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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • Anti-war clowns feel cold slap of reality

    Obama was their hope, he was their change. The far Left tossed Hillary Clinton aside and stalked Nancy Pelosi because they weren’t quite as anti-war as the moonbats had hoped. Obama was the hope – but now, not so much.

    The World Socialist Web Site laments the appointment of Robert Gates to another year at the helm of the Pentagon as the absolute betrayal of the Left by Obama;

    Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination over Senator Hillary Clinton in large measure because he appealed to the same antiwar sentiments that had propelled the Democrats to their victory in the 2006 congressional elections. His mantra throughout the primary campaign—a rebuke to Clinton and other rival Democratic candidates who had voted for war in the Senate—was that he would end the war in Iraq, “a war that should never have been authorized and never been fought.”

    Now, with the retention of Gates at the Pentagon, and the widely reported offer of the State Department to Clinton—as well as the selection of a slew of pro-war figures for lesser national security positions—Obama is reassuring the military, the intelligence agencies and the ruling elite as a whole that he will be firmly committed to the defense of US imperialism, including clinging to every inch of territory and every drop of oil secured by the Bush administration’s criminal aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    I’ll tell them right now, that no honorable person can take the oath of office and do what the Left expects of him. Before they got their cold slap of reality, Obama got one, too. That anti-war stuff worked on the BDS sufferers in the Democrat Party, but it didn’t work in the general election. Obama hardly mentioned the war after he won the primaries. He knows what the Left won’t accept – Americans don’t want to suffer another post-defeat period like we did after Vietnam.

    So, in a related piece, someone named Dee Knight writes that the key to ending the war is veterans and currently-serving military personnel;

    Whether President Obama plans to live up to the promise or not is beside the point, especially for the GIs: they want to go home and they don’t want to wait. We should look closely at this. We need to assess the mood of the GIs and their families. We should not expect it to be uniform, but we can be sure there will be a surging mood to get out of Iraq . And a lot of GIs will want to get out of Afghanistan – or stay out of it – at least as strongly. This mood could take many forms: petitions, sit-downs, AWOLs, etc.

    The vets’ and resistance movements should encourage the idea that the GIs can and will end the war NOW. And we should demand that the new president not only bring the troops home, but also:

    Make a serious effort to heal the wounds of the vets who were forced to fight there;
    Help vets get jobs and education;
    Grant unconditional amnesty to those vets and resisters who are either in exile or jail/brig/stockade, or suffering the long-term effects of less than honorable discharges.

    Granting amnesty to the criminals isn’t going to help the folks who’ve done their job. It won’t “heal their wounds” or help them get jobs and education. If one single event turned veterans against Jimmy Carter and the Democrats it was when Carter gave amnesty to draft dodgers. Many haven’t forgiven the Democrats since (it was what turned me away from Democrats). But the anti-war crowd has found their voice and rebuilt the momentum they lost after Vietnam. They’ve learned that they need a continuity of their movement beyond their political goals.

    The Left’s refusal to turn loose of their anti-war blather at this point only reinforces our continued need to support the legitimate and proven VSOs as well as the new arrivals like Gathering of Eagles, Move America Forward and Eagles Up. Our side used to condemn them for not speaking up against the Clinton Wars, we’d be just as hypocritical if we didn’t continue to support the troops during an Obama Administration. The anti-war clowns are planning anti-war activities in the Spring and we need to continue to show up, to be seen and to be heard supporting the US war against terror.

    This blog will continue in that endeavor – and we’ll continue to point out the idiots and ass clowns who try to undermine the morale and good order and discipline in the military.

  • More phony soldier BS

    Yeah, yeah, I know. The whole purpose of milblogs is to elevate the opinion Americans have of our military members…I’ve been lectured on that recently. Several times. However, our military members come from our own society. When our culture is sick, some of the members of our military – a very small percentage…less than .001% – are going to be bad actors.

    When I was a NCO, one of our tenets was to never ignore a deficiency, whether it was low vehicle fluid levels, a dirty weapon, some doofus walking down the street in November with his uniform sleeves rolled up and his hands in his pocket or a cigarette butt on the ground.

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  • Anti-war groups fear pro-war Obama cabinet

    I picked this up from some people I don’t normally agree with over at The Common Ills. Well, I do agree with them on may things concerning IVAW, but their post today pointed me towards a Paul Richter piece in the LA Times entitled “Antiwar goups fear Barack Obama may create hawkish cabinet“. The anti-war clubs think they put Obama in office and they seem disturbed that Obama is moving away from them;

    The activists are uneasy not only about signs that both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates could be in the Obama Cabinet, but at reports suggesting that several other short-list candidates for top security posts backed the decision to go to war.

    “Obama ran his campaign around the idea the war was not legitimate, but it sends a very different message when you bring in people who supported the war from the beginning,” said Kelly Dougherty, executive director of the 54-chapter Iraq Veterans Against the War.

    The activists — key members of the coalition that propelled Obama to the White House — fear he is drifting from the antiwar moorings of his once-longshot presidential candidacy. Obama has eased the rigid timetable he had set for withdrawing troops from Iraq, and he appears to be leaning toward the center in his candidates to fill key national security posts.

    The Common Ills thinks they were foolish to believe him in the first place and foolish to make the war their central case against Hillary Clinton;

    …an IVAW contingent already embarrassed themselves publicly in Denver. They staged a protest at the Democratic Party convention. They were getting press attention inside the convention because — as the press gas bagged — wasn’t Barack the alleged ‘anti-war’ candidate and here was IVAW protesting him. Phones were buzzing, it was going to be the big story. And Team Obama was being asked to comment. So Team Obama sent Tall Tales from Texas out to the protest to make a lot of meaningless remarks that sounded like promises but were nothing more than standard ‘rap session’ b.s. (“I know where you’re coming from,” said Barnes.) They bought into that crap hook, line and sinker. And gave interviews where they were excited about Barack (the War Hawk!) and he was going to do this or that and maybe they’d be onstage tonight during his big speech and . . . . It was all so thrilling people might pee their pants!

    Reality check, they were punked and everyone knew it right away (including the press — not always notorious for grasping reality immediately) except IVAW.

    They stopped their protest and there was no story (certainly nothing that would embarrass Barack). Barack turned them into props for the 2008 election.

    I said the same thing and several times since. While Code Pink declares that they ended the war in Iraq by electing Obama, while IVAW chirps about meetings with Obama’s staff, they still don’t realized they’re just being strung along. They threw Hillary Clinton under the bus for her vote in 2002, so now they get her for Secretary of State. And they’re also getting the Senate Majority Leader who wrangled the vote for the war in Iraq and the airline bailout for his wife’s industry in 2001 – Tom Daschle – in the Obama cabinet. Even King of the Dolts, John Kerry, is being considered for a posting. From the Richter LA Times piece;

    “It’s astonishing that not one of the 23 senators or 133 House members who voted against the war is in the mix,” said Sam Husseini of the liberal group Institute for Public Accuracy.

    Not really astonishing – I’ve been saying all along that they were being played by Obama. I remember that Jon DeWald, the IVAW’s new intellectual spokesman, came here and explained how this was a genuine gesture on the part of the Obama campaign. So who gets the last laugh?

    Would they be better off with Hillary? Not as far as the war is concerned, but at least they knew where she stands on a issue, she wouldn’t necessarily intentionally lie as Obama apparently has done.

    Kevin Martin, executive director of the group Peace Action, said that although Obama had campaigned as an agent of change, the president-elect is “a fairly centrist guy” who appears to be choosing from the Democratic foreign policy establishment — “and nobody from outside it.”

    “So, in the short term, we’re going to be disappointed,” he said. “They may turn out to be all pro-war, or at least people who were pro-war in the beginning.”

    So, all that Hope and Change stuff is out the window. So Code Pink and IVAW get tossed under the bus – not that it’s a bad thing. I also get word that ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice applied six months ago for protest permits in DC for March 21st and the protest is still on. From a blogging standpoint, an Obama presidency is looking like good for business.

  • IVAW: “send mccain back to his cage at the hanoi hilton”

    NOTE: Title of this thread comes from the CAPTION on the IVAW facebook website in support of their unlawful, horseshoe wannabes from NY.

    First a little background. Back in October, the miscreants and phony combat veterans of IVAW attended the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University. According to Democracy Now:

    Outside the Obama-McCain debate, at least fifteen people were arrested at a protest organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War. IVAW member Nick Morgan was left bloodied and nearly unconscious after being trampled by a police officer on horseback. […] The protest was organized by IVAW members Matthis Chiroux and Kris Goldsmith. Last week, Chiroux sent a letter to CBS debate moderator Bob Schieffer spelling out the demands of IVAW and demanding that at least two veterans be allowed entry into the debate to ask Senators Obama and McCain one question each. He did not receive a response.

    So, they didn’t listen to police, got trampled. You mess with the bull, you get the horns, son. But, Matthis is VERY brave, as evidenced by the heroic 6 days he spent on Bagram Air Base which constituted his complete and total deployment anywhere that had lead poisoning going around.

    Last week, Kelly Dougherty, Executive Director of IVAW informed the IVAW Watching community that at long last peace and justice would be served, to wit, that President-Elect Obama would be visiting with IVAW:

    IVAW has been working to hold a face-to-face meeting with now President-elect and members of his staff. Our hard work has paid off! We’ve recently been contacted by a member of President-elect Obama’s veteran staff and will be meeting with representatives of both his Veteran and Foreign Affairs Committees this month. This is a huge opportunity for IVAW to assert our voice and perspective at a new level and to continue to demand accountability for ending the occupation.

    Now, I found that piece of shit above a little bit ago, and decided to see what would happen if anything. The so-called Hempstead 15 have their own Facebook site devoted to explaining how the fascist police of Nassau are all undercover stormtroopers led by Darth Cheney, and their death steeds are a menace to freedom loving people’s everywhere. The leaders of this website are none other than Chiroux and Goldsmith:

    So anyway, go look at the pictures.  Just look up “I support the Hempstead 15” in facebook and you will find them.  The one captioned “send mccain back to his cage at the hanoi hilton”  is picture # 24/34.

    Now, this picture has been up there since October 20. That is 3 days shy of a month ago. It was posted by one of their supporters, Aron Kay. Look at his picture, and note who the second from the right friend of his is.  (If youcan’t make it out, he’s at least “facebook friends” with Bill Ayers.)

    Aron “The Pieman” Kay has an AWESOME website which proudly proclaims:

    THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    SUPPORT OUR COMRADES IN ST.PAUL!
    BUSTED FOR:
    OPPOSING THE REPUKELIKKKAN WAR MACHINE

    FREE THE RNC 8 NOW

    “Pieman” has a hell of a bio on that page as well, but I’m not linking to it, cause this dude clearly gets off on any attention he gets:

    Two figures have been especially prominent in the rise of confectionery as an instrument of political protest. In the U.S. left-wing activist Aron Kay has been dubbed “The Pieman” for a whole series of attacks stretching across almost three decades, and including such victims as right-wing political commentator William F. Buckley, former CIA director William Colby and former New York Mayor Abe Beame.

    Now, several things. Yes, this picture was uploaded by some unhinged lunatic, and not IVAW directly. BUT THE DAMN PICTURE HAS BEEN THERE FOR 28 DAYS WITHOUT IVAW and the HEMPSTEAD 15 TAKING IT DOWN.

    Second, whenever a picture is uploaded to your group on Facebook, you get an email letting you know of that fact.

    Third, since that picture was put up, an additional 23 have been added by various people, including phony Afghan Combat veteran Matthis Chiroux. You would have to ascribe to a theory that he put the pics up, then didn’t bother to go an check out his own site in order to buy into what I am sure will be the inevitable “we didn’t see it” defense.

    Fourth: Yes, I know the source of the pamphlet is a anarchist group.  They are loons.  But IVAW keeps trying to portray itself as mainstream, and now they have a meeting with the President Elect and/or his staff.  How about you freak shows grow up and act like adults?  I don’t know anyone who takes you seriously, but apparently the White House does.

    I wonder if the Obama people understand just the type of lunatics they will be meeting with?

    Perhaps we ought to let him know?

     

    PS:  At least there may be 2 sane people in IVAW that disapprove:

    Selena Coppa (United States Army) wrote
    at 12:26pm
    You know, I do not like McCain’s policies, but that does not make stuff like this okay. This is not only not about the Hempstead 15, not supportive of the Hempstead 15, it’s also disrespectful to veterans. It’s the exact kind of attacks we condemn the right wing for making about us and our people. What happened to being the change we want to see in the world?

    Daniel Blain (Springfield, MA) wrote
    at 12:37pm
    We can’t defeat terror by becoming terror. Bush has tried for 8 years to fight terror with terror: it hasn’t worked. I agree with Selena – if we are going to change things, we have to be that change.
    Besides, McCain lost the election. How did Obama say it? “Don’t Boo: Vote.” and that’s what America did.

  • Veterans for Peace at the Archives

    Well, I’m back from my trip to the National Archives this morning and Vets For Peace still up there on the scaffolding. I asked three security guards separately if VfP been up there all night; one said he didn’t know, one said they had been up there all night and a third thought they were workers cleaning the building’s facade and didn’t know they were protesters until I told him.

    In the After Downing Street post yesterday, they quoted some guy who said he’d seen their banner from over two miles away – dude had good eyes. I parked a block away and didn’t see the banner until I got to Constitution Avenue across the street from the Archives;

    More pictures and video below the fold;

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  • Vets For Peace campout at National Archives…again (UPDATED)

    I’m getting reports that the Geezers for Peace are “occupying” the National Archives again. Of course, “occupying” to them doesn’t mean taking over the building or anything. it means they’re standing on a ledge like they always do. I can’t find pictures yet, but there are some from the last “occupation” my previous post about their last shot at a measure of relevance back in September.

    Actually, they claim that they’ve climbed 90 feet of scaffolding and standing on the roof this time, taking advantage of the fact that most of the cops in town are providing security at the G-20 meeting about a mile down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Archives. Well that’s what I hear anyway. They plan on being up there until Monday – if that’s true, I may go down there tomorrow and get some pictures.

    Their stated reasons for camping out on the roof of a Federal Building is to “insure Bush and Cheney are arrested” – you know, the standard horseshit line of these delusional children. All they’re really doing is trying to draw attention to themselves.

    My sources also tell me that belly-licking Matthis Chiroux, the notorious deserter and pretend victim of water-boarding for Maoist organizations is on the roof, too. I hope no one gets hurt and Matthis has to lick their owies. Chiroux is still calling himself “an Army Sergeant who served in Afghanistan” – he always leaves out the “for six days, give or take a few hours” part.

    To my joy, there’s rain predicted all night and the temperature will drop to 44 by morning. Maybe Matthis will discover what it’s really like to be a soldier finally.

    UPDATED: Gateway Pundit picked this up last night, too, a few hours behind my mole at IVAW. Here’s the only picture so far;

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  • IVAW gets a seat at Obama’s table

    When he was running to be everyone’s president, Barack Obama wouldn’t meet with General Petreaus while the general was commanding our efforts in Iraq. But now, it seems his staff will sit down with IVAW. A letter from Kelly Dougherty, the executive director of IVAW;

    IVAW has been working to hold a face-to-face meeting with now President-elect and members of his staff.  Our hard work has paid off!  We’ve recently been contacted by a member of President-elect Obama’s veteran staff and will be meeting with representatives of both his Veteran and Foreign Affairs Committees this month.  This is a huge opportunity for IVAW to assert our voice and perspective at a new level and to continue to demand accountability for ending the occupation.

    So I’m guessing that the IVAW will be presenting their three demands – immediate withdrawal from Iraq (before we win despite their best efforts), fully funded veteran services (one out of three) and full reparations to the Iraqi people (with what money?). I wonder when the Obama staff will meet with the grown ups.

    Dougherty continues;

    We  have been witness to the horror and violence of war and we are determined to give Americans a real eyewitness account of the occupations.

    We? Got a combat veteran mouse in your pocket, Kel? Doughtery’s testimony at Winter Soldier was confined to a single incident that involved KBR employees firing bean bags at Iraqi civilians to control the situation at the scene of an automobile accident. Oh, the horror. You know that’s the worst incident she witnessed because if she had more she’d have used other stories instead.

    Dougherty is also the person who told the House Progressive Caucus that they didn’t need to swear in any of the witnesses who testified to the committee because IVAW had already verified their testimony. I wonder if any of the banking CEOs who testified to Congress this morning got the same consideration.

    Thanks to my busy little mole for the tip.

    Welcome to Gateway Pundit readers.

  • They need jobs

    Some unidentified IVAW members snuck up on a gas station and, to use their word, they “raided” it by putting signs on the gas pumps and playing with toy soldiers in the road (what did their mothers tell them about playing in the street?). Their new slogan is W.A.N.T. (We Are Not Toys). You can watch them put all of their military training into standing up the tiny toys in this video they took;

    The sign they’re putting up refers to the antiquated empty-headed “War for Oil” slogan;

    And, of course, no IVAW mission is complete without displaying the flag upside down;

    Maybe if they had jobs, they’d have less time to make blunt points.