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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • Life’s a bitter shame, [He’s] going off the rails on a crazy train…

    (Title from Ozzie)

    It’s about 2:30 am right now and I am in no shape to write this blog post, but I have to get this on the record. I haven’t been sleeping much lately and I have been mixing gin and Xanax to cope with all the anxiety I have been dealing with lately, but here goes nothing.

    If I wrote those words there would have been an intervention by about 2:45am. But coming from Adam Kokesh, I doubt it struck anyone as odd. I had held off posting this for damn near forever, but his increasingly bizarre behavior is honestly starting to concern me, and hopefully some of his IVAW brethren will help him get some help.The first sign that things were amiss with the Cult of Personality was when the Matthis Chiroux drama began. At the time, Sunday June 15 Adam wrote that:

    (more…)

  • Delusional Congress

    On July 14th, Michael Yon typed these words;

    The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What’s left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved, so those spectacular attacks are diminishing along with the regular violence.

    Yon verified what we all believed and what we’ve all hoped for since the surge began. Fewer Americans died last month than at anytime since the war begun. CNN reports that the troops in Iraq are itching to go to Afghanistan to finish off al Qaeda. But on July 11th, 13 members of Congress were urging the President to surrender in Iraq;

    letter.jpg

    It’s as if we all live in different worlds. The signatories of that letter are;

    letter-sigs.jpg

    That was a letter that these Congress people wrote in support of IVAW’s newest celebrity Matthis Chiroux to help him get out of the trouble he’s brought on himself by refusing to report for duty in Iraq…last month. In the letter these members of Congress “reaffirm their support for all military members who speak out, advocate and otherwise support efforts to bring the troops home.” I wonder how often these particular members of Congress have thought about supporting all military members. Period.

    I found this letter on IVAW’s website posted yesterday. Whatever will the Iraq Veterans Against the War do when there is no war in Iraq? It’s almost over now, and they’re still trying to surrender. That probably explains why they’re acting like maniacs. You’ll see what I mean by that when TSO does his latest post on Adam Kokesh.

  • I stepped in another pile of IVAW this morning.

    Meet Reagan Sullivan on left, one of the masterminds of the noted think tank that is IVAW.

    reagan.jpg

    Reagan Sullivan [Iraq Veterans Against The War]
    Branch: United States Army (USA) [Ed: Canon Cocker]
    Home: New Mexico
    I served 3 years in the ARNG, 3 years active duty. Spent one year in Iraq (OIF1).

    I had resolved last week not to do anymore posts on IVAW, but sometimes they just make it necessary. I’m going to repost his post from IVAW under Fair Use, and sprinkle in my comments.

    (more…)

  • IVAW’s Adam “Fallujah” Kokesh confronts Conyers

    Former lance corporal Adam Kokesh (who’s been to Falluja) and his merry band of geriatrics from the Veterans for Peace pressed John Conyers on the impeachment of the President and Vice President on Capitol Hill last week. Conyers tells the gang of imbeciles that he hasn’t made up his mind yet what he’s going to do about impeachment.

    Let me translate that for those of you who don’t know Conyer’s history; Conyers has nothing to impeach Bush and Cheney for. It’s that simple. If Conyers had something on them, he’d be shouting it from the rooftops.

    Conyers was part of the crew who tried to slow the Senate’s “advice and consent” of Vice President Ford so the House could impeach Nixon leaving the Presidency slot to the Democrat Speaker of the House and overturning the 1972 election. Conyers is a purely partisan hitman for the Democrats. If he “hasn’t decided” what to do about impeachment, it’s because he’s empty-handed.

    The YouTube video;

    [youtube Evey795noUA nolink]

    It seems that since Kokesh has been busted publicly on his misuse of the rank of sergeant, now he begins every conversation with the fact that he’s been to Falluja to wrap himself in the glory of the heroes of that battle. The story he tells Conyers sounds suspiciously similar to the story Logan Laituri told at Winter Soldier, and his story was meant to tug at Conyer’s heart strings.

    Believe me, boys, Conyers doesn’t need to see your disappointed faces to convince him to impeach. What he realizes that you gumballs of the Left can’t seem to grasp is that there’s no impeachable offense. But Conyers blames his reticent behavior on that nebulous “corporate media”. You’ve used that excuse to cover up your shortcomings, too, so you should recognize it as camoflage when someone else uses it on you.

    But the IVAW and VFP and Code Pink and all of the rest are just using the impeachment fantasy to raise money from the ignorant masses anyway.

    Impeachment advocates in Michigan met with Conyers last week and got the same cock-and-bull story from Conyers along with a hint that Conyers has tricks up his sleeve;

    “He has sent mixed signals all along,” said David Redemann, a citizen supporter of impeachment. “This meeting was more of the same.” Conyers said that he and Kucinich would discuss the matter with the other House members to see if there was any support for it. But he warned that the conservative Blue Dog Democrats, as well as Democrats who are serving their first term in Congress, would be unlikely to support impeaching Bush for crimes he committed while in office.

    Conyers also hinted that alternative measures could be taken so that Bush and his allies could be tried for crimes after they leave office.

    The Milwaukee advocates argued that impeachment proceedings would help Democrats in the November election, since voters want the president and vice president to be held accountable for their actions in office.

    Well, folks, welcome to the real world. You can wish on a star all you want, but dreams don’t always come true – especially when your fantasies have no basis in reality.

    Conyers, Pelosi, Reid, Kucinich and all of the rest are just stringing you along like they did to get your vote in 2006. Remember how they promised to end the war in Iraq? Here we are nearly two years later and all they’ve done is make empty gestures. Remember this video:

    [youtube Nc5lHXkrdQ8 nolink]

    The Democrats know they can’t impeach, but they also know you’re stupid enough to believe that they can impeach the President and Vice President. Hey, you fell for it once. They figure you’ll forget all about it after the Bush Administration is gone. And you will.

  • The Ron Paul Revolution in full swing

    Ron Paul 046

    Ron Paulians filled Constitution Avenue this morning to bring the “Second Revolutionary War” to Washington. I’ll admit that it was a pretty big crowd, the website had over 15,000 people pledged to come, but it looked like less than half that many showed up, but it was fairly impressive nonetheless. Well, compared to their gathering in April and the gatherings of other moonbats I’ve witnessed lately.

    (more…)

  • Of Deserters and Drama Queens

    Meet Corey Glass.

    corey-glass.bmp

     This is Corey’s Story:

    In 2002, I joined the Indiana National Guard. When I joined, I was told I would only be in combat if there were troops occupying the United States.

    I signed up to defend people and do humanitarian work filling sandbags if there was a hurricane. I had no conception I would be deployed to fight on foreign shores.

    Way to do your research.  If you are volunteering for something that is 8 years long, wouldn’t a certain amount of due diligence be advisable?  I mean come on people.  He did do his research on desertion though.

    So anyway, on leave he runs away to Canada and becomes the cause celebre!  The Court there ruled he had to be sent packing, and so the  parliament voted in a non-binding resolution that he should be allowed to stay.  Meanwhile:

    With no word yet from the federal government, neighbours, concerned citizens, residents of Toronto’s Parkdale community, and Iraq War resisters will hold a rally to stop the deportation of Corey Glass, 7 p.m., Thursday, July 3 at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge (1 block east of Lansdowne, north of Queen W.)

    All good and fine. Only one miniscule problem:

    “He is not considered absent without leave. He is not considered a deserter,” Maj. Nathan Banks, a U.S. army spokesman, told ABC. “He is running for no reason. He is fully welcome in the United States. I cannot believe this is a big deal in Canada.”

    How DARE the US Army rob the deserters of their poster child!  The gall of such people as Major Nathan Banks!

    Meanwhile, we are on day 18 of Matthis Chiroux held hostage at the IVAW house.  No doubt law enforcement is failing to move because they are frightened of the statement of Kokesh:

    Should any military or law enforcement personnel come here, to MY house, they will not be welcome, nor will they find removing him from the premises to be physically tenable.

    That means his combat tour at IVAW house now exceeds that in Iraq and Afghanistan combined by a magnitude of 3.

     How we’ve managed to overcome the loss of a sole Army Journalist I think is truly a testament to how versatile we are as an Army.  I figured we would have caved by now and begged him:  “Help us Matthis Chiroux, you are our only hope.”

    The force is strong in these two.  Must be the high Midi-chlorians level.

     This post brought to you by TSO: a welcome respite from the otherwise intellectually stimulating blogosphere.

  • Pass the platitudes, please

    I got an email last night from a irate reader. It was a policy of this blog to not write about emails, but lately they’ve been getting a bit extreme – like the guy who wrote me about how I didn’t understand anything about combat but he did because he’d been a recruiter in southeast DC in the 90s.

    But last night’s missive was about a post I wrote early last week entitled “IVAW’s Matt Howard is a dumbass” about one of the extremely stupid morons who told the bobbleheads at Winter Soldier that the US is disposing of it’s nuclear waste by firing it from tanks in Iraq. He went on to explain that we are “changing the human genome”. He didn’t offer any proof, just empty words. And of course, the bobbleheads did what bobbleheads do.

    Well, this young lady (I have to assume the writer was a woman since her email address was lotusblossom84 – either that or a guy with a piss-poor sense for cool screen names) writes that my blog…

    SUCKS!!!

    Thanks for bashing my IVAW friend, Matt Howard… Your intellect is smaller than the size of a crayon.

    Thanks for promoting bigotry, racism of other cultures, war violence and war crimes, Republican lies, environmental destruction, corporate American greed, hegemony and imperialism…. and the list goes on and on.

    Peace is patriotic, you fool…
    And the war on terror can never been won, simply because war is terrorism!!
    Take your white blinders off, you Republican slug!!
    Hilary

    “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people”
    Howard Zinn

    How many other empty platitudes can you cram into one email? It reads like protest signs piled up on the sidewalk. I’d like for the youngster to point out one post where I promoted bigotry or anything else she claims I promote.

    Peace is patriotic? When have I other said otherwise? Waving an upside down flag isn’t patriotic, though – in fact it’s the complete opposite of patriotism. And tell me…why my blinders got to be white, girlfriend?

    Yes, we should stop fighting the war against terrorists because you say we should stop and you say it can’t be won. We’ll start on that in the morning.

    Quoting Howard Zinn? I’d have more respect for you if you’d quoted Howard the Duck.

    If you’re boinking Howard (the Matt), please use protection…don’t curse the planet with what could possibly be the stupidest children ever.

  • Would that I resided in the city of Brotherly Love…

    Any time not spent following around my Muse Ms Skye (who until the restraining order could find refuge in the Art Museum) would be spent attending these absolutely absurd gatherings.  To wit:

    Philadelphia: In celebration of the American Revolution, Iraq Veterans Against the War will hold a “Patriots’ Town Hall Gathering” on July 2 at 5:30PM on the 3rd Floor of the AFSCME District Council 47 Union Hall, located at 1606 Walnut St.

    I love the Patriots, from Ethan Allen to Tom F’n Brady, so this sounds like it would totally be my speed!  But who is speaking?  Belichick?  Larry Izzo?  Randy Moss?  John Paul Jones via ouija board?  The head of John Paul Jones preserved Futurama style in a jar of formaldehyde?

    The keynote speakers for this event will be John Braxton, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee Member, and T.J. Buonomo, IVAW Organizer and Former Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army.

     On second thought, maybe I’ll drink rat poison and watch re-runs of the Golden Girls.

     So, who is John Braxton?  Someone who did time for dodging the draft apparently:

    “I will not accept a deferment from killing in order to let others do it for me,” he told his draft board in Norristown.

    “The very public way I went about protesting the war made it very hard for the government to ignore me,” Braxton said in an interview last week. “It had become clear to me after seeing the destruction in Vietnam that the draft system was central to the prosecution of the war. I felt very committed to my course of action.”

    Well, isn’t that special.

    He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.  The president of his senior class at Swarthmore, Braxton served his time in three prisons — two in central Pennsylvania and one in Petersburg, Va.

    Bully!  (Insert Teddy Roosevelt voice here)

    Well, what about Buonomo?  Since he’s an “organizer” for Iraq Veterans Against the War, maybe he can regale us with war stories?  Afraid not, unless there was an un-talked about skirmish in Colorado Springs or New York.  Mr. Buonomo went to the Air Force Academy on your dime, then decided that discussing the treachery and perfidy of VP Cheney was the way to pay back the American People.

     I’ve been a big fan of Buonomo’s for a while now.  In particular, his various treatises are a source of unending mirth for me.  Loved (LOVED!!) this one in particular:

     “Communist”, “Hippie”, “Terrorist-sympathizer”, “Haji-lover”, “Anti-American”…these are the terms that have been used to describe me and anyone who dares to question the government and take a stand against its abuses of power.

    As I noted at the Sniper, we call you a communist when you espouse forced economic re-allocation. We call you a hippie when you fail to use deodorant, and play an acoustic guitar while cooking s’mores and smoking pot around a campfire. We call you Terrorist-sympathizers when you sympathize with the terrorists. Do I need to go on, or are you in one of your infrequent, cognitively-conscious stages?

    Mr. Braxton will speak on the struggle of Iraqi workers to unionize in the face of U.S. and Iraqi government repression. Mr. Buonomo will speak on the legacy of the American Revolution and its relevance to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.

    TSO will be appearing at an Independence ceremony at Murphy’s Irish Pub, discussing the leadership of Leonidas at Thermopylae, and the role that played in the Sam Adams Brewing company’s selection of choicest hops for use in their summer ale, and how this is all an allegory for the plight of our tri-gendered community.

    murphys.jpg