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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • Dissension in the IVAW ranks

    It’s that time of year again – time to nominate IVAW’s board. Oh, and guess who’s in charge of the Election Committee? Yep – Matthis. I’m just guessing, but that’s probably the work of Adrienne Kinne, easily the furthest left and radical member of the leadership of IVAW. She wears her International Socialist Organization (ISO) membership with pride, she’s Mattis’ main defender in IVAW, and she’s a mega-bully when people disagree with her. I guess it’s that shallow intellect.

    Well, anyway, Matthis’ committee sent out invitation to several members to invite them to run for positions on the board late last week because, supposedly, they were nominated by the membership. One nominee sent a letter back to the board rejecting their offer. Among his reasons for turning them down was, of course, Matthis himself;

    Matthis, being a key part of the elections, compromises the integrity of the elections. He has openly and deliberately offended members; expressed his intent to continue to do so and has openly called for us NOT to support soldiers. He states that it is impossible to support the soldier without supporting the war. I, and many other veterans and soldiers, find this idea repulsive. War leaves both sides devastated and by isolating and shunning the very soldiers we are trying to reach, we are only defeating ourselves. While I do not think that we should be supporting the war, every soldier is a human who faces a choice. Just as we wish our right to object should be respected, so we should respect the decsions that those who disagree with us make. We don’t have to approve of their choice, but we shouldn’t let their choice affect our willingness to be there. Regardless of a soldiers support or non-support of the war, when they return from overseas, they will need our help. Loving and treating one’s enemies with respect is never easy nor is it a swift way to bring about change, but it is the only way to affect real and lasting change.

    And, oh, by the way, this veteran who didn’t deploy doesn’t like hanging Iraq Veterans T-shirts on guys who went AWOL from the Coast Guard in Hawaii.

    I am not a deployed veteran and thus do not feel that I should be in a leadership position. To represent myself as something I am not, either by wearing a member’s only t-shirt (something I have stopped doing) or by taking a leadership position, I would be doing a great disservice to those who actually did deploy. The organization is Iraq Veterans Against the War – not Global War on Terror Veterans Against the War and our leadership, at the very least, should reflect that.

    But, real veterans in IVAW either must be getting few and far between, or they’re not getting the respect from the likes of Adrienne Kinne, Geoffrey Millard and Mathis Chiroux that they deserve in an organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War. It seems to me that more real veterans should get the positions, but what do I know? I find it real hard to believe that there are any real veterans left in the organization when I see who puts their faces out front these days. It’s looking more and more everyday like VVAW and VFP – no real war veterans. Just the Ward Reillys, Hal Muskats and Doug Zacharys.

  • No Time For Matthis

    Matthis Chiroux
    A few people have come on this blog and told us what Matthis was like during his service in the Army and after. Now, for the first time, we read about his pre-Army days – and the back story is not really that surprising. Matthis has changed his bio to to include this little fairy tale;

    Matthis was impressed into the U.S. Army at age 18 during a period of homelessness in Alabama.

    Well it turns that it’s not exactly true. He made a series of bad choices in his young life that left the Army as his own option according to his father who sent me the following email;

    Matthis was called to the Lee County Justice Center (Alabama) by his juvenile probation officer after his father reported he had discovered his son was selling mushrooms (the drug kind) in a playground next to the local elementary school. The father met with and invited the local army recruiter, located his son, who was staying in a tent in an older lady’s backyard, and transported him to the Lee County Justice Center for a meeting with his probation officer, his father and the army recruiter. Due to Matthis’ not insignificant juvenile history involving repeated drug and theft incidents Matthis’ father made it clear that Matthis had a choice of joining the army or his father would file a complaint with the Opelika Police Department and testify against him. Matthis probation officer made it clear that being found guilty of selling a controlled substance in such close proximity to an elementary school, combined with his juvenile history would likely result in a minimum 5-year sentence in the State Penitentairy as an adult convict. In the presence of his Juvenile Probation Officer Matthis then turned to the army recruiter and said, “It looks like I am joining the team”, to which the army recruiter asked, “So what do you like to do, besides drugs?”

    So, anyway off Matthis went to the Army and he actually fared pretty well – Sergeant in five years, made it through 5-jump-chump school, assignments to Japan and Germany, honorable discharge. And then the Army called him back for a few months of his IRR obligation and he decided that he didn’t want to cut his hair again and declared his intention to ignore the order and he made a big scene. His father visited him on Fathers’ Day 2008 when Matthis was “hiding out” in the DC IVAW treehouse. While they were down on the National Mall touring DC, Matthis threatened his father;

    …he threatened to reveal the details of how I pushed him into the army. The discussion ended abruptly when my response was “the truth was fine with me, go right ahead.” He looked perplexed…

    Oh, and that whole anti-war thing? For Matthis, it’s situational and subject to revision;

    I asked him earlier that day why he was doing this and he told me he felt the war in Iraq was illegal. I asked him what if the army would be willing to commit to send you to Afghanistan instead. He told me he would not hesitate to go, that war was sanctioned by the U.N. and was legal. He was very clear about that.

    That’s funny because in April 2009, he apologized for his minuscule part in the occupation of Afghanistan to Afghanistan peace activist Malalai Joya when he said “[I]n 2005, for a brief time, I helped occupy Malalai’s country, and it was wrong.”

    The only thing Matthis occupied in Afghanistan was the corner booth at the Baskin Robbins on Bagram airbase – if he even went at all. Thus far, I haven’t seen any evidence that he even went to Afghanistan.

    Oh, and the part about being homeless, well, it seems his father asked him what he was going to do after high school and he told his father he was going to “hang out” and his father told that’s not an option, that he had ten days to decide what he was going to do with his life. At the end of the ten days, Dr. Chiroux put Matthis’ stuff in a storage locker. Matthis pitched a tent in a friend’s yard and sold drugs at a playground near an elementary school. That’s homeless to Matthis.

    The only reason he was homeless is because he’d burned bridge after bridge behind him until he had no choices except the militar – and he was damned lucky they took him. So he repays the Army for giving him an opportunity to straighten his life out (and paying for college) by thumbing his nose at them when they needed him during the Surge. So he treated the Army like he treats everyone else in his life.

    And, oh, those schools that let him talk to their kids, I wonder how they’d like to know that he sold drugs at a playground next to an elementary school. Knowing schools these days, they’d probably make him a guidance counselor.

  • Ethan McCord: “360 degree fire” was SOP

    One of the two soldiers who have been the “go to” guys for the Wikileaks so-called “Collateral Murder” video, Ethan McCord charges that “360 Rotational Fire” was the standard operating procedure for reaction to an IED attack in Iraq in 2007. In an interview published in OpEd News, Steiber said;

    …we had a pretty gung-ho commander, who decided that because we were getting hit by IEDs a lot, there would be a new battalion SOP [standard operating procedure].He goes, “If someone in your line gets hit with an IED, 360 rotational fire. You kill every motherf*cker on the street.” Myself and Josh and a lot of other soldiers were just sitting there looking at each other like, “Are you kidding me? You want us to kill women and children on the street?” And you couldn’t just disobey orders to shoot, because they could just make your life hell in Iraq.

    Throughout the interview, there’s no unit designation, no one names the company or battalion commander – it’s just a completely irrational charge against some unnamed commander in an unnamed unit vacant of any details.

    Of the Wikileaks video, McCord says;

    McCord says the scenes captured in the Wikileaks video are “an every-day occurrence in Iraq.”

    Really?

    McCord says that when he found the two children wounded in the van, another soldier began to vomit and ran off.

    A soldier reacts by vomiting and fleeing to an “every day occurrence”?

    I ran up to the Bradley and placed [the injured boy] inside. My platoon leader was standing there at the time, and he yelled at me for doing what I did. He told me to “stop worrying about these motherfucking kids and start worrying about pulling security.”

    I would have told him the same thing. They were in an unsecured area in indian country and unsure of the situation. The first thing infantrymen do is secure the area. How much good would any of them been to the children if they were all dead? Typical private BS – they always think they know better than their leaders.

    Both Ethan McCord and Josh Steiber were in Bravo Company, 2d Battalion 16th Infantry when the video was shot in 2007. Steiber is a member of IVAW, and McCord may be a member by now, although I can’t find evidence of it yet, so they have an agenda.

    I have to think that there’s someone among my readers who was either a member of this company or knows someone who was there during this time who can verify or deny the accuracy of this order. My opinion, based on my decades-long experience as an infantryman, is that it’s bullshit, but I wasn’t there, so if you were, or if you know someone who was, speak up.

    Thanks to Rob for the heads up.

  • The IVAW Braintrust

    So if you didn’t already know the person in the picture above, would you think he’s an iraq veteran? It’s Matthis, by the way, at the UXO concert. Photo is courtesy of Bill Perry. He doesn’t act like the crowning glory of his military career was occupying the corner booth at Baskin-Robbins on Bagram Airbase for six days.

    Well, anyway, the following exchange took place on Facebook between all of the great thinkers of IVAW past and present. carl Webb, Dahlia Wasfi, Carl Webb and Bobby Whittenberg. The discussion of course was over whether they should support killing US soldiers to satisfy their own bloodlust for the cause.

    The discussion begins with Matthis criticizing some soldier on Facebook for wishing some diplomatic solution hadn’t been arrived at in some corner of the war so hat soldier could resolve the problem with force. Of course, matthis and Branum jump on it as an example of the evils of the American fighting man. Carl Webb on the other hand, whines that he was uninvited from the IVAW convention because of racism, to which Dahlia Wasfi, race pimp that she is, agrees. Hart Viges, to his credit, explains to Carl, once again, that it was his extremist views that got him kicked out of IVAW. And that’s where we pick up the conversation;

    See Bobby Whittenberg expressing the same extremist and violent views that Carl Webb espoused last year? Yeah, that’s the guy that I dressed down (ex-) Army Sergeant for convincing him to stay in IVAW when he threatened to quit because they weren’t extreme enough for his taste.

    The only reason I’ve gone easy on Whittenberg is because he did earn a Purple Heart and because there is obviously something wrong with him (and no one in IVAW or VFP is telling him he needs help) and he’s being used by the rat fucks in Austin to play to the radical crowd there. The best thing IVAW could do for Bobby is cut him loose and get him some help – but the best thing for IVAW is to keep putting him in the front lines to act like he’s insane for the cameras – which they will continue to do until someone gets hurt.

    I have screen shots of the rest of the conversation, I just didn’t feel like uploading them all, but I will if a participant wants to dispute the conversation.

  • Carl Webb gets butt-hurt

    I wrote the other day that Carl Webb was looking forward to attending the IVAW convention in Austin since it’s in his home town. But, according to his Facebook entry, he’s been uninvited;

    I see it but I don’t believe it. I’m sure I’ll find some pictures of Webb at the convention eventually. He can’t resist leaning in from the side of picture taking events. His buddy Bobby Whittenberg will get him in using Bobby’s psycho act or Doug Zachary will pitch a snit.

  • Matthis: Vacation or jail?

    So Matthis is trying to make up his mind whether he should fulfill his obligations or totally blow off jail in favor of a Caribbean vacation in regards to his arrest in Highland Falls during the President’s speech there. Guess which way he’s leaning;

    I called the District Attorney’s Office this morning, but they said the responsibility for Matthis and his community service will fall to the probation department, who won’t have responsibility until the disposition of the case has been determined.

    I hope someone in Orange County, New York is listening so they can hold the local justice officials’ feet to the fire on this. It seems to me that if Matthis leaves the country while under jurisdiction of the case, he could be in serious trouble – federal pound-you-in-the-ass-prison kind of trouble. Sure would hate to see that happen.

  • IVAW Convention at Huston-Tillotson University

    Next month is the annual IVAW Convention. This year it will be held at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, TX. Here’s what they say about the purpose of their convention;

    All members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are highly encouraged to attend convention. In addition to building relationships with other members, we will be discussing the most important issues facing our GI and veterans movement.

    Members will have a chance to discuss lessons learned, brainstorm innovative ideas, and develop a common orientation towards the goals and strategy of IVAW for the upcoming year.

    Members will also meet with the current board and candidates, elect members for open board positions, review the status of our organization including finances, and participate in active duty outreach at Fort Hood.

    Key allies and supporters are also welcome to attend convention but are responsible for the cost of their own registration and travel arrangements. We are happy to recommend housing accomodations near the convention site.

    Preference for on campus housing is given to members and those with disabilities.

    Sounds like a joyful reunion of all of the folks the military has divested itself of the last few years. If you’d like to call Huston-Tillotson Univ., here’s their phone and fax respectively; Telephone at 512.505.3000, Fax at 512.505.3190.

    Oh, and there’ll be a special guest. I’m not sure if he’s invited or just in town;

    Yes, our favorite derelict and reject from the human race (and frequent troll) Carl Webb plans on crashing the convention. Let’s see to what degree Webb is welcomed. I wonder if the leeches and pedophiles from VFP and Military Families Speak Out will be having their convention at the same place and time this year like last year in College Park to keep the kiddies in (party) line. Since that’s his AO, you can be sure Doug Zachary will be there to raid the coffers at every opportunity.

    Sounds like oodles of fun.

  • Navy puts kibosh on IVAW-UXO concert

    The latest money-raising scheme of the Iraq Veterans Against the War is their UXO Tour. UXO means unexploded ordinance – hinting that veterans back from the war are going to go off any minute now. Well their first concert was on a cruise ship in New York City and it was timed to coincide with Fleet Week when the most active duty service members, mostly Marines and Navy personnel, would be there.

    Well of course, the Navy forbade their people to go to this concert and IVAW is mightily upset. I won’t link to them, because they block traffic to their site from this blog anyway, but here’s the “press release” they link.

    “The military chain of command has no right to micromanage what service-members are doing in their off time”, said Nick Morgan, an Iraq veteran and UXO organizer. “They have no right to censor the information that’s available to them, especially when it’s within the confines of the law.”

    You remember Nick Morgan, don’t you? He was the IVAW member who got stomped by horse-mounted police at the last Presidential debate on Long Island. I guess he’s survived.

    Another organizer was junior rocket scientist Bobby Joe Grubb;

    Grubb, another IVAW member who has never seen Iraq, said;

    “We were incredibly successful in reaching out to these Sailors and Marines,” says Grubb. “We made solid contact with those we met while doing outreach”. He said many of them were interested in getting more involved in the active-duty and veteran-led anti-war movement.

    But then the Navy forbade Navy personnel from attending. So I called the Navy in New York City and spoke to a PAO LT Sean P. Riordan. LT Riordan told me the reason the Navy restricted attendance at this particular GI Resistance Concert is because all of the Marines and Sailors were in New York in an official capacity and they were all in uniform, so the Navy decided that attendance at a GI Resistance Concert in NYC during Fleet Week in uniform would be inappropriate according to military guidelines.

    Morgan also added that these concerts are helping to bring legal and mental-health resources to members of the military. “It’s imperative for these veteran-led efforts to be accessed by active-duty troops to make up for the lacking support they get from the current administration, the Department of Defense, and the Veterans Administration.”

    Yeah, that’s why they had a concert. They could hand out brochures describing the help IVAW provides soldiers – like homeless Trey Kindlinger (a former member of the Navy) and legal help like James Branum. And if the concert was about providing veterans services, why is it called a GI Resistance Concert?

    The Sailors and Marines weren’t “off” the whole time they were in NY, Nick Morgan, neither did the Navy restrict information. You could talk to them all you wanted.

    The Navy made the correct call and IVAW is left to cry into their empty glasses because they overplayed their hand.