The IVAW Board Series; Michael Kindlinger
In our continuing series of the prospective members of the IVAW Board of Directors, I’d like you to meet Michael “Trey” Kindlinger. For military service, Kindlinger says he spent nine years in the Navy. Then, suddenly, in 2003 (after said nine years) he discovered he’s a conscientious objector – he claims it’s because of his faith. I can accept that.
Kindinger gets out of the Navy – but his wife is still on active duty. So, he can’t serve because of his faith, but he doesn’t mind living off the money that comes from his wife’s service. I don’t know, to me that seems a bit hypocritical.
In the bio, he lists other organizations to which he belongs;
9. Other organizations in which you have membership: VFP, MFSO, ISO,
Geezers for Sitting on our Hands, that Military Families Speak Out organization which was founded by Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessen, both former members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the International Socialist Organization. According to Discover the Network, this is the ISO, which we’ve mentioned often in regards to IVAW;
Evoking the Communist tradition of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, the Chicago-based International Socialist Organization (ISO) aspires to “organize activists in workplaces and communities and on campuses in order to mobilize opposition to all forms of oppression and exploitation.” The chief source of this oppression and exploitation, in ISO’s view, is capitalism — whose inevitable by-products are poverty, environmental degradation, war, famine, and most other ills that plague humanity. ISO places the blame for international strife largely on the United States, and more specifically the Republican Party….
Oh, not coincidently, the VFP and MFSO are also planning assemblies in College Park, MD the same weekend as the IVAW Convention.
But back to Kindlinger, here’s his vision of the organization;
We are an effective organization in organizing the antiwar community; I feel that we’ve been afraid to seize that mantle and should now take that burden and help reinvigorate the antiwar movement.
We MUST help end the illegal and immoral occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. If necessary, we then must take up the issues of Iran, Palestine, and Pakistan. These, I believe, are all inter-connected and must be dealt with if we have any hope of effecting change we can ALL believe in.
I went through his entire application, and that pretty much sums up the whole thing. Nothing about outreach to help veterans of the wars, nothing about helping members – it’s all about organizing and fund raising. Another member of the IVAW, candidate for the board who never saw Iraq or Afghanistan who is a member of the ISO and is more worried about the “Against the War” part more than the “Iraq Veterans” part.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers
Well, this putz uses “religious beliefs” as his escapre route out of the Navy? Ok, but what I’m wondering is how he can use that excuse and still be a commie, since they are supposedly athiest? Unless he considers his commie leanings as his “religion” in which case that doesn’t wash as a reason not to fight. Commies have killed more people around the world than the US and the rest of the freer nations combined.
But, we must remember that they are best when the ones you’re targeting are un-armed subjects. The commies love to project; so the next time one of them starts blabbering on about un-armed innocent casualties (which is horrible and the US goes out of its way to avoid), just remind them that it never bothered Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Che, Castro, etc. and in fact, they preferred it that way.
Another one that needs to be kicked square in the seeds.
Evoking the Communist MASS MURDERING tradition of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, the Chicago-based International Socialist Organization (ISO) aspires to “organize gutter punks who are chronically unemployed in order to smash storefronts and businesses of Joe and Jill Sixpacks who pay the taxes that run this country.”
“The commies love to project; so the next time one of them starts blabbering on about un-armed innocent casualties (which is horrible and the US goes out of its way to avoid), just remind them that it never bothered Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Che, Castro, etc. and in fact, they preferred it that way.”
Spot on, never forget that the Groovy Che had the job of blowing people’s brains out who thought communism was a crock & that he endorsed terrorism to attain “revolutionary goals.”
They have nowhere else to go. As the war in Iraq winds down, the only place they can go is to take on all of American foreign policy. Well, they could shift their focus towards veterans’ care, but that wouldn’t be much fun, would it?
“As the war in Iraq winds down, the only place they can go is to take on all of American foreign policy.”
Ah, the irony. The red retards will screech about imperialism, yet their blood stained idol Vladimir Lenin was an arch-imperialist. Seems he invaded Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia before he caught EURORAIL 666 to hell in 1924.
Blaming the ISO for actions carried out by the former Soviet Union (or any other country with the word socialist in it) makes as much sense as blaming the Democratic party for actions carried out German Democratic Republic. And anyone who still uses the word commie as some type of insult really needs to grow up, we are not living in the fifties anymore.
As to when Trey Kindlinger left the military, it had nothing to do with how many years he had already been in, it had to do with the fact the US government was about to invade a second country in one year for no good reason. Why I married a CO without getting out myself, is simply because at the time I did not see my service contributing to a war that I did disagree with. However has time went on and as I saw more of my coworkers deploy, I realized that all service members, whether directly or indirectly, help the occupations. I served 8 years in the navy and was honorably discharged in February 2009.
And as to why most of the members of IVAW are work harder at ending the war than fighting for veterans rights is the simple fact the less veterans we have from an unjust war, the less money wasted on failed occupations, the more time, energy, and money we will have to spend taking caring of our current veterans.
IVAW is not fighting to end the war in Iraq. They’re shifting their focus to Afghanistan, Palestine, racism, and sexism to stay relevant in “the movement.” Their concern isn’t with preventing the creation of fewer veterans, it is to “radicalize” more against the status quo.
“Blaming the ISO for actions carried out by the former Soviet Union (or any other country with the word socialist in it) makes as much sense as blaming the Democratic party for actions carried out German Democratic Republic.”
No, but these types of groups that promote “GI resistance” should remeber about the Communistic goverments and how they treated those that did not want to fight. But they cling to the same idea that those goverments ran by.
Also from what I have seen of the IVAW I cannot believe for one second that they care about veterans.
Concerning post #5, wow, just wow. Mrs. Kindlinger, maybe you ought to research any of Stalin’s, Castro’s, Kurshchev’s or any other communist’s speeches. They have always referred to the communist ideology as International Socialism. So, if they regard themselves as International Socialists, who are we to disagree? And the word commie, or communist does work quite well as a put-down, or insult. Name anyone, other than Hitler, quite as loathsome as Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. And I believe the first two I named actually killed far more people than Adolph managed.
There is a bumper sticker that says, “It’s not the left versus the right. It’s the state vs you.” If you view politics through that prism, then it is going to be hard for you to understand socialist/communist infighting.
They are a weird bunch who name themselves after the people they follow and differentiate from one another on that basis. They believe in essentially the same thing with few material differences, but they’ll take offense if you lump them all together. The closest analogy I can think of would be if libertarians started calling themselves Paulikyists or Barrists after Ron Paul or Bob Barr.
It is absolutely fucking stupid, and frankly not worth the time, to research and learn about all the different branches of statist ideology, but in a discussion, socialists/communists will think you’re an idiot if you don’t know the immaterial differences that they use to define themselves.
I had no idea that Charley and Nancy, founders of MFSO, are former RCP and ISO members. How did you find this out? And if they are former members, what are they now?
As a former member of MFSO and a wife of an Infantryman, I really want to say that you need to get your head out of your ass first if you want to try and help the soldiers.
Mrs K: I have grown up, I was grown up when I was standing face to face with the Red Star/Hammer and Sickle, so don’t you presume to lecture me on what is and isn’t a commie. That you haven’t figured out thatsocialism is the first rung on the ladder to all out communism isn’t my problem; it’s yours.
That you also fail to realize that the former Soviet Union isn’t the whole story, nor was it mentioned as the whole story makes me wonder if you have ever picked up a history book in your life. You did catch that I mentioned Pol Pot, the Castro Twins, Mao, and if we want to continue on; Kim Il Sung and his little boy Kim Jong Il. There are many more examples I could throw out as far as commies are concerned, but if you don’t get the point with what is here already, you never will.
Go wrap yourself in the blanket of oppression and I’ll stick with what’s worked for over 220 years; mmmkay?
I served with Kindlinger from 1996-1999, he got out of the Navy for a year and then came back in. He was always very sincere, but I don’t recall him being opposed to “war” at that time. I am not a big fan of war either, but, when I was in I went where I was sent and did my job. By the way I retired after 24 years of service in 2007 and would have stayed longer if they would have let me.
&15 Jewel, I agree! My take on the IVAW, and like organizations, is this. I have yet to meet a single ‘serious’ veteran who is a member of IVAW. By ‘serious veteran’ I mean someone who knew what military service meant and what it could lead to. Men and women who knew that to sign on the line and raise their right hand meant giving up their freedoms to ensure the freedom of others. The couple of, self proclaimed, IVAW members I’ve seen, wearing cammie blouses with some patches sewn on, struck me as the “shitbird” types. At least that’s what we called slackers in the Old Corps.
I’ve also noticed that when members of these organizations are losing point after point their MO is to start playing semantics. They can’t bring themselves to concede such obvious points as; who are the poorest or most broke nations in the industrialized world? Communist nations and nations that
practice some form of socialism. China is totalitarian not communist.
Great post. Thanks for discussing!!
Said it once; will say it again.
IVAW = Losers.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If they did not like the military then they can say what they want.