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Army Ranger Widow Confronts Rumsfeld Over Lies That Convinced Her Husband to Join Military
Democracy Now! / Video Report
Published: Tuesday 30 August 2011
She says Rumsfeld inspired her husband to join the Army after 9/11, but he later became disillusioned with the reasons for the war.
We speak with the widow of a U.S. Army Ranger who confronted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about her husband’s suicide on Saturday. Ashley Joppa-Hagemann introduced herself to Rumsfeld during a book-signing by handing him a copy of her husband’s funeral program at a base south of Tacoma, Washington. She says Rumsfeld inspired her husband to join the Army after 9/11, but he later became disillusioned with the reasons for the war. Her husband, 25-year-old Staff Sergeant Jared Hagemann, killed himself ahead of what his wife says was his eighth deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. His body was found on June 28, 2011, at the Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington State. More than 18,000 soldiers returned to the Joint Base Lewis McChord from combat tours last year. And while the Army says it is trying to shore up mental health services there, Joppa-Hagemann questions its success. “I want to confront the man whose ‘lies’ led my husband to join the military and some other soldiers — so many other soldiers,” says Joppa-Hagemann. “That is what I wanted to do and what I did.”
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ABOUT Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of "Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
14 comments on "Army Ranger Widow Confronts Rumsfeld Over Lies That Convinced Her Husband to Join Military"
fgzpjcir
September 01, 2011 8:07pm
Good call, you're correct very few if any members of the Republican establishment or their children have served in Iraq or Afghanistan look at Bush jnr he's the benchmark for avoiding military service. He was more than willing to send others to fight a war that's rapidly sending the country broke, the GOP is a cesspool of religious Right nutjobs and billionaires who don't pay any tax.
August 30, 2011 11:01pm
Yes, they are. Many of 'us' did all we could to oppose their policies and to keep them from office. Please don't be simplistic.
August 30, 2011 8:37pm
As dispeciable as Rumfield & Cheney et al are. It is America that is committing this sin.
We, the people are responsible for these wars through our collective actions & inactions, and for these needless tragdies & inhumane suffering being done in our name.
When we stop these wars hopefully we the people can take our honor out of the drawer again. Till then Rumsfield, Cheney, GW Bush et al are really no more evil than you or me, are they?
August 30, 2011 11:03pm
Yes, they are. Many of 'us' did all we could to oppose their policies and keep them from office. Please do not be simplistic.
August 30, 2011 8:30pm
As dispeciable as Rumfield
P.S. Forgot to mention that Obad administration & Mr. Panetta are working hard to find more ways to cut the pay and benefits for our military. You know-so big oil can keep those subsidies they so badly need-and the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans can pay less taxes than 90% of the rest of us.
August 30, 2011 11:05pm
Are you for real? Obama has tried to get rid of big oil subsidies and tax the top 1%.
My deepest sympathies to Ms. Joppa-Hagemann - and greatest admiration for her bravery in confronting the liar Rumsfeld. He is, and always has been, a liar and a coward. He never served, and never should have been Secretary of Defense. For him it was a simple exercise in narcissism. Same with Cheney. And now they make fortunes off of books that rewrite history. They are charlatans to the end.
August 30, 2011 3:54pm
Whenever the media are forced to mention homeless or destitute veterans, they always discuss PTSD, depression, alcohol, etc., ad nauseum. According to the DVA, fewer than one in five veterans suffers from PTSD, and I am sure that many of those veterans who suffer depression became depressed because of what they experienced here in the USA rather than on the battlefield. After many years of fighting a corrupt system, it has become clear to me that veterans are being deliberately murdered at the hands of the government they served because our Congressmen and civil servants do not want to pay them the benefits they earned under the law. They fear that this would remove trillions of dollars from the federal budget. Civil servants do not want to compete for promotions with well-motivated and highly qualified veterans. Veterans are not hired by universities because these institutions have become dominated by re-tread Marxists and other intellectual lightweights. Government contractors do not hire veterans because the Department of Labor encourages them not to. Homeless veterans are in the process of being murdered, and it is my hope that someday justice will come to those in government who are responsible, as it did for those who we hanged after the Nueremberg Trials for similar acts of mass murder.
August 30, 2011 1:10pm
This is heartbreaking to see and hear. It took true strength for Ms. Joppa-Hagemann to confront the demonic joker Rumsfeld, and she deserves our respect and our sympathy, as does her late husband. Rummy deserves the place he has earned in the Inferno.
America has been thoroughly corrupted from within by the corporations and other big money. The military ranks highly among the victims. Our culture of constant warfare, aka the Washington Consensus, impoverishes the USA economically and spiritually ... except for one small group of very rich profiteers. It is for their benefit our country engages in wars without purpose; wars without end. They keep the gravy flowing onto the plates of the contractors. They deserve no pity at all, not even when the warrior grunts realize it's the mercenaries and their employers within and outside the government that are the real enemy of our once-great but now rapidly sinking country.
August 30, 2011 12:39pm
The suicide rates for the Iraq conflict are staggering: most years more of our troops kill themselves than are killed in combat. Knowing those statistics, it becomes clear that the terrorists we should be fighting are in our own country: parts of the government, the military, the war-profiteers, and basically anyone who is part of or supports the military industrial complex. It has never been healthy and it never will be; it's time for people to stop obeying orders and start living morally.
August 30, 2011 12:10pm
This country have never, I repeat never, taken proper care of its veterans. Every war has left us with disabled, disillusioned, veterans camping out on the white house lawn. Instead of being surprised, we should take the time to stand with them and give them our support because we endorsed as a nation the lies they bought. AND because we are family and that s what family does.
August 30, 2011 11:34am
There are a sea of soldiers who are so profoundly depressed from combat conditions, physical injury, PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI.) The only agressive campaign against depression from our gov't has been anti-depressants and Vagus Nerve Stimulators.. to keep the suicide numbers down.. If it were not for these measures that mask the real problem the suicide numbers would be off the chart. Shame on the former administration for creating this mess and then underfunding the needs for our brave soliders.