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

Category: Phony soldiers

  • Crybaby awaits fate

    I mentioned Cliff Cornell last week when the deserter from the Army was booted from Canada and spent his first night in jail in Bellingham, WA. Well, apparently, after a three day bus ride, he’s arrived in Savannah, GA and he burst into tears at the thought of having to pay for his irresponsible behavior (WMAZ 13);

    Cliff Cornell’s tough exterior dissolves into tears as he prepares to return to the Army four years after he fled to Canada to avoid the war in Iraq.

    The 29-year-old Cornell of Mountain Home, Ark., plans to turn himself in to military police today at Fort Stewart, where he’ll likely face criminal charges for abandoning his unit before it deployed to Iraq in January 2005.

    He says he fled because the war has failed to improve the lives of Iraqi civilians, and he couldn’t stomach the thought of killing.

    Touches your heart doesn’t it? He joined the Army in 2002 and, became an artilleryman (a very peaceful occupation) and went AWOL in 2005. He told Associated Press;

    “I’m nervous, scared,” Cornell said, wiping puffy eyes beneath his sunglasses Monday at a Savannah hotel after a three-day bus ride from Seattle. “I’m just not a fighter. I know it sounds funny, but I have a really soft heart.”

    Soft head, too apparently. But he dresses up in dragon and skull tattoos;

    Cornell’s attorney, James Branum of Lawton, Okla., has a rock solid case;

    He said he hopes the Army shows some leniency since Cornell avoided the war because of his political convictions.

    “This is different from someone leaving for selfish reasons,” Branum said. “This is someone who said, ‘I’m not going to kill civilians.’”

    Got news for you, stud – I’ll bet you cash money that everyone in the Army has said the same thing – that’s why there are so few civilian casualties in this war. It’s typical and part of the narrative of the intellectually vacant Left that our warriors are all bloodthirsty murderers – except for the brave deserters.

    H/t to someone for the link to Free Republic.

  • 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.

  • Still think they support the troops?

    The People’s Worker World recounts some testimony from some anti-war dorks speaking in support of the Maoist-founded organization that calls itself Military Families Speak Out. here’s screen shot of the page instead of a link;

    The testimony does nothing but impugn the character of people who join the US military;

    Eugene Cherry joined the army at the age of 19 in the hopes of getting money for college. Despite being a good student, he found his options in his impoverished south side neighborhood limited. “I thought the military would be my ticket out, but I found an organization based on racism, sexism and misogyny” he testified before the assembled audience. Later he spoke of “[a] culture of violence and racism” that the military promotes within its ranks. These pressures proved to be too much for Sherry. He deserted for 16 months after being refused mental health support by the army. “I found myself fighting and oppressing a group of people in the name of the war on terror” concluded his remarks to the gathering.

    The plight of women in the armed forces proved to be a recurring theme. Patricia McCann, a National Guardsman deployed in 2003, noted during her testimony that instances of sexual assault and sexual harassment within the armed forces have risen but court-martials for these crimes have declined. Another veteran (and current Chicago police officer), Lisa Zepeda, added that victims of assault have no outside authority they can report assaults to; a victim must go through her immediate superior within her unit.

    Here’s Cherry from Courage to Resist;

    Here’s McCann (although this profile says she’s an IVAW member, there’s no profile at IVAW in that name)

    I didn’t put up any profile about Zepeda because despite her toxic charges againt commanders, she’s still a cop who deserves a measure of anonymity.

    All of their stories throw fingers directly at the troops. All of them call all of our troops racist, sexist and oppressors. They couch their accusations in terms like “institutional” and “organizational” but those institutions and organizations are run by people – the troops.

    But really selfish? Is the story of Katy Zatsick who blames her divorce on the military when her son was injured in Iraq. And biggest gullible moron?

    Randi Scheurer had two children in the military. Soon after her son was deployed, he called imploring her to purchase a new flack jacket for him. The army had issued him a Vietnam-era jacket that was woefully inadequate for the threats he faced in Iraq. During his second deployment, he again implored his mother to privately purchase equipment that had been stolen from him and that the Army refused to replace. She finally purchased the needed equipment because the Army would not.

    Yeah, Vietnam-era flak vests were all out of the inventory by the mid-80s. TSO has countered that argument here countless times – it was one of the ignorant commercials that VoteVets ran a few years back and it’s been thoroughly discredited. He might have had a kevlar vest from the 80s design – but that was two decades after Vietnam. And the Army is not in the habit of denying the replacement of equipment the troops need. His commander might have made him pay for the equipment, but he wouldn’t have refused to give it to a troop if he needed it to do his job. I noticed she didn’t name the items she replaced.

    But that kind of stuff has become part of the narrative and generally accepted by the ignorant masses. So these clowns, liars and dolts at Military Families Speak Out are just reinforcing the faerie tales. Oh, and they’re in DC this weekend “educating” people about their version of the war.

    Ed. Note: I made the mistake of claiming that IAVA made the ads about the flak vests. Paul Reickhoff of IAVA was kind enough to point out the error and I’ve corrected it. When I mistakes I admit it.

  • VFP wants a “sanctuary city” for deserters

    The latest deserter ejected from Canada was seized by border agents Wednesday, tossed in the local hoosegow and then ROR to return to Fort Stewart and turn himself in, according to the Bellingham Herald;

    Cliff Cornell fled the U.S. Army four years ago for British Columbia when his Georgia artillery unit was ordered to serve in the Iraq War.

    On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Cornell was deported from Canada, arrested in the U.S. and booked into the Whatcom County jail.

    I don’t know what the locals were thinking when they released an admitted deserter from the military hoping he’ll turn himself in to the Army on the other side of the country, but we’ll see if it pans out for them.

    But what got my attention was that the idiot for the local Veterans For Peace chapter wants to make Bellingham, WA a “sanctuary city” for deserters being ejected from Canada. Of course, his name would have to be Marx, wouldn’t it;

    Gene Marx, a local peace activist and member of the Bellingham Veterans for Peace, Chapter 111…and other local peace activists are asking officials to make Bellingham a “sanctuary city” so military deserters will not be arrested by locals and handed over to federal officials.

    Out of all of the things this so-called “veterans” organization could be doing for the troops who served honorably without deserting their posts and leaving their work for someone else to do, these buffoons want to make a hiding place for the lowest and least responsible humans in our country. That’d be a real feather in the cap of Bellingham – also famously the hometown of Evan Knappenberger – the crud who threatened to bomb the Gathering of Eagles and Michelle Malkin last year.

    The funny part is that this is how the VFP chapter announced Cornell’s release from jail;

    After an eight-hour delay on the US/Canadian border and a night of incarceration, Cornell was finally able to rejoin his unit at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

    They made it sound like law enforcement was preventing him from being with his comrades. here’s a screen shot because I’m not linking a VFP website here. Notice the “throng of supporters” in the picture. I guess five is a “throng” these days.

    So, let’s say Bellingham is a sanctuary city today, would the VFP then be keeping Cornell from “rejoining his unit”?

  • IVAW’s Marlissa Grogan perpetuating the lie

    Toni at Bear Creek Ledger emailed me this morning about perpetual traitor Jane Fonda’s new blog and Fonda’s new BFF, former Marine captain Marlissa Grogan. I think this is Grogan in her uniform marching at the DNC Convention in Denver (photo from People’s Press Collective) wearing her ribbons improperly;

    Here’s her profile at IVAW;

    At Fonda’s blog, she perpetuates the lie that many military recruits have to choose between the military and jail time;

    She talked about the similarities that exist between today’s military and those of the Vietnam era but also pointed out the profound differences, citing in particular, the fact that so many recruits are confronted with the choice between jail or military. For many it’s a much needed job. Look how young she is, yet so wise and committed. “We can’t just rely on the hope that Obama has brought us,” she told the audience. “We have to get off our asses and make sure we organize and speak out for what we feel is right.”

    Fonda appears to have learned her lesson from Vietnam and seems to support the troops, but allowing knucklehead liars like Grogan to have a launching pad so they can call the troops hopelessly retarded criminals is just as bad as spitting on them. I’d like to see Grogan’s research on exactly how many troops are given the military as their only escape from prison. She ought to spend some time recruiting.

    I also found this quote from the “wise and committed” Grogan who charges our troops with violating their oaths and being enemies of the Constitution;

    “I look at it in a really concrete way. As an officer, as well as enlisted Marines, we are always charged with the promise to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and right now we’re violating that Constitution, and that’s my main concern,” she said. “We’re going against something that we promised: We’re going against our oath. We’re contradicting the Constitution in a way.”

    I’d like to see her legal brief on that charge.

    Here’s a picture of Grogan hanging out with David Zeiger, the producer of Fonda’s “FTA” Vietnam-era anti-war “documentary” of Fonda and Donald Southerland’s attempts to end that war (I wrote about the movie and the attempts by IVAW to use it as a fundraiser last month);

    I guess this is how Fonda atones for her sins of the Vietnam era – by letting other people spit on the troops for her.

  • Chiroux’ date to answer for his childishness

    An eagle-eyed reader (I only have his real name and I’m not sure he wants me to use it) emailed within an hour after it was posted that Matthis Chiroux, our favorite crybaby from the IVAW says he has a date to answer to the Army for his childish refusal to report for duty;

    March 12, I’ll attend a board hearing in St. Louis, Missouri, to determine what the nature of my discharge from the Individual Ready Reserve will be. The Army has alleged “misconduct” and they’re shooting for a “general discharge,” but I’m pushing for “honorable,” as my refusal to deploy was not an act of misconduct.

    Well, if that’s his defense, that not doing what he’s contractually obligated to do is not misconduct, I hope his mommy gets him plenty of soap-on-a-rope.

    I will be working closely with Iraq Veterans Against the War to plan what we hope will reflect a Winter Soldier event in the form of our members testifying under oath to the military about their experiences in the Global War on Terror.

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Army will allow the whole membership of IVAW turn an administrative hearing into a clown show of malcontented buffoons. Maybe Geoff Millard can wear his 3 MSMs and impress the board with his chair and microphone arrangement skills. Or TSO’s favorite droning Powerpoint Ranger, Luis Montalvan, can put the board into a deep and deadly sleep.

    Chiroux looks forward to the opportunity to beclown himself and the members of IVAW;

    The Army in no way has forced this hearing upon me. I demanded this hearing from them to oppose the General Discharge, and I thank them for providing me due process.

    Of course, when the Army doesn’t let them parade the Ship of Fools before the board, there’ll be an outcry of unfairness. And there is no shortage of support from the Democrats in Congress for Chiroux, he claims;

    As I write this, they are penning another letter of support which will be more widely circulated in Congress than the first to be sent to President Obama before my hearing. As well, several Members have expressed interest in appearing in person to voice support for me and troops like me in March.

    Chiroux claims his supporters are from the group who signed a letter of support for him at the height of the BDS outbreak in July. Of course, he claims that the reason Obama hasn’t heard them yet is because of Joe the Plumber;

    We tried to bring this message to President Obama at the final presidential debate. Tragically, Joe the plumber took precedence that evening….

    Damn working American…who the Hell does he think he is letting people talk about him?

    Like anything else, Matthis’ prestige comes with a price;

    We are continuing to gather funds needed to cover travel expenses and accommodation for those who will be testifying. I hope anywhere from fifteen to thirty veterans, military family members, Iraqi civilians and constitutional experts will appear before my board.

    Yeah, send him some money for thirty lay-abouts to get shut out of an Army administrative board, which has no responsibility to hear any testimony from anyone. If this does happen at all (and I have my doubts), the Army is not in the habit of turning their official business into a minor theater performance complete with the bearded lady and lobster boy.

    You can see the fingerprints of civilians all over this thing – those World Can’t Wait Maoists, most likely. I can hear them snickering about him letting them waterboard him and now they double-dog-dared him to act like a pompous jerk in front of some Army officers.

  • FTA: Jane Fonda fundraiser for IVAW

    I read the other day that the anti-war crowd are having trouble raising money because the average anti-war less-whackos are a bit reticent about criticizing the new president’s policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and less likely to give up their money to fund the more-whackos like IVAW, Code Pink and the old coots at Vets For Peace. So they have to come up with more unique ways of tapping wallets.

    A few weeks ago I found a blurb about the possible return of Jane Fonda to a more active role in the anti-war movement. I sent the blurb to someone who emailed me back a Village Voice article today that verified it;

    How much more proof do you need to recognize that these clowns are trying to relive the 60’s? They’re screening a 37-year-old movie with the 72-year-old actress on hand to yammer about her anti-war antics with some 74-year-old guy who looks strangely like Jack Bauer. I wonder if they’ll have a Depends dispenser in the restrooms for the old coots. But what does all of that have to do with us here at This Ain’t Hell? Well, buried in the short article is this;

    …a portion of the proceeds from the evening will benefit Iraq Veterans Against the War, a nonprofit organization that advocates for ending the war and for providing help to returning service members.

    They left out the third bullet of the IVAW’s demands – that being reparations to the Iraqis for all of the hovels that got leveled and all of the “militants” who were forcibly demilitarized.

    It’s probably a bit of irony that the movie originally was released the year before combat troops were withdrawn from Vietnam and it’s being dusted off as a fund raiser for the Iraq Veterans Against the War the year before combat troops are scheduled to be withdrawn.

    I’m feeling generous today so I caution the IVAW from depending on Fonda for her ability raise money with this from Wikipedia;

    In [1972], Fonda spoke out against the war at a rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She offered to help raise funds for VVAW, and, for her efforts, was rewarded with the title of Honorary National Coordinator.
    […]
    Her financial support to VVAW at this time was apparently not significant, as the organization ran out of money within a month, and one of its prominent leaders, John Kerry, was called upon to raise the necessary funds.

    So, if you guys are hoping to get a new club house on Jane’s fund raising abilities, you’d better lower your expectations a bit. Maybe she can raise enough for a down payment on new refrigerator so you can keep your Hot Pockets and your bottles of urine separate.

  • Too many unanswered questions about Chiroux’ narrative [Jonn]

    I’m sure many of my regular readers remember Matthis Chiroux the guy who made a big deal about being recalled by the Army and his refusing to answer the call. This press conference was at the Congressional Offices on the same day as the IVAW’s Congressional testimony to a portion of the Progressive Caucus;

    In October, Chiroux was arrested at the final Presidential debate. I wondered then why he wasn’t turned over to the Army by the Nassau County police and I called them to ask why. The person in the public affairs office said they couldn’t answer the question, but it got me to wondering.

    So I got our good friends at POW Net to get me FOIA request on Chiroux’ record. Keep in mind, if he was in the IRR, I wouldn’t be able to get his records.


    So, because I was even able to get his records proves he’s been discharged. The only thing I can figure is that he initially came in for two years, and then reenlisted for three more years which would negate his three years Individual Ready Reserve Commitment. His Form 2-1 seems to support this. He spent about 2 1/2 years in Japan and then went to Germany for 2 years. I called a recruiter in the area and she confirmed that’s the only way he could avoid the IRR commitment.

    A month ago, he established his “Matthis Resists” website on which he begs for money for his defense fund promising to keep us updated. So far, nuthin’ in the way of “updates”. In fact, he visited the post I wrote about it and had the opportunity to answer my questions about his service, and he was more interested in how I found a picture of him licking Nick Morgan’s chest.

    Clearly, there’s something wrong with his narrative. Has anyone seen this letter from the Army “ordering” Matthis back into the service? We’ve learned here at This Ain’t Hell that nothing these IVAW folks say can be taken at face value. He’s still wandering around loose, the police have no interest in turning him over to the Army. Although he’s trying to collect money for a defense fund, he doesn’t need money to defend himself against the Army in an administrative dispute. And there’s no word from him on when his hearing is scheduled. I think he’s trying to fleece money from his hairy-legged hippie chick groupies (and shaven legged hippie guy groupies).

    In November, I wrote about Chiroux being waterboarded at the UN building by members of World Can’t Wait, the organization founded by Charles Clark Kissinger, the famous Maoist radical. In the lead up to the actual waterboarding of Chiroux, he shouts that he’s an Afghanistan veteran. Yeah, his records show two overseas ribbons one for a completed tour in Japan, the other for a completed tour in German. Nothing about Afghanistan. He claims he was stationed in the Philippines, too – no record of an assignment in the Philippines, either.

    Chiroux paints an extensive deployment history in his IVAW profile;

    Germany, Japan, Afghanistan, Philippines, Italy, Poland – again his records show only assignments to Germany and Japan. As we’ve pointed out countless times, the only reason Chiroux calls himself an Afghanistan veteran is because he flew into Baghram airbase for six days (give or take a few hours) to write an article for the Army. He never left the base and the Army doesn’t recognize his visit as an assignment to Afghanistan. I suspect the other countries where he claims service are along the same lines as his Afghanistan visit.

    I’ve been on longer drunks than he spent in Afghanistan.

    So after reading this particular lie, we have to ask ourselves if he really was recalled by the Army. Or is this just more of the BS we have to filter out in order to fall for the rest of their message.

    I’ve got inquiries out on the letter that the Army sent to Chiroux and I’ll turn up an answer sooner or later, in the interim, Chiroux can cut this whole thing short by providing me a copy of the letter, or admitting it’s all a scam – before I dredge up the proof.