After War Injury, an Iraq Vet Takes on Politics http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006C.shtml Tammy Duckworth, Democratic candidate for Congress, cannot escape the catastrophic wounds she suffered as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq. Her injuries are her signature, her motivator and, she hopes, her ticket into the consciousness of voters in the Illinois 6th District. Duckworth, who considers the Iraq war a mistake, is among about a dozen veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and are running for federal office this year, at last count all but one of them Democrats.

Joe Galloway Military Vehicles, and Lives, Take a Beating in Iraq http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006E.shtml Joe Galloway: There are always costs in a war, human costs and hardware costs, and as we draw close to beginning the fourth year of our operations in Iraq, it's time to tally those costs one more time.

The Other Failure in Iraq: the Economy http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006H.shtml Eric Le Boucher reminds us that the American "economic reconstruction" of Iraq has left that country economically worse-off than it was before: "The gap between the reconstruction objectives settled upon after Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003 and reality only continue to grow."

Marjorie Cohn US Force-Feeding Prisoners in Torture Camp http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006J.shtml Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Commission reported that the violent force-feeding of detainees by the US military at its Guantanamo prison camp amounts to torture. More than a third of the prisoners held there have refused food to protest being held incommunicado for years with no hope of release. They have concluded that death could not be worse than the living hell they are enduring.

The Actual Price We've Paid http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006N.shtml "To see people die, your friends get hurt over seven months, it can't be explained unless you've been here," Barrient, 21, of Salinas, California, added, speaking in a cold, tiled room filled with bunkbeds as the Muslim call to prayer echoed from mosques down the street. "The actual price we've paid to help this country out - it's unexplainable."