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

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • Political news from Iraq is good

    So seein’s how all of the news coming out of Iraq is good, what can the Democrats use in November. What news well, how about the United Arab Emerates forgiving a coupla billion bucks worth of Iraq’s pre-war debt (Reuters link);

    The United Arab Emirates has cancelled almost $7 billion of debt including interest and arrears payments owed by Baghdad, becoming the first Gulf Arab country to forgive all of Iraq’s debt.

    The United States has pressed Arab governments to support Iraq’s recovery by joining Western nations in forgiving their share of Iraqi foreign debts that total up to $80 billion.

    In the 2004 election, John Kerry said that should be one of the measurements of the success of the war. Wonder what where he’ll move the goal posts next. The Gulf States don’t do much without consulting with each other – can the others be far behind?

    Prime Minister Maliki declared yesterday that the terrorists have been beaten in Iraq (AFP link);

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday that the country’s security forces have managed to save Baghdad from a “siege by terrorists” backed by foreign nations.

    “When we took over Baghdad it was under siege, with all roads leading to neighboring provinces controlled by terrorists. They had surrounded Baghdad from all sides, backed by the bad intentions of other countries,” Maliki told a gathering of top Iraqi and US officials including Washington’s envoy to Baghdad Ryan Crocker.

    “We wanted these nations to support and assist us in stabilizing the country but they were thinking of finishing Baghdad,” he said, without naming the countries.

    Is it more peaceful than Midwest US states? Obviously not, but there’s been enough progress to take it off the table as far as a campaign issue for the Democrats and it’s a huge win for the US…and for the Republicans. of course we can be sure that the media will downplay it and compare it to Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner.

    Bill Roggio reports in the Long War Journal that Iraqis are still pursuing Sadrists in Baghdad;

     Iraqi soldiers and police cordoned several neighborhoods in the Mahdi Army stronghold to contain the fighting that occurred after security forces detained Abbas Abdul Aal, who is a “senior Sadrist leader,” Voices of Iraq reported. Aal’s nephew was also detailed. “Security forces closed all of the city’s outlets and prevented the movement of traffic and pedestrians,” an eyewitness told the Iraqi newspaper.

    The move in Sadr comes one day after Iraqi soldiers closed the Sadrist office in the neighborhood of Shula, where the Sadrist maintain a strong presence. This is the second Sadrist office to be closed in Shula since May.

    As soon as the Sadrists realize that their war is over, it will be over. Well, it’ll be over except the whining from the Left that we did it all wrong and that it was “needless”.  We’ll get to hear their professors and read their books about the unnecessary loss of life on both sides. Until some Iraqi, like Sadr, admits that the only reason he continued the fight in Iraq is because he was encouraged by the morally bankrupt and politically inept anti-peace Left.

  • Of Deserters and Drama Queens

    Meet Corey Glass.

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     This is Corey’s Story:

    In 2002, I joined the Indiana National Guard. When I joined, I was told I would only be in combat if there were troops occupying the United States.

    I signed up to defend people and do humanitarian work filling sandbags if there was a hurricane. I had no conception I would be deployed to fight on foreign shores.

    Way to do your research.  If you are volunteering for something that is 8 years long, wouldn’t a certain amount of due diligence be advisable?  I mean come on people.  He did do his research on desertion though.

    So anyway, on leave he runs away to Canada and becomes the cause celebre!  The Court there ruled he had to be sent packing, and so the  parliament voted in a non-binding resolution that he should be allowed to stay.  Meanwhile:

    With no word yet from the federal government, neighbours, concerned citizens, residents of Toronto’s Parkdale community, and Iraq War resisters will hold a rally to stop the deportation of Corey Glass, 7 p.m., Thursday, July 3 at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge (1 block east of Lansdowne, north of Queen W.)

    All good and fine. Only one miniscule problem:

    “He is not considered absent without leave. He is not considered a deserter,” Maj. Nathan Banks, a U.S. army spokesman, told ABC. “He is running for no reason. He is fully welcome in the United States. I cannot believe this is a big deal in Canada.”

    How DARE the US Army rob the deserters of their poster child!  The gall of such people as Major Nathan Banks!

    Meanwhile, we are on day 18 of Matthis Chiroux held hostage at the IVAW house.  No doubt law enforcement is failing to move because they are frightened of the statement of Kokesh:

    Should any military or law enforcement personnel come here, to MY house, they will not be welcome, nor will they find removing him from the premises to be physically tenable.

    That means his combat tour at IVAW house now exceeds that in Iraq and Afghanistan combined by a magnitude of 3.

     How we’ve managed to overcome the loss of a sole Army Journalist I think is truly a testament to how versatile we are as an Army.  I figured we would have caved by now and begged him:  “Help us Matthis Chiroux, you are our only hope.”

    The force is strong in these two.  Must be the high Midi-chlorians level.

     This post brought to you by TSO: a welcome respite from the otherwise intellectually stimulating blogosphere.

  • Pass the platitudes, please

    I got an email last night from a irate reader. It was a policy of this blog to not write about emails, but lately they’ve been getting a bit extreme – like the guy who wrote me about how I didn’t understand anything about combat but he did because he’d been a recruiter in southeast DC in the 90s.

    But last night’s missive was about a post I wrote early last week entitled “IVAW’s Matt Howard is a dumbass” about one of the extremely stupid morons who told the bobbleheads at Winter Soldier that the US is disposing of it’s nuclear waste by firing it from tanks in Iraq. He went on to explain that we are “changing the human genome”. He didn’t offer any proof, just empty words. And of course, the bobbleheads did what bobbleheads do.

    Well, this young lady (I have to assume the writer was a woman since her email address was lotusblossom84 – either that or a guy with a piss-poor sense for cool screen names) writes that my blog…

    SUCKS!!!

    Thanks for bashing my IVAW friend, Matt Howard… Your intellect is smaller than the size of a crayon.

    Thanks for promoting bigotry, racism of other cultures, war violence and war crimes, Republican lies, environmental destruction, corporate American greed, hegemony and imperialism…. and the list goes on and on.

    Peace is patriotic, you fool…
    And the war on terror can never been won, simply because war is terrorism!!
    Take your white blinders off, you Republican slug!!
    Hilary

    “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people”
    Howard Zinn

    How many other empty platitudes can you cram into one email? It reads like protest signs piled up on the sidewalk. I’d like for the youngster to point out one post where I promoted bigotry or anything else she claims I promote.

    Peace is patriotic? When have I other said otherwise? Waving an upside down flag isn’t patriotic, though – in fact it’s the complete opposite of patriotism. And tell me…why my blinders got to be white, girlfriend?

    Yes, we should stop fighting the war against terrorists because you say we should stop and you say it can’t be won. We’ll start on that in the morning.

    Quoting Howard Zinn? I’d have more respect for you if you’d quoted Howard the Duck.

    If you’re boinking Howard (the Matt), please use protection…don’t curse the planet with what could possibly be the stupidest children ever.

  • Would that I resided in the city of Brotherly Love…

    Any time not spent following around my Muse Ms Skye (who until the restraining order could find refuge in the Art Museum) would be spent attending these absolutely absurd gatherings.  To wit:

    Philadelphia: In celebration of the American Revolution, Iraq Veterans Against the War will hold a “Patriots’ Town Hall Gathering” on July 2 at 5:30PM on the 3rd Floor of the AFSCME District Council 47 Union Hall, located at 1606 Walnut St.

    I love the Patriots, from Ethan Allen to Tom F’n Brady, so this sounds like it would totally be my speed!  But who is speaking?  Belichick?  Larry Izzo?  Randy Moss?  John Paul Jones via ouija board?  The head of John Paul Jones preserved Futurama style in a jar of formaldehyde?

    The keynote speakers for this event will be John Braxton, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee Member, and T.J. Buonomo, IVAW Organizer and Former Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army.

     On second thought, maybe I’ll drink rat poison and watch re-runs of the Golden Girls.

     So, who is John Braxton?  Someone who did time for dodging the draft apparently:

    “I will not accept a deferment from killing in order to let others do it for me,” he told his draft board in Norristown.

    “The very public way I went about protesting the war made it very hard for the government to ignore me,” Braxton said in an interview last week. “It had become clear to me after seeing the destruction in Vietnam that the draft system was central to the prosecution of the war. I felt very committed to my course of action.”

    Well, isn’t that special.

    He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.  The president of his senior class at Swarthmore, Braxton served his time in three prisons — two in central Pennsylvania and one in Petersburg, Va.

    Bully!  (Insert Teddy Roosevelt voice here)

    Well, what about Buonomo?  Since he’s an “organizer” for Iraq Veterans Against the War, maybe he can regale us with war stories?  Afraid not, unless there was an un-talked about skirmish in Colorado Springs or New York.  Mr. Buonomo went to the Air Force Academy on your dime, then decided that discussing the treachery and perfidy of VP Cheney was the way to pay back the American People.

     I’ve been a big fan of Buonomo’s for a while now.  In particular, his various treatises are a source of unending mirth for me.  Loved (LOVED!!) this one in particular:

     “Communist”, “Hippie”, “Terrorist-sympathizer”, “Haji-lover”, “Anti-American”…these are the terms that have been used to describe me and anyone who dares to question the government and take a stand against its abuses of power.

    As I noted at the Sniper, we call you a communist when you espouse forced economic re-allocation. We call you a hippie when you fail to use deodorant, and play an acoustic guitar while cooking s’mores and smoking pot around a campfire. We call you Terrorist-sympathizers when you sympathize with the terrorists. Do I need to go on, or are you in one of your infrequent, cognitively-conscious stages?

    Mr. Braxton will speak on the struggle of Iraqi workers to unionize in the face of U.S. and Iraqi government repression. Mr. Buonomo will speak on the legacy of the American Revolution and its relevance to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.

    TSO will be appearing at an Independence ceremony at Murphy’s Irish Pub, discussing the leadership of Leonidas at Thermopylae, and the role that played in the Sam Adams Brewing company’s selection of choicest hops for use in their summer ale, and how this is all an allegory for the plight of our tri-gendered community.

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  • Navel gazing in the anti-war movement

    The antiwar movement has hit a brick wall and they don’t understand why. The War Resisters League has published a report they call a “Listening Process Report” assessing the movement. Mostly, it reads like a Junior High student council meeting. Lots of lofty ideas not at all with a even a little thought to process. TSO’s secret heartthrob, Kelly Dougherty illustrates that real well;

    IVAW’s three goals are: immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq, full veterans benefits, and reparations for the Iraqi people. Our strategy to end the war is to withdraw military support from the war.

    Yeah, well, how are you going to do that, Kelly? Are you going to wait until the shooting stops and then declare victory for your side?

    The Vets for Peace weigh in with the benefit of their experience. Michael McPhearson;

    The most important thing about Veterans For Peace is that we are vets. Many of us have been to war. All of us are trained to fight. We know what war is about. In the public eye, we have credibility.

    Here’s a picture I took of MacPhearson last September at a protest – he was an artilleryman in the 1991 Gulf War;

    VVAW lost so much credibility after their Winter Soldier testimony and membership couldn’t stand up to scrutiny that they nearly melted away and joined the VFP. The same way the IVAW’s membership and fables don’t stand up to scrutiny today – coached by the thugs and storytellers at the VFP and VVAW.

    The national field organizer of the War Resisters League, Matthew Smucker, in his conclusions to the “listening process” worries that the war will end before they can have any influence;

    The U.S. military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan will eventually come to an end. But will we be able to build a grassroots political force in the United States strong enough to positively influence when and how that happens?

    Central to their strategy is the use of the IVAW as a wedge between the military leadership and their subordinates. But, as always with the drama queens of the anti-war (pro-profit) movement, the IVAW wants a more central role. “We’re tired of being window dressing for other people’s events” Jose Vazquez is quoted as saying in the report.

    Snot-slinging Jason Hurd who ALMOST shot someone once, wants to create a generation of mutineers;

    The philosophy is that if they don’t have soldiers to fight the war, they can’t fight the war no matter how much money they have. We see what helped end the Vietnam War was that all these soldiers said, “No. We’re not going to do this anymore. This is screwed up.” That’s what we want to do.

    Um, Jason, that’s what soldiers in the Hollywood version of the Vietnam War did, not the real ones. I know all of those heroes at the VFP and VVAW told you that’s what happened, but if I were you I’d check more reliable sources.

    Aimee Allison is quoted as saying;

    “Military members represent a diversity in society that movement people often don’t. And I’ve always had that struggle as a former military person myself, that I’ve been in rooms where I look at everyone and I think, ‘You guys freak me out. I can’t relate to where you’re coming from.’”

    I don’t know why they would freak you out, Aimee;

    I guess the real hilarious part of the whole thing is that the war is ending just as they’re ending their navel-gazing.

    Iraq has met 15 of the 18 goals for this year, more troops were killed Afghanistan (the war they characterize as legitimate) than Iraq last month…and the peace-for-fun-and-profit movement is coming up short. They refuse to believe that their movement is unpopular because it runs counter to human nature and counter to the American character. They’re old hippies trying to revive their glory days when they lived in an echo chamber and idiot college professors told them they were brave.

    Now they’re trying to influence a whole new generation of misfits, liars and sociopaths.

  • Vietnam vets at war again

    Those filthy hippie freaks of the 60s are so steeped in their self-importance, so self-assured they somehow made a difference in this country’s history, they’re back to attacking the veterans of the same era. Dodging their spittle the first time wasn’t enough, I suppose.

    It was honest-to-goodness Vietnam veterans who dealt the death blow to John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential bid. Not only did the Swiftboat Vets do him in, but a thousand or so veterans stood outside the Capitol one September afternoon and told America that John Kerry lied while good men died.

    In 2005,Vietnam veteran Michael A. Smith spit tobacco juice into the face of Jane Fonda in Saint Louis. Millions of veterans of all eras stood and cheered for Smith doing what we’d all wanted to do for so long. The Left was outraged that one of them was on the receiving end of a differing opinion – that someone would actually disagree with their treasonous, shallow opinions.

    The Left trotted out “research” that “proved” that not one Vietnam Veteran had ever been spat upon. They even created an expert out of VVAW member Jerry Lembke who couldn’t really prove it didn’t happen so he pooh-poohed it down to an urban myth – the Left, of course, gobbled up the “research” of this Ph.D. In this Slate article, he provides the unassailable proof that it never happened;

    He writes that he never met anybody who convinced him that any such clash took place.

    Well, that’s enough proof for me. How ’bout you?

    Then, the Left held their last successful anti-war demonstration in January 2007. When they spray-painted steps at the Capitol and defaced the statue at the Navy Memorial, Vietnam Veterans said enough was enough.

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    They put a call out and thousands of Vietnam veterans flocked to the Vietnam Memorial two months later and formed an impenetrable human shield around “their”memorial.

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    Ever since then, the Left has been disparaging Vietnam veterans. I don’t know how many exchanges I’ve had with IVAW veterans who think that only their service is relevant and they’ve called Vietnam veterans fat, old has-beens. Even my buddy, TSO, an Afghanistan veteran, was physically threatened by IVAW thugs at Winter Soldier when they found out he was a member of Vets For Freedom.

    Every time the Left planned an antiwar protest, Vietnam veterans showed up to stand in stark contrast to the anti-war side. Vietnam veterans announced that what had happened to them when they were fighting our nation’s wars would never happen again.

    Support for the Left dwindled from thousands at their protest in January 2007 to hundreds at their last big event in March 2008. Now, they’ve decided that they need to focus their rekindled hate for Vietnam Veterans on John McCain.

    It began with Jay Rockefeller;

    “McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit,” Rockefeller told the newspaper, which published the article on the interview Tuesday.

    “What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues,” he is quoted saying.

    Then Wesley Clark, because he got away with it defending Hillary back in March, disparaged McCain’s Vietnam service using nearly the same words. It’s signaled the Left’s attack poodles that McCain’s Vietnam experience is fair game.

    My buddy, Robin at Chickenhawk Express quotes Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin;

    “I wouldn’t characterize anybody who fought in Vietnam as a war hero,” said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the theatrical anti-war group Code Pink. “In 23 bombing sorties, there must have been civilians that were killed and there’s no heroism to that.”

    “Anyone who can’t look back and admit how wrong it was to be in Vietnam and be killing civilians deserves to be challenged,” she said, though she stressed that her group is more focused on McCain’s present support for the war in Iraq than on his past.

    At Lew Rockwell, Michael Gaddy uses McCain’s “I’m a war criminal” confession given to his captors against McCain. At the Daily Kos, they ask “What’s so special about McCain’s service?;

    Getting shot down, tortured and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience….

    But being a Harvard-educated lawyer does?

    Politico even exhumes the corpse of Vietnam activist Noam Chomsky for a quote on the subject;

    Noam Chomsky, the linguist and activist, said in an e-mail that he thought Americans should question whether McCain’s torture in an unjust war is relevant to his campaign.

    “The questions could scarcely even be understood within the reigning intellectual and moral culture — though I don’t doubt that much of the population would understand,” Chomsky said.

    Confederate Yankee writes;

    We’ve known that Barack Obama’s base among the radical fringe would bring out some long-seated uglinesses in part of the Democratic Party that makes up his base, but I don’t think that anyone could have expected it would come out this soon, this hard, this transparently.

    It’s been building for years – since they got away with disparaging Dan Quayle’s and George W. Bush’s National Guard service, it was inevitable.

  • Lil Mac and Blind Faith

    Last night I linked to Jammie Wearing Fool and the story about “Lil Mac” Wesley Clark, but the more I thought about the article, the more angry I became. First here’s the quotes as reported by the Washington Times;

     “[McCain] has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world, but he hasn’t held executive responsibility,” Clark said. “That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded _ that wasn’t a wartime squadron.”

    Moderator Bob Schieffer, who raised the issue by citing similar remarks Clark has made previously, noted that Obama hadn’t had those experiences nor had he ridden in a fighter plane and been shot down. “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” Clark replied.

    Who the Hell is Wesley Clark to tell us what kind of experience is acceptable to be the President? I’m here to tell you that schmoozing with domestic terrorists and racist preachers isn’t qualifications for President, either, Wes, m-boy.

    Neither is being an E-4 journalist with a personal body guard, nor being a green lieutenant with a boat who accidentally shot himself in the arm. But that didn’t stop you from endorsing Gore or Kerry based on their military experience, did it?

    How many wartime commands did Clark have? Since the bulk of his service was between Vietnam and Kosovo, I have to say; very few. I guess it’s McCain’s fault that he was being held prisoner while the wars were going on and his peers got those plum wartime commands.

    Who keeps giving this knucklehead a forum? CBS should be ashamed for allowing this addle-brained, weasel-faced half-pint on the air. The Democrats should be ashamed that he gets anywhere near their party. All the little peckerhead did yesterday was point out that Obama has less experience than someone with even a tiny bit of experience.

    Getting fired from a command position during a time of relative peace doesn’t qualify Lil Mac for disparaging other veterans’ service with any credibility.

  • Sunday link fest

    Time to give back to all of my friends out there;

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    Me, too.

    Jammie Wearing Fool catches Wesley Clark trashing McCain AGAIN.

    Zero Ponsdorf disagrees with Michael Yon – just this once.

    The American Pundit finds a politician who not only defends Obama and his posse, but he defends Mugabe in the same tone.

    Ziva at Babalu Blog gets nostalgic for pre-Castro Cuba.

    Big Dog recounts the childishness of the Democrats and Baldilocks tells them to grow a pair.

    Uncle Jimbo cuts loose on the Left at Blackfive.

    Bloodthirsty Liberal has little patience for this German revisionist.

    Doubleplusundead takes on the “Dueling Dumbasses” of the Second Amendment revisionists.

    I can’t even summarize this bit of Swedish buffoonery from Rich Horton at Blue Crab Boulevard.

    To show how bi-polar the Obamists are, Robin at Chickenhawk Express finds some hunting for people who bad-mouth B?O for his middle name and DrewM at Ace of Spades finds some changing their middle name to whatever Obama’s middle name is.

    The only guy on the internet who lists me in his blog roll as “This ain’t He**”, my buddy, Steve at Common Cents helps you find cheap gas.

    Confederate Yankee catches AP in an outright lie…once again.

    Don Surber‘s Weekend Scoreboard.

    Lisa and WL MacKenzie Redux at Dust My Broom writes about Jackboot Justice in our neighbor to the north.

    Fausta says there’s a monkey god in Obama’s future.

    Wordsmith’s Sunday Funnies on Flopping Aces.

    Gateway Pundit recounts Lieberman’s charge at Obama’s throat.

    Marooned in Marin reports that Feds are investigating the City of San Francisco for harboring an illegal alien who’s also a crack dealer.

    See-Dubya explains Obama using the McMurthy Lonesome Dove story at Michelle Malkin.

    My buddy Skye at Midnight Blue is still standing against the clowns in West Chester, PA every Saturday.

    Greyhawk at Milblogs pulls back the covers on Obama’s McPeak.

    Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective has nearly-live photos of the protests in Nicaragua.

    Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs lashes out at Olmert’s deal with the Palestinians.

    The Gentle Cricket says McCain has impressed him already.

    D. at The Dillard Doctrine has advice for the pro-mission organizations – join or die.

    Stop the ACLU reports that Think Progress has resorted to outright lies – not a first for them, though.

    Last Reporter at Red Maryland and Unfree State tells the story of Baltimore’s latest corrupt-thug mayor.

    There, that oughta hold ya’all.