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

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • Dave Airhart; Oldie but goodie phony

    This guy has been on the loose for at least five years, but the NPRC finally answered a POW Net FOIA request over three years old on Dave Airhart. His main claim to fame while a student at Kent State was quoted in this reprint of a Stan Goff (CounterPunch) article;

    I spent 4 months in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and 6 months in Iraq and 7 months in Afghanistan, so I have a pretty well rounded perspective of everything that’s going on in this war on terror.

    In another interview with Counterpunch, Airhart said;

    I was in the Marine Corps Infantry. I learned absolutely nothing of value in the rest of the world. I learned how to shoot guns and how to get yelled at a lot.

    Well, not according to the NPRC;
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  • Stop pretending that you care, at least it will make you honest.

    Once again there are stories being posted about the issue with suicide in the military and PTSD. Sounds like it could be good thing right? Yea I wish. More then anything it really reinforces that groups are willing to uses people in suffering as a means to a end. Case one is talking about 18 Veteran Suicides Every Day . It is not as bad as other that I have seen but still manages to bring in the politics.

    I commend the VA for their efforts and for the lives they are able to save, but obviously much more needs to be done. They not only need to increase their outreach to include many veterans not currently receiving care, but they also need to increase the quality and effectiveness of the care they are giving (because five suicides a day among those receiving treatment is just too many).

    Notice the quickness on pointing out a problem and saying that someone else should fix it. Kinda like watch your neighbors house burn making off hand comments about he should really need more water. If you not going to help, get out of our way and stop pretending that you are.

    The next one is even worse. Yet in the comments and story it tries to make it sound that James Branum that he cares about his clients or can do his job without putting his “cause” first.

    What this young man has had to face should be an outrage to us all. I hope that he will find his strength and begin to heal. I thank James Branum for his dedication to helping these soldiers find their way toward justice in the midst of the overwhelming intimidation that is the military culture.

    Yea I had a knee jerk reaction too. But it get better with the next two replies to me.

    Masterspork, with all do respect to having your own opinion, you nor thisainthell know what you are talking about. why don’t you come down to UtH coffeehouse and talk to some of James’ clients and people who have worked with James?

    Masterporks,

    Yes come talk to clients that got guilty charges. There are two that come to UtH daily. And they still stand behind James and the choices THEY made.

    As for having a general understanding of UCMJ and how it works does not give anyone the right to slander people.

    The problem with people like you all is that you always get your info wrong or make assumptions. All soldiers that we talk to know they can apply for CO for free. If they choose to ask an attorney for help and are low on funds there are great people out there that donate to help them. So there is nothing unethical that James is doing.

    As for Travis we know the story so there is no need to comment on it.

    Honey as we all know in the military community when you go up against the brass or institution it never goes well. You got two options… 1. You stay quiet and accept what they give you or 2. You tell them to go fuck themselves and get more time.

    Well that’s to bad you can’t visit UtH maybe when you come back to TX you can see for yourself what we do.

    So as a military blog with many members that had deployed with a few that have seen combat we collectively know nothing about how the military works. Still have not heard of any such people exist.

    There is at least one guy that seems to be doing it right. From the group that he runs to help soldiers with PTSD and any issues that they are facing. Here is something that I got off of his Facebook group, Soldiers Advocacy Group.

    More progress here at Ft Benning. Last week the actions of the Reduction Board were overturned and the rank that was taken from husband was restored. Again, this wouldn’t have happened without Chuck’s intervention. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts from all of you. We aren’t done yet, but it is getting better!!!

    Taking note James this is what success looks like.

  • IVAW Flag-burning still an issue

    IVAW's Matthis Chiroux, Robyn Murray and MFSO's Elaine Brower burn the US flag "This is not my country!"

    I know I haven’t mentioned the IVAW’s flag burning last month in a while, but it’s time has come again. It seems that there is still an internal discussion going on and some of it leaks out through the cracks in IVAW’s leaky security. Most recently, one member of the Los Angeles Chapter sent out a missive on the subject (all of the spelling, grammar and lack of Caps is from the original);
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  • How is that working out for you now?

    Well after reading Jonn’s post about the (I might have thought about going to) Iraq, GWOT, New Dawn Veterans against the war is doing in Iraq. Considering her last statement, I wonder how well it would work if we where not there. This might be a likely out come.

    The three University of California at Berkeley graduates were detained July 31, after apparently straying into Iran while hiking in a scenic part of Iraq. This month, Iran’s intelligence minister accused them of having links to U.S. intelligence services, which their families said was absurd.

    Two of three American hikers jailed in Iran for nearly nine months are in poor health and told Swiss diplomats — their first outside visitors since October — that they were considering a hunger strike, their mothers said late Thursday.

    Yep remember the three students from Berkley University home of the “not welcome in our city.” in regards to the Marines? Well they are still there and from the looks of it their accommodations are less then a 5 star rating.

    Bauer and Fattal, who are both 27, and Shourd, 31, had been allowed no sympathetic visitors in months, though they were allowed to call their mothers in early March. The calls lasted about a minute.

    Their mothers were heartened that the Swiss diplomats were allowed a 40-minute visit. They were told their children have been allowed to receive letters from family and friends, and were given access to books from the prison’s library, the diplomats told their families. The three were told of efforts by their families to secure their release and that their mothers applied for visas to try to visit them in prison.

    But seems that one of them has a stomach issue that is thinking on going on a hunger strike while another is having problems with a pre-existing depression issue while being in isolation for 9 months.

    But the reason that they were where they are is….

    Bauer, a freelance journalist, had been hired to cover the Kurdish elections, but his family said the hiking trip was a vacation. He and Sarah Shourd were dating and had been living in Damascus, Syria. She taught English and had written for various online publications.

    Josh Fattal went to visit them after traveling overseas on a teaching fellowship.

    So after 9 months how is that vacation and fellowship teaching?

    Mean while Tracey Harmon is having fun posing next to Russian made Anti-aircraft guns. Where have I seen that before.

  • SV Millard: Iraq veteran in Vietnam

    Geof “Stolen Valor” Millard has a story up on the IVAW website which chronicles his latest adventure to Vietnam, entitled “My part in a veterans deligation [sic] to Vietnam“. Millard is famous for his trips to places like Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela to denigrate America. Now he goes to Vietnam with VVAW and VFP members to trot out his biases and blow his own horn;

    Virtnam may seem an odd place for an Iraq vet whose parents had not even met when the last US forces retreated in defeat hanging from helicopters, but somehow I was the perfect peice to complete a very complicated puzle. You see there are many conections to be made between the two wars but I was there because both were toxic battlefields that left veteran and civillian alike scared for many generations.

    I guess he doesn’t have spell check on his computer;

    I was amazed to see vterans of both sides share war storries as easily as stories of thier children, most of whom are many years my elder. These vets also share disseases that are just as much the legacy of Vietnam as is that black mirrored wall on the north west side of our national mall, just to the left of lincolns feet.

    My thoughts offten wandered forward in time to the day when I would go to Iraq. When I would meet with my former foe. When I would help press my government to take resposability and provide relief for the toxic battlefield we have been creating seince the first gulf war.

    Millard had an enemy in Iraq other than boredom? He was a general’s gopher. He spent his whole time in Iraq trying to get back to the States because he had an owie in his back (that he admits he had since high school).

    Depleted uranium is killing our soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan.

    We must fight for compensation and treatment before thousands die from DU as they did from AO. We must link our struggle for justice with that of those left alive in the toxic battlefieds that we are now slowly pulling out of.

    There it is – the IVAW is going to try to copy the Vietnam War veterans by pushing this absolutely ridiculous depleted uranium canard. That’s all they have and if you don’t believe them they’ll wave the Agent Orange bloody shirt.

    I’m proud of my trip and I am proud of the work done by VVAW, VFP, and IVAW. I am proud that while some spend thier time protesting antiwar veterans, we the antiwar vterans are hard at work for peace and justice for all.

    “Hard at work” only if it involves completely ridiculous trips to communist countries to push an agenda that doesn’t help American veterans. Then swat at ghosts of completely manufactured maladies.

    I guess he’s saying that the American Legion and VFW are “protesting antiwar veterans” but if he’s trying to say that IVAW has done more more for veterans than the traditional VSOs because they took this one useless trip, he’s fooling himself.

    In fact, maybe IVAW can stop pushing their “Veterans as sociopathic nuts” meme to help fix this problem;

    “Part of the issue is there’s a real disconnect between the military and the rest of America,” said Mark Walker, deputy director of the American Legion’s economic division.

    “People outside the military don’t know about PTSD or TBI. It’s all new to them. So they worry, ‘Am I going to see some sort of outburst? What might he do?’”

    How about fixing that, Geoff, instead of flying to Vietnam to take shots at us!

  • I guess it’s safe enough now

    Funny how some IVAW members have finally foound Iraq safe enough to visit these days. Last year TJ Buonomo, the guy who got a free education at the Air Force Academy and then filed as a conscientious objector went over. This year, it’s former Kokesh girlfriend, Tracey Harmon.

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    Oh, look out Tracey, you might get some Saddam cooties on ya!

    Now the article that I got the picture from says that Harmon is a conscientious objector, but I don’t think I’ve ever read that anywhere before. If she was a CO, that makes this trip even more pathetic. For some reason, I got the impression that she just lucked out and didn’t get deployed, but, hey, the hippies know her better than I do, so we’ll go with their story. For some reason, researching the females at IVAW feels like stalking to me, and I’m not into that.

    There are more pictures of her standing on and around the same tank here, if you’re interested. It’s all pretty boring.

    We can probably count on her to use this as some sort of authority on the war now (I think she’s been in the region a few times since she left the Reserves).

    The article reads;

    Representatives of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Ladies of Liberty Alliance, including conscientious objector Tracey Harmon (pictured below), are spreading the message of freedom to Iraq – not with war, but with peace.

    Yeah, go talk to al Qaeda first.

  • Parody misses mark

    At the IVAW blog, Jeremy Berggren, another one of those Iraq Veterans Against the War who has never been to Iraq or any war, tried to write some parody about the organization as it slowly outlives it’s designated 15 minutes of fame, Of course what parody about IVAW would be complete without some shots at Casey Porter and me.

    There are reports that a former member of IVAW is making a mini documentary about the situation and will take all the credit for anything productive that comes from this internal debate. And each undercover operative that has infiltrated IVAW agrees that this is really what makes their jobs worthwhile.

    An expert critic of IVAW who runs the blog “This Ain’t Hell” was asked why he continues to try and stir things up from outside the organization. It seems the blogger, also known in some social circles as “Pappy Small Dick” and “Poochy McGee” cannot stand an organization that isn’t made up of all middle aged white men that spent a major part of their lives in the military, particularly when all members are veterans and are now challenging the same white supremacist heterosexist patriarchal system he is clinging on to. Poochy McGee claims he will keep attacking IVAW as that is what his mentors would like and references such legends as Joseph Goebels, Rush Limbaugh, and Eugene “Bull” Connor as his mentors and heroes. McGee then stated he in fact, does not care about all veterans because that would mean he would have to treat “everyone as equals.” Several of his “ghey ritard” supporters unequivocally support his continued attacks and their own privilege.

    Good to see that they’re reading and taking notes. Too bad he sees the truth as propaganda.

    ADDED: Oh, I just figured out who Berggren is; he’s the guy who got PTSD from NOT deploying. How could I forget? That explains his sense of humor, or the lack of a sense of humor.

  • Taking responsibility for things you didn’t do

    I guess it was last year that Matthis took responsibility for occupying a booth at Baskin Robbins on Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan for six days and apologized to the people of Afghanistan. Today, we get IVAW member Josh Stieber (who was being punished and wasn’t on the operation) and Ethan McCord who, apparently was on the operation, apologizing for what is now known as the “Collateral Murder” video;

    Peace be with you.

    To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the “Collateral Murder” Wikileaks video:

    We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.

    We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.

    There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize what have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.

    We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.

    We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and carried out in the name of “god and country”. The soldier in video said that your husband shouldn’t have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.

    More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.

    Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation’s leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won’t lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation’s importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.

    With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out. We are doing what we can to speak out against the wars and military policies responsible for what happened to you and your loved ones. Our hearts are open to hearing how we can take any steps to support you through the pain that we have caused.

    Solemnly and Sincerely,

    Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army
    Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army

    Since Steiber was in the rear with the gear, why did he think that an apology was even necessary? McCord did everything he could to save that child’s life – so what’s he apologizing for? It’s just another feel good moment for the duo – a grand, empty gesture. As meaningless as Steiber being called a “witness” to the shooting, even though the first time he ever saw the operation was when the rest of us saw the leaked video.

    Thanks to Jake D. for the link.