The last word on Winter Soldier II
Back on March 14th, Thus Spake Ortner and I live-blogged Winter Soldier II under the watchful gaze of the Stasi secret police of Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. They monitored what we sent out to the internet, they limited our contact with IVAW members and the media. They even followed us to the bathroom and outside to the break area. But they were watching the wrong people.
We didn’t find out Rurik was there until most of the way through the testimony. He blended in well with crowd and hardly anyone noticed him. He carried a legal pad and a pencil and scribbled furious notes. Rurick has spent weeks ciphering and writing out his notes and he’s published them in three installments;
This is much more complete than my comparably incoherent ramblings – and much more damaging to the testimony given on the first day at Winter Soldier II. I commend Rurik and I heartily recommend that anyone who is interested in how history will judge the events go read them all. And in the last installment, Rurik names his candidate to be the next John Kerry. I won’t give it away.
Welcome National Review Online readers. Oh, and welcome to IVAW fans who arrive from their NetVibe connection.
Category: Bloggers, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Winter Soldier II Live blogging
Thanks for the links John, damn good read.
He mentions Dewald being there as a member of IVAW. Isn’t he the one who posted here and listed his duty stations, and Iraq & Afghanistan was never mentioned? How did he get in to the IVAW with out ever being stationed in country?
John,
Thanks for the kind words. A good scout tries to be unobtrusive. And for little guys, “sneaky Pete” is quite preferable. However, I will beg to differ with you on one point; I thik you far undersell your own outstanding efforts. I may have been eventually more thorough, but you and TSO got in the first heavy hits. And we are indebted for several for your photos.
Gramps,
Either you misread or I mistyped. De Wald was not actually present at the hearings – except in spirit. And as for his membership in IVAW without being in country, their rules open membership to “era” vets, which is then finagled to embrace anyone they think useful. One woman was a Chinese linguist at Camp Zama, who rotated home and ETSed in early 2002 without ever getting near the Middle East. Surveying their website member profiles, I found that only about 76% of those giving profiles claimed theater deployment. And I presume that this limited sample is probably representative of their claimed membership as a whole, including the majority who did not post profiles. They do have a right to set whatever criteria they choose for their members – and the rest of us have an equal right to judge them according to their decisions.
I’m selling shirts: “Iraq Veteran Against the War – But Don’t Ask Me To Swear To It”
Rurik,
I guess I did mis read it. This is what you said:
“And then there was Geoff Millard’s attempt to intimidate us on Friday. Not to mention some actually violent threats made by a couple of IVAW members, DeWald and Knappenberger.”
As I said earlier, damn good read. Thanks.
“Carnival of the Moonbats”, eh? This ought to be some fair and balanced reporting…
Jonn wrote: Where did I promise fair and balanced reporting? It’s easy – if you don’t want to read it, don’t. No skin off my nose.
Thanks for the links. I just wanted to stop by and let you know that JP from Milblogging who is over in Iraq is going to have their videotaped experiences played on FRONTLINE Tuesday, April 1, 2008. It will be 9pm EST but CHECK your local listing. Oh, that’s channel PBS.
How have you been? I pray you are well. Have a great day, and spread the word. Here is the link at my site: Bad Voodoo’s War. Have a great week. 😉
Jonn wrote: Thanks, Rosemary. I linked to the Milblog yesterday in my “What I’m reading today” post below.
Winter Soldiers II final(?) update…
John over at This Ain’t Hell has some excellent links to articles covering this sham of an embarrassment. Rurik, unbeknownst to most, was able to mix in with the crowd and get some rather interesting tidbits about this gathering ……
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The reason that you and TSO had the security detachment is that you and TSO were the ones threatened and who expressed concern for safety. I can’t remember which one asked how he would be protected, but that’s why you guys had security.
Jonn wrote: OK, I’ll except that but why were we being monitored on the internet? In case we were cyber-mugged? Why were we threatened with expulsion when TSO spoke with a reporter? Regardless of whether the person had authority to throw us out or not.
Dear Jonn, I realized that you had already posted it as soon as I went to your next post. D’oh! 😉
Dear Jonn, I don’t mean to be a pest, but are you sure these are the correct links? I’m having quite a bit of trouble being able to get to his site. It may just be my computer, but would you please check? I have http://veteranamerican.info/?p=204. I’ve even tried it with just the .info and I’ve added www. It just won’t work for me. 🙁
Jonn wrote: Yup, they all worked for me.
HOOAH, Jon! Great job reporting from the IVAW circus. As a result, their lame attempt at attention whoring didn’t quite go as planned.
John, Those links don’t work for me either. However, entering http://veteranamerican.info/?p=204 in a google search let me look at the cached copy that google had.
Scott, Oh dear, there seems to be some misunderstanding. I don’t think I ever claimed to work for Fox News. Balance is not always a good thing. As in “Balance between the firemen and the fire”.
Huh?