presidential candidate paul ryan? michelle goldberg is with newsweek and the daily beast. last year, todd akin and brian co-sponsor the no taxpayer funding for abortion act that attempted to redefine rape. >> rape is rape. the idea that we should be qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about, does not make sense to the american people. it certainly does not make sense to me. >> then, "the invisible wounds of war: coming home from iraq and afghanistan." marguerite guzmán bouvard and the record number of soldiers committing suicide. >> this issue, suicide, is perhaps the most frustrating challenge that i have come across since becoming secretary of defense last year. >> we will go to south africa where police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers at a mine owned by lonmin, the world's third largest platinum producer. >> the history i read about the massacre was a history and never thought in 2012 we would experience the same massacre under a democratically elected government. >> all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republican congressmember todd akin is found to remain in missouri's senate race despite widespread calls from and then his own party to drop out. he sparked a national controversy after he told an interviewer that women are somehow a couple of blocking an unwanted pregnancy during what he called "legitimate rape." on monday, and it romney joined top republican leaders in denouncing his comments and asking him to out of the race. the national republican senatorial committee also declared it would withdraw support from todd akin, as did the republican advocacy group, cross for its gps. today's the deadline for missouri senate hopefuls to withdraw from contention, meaning republicans could field a different candidate if todd akin complies with their demands. but instead, he has vowed to remain in the race. more after the headlines. president obama and mitt romney continue to trade barbs on tax issues. namely, romney's refusal to release his returns and obama's contention that romney's tax policies would burden the middle class. at a town hall event in new hampshire, romney accused obama of falsely claiming the republican tax plan would favor the wealthy. >> it seems as if the first victim of an obama campaign is the truth. [laughter] [applause] it has been sad and disappointing. frankly, when i became the presumptive nominee, the president called me and congratulated me on becoming the presumptive nominee, and said that america deserves an honest debate about the future course of the country. i agree. i am waiting to hear him again that. all we have heard so far is one attack after the other. frankly, they're not honest. >> speaking to reporters at the white house president obama defended his repeated calls for romney to release his tax returns. >> the american people have assumed if you want to be president of the united states, that your life is an open book. when it comes to things like your finances. i am not asking to disclose every detail of his medical records, although, we normally do that as well. [laughter] you know? i mean, this is not overly personal here, guys, this is pretty standard stuff. i do not think we're being mean and asking you to do what every other presidential candidate has done. >> a brand president rafael correa has warned britain risks diplomatic suicide should it decide to raid ecuador's london embassy to nab wikileaks founder julian assange. on monday, he said any violation of ecuador's diplomatic rights would undermine the status of british consular offices worldwide. >> it would be suicide for the united kingdom to enter the ecuadorean embassy. it was set a precedent to be violated in every corner of the planet. it would be a disastrous. >> britain has threatened to enter the embassy to seize julian assange on ecuador's approval of his bid for political asylum. on monday, a group of demonstrators marched in ecuador to support their government's decision. >> his life is practically at risk, and ecuador is one of the countries that must respect human rights. we are backing this decision and welcome julian assange to our country. >> to an assange is fighting extradition to sweden. he and his supporters say he is ultimately seeking to avoid being handed over to the united states to face punishment for publishing leaked u.s. government documents. on monday, victoria nuland rejected to in assange's concerns. >> let me start with the fact he is making all kinds of wild assertions about us when in fact, his issue with the government of the united kingdom has to do with whether he is going to go stand, face justice in sweden for something that has nothing to do with wikileaks. it has to do with charges of sexual misconduct. so he is clearly trying to deflect attention away from the real issue, which is whether he is going to face justice in sweden, which is the immediate issue. that case has nothing to do with us. it is a matter between the uk, sweden, and not ecuador. >> president obama has warned syria of u.s. military action should the regime of bashar al- assad use chemical weapons. speaking at the white house on monday, obama said any chemical warfare by syria would be his red line. >> we have put together a range of contingency plans. we have communicated, in no uncertain terms, what every player in the region that that is a red line for us and there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons. that would change my calculations significantly. >> a japanese reporter covering the country's civil war has been killed in the syrian city of aleppo. he was embedded with the opposition free syrian army when she was caught in the middle of a gun battle monday. she was the fourth foreign journalist to die in syria since march 2011. ethiopian prime minister son now has died of an undisclosed illness was seeking medical treatment abroad. the 57-year-old leader was the key u.s. government ally in africa could been criticized for his record on human rights and opponents of rigging elections. at least 20 people have been killed in a gunbattle between prisoners in a venezuelan jail. it is not clear how the violence began or how the prisoners were able to obtain weapons. the killings marked the latest incident in a spate of prison riots inside venezuela and a mixed ruling, federal appeals court has struck down key parts of two immigration laws in alabama and georgia, but upheld other controversial sections, including "show your papers" provision. it struck down alabama's law requiring public schools to check the immigration status of students to enroll, and blocked the state's requirement that immigrants. a registration document at all times. judges also said the law's opponents were likely to succeed and challenging provisions in both states that would make it a crime under certain circumstances to knowingly transports or harbor undocumented people. but the court ruled alabama police could continue demanding immigration documents during stops from those they suspect of being in the country illegally, and paved the way for georgia to begin enforcing a similar "show me your papers" provision. it follows a similar mixed ruling by the supreme court in june that overturned some parts of arizona's anti-immigrant law sb1070, but upheld the "show me your papers >> provision, which critics say legalizes racial profiling. the third of eight u.s. soldiers court-martialed strolled in the death of army private danny chen has been demoted to sergeant and sentenced to three months confinement with credit for 90 days already served. in 19-year-old chinese-american chen allegedly took his life does weeks after he was deployed last october to afghanistan. his family says chen had been abused by comrades on an almost daily basis including racist hazing, with soldiers throwing rocks at him, calling him ethnic slurs and forcing them to do pushups or hang upside down with his mouth full of water. on friday, staff sergeant lamb dugas was found guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to prevent chen's hazing and making false statements to investigators. in response to the punishment, president of the civil rights group oca ny said -- republican congress member has apologized to his constituents after report emerged saying he had gone skinny dipping in the sea of galilee to in a fact- finding trip to israel last year. several republican members of congress reportedly took a late- night swim in the sea, some reportedly motivated by religious fervor. but congress member kevin yoder of kansas apparent when a step further by jumping into the sea naked. the late-night incident, which also involved alcohol, trace strong rebuke from eric cantor and reportedly prompted the at the night to investigate inappropriate behavior. more than 80 members of congress were on the trip, which was on to buy charity affiliated with the pro-israeli government lobbying group aipac. newly disclosed records from the fbi claim a longtime civil- rights activist who died in 2009 served as a government informant. according to the center for investigative reporting, richard aoki covertly filed intelligence reports on his fellow activists in the bay area after first being recruited by an fbi agent in the 1950's. aoki was an early member of the black panther party and later served as a field marshal for the panthers. he helped train panther members in handling firearms before the group's infamous shootouts with oakland police in the 1960's. he went on to become an educator, working for 25 years of a community college before his suicide in 2009. two years before his death, richard aoki had denied being an informant when asked in an interview. a number of his fellow activists have also cast doubt on the claims. but intelligence records released by the fbi list aoki as an informant dating back to 1967. those are some of the headlines. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republicans are mounting increasing pressure on missouri congressman todd akin's to in his bid to unseat democratic senator claire mccaskill after he claimed women's bodies can prevent pregnancies in cases of what he called a legitimate rape. republicans had been hoping a victory by todd akin would help the party regain control of the senate. his a six-term congressman. the controversy began sunday when a local tv reporter asked him about his opposition to abortion in all cases. >> what about in the case of rape? should it be legal or not? >> people want to try to make that as one of those things, how you slice this particularly tough at go question? first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that is really rare. if it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> let's assume that did not work. >> i think there should the punishment, but it should be in the rapist and not attacking the child. >> after the interview, todd akin issued a statement saying he -- political revealed this morning that todd akin has also recorded a tv ad to apologize for his comments. >> i am todd akin and i approved this message. rape is an evil act. i used the wrong words in in the wrong way and for that i apologize. as the father of two daughters, i want tough justice for predators. i have a compassionate heart for victims of sexual assault and i pray for them. the fact is, rape can lead to pregnancy. the truth is, rape has many victims. the mistake i made was in the words i said, not in the heart i hold. i asked for your forgiveness. >> despite his apologies, republican establishment has unleashed a campaign to drive todd akin out of their race. the national republican senatorial committee declared it would withdraw support for a can, as to the republican advocacy group, a crossroads gps. and a missouri law, candidates can withdraw 11 weeks before election day. that deadline is 5:00 p.m. today missouri time. what presidential hopeful mitt romney has criticized todd akin 's remarks, questions have been raised about ties between him and paul ryan. in 2011, the co-sponsor the no taxpayer funding for abortion act. on monday, president obama addressed the controversy during a surprise briefing at the white house. >> rape is rape. the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about this not make sense to the american people, and certainly does not make sense to me. so what i think these comments do _ is why we should not have a bunch of politicians. a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women. >> for more we're joined by michelle goldberg, senior writer for newsweek/the daily beast. her latest piece is entitled, "todd akin's rape comment was bad, but his abortion views are much worse." she is also author of, "kingdom coming: the rise of christian nationalism." welcome back to "democracy now!" let's go everything todd akin said, what his views are, and let's go beyond sunday, but we will start there. >> what he said that was controversial and that differs from the vast majority of his republican colleagues is only his views about the kind of magic powers of the uterus to activate in cases of rape and somehow kill sperm this has floated around the far right. the reason it is so toxic is because it suggests -- it is not just because his view that women should be forced to carry pregnancies to term, even if they are the result of rape, but because he essentially is arguing women who had been and recommended by rape, and according to studies, that is about 32,000 women a year, that he is suggesting they were not really rate or that some of the other people who huddled this junk science says, "well, the juices don't flow if she is raped." the implication is if she gets pregnant, she somehow enjoyed it. there is the medieval superstition that a woman cannot conceive unless she has an. so that is the part that is toxic across the board. but what there is no difference between, there is no difference between todd akin's views on abortion policy and on abortion law than that of paul ryan and many other republicans, including headliners at the rnc next week. i think one reason there such a huge push to get him out of the race, is it is not something the republican party wants to highlight right now. >> let's talk about todd akin and the man who is charged to call him and tell him to get out of their race, the presumptive vice-president republican nominee paul ryan. >> paul ryan, like todd akin, does not believe there should be any exceptions to a total abortion ban for cases of rape and incest. his only supported a procedure that would save a mother's life. he has sponsored legislation to the fact that a woman gets pregnant through rate should be forced by the government to carry that baby to term. they have collaborated on several pieces of legislation and co-sponsored -- they co- sponsored basically a federal personhood amendment, that would give the full rights of an american citizen to a fertilized egg in which a lot of legal scholars would not only outlaw all forms of abortion, but would outlaw the morning i'll kill, other forms of birth control -- morning after pill, other forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization. they co-sponsored the no taxpayer funding for abortion act. there was a lot of provisions in that act, hr3. one of the interesting provisions, right now there is a federal law and and federal funding for abortion for women and government employees and military service members. actually, it is interestingakin and ryan oppose legislation that would allow funding for abortions for female service members who have been raped. but federal law right now bans federal funding for abortion in cases of rape and incest. they try to change the to federal funding bans abortion except in cases of clinical forceable rape. if you heard todd akin speaking yesterday, he said by legitimate rape him to say forceable rape. >> let's go to mike huckabee's show, to that comment of todd akin. >> it made a couple of serious mistakes that were just wrong and i need to apologize for those. first, i might say i have always been committed to pro-life and it was because i did not want to harm the most vulnerable, but likewise, i care deeply for the victims of people who have been raped and are equally vulnerable rate is equally tragic. i made that statement and error. let me be clear, rape is never legitimate. it is an evil act committed by violent predators. i used the wrong words in the wrong way. what i said was ill-conceived and wrong. and for that i apologize. >> that was todd akin on mike huckabee's radio show critics mike huckabee is speaking at the rnc and also believes that abortion should be banned in cases of rape and incest. here's why the phrase forceable rape is interesting. in 1999, john willke wrote an article and my guess is the article where todd akin got his ideas about female reproductive biology, because it makes the same argument he made that when feminists are pro-choice advocates talk about an abortion except in race, -- inception in rate, it is extremely rare because the trauma of rape is an undercurrent response that makes primacy impossible. one of the things he talks about in the article is he says, pro-5 advocates should always make a distinction or should always talk about forceable rape as opposed to rate. for a couple of reasons. partly to distinguish between statutory rate and argues a lot of women simply claim rate after they become pregnant from consensual sex. the fact this phrase has entered not just the republican lexicon, but they have tried to write into law is significant. what it implies is that there is real rape or legitimate rape, and then there are lesser forms of rape. >> if you talk about forcible rape, which was in the legislation co-sponsored by paul ryan and todd akin, that suggests there's something called voluntary rape. >> exactly. part of what they're talking about a statutory rate coming home because there is a massive gap in people's ages, but that is essentially a 13-old girl and 30-year-old man, she would not be entitled to any sort of federal protection if she gets pregnant. beyond that, it is not clear. forcible rape is a term a lot of state penal codes, but unclear at the federal level of what that mean in terms of funding, whether it would, say, a bar funding in the case for a woman was dragged or threatened. the point to me is it was clearly an attempt to narrow the rape exemption and say that some forms of rape are not as serious as others and do not really count. >> i want to stay with john willke. the article he wrote called "assault rape pregnancies are rare." in it he argues that rape statistics are uncertain because some women are "pregnant from consensual intercourse have letter claimed rape." he also writes "to get and stay pregnant a woman's body must produce a very sophisticated mix of hormones. crummel production is controlled by a part of the brain that is easily influenced by emotions. there's no greater emotional trauma that could express by women and assault rape." you also reports that he endorsed governor romney for president. >> not just that he endorsed. but the romney campaign rally touted him as a major surrogate and a credible voice to the anti-abortion committee. >> and he is not the only one. in july 2010, nevada senate candidate sharon angle asking and a conservative radio show what he would say to a young girl who is raped by her father, that's she's pregnant, how to explain this to her in terms of wanting to go to the process of having a baby? she says, i think two wrongs don't make a right. i have been in the situation of counseling young girls who have had a very at risk difficult pregnancies. my council was to look for alternatives, which they did. they found they had made a lemons a chelation into lemonade. voters havehink less reason to be concerned about todd akin's notions about female reproductive biology, but what matters is the policies he supports. the policy of forcing rape victims, like a said, to carry pregnancies to term against their will. that is a view that used to be fairly marginal and republican party. as little as five or six years ago. but it has become incredibly mainstream to the point where it has been espoused by both of the last two presidential vice- presidential nominees. >> we're talking to michelle goldberg who has been covering these issues now what happens and where does mitt romney and paul ryan go? >> they want him out of the raised precisely because he highlights this issue they don't want to talk about. if you saw the national review editorial saying, akin, get out, was partly as a said, other republicans hold this issue, but talk about it in a way it does not make them unelectable. we're not just talking about akin, but abouttryan. they are trying to get him out. they said they would withdraw support. crossroads gps is withdrawing support. as of now, it does not look like akin is going anywhere. i think will be interesting to see the degree to which the christian right rallies around him. some major organizations have already not just endorsed him, but said he should stay in the race. >> i want to go to paul ryan, his view on birth control. earlier this year, congressman ryan told david gregory he was not concerned about republicans overplaying their hand on the issue of contraception and women's health. he suggested the government requiring employers to pay for birth control would violate people's freedom of religion. >> what we're getting from the white house, not an issue about contraception, but an issue that reveals a political philosophy that the president is showing that basically treats our constitutional rights as if there revocable privileges from our government, not inalienable rights by our creator. we are seeing this new government activism, this arrogant political philosophy, that puts government writes in a way of our constitutional rights. it is an argument for freedom for our founding principles and for protecting those constitutional rights, which with this new mandate is really not about contraception, but about violating our first amendment rights to religious freedom. >> that is paul ryan. >> i don't have the slightest idea about what his kind of personal beliefs about contraception. he is not like rick santorum who said he wanted to use the power of the presidency to inveigh against its evils. what we do know is that he co- sponsored the sanctity of human life amendment the would-i'm sorry, the so-called federal personhood law, which in practice would have banned or allow states to ban many common forms of birth control, including the iud, the birth control pill, and certainly the morning after pill. >> because it gives personhood to the fertilized egg. >> and some of these methods of birth control work to prevent implantation. yes, one is sperm meets at, that entity has as many rights as you or i. >> city of mitt romney saying at the iowa state fair last to the corporations are people, the have paul ryan saying that zygote's our people. >> but somehow no one will say women are people. one of the interesting things about this, when paul ryan wrote his op-ed about how he reconciles his pro-life absolutism with his kind of ayn rand libertarianism, he talked about the rights of the fertilized egg or the embryo or fetus, but did not mention women in this piece even once. it is a non issue to him. >> his views on planned parenthood and where they stand. >> he wants to completely defund it, as does mitt romney. they both want -- in the past was typical for republicans to want to put a lot of limits on planned parenthood, to make sure money given to planned parenthood for activities was sequestered from any of their abortion-related services. they both want to completely strip planned parenthood -- not just planned parenthood, but all federal funding programs. >> let's turn to an ad approved by the obama administration. we thought we had that. i also want to talk about mitt romney and his stance on todd akin. he came out quickly and said it was offensive. but let's go back to sandra fluke, the young law school student who wanted to testify before congress about the importance of funding contraception for students. and rush limbaugh's attack on her, calling her a slut and a prostitute, even said they should post video of her online and she should be forced to post a video of herself online having sex. when he calls her a slut, what exactly were mitt romney's words? >> i believe they were something to the effect of, "i would have used different language." >> todd akin came out a little softer in the beginning before this tidal wave of anger, not as explicitly as he recently just talked about his views being offensive. >> there are a lot of differences between rush limbaugh, whose a much more powerful figure with support and todd akin. todd akin had already the five republican party in this race. he already had eliminated a lot of republicans. and this language, again, it seemed to impugn the morality of rape victims to become victims, including anti-abortion rate victims, that outraged not just people on the left, but also -- yet people like ann coulter and people like that calling him to step aside. a group called life action is known for sending people undercover into abortion clinics to try to prove they're doing something sinister. one of the things they have been trying to prove is that abortion clinics are not reporting instances of rape, so the idea of it that rape victims do not get pregnant -- the personhood people, the people pushing the personhood amendment all across the country that paul ryan supports, they have people on their staff to say -- whose mothers were rape victims and brought them to turn and brown same, "i have a right to live." the a did that right never results of pregnancy is not as if this is a universal message among the anti-abortion movement, although it is part of the pseudoscience the corners some of them. >> to you for being with us, michelle goldberg, author of, "kingdom coming: the rise of christian nationalism." her latest piece is, "todd akin's rape comment was bad, but his abortion views are much worse." thank you so much. we will be back in a moment. ♪ [music break] >> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the month of july set a record high for the number of suicides in the u.s. military. a number report revealed a total of 38 troops, 26 active-duty soldiers and another 12 national guard or reserve members, are believed to have committed suicide in july, the highest rate recorded in the months since the army started tracking detailed statistics on such deaths. more u.s. soldiers have died in july by taking their own lives than on the battlefield. recently spoke to iraq war veteran aaron hughes about suicides in the military. >> every day in this country, veterans are committing suicide. 70% of the individuals in combat in afghanistan are on psychotropic medication. 20% to 50% that are deployed to afghanistan are already diagnosed with ptsd or dramatic bring injury. it is clear that these policies of the global war on terror has had a profound effect on the military, my brothers and sisters. while simultaneously perpetuating a failed policy, and fortunate, we have to live with that failed policy on a daily basis. we don't want to be a part of that failed policy anymore. >> that was aaron hughes of iraq veterans against the war. leon panetta addressed the issue in june at the annual conference on suicide prevention in the military, organized jointly by the pentagon and the department of veterans affairs. >> this issue, suicides, is perhaps the most frustrating challenge that i have come across since becoming secretary of defense last year. despite increased efforts, increased attention, the trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction. >> secretary of defense leon panetta speaking in june. to talk about the enormous problems that are interesting to increasing suicide rates in the military, we're joined by marguerite guzmán bouvard, whose new book is, "the invisible wounds of war: coming home from iraq and afghanistan." she is resident scholar the women's studies research center, princeton professor of political science and creative writing grit welcome to "democracy now!" >> a pleasure to be here. >> july, 38 soldiers, national guard, killed themselves. that is more than a soldier killing themselves a day. >> that's right. after i finished that book, finally the department of defense was letting out the statistics. they were not letting them out before. i tried to get them. i called veterans for common sense, veterans for united truth. they said, sorry, the numbers are not coming out. what i did get was back every 36 veteran from the warv was committing suicide rate 18 veterans from all wars, a suicide a day. >> let's talk about that. i have heard this figure over the years. we're not talking about veterans when we talk about 38 people killed themselves in july. far more than die on the battlefield. >> right. one more quote. 155 days in 2012, 154 soldiers killed themselves in,. not as veterans. this is a very, very important figure and one need to pay attention to. >> one of the chapters in your book is the high rate of suicides. you have a photograph of noah charles pierce. talk about how you came to this issue. >> i am a writer. i write poetry and short stories as well as books on human rights. one of the reviews that have a story of mine in it, i saw a couple of points i soldier that committed suicide. i thought, what is this? a soldier committing suicide? i asked the editor to put me in touch with his mother. it took me awhile for them to persuade -- for me to persuade them to get me in touch with her. i talked to her a lot. i wrote an article about her. i talked to her continually. she was upset and later on became angry, which i think is very, very useful to be angry -- not anger to hurt another person, but what was happening to people like her son. she said, when he came back he was not noah anymore, but a different person. the kind of combat these soldiers indoor is something that most americans don't know anything about. ,hey don't know about ied's explosive, traders. what do these mean? it means you cannot see them. there are put under the asphalt, hidden in bushes, putting garbage cans. here you are in a humvee, which is not mine-resistant to miss your buddy get blown to bits. you're picking up parts of his body, cleaning out the humvee, watching your buddies died in terrible circumstances day after day after day. what happens is that the membrane between life and death disappears. >> you wrote a poem about noah. could you read it here? >> thank you. noah is in my heart. >> where did he live? >> an a small town in minnesota. there are so many soldiers that come back that don't get the care they need, are in small towns. 1% of our soldiers are in the war, and it is a volunteer army. i will read his poem. specialist noah charles pierce. when he returned from the war, they called him a killer. he was not a murderer he befriended a child, gathered the limbs of his fellow soldier who was blown up beside him, lost some of his hearing from the blast, opening his colonel to gun down a man driving into the green zone who turned out to be a physician when he came home, the weight of his guilt, displacement and paine was invisible he did not come home he was still in iraq. the people in the town could not hear the nightmares that haunted him in his heart pounding as sudden noises. they cannot understand how he left his house to protect his parents and sisters from his anger close the door of his apartment to release his sorrow then one night, he drove to the near his fishing spot and wrote "freedom isn't free" on the dashboard of the truck the sunni nine medals of honor, closing at another door to liberate his own life. >> that was the poem that you wrote about noah charles pierce. we're talking to marguerite guzmán bouvard, the author of, "the invisible wounds of war: coming home from iraq and afghanistan." i want to address the controversy earlier this summer involving major general dana petard. dana pittard, a commander at fort bliss, in may, he wrote on his blog "i am personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess." the posting was retracted, but pittard never apologized. he still commands one of the army's largest units. your response? >> my response is there is a military culture and a civilian culture and there is a gap between the bridge in the military culture, you are supposed to be strong, brave, nothing bothers you. if you need help, you are looked on as a wimp and weak. it takes a long time for soldiers to feel it is ok not to be ok. that is a different culture. it is not the military culture. thehey really don't provide help the soldiers need when they return. they come back from iraq and they're still in iraq. for instance, there are driving down the street they see a can, panic, and think, this is going to blow up. they hear a noise, they get startled and upset. most of us have good and bad memories. we can put our bad memories aside. our soldiers cannot. they dream about them, the hallucinate. all of the veterans i've interviewed, they sleep with a gun under their pillows. they are still at risk. they work in a group that is like a family. a unit is like a family. and when one of them dies, it is like losing a member of your family. in fact, so many of them died, that one veteran told me when i interviewed him he said, "we had maybe 40 to 50 rpg's , over our base a day. the silence was yuri he said, "my bunk was damaged. suppose i had been in that?" in other words, you come back and you're still in iraq. the fillmore alien then if you had come from mars. >> i want to end with a comment from aaron glantz talking about why rates of suicide are so high. >> we have been at war for 10 years. we of 2.5 million americans who have served in these wars and about 1 million are still in the military. one play 5 million are out of the military and our veterans. with 18 veterans second suicide every day in this country. we have not asked people to go through war in this kind of way probably since world war ii. with vietnam, people served one tour and came home. we have a draft. now we ask people to go again and again. you have 1 million people driven through the wars were still in the military. you have 90,000 people still in afghanistan fighting this war. it is not surprising the suicides would be higher than the battlefield deaths at this point. >> that is journalist aaron glantz. thank you, marguerite guzmán bouvard, author of, "the invisible wounds of war: coming home from iraq and afghanistan." she is a resident scholar at women's studies research center. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we will talk about south africa. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as return to what some are calling south africa's first post-apartheid massacre. police shot dead 34 striking workers a south african mine last week, setting off a wave of protests. the victims were killed more than a week after walking off the job at the marikana platinum mine in a call for higher pay. police said they shot after workers armed with machetes ignored calls to disperse. on monday, 259 miners appeared in a court to face charges ranging from murder to public violence. the workers' union says police committed a massacre. one of the mourners told a reporter from the city press newspaper what she believed happened. >> the came to lonmin to look for a job. but did not like what happened. the police came here to kill people. while the were fighting for their rights. they were not rioting. the police started firing. but they keep saying there were shot at first. the miners were seated on a hill, not at the stadium, not at the mine. they were seated peacefully when the police approached. all of the miners >> the marikana mine is owned by lonmin, which is the world's third largest producer of platinum. after the shooting, the reopened mine is reportedly laying idle since fewer than a third of the staff has shown up. lonmin announced a deadline for striking miners to work -- returned to work or face dismissal. financialhe chief and answe officer simon scott. >> they chose not to come to work. that quickly escalated into an issue of public violence, which was beyond our control, and needed the intervention. >> south africa and police chief riah phiyega is drawing public outrage for defending her officers. she said, "it was the right thing to do, the we're sorry that lives were lost." as tensions escalate, south african president jacob zuma announced a week of national mourning as well as the formation of a commission of inquiry. the shooting marked the worst killing since the end of apartheid the head of the south africa's association of mineworkers and construction union said it evoked memories of the sharpville massacre of 1960. >> i never thought that in 2012, we would experience the same massacre in a democratically elected government by ourselves. >> for more we're joined by videostream in london by gavin capps, chair and land reform and democracy in south africa at the university of cape town. welcome to "democracy now!" can you talk about what took place? >> i am not the chair, i am a member of the chair. what happened? i think we have to start from the big picture of what has been happening with the mining industry in south africa and its place in the global economy. platinum isrld's concentrated in south africa, and there is about 7% of global production. historically, this was a mining industry which was pretty small. south african mining economy is dominated by the joint gold- mining industry and diamond industry. gold mining has been on the decline. the problem for the platinum producers always was the risk every enough demand for their mental. however, this began to change from the late 1990's where the demand increased. one of the factors that led to the increase was the use of platinum in catalytic converters in cars. suddenly, the value of platinum began to rise. there were scrambling to get the mineral out of the ground. there was a massive expansion of platinum mining within south africa, and that activity [unintelligible] where this is taking place is within predominately rural areas, on the northwest province where the lonmin line is located, and als. it has brought all kinds of social problems led to lend to lust, the destruction of environment, led to the displacement of local rural communities, and his exploitation of the workers working underground, digging the metal out of the ground. i think that is where we need to start from. >> can you talk about the worker conditions in the minds? >> the condition for the mine workers is generally pretty appalling. it is certainly true they have improved since the dark days of apartheid but they've only improved because of the struggles of mine workers themselves and the strength of organized labor. nevertheless, it is one of the most deadly industries in the world. the average life expectancy of a mine worker is very low. this is due in large part to dangerous conditions underground where there are many injuries, if not less fatalities, but still many serious injuries. and also because of the spread of hiv/aids throughout the communities which is the extremely poor social conditions under which mineworkers are living. what you would find around a mind like lonmin, enormous shantytowns, which are made of small corrugated shacks and which mine workers are living. and there are no proper services, no water, no electricity, where there is desperate poverty. it is not just the people employed in the minds who are there, but also the desperate were -- workers to of, across south africa. southern africa, drawing to one of the expansion mining industries. it is an explosive situation. >> al jazeera reporting sector remains a major concern for the mine workers to return to work. apparently, intimidation and threats of cat many away. i want to turn to lonmin's chief financial officer simon scott who says that people should return to work as soon as the situation gets under control. >> with regard to our employees, we have asked them to return to work. we understand the situation is one that perhaps there is intimidation taking place, but as soon as that comes under control and the south african peace services deflect the situation, the people should return to work. >> who owns the mine? what about the south african government's involvement here? >> first of all, i would like to comment on simon scott. i think this represents, encapsulates the callousness of the mine bosses in south africa. 34 people were massacred last week and another 10 have died in violence are on strike in the weeks leading up to that, that is 44 mine workers dead. many are injured. it is an intense an explosive situation. people are in shock. they have been victims of the massacre. this is not the time to be threatening people with losing their jobs if they do not return to work. just to update you, the mine workers have stayed away. they have stayed strong. as a result, there is increasing embarrassment of the government, pressure has been put on lonmin to step down and not face not returning mine workers with the sack. the fact they're prepared to do that at all under such circumstances, i think tells a much bigger story. >> thank you, gavin capps, for being with us, professor in south africa. tune in next two weeks for our two-weeks of expanded two-hour daily coverage from the republican and democratic conventions called "in breaking with convention: war, peace, and the presidency." democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. 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