Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Winter Soldier On the Hill

The original blogpost was thoughtful and considered. It was a marvel of blogging style and wit. Unfortunately, Mozilla crashed, and it is lost to the ages.

Thus, you get this one.

I am burning through yet more of my leave days to attend and assist with Winter Soldier on the Hill. How is this possible, you ask? Well, before joining IVAW, I was a leave miser, and started out with enough that I would have had use-or-lose by FY09. IVAW is providing me with an excellent opportunity not to have a use-lose situation.

I am not testifying, but there are nine excellent IVAW members who are. The hearing will be on the 15th of May, 0930-1230, at the 2261 Rayburn House Office Building.

Testifying will be:

Jason Lemieux: One of my favorite conservative voices in IVAW, this three-tour marine will be testifying on loose rules of engagement, the killing of innocent civilians, and the hiding of those killings through falsified reports and cover-ups.

Scott Ewing: A man who's had enough tragedy in his life for ten lifetimes, this cav scout, will be testifying on the killing of innocent civilians, random detainments and house raids, destruction of civilian property, and misrepresentations of the war in the media.

Geoff Millard: Oh, come on! You all know Geoff. What you don't all know is that he's served nine years, two more than me, though he, like me, joined at 17. I joined one month short of my eighteenth birthday, and according to TSO, still have the bunnies and kittens in my eyes. Geoff Millard definitely does not have bunnies and kittens. He will be testifying about racism during his tour, including among high-ranking officials.

Kristofer Goldsmith: Kris Goldsmith served as a forward observer with the Third Infantry Division. He's also a mean man in a mosh pit, and a great guy to have at your back. He served in Sadr City and Baghdad, and was stop-lossed after getting back from Iraq. He will be testifying on low morale and the psychological consequences of the "troop surge", as the breakdown of Iraqi infrastructure.

Casey Porter will be video-testifying from Baghdad. He's an active duty soldier and fairly okay guy, even if he does love shoving cameras in my face. He's an integral part of my team, and the GI outreach video correspondent with the mostest. I don't know what he'll be testifying about, but I'm sure it will be good.

Vincent Emanuele was a Marine rifleman, and also a very good guy. He served in Al Qaim and Al Asad. He will be testifying on the killing of civilians and livestock, the use of drop weapons, racism, and the destruction of property.

James Gilligan served six years with the Marine Corps as an infantryman and Combat Engineer. He was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. I don't really know him too well, but I'm looking forward to hearing his testimony on the abuse of civilian detainees, looting, destruction of property, racism, equipment shortages, media misrepresentation, and "search and avoid" missions.

Adam Kokesh: Once again, everyone knows Adam. Blogging from Revolutionary Patriot, he will be testifying about the creation of internally displaced refugees during the siege of Fallujah, changing rules of engagement, taking war trophy photographs, and abuse of detainees.

Sergio Kochergin: Another member I don't know but look forward to hearing, Sergio will testify on loose rules of engagement, killing of civilians, dehumanization, and the use of drop weapons.

Luis Montalvan will also be testifying on fraud, waste, and abuse perpetrated by US contractors, negligence and dereliction of duty on the part of commanding officers, and misreporting on the "troop surge".

5 comments:

ILO said...

In today's Powerpoint Army, the experienced NCO trusts only in Notepad and a thumbdrive.

I know Winter Soldier On the Hill isn't "our event," but it's already bigger in the news than WSIA ever was. Silver Springs will always be Silver Springs, but this is going to be bigger. WSIA was amazing for IVAW (both internally and for recruiting), and it was where we put our foot down and made our stories accessible to the world. Still, this will probably have a wider audience. More Congresscritters will hear us, too.

All we need is for people to know what we know, and everything will change. Short of letting people know, letting Congress know might just do the trick. Let the record show that I crossed my fingers and knocked on wood just now.

As an aside, it felt odd to see you call Jason a conservative. Now, I don't know where you are or he is politically, but I know where I am. Nowhere that I've agreed or disagreed with either one of you have the words liberal, conservative, left or right crossed my mind. We're just fellow American servicepeople who swore to defend the Constitution. I guess Bush is a unifier, in a small way, after all.

Y'all are doing great work down there. Let's hope you can provoke Congress to do a little of it themselves.

streetsweeper said...

Guess work has caught up to you A/S....

ilo said:

"I know Winter Soldier On the Hill isn't "our event," but it's already bigger in the news than WSIA ever was. Silver Springs will always be Silver Springs, but this is going to be bigger."

ilo? How's it feel to be a third rate banana on a huge tree? Maybe you fell kinda like your toes got stepped on by uhhhhh higher ups?

"All we need is for people to know what we know, and everything will change. Short of letting people know, letting Congress know might just do the trick. Let the record show that I crossed my fingers and knocked on wood just now."

Being you washed out as an MP dude....where's the proof you need to present in a court of law?

Oh wait a minute.......all of IVAW is too chicken crap to step up, sign on the dotted lines & provide sworn testimony in a duly appointed court of law.....

Oops....forgot yall are dating the "Progessive Caucus of Congress"!

How do you spell "Communism"? Sounds a bit like IVAW & VVAW/VFP.

Dude(tte)?

Just A Decurion said...

But, of course, it's not "intended" to provide concrete accusations of war crimes, cf AS's commentary in my blog.

It's intended to grab attention (validating whiners), to smear all US troops with vague accusations that will never be disproven to the satisfaction of our opposition, and support al-Qaeda in Iraq and JAM Special Groups (read: Iran).

"The insurgent, having no responsibility, is free to use every trick; if necessary, he can lie, cheat, exaggerate. He is not obliged to prove; he is judged by what he promises, not by what he does. Consequently, propaganda is a powerful weapon for him. With no positive policy but with good propaganda, the insurgent may still win."
-- Lieutenant Colonel David Galula

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