsburgh that was deployed in Iraq at this time. Her husband is currently serving in Afghanistan and they will be away seperated for over 14 months. She was going home with mixed emotions, as she was leaving a war zone while her husband would be in danger for another 8 months.

Simon - an experienced veteran of 4 deployments who was our "bulldog" - named for the person who organized our sqadron for recieving and delivering patients at the flight line. He was so calm and organized that I believed mobilizing 40 patients (10 on stretchers), 1 doc, 6 med techs, 3 volunteers and 4 drivers onto 2 buses and 2 ambulances at "0 dark hundered" (miitary terminology for the wee hours of the AM) to drive in concert to a heavily secured flightline and load patients onto an airplane in 120 degree heat was actually EASY. I would be cured of that delusion the next day when we tried the same mission with a brand new team!

They left at 0400 on 7 July, 2010 and the new group (who arrived 5 July, 2010) was on its own.

Andy

"Andy's Great Uncle, & a Family Tradition of Service": An American doctor, and personal friend, serving in Iraq guest blogs at Adam's Zionist Journey (Pt. 3)

(This is the third dispatch from my good friend Andy, an American serving in Iraq as a doctor in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. In this post, Andy writes about his recently deceased Great Uncle, Leo, who served in WWII. It should be noted, that Andy's father, Larry, is also a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces)

While being in the military is often very difficult for my family and professional life it offers a number of very positive experiences. What I find particularly moving is the visceral connection I have with my fellow soldiers, as well as a similar bond with those who have served our country from past generations - an immediate connection based on a shared experience, and shared values.

It is through this camraderie that I was blessed with the opportunity to reconnect with my Great Uncle Leo Lobl, who died very recently in his 90s. Uncle Leo (and his wife Sarah) were people who I thought about often for a number of reasons. Leo had an almost twin like physical resemblence to my grandfather, Albert Lobl, who passed away when I was in college. Leo also was a loyal attendee of all our family's important events - from Bar Mitzvahs to weddings, and I found him to be an extremely thoughtful and loving man. Unfortunately my contact with Leo had been diminished in recent years.

Uncle Leo was a veteran of the European campaign in World War Two. When he heard I was in Iraq he sent me a number of beautiful emails of encouragement and took a great interest in what I was doing. During our communication I was able to learn about his prolonged tour of Europe (which makes my 90+ day tour in Iraq look like a blink of an eye) and the creature comforts soldiers now enjoy - luxuries unheard of when he wore our nation's uniform. I also had the oportunity to connect with Leo's daughter Karen and we made plans for a Pittsburgh-Chicago Lobl family reunion in the fall, but am quite sad that Uncle Leo will not be there.

A silver lining to my deployment to Iraq is that it has allowed me to renew my relationship with Uncle Leo in a real and personal fashion. I believe Uncle Leo's own experience during World War Two gave him an intuition about how communicate with sombody who was also far from home in a hostile enviroment. His emails provided an imeasurable boost to my spirits.

I am grateful to Leo Lobl for his love, service to our country, and gentle caring nature. Andy

Tisha B'Av and Jewish Power (Published on CiF Watch)

A revised, and more fleshed out version of the essay I published last year on my blog:

“People resent the Jews for having emerged from their immemorial weakness and fearlessly resorted to force. They thereby betrayed the mission that history had assigned to them – being a people...that did not get tangled up in the obtuse narrowness of the nation-state.”

– Pascal Bruckner, The Tyranny of Guilt

Soon, Jews in Israel and around the world will observe Tisha B'Av, a day of mourning to commemorate the many tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout their history on the same date on the Hebrew calendar – the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew Calendar. Tisha B'Av primarily commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples, but on this day we also reflect on the many other tragedies which occurred on this date, from the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 to the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Like many in Jerusalem, I intend to spend some time on this day at the Kotel participating in what represents a public bereavement for the many victims of our collective calamities. Typically, however, in addition to such mourning, I can’t help but reflect on this painful annual recollection of suffering and catastrophe in the context of the Jewish community's often ambivalent relationship with power. And, such ruminations are only heightened by my new citizenship in the modern Jewish state, a nation often forced to exercise power in order to prevent additional tragedies from befalling the Jewish people.

Indeed, Israel's creation can be seen as a direct response to these calamitous events – an attempt to turn history around and act instead of being acted upon. Whether defending itself in war, or aiding/rescuing endangered Jewish communities around the world, the Jewish collective has had at its disposal for the past 62 years – and for the first time in over 2000 years – a state apparatus with the means (logistically, politically, diplomatically, and militarily) to protect its people’s interests, just as other communities represented by nation-states have had through the ages.

However, with this organized exercise of power comes a price, a unique moral burden that many Jews seem unwilling or unable to bear - as any exertion of power, any control over your own fate, inevitably carries with it a the loss of innocence often projected upon people perceived to be powerless.

Israeli military power (exercised against terrorism and small scale regional threats, and in actual wars against state actors, and its territorial repercussions), and the relative success and political power of Jewish communities in the West – as well as the influence of a broader political culture which selectively eschews particularistic moral sympathies which fall on the wrong side of the arbitrary post-colonial divide – seems to instil in many Jews a loss of identification with their community. This chasm often finds expression in the need to identify in a way uniquely separate from such seemingly crude “ethnocentric” expressions of political and military power. Many Jews today find it more ethically comforting to identify with non-Jewish "progressive” causes than with their own community – which today carries with it the continual necessity to defend a nation (one representing a very particular identity) in all the complexities and compromises that are invariably associated with even the most progressive national enterprises.

Link to the rest of the essay