Veterans lobbying Congress today
While the dithererer-in-chief contemplates his inaction, veterans groups are stalking Congress in their offices this morning. Vets for Freedom are meeting as I type this to plan out their day in the halls of Congress in conjunction with Michelle Bachman’s troops.
Meanwhile, VoteVets’ Executive Director focuses on the really important issues, according to Politico;
In 2007, Veterans for Freedom supported the surge of U.S. forces in Iraq, and VoteVets.org opposed it, advocating a drawdown from Iraq instead. But for now, the organization is still debating its position on the war in Afghanistan, said VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz, and it is concentrating its efforts on climate change.
Don’t forget Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. While Obama fiddles over the war in Afghanistan, Jon Soltz prefers to focus his energies on social issues because whenever he shoots his big mouth off over actual military and veterans’ issues, somehow he always turns out to be wrong. It’s hard to believe that someone who has over three months experience in a combat motor pool could be wrong about military issues, but apparently it happens.
How many things can you find wrong in this paragraph;
The [VFF]’s founder, David Bellavia, who in 2008 ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York, attacked Kerry and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2005 for supporting statements that Iraqis wanted the United States to leave their country, claiming in an article on FrontPageMag.com that the comments were “a political attack on the troops, an attack that is aiding our enemy.” The publication is run by Holocaust denier David Horowitz.
Bellavia was ONE of the founders of VFF, he didn’t unsuccessfully run for Congress (the party machine asked his to withdraw in favor of a candidate who could fund his own campaign) and I have no idea where the article’s author, Jen deMascio, got the idea that David Horowitz is a Holocaust denier – but I’ve got an email into her to get her source on that specious charge.
Of course, deMascio, has found a group she likes out of the three she discusses – the new one that I introduced to you the other day “Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan” and our new friend Jake Giliberto, who just happened to email me after the last piece I did on his. But DeMascio writes;
“Listen, you’ve got to stop falling in love with the military solution; it’s not feasible,” said Jake Diliberto, one of the group’s founders. “This is a war of poverty and cultural misunderstanding, and it’s an Afghan problem that we don’t have the means or the wisdom to figure out.”
So what’s Jake’s solution? Just let Afghanistan go back to being a stone age shit hole like we did in 1988. That worked out well for us the first time, didn’t it? Well, the “Rethinking Afghanistan” was started by a filmmaker and we know how much more intelligent filmmakers think they are than the rest of us – so let’s ask Hollywood to formulate our foreign and defense policy instead of generals.
I like Jake, he’s real friendly and fairly bright, but he’s being used by the peace movement, just like all of those IVAW clowns. The peace movement doesn’t care about them or their opinions beyond the fact that they can wear T-shirts proclaiming the proper message.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Congress sucks, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military issues, Terror War, Usual Suspects
Soltz isn’t fit to carry Bellavia’s lunch bucket.
The reason the peace movement clings to and takes over the little anti-war Vets groups is because it gives them a level of credibility, or so they think, in that anyone that differs from actual Vets isn’t worthy to do so. Unfortunately, most of those, not all Selena, that make up the mouthpieces, are the screwups and cowards. I say that because anyone that files a PTSD claim because they heard stories of combat by those that were there and it screwed them up, are the panty waist types that these groups want out front.
David Horowitz is a Holocaust Denier? WTH? His Frontpage Magazine is one of the news sources I check daily.
He would be surpised to hear that desciption.
A war of poverty and culteral misunderstanding? Wow, that’s one of the most tired lines there is. Another variation of the celebrate diversity paradigm.
Wow, just wow @ Jen DiMascio’s libel of David Horowitz as a Holocaust denier. I wonder whether or not this little nugget was borne of some kind of axe to grind with Horowitz, or journalistic laziness. Where the hell was whatever passes for an editor at that site? A real editor would probably look at a charge like that and ask the reporter if he/she had sourcing to back up such a potentially libelous statement. I get the feeling somehow that Politico’s research and fact checking standards are quite a bit lower when it comes to anyone who is not a left-winger.
Just for the record, I have emails in to Horowitz and DeMascio for clarification.
The only thing I found that was even close was a former FPM contributor who was dropped after his Anti-Semitic/Holocaust denying writings were brought to the attention of Horowitz. Other than that, it doesn’t look like DiMascio has a leg to stand on with her statement about Horowitz.
“So what’s Jake’s solution? Just let Afghanistan go back to being a stone age shit hole like we did in 1988.”
That’s what we’ve done with Somalia. We gather intel, kill Al-Q types and leave. No time or money wasted on feel good-ism nation building. Seems to be pretty cost efective way to deal with jihadiots.
Admit it, a stone age misogynistic culture that holds child molestation in high esteem isn’t going to be turned into Jeffersonians. Al-Q ain’t the Wehrmacht, they are a decentralized, flexible global organization that isn’t going to be stopped by denying them territory and running a flag over a capitol. They will continue to fight us until we change our foreign policy in the middle east OR we break out the Roman Empire FM on annihilating rebellions in barbarian territories.