[Fill in the blank] Against the War
I had an email exchange with Thus Spake Ortner this morning (that’s right, IVAW, not everything I say about ya’all is public) that got me to thinking. He sent me a link of an IVAW member named PJSChicago who wrote about how the evil Army made him into a killer without him realizing it. He ends his wildly idiotic rant with;
When I think back on what the Army made me capable of, I feel angry because I’m only figuring it out now. Duped again! 12 years of learning to hate and learning to want to kill people because it was kill or be killed.
He joined the infantry and was assigned to an artillery unit, what did he think the Army wanted him for? Some worldwide meals-on-wheels program? But that’s not my point, actually. TSO wrote another piece on another IVAW goofball, Thomas J. Buonomo, a homey, actually, from Rochester, New York who spent four years in the Air Force Academy and then got tossed out of the Army for being an advocate for the impeachment of Dick Cheney.
So what does PJSChicago and Inmate Buonomo have in common? The same thing alot of IVAW members seem to have in common – they’ve never been to Iraq but they’re in an organization called IRAQ VETERANS Against the War. Am I the only one who thinks this is disingenuous?
Back a few years ago, I went to photograph the Code Pink Mother’s Day protest at the White House. There were about 8 ladies holding a twenty-foot long banner that read “Mothers Against the War”. After taking their pictures, I asked them how many were really mothers – they all pointed at one woman. I asked her if she had a son or daughter in the military. She replied her son was in the Army. I asked her if he was in Iraq or Afghanistan and she said ‘no’…then she confessed that her son had gotten out of the military ten years earlier.
Out of eight women with a “Mothers Against the War” banner, only one actually qualified as a mother – and her son wasn’t in the military and not in danger of being sent to Iraq. So what was the point?
What’s the motivation of joining an organization that claims to be something that it’s really not? And why should we believe anything else they tell us if their name is even a lie? Are you guys scoring hot, hairy-legged hippy chics and they didn’t seem taken with your first choice of names – Doofuses Against the War?
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Politics, Society
VVAW IVAW no difference between the two. Both suck!
Thanks for continuing to expose the phonies and lies coming from IVAW. I wish the MSM would do as good as job as you all do in exposing this BS. When I went back on active duty from retirement with the Marine Corps in 2005; I was amazed by how many active duty and reserve Marines I met at Camp Lejeune that had not been to Afghanistan or Iraq. While I was in Iraq, officers and SNCOs from non-combat MOSs would show up for their first tour and some would only do a 4 to 6 month tour. The year back on active duty was well worth it, to serve with some fine young Marines and National Guard soldiers in Al Anbar.
Ah, the gut-wrenching tales of a PX Hero! In law, we’d call writings such as this “admissions against interest.” Is he stupid, as he claims to be, because it took him 12 YEARS to figure out that being an infantryman is a combination of mental toughening and physical toughening? I suppose so. I figured it out in four years (actually less, but that was the length of my term of enlistment).
As for being a “trained killer,” however, I’d pass that one of as a product of his Walter Mitty fantasies. I’ve “killed” more people as a prosecutor (and I had twelve accomplices, they were called the “jury”) than I ever killed as an infantryman. Does that make me a “trained killer”? Maybe, compared to this guy, but I don’t think so.
Have a good weekend John!
[Out of eight women with a “Mothers Against the War” banner, only one actually qualified as a mother – and her son wasn’t in the military and not in danger of being sent to Iraq. So what was the point?]
The point is that Code Pink are grave robbing ghouls. It took a while but the radical left came to an astonishing conclusion, the public today has a tremendous sense of graditude towards the military and are filled with a deep, deep sorrow and sympathu for those wounded or fallen in our defense.
That’s why the boots, crosses, coffins and name readings. When military people were slaughtered in the 90’s (PM SANG, Khobar, USS Cole) they didn’t do any of that. The military is a dangerous profession and people die routinely durind training in order to be ready to protect us, yet they didn’t do any of that. They never said, “Thanks”.
When there’s no war that they oppose, no media coverage, no TV lights or microphones, they’ll NEVER do that. They are like the Phareises that have to be seen in the front of the temple praying. It’s not good enough to do good, they must be seen doing good. That’s why the go through the bullcrap arrests during protests. It’s a real nothing. Pay your ticket and walk, no big sacrifice for the cause. Hell, Elvis Kokesh was inspired to join in the fun watching how even little old Eve Tatez could do it on a regular basis.
Code Pink and IVAW are grave robbing ghouls that steal the goodwill given to the fallen and their families, EARNED AT A HIGH PRICE. They intend to use turn that goodwill into sorrow, then anger, and then into a tool they can use to advance their outside the mainstream political agenda. And they hide their agenda under a blanket called “peace”. Though no peace will come of it.
BTW, here’s my analysis of Winter Soldier 2.1, IVAW fumbled the ball on their own 1 yard line.
When I surveyed the IVAW website, I found that of those who actually posted profiles (about 1/6th of their claimed membership), about a fourth made no claim of ever having been in Theater. Of the remaining three fourths of identified posters, many had been in Kuwait or on ships off shore.
My personal “favorite” is Anita Foster who served as a Chinese langauge translator at Camp Zama, Japan, until her ETS early in 2002. A close runner-up must be the petite woman who trained as a “combat medic”, and served her tour as an operating room surgical technician.
Rurik:
I hate to plug my site on here, but you might enjoy this post:
http://3-116thsniper.blogspot.com/2007/10/meet-heroes-of-iraq-veterans-against.html
And this one too:
http://3-116thsniper.blogspot.com/2007/10/ivaw-heroes-continued-from-losers-to.html
Rurik,
If you get the time, figure out the percentage of IVAW profiles that went AWOL. That’s a figure they’ll be proud of.
raouldeming@hotmail.com
The trend seems to be hyping PTSD and other mental ailments rather atrocities. I offer that with some earnestness and nil humor. It’s a different tack for the VVAW/IVAW folks.
Couple the recent attacks on the VA mental health system and the refocus of those groups, and a trend is obvious. However, history educates me that the obvious isn’t always so.
This younger lot are clearly saying that military service has crippled them and THAT is why they’re anti-war. Re-examining Rurik’s observations along with what the rest of you folks have written about WSII suggests that we were sandbagged. Atrocity stories won’t work when folks are paying attention… so pick another target.
ponsdorf,
PTSD is one of the key elemnts in the 60’s template used to smear the troops. Get a copy of Burkett’s “Stolen Valor” and read it. It will be an eye opener.
It’s not surprising at all what they are doing if you read Burkett’s book and a few of the VVAW histories from Nicosia, Staceowitz and Hunt.
Plus when you determine that the VVAW was the brains behind Winter Soldier 2.1 (they never told the kids they already held Winter Soldier 2 in Boston on Oct 7-8-9, 1971). WS 2.1 had more VVAW pukes than IVAW. It was Geezer Reunion more than Winter Soldier.
Again, IVAW fumbled the ball on their own 1 yard line.
Raoul:
Met Burkett briefly a couple of times and have read the book. Also I’m well aware of the role played by the VVAW in this newer circus.
However, I can’t help but wonder if our emphasis on debunking (mostly) the ‘atrocity’ aspects of the thing left them relatively unscathed after all?
But then, it could simply be my perspective. AS and I chatted several times about PTSD, etc, well before the event and I was only interested in the atrocity bits? I kept seeing Kerry’s face.