Jamail and Vasquez; why stop lying now?

This is a real smoldering turd of a video starring TSO’s favorite journalist, Dahr Jamail, and my new penpal, Jose Vasquez, the Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War. To Vasquez’ credit, when the reporter introduces him as an Iraq veteran, he admits that he never served in the war. Like Carl Webb, Matthis Chiroux and and endless list of (IV)AW members who aren’t Iraqi Veterans. But certainly we can understand her confusion – he’s wearing a T-shirt that says “Iraq Veterans” and he’s the Executive Director of an organization that calls itself “Iraq Veterans Against the War”. Many of us would automatically think he’s an Iraq veteran.

The video is 14 minutes long, and I’ve watched it five times, so you don’t have to;

To begin with, Jamail states that there have been 50,000 soldiers who have deserted since 2001. To understand the statement, you first have to understand the terms. A soldier has to be Absent Without Leave (AWOL) for 30 days before he’s considered a deserter. LTC Nathan Banks, our new friend at the Army’s Pentagon Public Affairs Office claims that they have apprehended 29,926 deserters since 2001 and that there are 2442 outstanding warrants.

So how does that compare with peacetime years;

There were 3687 desertions in 2000 which was .7% of the total force. In 2007, 4698 desertions which was .9% of the force – statistically, yes desertions were on the rise in 2007, a minuscule number when we’re talking about more than a half million people. In 2006, it was .6% (one of the bloodiest years in Iraq) and in 2003, (when the Iraq began) it was .5%. We haven’t seen the data for 2008 and 2009 yet. The fact remains that over 99% of the total force don’t desert, so I don’t know what Jamail is trying to say.

Jamail claims that the military is taking steps to prevent dissent in their ranks. “They” stopped the draft. Um, “they” didn’t stop the draft, it was ended decades ago, not part of some Bush conspiracy. He also claims that the military is blocking access to social networking media (Facebook, Twitter, etc…). That’s just false. The military is blocking access to social media ON THEIR OWN internet access points – just like every other employer. Doesn’t it make sense that only military business is conducted on military computers? Soldiers are still able to use those media on their own computers.

Vasquez claims that the only people who can’t find jobs are joining the military. The proof of that is National Guard recruiters at his college – I guess that’s why I was involved in recruiting on campus back in 1988. It was just a Bush plot for this war. I guess recruiters should recruit in nursing homes and not among the their target market. More than likely, the people who volunteer to go in the Army are the types of motivated people that any employer would love to have in their business rather than some slovenly, shitdick peacenik. Jose says it’s because recruiters know the economy is bad – or maybe they know where to find smart, motivated recruits.

Retention and recruiting has been successful through out the period since 9-11-01. All of the branches of service have met their goals nearly every year of the Bush boom. Yes, the economy has some effect periodically, but there’s no real evidence that the troops are reenlisting and joining JUST because of the economy. Vasquez makes it sound like they have no choice but to die for their country, for Pete’s sake.

Vasquez continues the myth that Pat Tilman was killed by some government plot to silence his dissent against the war. In other words, he thinks that the soldiers he says that he loves so much would treacherously kill one of their own on the order of Darth Cheney. Way to support the troops, there, Jose.

Vasquez also claims that in his 14 years in the Army Reserves, he never got any counter-terrorism training. He was a medic. What part of his job would change in a counter-terrorism environment? Think they have some ninja bandaids or self-propelled stretchers for terrorist operations?

Vasquez, Chiroux, Webb all had no problem drawing their paychecks until they were about to be deployed to war – yet we’re supposed to believe that their motivations were completely altruistic. I’ve told Vasquez that if he was as truly dedicated to his military profession as he’s claimed, the politics wouldn’t have prevented him from deploying and doing his job as a medic.

Vasquez was a medic, Chiroux was a journalist, Webb was a generator operator, Agosto and Bishop repaired radios, Andre Shepherd handed out volleyballs in Iraq because he was too incompetent to repair Apaches. I’m just sayin’….

Jamail claims that because he found some soldiers five years ago that sandbagged on their patrols in Iraq (Jamail uses the “Search and Avoid” term from Vietnam), he claims avoidance of their duties is “widespread” throughout the military. I’d like to see some proof of that – proof beyond a few IVAW members who claim it. We’ve already seen how he falsifies the desertion rates to suit his reportage, we have to assume he does the same in this instance.

By the way, one of Jamail sources in his book for the origins of sandbagged patrols is Geoff “Stolen Valor” Millard.

Jamail also claims that new Private Travis Bishop was jailed for “resisting” despite the fact that he filed for conscientious objector status. He fails to mention that Bishop went AWOL for a week before he filed for CO – that’s why he got a year in jail.

So there’s your introduction to the “new” (IV)AW Executive Director. Pretty much the same as the old director. Still willing to smear the troops, still advocating for desertion, still just another (IV)AW member who hasn’t been to Iraq, yet wears the T-shirt.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Usual Suspects