IVAW’s witness to “collateral murder”

| April 13, 2010

Josh Stieber was in B 2/16 Infantry on the day the the “Collateral Murder” video was shot, according to him in this interview

The IVAW article about the video admits that Steiber wasn’t on the scene that particular day because he was being punished for disobeying an order earlier – so that’s his starting point in the story. No where. He wasn’t there, and he was a consciencious objector. Stieber goes to say that the soldiers in video weren’t bad apples, but he hints that they’re mindless drones who are only acying and talking like they were programmed to act and talk. I guess folks in the military aren’t smart enough to think for themselves. Well, except Stieber…who was being punished for disobeying a lawful order.

Of course, it’s difficult to insult the “system” without insulting the people who are the system. Yes, the helicopter pilots were in a rush to kill some terrorists standing on a corner in proximity to US troops and their on-going operation. It’s not some immature video game jabber – it was the excitement over avoiding a US catastrophe and casualties. I guess Stieber never understood the camaraderie of the military because he was too busy avoiding his duty.

At the IVAW website, Stieber shows just how ignorant and immature he’s become;

“If these videos shock and revolt you, they show the reality of what war is like,” says Stieber. “If you don’t like what you see in them, it means we should be working harder towards alternatives to war.”

Yes, alternatives to war – like Twinkie-eating contests or unicorn races.

Background on Stieber and his “expert” opinion. It seems to me that if this was a big deal and Stieber had anything to contribute, he’d have done so before the video became public.
Stieber’s IVAW profile (you can’t get there from here)
Stieber and Elaine Brower.
Contagious Love

Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects, Veteran Health Care

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Claymore

I suggest a pie eating contest as opposed to physical violence…except that it seems like whenever leftists get near a pie, they want to throw it at people who don’t agree with them, so I guess that fucks up the whole “non violence” part of my plan. But I do like pie.

JuniorAG

“If you don’t like what you see in them, it means we should be working harder towards alternatives to war.”

Some willfully ignorant people deserve to get pivot steered into the pavement by an AFV… Just sayin’

JuniorAG

I’d love to hear what grunts from B 2/16 Infantry have to say about this turdburglar.

B Woodman

RE: the linked articles, ‘Steiber & Elaine Brower’;
=”The Contagious Love Experiment” – it’s called AIDS.
=Staten Island meets Statist island

Ish

Anyone ever file a FOIA for this joker’s DD214?

BohicaTwentyTwo

Here’s the latest on the Wikileaks propaganda piece over at the Jawa Report. Wikileaks has what it says are the last two pictures taken by photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen. The problem is that the second to last photo was taken nowhere near the time or the place of the attack, and they totally ignore the three photos he took while stalking a US Army Hummvee with a JAM RPG team:

Wiki Leak Miscaptions Photos, Misleads Public
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/201966.php

Disclaimer: I did most of the primary research on this.

AW1 Tim

B-22,

You did a GREAT job pulling that stuff together. made a hit over to the Jawa Report as well. Thanks for running with this one.

Respects,

NHSparky

And the credibility of IVAW takes yet another hit.

BohicaTwentyTwo

AW1 Tim. I was going to try to post it here as a guest blogger over the weekend, but I kinda missed the deadline for that. Sorry about getting to you a little too late Jonn. My two week old son is keeping me rather busy.

JuniorAG

Hey Josh Steiber, eat a dick.

http://collateralmurder.wordpress.com/

Rhut-rho, dem pesky facts seem to upset your speculations fool.

Frankly Opinionated

Just one more shining example of what IVAW really is, and what its members are. Good IVAW, bad IVAW? When a painter is running short of white paint, and adds some black paint so he’ll have more white paint, it all becomes less than the original product. No matter what IVAW intended in its formation, it has descended to the crap level that it shows itself as today. If any member is above the others, it matters not. IVAW is a sorry, slimy outfit of misfits, cowards and traitors. Any member who feels that he/she is not, should save their effort and find another way to voice their opinion. Unless they just want to be stirred with the slime. Today, I doubt seriously if claiming membership in IVAW would gain anyone any credit with credible people.

Nuf Sed

Josh

Gentlemen, I appreciate your thoughts and critiques, thank you for sharing them.

I’d like to point out that the order I chose not to follow was an unlawful one. But my intention in all of this has never been to point fingers at any of my friends in the military though people have asked me to. I still deeply respect the dedication of those who are in the military, I just disagree that we’re accomplishing the goals that we’re hoping to and that, even if we were, I could do that and still follow my religion. For me, God is more important than country, and I respect the fact that you may disagree.

But, since you bring it up, one of my friends who was there that day has begun to speak with me publicly about the wikileaks video and what it’s implications are.

Actually friends from 2/16 have been thanking me for what I’ve been saying publicly. Some of them have very strong differences of opinions with positions on the war and the military system, but my goal in this is to tell the story of what happened that day (again, as has been reaffirmed by those who were there and I’ve been thanked by them for doing so) so that people do understand the context and don’t pour their wrath on men who were doing as they were told, and from there, I hope we can have an intelligent conversation as to whether or not the things in this video are how we’d like to indentify ourselves as a nation, as Christians, or whatever your values may be.

I respect that you have different opinions on this. I’m sorry to hear that you believe the only way to solve problems other than through war is through twinkie-eating contests, but that motivates me that much more to continue in the work I’m doing.

Disagree with me if you want, but please, as I am trying to do unto my friends in 2/16, get the facts straight and from there talk about why you disagree.

Much love,
Josh

Antimedia

You sanctimonious prick. You WEREN’T THERE. Next time you want to “get the facts straight”, how about testifying about something you actually have personal knowledge off, mkay?

As for disobeying an unlawful order, yeah right. What’s your discharge, chump? Less than honorable?

One last thing. The “implications” of the Wikileaks video are that there are still plenty of people in the world willing to lie about the actions of the US military for political gain. Some of them even claim to be Americans, although they obviously have no clue what it means to be one.

That you don’t get that says a lot more about your motivations than any “honesty” you claim to have with regard to an incident of which you are uniquely ignorant.

Finrod

So the way you help your old comrades is by selling them down the river for political gain? Are you so naive as to actually believe people won’t “pour their wrath on men who were doing as they were told”? Guys like you totally baffle me, you never seem to understand that your actions never help the line unit trooper, you just make their life a little harder, and John is absolutely correct, the Army doesn’t prosecute you for disobeying unlawful orders, only for disobeying the lawful ones. If your going to make some shit up, make it plausible.

Ellie

Alternatives? Makes me think of the Star Trek episode where instead of having a war peeps were called to go to the chamber to die in a clean manner.

Antimedia

Yeah, John, I wasn’t there. But I’m also not trying to tell the world what happened that day or help them understand that the troops that were there couldn’t help themselves, it’s just how war is.

So what’s your point?