IVAW’s Jacob Flom
Chris Raissi sent me an email yesterday that accompanied the link he posted on his Facebook page when he resigned from IVAW;
Jonn,
Kristopher Goldsmith send me your info and suggested that I let you in on why I left IVAW. Here it is: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=83837947235
I name names. Jacob Flom is a chapter president, and told me at the IVAW national convention last year that he’s a communist using IVAW to recruit veterans to his radical communist ideology. Oh yeah, he was in the air force for a little while after 9/11 and never left CONUS. He’s not even an Iraq vet. Fucking pathetic.
Put it out there, add it to your blog, I don’t give a shit.
By the way, I actually served in Iraq. I got an award for meritorious service out there. I served in the Horn of Africa before that, where I got a previous award for meritorious service. I completed my first enlistment honorably, reenlisted as a Sgt and went into recruiting.
I ended up getting adsep’ed from the Marines for misconduct. I’m not down on getting hazed by fleet dodging loser career recruiters who’ve been sitting out the war on recruiting duty and then telling folks with combat tours that their previous accomplishments are old business and that they’re worthless unless they feed three bodies every month into the meat grinder. Sales is sales, but the Marine Corps doesn’t see it that way. I had to violate the UCMJ to get out of that hell, so I did.
Bottom line is that I didn’t take to a fleet dodging MSgt with four ribbons and no combat tours telling me what a Marine is supposed to be any more than I take to Alex Bacon telling me what an Iraq vet is supposed to be.
I figure I’d put my dirt out there before you have fun with it after some FOIA requests. We have some disagreements, but we’re more alike that unalike.
Christopher
I’m not going to judge Chris based on a recruiting assignment -but this Jacob Flom clown attracted my attention. Here’s his profile at IVAW – he never left the US, like Raissi wrote;
But Flom is qualified to be Chapter President in Milwaukee. Probably because he has interests outside of IVAW that would be attractive to the ISO clowns of IVAW;
Yeah, that seems to be the MO of the ISO dorks – they like wearing the “Iraq Veterans” banner on their shirts without having to actually serve in Iraq. Here’s Flom criticizing the troops using his tenuous veteran status, although he never really was one of the troops.
The further they are from the war the more absurd their stories. But Flom has the same experienceas IVAW co-founder Tim Goodrich who also never got closer to Iraq than an airconditioned control center on a Turkish Airbase.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Usual Suspects
I guess by IVAW standards, it doesn’t matter if you got out before March of 2003, you can still join (no need to be trivial about that whole Iraq thingy). That would be like the VFW letting Vets from Russia join, because they are Foreign.
Many real Iraq Vets are having their service diminished by these commie clowns who, and I’m going to use one of the catch phrases du jour “don’t have any skin in the game”, tell them about their service in Iraq. This is the same playbook that was used by John f-ing Kerry in Vietnam and we all know who was behind THAT load of horse shit. Yep, the same organizations as back then, the f-ing commies. They can call themselves “socialists” all they want, but shit still stinks no matter what you call it.
Chris deserves some kudos for not selling himself out. It happens to the idiots who have never really grown up and taken a look at themselves and what they want to accomplish. I don’t know, the more I get to see on IVAW, the more I’d like to investigate VV, and the VFP. I think there is more exposing to be done.
For the record, I’ve met some cool ISO members in IVAW, especially here in Atlanta, who don’t let their personal politics get in the way of everything else. They’ve supported us without the expectation of us turning around and doing the same for them. What drives me mad are the people like Flom, Bacon, and Millard who at best let their ideology taint their decision making, and at worse use IVAW to recruit. It is the presence and acceptance of those people that drove me to quit that organization.
Is douche a french word?
Well Chris,
I may be painting with a broad brush in my assessment, and in fact there may be some very cool people in samll pockets of ISO, however, it is the larger organization that I don’t like. I don’t want to get into ideology on this site, but I think that you know what I’m talking about, just as you, and others, not letting the larger organization (IVAW) speak for you anymore.
Thank you for your service and I hope you find what you are looking for. We may not agree, but that’sw what makes this country great; we don’t have to and we can still meet on common ground to converse.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. Some are accommodating, but a lot want to push through their agendas and are really aggressive about it. When you call them out, they get passive aggressive and start acting like the victims of “red baiting.” Apparently, that happened to ArmySergeant before I even joined IVAW.
Wanted to go to art school and then joined the military when he was rejected. Sounds familiar some how.
I’m going to point out one thing for amusement value.
So Jacob Flom is the current chapter president of IVAW-Milwaukee.
Who was the last president of IVAW-Milwaukee again? Started with a J and rhymed with ‘mauled’?
I want to know what’s in Milwaukee’s water. Other than crazytown.
Also, Chris Raissi is dead right about the ‘redbaiting’ crap, though I wish he’d told me about the Flom incident before-that stuff is definitely not what IVAW is /supposed/ to be about.
You know, Hitler couldn’t cut it in art school, then joined the military. Just sayin’.
Yep, that is what I was hinting at. Also I am curious about what he did in Afghanistan as claimed by that article.
I posted some stuff about it on the IVAW member forums after the national convention. That conversation was a big part of the reason why I ghosted from Atlanta events for several months after the convention. Flom’s statement about using IVAW as a recruiting tool, and Millard’s hard-on for the use of the word “reparations” were off-putting to say the least.
I just did a quick google search of Tim Goodrich. It turns out he was in Iraq. I may have disagreements about the war with him, but IMO it took guts to leave the military and voluntarily go to Iraq as a civilian because he wanted to learn more about what was happening there.
I did some research and it turns out Goodrich has been to Iraq. Even though I disagree with his stance on the war, I’ve gotta admit he has guts. After finishing active duty, he traveled to Iraq as a civilian because he wanted to learn more about the situation over there.
Going to Iraq as a civilian after leaving active duty does not make him an “Iraq veteran” any more than my layovers in Frankfurt make me a veteran of the European campaign in WWII.
I never claimed that it did. And I’ve checked this fellow out before- from what I can tell he doesn’t claim to be either (although I’m sure the media screws it up).
researcher: Yeah, Sean Penn went to Iraq, also, and he stated that he was able to ditch his Iraqi handlers and get a feel from the people he was able to meet and found out what the real Iraq was like, without his Saddam supplied handlers getting in the way. (anyone that believes that Sean Penn has enough functioning brain cells to outwit a stump probably would believe he could slip away from Saddam’s security forces)
Of course, he was only there for a day or two, but with his vastly superior intellect, he was able to surmise what was really going on there.
Maybe he’s a ‘Iraq Era’ Veteran Against War.
A meritorious service award? In the Army, if you haven’t screwed up in the 18 months you were in that assignment, they give you a freckin’ AAM or maybe a ARCOM if you rank high enough. Every swinging dick in a returning unit gets a meritorious service award.
You go out of your way, and do something beyond the call of duty, you get a award for valor.
Just a bit different, in my opinion.
Goodrich travelled to Iraq as part of a Global Exchange (the cash cow that birthed Code Pink) trip.
Hey, I’ve been to Gettysburg as a Kid, do that Mean I was with Col.Chamberlain?
Hell, I lived in Gettysburg so I must be John Buford. Could someone enlighten me on the nefarious “drop weapons” referred to in the post? Seems to me it would have made all the extrajudicial killings in my squadron so much easier had I only known about this paticular TTP. I guess that I’m just so naive that even after a year and a day in the army I’m just too slow to see what’s really going on like these sharp young IVAW troopers… especially the clerks, jerks, and typists.
my apologies to the typists
LTC Tim,
While I personally haven’t witnessed the use of drop weapons, I will state that those who testified about them were combat troops. It’s also not surprising, given that many police in the States have talked about the use of drop weapons-of keeping one item so that if they ever shot someone who turned out not to have a weapon, the weapon could be used to show justification.
Tell you what, kiddo, We all had AKs over there.
Of course, we were with an Iraqi Unit and it only made sense. Most of the US units we worked with had a strict policy about ANY captured weapons.
There is something about joe in that he’ll pick up a captured weapon in a heartbeat. It’s cool, it’s foreign, and it’s just like the ones in Call of Duty 4!
Was there any official call for ‘drop’ weapons- of course not. However- alot of us started seeing the writing on the wall, the dems wanting to have a ‘war-crime’ to hang a few GIs with. Something to show that their opinions of us were correct- something to shut the war down.
I don’t want to be in the position where I hesitate to protect my men because I am afraid I’ll be put up on charges for ‘unlawful’ actions.
One more thing; Drop weapons are a product of soldiers being afraid of prosecution without merit for their actions in a war zone. Just as they are for Police.
further examination reveals that the photograph is actually a picture of a young Janeane “Scrote” Garafalo, before her frightening and tragic plastic surgery mishap.
I’m not in the ISO. There is no ISO in Milwaukee, although they did try recruiting me last year, I’m not a Trotskyite.
I’m currently the president of Milwaukee IVAW because I was asked to be. We are a small chapter with a few combat vets, who are busy grad students and professionals that can’t focus all their time on the organization.
I find this slander pathetic, especially since IVAW members are on here trying to hurt other chapters that already receive no support from the national organization. You are all backwards organizers and could stand to pick up a little theory.
Jacob
Jonn wrote: You’re not a socialist? But you belong to the SDS and protest with unions? You use the language of the socialists, but you’re not one of them? C’mon, Jacob. We weren’t born last night. Give us a little credit here.
Hay, leave the zoomie alone. Even if he had been sent to Iraq, he’d have done 119 days in the Green Zone ducking incoming hot fudge sundays and worrying what shorts to wear to wednesday night’s pool parties.
I accused Jacob of being a member of the ISO. I said that “he’s a communist using IVAW to recruit veterans to his radical communist ideology.”
So in addition to being a communist, he’s an idiot who lacks reading comprehension skills. But I repeat myself…
He sent me a message on Facebook accusing me of lying. here is a screen cap of my reply:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3323/3571100997_b9ecb1b900_o.png
Edit: I NEVER accused Jacob of being an member of the ISO. I only accused him of being a self-admitted communist using IVAW to recruit veterans to his subversive ideology.
you’re looking for frso.org