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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • In IVAW news today

    The word is that Carl Webb has been asked to leave IVAW. I can’t verify that, but his profile is gone;

    webb-not-found

    Here’s why he’s disappeared for the time being;

    In other news, something happened at Darnall Hospital at Fort Hood the other day involving some IVAW members. Apparently, one member was thought to be suicidal by his chain of command, but the mental health experts at Under The Hood Cafe thought they knew better and went to the hospital – who knows why.

    Now this fellow mixbyspyke has been talking to every media source he can find to tell the world that the Army wouldn’t give him help when he needed it – now the Army moves to stop what they thought was suicidal behavior (no, I don’t know what that was) and Kern tries to make it sound like they didn’t like the guy’s T-shirt.

    So as far as the ass-clowns at UTHC are concerned, they’re the only people trained well enough to spot suicidal behavior. Anyway, here’s mixbyspyke’s account of the incident in his own version of English – obviously not his first language;

    During a meeting at Under the Hood cafe, the chapter was informed that one of our members was admitted to the Carl R Darnell [sic] Medical Facility, for supposed suicidal tendency’s [sic]. We had just seen this member not to [sic] long ago and knew he was having problems with his chain of command for wherein [sic] a IVAW shirt on post. The chain of command told to [sic] soldier to report to staff duty and once he got there was placed on line of sight and taken to the ER because (according to the chain of command) someone had “called” staff duty to tell them that there [sic] soldier was going to kill himself. Our member was shocked by this news went along peacefully making sure to say that he was NOT suicidal but would get evaluated to put his chain of command worry s [sic] at ease… The rest of the chapter got the news of this and was concerned, and wanted to see if they could help so five of us piled into a car and went down there to the ER. At the ER our member was not in the waiting room so after asking if he had been admitted we told [sic] a seat and sat quietly to wait for the arrival of our friend. Apparently we were not allowed sit in there waiting to see if our friend was ok… the police told us that the hospitals standard operating procedure was to only allow family and chain of command in there, witch [sic] is false, but we left respectfully after the police said that we were trying to make a statement, witch [sic] for the record we were not! long story short a group of veterans can sit in the hospital wearing IVAW shirts lol.

    ** ATTENTION **

    the member has since been released from the hospital and now is restricted to post and told not to were [sic] his IVAW shirt anymore, by the same chain of command that threatend [sic] the soldier saying ” i will kick your ass if i ever see you wearing that shirt ever again”

    – Last time I spoke to this soldier he was still wearing it and is filing complainants [sic] against his chain of command!

    So the Army is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. This can all be traced back to Cindy Thomas’ yammering about young commanders who don’t know what they’re doing. Like Cindy is an expert on anything besides working people into a frenzy while they’re hopped up on coffee.

  • Matthis the combat vet

    Someone sent me an article from a CUNY LaGuardia newletter in which Matthis Chiroux does his best Ward Reilly impersonation, trying to sound like a combat veteran for the hairy-legged hippie chicks at college;

    Matthis Chiroux, a veteran at LaGuardia, and the last speaker, had the most powerful message of the event. According to Chiroux, out of all the nations in the world, the greatest threat to peace is not Iraq, Russia, or Iran, it’s the US. “USA has been involved in 80 wars since it became a colony,” said Chiroux in astonishment. As a veteran, Chiroux has firsthand knowledge about the gruesome nature of war. He once believed that what he was doing was right. However, his perspective changed when he saw innocent civilians slaughtered for a war they wanted no part of. He saw himself as a “tool for murder,” and refused to continue taking part in the war.He left the army as soon as he got the chance. Now, he speaks against the government in hopes that the US will cease “its’ dictatorial policies under the guise of ‘peace’” and leave other countries alone to live in peace.

    Chiroux had “firsthand knowledge about the gruesome nature of war”…well, he had second or third or fourth hand knowledge of war. He saw innocent civilians slaughtered – well he was in a movie theater at the time , but he sat right up front and he was closer to the slaughter than anyone else in the theater that day.

    In order to “continue” taking part in a war, you have to have taken part in it in the first place, Matthis. the only thing that he gets right in his little speech to moon-eyed community college chicks is that he’s a tool.

    I ran across this photo of Chiroux – I think it’s from last year before he was discharged;

    4074856538_78767e8f85_b

    Notice he’s wearing an IVAW patch for a combat patch. Anything to perpetuate the image of combat veteran. Just like Ward Reilly.

  • IVAW’s TJ Buonomo resigns from Board

    Somehow, I missed that TJ Buonomo resigned from the IVAW Board of Directors in protest over the Carl Webb issue and to his credit, he’s petitioning the Board to change their Code of Conduct;

    The petition is simple: if you agree that the Board of Directors should amend the Code of Conduct to prohibit the “encouragement or expression of support for the use of violence in pursuit of IVAW’s mission, goals and objectives” then respond to this email accordingly with a ‘yes’. If you disagree then you are not required to do anything.

    If I cannot obtain the minimum number of signatures I am seeking I will likely resign from the organization and would encourage you consider doing the same. This decision would pain me, having been a member for over two years and having served in the National Office and on the Board with people I deeply admire and respect, but I am not willing to associate myself with what I regard to be a group of extremists who, in their pursuit of justice, are willing to embrace a set of morally dubious values.

    So now even the members of IVAW who didn’t go to the war and are members of the International Socialist Organization are opposing Carl Webb. I wonder if Webb considers Buonomo a conservative, too.

    Thanks to one of our IVAW refugees for the heads up.

  • Under the Hood crapola

    The New York Times, always looking for something to divert our attention from the facts, decided that the IVAW ass clowns at Under the Hood Cafe in Killeen, TX would have something irrelevant to add to the discussion of the murders at Fort Hood. Like shooting fish in a barrel;

    Cynthia Thomas, the misguided prophet and head charlatan of the cafe says she warned the Army that a Muslim Army major who had been stationed at Fort Hood less than four months and had never been deployed anywhere, anytime, would go off at a processing center and shoot scores of people. Well, that’s not EXACTLY what she said;

    We have been saying and warning and trying to bring this to people’s attention, that something like this was eventually going to happen, and very very soon. But nobody paid attention. Nobody listened. And the most tragic part is that it could have been prevented.

    Cynthia, bless her tiny black heart, is more interested in drawing attention to her coven of clowns than actually admitting that the major’s shooting spree wasn’t related to the war, or the REAL problems that her UTH denizens suffer – to her personal profit. And of course, she can’t help but take a swipe at the soldiers themselves;

    So you’re looking at a captain who’s 25-years-old, and doesn’t have much life experience, making a decision over a doctor.

    Yeah, just like a lot of 25-year-old parents without much life experience making decisions about their children over a doctor’s advice. That happens every day, Cindy – why, I’ll bet it might have happened to you.

    IVAW also took the opportunity to have their own candlelight vigil at Fort Hood – more to push their faces in front of the cameras than anything else;

    But they seem to be following the example of their betters at Code Pink who are also using Hasan as a fund raising mechanism.

  • Carl Webb in his own words

    Casey Porter, a former IVAW member who was harassed out of the organization by extremists of IVAW, namely Carl Webb and Doug Zachary, conducted a telephone interview with Webb about his support for terrorists and insurgents fighting against American troops in the Middle East;

    Porter explains his reasoning for making this video on Facebook;

    YES is my latest film dealing with the controversial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    While this film does feature pictures from the war in Iraq, it is much more of a focus on a very vocal member of the Anti-War community, Carl Webb. Carl Webb has advocated violence against Soldiers and sabotage as means of “resistance”.

    I proposed an idea to people within the Anti-War crowd that you could catch a recruiter lying if you recording a conversation with them. While this was never acted upon they were very enthusiastic about the idea and said I should do it.

    Well, I used the same methods and tactics when recording Carl Webb. I invite you to listen to him speak, make your own judgments. If you are as outraged as others have been over his words of hate, then there is a contact list of the organizations he belongs to at the end.

    I am still against the wars, but people like Carl need to be put on blast for their tough-talk, and zero follow-through.

    Carl is a member of Iraq Vets Against The War. The audio conversation was given to the Executive Director and the Board of IVAW prior to the release of this film. No action has been taken against Carl for his past, and present actions.

    Yes, Carl Webb fully supports killing US troops and he’s not afraid to admit it when he posts on IVAW discussion forums;

    webb-defends-terrorists

    The date of that posting is after the IVAW determined that they don’t want that kind of rhetoric to muddy up their charter – but Webb is still a member of IVAW.

    In the next posting from the IVAW discussion forums, Webb says he’s trying to convince Evan Knappenberger to rejoin IVAW;

    webb-knappenberger

    Knappenberger was the IVAW member who was booted briefly from the organization for threatening to bomb the Gathering of Eagles and Michelle Malkin – apparently Webb misses the violent nutjobs of IVAW.

    For the last few months, I’ve been waiting for a reporter from the Stars and Stripes to publish an interview he did with me (and Army Sergeant) about the IVAW. I wrote him this morning to ask what the hold up is and he told me he’s having trouble getting active duty members to come forward. Is it any wonder when IVAW allows their radically violent members to taint the organization with their dangerous and seditious drivel?

  • Drag Queens Against the War

    I’m in joke-overload at the moment after reading an article in Huffington Post by Stephen Funk another IVAW member who didn’t serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. Funk is obviously doing his level best to make the IVAW into a larger caricature of itself than it is already;

    In the first show I debuted Consuelo Sintetas (named after my grandmother) [Editor’s note: sin tetas is Spanish for without breasts. I’m sure his grandmother is proud.], in the second a dozen other veterans joined me to “Make Drag, Not War!”; a night of anti-militarist performances by IVAW members and a talented cast of performers including Suppositori Spelling, Raya Light, Garza, Miss Rahni, Lil Miss Hot Mess, fAction, and SF Boylesque.

    Of course, Drag Queens Against the War is a far more accurate description of the membership than Iraq Veterans Against the War, and it would probably give them more media exposure, but if this is their way to legitimize the organization, I don’t think it’ll work. And I’m not sure how Army Sergeant would fit in at this point.

    Besides, the anti-war movement already has representation of the drag queens – Code Pink.

  • Kokesh to Sheehan; at least the neocons were honest

    I don’t know how they managed to squeeze their massive egos into the same recording booth, or even into the same bandwidth, but Cindy Sheehan interviewed Adam Kokesh this weekend on her show “Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox”. Kokesh admitted for Sheehan that he’s still a member of IVAW (even though he won’t admit it publicly anywhere else) and sounds a bit nostalgic for the Bush Administration;

    Well I’m a Constitutionalist. I’m a non-interventionalist. I’m still a proud member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and I support the mission of Iraq Veterans Against the War. I’m also a proud member of Veterans for Peace and I think that the mission of the organization Veterans for Peace is even more applicable now when we see the kind of hypocrisy of the Democrats. It’s almost worse than what we had when the neocons were in charge. The neocons were easy to hate, they were brazen and upfront about it and had this swaggering machismo whereas what we see under Obama now is this really disgusting deceitfulness that has some people with really intense mixed feelings.

    He sounds almost like the Republicans after the Soviet Union collapsed, doesn’t he?

    Nothing new, really about Kokesh’s disdain for Obama, though. I taped him calling on Obama to end the war at Code Pink’s “Shoe Bush” protest on the day before the Obama Inauguration, and then again he and I talked about the Obama policy before the March on the Pentagon last Spring. But he’s become a Paulian Republican espousing “nonintervention” (which is really isolationism) and some kind of anti-corporate capitalist agrarianism. In other words, he’s a populist with competing ideologies – he mouths the words that brings cheers but don’t stand up under intellectual scrutiny.

    I’m sure the company that rents out the Ron Paul blimp is calling him everyday.

  • Hal Muskat: don’t thank me

    Yes, there are 363 days every year to express your personal disrespect for soldiers. Just like a black person thinks he has a right to call other black people the “n” word, some veterans think they can use Veterans’ Day to call other veterans vile names. Hal Muskat, one of the original zombies of the VVAW, is just like that. He begins his Veterans Day rant by trying to undo all of the work veterans and their service organizations have accomplished over the last thirty years;

    hal-muskat

    Every time I hear, “Thank-you for serving!” I want to reply, “Fuck You!”

    For which of the following are you thanking me:
    a) learning how to do field abortions on “pregnant gook girls”;
    b) Being part of a military that is responsible for millions of deaths in Vietnam;
    c) Refusing orders to Vietnam;
    d) Participating in the GI Movement;
    e) Thinking for myself;
    f) Not thinking for myself;
    g) Following or not following orders?

    Now, if I read that correctly, and in reverse order, Muskat never went to Vietnam, but somehow performed “field abortions” on Vietnamese women? I guess he’s another Doug Zachary and Ward Reilly who want you to think he went to Vietnam, but didn’t.

    Then he establishes his right to call veterans names on their day;

    As a member of the United States Army from 1965 – 1970, I was NOT defending America, our allies, your families or friends. America was NOT being attacked by the Vietnamese, much in the same way that America is NOT being attacked by Iraqis.

    I for one, do NOT thank current soldiers for their service in Iraq or Afghanistan! I thank and honor those who repudiate this nation’s militarism. I thank Iraq Veterans Against the War for their thought, action and lives. I thank those veterans who organized and testified at the IVAW Winter Soldier Hearings last year and who continue to give witness to atrocity and mayhem.

    On Veteran’s Day, I salute, in addition to IVAW, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, The National Liberation Front of Vietnam, WWII Allied Forces led by General Dwight Eisenhower; I salute Resistance Fighters against the nazi’s throughout Europe; Resistance movements from South Africa to South Harlem, from Philadelphia to Nicaragua where my government spent millions attempting to overthrow a democratic government who’s president had the nerve to be critical of the United States.

    This level of ignorance and stupidity has only one cure – a swift kick in the ‘nads. Repeatedly. He was a failure, so he thinks that, because you’re not a failure like him, you don’t have the right to be credited for your faithful service to the nation.

    Yeah, Hal, I’m guessing not too many people have thanked you for your level of service to your country. No wonder you’re bitter.