Matthis skates again
Apparently the last Board member voted yesterday and Matthis gets to burn as many flags as he wants in the name of the IVAW.
If Matthis can be believed the deciding vote was cast by octogenarian Wes Davey pictured below delivering an ultimatum to John McCain at the Republican National Convention in 2008;
Of course, that was a few years ago, so we have an artist’s rendering of what we imagine Davey looks like today;
So now you guys know who to thank for ya all being Matthis today. It’s the same as when you all supported Carl Webb’s toxic lunacy – now whether or not you like it, you support flag burning by being members of the IVAW. How’s it feel?
You’re all flag-burning Socialists by staying in the organization – I’m not trying to shame you into leaving – if you’re still there after everything you’ve seen the last few years, being a flag-burning socialist ain’t bringing you out.
So wear your T-shirt with pride and do Matthis’ bidding right along with that guy on your left and right who didn’t go to Iraq, either.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects
“So wear your T-shirt with pride and do Matthis’ bidding right along with that guy on your left and right who didn’t go to Iraq, either.”
Well said, Jonn. Very sad.
When IVAW was founded, was it meant to be a radical, socialist group or were it’s founders actual Iraq vets who love our country but happened to be against the war? I pose this question in all seriousness because I honestly don’t know. Seems they would have sustained more mainstream support if they stuck to the first part of my question.
One of their founders had never been to Iraq – he got out a few months after the war began. Another was the first soldier to refuse to go to Iraq. They were inaugurated at a VFP convention. If they intended it to be just an organization of like-minded veterans in the beginning, they picked the wrong venue from which to launch. The VFP is a bunch of veterans left over from the VVAW like Bill Perry interspersed with guys like Jim Goodnow, Ward Reilly, Hal Muskat and Doug Zachary who never went to Vietnam.
I wonder if I can join. I could use some organizations and leadership positions for that bottom o’ the resume thing.
But I never went to Iraq, never was in the military, and I’m not against the war. That shouldn’t be a problem though, right?
Did Bill Perry go to Vietnam?
Bill Perry testified at the Winter Soldier hearings in 1971. Streetsweeper has been talking to his squad leader from that era and apparently he was in Vietnam with the 82d.
Last year he admitted to me that everything he said at those hearings was BS.
On my first deployment we had two outstanding first Sgt.’s (read “A Journal For Jordan”). They where stand-up guys, and while one was killed in an IED attack, the other remains a close friend today. Yeah, even with my movies. 🙂
However this Wes guy reminds of the type I had on my second deployment: Career and retirement check ahead of the welfare of his Soldiers. How can I qualify that? While he did disagree with Carl Webb, he could have done more. Now, with this mess, he folded in true IVAW style. While it is not against the IVAW rules, and legal to burn the flag, Matthis did that action with no one else in mind except himself. Some sort of reprimand should have been placed on him, because we know they do it to those who don’t hate the Flag or the U.S. (Army Sergent’s problems in the past). But not just that, but the fact that he is rule-bound to represent IVAW as a board member and conduct himself with a certain sense of decorum.
I’d like to rip that uniform off that “NCO” and I’m AGAINST the wars. Oh, but I forgot, because I tell the truth no matter what side that might upset, I’m the devil.
Thanks Jonn for the primer.
CPT Me: It was not meant to be a radical or socialist group from the beginning. Certain socialist groups just love taking over other people’s organizations.
Hilariously, Wes Davey voted for kicking me off the board ages ago because my apology to the socialist press and Camilo wasn’t repentant enough. I’m pretty fucking disappointed in him.
I also want to know, does this mean I can start burning Korans with an IVAW tshirt on? Somehow I suspect there’d be a different reaction.
Better yet, go to a Klan Cross Burning wearing an IVAW t-shirt. After all the Klan is against the war. You might get some good allies.
“One of their founders had never been to Iraq – he got out a few months after the war began. Another was the first soldier to refuse to go to Iraq.” Jonn, who are you talking about who never went to Iraq? Michael Hoffman? Michael Hoffman was in the initial Marine invasion of Iraq with his unit, was there for a very short period of time, returned to the States, and was discharged. To my recollection, I think I have heard him say that it’s not on his DD214 and he was trying to get it fixed. Not sure if I remember right, I don’t remember what he said the problem was either. Maybe you could help him (if he’s still interested in getting it corrected). I spent a lot of time with Michael Hoffman in the very early, early days and while our politics are not the same, I know him to be a decent guy, believed him to have been a good Marine, loved his buddies, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. It would be pretty fucking amazing to me if what he said wasn’t true. Actually, I used to have a photograph of him sitting in, I think, Saddam Hussein’s chair in the palace in Tikrit. Probably on my old computer; possibly on a CD somewhere. Or perhaps you’re talking about somebody else, but if so, I don’t know who. As far as the first soldier to refuse to go to Iraq who you made reference to, which one are you talking about? I know Camilo Mejia was over there and then initially went into hiding when he came back on leave because of refusing, but he didn’t refuse before going over there in the first place, so I assume you’re not talking about him. Also, I’ve never known him to be considered one of the co-founders. I also know there was a female conscientious objector from the start, a Chinese interpreter, I think, whose name momentarily eludes me, but she was not an IVAW co-founder either, to my knowldge (possibly their first or second… Read more »
WOW, the IVAW went from having no credibility to having less, color me surprised….AS, what the hell are you still doing with these people? or defending them?
Army Sgt, wont you please go away…youre a dirty, low life, chicken shit, traitor…get your unearned disability, buy your AA boyfriends and kill yourself.
That is all
I would happily help him burn another flag… As long as it’s wrapped around his head first.
Debra, I was talking about Tim Goodrich who got out of the Air Force a month or so after the war started. He saw Iraq from Turkey involved in the No-Fly Zone.
I was wrong that Mejia wasn’t a founder. But Jimmy Massey was – his stories about his experiences in Iraq were as believable as Joshua Keys and Jesse MacBeth.
Jonn, you forgot to attack Kelly Daugherty, I’m pretty sure she was a founding member too
@Jonn (#15) Oh, Tim Goodrich…very decent young man as well. But he’s never portrayed himself or his experiences as anything other than what they were. He did have some involvement at the beginning anyway. He’s never claimed more than his small part, which was still important. I don’t think the co-founders were ever seeking any kind of glory or aggrandizement for themselves; it wasn’t about them, nor did they think that it was; it was about the idea. It was a way for them to express their dissent against the war within a structured framework that had a feeling of familiarity to them and with others who served. I think their hope was simply to lay the groundwork, speak out according to whatever their limited experiences were, and then step aside for others to come later as they returned. I doubt I’m the only one who has ever been on the inside of the veterans peace movement and looks now at the VFP and IVAW wreckage and thinks the enterprise was not very successful. Jimmy Massey – Jimmy Massey is a very nice, warm-hearted guy who had a lot of trouble being a recruiter after being in Iraq. I can’t speak for any of his stories, however, I doubt they were any more embellished than what some of the old war stories were of some CID agents I’ve known…LOL. I was around Jimmy some and have sat and talked with him. I really liked him. I haven’t read his book, frankly. If his stories are exaggerated, I think about the many guys I’ve known in the MPs and CID who liked to tell their stories amongst themselves. Some people are just story tellers who, in the process of telling their story, tend to forget where the line was between what really happened and what makes the story more interesting, especially if there was a point to make. Story-telling is a time-honored American tradition. I think, too, in matters where there may have been some trauma involved, the line tends to get even fuzzier for some folks. If Jimmy Massey is… Read more »
By the way, Wes Davey was out of Uniform in that picture. As a Retired Soldier you cannot wear the SSI of your last unit of assignment on the left shoulder. As per AR 670-1 you are to wear no SSI or the Army Retired Patch. AND he isnt a First Sergeant since he isnt in a 1Sg slot as a retiree so he wore the wrong chevrons
Just another sign of a Slovenly Soldier.