I thought I would weigh in on the jailed Army rapper Marc Hall (a.k.a. Marc Watercus) since there are a few similarities between my former situation and his. For those of you who do not know Marc Watercus wrote a hip-hop song titled \u201cStop-Loss\u201d in a reply to being Stop-Lossed himself. The song, which after repeat listening I found to be constructed pretty good, even if hardcore hip-hop may not be your thing. Before you read on, for a better context, I suggest you listen to the song which can be found on several anti-war websites such as www.IVAW.org . <\/p>\n
Did you listen? Good. After reviewing several sites and stories on his case I could help but weight in on this. This includes regular media coverage as well as the conservative blog site www.ThisAintHell.us (TAH), Dahr Jamal\u2019s article on www.TruthOut.org, and mainstream media outlets. <\/p>\n
I understand how he feels. I can\u2019t help but say it,: I get his rage. I understand why he said the things that he said. He threatened people of a certain rank and higher in his song with killing them, as you heard. He mailed a copy of his song to his chain of command, and possibly his biggest error, he sent a copy to the Pentagon. According to Watercus his Company level leadership, a Captain and a First Sergeant, sat him down and they talked about it. They were going to send him to mental health and that seemed to be the end of it. What I am a bit fuzzy on is if this happened before or after they knew he sent it to the Pentagon. However, the Company level command made their call. But as always in the Army someone gets \u201cbutt-hurt\u201d (Army Term) and things got worse for him. He was jailed and charged with the good ol\u2019 Army blanket of disrupting \u201cGood Order and Discipline and inciting threats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good order and discipline is the blanket the Army likes to throw down right off the bat. A Captain in my unit wrote a reply to Richard Whitaker\u2019s brilliant article titled \u201cStop The Loss\u201d featuring Hart \u201cJesus Walks\u201d Viges, as well as Ronn \u201cThe Donn\u201d Cantu and myself. He sited my films as disrupting \u201cGood order and discipline\u201d. The same applies to both: Show me were this song caused that disruption? Did it enact a scene of violence? Did Soldiers throw down their gear and refuse to do their jobs? The answer is no, so get off of that kick. As far as a threat goes, it was indirect. Do I think it was wise to say those things, and mail it off to the Pentagon? No, that was a stupid move. One also has to factor in the recent shootings at Ft. Hood. Once again, bad timing to say such things.<\/p>\n
Then you have the \u201cHe signed a contract!\u201d crowd running their collective fingers online. Listen, he said he would not deploy, however he was not given the chance to deploy or go AWOL because he was already jailed by then. Yes, like myself, he did sign a contract, but just because he is speaking out against a policy he feels is wrong, does not mean that he is breaking his contract. Some people seem all to eager to hand over their brains and their balls to the Army without a second thought. You can still be great Soldier without doing that. You also do not give up all of your rights like many think you do. However, if you are going to call out someone for violating his or her contract you better do it at every level. If a Senior NCO breaks the rules, or an Officer, call them out. If we break international law to start a war, or companies that trashed our economy, got a bailout, then wasted that money on retreats, you better be screaming about that too.<\/p>\n
I also fully understand the lyric were he talks about those high-ranking people thinking they are better than him. If you don\u2019t re-up, you are considered a lesser person in the eyes of lifers. To be fair though, there is a clear difference between a career Soldier and a Lifer. A career Soldier can think Army, but still adapt to change and think outside the box. They re-up because they want to. A lifer stays in because they can\u2019t think without the Army doing it for them and the re-up because they can\u2019t do anything else. Lifers are also the worst leaders. I\u2019ve spoken about this before, but it demands repeating: These dual wars have drained the Army of quality leadership and the Army has to promote what\u2019s left. So people, who may not have normally moved up, are moving up. Abuse your Soldiers? No problem! Piss hot on multiple drug tests? No problem! Know nothing about your job? No problem! This is the type of leadership that plagued my second deployment to Iraq. Not all were like that, but I have witnessed a sharp drop. So yeah, I get his anger. More Soldiers feel the way Watercus does more than I think people want to fess up to. You are also in the business of killing in the Army, so don\u2019t be shocked that when you screw with people they are going to say things in regards to taking life. I would not have done it in my films, but don\u2019t think for a minute that if someone shot our Battalion Sgt. Major on my last tour I wouldn\u2019t be anything but happy.<\/p>\n
Stop-Loss is in your contract. But just because it is there does not make it right. It does drop troop moral and it is widely over used. I’d rather have ten Soldiers that wanted to be their than thirty who didn’t. The Army keeps posting these reports that they are making their re-up numbers, if that was the case, they would not have a need for Stop-Loss. So please, lets cut the bullshit. I had several reasons for going back, the primary one being is I cared about my friends who were being treated as badly as I was and I was not going to leave them hanging.<\/p>\n
But lets not let the anti-war movement off the hook. They are jumping all over this like gangbusters and as per their usual, are asking for your money. They are also as one sided as their opposition. While I do not have anything personal against Dahr Jamal, he has been far and honest with me, I was upset to see in his article that he did not at least acknowledge that Marc screwed up in mailing it to the Pentagon. In their eyes, anyone who speaks out against the war, not matter if they\u2019ve never gone, or no matter how vile they might be, is a \u201chero\u201d. I\u2019ve been called a hero. I\u2019m not sure what one is suppose to feel like, but I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m not one. They are also following their closed minded playbook by hooking him up with legal representation from the National Lawyers Guild, a team of hacks who are not respected within the Military legal community or the legal community at large. With lawyers like James Branum, the succeed in getting their clients the max sentences time after time for even the most minor infractions. What the civilian anti-war community doesn\u2019t know is that in almost all of these cases, the activist-lawyers they love screwed those Soldiers, not the Army. It\u2019s simply a case of them not knowing how the Army works, plain and simple. These activist-lawyers put their cause ahead of their clients; they use their clients to promote their agenda. I can draw on myself as proof. I made pissing the Army off into an art form, yet walked away scott-free. So have many others who were opposed to the wars, but ignored the anti-war communities methods and tactics. One of my saving graces was my lawyer, a former Army prosecutor who defends Soldiers all the time. But he does not tell you what you want to hear. My lawyer also didn\u2019t ask for a penny, and if I had been formally charged, I still would not have to pay a thing. My lawyer is currently in the National Guard and he would have to be activated and his expenses covered by the Army per their own rules. You know how many of his clients have gotten the max punishment, even AWOL cases? None. Zero. But when there are people looking to make money, they won\u2019t tell you this. Funny thing is, lawyers like Branum, who is not representing Watercus, but one of his partners in crime, Jim Klaninski is, and yup, they have a legal defense fund they want you to put money into. Both are also members of the International Socialist Organization (ISO). For being Socialists, they sure do love to take donation after donation. Klaminski is also a part of the Military Law Taskforce of which Branum sits on the board.<\/p>\n
I think Marc should continue to speak out, but in a different way. Follow the example of non-violent hip-hop groups like Jurassic 5, Flobots, and others. You can speak your mind in the Army; just don\u2019t give the Army a reason to bust you.<\/p>\n
No matter if you love or hate what Watercus did, he deserves the absolute best legal representation he can get. So ignore the ISO, IVAW, and all of that. Their record for destroying Soldier\u2019s futures speaks for itself. I will be sending a copy of this posting, and a letter to Marc Wattercus with my lawyers contact info in it. My lawyer will not interfere with a case, but there is nothing stopping me from passing off his contact info for Watercus to use. This guy is going to get stomped on by the Army, and used by the anti-war movement, if someone does not step in and do something. It isn\u2019t my job to save anyone, but I\u2019m not going to just sit back and do nothing. <\/p>\n
Best thing about me is, I don\u2019t have an agenda, and I don\u2019t ask for money.<\/p>\n
Casey J Porter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"