This Whittenberg guy needs real help
The guy in the picture above is former IVAW member Bobby Whittenberg. Bobby is an actual veteran of the Iraq War. He has a Purple Heart to prove it – one reason I’ve been reluctant to say much about him. I’m convinced he’s in need of serious help.
Whittenberg has been heavily influenced by VFP thug Doug Zachary and former IVAW member Carl Webb and more recently, Matthis Chiroux.
Here are some screen shots someone sent me of Whittenberg’s announcement of his resignation;
Of course, Whittenberg couldn’t let the IVAW convention go by without a shout to his socialist buddies;
And in another attempt to plea for help, Whittenberg burns a flag – away from public view and after a soliloquy that borders on insanity.
And, oh, this hated, imperialist US government sends Whittenberg a disability check every month right on time. And he cashes each and every one of them.
This guy clearly needs an intervention, but because he fit the image that IVAW wanted to portray of the nut-job veteran, he was encouraged. And now he’s out there on his own and the mad dog finally bit his master. And like Casey Porter said, now Whittenberg is having an impact on younger soldiers.
So, let’s hear your excuses for this one, IVAW.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects
A purple heart does not a hero, nor a genius make. I know a certain senator from a certain New England state who claims three and he’s no gift to the military or the United States.
I don’t know what you think we could have done. It’s not like the military,, you can’t make someone go for counseling if they think they don’t need it.
To be clear, I don’t hate Bobby. He has called me all kinds of things like racist, xenophobe, so on and so on. Things I clearly am not, but no matter what you say, it will not change.
I feel for Bobby, I really do. Not because he is an Anarchist. Hell, he can be whatever he wants to be. But the tirades I’ve seen him go on time and time again with those who disagree with are along the lines of “If you don’t agree with me, you’re wrong.”
He burned a flag, which I am not a fan of, but at least he doesn’t do it for show-boating reasons like Matthis did. The flip side to that coin is that burning it in private is pretty gutless. I mean really, is this how the revolution begins?
The only real problem I have with Bobby is that he still chose to hang out with a rapist, Matthis, during the IVAW convention. How does a radical feminist justify hanging around with a rapist? The anti-war movement hates everything it seems, except when they might actually have to call out a rapist face to face.
Now if you will excuse me, I just got two new kittens I’m going to play with until I go to a benefit for Haiti.
AS, you know the anti-war movement uses Marines/Soldier all the time, they don’t care about anyone’s mental or physical health. Revolution!
I love the part where he says “This is what we think”. Doesn’t he mean to say, “This is what we have been programmed to say”?
I agreed with your check fire, and agree now, this dude is seriously coo-coo-cachew,
Fuck Whittenberg, he’s now an Anarchist scumbag, and I say that as an Army Iraq Vet who was WIA 6-10-05 Baghdad.
Just when I thought there couldn’t be anyone out there more irrelevant than IVAW… But I suppose he learned from the best.
Nice jeans Bobby. Which Brand Logo are you defying there?
purple heart or no, he needs his ass kicked in.
It appears this video is most popular in Afghanistan but that the views (a whopping 70) did not get above a handful until today (I wonder why). I played with the buttons when I logged in to dislike the video.
I was hoping one of these jackasses would get some love from a flaming drop of flag.
Never having been the recipient of the Purple Heart, (Peacetime, stateside service 60-64), I have a basis for respect for anyone who finds themselves in harms way. With that said; Just having a Purple Heart on the shelf in no way makes one special enough to denigrate this country, its military, nor to cohabit with socialists, in fact, said Purple Heart recipients are worse than yellow spined draft dodgers, when they choose to denigrate the military. Were they never “Brothers”?
Having read this post, I can see no reason why he is not considered a shining example of the typical IVAW member.
The IVAW, its members, (especially those members who are active duty), and its supporters are of no value, nor will they ever be, to the patriotic, United States Serviceman.
This flake gets no sympathy from me, none!
Interesting him using Al-Awda (meaning “the Return,” as in the palestinians returning to their “homes” after Israel is wiped off the map)as part of his profile name.
F*ckheaded bozo… he probably only turned radical after getting hit (gosh, it can’t happen to me) and being alienated by VA “care” (just like Ron Kovic). War sucks and the gov’t is a bureaucracy, get over it! Grow da f*ck up!
Intervention!
How the hell does Israel/Palestine have anything to do with a veteran anti-war movement? Can anyone explain that with a straight face?
Hey!!! What about the American flag on his jacket? Guess he was too worried about having to actually set himself on fire.
Oh, and about the Rage Against The Machine shirt, try this one on for size:
“No States!”
(except a Palestinian one)
“Down with Capitalism!”
(Check out this sweet RATM t-shirt [made in Vietnam] that I scored on Ebay; you can see it in my YouTube video if you Google me or find me on Facebook)
“This country was built on the blood of slaves and stolen land!”
(But I’m staying here anyway; it’s all of YOU who are the problem not ME)
The first time I ever had contact with Bobby was during the Winter Soldier: Austin thing. I was deployed and they were planing on showing my films. On the e-mail list this guy seem to come out of nowhere all pissed off that they where holding at a Church. He kept spelling America like “amerikka”. Which I thought was really childish. My reaction to him was: “Who the hell is this guy?” Someone explained to me who he was and what he was about.
I don’t think he’s evil, and I’m not a “love it or leave it” type. But if this country embodies every single thing you hate, why not go somewhere that does and live amongst like minded people?
Israel/Palestine has nothing to do with a veteran anti-war movement. We’ve got no troops there.
That’s not how IVAW feels about it. hehehe But you are right.
Yeah, the Gaza thing was a direct order from Ann Wright and IVAW’s Code Pink masters by way of Geoff “Stolen Valor” Millard.
Since most of the members of IVAW are in it for the T-shirts these days, they just went along with it.
It’s been clear for a at least a year now that Iraq Vets don’t run the show in IVAW, the ISO, and others do. With those new resolution they’ve guaranteed they will stay relevant to the movement, but not much, else.
Looks like IVAW is more worried about “solidarity” with other groups that will only further dilute the mission of their founders.
There are dozens of VSOs that focus exclusively on veteran issues and provide assistance to individual veterans without feeling the need to simultaneously inundate them with propaganda about totally unrelated matters. IVAW is done. The piddly 1700 members (are those figures current with the post-Matthisian exodus?) represent a fraction of a percent of those eligible for membership (easily 3 million plus have served since 9/11) and of those, only a small vocal minority are ever seen actually taking action, however misguided. Christ, the group’s 5 Facebook pages boast around 1000 total fans, some of which are overlapping, no doubt, and not all of which are members. I clicked through at least 20 profiles on the IVAW-Madison page and found only one purporting to be a veteran (a Vietnam vet, making him ineligible for IVAW membership). I did find a few folks from Australia and Japan, one who is a junior in high school, and at least one prominent 9/11 truther, but IVAW already lets Zach Findlay-Maddox prattle on about that nonsense on their official blog, so I guess that comes as no surprise. By comparison, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Against IVAW has 634 fans, and as far as I can tell, this group has engaged in zero public action beyond establishing a Facebook page.
Six years of existence, plenty of media coverage, and this is what IVAW has mustered: A battalion-sized element of mostly slacktivists and a few raving fringe lunatics who glom on to damn near any cause that patchouli-scented retards can hold a sign for and pontificate about with cliched vague hyperbole.
Time to pack it in, or just let the tattered remnants of what might have once been a fleetingly well-intentioned and good idea be fully absorbed by your ISO masters.
You’re done.
In the interest of fairness and accuracy, I discoverd 5 more IVAW-related facebook groups, bringing the grand total of supporters to around 2,000 on 10 pages.
American Legion: 13,000
DAV: 22,000
VFW: 42,000
IAVA: 120,000
David Hasselhoff, Hawaii 5-0, Erik Estrada, and The Macarena (the song) each have more fans than IVAW’s largest page. Great job getting the word out.
hahaha Well, you pretty much hit it on the head.
Sorry, the above post as me.
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I usually just ignore this blog, but this is just silly. Why should the fact that someone disagrees with the federal government mean they are no longer liable to compensate people who become disabled as a result of working for them,
If a reckless driver hit ran into your car while driving and injured you, would you not accept the money if you thought the person was an asshole? That has to be one of the silliest arguments I’ve ever heard.
I don’t agree with many laws, but I would still face the consequences for breaking them. My anti-statist views don’t prevent me from facing negative consequences imposed by the state, nor should it mean that the US government is absolved of its responsibility for paying the disability owed to me as a disabled veteran.
If society were to follow this ridiculous line of logic, no one would be able to file for compensation of any kind against a person or an entity with whom they disagree.
If someone vandalized your house, would you not seek to recover damages because you disagree with vandalism?
This is ridiculous even for this blog.
BTW, my beef is with governments, not with people. I have no fundamental problem with this land or the people who live here. The people who live here deserve far better than the US government. I was born here, I love the land, and I love many of the people here. I shouldn’t have the leave. The government that mistreats people domestically and all over the world is what needs to go.
Haha, and thanks Matt I got a good chuckle at a pro-militarist claiming I’m the one that’s programmed.
Yes, the above comment was me Bobby W. I’m on a shitty connection and for some reason my name wouldn’t post.
Mr. Whittenberg, I presume?
“BTW, my beef is with governments, not with people”
What do you think governments are composed of? When you blather on vaguely about “radical action”, you seem to be limited to two options: The same change-nothing, feel-good-about-me tactics that have been at the heart of IVAW to this point, or violent uprising. And if your writing is genuine, you’re not a big fan of either. Anything else that affects change will have to be measured and come, at least in part, from within the system you so stridently reject all association with. So tell me, because I really truly want to know: What do “radical action” and “revolution” mean to you, and what does success look like? Do you actually have a goal in mind? Do you really expect an anarchist utopia to succeed?
If you were so thick-skinned, Bobo-why the need to retort?
And if you’re so fucking gung-ho to burn the flag, do us a favor and wrap yourself in it first next time.
Bobby, I know you do not care for me much, and that we do not see eye to eye on much of anything. But I have to ask you why you stand with a guy like Matthis? When I call him a rapist it’s not something I am just calling him to dig at him. It is something that has seriously upset me when I first read his letter. In fact, as stated, it was a key reason I left IVAW. You refer to yourself as a “radical feminist”, which is fine, but then how can you stand with a rapist? Furthermore, one who does not take full responsibility for his actions even though he confessed to being of sound mind at the time by conveying that he thought she might be a victim of human trafficking and knew she did not want it. He could have easily walked back into that room and faked it; no one was watching. This is not an attack on you, but I can not understand why anyone would give such a person a slide, especially when one calls him self a radical feminist
Can you answer this for me?
Bobby.
Just a few things;
If your idea is to show shock and awe by burning the American Flag, then why not do something with meaning. Like oh say burning your government checks. I mean what could send a stronger message then showing that your ideas are more important money.
Now about your comparison about compensation is not equal. Because if I thought that insurance companies were the source of all evil, how would accepting the money not conflict with these views.
Except that it once again comes down to money. It not just a case of disagreeing with the Iraq War, it is you coming out on various issues all with the US as the source of all. Then with of this passion and protest one has to ask why you do not see trouble getting money from the US.
Again your logic fails because your comparing a single incident to thinking that person is the root of all evil and must be destroyed.
Here is another thing, when the IVAW and like groups that encourage Solider’s to actively desert or go AWOL. Besides the people that go AWOL it their fellow services members get screwed over, AK Stop Loss. So regardless of what you say here your actions have said otherwise.
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