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

Category: Veterans For Peace/VVAW

  • Port of Olympia emails and military cargo.

    PortZiegler
    It seems that the Port of Olympia might be used for the transpiration of military cargo via emails. This has apparently hit a nerve with a portion of the population in Olympia. Currently the city of Olympia is holding a public discussion on if the military cargo should be allowed to pass through the port. When I first heard this coming back from work I had to do a double take on why this is even up for discussion.

    Denis Langhans of Olympia, who was one of the first to speak Monday, said he was surprised by the “lack of candor and transparency on an issue of real community sensitivity.”

    Walt Jorgensen of Tumwater was one of two men who read The Olympian story to the commission. After he was done, he said the port’s credibility had plummeted to a new low.

    “There’s no other way to say it: Somebody’s been lying to me and I resent it,” he said.

    “Our faith and trust has been violated,” Chris Carson of Olympia added.

    Mike Pelly of Olympia questioned the honesty of how the military shipments discussion has been handled.

    “We want you to act like public servants and not do deals behind our backs,” he told the commission.

    Except that there has to be operational security in these matters. Public knowledge of a convoy route, cargo and delivery time would expose people to unneeded risks. Given the recent attacks on a Marine 10K, it is not far off to say that a another attempt would be realistic. Another reason would be the outcome of the last time military cargo was transported in Port of Olympia in 2007. It is also the current residence of the The Veterans For Peace Rachel Corrie Chapter 109 as well as Coffee Strong, after leaving Lakewood Washington. So it is not surprising to see statements like this.

    Mark Fleming of Olympia urged the commission not to accept military cargo.

    “It’s a visceral issue with me,” he said. “I convinced myself to participate in the Vietnam War, and I urge you not to make the same mistake in 2016.”

    There were supporters who voiced their opinion.

    “I want the port to continue to support the use of our port by the military,” Jon Cushman of Olympia said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

    “The port should be afforded an opportunity to exercise its role as an alternative port,” said Bill Adamson, program manager for the South Sound Military & Communities Partnership.

    Greg Bucove of Olympia also commented on The Olympian story, saying the emails show that Executive Director Galligan is just doing his job.

    But in the end it comes down to this simple fact. If the military needs to use a port to support the many different operations around the world then it is not for the local city to decide if it will happen or not.

    Galligan also said the port is bound by the Shipping Act of 1984, which prevents it from “unreasonably discriminating in the provision of marine terminal services.”

    “Our acceptance of military shipments in no way implies involvement in the making of foreign policy,” he said. “Rather, it demonstrates our commitment to operating a public marine terminal in compliance with all governing regulations.”

    He added: “I understand and appreciate the diverse perspectives our community holds on geopolitical strategies and the use of military force. (But) these are actions and policy decisions well outside the port’s jurisdictional authority.”

  • Anti-drone ad to air

    Anti-drone ad to air

    Vets for Peace

    The Washington Times reports that the Geezers for Sitting on Our Hands (otherwise know as Veterans for Peace) is sponsoring a national ad campaign urging drone pilots to refuse to fly their crafts;

    “Drone pilots, please refuse to fly,” says one 15-second ad, which features stock footage of individuals digging through drone wreckage interspersed with images of dead children. “No one has to follow an immoral law,” scrolls across the screen.

    “We want to get the word out. You hear that they are saving American lives, but you don’t really hear about the innocent women and children being targeted on the ground,” Mr. Vellucci, an Army veteran, told The Bee.

    Yeah, as we’ve documented countless times here, there are very few actual veterans in VfP, and if there are any drone pilots who are going to get their professional development and legal advice from these shithouse lawyers, they deserve what they get.

  • Ferguson protesters target Veterans for Peace

    Ferguson protesters target Veterans for Peace

    Vets for Peace

    Our buddy, Gateway Pundit has got a hold of the list of the targets for the folks who are just waiting to be outraged about the indictment of Darren Wilson in the matter of Michael Brown. Most of the “targets” have nothing to do with the case. But I was especially happy to see that the offices of the Geezers for Sitting On Our Hands (or Veterans for Peace) are one of the targets.

    I don’t know what the Geezers did to piss off the terminally outraged, but it must be good. Jim quotes Reuters in regards to the protesters’ plans for their “targets”;

    “Rioting and looting are the tools of those without a voice. The rioting and looting, while I didn’t participate in it, was necessary. Without it we would not be standing here today.”

    I hope they don’t scare the Geezers, though, those guys have never seen any violence any where in the world and this will be their worst experience, so be gentle on them, fellas.

    In related news, Fox News reports that the Islamic group CAIR is planning to co-opt the protests in Ferguson;

    Using social media, conference calling and traditional outreach methods, leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are portraying Brown and Detroit mosque leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah as African-American victims of police targeting, according to the Washington-based Center for Security Policy (CSP). In a conference call organized by CAIR-linked “Muslims for Ferguson, a CAIR official called Abdullah a “Shaheed,” or martyr, and said both he and Brown were victims of a national security apparatus that had “completely gone wild” and engaged in “demonizing and criminalizing Muslims.”

    “The reality is that this country, in law enforcement, be it local, state or federal law enforcement, people with guns have always seen black men and black people as threats,” Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR’s Michigan Chapter, told the some 100 protest organizers on the call, made on the five-year anniversary of Abdullah’s death and which was monitored by CSP.

    Walid claimed Brown was a Muslim, although when pressed, Walid denied he had made such a claim.

    Brown was buried in a Christian cemetery, so that’s not likely, but we’re dealing with the lowest of information citizens here.

  • VFP arrested at NYC War Memorial

    Twist Fringe sends us some links to photos of the Veterans For Peace (known here as “Geezers For Sitting on Our Hands”) protesting against the Afghanistan War on it’s 12th Anniversary last night in New York City. I guess they’re a little upset at their hippie friends for not showing up;

    Vets protest Afghaistan war on 12th anniversary

    VFP protest

    Vets arrested at Memorial

    That looks like Ward Reilly, the phony Ranger, in the paddy wagon, doesn’t it?

    Apparently their protest lasted past the closing hours of the memorial, so they got rounded up and put in the paddy wagon.

    ADDED: For the old timers here who were here when we busted up IVAW and VFP; Bill Perry and Ward Reilly in cuffs;

    Bill Perry cuffed

    Ward reilly in cuffs

  • The Irony of John Kerry.

    Since the President canceled his trip to Aisa, he has send John Kerry in his place to assure that the United States will not support for Asia against pressure from China.

    Acknowledging that Obama is missing opportunities for direct diplomacy with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others attending a series of international trade and cooperation meetings, Kerry was at pains to tell Asian leaders that they should not read too much into the absence.

    You mean like sending VVFP/VFP’s Poster child one why we needed to leave Vietnam and never come back? Does anyone really think that the leaders believe this promise considering how was handled Vietnam and how we are handling Afghanistan?

  • Let Us Mourn The Millions America Slaughtered

    So once again antiwar blogs are talking this weekend to reminder you two important things. The first that you are all baby killers and war criminals because of of the millions of people that died in all the wars we took part in that ether were not American and/or not in our Armed Forces.

    This veteran is waiting for the year in which the Veterans For Peace, in its Memorial Day Press Release, states that Veterans mourn first, the lives America took in poor countries, both the civilian men, women and children and the patriots that fought our illegal and criminal invasions since 1945. Only then should come bitterly mourning GIs who were duped by our elected officials and the CIA and Pentagon fed, corporate-controlled war-promoting media cartel fooling them with lies, misinformation, disinformation and psyop techniques that deceived them into proudly following homicidal criminal orders.

    Again, this veteran is hoping that the Veterans For Peace Memorial Day Statement Press Release will say that VFP, or at least many if not all VFP, mourn the patriots of US invaded countries that fell fighting against overwhelming odds, and their civilian countrymen and children who also fell in harms way of those US invading forces.

    Second that those who died should be only considered after the fact because they are war criminals.

    To be polite, we mourn them first before mourning our own soldiers who were killed in the line of duty following our government’s criminal orders. Otherwise how can anyone believe VFP condemns the taking of all these millions of lives of poor people overseas in illegal criminal military action; an illegal use of military that Representative from Texas, Congressman and Republican candidate for president, denounced (but did not call for prosecution).

    Third is that you should not be celebrating with parades, flags and anything that puts the service of those who have gone before us in any positive light because it was hijacked.

    This Memorial Day 2013, Veterans For Peace is asking their fellow Americans to morn quietly at home. We ask that all sincerely patriotic citizens not take part in military parades and festive open-air observances under flags flying military colors. It anyone asks you why, say you don’t like selective mourning, that is, mourning our dead but not those our soldiers killed.

    Memorial Day has been hijacked, just as our nation has been hijacked, by the investment banks of the Military-Industrial-Complex. Its corporate owned media promotes and hails an indiscriminate celebration of all US wars as heroic.

    Oh and the comments are just as bad.

    from what i know, soldiers are generally clueless about exactly why they are being deployed to all the countries they are being sent to. no matter how hard things are, its never a justification to go halfway around the world to kill innocent people or to pilot drones to do the same-kill innocent people with “pinpoint accuracy”

    As a former president of VFP (Veterans For Peace) I can tell you that many of our members skip the Memorial Day celebrations altogether because those events are, primarily and sadly, a glorification of the military and the killing machines of war. Members who do participate carry our banner, a dove on a military helmet with our name writ large, and a variety of signs against war and the suffering — all suffering, not just that of U.S. veterans — it leaves in its wake. They typically receive a very enthusiastic response from people watching the parade.

    So the next time that the Veterans for Peace says that support the troops just remember that they do, but it is not our troops.

  • Code Pink, et al. to protest at the National Gun Show

    I don’t think they’ll be all that welcomed, actually.

    Code Pink Gun Show

    I guess the anti-war thing isn’t paying off for Code Pink and Vets For Sitting On Our Hands so they’re joining up with MoveOn on a totally unrelated subject, because it’s all about the money since they lost their Code Pink House.

    Oh, if you can’t see Madea’s email address and you need a free ride out to Chantilly, it’s medea@codepink.org. I’m only trying to help.

  • Coalition of Veterans’ Organizations urge troops to refuse deployment

    KOMO News reports that some derelicts in Washington State are urging deploying troops from Joint Base Lewis-McChord to ignore their deployment orders. they call themselves Coalition of Veterans’ Organizations. I’d never heard of them before, and looking for their presence online tells me why. They’re a coalition of organizations I’d never heard of before, well, except the 555th Parachute Infantry Association “Triple Nickle” which was an association of the Black paratroopers of WWII. The last I knew, they were pretty much defunct because of membership numbers or the lack thereof. It was a small group to begin with and time has taken a toll on membership around the country. I know that the Triplenickel in the DC area had folded themselves into the 82 Airborne Division Association a few years back.

    In the article, they mention one member of the VCO, Gerry Condon.

    Army veterans say going for conscientious objector status is a better way.

    “There are actually some alternatives. They’re not necessarily easy ones; there’s no guarantees,” said Vietnam war resister Gerry Condon.

    Condon was a special forces medic in the Vietnam era who fled the U.S.

    Of course he was a special forces medic. Here’s his bio from another website where he’s advocating for Brianna Manning;

    In 1968, Gerry Condon refused Army orders to deploy to Vietnam, for which he was court-martialed and sentenced to 10 years in prison and a Dishonorable Discharge. But Gerry was able to escape from Fort Bragg, North Carolina and leave the U.S. For six years he lived in Sweden and Canada, where he organized against the war and for amnesty for all war resisters. Gerry is an active member of Veterans For Peace and co-chair of its GI Resistance Working Group. He serves on the steering committee of the Bradley Manning Support Network.

    He was probably a medic in the 82d, because 1968 was the year that the Golden Brigade deployed to Vietnam, but being “special” sounds cooler, I suppose. So he never really went to Vietnam, but tossing that in makes him sound more authoritative on the subject.

    The article also mentions Mike Prysner who we’ve known for years here.

    “We signed up to serve our country, but we didn’t sign up to have our lives thrown away in a political chess game,” Prysner said.

    We? Prysner must have a mouse in his pocket because he had his life in danger. he wears his old uniform every chance he gets so we know he has no CAB (and we have his records at the link) and it’s a pretty good bet that he never left the wire as a radar operator. He founded ANSWER’s March Forward, their veterans arm, because Prysner didn’t think IVAW was radical enough. He also tried to run for the board of directors at IVAW in a failed attempted coup to turn the organization more radical.

    So that “Coalition of Veterans’ Organizations” is nothing more than the usual suspects under a different banner.

    Thanks to Kateser and CB for the link.