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

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • You’re wrong and you should know better

    There is nothing I hate more than anyone disrespecting flag of the United States of America, or the uniform of it’s armed services.  From the hipster that wears the OD fatigues with patches as an “ironic” way of showing their disdain for the military to the idiots that act the fool while in uniform nothing makes my blood boil faster.  I can accept open disagreements with how the military should be employed, I can even accept ignorance of what the military actually does, but I simply can not accept any disrespect.  I can not accept any politician using the troops as a prop for political gain, nor can I accept any troops using their uniform, rank or position to affect the political climate with anything not directly affecting the business of their service.

    We’ve seen it happen before.  Maybe it started with Jon Kerry tossing his medals, then going before congress and lying about the “testimony” he got from “veterans” during the Winter soldier fiasco.  Maybe it was exacerbated by Danny Choi, who constantly uses his uniform to play dress up and get attention.  Maybe that douchebag Marine Sergeant that kept posting anti-Obama stuff all over Facebook (despite lawful and direct orders not to) has a hand in the continuing climate too.  I know for a fact that the narcissistic valor thieves can’t wait to get their slice of the action.

    So with all that said I think it’s pretty clear I loathe such people.  Imagine how I felt when I came across this little gem.

    navychiefpoliticalstatement
    Not to be outdone some other joker posing in Marine dress blues had to out do him.

    Marinepoliticalstatement
    Before I get into the fact that both an E-5 and an E-8 should KNOW better, or the possibility that these are valor thieves, let’s stop a second and point out that these men are cowards.  They put on the uniform with all their attendant medals, and make a political statement about what they didn’t join the military to do, but hide their face.  If you do something like that at least have the courage to show your face.  More than that don’t wear the uniform while saying it.  If you’re on your own time and feel butt hurt that you might be deployed to Syria, by all means you can talk about it in private.  You can shout and scream about it for hours to anyone you please, but when the time comes you put on your uniform and go where they tell you because that’s your duty.

    You think someone who joined the Air Force in say 1959, wanted to end up in Vietnam?  How about they guys that joined in the late 90’s and ended up in Iraq.  It sucks, and you can never tell where you’ll end up.  That’s part of the job.  You probably didn’t join for “area beautification” or getting stuck on a Sergeant Major’s detail when your LT sends your platoon into an ambush in the field.  I didn’t join to put tubes in men’s urethra’s.  There’s a whole lot of fine print when you join.  One thing that should be abundantly clear is that you swore to “Obey the orders of the President and the officers appointed over me according to the uniform code of military justice.”  Until the President gives an illegal order (say “I want you to kill all first born sons”) you are legally, orally and ethically bound to FOLLOW THOSE ORDERS. Regardless of how we feel about the missions we’re handed down, we’ve got to suck it up and do them.  When you raise your right hand you lose your “rights” as an American Citizen and fall under a whole new set of rights and privileges.  One of those regulations states very clearly that you may not use that uniform for any political speech.

    The troops are not and can not be a part of the political process.  The military has untold power at its fingertips.  and if unchecked could run rampant.  If a General were to get the idea that he could be a Caesar, and that the Mississippi was the Rubicon, what’s to stop him?  Only the solemn knowledge that his troops would never follow his orders, and most would actually put him in the brig if he tried to march on Washington (Rome).  There is a very fine, and dangerous line that separates us from every two bit banana republic, or half assed Junta.  The fact that our military is completely subservient to the Will of the People through their duly elected Representatives is really the ONLY check against some crackpot general from just kicking in the doors of the White House and “fixing” Washington.  The populace might actually cheer such a thing, but it would be totally wrong in every way imaginable.

    I think Iraq was a mistake.  A costly one.  But when I got the call I did my damnedest to ensure that my small piece of that mission was successful. I think Syria is a mistake.  I think we shouldn’t get involved, but if we do the Soldiers Sailors Airmen and Marines had better be Johnny on the spot or they’re going to get their buddies killed.  These two clowns are beneath my contempt.  It doesn’t matter if I happen to agree with what they’re saying they are absolutely wrong, and they should be found busted down in rank and perhaps even drummed out.  But then, I take disrespecting the uniform more seriously than some people do.

    UPDATE:

    I wasn’t even finished writing this post when this ass clown popped up on my facebook feed.

    Soldierpoliticalstatement
    I swear these idiots are coming out of the woodwork.  Maybe Obama’s forthcoming purge of the military might actually be a good thing. . .
    [Editor’s note: Doc was joking, of course he doesn’t want the military purged, I’m guessing]

    Update 2: I hadn’t even finished that update when this clown shows up.

    Sailorpoliticalstatement
    I give up.  I’m sure at least one of these clowns is a valor thief but I’m willing to bet not all are.  Good thing I’m not still in.  I would most certainly like to bring back wall-to-wall counseling with these idiots.

     

    Update 3: Sooo. . . apparently some on the OTHER side of this issue have gotten in on the act.

     

    Marinecounterstatement

     

    Can’t see the rank on this guy, but judging from the tats and the KIA bracelet as well as the wording of the sign I would say this guy is legit (as opposed to the somewhat questionable clowns above).  So. . . this is probably about to go full retard PDQ.

  • Anti-war Left is AWOL on Syria

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    Our buddy, Rick Moran and Buzzfeed have noticed the absence of throngs of ill-clad hippies in the streets around the White House in regards to the impending Syria “punishment”. I remember that the communists were protesting the war in Afghanistan before the dust had cleared at the twin towers and the Pentagon. But now, the silence is deafening. Some of the odoriferous hippies blame the economy;

    “I don’t think me or Medea or anyone else should be defensive about that,” Martin said. “We don’t push a button and get hundreds of thousands of people in the streets.”

    Martin blamed the anemic response among peace groups to Syria on the economy, noting that all nonprofits are struggling — not just protest groups.

    Plus, Martin said, the energy on the left has been focused on drones and civil liberties, which “doesn’t rise to the level of an obviously unjust war where hundreds of thousands of people are being killed because of a belligerent president.”

    But others arrived at the same conclusion many of us reached more than a decade ago – the anti-war left is partisan;

    “The Democrats are missing in action because of course the president is a Democrat,” said David Swanson, a longtime antiwar activist and author of War Is a Lie and When the World Outlawed War, who works with Roots Action, a progressive nonprofit. “That’s the biggest factor, I think. What’s tamping down the activism is partisanship.”

    “This started in 2007 when it was time to focus on electing a Democratic president and the Democrats forgot about the wars,” Swanson said. “We’ve been struggling ever since to get back to where we were in 2006.”

    Our buddy, John Bruhns arrived at that conclusion back in 2008 when he left VoteVets and the United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) when he discovered for himself that the movement was just cover for the Democrats.

    Meanwhile the shrieking harpies of Code Pink have been relegated to moderating online petitions;

    “Those of us still working on this have been mobilizing,” Benjamin said. “The online protests are proliferating. There’s petitions to Obama, there’s calls for Congress to get involved — so many groups from Code Pink to Win Without War to Just Foreign Policy — all have put out calls saying no war in Syria.”

    But mostly, the movement has been left for dead even by those who were once leading figures in it.

    “What antiwar movement?” former Congressman Dennis Kucinich asked when called for comment on Wednesday.

    DSC_0086

  • Theater owner not Fonda Jane

    Another twenty tips came in last night in regards to the theater owner in Hardin County, Kentucky who won’t show the new movie “The Butler” which the producers thought that it was a good idea to include Jane Fonda in the cast as Nancy Reagan;

    To his knowledge, since he opened the theater in the late 1980s, [Ike Boutwell] never has shown a movie involving Fonda.

    The U.S. Marines Corps veteran of the Korean War trained pilots during the Vietnam War, because he was too old so see action there himself.

    Fonda’s famous anti-Vietnam War statements and demonstrations caused Boutwell to view her as a traitor to America. He said no movie involving her will show in his theater as long as he’s in charge.

    “I trained hundreds of pilots to fly, many of whom Ms. Fonda clapped and cheered as they were shot down,” he said. “Our Constitution only mentions three crimes. Treason is one. That’s aid and comfort to the enemy.”

    It was a stupid casting decision, and sending Fonda out to tell veterans that we should “get over” her treasonous behavior and words while she was being treated to North Vietnamese hospitality was equally stupid. Since our country is too “civilized” to punish the traitorous bitch, it’s left up to veterans to punish her at the box office and make it too controversial for anyone to hire her. In a just world, she’d be living in a homeless shelter and picking through dumpsters for breakfast, so give us our boycotts.

    By the way, I don’t know if she can act or not – because I’ve never seen any of her movies because just the sight of her makes me ill.

  • Munoz avoids deployment to Afghanistan

    The other day, we talked about Christopher Munoz, the fellow who decided during his brief military career that as soon as a deployment loomed large in his future that he opposed war. Well according to the filthy hippies at “Our Lives, Our Rights” Munoz has successfully avoided his duty and Blue Falconed his comrades;

    Despite filing as a Conscientious Objector, PV2 Munoz was still being threatened with deployment by his command. When ordered to report for duty with all of his gear for deployment, PV2 Munoz reported as ordered, but he bravely refused to bring his gear, asserting that any participation conflicted with his conscience. As a result, his chain of command was forced to back down and placed him on rear detachment. He is now no longer deploying to Afghanistan.

    Yeah, his chain of command was “forced to back down” because they realized that this goat-f*ck of a human being wasn’t worth the trouble. Who wants to serve with a Blue Falcon when they don’t have to? I’m sure his crying and whining would have kept awake the soldiers who were actually doing the jobs for which they signed up.

    If you’re wondering what Munoz’ family thinks about his cowardice, that’s his mom photo-bombing his family for the filthy hippies’ propaganda picture;

    munoz-family

    Thanks to Alex for the link.

  • PV2 Christopher Munoz: War? I could go to war?

    KXXV-TV reports that a young soldier who just enlisted this year is filing for Conscientious Objector status days before his unit is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan;

    Munoz applied for a C.O. discharge on June 25, 2013, but the process can take anywhere from 6 to 8 months to complete.

    Munoz is scheduled to deploy within the next week even though he has made it clear to his commanders that he is not willing to go to war.

    Munoz’s wife, Breanna, says that he joined the Army to provide for his family including his 3-year-old daughter, Julissa, and that after his basic training ended in April, his beliefs and attitude toward the idea of being in combat completely changed.

    “After he got out of basic, once I was able to start talking to him again, he just seemed really different and had a different attitude about the army and everything versus when he went in, and, once he got here, we found out that he was going to be deployed and everything just kind of got more real, and he just felt like he couldn’t do it,” Breanna said.

    First of all, reporter people, there is no Private Second Class rank in the Army. You’d think a journalist in an Army town would know that. Yeah, and who would have thought that joining the Army in 2013 would result in a deployment to war?

    Munoz is being supported by multiple war-resistant groups, and an online petition has been set up to show him support with that petition currently having 164 signatures.

    Oh, yeah, Under the Hood found a cause…finally.

    It is important for his command to understand that people support his freedom of conscience.

    Call me cynical, but if a couple of months in BCT and AIT didn’t turn him against the war, but a few months with his wife did, it’s probably not his conscience that’s bothering him. Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Army doesn’t want the marshmallow any more, either. But let’s call it like it is.

    The good news is that he may end up in jail – guess who is representing him;

    “If deployed, PV2 Munoz will be at significant risk for harassment by his fellow soldiers since he will effectively be a ‘dead weight’ on the unit. Despite these very real risks, PV2 Munoz’s command has said that a delay of his deployment will not be considered,” said James M. Branum, an attorney who represents PV2 Munoz.

    Yeah, Branum manages to get every single one of his clients locked up, so there is hope for justice.

  • Let Us Mourn The Millions America Slaughtered

    So once again antiwar blogs are talking this weekend to reminder you two important things. The first that you are all baby killers and war criminals because of of the millions of people that died in all the wars we took part in that ether were not American and/or not in our Armed Forces.

    This veteran is waiting for the year in which the Veterans For Peace, in its Memorial Day Press Release, states that Veterans mourn first, the lives America took in poor countries, both the civilian men, women and children and the patriots that fought our illegal and criminal invasions since 1945. Only then should come bitterly mourning GIs who were duped by our elected officials and the CIA and Pentagon fed, corporate-controlled war-promoting media cartel fooling them with lies, misinformation, disinformation and psyop techniques that deceived them into proudly following homicidal criminal orders.

    Again, this veteran is hoping that the Veterans For Peace Memorial Day Statement Press Release will say that VFP, or at least many if not all VFP, mourn the patriots of US invaded countries that fell fighting against overwhelming odds, and their civilian countrymen and children who also fell in harms way of those US invading forces.

    Second that those who died should be only considered after the fact because they are war criminals.

    To be polite, we mourn them first before mourning our own soldiers who were killed in the line of duty following our government’s criminal orders. Otherwise how can anyone believe VFP condemns the taking of all these millions of lives of poor people overseas in illegal criminal military action; an illegal use of military that Representative from Texas, Congressman and Republican candidate for president, denounced (but did not call for prosecution).

    Third is that you should not be celebrating with parades, flags and anything that puts the service of those who have gone before us in any positive light because it was hijacked.

    This Memorial Day 2013, Veterans For Peace is asking their fellow Americans to morn quietly at home. We ask that all sincerely patriotic citizens not take part in military parades and festive open-air observances under flags flying military colors. It anyone asks you why, say you don’t like selective mourning, that is, mourning our dead but not those our soldiers killed.

    Memorial Day has been hijacked, just as our nation has been hijacked, by the investment banks of the Military-Industrial-Complex. Its corporate owned media promotes and hails an indiscriminate celebration of all US wars as heroic.

    Oh and the comments are just as bad.

    from what i know, soldiers are generally clueless about exactly why they are being deployed to all the countries they are being sent to. no matter how hard things are, its never a justification to go halfway around the world to kill innocent people or to pilot drones to do the same-kill innocent people with “pinpoint accuracy”

    As a former president of VFP (Veterans For Peace) I can tell you that many of our members skip the Memorial Day celebrations altogether because those events are, primarily and sadly, a glorification of the military and the killing machines of war. Members who do participate carry our banner, a dove on a military helmet with our name writ large, and a variety of signs against war and the suffering — all suffering, not just that of U.S. veterans — it leaves in its wake. They typically receive a very enthusiastic response from people watching the parade.

    So the next time that the Veterans for Peace says that support the troops just remember that they do, but it is not our troops.

  • Ethan McCord: Karma’s a Bitch

    Define a hero.  Is it someone that stands up to the enemy?  Someone that saves a life?  Someone that’s caught on camera at just the right moment?  A lot of things could be considered heroic that the military does, but for the most part “doing your job” is still just doing your job.  Doing the bare minimum while in the military is not looked well upon within the community will often earn you open scorn.  If you were to use said minimum as a stump, and go on about how hard your life is for some drooling hippie, you’ll pretty much be black balled for life.  We all know people like that.  The guy that tells a sob story, to make the ladies all love his “heroism.”  Even “speaking truth to power” is somehow heroic if you’re on the right side of the issue (but if you’re, say telling the truth about Benghazi you’re a liar).

    2nd Battalion 16th Infantry is a unit like any other.  It’s ordered to do pretty much the same things every other light infantry battalion is ordered to do.  For some reason however 2/16 has more than it’s fair share of people trying to cash in on the unit’s illustrious, and sometime infamous history.  We all know about Ward Reilly, a faker that has gone around wearing a Ranger tab, he didn’t earn and saying he was a Ranger that refused service in Vietnam (which would have been hard seeing as the unit pulled out in 1970).  He tried to cash in on 2/16’s name, as an anti-war douche first for VVAW and now for IVAW.  Then there’s Ethan McCord.  Now he’s said a lot of things, which have been proven to be flat out untrue (rotational fire for instance) and taken videos from soldiers that were misbehaving to blow incidents way out of proportion.

    But the Anti-war crowd’s darling hero has a bit of a shady side.  For one, according to a source, [TSO: Deleted.  We don’t have a second source on this, and we’ll await more info.  What remains is as attributed, and is what we believe to be true.]  His first wife told me how he got the boot from the Navy Reserve, so in desperation he joined the Army.  The only problem is apparently Army basic was too tough for him so he called back to see if his soon to be ex-wife he was in the process of divorcing would fake a red cross message that his son was deathly ill so he could go home.  She hung up on him.  Continuing his shady streak after Basic, he married his second wife the same month he divorced his first.  Just to mess with her he, apparently, at one point he faked a PTSD episode while he was at the Ft Riley Warrior Transition Battalion.  The “episode” was so bad that his wife was in a near panic calling the command, asking what she should do.  The “episode” was resolved when he snapped out of it and said “just kidding.”  His Med Board process was something of a joke, but the Army went through it anyway.

    As for his life as a soldier, well its already been said by several of his former comrades that he sought to do the minimum.  You really can’t blame a guy for being scared, but when you get to Iraq as an infantryman, it’s too late for second thoughts.  The malingering and constant attempts to get out of going on patrol did not make him popular.  His NCOs refused to send him to the board, and there was some butt hurt about that because he had assured his wife (at the time) that he’d soon be E-5.  To my knowledge his only combat experience just so happened to be the same day some Apaches from 1/227 Aviation responded to Bravo 2/16’s troops in contact during Operation Ilaaj.  It was a hot long day, that had Bravo in contact nearly all day.  When all was said and done two Reuters photographers were dead, as well as the insurgents they were with, and a family that was on the battlefield for no apparent reason.  McCord very shortly after went home on mid-tour leave and refused to come back.  He probably would have been forgotten if not for a hissy fit thrown by Brianna Manning, and a man I like to call Ass-hat decided to release a video that was then two years old and call it “collateral murder.”

    In an instant he became a media darling.  He was all over RT, and Susan Sarandon called him up urging him to stay strong (whatever that means).  He joined “Not your soldiers” a truly hideous group of douchebags who lie to school children, then got married again and had more kids (last count is at least five by three women).  Then a documentary came out where he was the only featured speaker, and that documentary got nominated for an academy award.  It got the 2/16 veterans royally pissed and they all called him out on it.  I’m not sure if it was getting a tattoo of one of the company’s KIA’s that wasn’t even in his platoon (and who personally despised him) or that he said “collateral murder” happened every day in Iraq but the level of anger he incurred can not be understated.  He then got delirious over how his former comrades were issuing “death threats” (really just angry veterans hoping Karma struck and he got hit by a bus) and the hippies just gobbled that up.  He got WAY more attention than he should have, but thankfully his 15 minutes ended, and the veterans of 2/16, as well as 1/227 who’d had their names dragged through the mud went on to be the outstanding individuals they were.

    Now apparently we’re not taking care of him.  Apparently he can’t pay his bills and someone slashed the tires on his car.  Apparently life sucks for him, and he’s a victim.  Apparently Karma is a bitch.  I really have no doubt that he pissed off one of his neighbors, or said something next level stupid that went too far.  Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it himself to further his “victim” status.  I also have no doubt that this “victim” will find some sucker to bail him out.  If you’re honestly thinking of loaning him a couple of bucks, here’s my advise: Don’t.  He’s a manipulative little [expletive deleted] that you should not waste the time of day on.  Also doubtless some [expletive deleted] will get it in his/her/it’s head that this “poor baby” really needs help that the cruel evil military wouldn’t give him.

    In the end, I have no doubt that the children he fathered from previous marriages will be stiffed his time, effort, or finances.  He never seems to have grasped the very basic concepts of Duty or Honor.  He never made a plan for what he’d do once “his” war ended or once the spotlight on the video faded.  He used everyone that ever gave a crap about him, and abandoned those that he didn’t consider useful.  All that artful shucking and jiving, and where has he gotten?  Nowhere.  If he stays at the ass end of Kansas, friendless, and barely able to make ends meet, then he brought that on himself.  All his manipulations, all his lies, and all the crocodile tears all the mud slinging he did to his former comrades all for what?  15 minutes in the spotlight.  Pah-Thetic!

  • Jane Fonda’s “Unforgivable Mistake”

    Someone dropped off a link to our Facebook page to an idiot on another idiot’s TV show. Apparently, Jane Fonda thinks that she can still make up for what she did in Vietnam in 1972 when she supplied the North Vietnamese with some valuable propaganda footage of her visit there. Now, her story is that she was tired and didn’t realize what she was doing when she sat on the anti-aircraft gun and posed smiling and laughing with the NVA soldiers. She hints that she may have been “set up” – whatever that means. Then when she was walking away from the publicity photos she gasped “What did I do?” Yeah, I believe that story just like all of the other crap she’s said in the past.

    She calls it an “unforgivable mistake” and, ya know what? I don’t know anyone who has forgiven her, so she gets her wish. Obviously, she’s trying to be forgiven for those things she did so long ago, but if it’s “unforgivable”, I guess we can’t.

    In the 4 minute video linked above, she claims that she met some Vietnam veterans in 1988 and they talked about their feelings and she came away with a whole new perspective. I don’t know if they joined hands and sang Kum-Bay-Yah or not, but it sounds from the interview they almost reached that point. From News Max;

    “What I learned,” she said, “we have to listen to each other, even when we don’t agree, even when we think we hate each other. We have to listen to each other’s narratives, not interrupt defensively or with hostility, but really try to open our hearts and listen with empathy.”

    Yeah, well, it’s just too damn bad that she didn’t learn that 40 years ago. I don’t believe her lyin’ talkin’ ass anyway. In 2009, we caught her raising money for IVAW. We caught her hosting “upside down ribbons” Marine Captain Marlissa Grogan while Grogan perpetuated the myth that the troops are a bunch of criminals who have no choice but go to war.

    Yeah, that was all four years ago, but does anyone really believe that Hanoi Jane has changed since then? After all of these decades? The lesson here, kids, is that if you don’t want something to follow you around for the rest of your life, think before you act. It’s only fun today, if it’ll still be fun for you tomorrow.

    The 4-minute video is at the first link above, but I won’t think any less of you if you don’t watch it. I only did it because about 1% of you click the ads.