It\u2019s a place where drug abuse is rampant, suicide is common, and mental health is severely placed at risk. One in three women stands a chance of being raped \u2014 as do one in four men \u2014 and the violence directed toward each other undercuts the real fight against the enemy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Not mine. But that’s what’s being described by “IV”AW members Cherish Summer Ray Hodge and Brigitte Wooten to their local media in Ventura County, CA<\/a>.<\/p>\n What sounds like a prison environment in theory was a near reality for people like Cherish Hodge or Brigitte Wooten, members of a local peace group formed by recent veterans of the Iraq Conflict.<\/p>\n Their search for new members willing to come forward and join the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) punctuates the proud military sentiment set forth this season, after the passing of Veterans Day, with a sharp caveat: awareness of the injustices and dissent within the ranks of the U.S. armed forces\u2019 own soldiers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s different for us to be in an environment where there\u2019s so much racism and bigotry and homophobia,\u201d says Hodge, 26, president of the IVAW Ventura branch. \u201cThe military is a melting pot of all of those things. Suddenly, you\u2019re exposed to that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course, both of them have never been to Iraq or Afghanistan, that’s a membership requirement now, apparently. So they’re not speaking of the war, although they’d like to think they are. Here’s Cherish Blah Blah Blah’s profile from IVAW;<\/p>\n Brigitte doesn’t have a profile on IVAW, but in the article she describes her military service;<\/p>\n Wooten was discharged from the Navy one year ago this month after a five-year stint in the Navy that sent her to Kuwait for about eight months. Having served as a hospital corpsman, she, too, was witness firsthand to blatant drug and alcohol abuse, which, among other soldiers, led to medical problems from drunken brawls, near overdoses and attempted suicides.<\/p>\n \u201cI went in knowing I would be seeing some things. I didn\u2019t think I would have seen as many rampant things,\u201d Wooten said. \u201cWhen you go to boot camp, you\u2019re taught to look up to your officers and enlisted; you expect a certain amount of professionalism and a family-type bond. But you don\u2019t see that very often.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Someone buy Wooten a dictionary, or tell her what “rampant” means.<\/p>\n And, of course, they have Dahr Jamail and his useless contribution to bolster their yammering;<\/p>\n Jamail recounted stories about women GIs stationed in the Middle East, so afraid to use latrines after dark, for fear of being jumped and assaulted by their fellow male soldiers, that some died of dehydration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, that story came from Col. Janis Karpinski and her useless testimony to the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration which has been thoroughly discredited for nearly four years by Greyhawk<\/a> and Soldier’s Dad<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of veterans, the last thing they want is to get back into these problems,\u201d [Cher-blah-Summer-blah-blah] said. \u201cJust because there [aren’t] a lot of outspoken veterans, doesn\u2019t mean we aren\u2019t here.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Or, maybe, you just like wearing a shirt that says “Iraq Veterans” on it. The lie that IVAW has 1700 active members is false – with all of the resignations, has anyone seen the number fall even a hair? What was it 79 members who showed up at Silver Spring? 1621 were busy that weekend? Only had enough money to provide Carl Webb with free transportation?<\/p>\n Out of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who’ve served, IVAW can scare up 79 for their annual convention. Well, 78 and Carl Webb – as long as IVAW pays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"cherish-summer-ray-hodges-ivaw-profile\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/cherish-summer-ray-hodges-ivaw-profile-150x150.jpg\" "\\"cherish-summer-ray-hodges-ivaw-profile\\"")
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