The IVAW Board series; TJ Buonomo

As TSO wrote last night, we’ve come into possession of the actual applications for the eight folks who endeavor to occupy those seats around the IVAW Board of Directors table. And a stellar group they are. Since there’s eight of them, we’ve decided to split them up between us and hit you with one every day for the next week or so.

Army Sergeant claims that when the current board is gone everything will change. Although that would be nice, given the candidates, I don’t think so. To wit;

This is Thomas J Buonomo;

That’s from a picture I took of him when I met him last March. In fact, I talked to him for about an hour during my long lunch. The first thing he remembered about me was the post I did earlier in the month entitled “Safe enough for ya now, TJ?” in which I chided him for avoiding duty in Iraq when there was a war, but venturing to Iraq now that the surge worked. He didn’t like the post much, I guess.

TSO wrote about TJ in April of last year, while he was still at The Sniper, so I won’t rehash that whole thing about him going to the Air Force Academy and then getting booted from the Army for advocating then-VP Cheney’s impeachment. But it is germane to this application. In his qualifications, Buonomo writes;

35D All Source Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army; 2LT; 14 Months Active Duty Army; 5 Years, 14 Months Total Time In Service

How many officers include their service academy or ROTC time in computing their military service? Yeah, TJ, you have 14 months of service time. Most of that was in your Officer Basic Course (18 weeks, I think).

When asked how he would improve the IVAW, his answer was;

Nuance, in the way we express ourselves through public statements and through action in the street, is the key to credibility and relevance. We have to keep up with what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and tailor our messaging accordingly.

But, in his “Candidate’s Statement” his views were a bit less “nuanced”;

…my proposed mission objectives would include the prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, starting with former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In fact, I can’t think of anything more old-anced. He left out the “no war for oil” line. Oh, wait;

…my proposed mission objectives would include pressuring the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress to exercise rigorous oversight over U.S. oil companies in order to safeguard against a long term economic occupation of Iraq.

Congress does such a good job with “oversight”, I’m sure they could drive Iraq’s oil industry into the ground in no time. Especially, with unicorn poop as a cleaner, more abundant fuel source right around the next corner.

Gotta get in a plug for the ISO;

…my third proposed objective would be to pressure the Obama administration’s State Department to unequivocally champion workers’ rights in Iraq in accordance with standards established by the International Labor Organization.

So we’re not supposed to interfere with foreign nations’ internal issues – unless it’s in support of organizing them into a cool socialist organization. I get it now.

And since Buonomo isn’t a combat veteran, he’s all for letting other non-veterans into the IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR;

I am in support of expanding IVAW’s membership to include Foreign Service and Intelligence Community veterans who have served since September 11, 2001 because I believe that it is essential for us to have an integrated understanding of the military, economic, and political facets of the occupation.

So much for being legitimate Veteran Service Organization. They’ve had a hard enough time verifying their membership’s qualifications. Can you imagine how many “former CIA agents” who were “black ops” with “classified records” they’d have lined up to join?

He does reveal one tasty tidbit – out of the 1700 members of IVAW, only 1300 of them have been verified. That means I have to root out 400 prospective phonies.

What I remember most about my conversation with Buonomo is that he talks so slow and he really has no point. At the time I wrote; “I tried to have a discussion with him, but he talks so slow that’s it’s just irritating. He kept saying “Let me finish” but he never does.”

So, do you folks at IVAW want yet another deep thinker who hasn’t served in the military outside of the United States representing your interests even though he doesn’t have a clue what you’ve experienced? One who counts his college time as military service? One who thinks that prosecuting what he defines as “war criminals” is more important that reaching out to veterans and helping them?

Clearly, Buonomo is more interested in being involved in activist activities than helping the membership. At what point do you get past the “Against the War” part and start focusing on the “Iraq Veterans” part? And which part do you think is most important to TJ Buonomo?

Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Usual Suspects