IVAW on the death of bin Laden

Jose Vasquez, the executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War released a quixotic statement last week to temper our celebration of the death of Usama bin Laden;

As service members and veterans who have experienced the Global War on Terror firsthand, we respectfully encourage the American people to consider the killing of Bin Laden with a measure of restraint. His death is only a symbolic victory. Although there is no doubt Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians, the path chosen by the Bush administration following 9/11 and continued under President Obama’s watch has cost us more than any one terrorist mastermind ever could. While it is right to remember those who died on 9/11, we should also be equally mindful of all those who have died as a result of our misguided wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of U.S. troops killed has topped 6,000 and estimates of civilian deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan range in the hundreds of thousands.

First of all, a reader should remember that Jose Vasquez was a reservist when the war began that September morning ten years ago. When he was called to serve in Iraq, he refused to deploy as a medic – arguably a non-combatant. At the time, Vasquez made the statement that he would have deployed to Afghanistan – the war that he considered “just”. Now suddenly, there is no war in Iraq, so as the head of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, he has turned against the war in Afghanistan, too. Probably because there’s no war in Iraq to oppose.

Secondly, as countless posts on this blog has proven, a goodly number of members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War haven’t “experienced the Global War on Terror firsthand” – many haven’t even set foot outside of the continental United States in uniform. Jose’s predecessor, Alex Bacon, went AWOL from the Coast Guard while he was stationed in Hawaii.

I guess they miss President Bush, too, because they’re still complaining about “Bush’s War”. bin Laden started the war, and nothing can change that, not weasel words and trying to garner sympathy by calling yourselves “Iraq veterans” when they’re less Iraq veterans than I am. I’ve actually carried loaded weapons while in uniform in Iraq – how many members of IVAW can say that?.

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects