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

Category: Winter Soldier II Live blogging

  • IVAW takes the Road Show to Congress

    Well, your intrepid blogger immersed myself once again in the IVAW backwash. Thus Spake Ortner live blogged the hearing off the radio from the comfort of his Playboy Manor so you can probably read a more coherent version there. I’ve cracked open a Saranac Traditional Lager and I’m uploading pictures and suds while I type this.

    When I arrived – at exactly 7:30 – there was no one else there so I plugged in and started filming just in time to catch Geoff Millard doing what he does best – testing all of the microphones like a good little general’s gopher;

    [youtube m_mK0EkXOWc nolink]

    But they asked me to leave and wait in the hall. The VVAW already had a guy at the table to the enterance. You remember VVAW – the guys that are babysitting IVAW to give them some leverage and the benefit of IVAW’s vast experience at being blowhards. Soon after I arrived, I was overjoyed to see Coby show up – Coby is a member of the Free Republic, the Veterans for Freedom and the Gathering of Eagles and I’ve seen him at nearly every event I’ve attended this year. He’s also upwards of 6 feet tall and a very imposing figure. He set out to deliver the opposing view of the GOE to various Congressional offices on the floor. While we were talking, Army Sergeant showed up and we took a picture to prove that no matter how much we disagree, we’re still buds;

    Notice the VVAW guy horning in on our picture with the VVAW shirt – I’m sure Raoul knows who he is. He tried to talk to me once because we’re both wearing CIBs, but I know I earned mine, so I didn’t have much to say to him.

    Code Pinks drone hags showed up, but I wasn’t in the mood to photo them after spending Sunday at their clown picnic. Finally it was time to let us in the hearing room. Five old hippie chicks got ahead of me because they’d explained to the IVAW chic that they’d come a long way to be there. I’d come a long way, too. Glenmont’s at the end of the Red Line. Luckily, the Code Pink hags got there late and there was no room for them. For some reason they told Coby and I to sit next to each other. Whatever.

    There was no internet access, so I just typed out notes in Notepad. As I said, if you can’t get what’s going on, go to The Sniper.

    Woolsey opened the hearing. I got the impression she was talking to kindergartners and treating them with kid gloves – but that’s just me. I thought there would at least be an appearance of objectivity, but Woolsey blew that away in the first minute when she said that General Petraeus was telling Congress things that just “not so”. I’m pretty sure that Congress is supposed to rely on the testimony of people on the scene and not make judgements that are contrary to that unless they have evidence of some sort.

    The Barbara Lee got cranked up – I just videoed her because Woolsey had me a little sick;

    [youtube 6_I7L93iAVU nolink]

    Lee went on to say that Congress wanted to be at the Winter Soldier hearing in Silver Spring, but they were battling the Bush Administration at the time. Kucinich was there briefly, so actually, Lee was just trying to make excuses for not driving in crosstown traffic at rush hour. If they’d held Winter Soldier in Vegas or Jamaica, I’ll bet they’d have made it. It was on a weekend, there were no battles on weekends.

    Lee also said that she expected the testimony to be damaging to the Bush Administration – so much for the whole impartial scrutiny of all of the facts. Why were the IVAW even testifying to Congress if the outcome was already clear before the IVAW said a word? She went on to talk about the “cheerleading” and “false bravado” of the Right. So basically she was admitting that the only reason these folks were testifying to Congress was for the media’s sake, not the People of the United States.

    At no time were there more than four Congresswomen in the room – when Jackson-Lee left, she was replaced by Kaptur so despite the list of 73 names on the committee, only five bothered to listen – or at least to be there.

    First up was Kelly Doughtery in her fishnet stockings. At least she spared us the ridiculous storyof the KBR security folks shooting bean bags at Iraqi looter. By avoiding that story, she probably helped me stay in the hearings a little longer. But, just like my discussion with John Grant last week, she hasn’t been in Iraq since 2004 – none of the folks who testified had – what could she possibly say that would disparage General Petraeus’ testimony last month? Well, she didn’t. She explained that IVAW had already vetted all of the testimony, so there was no need for Congress to put the witnesses under oath.

    Hey, good enough for me. Can you imagine a defense attorney telling a judge that he’d already verified a defendant’s story so there’s no need to put his client under oath? Drivel.

    Jason Lemieux followed Kelly. He was discharged in 2006 – before General Petraeus took command. He began with the standard illegal war blather and testified to the destruction of property. His Rules of Engagement (ROE) were that he should shoot Iraqis that made him uncomfortable and he claimed that excessive force was routine.

    Lemieux recounted one incident, and began the story with the standard “I don’t remember the date”. His unit returned fire with thousands of rounds and Lemieux called it indiscriminate (even though he was in the headquarters and only heard the rounds being fired and didn’t witness the actual fire fight). IVAW seems to be fixated on destroyed buildings. Probably because most were so far from the action, all they got to see was destroyed buildings. He went on to say that troops aren’t fighting for democracy, or the flag, or the country…just for their own safety and that somehow makes them dangerous to Iraqis. We can only hope the Iraqis realize that.

    He was followed by Scott Ewing who mumbled so badly that I couldn’t hear him, but he did show us pictures of a messy house – I can only assume that the house was made messy by evil US forces searching an Iraqi home. Nothing was destroyed, just strewn about – like those houses the police enter on “Cops” and find the criminal hiding in the closet. Then he showed a Iraqi guy with his face shot off – Coby tells me that Waters and Woolsey both cried, I didn’t see that. But there was no back story to the photo – he didn’t say the guy was tortured or innocent or anything. The picture was for pure shock value. Waters and Woolsey bit.

    Then came Geoff Millard who trotted out his “troops are racists” line. I’m not going through it, his story hasn’t deviated from the version that Denis Keohane detailed at Obiter Dictum.

    Kristopher Goldsmith told the committee that he’d only joined the Army because he wanted to kill, that his longing for killing went back to his youth – but we shouldn’t be afraid of him because he’s not a killer or a racist anymore. Whew. He followed with pictures of backed up toilets and sewer systems. The horrors, the horrors. Goldsmith claimed he was discharged without benefits because he tried to commit suicide. I find it hard to believe, I mean really hard to believe. If he was discharged without VA benefits it was for something other than trying to commit suicide.

    You’ll be happy to know that Maxine Waters, communist POS that she is, told the witnesses that they are braver than than the folks who do their job day-after-day without seeing the atrocities of backed up toilets and she told Goldsmith, based purely on his testimony, that she’d get him his benefits and get him into college. Does that piss off anyone who did their time and did what they’d agreed to do to EARN their benefits? Apparently, if you want to get free benefits, just act up, get discharged and then go tell Maxine Waters.

    They all claim that IVAW saved them from a life of drugs, alcohol and despondency – good for them.

    Sheila Jackson-Lee told them that if they bring a hundred thousand protesting troops to Washington to march “we’ll be your soldiers”. Well, how about being the soldiers for the folks that are still over there? How about you stop playing keep away with their funding by tacking it to social spending. Be a real soldier instead of just mouthing the words to assuage your own guilt.

    I sat through Emanuele’s and Gilligan’s testimony which was word-for-word what they’d said in Silver Spring. Kokesh began and it was just like the tape I still have on YouTube. He was scheduled to talk about war trophies, but I was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to mention that he’d been busted from the rank of sergeant for smuggling his own war trophy back – an Iraqi pistol.

    I knew I had to get out of there before Montalvan started spraying the room with sleeping gas, so Coby and I split.

    I should mention that Coby stood by the door for the whole hearing and passed out GOE talking points to everyone who came in the room. I saw Millard sent one of his pudgy minions over to question him about it.

    Heading up the street, we found rongkirby, frequent commenter here and FReeper extraordinaire manning his corner outside the Rayburn Building. We seem to run into each other everywhere these days.

    If the media found anything to sink their teeth into, I certainly didn’t hear it. As I said in my AAR of the first Silver Spring testimony, in order to consider anything these folks said to be atrocities, you have to accept that the war in Iraq is illegal – and no one can prove to me that it is.

    Woolsey said that the 1971 Winter Soldier brought the Vietnam War to a close – but that’s faulty recollection. Combat trrops were already being withdrawn by 1971. The last draft was in 1972…Winter Soldier in 1971 was an asterisk, a footnote. The only people who think it brought the war an end are fooling themselves. this one will have the same pathetic effect. Waters claimed that the media isn’t giving IVAW a fair shake and getting the news out – it’s because it’s a “dog bites man” story. Buildings get blown up in war, soldiers fire lots of real bullets in war. Where’s the news?

    Every major news outlet was in Silver Spring and they all arrived at the same conclusion. Why would they bother to go to the expense of putting all of those crews on the scene if they hadn’t planned on using it in the first place? One of my commenters said it best, that Winter Soldier was a wet firecracker and I’ll add that no amount of hot air from Maxine Waters or Lynne Woolsey can dry it out.

  • IVAW and what I won’t do

    As most of my regular readers know, I went to the Winter Soldier theater and live-blogged from the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland on March 15th. It was a pretty tough gig, pressure-wise, and I didn’t like being around a bunch of people who’d rather see me dead than there.I watched them tackle 61-year-old Gerry Kiley and drag him from the room, and it was probably as atrocious as anything the witnesses were testifying to on the stage. Through the hours I was there, I wondered when it was going to be my turn to be tackled and dragged from the room by the Labor thugs providing security at the event.

    Halfway through the proceedings, Thus Spake Ortner and I had to give up up the URLs of our blogs because Geoff Millard wanted to play commissar of information (for the record, other members of the IVAW already had our URLs, but Millard wanted us to know that he was personally monitoring us). I imagined that what I felt was what many journalists from the West felt when they wrote from inside the Soviet Union. But it lent an air of authenticity to what we were doing. Millard, quite by accident, I’m sure, gave us additional credibility.

    I hate the IVAW, I hate what they stand for, I hate what they’re doing to this country and I hate that most of them are doing what they do for very selfish and petty reasons. That being said, I found the limits of my hate this morning.

    Apparently, someone on my own side thought I would lie for our cause. Someone who shall remain nameless tried to tell an Army investigator what I heard and witnessed inside Winter Soldier – something this person couldn’t know mainly because the incident I was asked about never happened.

    This whole blog is about the Left and their inability to recognize the truth when it hits them between the eyes. I take video and pictures of the Left with little comment and I’ve never asked for a pose because I feel that the Left does enough damage to itself that they don’t need me to point it out or shape it – I just need to be there to record it.

    I don’t belong to any of the organizations involved in the discussion because I at least want to keep an air of credibility and I want to continue to enjoy access to all of the sides of the discussion.

    I will not, under any circumstances, violate my readers’ trust in me to provide them the unvarnished truth here. I don’t have a journalist’s code of ethics that I need to follow, just my own code. I put my real name on this blog because I’m not afraid of telling the truth and after this blog is gone, I still have to live with the name and the reputation I build here.

    I will not sell this blog and it’s readers down the river for a couple of cheap shots at the IVAW. Lord knows, they do enough to damage their reputation without me having to testify to things that never happened.

    Anyone else out there who thinks they have a brainstorm plan to undermine IVAW, please keep your lips off my name. Anything I know about illegal activities inside the IVAW, the authorities already know.

  • The last word on Winter Soldier II

    Back on March 14th, Thus Spake Ortner and I live-blogged Winter Soldier II under the watchful gaze of the Stasi secret police of Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. They monitored what we sent out to the internet, they limited our contact with IVAW members and the media. They even followed us to the bathroom and outside to the break area. But they were watching the wrong people.

    We didn’t find out Rurik was there until most of the way through the testimony. He blended in well with crowd and hardly anyone noticed him. He carried a legal pad and a pencil and scribbled furious notes. Rurick has spent weeks ciphering and writing out his notes and he’s published them in three installments;

    Send in the Clones

    What I saw at the Circus Part I

    What I saw at the Circus Part II

    This is much more complete than my comparably incoherent ramblings – and much more damaging to the testimony given on the first day at Winter Soldier II. I commend Rurik and I heartily recommend that anyone who is interested in how history will judge the events go read them all. And in the last installment, Rurik names his candidate to be the next John Kerry. I won’t give it away.

    Welcome National Review Online readers. Oh, and welcome to IVAW fans who arrive from their NetVibe connection.

  • Winter Soldier II; my impressions, an AAR

    I’ve been ruminating how I would close out this weekend after focusing on Winter Soldier for the last few days. I thought a point-by-point refutation of the testimony, but I figured that’d be disingenuous of me, since the testimony lacked context – there were no dates or times or places (other than general references) or even participants in some cases. So, just like the participants, I can only give general impressions – only I’ll do it without playing to the applause.

    First, my personal experience with the IVAW/Veterans for Peace and the other and sundry people was professional. I wasn’t especially pleased that I was escorted everywhere I went, or that we spent the day surrounded by security people, or that our blogs were being monitored – however, it does lend what I wrote a measure of credibility. But there were news outlets like the Guardian and al Jazeera wandering around without security and writing what they want. I’ll grant that my readership is somewhat less than theirs, but the product I created was under much more scrutiny while it was being released to the public.

    I commend Army Sergeant for her hard work in getting access to the event for us. I’m sure she burned off more than a few calories running in circles making sure we weren’t overly-harassed or confined. Without her support, we’d have been stuck watching the streaming video from our homes like everyone else. We were instructed to only photograph the panels and that we couldn’t photograph the audience. When one member of the audience took a snap shot of TSO and me, I brought it to the attention of one security member and she deleted the picture from his camera.

    However, I do condemn them for tackling from behind Gerry Kiley whom I reported stood up and yelled “Kerry lied and good men died”. I don’t agree with what Mr. Kiley did – it certainly didn’t remove any scrutiny from what we were doing – but tackling a frail 61-year-old from behind was just as cruel as any testimony from the panel. I’m sure they could have easily pulled him from the room without the drama. But then the whole day was about over-reaction, wasn’t it?

    But to the testimony; War sucks. It’s sucked since the beginning of the invention of the rock as a weapon. Innocent people die in war, and that sucks, too. But not since the beginning of warfare has any Army taken such care to minimize innocent deaths as the United States armed forces. Never. That’s indisputable.

    But, the people who testified Friday glossed over that fact. Take Kelly Dougherty’s testimony that Kellog, Brown and Root prevented scavengers from taking the diesel fuel from their disabled vehicles by firing beanbag rounds at them. What other military entity in the world uses beanbag rounds in a combat zone?

    Jason Hurd testified that the ROE ALMOST forced him to shoot a woman carrying home groceries – he broke into tears and slung snot all over the panel because he ALMOST shot a woman. I guess the fact that escaped him was that the ROE worked – he didn’t have to shoot her.

    Hurd also tearfully testified that his unit, when fired upon from a building turned a 50-cal on the building and unleashed 200 rounds on the masonry structure. The firing stopped and the unit continued their mission. Hurd went into great detail explaining the size of the rounds and the brass (by the way, Jason, a fifty-cal is a half-inch in diameter, you missed that) and how much ammo is in the metal container – but I fail to see how that reflects on the Bush administration or that Pentagon entity he was trying to blame. Hurd admitted that he doesn’t know how many people were in the building, that he knows of no casualties resulting from that action – so one is left to wonder what was his point?

    The point of the whole testimony, for the entire day I spent there was that the war is illegal from the get-go. They offered no evidence that the war is illegal – but when there’s room full of aged bobbleheads nodding on cue – who needs evidence? All of these terrible things that happened could have been avoided if George W, Bush and the evil neo-cons hadn’t invaded Iraq in the first place. No one had stories of torture or atrocities – they only described the horror of being in war. You could only accept these things as atrocities if you accepted at the beginning that war is illegal. Without that admission, you were left to wonder what everyone was talking about.

    That was one of the problems – I was probably one of the youngest people in the room and I’m nearly 53 years old. The audience were a bunch of old hippies who’d never served in the military and had never seen a war outside of the context of the politics of war. They tch-tched their way through the hearings without understanding the pains the military had to suffer to avoid real atrocities. Their only solution to the war was ending it – today with no real thought of the consequences. The only victory they sought was a victory of Democrats over Republicans regardless of what the nation would be forced to deal with when their solution was enacted.

    Almost everyone testified that they were confused as to the ROE – but then they all testified to a measure of restraint they all knew was present. Um, the ROE. The confusion came when they actually had to apply their own common sense in relation to the ROE and their circumstances.

    Jon Michael Turner started telling us how he shot people, he showed us pictures of his kills (dare I say trophies?) – but he neglected to fill in the part about why he shot those people in the first place. I’m pretty sure he didn’t just indiscriminately shoot “the fat man” or the guy in the bicycle. Why didn’t he tell us about the events leading up to his pulling the trigger instead of beginning his stories with the death of his targets? He referred to his “choking hand” and his bracelet on his choking hand – but he failed to tell us if he ever used his “choking hand” to choke anyone that didn’t deserved to be choked. Just that he had a “choking hand”. And then he went on to tell us that he’s not the monster he once was. Well, fellow Vermonter, what made you a monster – the fact that you designated one of your hands a “choking hand”?

    His testimony has changed somewhat since January when this video was posted on YouTube and Turner announced that atrocities against innocent civilians was the policy of the military in Iraq.

    From his testimony Friday, it seems the only policy of committing atrocities against Iraqi civilians was his own.

    James Gilligan’s claims were funny. Some troops stole a few gold coins they found (wasn’t that in the movie “Three Kings?) – what about the troops who found billions of US currency and didn’t take even a George Washington? His first sergeant threatened a boy with a pistol – he didn’t kill the boy, he didn’t harm the boy, he just threatened him. hardly an atrocity. Oh, and he outright lied about witnessing someone being waterboarded – but then he was playing to the crowd. More detractors of the practice have been waterboarded to demonstrate it to the masses than have been actually waterboarded to extract information. But as soon as he said “…and of course they were waterboarded”, all of the bobbleheads in the audience went to nodding.

    While we’re on the subject of lying, Adam Kokesh began his testimony with a lie – that’s why I switched on the video – so I didn’t have to listen to him and then get dragged out like Gerry Kiley. He claimed that he’d opposed the war before it began but joined because he thought it was his duty – his website used to claim he joined because he was a real hoo-ah guy and supported the war against terrorists and he’d been influenced by recruiters but the horrors of war turned him against it. So now that he’s established that he’s a liar. when was he lying – on Friday or on his blog? Kokesh depends on people to forget what he’s said in the past.

    The real atrocity stories were being told out by the ashtray, though. I don’t know how many of the IVAW kids I heard relating their tales to the belly-shirt, hip-hugger wearing college aged chickies while I took my smokebreaks. But I don’t want to c***block on any of those guys who might still be laid up with their airhead honeys today – that’d be a neocon atrocity.

    No matter how hard the panels tried, they tried to make it about the Bush Administration, but their testimony all boiled down to the actions of the soldiers. They claimed to support the troops, but their supposed atrocities were all the result of small unit leaders’ actions (yes, guys, your captains and lieutenants are “troops”, too). No matter how hard they tried to deflect their criticism away from the troops, it hit all of our service members square in the forehead. Registering your gun with willie pete isn’t a decision made by some faceless neo-con in the Pentagon, calling for fire on a village is a company commander’s decision, not Dick Cheney’s. Bragging about firing up a civilian car isn’t coming from the Defense Department. George Bush wasn’t pushing down on the 50-cal’s butterflies or reloading the gun.

    I may have some more thoughts as the day goes on, but I’m going to spend the day with my grandson. Keep an eye on The Sniper, TSO is supposed to be live-blogging the media portion of the testimony.

    Thanks to all the bloggers that linked to this today and welcome to the readers of Blackfive, Pal2Pal, the Democracy Project, Chickenhawk Express and Obit Dictum.

    Update: Make sure you read the AAR of my battle buddy, TSO, at Vets For Freedom and The Sniper.

  • Live blogging Winter Soldier II (Part IV)

    Rules of Engagement part II – we’re warned of graphic language and graphic images.

    Vincent Emmanuel (second from left in photo) complained that troops took “potshots” at “property, cars, people…I remember myself firing indiscriminately without knowing what I was shooting at…” “We punched, kicked and mistreated innocent Iraqis being released from interrogation” “It’s standard procedure to run over dead bodies in the road”

    Sergio Kochergian (third from left in photo) Saw friends getting killed and blown up everyday. ROE changed from calling in suspicious activity to engaging armed non-Americans. ROE changed again to just kill anyone with a sack over their shoulder digging along the road. ROE changed again to individuals’ discretion. “I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I want to apologize to all of the people in Iraq”

    Hart Viges (fourth from left) fired up an old lady carrying groceries. Butt-stroked people for no reason as a matter of policy. Beat a group of Iraqis for no apparent reason – as a matter of policy. Shot up cars for not obeying US troops at checkpoints – calls them innocents. Shot up the mayor of a village who didn’t obey traffic – squad members bragged about tight shot group on car window. Digging near roads got Iraqis killed (wonder why). “Not a public announcement of the policy – it was policy behind closed doors”.

    Jason Lemieu (sp?) (fifth from left) Three tours. “ROE in Iraq is broadly defined and loosely enforced – anyone saying otherwise is either a fool or a liar”. ROE from commander: “Kill those who need to killed, save those that need to be saved”. Commander; everyone in a black headscarf is a legitimate target. “I can only guess at how many innocent people were killed”. Heard that one Marine refused to shoot a woman carrying groceries, so commander shot her.

    Not the marines’ fault – extreme incompetence of leaders.

    John Michael Turner (Burlington, VT – fourth from right) tears off medals and tosses them to loud applause from crowd. Showed videos of Marines celebrating effective use of firepower and pictures of destroyed buildings (nothing about casualties). Shot people with .50 cal. Troops had no respect for dead bodies as a matter of policy. Enjoys showing grotesque pictures that have nothing to do with the panel. “I shot a guy I call the fat man. When I didn’t kill him with the first round, I shot him again”. Was congratulated for first kill – was promised a four day pass if he could kill someone with a knife.

    He has pictures of his confirmed kills (we’re up to number three – a man on bicycle). When reporters were embedded, ROE changed drastically – “by the book”. The implication is that the media isn’t getting the whole story.

    Some blather about a bracelet and his “choking hand” which was somehow part of the ROE. Shows video of destroying a minaret “because we were angry and taking out our aggression”. “There are many more stories that I don’t have time to tell them all.” “I’m sorry for the hate and destruction I’ve inflicted on other people.” “I’m no longer the monster that I once was.”

    Logan Laituri Army 82d Abn. Volunteered for Afghanistan. Went to Iraw w/1/14th INF 25th Infantry Div. from Hawaii. “Came to my faith and applied for Conscientous Objector status”. Claims he was infantry, but that his duty was that of Forward Observer in Iraq. Claims “no concrete ROE”. Didn’t know that Willy Pete couldn’t be used against personnel. Claims commander instructed that an unarmed dead body would be given a weapon – two troops charged with murder had charges dropped. Blames combat triage policy for death of an Iraqi. “I’m here because I love America”

    James Gilligan (second from left) marines – no unit given. (Sorry I missed the story – we got jerked out for a minute and I missed it). Complains that Afghan police had a private weapons cache. His first sergeant threatened with a pistol a young Iraqi boy who’d hit an Iraqi girl. Stopped a scavenger and was ordered to make his vehicle inoperable. A picture of him in his boxer shorts in the desert (WTF?). Troops stole gold coins and made crank calls to wives of troops deployed. Claims he witnessed waterboarding (he might want to read the news ). “We ignored procedures”.

    Garret Reppenhagen (1st on left) 2/63 Armor “Scout Sniper”. Killed two unarmed guys with .50 cal. for being out after curfew. Claims used 40mm on personnel, too. Claims was never clear on ROE for entire tour. Claims all headquarters pogues are derelicts – “thrown out of their units”. An inexperienced intel major commanded his security detail to shoot a couple of civilian vehicles who turned out to be body guards of a deputy minister. “This kind of confusion goes on every day in Iraq”. “The war is the atrocity”.

    Videos from Iraqis inserted here with subtitles – I’m sure whoever took the videos were looking for good stories about the troops from among the millions of Iraqis and not just a few disgruntled civilians.

    That’s going to do it for me – but Thus Spake Ortner plans on blogging some tomorrow and Sunday so keep your eye on him this weekend. Tomorrow I’m going to the rally for troops on the National Mall, so look for pictures and videos tomorrow night.

    Thank you note: Thanks to all of you for your attention today. And thanks to those numerous other bloggers who sent you here. You’re all in my blogroll – you all rock.

  • Live blogging Winter Soldier II (Part III)

    The third portion is has to do with the evil corporations and the evil contractors.

    Kelly Doughtery (a former MP, second from right in the photo above) testified that (Kellog, Brown and Root) contractors fired beanbag shotgun indiscriminately at Iraqi scanvengers while defending a broken down truck. She was then instructed to destroy the vehicle because it couldn’t be recovered. No one was injured or killed but she’s sure that being hit with beanbags hurts. It wore on her nerves because the Iraqis weren’t allowed to get the diesel fuel from the truck. I guess it really is a war for oil.

    She just doesn’t like war – it made her clothes smell.

    Louis Montalvan, who wore all of his medals on his sports jacket and sits third from the left in the photo, complained about Iraqi corruption, i think. He’s so long winded, I uploaded and posted the pictures in the GOE/EU thread above. I think he’s trying to make the point that we’re being lied to by the Iraqi government. I don’t know – he’s pretty full of himself and in love with sound of his own voice – I’m about ready to fall asleep. TSO and I arrived at the same conclusion separately – just before we both dozed off.

    Oh, well, there he goes finally – Petraeus is lying about Iraqi forces. Whew – he could have said that in the first two minutes and spared us the dreary voice.

    Antonia Juhasz (second from right in photo), intends to give testimony that supports the brave troops deployed in Iraq, let’s see if she does. Well, since she just told us that the war is illegal from beginning and that the troops have an obligation to the Constitution to refuse to serve in the war. So I guess that support for the troops deteriorates if they don’t mutiny. That only took minutes to go from support to disdain. Oh, God, more big words (oh, she’s a minority, so that gives her more credibility).

    Iraq is unsafe for Iraqis. Oh, Haliburton gets mentioned – how did I know that? She’s complaining about Bremer – how long has Bremer been gone? Iraqis were hostile to the reorganization of Iraq because they’d gotten fired. But corporations like Bechtel were just there for the money, so they dragged out rebuilding the infrastructure. 2 1/2 million Iraqis are urged not to return to Iraq – because the infrastructure hasn’t been restored. Of course, the whole war was about oil and about making money for US corporations – and you have to admit that or you just won’t see it all her way. Snooze time!

    Jeremy Scahill (first on right) is upset that Blackwater security aren’t getting thrown in prison. Only two have been convicted he says. 170 companies provide Blackwater-type services in Iraq. He’s upset that private companies supporting US troops are making money – that they’re taking advantage of Iraqis and they poison water they provide for US troops (seems their contract would abruptly end if they did that – there’s no evidence, just believe what they’re telling us).

    “Don’t drink the koolaid of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama” (energetic applause- finally something we all have in common – I found a home)

    Oh, I see we have to make them stand for immediate withdrawal – not support John McCain – I must’ve misunderstood where he was going.

  • Live blogging Winter Soldier II (Part II)

    The second part of the program this morning (you can get the names and personal info from TSO) is on veterans’ healthcare. The complaints are systemic of a large government bureaucracies running healthcare. Long waits between visits, difficulty in getting adequate diagnosis in a timely manner. Of course, what the panelists missed is that it’s always the same – their solutions are always more money.

    Cost to veterans and military members went on the rise in 1992 when Congress mandated higher co-pays for veterans and active duty soldiers who didn’t use the military system and instead used CHAMPUS (usually because of geographic location). Then in 1993 military retirees were forced off of the military and into Social Security at the age of 65. President Bush reinstated care for retirees, but the co-pays have remained.

    The most applause from the audience were calls for free government healthcare for all Americans avoiding the fact that the entire problem with the military system is the fact that it’s a bureaucracy run by politicians and administrators instead of a private system managed by real doctors.

    One of the panelists, Eli Wright, claimed that he couldn’t get treatment because Walter Reed only treats combat casualties. That’s complete horseshit – I had my gall bladder removed there just a few years ago – I had a private recovery room. They treated me for pneumonia just a few weeks with the usual long wait – but the guy claimed he was on active duty and they wouldn’t treat his injury (shoulder injury playing football in his stateside unit) because it wasn’t combat related. Please.

    OK, for some reason I’m listening to some guy who committed suicide playing guitar so I’m going to drift off here.

    The second guy from the end in the picture above just said Congress needs to get control of the Veterans health sytem – just spit all over poor TSO. Yeah, the answer is Congressional involvement – they do so well at everything else. Ask the troops if they want Congress involved.

  • Live blogging Winter Soldier II (Part I)

    There’s a blow-by-blow and more in depth profiles of the testimony at The Sniper by my battle buddy on this operation Thus Spake Ortner.

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    Clifton Hicks and Stephen Casing ; buildings bulldozed is a crime? “I know of people who took advantage of the “free fire zone”, “collateral damage”, “I heard…” “I know for a fact that (700-800 casualties) were civilians because they were on the other side of the road”, “damaged city square is evidence of civilian casualties”. “I know there were no insugents” “Some insurgents engaged with mortar fire from the buildings.”

    Thus Spake Ortner says he saw Dennis Kucinich here.

    Hicks; “A packed Hummvee (82d ABN) engaged insugents after an IED attack – couldn’t find insurgents, kicked in door of house (source of fire) found a wedding party (old Grampa, et al.) troops shot up wedding after receiving fire from house. Found six-year-old dead after paratroopers were done shooting up the party. Not soldiers fault, illustrates carelessness over civilian casualties of the command structure – told to charlie mike.”

    Gerry Kiley (about 60 years old) just jumped up and shouted “Kerry lied, good men died” and was manhandled from the room by security. Here’s a video I found at YouTube of Kiley’s arrest;

    [youtube -GUmX3HY1AU nolink]

    Stephen Casing; Video of busting up a suspected insurgent house – only occupied by “a little old lady”. The “old lady, we can’t see because of the video quality speaks real good (I mean REAL GOOD) English. Supposed frightened she shouts – “My children! My children! Help me!”

    Mortillo: “Hard to tell who’s the enemy – makes you mad”

    [youtube Z4_dj_xGgb0 nolink]

    Jesse (); Iraqis (security forces) don’t show restraint firing their weapons. “I never saw civilians getting killed by these actions” “Pretentious of us to change their culture – Iraq is a lost cause because the Iraqis are so primitive” “it’s their culture – let them do what they want”

    Adam Kokesh; Now claims he was against the war before he went the first time (he’s claimed the opposite at varying times)

    Read aloud the Rules of Engagement (“Isnt that classified?” asked TSO)

    [youtube jSZtzdH9XFI nolink]

    Unit unofficial motto; “We care so you don’t have to” “So Paul Bremer, Dick Cheney, George Bush doesn’t have to care. SO you can go to the Mall and not think about what we’re doing in Iraq.” Admits that interrogators were punished for abusing captured Iraqis.

    Jason Hurd (medic 2ID) complains that a fifty cal. gunner unloaded 200 hundred rounds returning fire – never shecked the building for casualties so he doesn’t know. He just knows that a fifty cal fired at a building. Appalled that soldiers joked about their exploits “Did you see that car I fired up?”.

    Claims he almost (but didn’t) shoot an 80-year-old woman because she wouldn’t stop for him. Does the Army use medics (noncomabtants) to stop traffic? “If a foreign occupation force took over the US…blah…blah…blah” Enthusiastic applause from crowd.

    Time for a break.