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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • Coward Shepherd critiques the surge

    Andre Shepherd, the US deserter who is requesting asylum from persecution in Germany has a blog. In his post from last week, he takes the time to critique the surge from the German refugee detention center where he awaits the decision of the German government;

    I don´t know about the rest of you, but since when does sending in more military personnel equate to LESS war? Please do not talk to me about the “success” of the Iraqi surge, because upon closer inspection you will find that is a fantasy perpetuated by the Pentagon and the Lame Stream Media. An increase in the troops in Afghanistan at this stage is going to trigger more battles and more casualties. I also suspect that the bombing campaign that has increased in recent years will continue unabated, thus creating even more civilian casualties for the Afghanis and Pakistanis.

    This insightful observation is written from hundreds of miles from Iraq by a depot-level helicopter mechanic who hasn’t set foot in Iraq since the surge started, yet he knows it’s a “fantasy” that it’s been successful. I wonder how he arrived at these conclusions, having neither the technical or tactical expertise to make such a judgment.

    He also tells us something we never thought possible;

    Soldiers and Marines will be further killed and maimed as well.

    I wonder how someone can be “further killed” than they might already be killed. but, hey, Shepherd has the power to see through the walls of that detention facility and conduct BDA from hundreds of miles away, so he must know something we don’t know.

  • The return of Darnell Stephen Summers

    A few months back I wrote about some of the more benign stuff about the life of Darnell Stephen Summers when writing about Andre Shepherd. Darnell came around and told me to stop calling him a commie, even though that’s what he is – he even admitted as much in the comments. Well, he’s back and before he beclowns himself more and lies to us all again, let’s take a look at some of the things Darnell has admitted to in the recent past.

    He belongs to “Vietnam Veterans Against the War – Anti-Imperialist”, a group that even the VVAW calls “ultra-Left” and warns its members away;

    How do I know Darnell is in VVAW-AI? Well he gave this speech in which he told the crowd he is in VVAW-AI;

    And he brags about it in this profile he wrote himself;

    And, oh, he keeps linking to a collection of articles about his arrest for murdering a State Trooper;

    His story was that another cop shot the trooper. But a further look into his history puts the killing in a different light. Darnell brags on another web page that he was held in the US Army’s Long Binh jail in Vietnam in 1968;

    A quick check of Wikipedia, tells the tale of what happened in Long Binh jail in 1968 at about the same time Darnell claims he was held there;

    And here’s a screen cap of a video he produced and put on his MySpace page about Amerikkka;

    Anything you want to add, Darnell?

  • Hanoi Jane, the rash that won’t heal

    1stCAVRVN11b and someone else wanted me to tell you about the Jane Fonda re-emergence last week (from NY Post’s Page Six);

    Here’s part of the transcript of a 1995 Wall Street Journal interview from former North Vietnamese General Bui Tan who now lives in Paris because of his dissatisfaction with the Vietnamese government;

    Question: How did Hanoi intend to defeat the Americans?

    Answer: By fighting a long war which would break their will to help South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh said,
    “We don’t need to win military victories, we only need to hit them until they give up and get out.”

    Q: Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi’s victory?
    A: It was essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us.

    Q: Did the Politburo pay attention to these visits?
    A: Keenly.

    Q: Why?
    A: Those people represented the conscience of America. The conscience of America was part of its war-making capability, and we were turning that power in our favor. America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize a will to win.


    From US Veterans Dispatch;

    In late 1987, when it became known that Fonda planned to film her new movie “Stanley & Iris,” in Waterbury, Conn., there was a huge backlash from local veterans. Veterans held rallies, promising violent demonstrations if the filming began. Many bumper stickers reading “I’M NOT FONDA HANOI JANE,” begin appearing throughout the community. On June 18, 1988, Fonda flew to Waterbury in an attempt to pacify the veterans. She met with them for four hours. Fonda later recalled “I told them my story – why I was antiwar and why I had gone to Vietnam.”

    A few weeks later Fonda appeared on TV with Barbara Walters and apologized saying: “I’m very sorry for some of what I did…I’d like to say something not just to the veterans in Waterbury but to the men in Vietnam who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of the things I said or did. I feel I owe them an apology…There were times when I was thoughtless and careless…I’m very sorry that I hurt them.”

    And now she’s fund raising for IVAW.

  • Guantanamo ex-guards report hearsay

    Several people have sent me this Associated Press article about a Baby Huey-looking guy, Brandon Neeley, who claims to have been a guard at Guantanamo. For two days now, I’ve been reading his testimony and the testimony of another supposed Guantanamo guard, Terry C. Holdbrooks, Jr. that has been posted on the UC Davis Human Rights Project on Guantanamo.

    First, I probably don’t need to say this, but Neeley is the president of the Houston chapter of IVAW;

    Neeley seems to be fairly forthright in his testimony, to the apparent chagrin of the interviewer who is hoping for stories of children imprisoned at Gitmo, sexual abuse of prisoners, torture stories of waterboarding, the fingerprints of Rumsfeld and Bush on detainee abuse. To his credit, Neeley gives them none of that.

    (more…)

  • The IVAW placement test

    Like most organizations, the IVAW has a questionnaire so that new members can be placed in the appropriate role within the organization. We here at the This Ain’t Hell Secret Squirrel Operations Center have come into possession of some of the questions from one of our operatives;

    Which best describes your relationship to the war in Iraq;
    a. I served honorably with at least one complete tour in Iraq.
    b. I joined during the war against Iraq hoping to go but I never left my home state.
    c. I joined during the war against Iraq, but as soon as I found out that they actually planned on sending me, I bravely ran like a scalded ape to Canada.
    d. I served in Poland and Korea during the Iraq War – which is almost like combat.
    e. I was within sight of the Pentagon on 9-11-2001 and drew my weapon from the arms room, but then I took leave. I caught PTSD from the pizza guys who used to deliver at the barracks where I pulled CQ runner?
    e. I first heard of Iraq at this recruiting table while filling out this application.

    Which best characterizes your military service;
    a. I was honorably discharged with many real awards.
    b. I have an honorable discharge, but I’m willing to put it in jeopardy by making useless points and engage in mental circle jerks.
    c. I was OTH discharged because I got tired of doing stuff. I stopped by the PX on my way off-post and stocked up on lots of medals that I think I deserve.
    d. I did OK until after Initial Reception Station – I didn’t get any awards for my 43 days of active duty, but I have no problem pretending I was a Ranger and committed many atrocities.

    One of our remote operatives (Codename: Claymore) dug up some more questions;

    When you met with your recruiter, did they promise ________?
    a. you would be drinking beer from a hooker’s bellybutton 4 nights a week, after Madden 2009 tournaments of course.
    b. uniforms were being redesigned by Marc Ekko to better reflect a hip, youthful style.
    c. combat would be limited between 1100hrs to 1400hrs so you could study for your bartender’s degree.
    d. DI’s would let you sleep in if you really needed it.

    What best describes your reasons for enlisting in the service?
    a. I joined hoping to pay for college…oh, and to have casual sex with mannish looking women that have low self-esteem.
    b. I joined after playing a marathon session of Call Of Duty and Red Bull.
    c. I got my girlfriend knocked up and this was the easiest way to escape getting the sh!t beat out of me by her dad.
    d. I consider it an honor to serve my country…nah, just kidding, I heard you could score some good pot over in Europe if you were in the military.

    Describe your military experience.
    a. I barely passed the ASVAB, barely passed basic, barely passed a-school and then when they tried to ship me into Iraq, I decided I was too smart to die in a war for oil.
    b. I have always been a pacifist, despite enlisting as a sniper/grenadier/ninja assassin, so I was deeply disturbed when I was told I would be assigned as a rifleman in a combat unit.
    c. I joined to learn about computers but no one told me that the military used computers on the battlefield. I just wanted a free trip to Germany. My country is full of fascists.
    d. I was a fourth generation military officer with dreams of becoming a US Senator. Since I’m from a near-socialist north-eastern state, I figured my best chance at getting elected was to dishonor myself and pin the blame on the government.

    Describe the various war crimes you were ordered to perform while in the service.
    a. I tortured civilians in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan.
    b. I forced little kids to eat un-heated MREs.
    c. I once tripped over an Iraqi’s dog while looking for a hiding place while my buddies were taking fire. The dog didn’t make it.
    d. I heard that our sergeant shot up some guy’s car with the ma-deuce until he hit the fuel tank and it exploded like Rosie O’Donnell after a 3 hr bended at Taco Bell.

    There are hundreds of these questionnaires floating around, so if you find some, please report it in the comments section so we can compile a complete list.

  • Shepherd wins “peace prize” for cowardice

    I hate to keep writing about this dork, Andre Shepherd, but it just gets more ridiculous every day. Someone sent me a link to an AFP story on Military.com which reports that some smelly hippies are awarding Shepherd a “peace prize”;

    The Munich American Peace Committee said it was awarding the prize to Shepherd for his “courage and conviction in despite of the possibly extreme punishment from the US authorities” and “for publicising your convictions to give other soldiers the courage also to leave the army and to push for peace.”

    “Extreme punishment”? Like sleeping on a bed of two layers of newspaper pages on a concrete floor in a dank tropical prison windowless cell with a milk carton for a toilet. Brown warm water and bread for breakfast, fish head soup (complete with real fish head) and rice for lunch, spaghetti noodles with ketchup for supper? A shower once-a-week? A beating every morning for not waking up soon enough? That’s what my days were like in a prison somewhere. So what kind of “extreme punishment” are the smelly hippies trying to convince us Shepherd would suffer.

    Well, at least these hippies left the country.

    Poor Shepherd can’t accept the award personally;

    While Shepherd’s asylum application is being assessed, he is not allowed to travel beyond the confines of Karlsruhe in southern Germany where he is staying at a refugee-processing centre, Friedrich said.

    Figures that he’d find some laws he can obey when his fat ass is on the line.

    Other Shepherd posts.

  • Andre Shepherd’s hearing

    Our buddy, Andre Shepherd, the fellow who deserted from his support battalion in Germany and spent a year hiding out with punk rock bands and admitted commie Darnell Stephen Summers has finally had his hearing with the German government requesting asylum from the evil US government.

    The whole basis of his claim that he needs asylum is because desertion is a capitol crime. It’s not played up that much in the US press because it’s pretty ridiculous. The last soldier that the Army executed, John A. Bennett, was hanged April 16, 1961 after being convicted of a January 1955 rape of an 11-year-old Austrian girl who Bennett also tried to drown after the rape. Shepherd’s crime hardly rises to the level of rape and attempted murder.

    The last deserter to be executed by the Army was Eddie Slovik on January 31, 1945, and despite the fact that 21,000 soldiers deserted in World War Two and 49 were given death sentences, only Slovik was executed.

    But that doesn’t stop Shepherd from tugging at the Euro-weinies’ heart strings;

    If I were to be found guilty of such a crime, U.S. military regulations state they have the right to convict me with a penalty of death.

    In Cleveland.com, Shepard is quoted making the most ridiculous claim;

    In an interview Monday, Shepherd said, “I will definitely fight on, as I don’t believe I or anyone else should be prosecuted for doing what they think is right.”

    I’m sure we can parade a slew of criminals in front of Shepherd that would say the same thing about their respective crimes.

    The Cleveland.com article also thinks that 80,000 soldiers in Germany waiting for Shepherd to be granted asylum so they can all go AWOL, too.

    The case could have profound legal and political implications. If Shepherd is granted asylum, it could open the door for other applications from the up to 80,000 U.S. soldiers based in Germany.

    Tim Huber from the Military Counseling Network, which has been working with Shepherd, said in an interview Monday, “There would not be a whole lot stopping U.S. soldiers walking off their base” to claim asylum..

    I don’t think they realize how much damage they’re doing to Shepherd’s case by speculating that Germany could be deluged with 80,000 layabouts applying for asylum. Not that I think there’s even one soldier awaiting the outcome of this case – it’s just that Germans aren’t real pleased with the last couple of bunches of asylum-seekers they had come in to their country. They didn’t even like the East Germans at first.

    I’m pretty sure I know how this case will end up – the same way all of those deserters’ cases in Canada turned out. The Germans know, as well as the Canadians know, Shepherd, or any other deserter, won’t be put to death – and that’s the only thing they don’t like about the US justice system.

    This is just Shepherd’s way of avoiding his responsibilities completely – not going to Iraq and not willing to go to jail for breaking his promises and forcing his duties on his comrades. I’m pretty sure the Germans have their heads screwed on straight and they’ll turn Shepherd over to military authorities after they finish their hearing procedures. And of course, the Left will whine from now until the end of time about it.

    Thanks to several people who’ve sent me links over the past week about Shepherd.

  • Shiftless hippies plan March March

    ANSWER and their attendant allies are planning their annual (well, except last year) March on the Pentagon trying to recreate their hey-day of the sixties. The list of participant organization reads like the index of Discover the Networks;

    Vets for Peace, IVAW, World Can’t Wait, Cindy Sheehan, Ron Kovic, the rotting corpse of Ramsey Clark, Edward Jabba the Asner – a regular Who’s Who of irrelevant hippie trash with juvenile opinions. The complete list is here. I hope the temperature doesn’t drop a few degrees – that was their excuse for poor attendance in 2007 when they were out numbered by Gathering of Eagles.

    So, why, in the Age of Obama are they planning on marching? ANSWER’s website says;

    President Obama decided to keep the Pentagon just as it was under Bush. He even selected Bush appointee Robert Gates to keep his position as chief of the Pentagon. Gates announced that the new administration would double the number of troops sent to Afghanistan. That is certainly not the “change” most people thought was coming following the end of Bush’s tenure.

    These are wars for domination in the Middle East and Central Asia.

    Why would the US want to dominate these shit holes? Oil? Why would we want to go through the trouble of fighting and then administering foreign people when we have enough oil to sustain us for decades in our own country that we won’t touch? Seems it’d be easier to dominate some pussy-assed shiftless hippies in the environmental movement than some bomb throwing Stone Age tribes of the Middle East.

    No matter who is in charge in this country, there’s a vocal element who will never be happy. Even if we returned to the Stone Age in this country and live in caves rubbing sticks together for fire, they’ll still find something to complain about – well, if they survive without being eaten by the rest of us.