[casi] Iraq vets- forbidden blood/organ donors??

["ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>]

 (I have no way to corroborate the information. .pg)

E-mail received this week:

"I have a friend whose son joined the Marines right out of high school....
This guy is 19 years old. He has been doing "training"  since then.

The boy described his most recent weeks of training to his father: The
Marines/his division (??) have been issued new fatigues/camouflauge. Why? To
distinguish them from the Army. Why? To get back to the training, they have
been shown videos of military interaction with civilians to teach them how
not to deal with them.

The Army, it seems, are too friendly, too easy with the civilians, including
children. The Marines in my friend's son's training were being trained, not
to be friendly, to give food to children, but to maintain strict and severe
attitudes toward them and all Iraqi civilians. One example the kid provided
was that they had been shown clips of an Army person sharing food with a
child, then being told/shown that the child or more children would show up
the next day wanting, of course, more food. Instead, the Marines were to
exhibit strict "distance" and, instead of showing friendliness, to jam the
butt of their gun into a child's stomach who approached them for food.

This seems to indicate that there is some consensus among some people that
the Army--and by association, I guess, Americans--are being too easy with
civilians and there is a dire need to (re)?-instate "discipline." The
Marines are to distinguish themselves from the Army--the latter being an
example of what not to do--by, first, changing their look so that there will
be no mistake among civilians of what to expect from the Marines, who will
be instituting much more harsh dealings with Iraqis.

Next, on a totally different subject, the boy reported that a few days
prior, all members of his division (I may not use these military terms
correctly) had their drivers licenses taken from them.

Those whose drivers licenses indicated that they were organ donors had a
hole punched through such indication. They were apprised of the fact that
they would never be able to be organ donors in their remaining lives, and
furthermore, could not donate blood. The boy's father said his son said, "I
have so much anthrax in me, I can't give blood." The boy reported that they
had been told in rather vague terms, apparently, that some of the
vaccinations they had received early on had had results that no one had
foreseen.

The boy had returned home for two weeks leave early this Spring. His father
mentioned to me at the time that his son had had to sign some "VA papers."
At hearing this, I nearly choked, but said nothing. During our more recent
conversation, I brought this up, saying that I had heard that VA/other
medical benefits may not be forthcoming to many of the military who saw
battle in Iraq.

The boy's father said that his son "didn't have a clue what papers he had
signed."

(I have no idea if this is accurate, misleading, or simply false. pg)



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