Active duty troops call for an end to the war.

The first time I posted this, it mysteriously disappeared and took the rest of my archives with it, so I’ll try it one more time; 

At Nation.com there’s a story by Marc Cooper about active duty troops signing an online petition demanding an end to the war. It begins;

For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

If Mr. Cooper did a minute’s research, he’d know that if there was anything 100% of the troops ever agreed with all of the questions put to them, the answers would probably all have something to do with free beer. That’s the only thing my troops ever agreed on unanimously.

I’d hardly call “nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen” signing an internet petition either organized or robust. If someone had a mind to sign this petition, they come to this page which doesn’t prompt the user for any credentials. So it’s open to everyone and anyone. We all know that no one ever lies on the internet and no one ever embellishes their military record. So it’s got to be all on the up-and-up.

Now some of the comments in the original story are hillarious all by themselves. Stop/loss is a joke. These “troops” are complaining that they’ve been stop/lossed until 2010. An initial enlistment is eight years long, if they’d enlisted in 2002, before the Iraq War as they claim, their enlistment would end in 2010, wouldn’t it?

These organizations that are sponsoring the petition, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and Military Families Speak Out, as near as I figure are manned soley by placards. I’ve been to most of the anti-war protests here in DC and I’ve never seen any members of these organizations. I’ve seen big cardboard signs stuck in the ground and fastened to power poles (some even held by people, but not veterans), but I’ve never met an actual veteran near the signs to answer questons or recruit membership. Usually there’s some worn out old hag wearing a long dress and smelling of burnt rope that can’t point the inquirer to any real members either. Yeah, I know, I’ve seen the websites with pictures of the marchers and membership, but I’ve never met any of them in real life.

And it’s convenient that these names won’t be released until January – it’d be too easy to check on the names to see if they were really in the military. A quick check of the only complete name in The Nation story, Mark Mackoviak of Fort Bragg, NC, on Military.com’s Buddy Finder only turns up a profile that was created on Military.com and not filled out which leads me to believe that there is no such person who has been in the military. Buddy Finder is not 100% reliable, but funny how the only name that can be checked is suspiciously absent from public records.

Marc Cooper assures us that

The Nation spoke with rank-and-file personnel as well as high-ranking officers–some on the Iraqi front lines, others at domestic and offshore US military bases–who have signed the Appeal. All of their names will be made available to Congress when the Appeal is presented in mid-January. 

Somehow assurances from The Nation don’t make me any more comfortable with this story at face value, so I’ll be waiting for the list with bated breath.

 

Category: Antiwar crowd