Nah, don’t worry about Marc Hall

Last month I wrote about newly-minted IVAW member Marc Hall who was “stop lossed” in the Age of Obama at Fort Stewart, GA so retaliated by writing a violent rap song – which in turn got him tossed in the hoosegow by the Army. The Stars and Stripes reprints the violent verses;

“[Expletive] you colonels, captains, E-7 and above
You think you so much bigger than I am? …
I’m gonna round them up all eventually, easily, walk right up peacefully
And surprise them all, yes, yes, y’all, up against the wall, turn around
I got a [expletive] magazine with 30 rounds, on a three-round burst, ready to fire down
Still against the wall, I grab my M-4, spray and watch all the bodies hit the floor
I bet you never stop-loss nobody no more.”

Pretty explicit about his intentions. The Army explains why they locked him up;

“The chain of command has a legal obligation to the citizens of the United States to investigate and deal fairly with SPC Hall’s alleged misconduct,” Kevin Larson, a spokesman at Fort Stewart, said in an e-mail. “Anything less would be irresponsible to our citizens and soldiers.”

Of course they have a legal obligation to protect soldiers and their families from crack pots. But Hall’s lawyer, James Klimaski, doesn’t see it that way;

Hall’s song is just a song and should not be taken literally, the lawyer said.

“Listen to rap songs,” Klimaski said. “I mean there are a whole bunch of rap songs talking about killing people all the time. Nobody gets killed from them.”

Klimaski also downplayed the allegations that Hall made additional threats.

“The problem with threats is they can’t be contingent,” he said. “ ‘I will do this if …’ Well that’s not a threat because if ‘if’ doesn’t happen, then there’s no threat. Like, let’s say, ‘I’m going to shoot the battalion commander if I’m deployed.’ Well he’s not been deployed, so he’s not going to shoot the battalion commander, so there’s no threat.”

Klimaski also said the definition of rampage means to run around like a crazy person. “That’s not a threat,” he said.

Yeah, all you hep cats get with it – rap is cool. It’s just art and no one ever gets killed because of it. Well, except all of those rappers and people who attend rap concerts and rap promoters. And Hall won’t shoot his battalion commander if the commander doesn’t send him Afghanistan – problem solved. Of course, that wouldn’t have any long term effect on the military, will it?

“Maj. Hasan didn’t run around and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to blow people away at the hospital, or the infirmary today.’ Or the bomber going into Detroit says, ‘Oh, I should tell everyone I’m on this plane and blow the plane up,’” he said.

So people who make wild-assed statements can now be ignored and we start worrying about people who DON’T communicate threats. That sounds feasible.

I thought about making a threat here on the life of James Klimaski, but then I realized, he might not think of threats against his life the same way he thinks about threats against the lives of military people.

But then again, if I make a threat against his life, that would make me less likely to actually do anything against him…this is all so confusing. We should hire James Branum to take Klimaski to court and make Klimaski give us all classes on how not to be perceived as a threat to other people.

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War, Legal, Military issues, Phony soldiers, United Nations