On the anti-war trail again
Well, summer is over and it’s time for the rested and tanned anti-war crowd to take to the streets again. IVAW has begun it’s seasonal mental masturbation with their Operation Recovery to Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops – a worthy endeavor. Especially if the were a bit more specific about what is a “traumatized troop”.
They say that Operation Recovery is “our effort to stop the deployment of troops suffering from PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Military Sexual Trauma. By signing our pledge, you agree to do what you can to help defend the rights of soldiers to heal and to hold accountable those who are responsible for deploying traumatized troops.”
I’m pretty sure that the military doesn’t want those guys deployed either. But there’s some yelling fire in a crowded theater going on from some members of IVAW.
Like Ethan McCord, the soldier from the Wikileaks video who carried one of the wounded children to an aid vehicle. Since he that video was released, he’s made a real pest of himself. Like in this article in which he said the military was engaged in something “reminiscent of ethnic cleansing“. Perhaps “reminiscent of Jengis Khan” was the phrase you were looking for, McCord?
In another article, McCord tells an ugly hippie chick that after the incident recorded in the above mentioned video, he told his squad leader that he needed help and his squad leader told him to get the sand out of his pussy. He doesn’t mention the name of the squad leader or the date of the incident. So we’re left with just McCord’s word. The way we’re always left with these goofballs. But the headline of the article is “Mentally injured troops used to murder children and women daily“. Nothing left to figure out there.
For one thing, the war that McCord left isn’t the same war. For another thing, unless he’s willing to name names and places about all of the mistreatment he endured from his commander, platoon leader, squad leader and whoever else he wants to implicate, I don’t place a bit of trust in a thing he says. And all of this non-specific tale-telling is going to get him in a bunch of trouble with those people someday.
I’m positive there wasn’t an order to kill everyone in sight when an IED detonated on his convoy as he claims. I haven’t been to Iraq during the current war, but I’m pretty sure everyone in the world knows that when an IED explodes, everyone in your sight didn’t know it was going to explode, or they’d have taken cover before it did – so what’s the use in killing them?
And if this unnamed squad leader did indeed tell him to get the sand out of his pussy, why hasn’t he done it yet?
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Phony soldiers, Terror War
I hate to agree with anything IVAW says, but I remember an Army “Doctor”, a Major Carsis, or Casis, you said:
“You know how you deal with your PTSD? You go back to Iraq and kill those savages.”
I have no reason to lie about this. I’m not asking for donations or seeking praise form the anti-war crowd.
Also, on my first deployment we did shoot 360 degree rotational fire and called it “Recon by fire”. Which was ok for us to do, then latter during that deployment we where ordered to no longer do it. On my second deployment I never saw it happening, only heard stories about it.
But we are not ethnic cleansers. What a load of shit. He’s just playing to the crowd of people that want to hear that we where all brainwashed murders.
IVAW has no real interest in helping Soldiers. If they did, they’d have something to show for it by now.
As an Ethan McCord sidenote, at least he came out truthfully regarding the Wikileaks incident, stating that as one of the first soldiers on the scene, the first thing he noted was the weapons the dead insurgents were carrying.
rant follows:
What the hell is Military Sexual Trauma?
I looked it up so I recognize that some shrinks somewhere defined it, but I don’t get it.
Rape is Rape and some rape victims suffer from PTSD. I’ll take that as a given.
It sure sounds like an oddly contrived term to me? Like Urban Sexual Trauma, or Airline Sexual Trauma, or maybe WASP Sexual Trauma?
/rant
Sorry, sometimes trying to track this PC stuff drives me a bit nuttier than usual.
Answer to pansdorf rant:
The general PC idea is that ‘military women have no control over their booodieeessss. These poor little innocent girls join the military to better themselves and are attacked by the big bad aggressive knuckle draggers they are thrown together with.’ (I have to stop here, or I’ll gag.)
I’ve worked two jobs, both shift, where I was the only female on duty. No fewer than 4 men worked with me on those shifts. The men were perfect gentlemen, and I never had a complaint at either job with any of my co-workers.
Maybe that’s because I was raised by a woman who taught me that if I acted like a lady, I’d be treated like one.
My Dad wholeheartedly agreed with this philosophy, and taught me how to shoot, and how to use a knife. (He didn’t want me to develop calluses on my knuckles from brawling.)
‘Nuff said.
PintoNag #4: Thanks. Soooo… It wasn’t my PC paranoia this time.
Oh wait? Is Pansdorf some kind of hidden slur or a typo?
@Ponsdorf, I agree that sexual trauma is sexual trauma; at the same time, I can see that sexual trauma that occurs within the context of military life does have some unique elements not shared by the sexual trauma that occurs in the civilian world. I don’t see the terminology as really being that contrived, but rather, just plainly identifying the type of circumstances surrounding the sexual trauma, similiar to the term “prison rape,” which, while still rape, takes place in circumstances uniquely found in the setting of prisons.
I really want to say “Fuck you, PintoNag”. So I’m going to. Long time readers here will know that I rarely get profane like this, so I apologize for the shock, but seriously? Fuck you. Rape happens. In the military. To women who know how to fight and women who don’t know how to fight. To women who ‘act like ladies’ and to women who ‘act like whores’. To women who are teeny tiny and to women who have bulging muscles. Rape doesn’t happen to you because of how you act, and for being a woman with the colossal fucking gall to reinforce that stereotype, I have no words for how angry you make me. I don’t hope you burn in hell. I don’t hope anything happens to you. But you are vile, vile, absolutely vile for saying that. For the men I will allow the defense of ignorance, but for a woman to pretend this shit is anyone’s fault but the rapists is godawful. There is no magical thing you can do or say, no mystical sign or incantation or combination of factors that will prevent you from maybe someday being raped. I’m glad, genuinely glad, that those ‘gentlemen’ never did anything to you, but that is not everyone’s experience, and for you to trivialize it is just WRONG. Here’s a newsflash on military sexual trauma, and it’s not PC bullshit. It’s real. It is what happens when someone gets raped, not just by a stranger, not just by some dude, but by their brother. By someone they were ready to give their life to protect up until five seconds before that ‘brother’ made their life a living hell. It is a betrayal that goes fucking deep, and it is a trauma that fucks with the head. And for people to trivialize it offends me, and I will not be quiet about it. The fact that women are forced to continue to serve in the same squad or unit with their rapists sometimes offends me. The fact that this can be treated lightly offends me. The fact that often… Read more »
@Debra. Point taken, but I’m still skeptical.
We have a heinous act. No quibble there.
Some suffer long after the physical wounds have healed. No quibble there.
Does adding a further modifier actually help the victim recover or does it aid in finger pointing?
Army Sergeant:
I apologize if I have offended you. And you obviously have no idea what I meant by the term “lady.”
Ponsdorf: Sorry. Typo only.
PintoNag: I’m no lady, I’m a woman, and proud of it. However, there is no possible definition of lady for which the statement: “If you act like a lady, you’ll be treated like one” is valid where “treated like one” means “not being raped”. And there is no circumstance where it is appropriate to blame the victim for the crime.
“And there is no circumstance where it is appropriate to blame the victim for the crime.”
Well yes, someone who was raped doesn’t deserve to get blamed for it. Problem is, some feminist groups and others (particularly on college campuses) are too eager to push the line of culpability far to one end of the spectrum, such that profound regret (for say, a drunken one night stand) can be considered an ex post lack of consent, and therefore rape. It only works for women though.
While rape clearly is a serious issue no matter where it occurs, and should be punished to the fullest extent everytime, I was just waiting for an IVAW member or supporter to once again throw out how all Soldiers are murders, rapists, and mindless robotic thugs.
I’m not saying AS is doing. I just get tired of the anti-war “movements” hate filled rants against the Military they claim to care about.
If PintoNag was right, Mathis raped someone because she wasn’t a lady, not because he is a scumbag. Which is it?
I believe that the problem most of the people have is that these organizations (IVAW, et al.) using the term “Military Sexual Trauma” are continually using this term to place the military and rape in the same context. That is, they are making them inclusive of each other instead of exclusive. In these cases, they are not seeking to treat victims or assist the military in helping to treat and prevent them; instead they are using it as a reason why your children (specifically young women) should not join the military or a further example of why the military is bad.
Whenever I have discussions with liberals about sexual assault and rape in the military they always quote the high percentages of reported assaults and how that shows the military doesn’t care or covers it up. When this occurs I quote the 2000 Department of Justice Report that 15% of all college women are raped or sexually assaulted each year.
Does this mean women shouldn’t go to college?
Does this mean that college is bad?
No, it shows that rape and sexual assault are a serious issue in all facets of society and the entire American culture must be changed when dealing with this issue. Due to this, it should not be used for political propaganda in liberal rallies as they are doing in this instance.
“I quote the 2000 Department of Justice Report that 15% of all college women are raped or sexually assaulted each year.”
I sincerely doubt the veracity of these kind of assertions. There are about 10 million women enrolled in college in the U.S. That would amount to 1.5 million rapes per year. Last year, for the entire population of 300,000,000 people, 89,000 rapes were reported. That’s all ages, both sexes. Even if college women were seriously disproportionately represented among the 89,000, this would mean that over 99.4 percent of rapes go unreported, every single year, just on college campuses?! Hell, if 1.5 million rapes occur, that would mean either a serious serial rapist problem, or that around 20% of college men are rapists.
There is no. fucking. way. an epidemic of such gargantuan proportions would go unnoticed.
This is a good article on the alleged college campus rape problem: http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_campus_rape.html
Scott, I apologize for the typo, it is 1.5% not 15%.
I used the percentage before interpolation. Here is the link to the report.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf
@Ponsdorf, in response to your question, “Does adding a further modifier actually help the victim recover or does it aid in finger pointing?”, I don’t know the answer to the question of whether the further modifier actually helps the victim recover or not, but I do appreciate that your emphasis is in the right place, i.e., on the victim. I thiink the question is very worthy of consideration and further research. I suspect the answer may well be as individualistic as each victim; not a collective answer that represents the view of every victim. I’m fairly sure there is no voice that can adequately speak for a silent victim. I’m also fairly sure that for every victim that speaks out and illuminates the problem, there are many more who remain silent and never say a word. As to the second part of the question, i.e., does identifying and specifically labelling sexual assault that occurs in the military as “military sexual trauma” aid in finger pointing? I’m not sure if I understand the question. If there is a crime against a person that occurs, I fully support finger pointing to identify the suspect (while, of course, at the same time concerned about protecting the innocent from false accusations). My greatest interest would be in seeing justice delivered as quickly as possible and if those efforts are enhanced or facilitated by legitimate finger pointing, then I support it. That’s what police line-ups are for. But perhaps you were going in a different direction that I haven’t understood. I am aware that along with the problem of sexual assault on women in the military, sometimes men are victimized, too — and not only as victims of sexual assault or rape, but sometimes as victims of false accusations. I’ve seen it; I know it. It does happen. The most important thing is to uncover the truth, whatever it is, in the quest for justice. It has also occurred to me that a more fitting comparison to military sexual trauma might be marital rape rather than prison rape. In prison, one can rather expect bad… Read more »
Unfortunately, indiscriminate firing “mad minute” style was quite common after IEDs for several months when they first appeared. It was a generally accepted TTP used in attempt to kill the trigger man as the enemy was still using command wires. Because of this TTP, haji started using stand-off trigger devices like mobile phones and garage door openers. So our TTP was modified using the electromagnetic spectrum against the enemy. Same with garage door IR sensors, we used thermal “rams” ahead of the vehicle. Then we saw crushed wire, pressure plates, christmas tree lights, even simple trip wires. As the “mad minute” TTP was officially outlawed due to excessive collateral damage, the enemy has gone back to the tried and true trigger man and command wires. IED and C-IED is a constant battle of wits. I don’t discount some of the fucktards stories, but at one point early in the Iraq war, the “mad minute” was a recognized TTP to dissuade triggermen. There was nothing in writing or official orders/TTP, but there are plenty of videos that show the habit in practice. Again, very early in the IED evolution. I am sure that this fucktard McCord heard about it from one of the older guys in the platoon telling war stories.
BTW- It was my unit doing all the shooting in the Wikileaks video that caused all the commotion this past spring. I was looking at pictures of the same weapons McCord saw as part of the 15-6 investigation that was initiated upon every shoot. Close viewing of the video will note the Soldier taking pictures upon arrival. Obviously admiring the fine shooting and excellent shot placement.