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

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • Poor victimized IVAW member reinstated

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    Evan Knappenberger is seen above during the Wednesday, March 19, event organized by Ferndale High School students to protest the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, where Knappenberger was a guest speaker.

    Evan Knappenberger, the Iraq Veterans Against the War lunatic who threatened to blow up the Gathering of Eagles and issued a “fatwa” to assassinate Michele Malkin, then got suspended from the IVAW, gets resurrected in his local newspaper’s (the Bellingham Herald) blog;

    Evan Knappenberger, a local Iraq War veteran who did the Stop Loss Tower Guard vigil last summer and started the local Iraq Veterans Against the War chapter was suspended from the group, but reinstated after four days, for making threats online against pro-war activists two weeks ago.

    Knappenberger, who initially suffered an indefinite suspension, told me on the phone this morning that he had received an apology from the IVAW board for what he called their “arbitrary decision” to suspend him in the heat of the moment.

    Not only did the IVAW restore his membership, they apologized to him for suspending him. I wonder if they’re apologizing to Army Sergeant for the threats she gets from Knappenberger and his ilk. The blogger at the herald continues;

    “I’ve been getting death threats for quite awhile now,” Knappenberger told me today. “I just kind of boiled over. Yeah, I slipped up.”

    Knappenberger, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, said that the issue has been dead for two weeks and it’s not a big deal.

    Yeah, he’s been getting death threats. I wonder why.

    He said the IVAW is also “redefining” its terms of non-violence after the incident, with the recognition that they have soldiers in the group.

    What the Hell does that mean? Does it mean that IVAW is defining what Knappenberger engaged in as “non-violent”? I got news for you guys, there’s soldiers in every group and we all live under the same rules as the rest of civilized society. But the fun is only beginning;

    Because Knappenberger was not allowed at the Winter Soldier event, he offered up his testimony to them and he is also offering it up here. *Update* – Knappenberger has asked me to take the testimony down.

    So that’s Knappenberger’s story – he would have offered up damning testimony at Winter Soldier, but since he couldn’t attend because of mean ol’ Army Sergeant jumping the gun, he’ll just give it to some fresh-faced journalist-type who couldn’t tell an IED from an IUD.

    Quietly reinstating Knappenberger says more about the IVAW than anything I could write about them.

    UPDATED April 2, 2008: Michele Malkin must be getting hits from the same story.

  • The face of cowardice

    Cao’s Blog posts the picture of the coward who slapped my buddy Skye from Midnight Blue this last weekend;

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    This what he looks like with perp-wear

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    Of course, the Left defends him as a kindly old man who has nothing to apologize about. But in my world men, regardless of their age, regardless of their politics, regardless of the veteran status don’t hit women. My hope is that he rots in a Pennsylvania jail – but we all know how this stuff turns out. In my opinion, the goofball leaning over the cops in the photo above needs a nightstick to the forehead, too.

    There’s a picture of Skye and me in the “About” section taken after a night of suds-slurping at Kelly’s Irish Times in DC last month when she was in town for the CPAC. We shared a moment just two weekends ago when she was in town for the Eagles rally. Oh, and she’s Democrat.

     

  • Berserkers attack Easter Mass and blogger

    I read with some fascination this morning the report by Robin at The Chickenhawk Express , the Gateway Pundit and Scott of Flopping Aces of a band of roving basement-dwelling berserkers who decided that attacking a Christian congregation on Easter was a good idea. What is a berserker, you ask? Well according to Wikipedia, they were Norse shock troops;

    Once a portion of the enemy line appeared to tire or weaken, the chieftains would send the berserkers charging into the enemy ranks to hopefully open a break and even panic the enemy. The book also claimed that while on sea voyages close to land, berserkers sometimes asked to go ashore to find objects on land to wrestle or bash to give vent to their fury.

    Well, since modern day berserkers haven’t got the testicular fortitude to actually battle bears or wolves, or even people, they seek to shock the most docile creatures they can find – in this case, church-going families on Easter – the holiest day in Christendom.

    Berserkers also assaulted my buddy Skye from Midnight Blue and Flopping Aces (the account of her assault is at Free Republic). Apparently one of the little sissies thought it was OK to slap Skye – twice.

    This blog stands firmly with Skye and firmly against any little punkass sissie who thinks it’s ever OK to strike any woman – veteran or not.

    Skye also left comments here yesterday in regards to the attack on her.

    Obviously modern berserkers can’t protest much anymore since Free Republic, Gathering of Eagles, Eagles Up, Move America Forward, et al. have made them look more like insolent children than serious political activists these days. The result – attacking the weaker links of society.

    I recounted my own experiences last week when a crowd of “Veterans for Peace” and IVAW members suddenly realized who I was and tried to goad me into a physical confrontation. I was forced to leave the protest in order to avoid violence.

    Given the reaction of the DC Metro police last week when they were assaulted by anarchists in front of the Recruiting Station in downtown DC, it doesn’t look like we can count on the police to protect society from these people, either.

    According to the Wikipedia entry, berserkers were eventually outlawed in Iceland and Norway and disappeared during the first century of the last millenium. Maybe if these imbeciles faced actual jail time for their antics, they’d disappear as well.

    Update: Uh-oh, Michele Malkin is on it. They’re in for it now.

    Update: Hot Air has the latest and video on the Chicago felons.

  • The Grim Milestone

    Just do a news search on any search engine this morning using the terms “grim+milestone” and see how may results you get. On Yahoo, I get 430 results at 7:30 Eastern Time. Of course, all of these “grim milestones” refer to the US casualties reaching the 4000 mark. It was the first thing I heard on radio this morning when my alarm went off at 5am, it was at the top of Drudge.

    Yesterday, the Associated Press pushed it’s “US casualties near 4,000 mark” headline across it’s web presence – it’s almost as if AP set the IED that took out the magic 4 troops this morning so they could have their story and headline.

    Yes, it’s a cryin’-ass shame that 4,000 US troops have died in Iraq – I really mean it. I take offense at the “pro-war” label that’s applied to me. I’m certainly not for war. I take offense that the Veterans for Peace imply that I’m a “veteran for war” because I won’t join their broke-dick organization.

    But, I’d take this “grim milestone” stuff a whole lot easier if only the Associated Press, the LA Times and Denver Post, the New York Times and Reuters, and all of the rest of these sorrowful news organizations which suddenly care about US casualties had been reporting the progress in Iraq all along.

    But the whole truth is this; if the news organizations AND the Veterans for Peace – and all of the rest of these pinhead anti-war-at-any-cost hadn’t been turning this country into a bunch of pansies over the last forty years, the war would have ended after the first three weeks. If the anti-war crowd, the anti-US media and the anti-Republican politicians in Congress had let us go to Baghdad in March 1991, before Mogadishu, before the Clinton aspirin factory bombings, the bombing of the USS Cole, the US embassy bombings in Africa, before the taliban, we wouldn’t have had to go to Afghanistan or Iraq in this century.

    The only reason we’ve lost 4,000 troops in Iraq is because the American Left is a pack of cowards who can’t summon the intestinal fortitude to deal with foreign policy problems as soon as they occur. They’re bound and determined to make the US a third world country.

    The most laughable comment I’ve heard today was on the ABC News broadcast on my radio this morning at 5 am when some pinhead newsreader tried to imply that US troops in Iraq are thinking seriously about voting for Obama because he’s consistently been against the war – and that we need change that Clinton and McCain don’t represent. I’d like ABC to show me those troops, currently engaged in Iraq, who think it’s a good idea to throw up their hands and leave Iraq.

    Show me or stfu.

    Jammie Wearing Fool noticed the same proliferation of the “grim milestone” nomenclature.

    Gateway Pundit reminds us of a milestone that the media could be reporting if they had an ounce of integrity left.

  • San Fransisco Hippies are really Stupid

    Wap?

    Nuance…

  • Jesse MacBeth II; attack of the spell check

    I picked this up over at Ace of Spades; apparently Jesse MacBeth feels a need to explain why he’s a lying sack of shit;

    i joined the army a proud man. but it seemed the army wasent so proud to have me. the first week of basic everything went ok besides being smoked and drilled to exhaustion there were no out of orinary issues. intil during the secound one of my drill dgt (ds martin) appraoched me in the training bay in front of all the other iet soldiers in my platoon took the quran off my bunk spit in it and threw it across the room yelling “muslims dont belong in my army” and madde me crawl in his words” like the muslim dog i was” to get my holy book. i was upset but again i wanted so bad to be part of something. all my life i was eigther in grouphomes homeless are in jail. i wanted to change that and this was my chance so i took the the racial slurs and religiouse slurs know that it wouold all end in 7 more weeks. but it only got worse during the 3 week of basic

    Since I am a professional editor, I got a real headache trying to get through all of that. But, just so Jesse knows, even if what he’s written happened (and I have no reason to believe that it did) it doesn’t excuse him from trying to score hippie chics and veterans benefits for things that he never did – like murdering a mosque full of Iraqis, for example.

    I hope he gets some help, or gets his narrow, lying ass beat – either would appease my angry side. In the meantime, Jesse, do yourself a favor and download a Firefox browser that has a spell check built right into it so you at least don’t write like an ignorant turd.

  • A word about military service

    There’s a general theme running through a lot of the criticism I’ve encountered the last few days, that theme being that some military service has more “moral authority” in the discussion about this war against terror. That the voices of some veterans are more valuable than others.

    I admire people like Lt. Nixon at LT Nixon Rants – even though politically we’re miles apart, he’s able to successfully make a credible argument on the subject of the war without demeaning any veterans. Others, however, are unable to do that. One veteran who had not even served in any war, placed more value on his own opinion than mine because he’d served since I retired (in 1994, if anyone is interested and unable to click the “About” link above).

    I had a run-in with IVAW members yesterday and when I mentioned that I had trouble hearing them because I’d lost most of my hearing in a war, their response both times was “What war were you ever in?” as if only their experience has value.

    And the thing that got me to thinking about it happened back in November when I read Clifton Hicks’ letter to the Veterans for Freedom;

    How come nearly every single one of you people that I’ve seen or read about are Lieutenants and Sergeants? When I look at your little war pictures and read your poorly written bio’s my vision is overflowed with images of lazy, incompetent, cowardly Officers with a handful of brain-dead NCO’s to do their dirty work, as usual. I wonder where you boys all served?

    The implication is; if you aren’t Clifton Hicks, your service doesn’t count. (Ed. Note: Hey, Cliff, m’boy, we were two feet from each other at Winter Soldier, I didn’t say a word to you no matter what I thought of you or your service – that’s the kind of stand up guy I am)

    I had trouble dealing with a lot of the things I had to do in war when I first came back. I found solace in the strangest of places – in Civil War diaries. I discovered that all veterans of all wars have a common experience that others can’t understand. Not psychologists and certainly not some chic with hairy legs.

    Some wars were tougher than others, but the effect that wars have on people is always the same – whether your war was four years of slugging your way across the Pacific or 100 hours of slugging your way across Kuwait.

    Since my awakening, I have surrounded myself with war veterans – from across the spectrum of World War II veterans to veterans of our current war. From paratroopers who jumped into Normandy to meatcutters who went across Germany in the back of a deuce-and-half. From Huey crew chiefs in Vietnam to tunnel rats. Many times I discovered that I have more in common with warriors from previous wars than I do with people whom I’ve known my whole life but never left our hometown.

    Well, what I’m saying, I suppose, is that if these IVAW guys want to attract us to their point-of-view, the last thing they should be doing is demeaning our own experiences and that commonality in the experience of war that we share. Yeah, us older guys are out-of-shape at the moment, but in our day we kicked ass, on and off the battlefield. To judge our accomplishments on something as superficial as our current appearance borders on childishness. And it adds nothing to the discussion.

  • DC Moonbat Convergence

    Another day, another protest. Today is ANSWER’s “Day of Action”. Since the Iraq War started five years ago today, all of the organizations that have sprung up to cash in on the war decided to have an eight-ring circus in downtown Washington DC, because as one IVAW member told me, the war is about money – apparently for the moonbats, too. My coverage was abruptly ended when I was ID’d as “one of those Milblog guys at Winter Soldier”, so excuse me for not getting all I should have.

    I was there bright and early for the festivities. It must’ve been a little too early because the Code Pink gals were looking especially raggedy;

    They even had their own marching band;

    Complete with mascot;

    Everyone headed out to their respective “actions” and I went looking for the recruiting station, where I figured the action was going to take place. But the Freepers beat me to it;

    [youtube 6ge2psjY6Ao nolink]

    The recruiters felt safe enough with moonbats roaming around to come outside for air – thanks to the Freepers and a few ladies from the Second Amedment Sisters who were in town for the Supreme Court doin’s yesterday.

    A large police contingent stationed at the recruiting office was helpful, too. This particular officer told us his son is in Iraq with the Air Force.

    This kind fellow brought coffee to the Freepers;

    Up the street from the recruiting station was the American Petroleum Institute – since the war is about money and oil, it was a good target for the Greens to block people from going to their jobs;

    And the most energy efficient way to get your bicycle into the city is to bring it in a U-Haul pickup;

    I went several blocks away to the IRS – where apparently they hand out cash for fueling the war machine while starving children. On my way there, I passed a group of guys wearing media passes, ten steps behind them, moving her tiny legs as fast as she could was Code Pink’s head troll Medea Benjamin – I just thought that was funny.

    I got to the IRS just in time to see 20 or so people getting packed up for the hoosegow;

    [youtube z4eIGtaofx4 nolink]

    I went back to McPherson Square and was lucky enough to record some poor distraught veteran who had gone into Iraq five years ago today tell us about how he figured out that Bush had lied to him in the first three days and describe some atrocities that didn’t happen – but that we should “imagine” happened anyway.

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    You might notice that while I filming that video, the police roared out of the park behind the speakers – they were headed to the recruiting station, so I cut short the video and scurried over the station, but I missed the protest there. I did however get there in time to catch “Barbie” Benjamin riding in her toy bed;

    I noticed that it was nearly time for the “veterans” event to begin so I took off for the ten block walk to the National Archives. I passed by the White House and notice that there was no “action” there;

    I got to the National Archives just in time to catch the drama queens of the IVAW, Veterans for Peace and their mish-mash bands of friends and enablers. Notice how they show their love for this country.

    [youtube OliV6mF7nrE nolink]

    And right upfront is every Leftist’s heart throb, Adam Kokesh – so you just know someone’s going to get arrested. I also noticed that the IVAW fellas have stopped wearing military uniforms and they’ve opted for the black sweatshirts these days.

    So they arrived at the National Archives and charged up the steps with their upside-down flags;

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    And explained to the crowd why they fly the flag upside down (I can’t understand a word of it – so good luck)

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    George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice showed up;

    And so did the DC cops to cart off Kokesh and his merry band of trespassers on Federal property;

    They read some long speeches about the typical blather “Blood for Oil”, “War for Exxon”, etc…. I lost interest waiting for the police to cart them off.

    The chivalrous side of me was my downfall though. One of the IVAW guys (I don’t know which one – one of the little loud mouths) started yelling at the female security guard because she wouldn’t let him go up the steps and I told him to calm down that she was just doing her job. Then he yelled out “I know you! You were at Winter Soldier – one of those milbloggers”.

    As the crowd pressed in on me, I beat a hasty retreat – but another one of the IVAW guys started following me up the street calling me names – he had a buddy with a video camera to get it all on film in the event I knocked the little halfpint out. But they got nothing – except I left the event just as the DC cops arrived to arrest Kokesh, so I didn’t get pictures of that little theater.

    Most of the protesters were the same demographic as attendees at Winter Soldier – old hippies reliving their hey-day.

    Thus Spake Ortner, my battle buddy at WSII, has pictures at The Sniper as well as some hillarious commentary.

    While you’re in the mood to look at Moonbats, zip over to the Left Coast at Zombie and see if you can spot the spelling error on Cindy Sheehan’s sign.

    The Freepers wanted me to remind you all that March 29th is the third anniversary of their Freep at Walter Reed every Friday night and if you’re in town – make it.

    UPDATE: The Washington Post (that neocon rag) estimates protest numbers at a thousand – tops. The Washington Times concurs. I’d thought it was a little more, but we can use their number.