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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • Swanson still whining about the Left

    Last year, I caught mighty communist David Swanson whining about MoveOn and TrueMajority, Leftist organizations which had previously opposed the Republican war, now they were silent while Democrats occupied both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Well today, on War Is A Crime he expands his list of organizations who previously opposed the war but no longer;

    1. Organizations that opposed wars when Bush was president but don’t now:
    Campaign for America’s Future, the Center for American Progress, DailyKos, Democracy for America, Moveon.org, National Organization for Women, Open Left, the Out of Iraq Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, Talking Points Memo, True Majority.

    2. Organizations that still opposed war funding in 2009 but not now:
    Alternet, The American Friends Service Committee, The Backbone Campaign, Calitics, Declaration of Peace, Docudharma, FireDogLake, The Hip Hop Caucus, Humanists for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, The Nation, The Out of Iraq Blogger Caucus, Peace No War, The Urban Journal, The Young Turks.

    Now, first of all, War Is A Crime.org changed their name from After Downing Street.org – that was clearly a reference to the Downing Street Memo which was supposed to be proof of some sort malfeasance on the part of the Bush Administration. Last i checked, we’re still in a time that is after the Downing Street memo, so why the name change, Dave, since you’re a founder?

    Notice in his list #2 Swanson includes the IVAW probably because he recognizes that IVAW is an impotent group of non-war veterans who are more concerned with getting out of debt than any real opposition to the war. Well, other than hanging a banner in an empty building in Detroit or alienating most of the real veterans in this country by burning a flag without apologies.

    Winter Soldier was the closest thing to an effective campaign IVAW has assembled. What do they have now? Matthis on a cross-country bus tour talking with high school kids about things he knows nothing.

  • Vets Today & IVAW

    You guys all remember super-douche Gordon Duff and his merry band of peckerheads at Veterans Today, right? Well, I always figured that they would love the commies and socialists at IVAW and wondered why Vets Today generally avoided a relationship – after all, Gordon Duff wasn’t afraid to marry his publication to Mossad plots against Moscow and other crackpot shit.

    Well, finally one of the less senior wackos (not less wacko, just less senior than Duff) on the staff, Robert Hanafin dragged them out of the non-gay closet today. After complaining that his job is so difficult at Veterans Today (it’s tough trying to link Dick Cheney to zombie sightings, ya know), Hanifin tells us that he discriminates in lending VSO-type aid to veterans who don’t think like he thinks;

    Thus, I must maintain a policy of only providing assistance and advice to Veterans and Military Families who question their wars, have no one else to turn to for advice, and are discriminated against by the mainstream VSOs for their ability to THINK.

    Veterans Today frankly has no Veterans Service Officers on staff anyway, nor do we possess the political clout of mainstream VSOs who are too close to Congress and politicians for comfort. Thus, I’ve made a conscientious decision to refer any Vet or family member unable to question the war(s) onto a mainstream VSO. They should be able to satisfy your needs without discrimination, since you strongly support continuing the wars.

    Then he tells us that we should all go to the IVAW convention in Austin;

    So, a website called “Veterans Today” complains that they’re considered crackpots by nearly every recognized VSO, and then immediately announces their intention to have a political litmus test for the veterans who might seek their help. Of course, their refusal to help certain types of veterans is probably doing those veterans a huge favor. And then highlights the IVAW convention – an organization jam-packed with and lead by non-Iraq War veterans.

    Who’s the real phony here?

  • IVAW links to the ISO

    Someone sent me a set of photos of Victor Agosto, the fellow who went to jail in Texas for refusing to deploy with his unit from Fort Hood to Afghanistan last year. During his one visit here to TAH, he sounded fairly rational. What a difference a year in IVAW makes;

    I don’t even know where to find an heroic poster of Mao leading peasants – yet….

    And it’s a quick change from the IVAW banner…

    To the ISO banner;

    And, oh, he’s pals with Matthis;

  • Matthis’ big weekend

    Mattis went to Detroit for the US Social Forum and hooked up with flag-burning buddy Elaine Brower this weekend. Their big adventure was to post a banner in an abandoned building with some of the chumps from Geezers For Sitting On Our Hands;

    Yeah, he’s afraid of the police, that’s why he stopped to take a group portrait;

    Here’s the lame-ass crowd – they took several photos despite the fact that they were so afraid of the cops;

    If the Detroit police need the picture to identify the trespassers, I can still blow the original up another 200% to help out. Anything to help out Detroit’s finest. But obviously, Matthis and his friends weren’t all that interested in the social forum that was being held in Detroit, well not as much as they were enamored with the idea of childish, useless pranks. Given that the average age of the trespassers was about 90 years old, I think I can safely say “Grow up, Vets for Peace.” At least act half your age.

  • Matthis chases off another IVAW member

    So I got the whiff of another IVAW member leaving (actually, I’ve heard from a couple of folks who are leaving or getting run off) because of the antics of Matthis Chiroux. Someone mailed me this letter of resignation;

    I sit down at this desk and begin to write the hardest letter I have every written. A month ago, I came across a video of the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” stop at a California High School. What I saw was so shocking and devastating that it called into question my very membership in IVAW.

    After the Board of Directors voted not to take any action against Matthis Chiroux for burning the American Flag on March 20, 2010, I became sick of IVAW national politics that did nothing but undermine the work of local chapters. I stepped away from any involvement in the national politics, and stepped into local work, hoping that I might accomplish some real good. Alas, while the local results were encouraging, the idiotic ramblings of Mr. Chiroux found me.

    On the evening of May 24th, I was sent the link to a video of the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” Tour stop on May7th, 2010. In the video, there was one speaker, a woman, whom I did not recognize, and Mr. Chiroux. From the context, it appeared that they were speaking to high school classes about the video Collateral Murder. While some of what Matthis said regarding the fear that war instills was right, there was a slew of half-truths and exaggerations that offset any grain of truth he was trying to communicate. First there was the terrible editing job: interspersed video of US, German and UK soldiers with extremely graphic photos of dead and wounded people from Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan and violent street riots in the US and England. Then there was a stream of generalizations, over simplifications and half-truths about war that were laughable coming from a veteran who spent a week in Afghanistan. Even as a non-deployed veteran, I can tell when someone has never actually seen war.

    The final portion of Mr. Chiroux’s talk was the most shocking. After a short tirade about slavery to the American flag, Mr. Chiroux states that must not support the troops. I have to admit that this was quite a shock to hear, even from Matthis. Not support the troops? How does that work with being the leader of an organization that is of the troops and for the troops? He made it very clear that any soldier who deploys is committing genocide and should NOT be supported. He told the civilians in this class that they need to let soldiers know that they do not support them and that they should not honor the warrior or the war.

    At this point in the video, I was sick. I had been told of people like this: activists who attack all soldiers without regard for their humanity. Nevertheless, to actually see someone talk about soldiers like Mr. Chiroux did, was socking. I could not believe I was hearing. As a Conscientious Objector, I am keenly aware that not every soldier is opposed to the war. I understand that the decision to get out of the military is a very personal and very serious decision that no one can force a soldier to make. It is an absolute necessity that we support the troops while opposing the wars. While Mr. Chiroux makes no distinction between these two ideas, one can support a soldier without approving of the war he is taking part in. I have sent care packages, helped family members of deployed soldiers – I have even helped soldiers who have chosen to stay in the military! We can support and help soldiers even if we disagree with their decision to remain in the military and deploy.

    I am quickly running out of options with regards to IVAW. Over the last few years, members have left the national scene to focus on local work. Others have gotten more and more involved in the internal politics of IVAW. Neither option has proven very successful at either ending the wars or changing the problems within IVAW. For me, more involvement with the national scene has led to heartburn and stress, while just focusing on local work has been hindered by the national ravings of Matthis and his ilk. Thankfully, I have been given some very unique opportunities to focus more on reaching out and building relationships with soldiers, regardless of their position about war. I feel that IVAW will only hinder these efforts.

    I do not leave in protest. I do not expect IVAW to change to keep me as a member, nor am I demanding that. I am not leaving activism – I leave to free myself for more direct and personal involvement in reaching out to soldiers without the hindrance of IVAW.
    Signed,

    Daniel

    At some point, IVAW has to start taking into account that this is not the 1960s, that the membership of this organization is more mature, more rational and more intelligent than the smelly, illiterate twits of VVAW and VFP. Time and again, members of IVAW have made it clear that they have nothing against this country or their comrades who remain in the service, but the International Socialist Organization-affiliated members of IVAW are the ones who drive the organization away from it’s members.

    I have nothing against opposing the war, but I do oppose the far Left moonbats who want to manipulate that opposition into a Marxist revolution, and apparently some of the members feel the same way. Some of them are honest enough to admit that they don’t want to belong to an organization that is being used by radical extremists in the RCP and World Can’t Wait.

    The ISO members and their useful idiots as well as the dinosaurs of the VVAW/VFP are scrambling to mitigate the latest damage to their propaganda machine and I’ll have more on that tomorrow.t

  • Hippie circle jerk in Detroit

    Someone sent me a link from World Can’t Wait this morning describing the important work that the smelly hippies are doing in Detroit this weekend at the misnamed “Social Forum”.

    Gathered in Detroit today for the US Social Forum, anti-war leaders will address Barack Obama’s replacement of General Stanley McChrystal with General David Petraeus and condemn his strategy of expanding the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

    Yeah, what that has to do with anything “social” is beyond me. But, from my experience, the anti-war movement takes up which ever issue is in the headlines to make themselves appear relevant. So who is attending the “forum” (it’s not a forum, either – it’s an echo chamber)? According to WCW, all of our lovable clowns;

    William Ayers, Elaine Brower, Matthis Chiroux, David Swanson, Debra Sweet, Sunsara Taylor, and Ann Wright.

    Sweet – all of our little fuzzy buddies in one place. But you can bet none of the above named people were soaked by lthe rain storm the other night;

    As the rain pelted and the runoff threatened to uproot their temporary nylon homes, the young adults huddled in the US Social Forum’s Tent City confronted some challenges Wednesday night.

    Some tried to weather the weather inside their tents, but others took shelter in the adjacent veterans center at Woodward and Temple.

    Yeah, you can bet that the hippie luminaries above were sacked out in a hotel somewhere paid for by donations from the clods stuck in the rain. After all, some animals are more equal than others.

    Amy Goodman, an activist who tries to convince us she’s a journalist, describes the event;

    Far larger than any tea party convention, it has gotten very little mainstream-media coverage. Not a tightly scripted, staged political convention, nor a multiday music festival, the U.S. Social Forum defines itself as “an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences.”

    In other words, it’s a bunch of hippie sheep being herded from place to place and told how to think about certain issues. 10,000 from “throughout the world” is not an impressive event, Amy. It’s the usual suspects gathered in Detroit for the world’s largest circle jerk. It doesn’t get media coverage because it’s the same old bullshit we’ve heard for the last nine years – that’s not news.

  • IVAW: Manning is heroic

    I’m sure you remember Bradley Manning, the Army specialist who released classified material to Wikileaks which included the video known by the biased title “Collateral Murder”. Well, IVAW, that band of veterans who pepper their ranks with a few combat veterans to give themselves some measure of credibility, has decided that Manning is a hero for disseminating classified material;

    These videos and possibly more were reportedly leaked by SPC Bradley Manning. Manning worked as an intelligence analyst, and is currently under arrest in Kuwait. If true, Bradley’s actions are heroic and he deserves our support.

    I guess pretty soon they’ll be praising Faisal Shahzad for his attempt to bomb Times Square. Or BP for robbing us of material resources to fight the war. I don’t see any IVAW members trumpeting for Stanley McCrystal or his staff for saying the same things about the Administration that they’ve said.

    Yeah, calling Manning a hero is right up there with burning the flag. I guess Matthis has sent them down this path.

  • Your morning Matthis

    Someone sent me this link yesterday, and if you are still undecided about how Matthis (IVAW Board member and Election Committee Chair) makes you feel, this video will definitely push you over the fence;

    The video is from last year when he was discharged from the military at an administrative board and given a general discharge under honorable conditions for refusing his IRR recall.

    He’s jubilant as he comes out of the board. What he doesn’t tell the journalists is that he got the absolute worst discharge the board could give him – he would have gotten the same discharge if he hadn’t showed up at the hearing. Matthis acts like it’s some big victory, but the board screwed him to the wall. And, oh, despite the fact that he says he gets to keep his benefits, that’s not true. I have been in contact with Veterans Affairs Departmen’s Office of the Inspector General who is working on his case.

    He tells the interviewer that he suffered for his military benefits, when the interviewer asks him how he suffered when he’s never been to the war, he tells the journalist “That’s really unfair”. The interviewer really isn’t sympathetic to Matthis. It’s no wonder I haven’t seen this video before. When he can’t stick to his talking points, Matthis gets really flustered.

    The video is really satisfying.