The unprotected class (Updated)

When TSO wrote that post the other day about the Department of Homeland Security’s report on “right-wing extremists” I was so pissed I couldn’t see straight. And before TSO identified the “prominent civil rights organization“, I knew which it’d be. But, even the public outcry from veteran groups can’t end this despicable smear. One prominent blogger from the Right whom I respect deeply, and won’t name, whisked the report away under his electronic rug and advised us to ignore it because it didn’t say what we thought it said.

I started to pen a note to him to explain that he was wrong this time, but I didn’t want to see what that note would have turned into if I’d hit the “send” button. So I’ll just do it here where I have control of the context.

I retired from the Army nearly 15 years ago after serving for 20 years – the math would tell you that I came in during the final year of the existence of South Vietnam. The Left had successfully shamed anyone out of joining the military. The veteran as maniacal killing machine is widely accepted as fact.

Since I’ve retired, I’ve seen such a bias and prejudgment of military members by all sectors of society. My work mates have no problem telling me that all veterans are crazy – not as a joke, but as a matter of fact. When I started to have the discussion this morning about the DHS report, one woman was unfazed by the report, because, as she said, “Well, they are the most dangerous people in America – the DHS should keep their eyes on them”. Huh? I was so mad, I could spit.

If I’d made a similar revelation about, say, Salvadorans and their well-known skill with a machete, everyone in the room would have rushed to their defense. And everyone knows that those Japanese people are all ninjas, right? And those Africans are all cannibals, right? Offensive – you betcha. So why isn’t it offensive to tell a veteran that all veterans are lunatics and homicidal maniacs?

Well, for one thing, there are folks like IVAW who perpetuate that myth. In fact here’s a blog post of sorts from our friend, Major Ass Clown Darnell Stephen Summers, in which he perpetuates the myth that all Vietnam veterans were potheads because he was a pothead. And because he was a pothead and all of the IVAW ass clowns are potheads, then the whole military is a bunch of potheads. Well, except the old burnt out “lifers”, of course, who are all alcoholics;

He’s a major ignorant dick who can’t see past the end of his stupid nose. And a communist.

There’s a Vietnam veteran in my office who was a supply clerk in a depot in Vietnam who never heard a shot fired in anger, but played the role to the hilt. He got away with tons of shit around the office until I became the “other combat veteran” in the office and shamed him into stopping. It’s the minority of veterans who play the Hollywood role so they can get away with shit that allows the imbeciles on the Left to demean and degrade us.

PTSD is virtually meaningless anymore – with shit heads like Chiroux who claims he suffers from PTSD because he heard war stories. Everyone claims PTSD – it’s almost normal. It’s like the whiplash of jerk-ass derelicts.

But back to the DHS report; I don’t understand how anyone from the Right can not see in that DHS report that it intentionally highlighted returning military personnel as dangerous future terrorists as the last resort to shame troops into getting on the Obama plantation. After every bit of political maneuvering of this administration and as a campaign, how can anyone doubt this wasn’t intentional?

In the interview that Napolitano did with Fox News, she said the word apology, but stopped short of an apology. She said it was an “assessment” – but the “assessment” is based on false assumptions. Allow me to demonstrate.

She made the specious statement that McVeigh got his training in the military. McVeigh was a Bradley gunner in the same division that I went to Desert Storm with – no one I know got any “training” in anything McVeigh did that day in Oklahoma City. Nothing. He built a truck bomb, he parked a truck bomb, he ran away. Check the eleven-mike skill level two tasks. He was never trained by the Army to do those things. Any doofus off of the block could accomplish those things without ever having served in the military.

The fact that McVeigh was a veteran wasn’t even relevant to his crime, but it’s something veterans get beat over the head with in every discussion. How about if I pronounced that Blacks are dangerous because of John Muhammad, the DC sniper? How much shit would I get? But, police were looking for the DC sniper among white veterans and blamed the shootings on right wing groups. Did we get an apology when it was discovered they were wrong? I don’t remember one.

Muhammad was a mechanic who happened to fire “expert” with the M16 once. That means he hit 36 out of 40 targets – and because he was a mechanic, he probably shot on the 25-meter range with tiny targets instead of the full-sized range. That’s how mechanics qualify generally. He didn’t even do all of the shooting – Malvo shot at least one victim in the series of slayings and he’d never served a day in the Army.

And if it was an “assessment”, why didn’t the Bush Administration arrive at the same assessment?

Anyone ever wonder why veterans and military members generally support smaller government? It’s because we know stuff about the massive failures of government – it’s because we took care of each other as individuals – we always knew we couldn’t depend on the government to care of us. When our government-supplied tools broke at a crucial time, we knew the guy on our right and left would protect us and pick up our slack while we jerry-rigged the broke dick equipment. We know the strength of individuals while our current administration finds that experience dangerous.

Rurik has a much better piece he wrote when he was blogging at Old War Dogs about Veterans as an Ethnic Minority.

Added: First thing in the morning, I’m resigning my VFW life membership and joining the American Legion. Thanks to Olga for the link.

Ray sends us an appropriate demotivational poster;

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Liberals suck, Usual Suspects