How many of you deployed to Iraq without a headline on Huffington Post? Well, you know, when Jon Soltz gets his orders finally, he can’t deploy quietly and return without fanfare. How appropriate that the three-month combat veteran announce his deployment on Veterans Day;
Jon Soltz, the chairman and co-founder of VoteVets.org, a leading critic of the Iraq war, told the Huffington Post on Wednesday that he was taking a year of absence from the group to deploy to Iraq as part of Operation New Dawn.
“This has always been a possibility,” he said. “I have always been a member of the army reserves, it is just not anything I talk about for legal reasons. The bottom line is, I can’t if I’m on active duty, be in charge of VoteVets anymore.”
“I’m not an idiot. I’ve known the possibilities of this for a long time,” he added. “I get the honor to be probably in the last rotation in Iraq. My order is for 12 months and if you take a look at that timetable, December 2011 will be when all U.S. troops come out anyway.”
I think I can probably find quite a few people who can argue effectively about that “I’m not an idiot” statement. The only real irony of Soltz’ deployment is that he wasn’t called back to duty before, and now that the country has benefited from the surge which Soltz vehemently opposed, Soltz gets to walk the peaceful streets which would have been otherwise if Soltz had his way.
Lucky for Soltz the video of him attacking Sergeant David Aquina at the Yearly Kos have disappeared (the post I wrote at the time), or his troops might be watching it every morning. But here’s a screen shot of Soltz dressing down the young buck that was captured by PJ Media cameras;
Even Kos diarists criticized Soltz for that bit of theater.
Watch our buddy David Bellavia face down Soltz on Laura Ingram’s show a few years back;
Thanks to Daniel and someone who didn’t want to be named for the link.
Good Lord, can you imagine being under this arrogant douchebags command? I see a ton of porta potty graffiti aimed his way. I wonder if George Soros will continue to pay him while he is away?
“The bottom line is, I can’t if I’m on active duty, be in charge of VoteVets anymore.”
Let’s give the guy some credit for a good exit excuse. Democratic politicians and activists are busy polishing their resumes by the thousands right now-at least he can say it was for deployment and not because of his complete failure to achieve the objectives of his job.
But here is an interesting question-if during the next year, VoteVets decides to hire a more qualified chairman who would actually try to fulfill their credo of getting vets in office regardless of ideology, could Soltz use ESGR to sue on his behalf?
Still the creme de la creme of take downs! I bet Soltz will most likely be in some Remf job or on a staff somewhere.
I would hate to be the NCO sworn to obey his orders, particularly in the forgotten war of Iraq as violence rises along with Govt denial and redtape.
I’ll bet his days are filled with 15-6 investigations.
Not related to Soltz but IVAW regardless guys: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101111/ap_on_re_us/us_awol_soldier_returns