This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • Life’s a bitter shame, [He’s] going off the rails on a crazy train…

    (Title from Ozzie)

    It’s about 2:30 am right now and I am in no shape to write this blog post, but I have to get this on the record. I haven’t been sleeping much lately and I have been mixing gin and Xanax to cope with all the anxiety I have been dealing with lately, but here goes nothing.

    If I wrote those words there would have been an intervention by about 2:45am. But coming from Adam Kokesh, I doubt it struck anyone as odd. I had held off posting this for damn near forever, but his increasingly bizarre behavior is honestly starting to concern me, and hopefully some of his IVAW brethren will help him get some help.The first sign that things were amiss with the Cult of Personality was when the Matthis Chiroux drama began. At the time, Sunday June 15 Adam wrote that:

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  • Campaigning in a time vacuum

    The press is all a-twitter because the Iraqi government seems to agree with foreign policy dunce Barack Obama that a 16-month timetable withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq seems to be the best solution. From the Washington Post;

    But as political theater, the events of the past few days have played unfailingly in the Democrat’s favor. On Friday, a day after Obama left for Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush administration officials announced that the United States and Iraq had agreed on a time horizon for removing troops. Then, twice in three days, Maliki embraced a withdrawal timeline similar to Obama’s.

    And you know what? I might even agree at this point…the difference between me and Barack and the Washington Post is that I’ve taken events over the last year and a half into account to arrive at my conclusion, while the Post and Obama act like they were right to call for the withdrawal for more than two years, absent the success of the surge. So the Post and Obama are actually saying that Obama has special powers that let him see into the future and make determinations based on his special transcendental knowledge.

    For the Post and Obama, the surge never happened, it’s still 2006 and we’re still taking scads of casualties daily in Iraq. They discount the fact that Obama has taken every opportunity to vote against funding the troops, to vote against giving them the equipment they’ve needed and he opposed the surge. Obama, for his own political benefit, did his best to make sure that troops were still suffering massive casualties in Iraq when he assumed the Presidency, just so he could surrender and then Democrats could point at George Bush as a failure.

    Last week, I wrote that William Arkin was still trying to convince Post readers that all was lost in Iraq and that the troops were coming home so they could save their honor. I also wrote about the members of Congress who wrote a letter to the President calling on him to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Robin, my supposed alter-ego at Chickenhawk Express, wrote this weekend that Dahr Jamail, the terrorists’ best friend in Iraq, is still calling Fallujah a quagmire. It’s as if the Left stored it’s collective consciousness in a jar over the door jamb for two years and just uncorked it last week.

    Although Obama may be right on his timetable withdrawal today, he was wrong when he first mentioned it, he’s been wrong on it for two years. Just because events that he had nothing to do with have made him right (what’s the old saw about a broken clock being right twice everyday? Or a blind squirrel finding a nut?), it doesn’t change the fact that he was wrong…dangerously wrong…in the beginning.

  • Delusional Congress

    On July 14th, Michael Yon typed these words;

    The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What’s left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved, so those spectacular attacks are diminishing along with the regular violence.

    Yon verified what we all believed and what we’ve all hoped for since the surge began. Fewer Americans died last month than at anytime since the war begun. CNN reports that the troops in Iraq are itching to go to Afghanistan to finish off al Qaeda. But on July 11th, 13 members of Congress were urging the President to surrender in Iraq;

    letter.jpg

    It’s as if we all live in different worlds. The signatories of that letter are;

    letter-sigs.jpg

    That was a letter that these Congress people wrote in support of IVAW’s newest celebrity Matthis Chiroux to help him get out of the trouble he’s brought on himself by refusing to report for duty in Iraq…last month. In the letter these members of Congress “reaffirm their support for all military members who speak out, advocate and otherwise support efforts to bring the troops home.” I wonder how often these particular members of Congress have thought about supporting all military members. Period.

    I found this letter on IVAW’s website posted yesterday. Whatever will the Iraq Veterans Against the War do when there is no war in Iraq? It’s almost over now, and they’re still trying to surrender. That probably explains why they’re acting like maniacs. You’ll see what I mean by that when TSO does his latest post on Adam Kokesh.

  • Do we really have to take him back?

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    US Army deserter Robert Long was deported this morning from our newest ally to the north, Canada, according to the Globe and Mail (h/t to Darcey at right-of-center Canadian blog Dust My Broom);

    U.S. army deserter Robin Long was quietly deported from Canada Tuesday morning, while protesters unaware of his whereabouts picketed the Canada-U.S. border crossing south of Vancouver.

    “I can confirm that the removal took place but the Privacy Act prevents any discussion of the specifics of the case,” Shakila Manzoor, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency, said today in an interview.

    She declined to say at what time he was sent back, where he crossed the border or who received him.

    A small group of supporters gathered early Tuesday morning at the Peace Arch border crossing, about an hour south of downtown Vancouver, for a symbolic protest against the deportation.

    Weasel Zippers had the announcement from CBC that he would be deported this morning, but apparently Canadian authorities didn’t waste anytime scootin’ his moldy, chickenshit ass back across the frontier.

    A Federal Court judge in Vancouver on Monday rejected Robin Long’s application for a stay of his deportation order.

    The 25-year-old fled to Canada to avoid serving in Iraq. He was arrested in Nelson, B.C., last October on a Canada-wide warrant.

    Long had said he tried to gain refugee status in Canada because he believes he would suffer harm if he had to return to his home country.

    In her ruling, Federal Court of Canada Justice Anne Mactavish said Long did not provide clear and convincing evidence that he would suffer irreparable harm if he is returned home.

    Outside the court, one of Long’s supporters said he is unaware of any other recourse for Long and that he will likely be deported on Tuesday.

    I see he’s already cultivated that homeless phony vet look that seems to get the most alms outside of Union Station – he’s probably going to need another schtick to compete with other bums claiming to be veterans, though.

    I applaud the Canadian judicial system for making the legal decision and not the political one instead. That’s fairly refreshing these days.

    Welcome readers of McClatchy Watch.

  • Arkin: Bush’s Nixonian withdrawal plan

    Remember little Billie Arkin who told us all that the troops in Iraq were living La Vida Loca and that we didn’t need to support them, they needed to support us instead? Well, the Washington Post let him out of his cage (now that mud season has ended in Vermont) and let him moderate a discussion on their “Planet War” forum. Rather than say that the President is planning for pulling the troops out of Iraq because they’re not needed any longer, Arkin blames the defeat of the US military in Iraq for the President’s decision;

    Cynics might dismiss the maneuvering as “just politics,” but in fact [Obama and Bush] are struggling with the same objective and reality: how to end the Iraq war favorably and without admitting defeat, and how to preserve the honor of the American military.

    For the Bush administration, the task is to balance success on the ground and a new yearning and confidence on the part of the local government with long-term security. And of course, there is a heavy dose of pressure from the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, who both deeply want to be relieved of the exhausting duty. Accelerating withdrawals before the elections aren’t intended to help McCain, as some have speculated. They are motivated by a desire to leave the White House redeemed, and to give the American people what they want.

    Obama, on the other hand, is not flip-flopping or changing course or doing anything in his “refinement” other than being presidential. Everyone wants to “end the war,” the question now is how to get there. I would argue that the issue is not “defeat” of the terrorists or even the kind of stability in Iraq that would satisfy a tough auditor. The universal imperative has become to preserve American military honor.

    Now, keep in mind, that Billie Arkin made this brilliant assessment from the wilds of Vermont. He makes no indication that any of it is quoted from any source or any amount of research – it’s simply his unsupported opinion…from Vermont. From Vermont, Arkin has made the decision that we’re losing in Iraq (despite the mounds of evidence to the contrary that is publicly available) and that the President just wants to pull the troops out to save their honor – like Nixon in 1972. Arkin, as in his previously famous writings, blames the military’s ineptness for this imagined failure in Iraq and blames the Administration for keeping them there to spare their feelings.

    What Arkin won’t admit is that the only reason our troops have been involved over there so long is because him and his peace-freak buddies can’t shut up while the troops do their jobs. Even after the job is nearly done, he continues to berate them.

    And, of course the commenters in the forum suffer mightily from BDS;

    Bush has always said he wants to leave Iraq, and its easier when the country you occupy doesnt want you there. Bush has had 8 years of deception and misinformation that has led us deeper then we were ever promised we would be in Iraq. So to now say that his policies are similar to Obama’s is a stretch. Obama has a record of being opposed to the war from the beginning. Any refinement is seen as flip-flopping because the press is so used to a President that doesnt change anything he doesnt want to. The universal imperative of American Military honor has not chance under Bush. His entire history of ignorance and NOT listening to the generals on the ground (contrary to popular belief) had led us to hurt our military honor. This honor can be regained by winning the war on terror in its main battlegrouns- Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is something that Obama sees as a priority and Bush has seen as a secondary to his fiasco is Iraq. So I dont see the similarities.

    (Spelling and punctuation errors are from the original author, probably the result of pounding on his keyboard in frustration at being wrong once again)

    I should probably point out that Arkin did a brief tour in the Army as an intelligence officer in Berlin (during the late 70s) and that he went to work for Greenpeace after that. Besides blathering on for Washington Post, he seems attached somehow (his email address) to the Institute of Global Communications, a “progressive community” consisting of PeaceNet, EcoNet, WomensNet, and AntiRacismNet – so there’s probably no agenda there.

    Crossposted at Eagles Up! Talon

    Welcome Conservative Grapevine readers…and thanks to DPUD for linking us up again. Welcome C.H.U.D. Busters‘ readers.

  • IVAW’s Adam “Fallujah” Kokesh confronts Conyers

    Former lance corporal Adam Kokesh (who’s been to Falluja) and his merry band of geriatrics from the Veterans for Peace pressed John Conyers on the impeachment of the President and Vice President on Capitol Hill last week. Conyers tells the gang of imbeciles that he hasn’t made up his mind yet what he’s going to do about impeachment.

    Let me translate that for those of you who don’t know Conyer’s history; Conyers has nothing to impeach Bush and Cheney for. It’s that simple. If Conyers had something on them, he’d be shouting it from the rooftops.

    Conyers was part of the crew who tried to slow the Senate’s “advice and consent” of Vice President Ford so the House could impeach Nixon leaving the Presidency slot to the Democrat Speaker of the House and overturning the 1972 election. Conyers is a purely partisan hitman for the Democrats. If he “hasn’t decided” what to do about impeachment, it’s because he’s empty-handed.

    The YouTube video;

    [youtube Evey795noUA nolink]

    It seems that since Kokesh has been busted publicly on his misuse of the rank of sergeant, now he begins every conversation with the fact that he’s been to Falluja to wrap himself in the glory of the heroes of that battle. The story he tells Conyers sounds suspiciously similar to the story Logan Laituri told at Winter Soldier, and his story was meant to tug at Conyer’s heart strings.

    Believe me, boys, Conyers doesn’t need to see your disappointed faces to convince him to impeach. What he realizes that you gumballs of the Left can’t seem to grasp is that there’s no impeachable offense. But Conyers blames his reticent behavior on that nebulous “corporate media”. You’ve used that excuse to cover up your shortcomings, too, so you should recognize it as camoflage when someone else uses it on you.

    But the IVAW and VFP and Code Pink and all of the rest are just using the impeachment fantasy to raise money from the ignorant masses anyway.

    Impeachment advocates in Michigan met with Conyers last week and got the same cock-and-bull story from Conyers along with a hint that Conyers has tricks up his sleeve;

    “He has sent mixed signals all along,” said David Redemann, a citizen supporter of impeachment. “This meeting was more of the same.” Conyers said that he and Kucinich would discuss the matter with the other House members to see if there was any support for it. But he warned that the conservative Blue Dog Democrats, as well as Democrats who are serving their first term in Congress, would be unlikely to support impeaching Bush for crimes he committed while in office.

    Conyers also hinted that alternative measures could be taken so that Bush and his allies could be tried for crimes after they leave office.

    The Milwaukee advocates argued that impeachment proceedings would help Democrats in the November election, since voters want the president and vice president to be held accountable for their actions in office.

    Well, folks, welcome to the real world. You can wish on a star all you want, but dreams don’t always come true – especially when your fantasies have no basis in reality.

    Conyers, Pelosi, Reid, Kucinich and all of the rest are just stringing you along like they did to get your vote in 2006. Remember how they promised to end the war in Iraq? Here we are nearly two years later and all they’ve done is make empty gestures. Remember this video:

    [youtube Nc5lHXkrdQ8 nolink]

    The Democrats know they can’t impeach, but they also know you’re stupid enough to believe that they can impeach the President and Vice President. Hey, you fell for it once. They figure you’ll forget all about it after the Bush Administration is gone. And you will.

  • The Ron Paul Revolution in full swing

    Ron Paul 046

    Ron Paulians filled Constitution Avenue this morning to bring the “Second Revolutionary War” to Washington. I’ll admit that it was a pretty big crowd, the website had over 15,000 people pledged to come, but it looked like less than half that many showed up, but it was fairly impressive nonetheless. Well, compared to their gathering in April and the gatherings of other moonbats I’ve witnessed lately.

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  • Washington Post; Ignoring progress

    Last year, while General Petreaus was briefing Congress on the impending success in the war in Iraq, the Washington Post ran a week-long series of articles on  Improvised Explosive Devices. It was the WaPo’s way of distracting the readers from the newspaper’s inept reporting from Iraq. Judging by the idiot comments with which I’ve tortured myself, Washington Post’s plan has worked…for them.

    This morning, the Washington Post, while ignoring the fact that Iraqis are under the impression that they can control their own security because of the recent successes there, focuses on the new IED;

     U.S. military officials call the devices Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions, or IRAMs. They are propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by 107mm rockets. They are often fired by remote control from the backs of trucks, sometimes in close succession. Rocket-propelled bombs have killed at least 21 people, including at least three U.S. soldiers, this year.

    Bill Roggio calls it the “Flying IED;

    The rocket casings shown in the images provided by Multinational Forces Iraq are the same type used in the Chinese-made Type 63 towed 107mm Multiple Launch Rocket. The Iranians manufacture this weapons system and the rockets, according to a former US military intelligence analyst familiar with Iranian munitions and weapons systems.

    The type of improvised launch system and rocket is not new to warfare. The Irish Republican Army used a similar system to conduct a February 1991 attack on 10 Downing Street, the London office and home of the British prime minister.

    Now, I’m not discounting the lethality of the weapons, since American soldiers have been killed they are certainly effective…but do they really deserve a front page story in the Washington Post? The Post counts 21 casualties from the weapons, three are Americans – who were the other 18? Well, apparently, they come from one explosion when a truck used as a launch vehicle exploded. From Roggio;

     The explosions in the Sha’ab neighborhood in the Baghdad district of Adhamiyah, which killed 16 civilians and wounded 29 more, have been “misreported,” according to the US military. The explosions in the Mahdi Army stronghold were initially reported in the media as a car bomb attack that targeted a police commander. The attack was held up as the largest bombing in Baghdad since mid-March.

    But the US military has refuted the reports, saying the explosions were caused by the premature detonation of a Special Groups improvised rocket launching system. The system, which has been described as a flying improvised explosive device, or airborne IED, had received little attention until yesterday’s explosions in Sha’ab.

    Roggio says 16 were killed, but the Post recounts the same incident and says 18;

    The explosions were caused when a rocket on the back of a small flatbed truck exploded, igniting the other four to five IRAMs on the truck, the U.S. military said. The attack killed 18 Iraqis, wounded 29 and damaged 15 buildings, the military said.

    Why the differing numbers? Well, the Post counts the two militiamen who died in the explosion as casualties. From Roggio;

     Two Mahdi Army Special Groups fighters were killed in the subsequent explosions, as well as 16 civilians.

    A big deal? Probably not…unless you go and look at the comments and recognize that it’s just red meat for the peace-at-any-cost crowd. The Post has succeeded in convincing it’s readership that any good news is just propaganda, that connections to Iran are just Bush propaganda, that the war is not winnable. That, to me, is not the function of the press, it’s not why our founders gave them special protections in the Bill of Rights.