Education! F&*% Yeah!

I know it's a little late. We've had awesome educational benefits for almost a full week, and no post! I'd love to tell you that I was drinking away the celebratory time, but truth be told, I was just busy doing work. And promoting this exciting opportunity.

The Webb GI Bill, that thing everyone said would never make it, has been passed.

What does that mean? That means that even soldiers with families, who were trying to figure out how they could go to school and still have a place to live without getting a full-time job, can afford to better themselves and move up in the world.

This bill means a lot to me. I first found out about this bill before I was an IVAW member, when I was first having the stirrings of political thought as a member o the Armed Forces. I had worked for a Senator's campaign, in a private capacity, and gone to the parties afterwards. I even got into Clinton's bash by the expedient of standing at the door and asking the aide if Senator Clinton didn't have any space at her party for a soldier from New York recently returned from overseas. (Yes, I'm a bastard).
But after that, while in the area, I decided to visit all the Senators I could and talk to them about what was important to me-the paucity of the Montgomery GI Bill.

I have to say that the staffers were very polite to me. I made it past the greeters each and every time. I even met and shook hands with McCain, believing at the time that he was a principled veteran who would stand up for our rights. Then I got the word from one senator's office that they and Senator Webb were cooking up something that would "make me very happy". I headed on over to see Webb, who was taking his congratulations in an incredibly pressed room. I shook his hand as well, talked a bit about my military service, and asked what he had going on. The man said it'd be out in a few weeks, and to get with his staffer and she would call me.

Lo and behold, I got a nice call when the plan got unveiled. And I was excited. At last somebody had put together a GI Bill with teeth. But I was also mystified-why weren't more senators signing onto it? Why was everyone talking about it like a pipe dream?

For nearly two years, this battle was fought. For quite some time everyone dismissed it, and it was said it would never happen.

Then the veterans got involved.

IAVA, and VFW, and AUSA, and IVAW, and VoteVets, and pretty much every veteran's organization out there got involved and started rallying their people to get involved. I made calls and visits. Others made calls and visits, and sent letters. For those who say that soldiers and veterans don't have political opinions, it is important to remember that it is servicemembers and veterans who helped turn the tide and get this bill made into law.

Your opinions, your thoughts, your feelings, ARE important. And you need to flex those long-unused muscles. Don't just stop there-let your voice be heard in other matters. There are still veteran's issues that need help. We still have veterans being foisted off with shoddy healthcare. We still have not enough review for PTSD cases. We still have atrocious medical care even for servicemembers.

Let's work, people. Let's work, and let's take initiative, and let's bring about the world we want to see.

The passing of the Webb GI Bill is proof that we can do it.

Independence Day

"Gentlemen cry peace, peace, but there is no peace, the war is already begun!" -Patrick Henry, 1775

July Fourth is here. I know that to a lot of people, Americans, all it means is fireworks in a night sky, barbecues and roasting meat, hot summer days and cool beers. For too many people it's just a holiday, an extra day off from work where they get to wear red, white, and blue. If they are feeling particularly patriotic, they may whisper to their children, "This is the day America became free."

I don't wear red, white and blue, and I don't wave paper flags. Sometimes I don't even have a celebration. The Founding Fathers certainly had no celebration, tucked away as they were, rebelling from a distance, the certain underdog against England's might. No, how I choose to commemorate July Fourth is by recommitting myself to living by the ideals which were blazed that day.

I think of a handful of men, who gathered together despite a repressive occupation, who joined their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to combat injustice. Men who decided that it was intolerable to accept abuses without standing up against them.

Men who dared.

Men who lost everything, in many cases up to and including their lives, that a nation might be born which would live for a thousand years in freedom and justice.

I think back to those bold men, whose deeds blazed across the sky. I think of how I can possibly live up to what they asked of themselves, to what they asked to those who might follow in their footsteps. To the dreams they held and battled the darkness for.

And I remember what I am.

I am an active duty soldier, who sees a duty to the country I love, the country birthed so many years ago to be a just and righteous nation, where each and every citizen would have the right to petition for redress of grievances, and to print whatever they pleased about their government. I see a duty to all those who have died for these ideals - everyone whose red blood was shed to give our flag its color, who dreamed that generation after generation, patriots would always stand ready to answer America's call.

What a low, shivering thing would I be, if I saw the truth, that America is wasting its soldiers, breaking its military, and destroying its economy, all in the name of the interests of a few, and I did not stand up! If I did not stand up for fear, or a wish to preserve my comfort. If I did not stand up for fear of reprisal, or imprisonment-how those Founding Fathers would be ashamed!

I would like to think that if they saw me here, now, along with the ranks of the rest of our active duty soldiers who are standing up against this injustice, they would be proud. Would be proud of the spirit that still stands strong in America. Why stand the rest of you silent? The war is already begun! Not just the war in Iraq, but the war here at home, to wake a complacent citizenry to action! The time for sitting at home and thinking hopeful thoughts is over! This July Fourth, and every day until the troops are home and treated like the country which has used the best and brightest in them owes, I swear to act!

Join with me. Join with us. We, the active duty IVAW members, and even those who are against the war but do not yet know they can be with us, are waiting.

--
Sergeant Selena Coppa
35S, USA

"In accordance with AR 360-1, the opinions expressed in this statement are those of the individual and do not reflect the official positions or policies of the Department of Defense, the United States Army, or the United States Government."

Cake or Death? (Bread or Destruction?)

Some of you may have been reading the military newspapers, and seen that the Army is in a really bad fix. We've had to borrow money from the Navy and Air Force just to get paid for June 15. Even that borrowed money will only keep the payrolls running until the end of July. Currently, military leadership is trying to pass this off as Congress's fault: that unless Congress approves the supplemental funding bill, soldiers won't get paid starting August 1.

This is nothing more or better than a dodge to shift blame off of their own shoulders.

The supplemental funding bill is for just that-supplementals. It's not for payroll. It's to keep the things which are not usual to the defense budget (such as, for example, the Iraq occupation) moving. Taking money out of soldier's pockets in the confidence that somehow things will get better and more money can come is terrible planning and budgeting, and terrible thinking. It reminds me of the people everyone always complains about, who give themselves luxuries at the expense of their family and children, who have gold necklaces but can't pay for food. This is what the Army is right now. The Army is a guy with spinning rims on his car and living in an apartment with no water or electricity at the moment. And it is not Congress's fault. It's our own fault.

If soldiers are unable to pay their bills because the Army isn't paying them, I'm not really sure that having a few new things built in Iraq is not going to help their children sleep easier at night. And I know that the Army blackmailing Congress because they can't balance their own checkbook isn't going to make me happier.

I was looking at some figures, and I see we're overbudget in a lot of ways. In many ways, the Army has spent money it doesn't have. If only there were some rule! If only there were some law against spending money you don't have!

Oh, wait.

Article 123a—Making, drawing, or uttering check, draft, or order without sufficient funds

“Any person subject to this chapter who ... makes, draws, utters, or delivers any check, draft, or order for the payment of money upon any bank or other depository, knowing at the time that the maker or drawer has not or will not have sufficient funds in, or credit with, the bank or other depository for the payment of that check, draft, or order in full upon its presentment, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."

Of course, there's also Article 134—(Check, worthless, making and uttering—by dishonorably failing to maintain funds)

And that's the thing that ticks me off. I maintain a security clearance. If I deliberately took money out of an account, counting on more money coming in, but having no guarantee, I would get in trouble. I might get Articled. I might lose my clearance. If I spent money like a drunken sailor with no expectation of more, I would get in severe trouble with the military.

Isn't higher leadership supposed to be SETTING the example?

IVAW Tattoo Discount, GI Bill Rant

By way of Adam Kokesh,


20 percent off tattoos....might have been nice to know before I got my very expensive tattoo. Still, for other IVAW members out there, and those that would like to become IVAW members, good to know!



Now, on to the GI Bill. I've another video that I found says a lot of it better than I can.



Here's the thing. Yes, many soldiers were attracted by the idea of going to college. Going to as good a college as their brains could bring them to. The notion of not having to pay for school, their service being their payment.

They didn't read the fine print. They weren't supposed to read the fine print. They were never supposed to know how terrible the GI bill is.

Look. Let's be honest with each other and with the country. The Army money won't pay for a good school. While you're in, or while you're out, it simply won't do it. The Army assumes that its people don't need decent schooling. We can be shoved off with community college money, that is actually below what decent financial aid would cover. No matter how brilliant you are, the Army simply wont' pay for your schooling.

And this hurts the Army as well as its soldiers.

If the Army would pay for me to go to a decent law school? I'd honestly probably be willing to go back as a JAG officer. I've been tempted. But they won't pay for a decent school-just the kind of crummy school I could pay for on my own. The GI Bill currently doesn't pay for living expenses either, so you still need a full-time job to pay your rent. And again-find me a college that accepts tuition on a month-by-month basis. Please.

Jim Webb's bill proposes something radical-that soldiers deserve to go to the best public college in the state. It doesn't go as radical as I'd like. To be honest, I think a great GI Bill would be one that paid for whatever school the soldier could manage to get into, paying the money directly to the school. If I can get into Harvard or Yale or Columbia? Let the Army pay for the college I can achieve, rather than the college they feel I deserve. They've certainly used my brains to the utmost during my time of service, I know they know they're there.

But it's the best bill on the table right now.

And if it "hurts retention" because soldiers leave to actually go to school, what does that say about the current GI Bill, and what an illusory promise that is?

Prayer/Good Wishes/Letters Request

As some of you have already heard, IVAW member Tomas Young slipped into a coma recently when a blood clot went from his lungs to his brain. For those of you who are not aware, Tomas Young is a severely wounded servicemember and the focus of the documentary "Body of War".

I would hope that everyone reading this, whether for the war or against it, can send at the very least their prayers and good wishes for this veteran who was wounded in America's service while he undergoes further testing.

For those of you who wish to send something more tangible, letters can be sent to:

Tomas Young - patient
Saint Luke's Hospital
4401 Wornall
Kansas City, MO 64111

I would ask that if you disapprove of an IVAW member and want to send something nasty, please send all your nasty letters to me instead-I'll even give you the CMR if you like. Tomas is in a hospital and I would ask that please only the positive items be sent. I shouldn't have to ask this, but please be decent human beings, everyone.

IVAW Winter Soldier on the Hill-Jason Lemieux

Alright. This was going to be one long post profiling everyone who testified, but it kept being put off more and more, and I realized over a mouthful of alcoholic ice cream (yes, Bailey's mit eis is zehrgut) that it wasn't going to get done at all, if I didn't get cracking on it in a little bit different way than I've done before.

So, here's starting off with Jason Lemieux. Everybody's favorite marine, he's the kind of guy I would kill to have in my squad if he would only sign back up with the Army. He's smart, disciplined, and honorable. Unfortunately, a little too honorable for the unit he was deployed with. Three deployments, folks. And for those of you bloggers keeping track, he states his unit very clearly at the very beginning of his speech.



One thing that's hard about what Jason talks about is that a lot of it is stuff that isn't really either black or white.

Like, for example. The chain of command promising to "take care of" Marines caught in wrongdoing. There are two things both tied together there-one good, one bad. I don't know about Marines, but I know that Army NCOs, at least, want to take care of their soldiers. And sometimes minor rules get broken. They always do. Everyone in the Army has broken or ignored at least one minor rule at some point in their career. Often it's to take care of a troop.

Now extend it. Where does the line get drawn? At what point do you find the perfect balance between rules that must not be broken and soldiers or marines that must be cared for?

These are hard decisions they are being forced to make-but I think it is important to say these are decision they are forced into. Everyone in Iraq right now is forked, involved in a chess game where they must lose one of two crucial items. It is very hard to leave intact.


I will also agree with Jason that I find it hard to believe that his XO wouldn't completely understand that Marines are often quite happy to use a nuke instead of a flyswatter, if given the option. Army is much the same, in many ways. Few really consider the cost of the rounds. It's often a pleasure simply to shoot.

For all of you watching, I want you to consider Jason Lemieux's story of the XO, and put other words in it. How many times have you heard an XO or a CO say, "This can't go up to battalion like this." Or even, on smaller levels, a platoon sergeant say, "I can't send this to the first sergeant" when evidence materialized that someone in their unit had done something flagrantly wrong. Higher leadership covers up stuff all the time. Whether it's a first sergeant shifting the numbers of his PT failures so it doesn't show on the battalion powerpoint slides or an XO altering a report to show that more incoming rounds were fired than actually were, it's been going on for years, and I can't believe others aren't aware of this as well.

I'm also very glad that Lemieux pointed out that the focus on counterinsurgency is destroying the ability to perform conventional warfare. We do need to be aware of it, but we don't need to completely ignore everything else we've done for the last twenty years.

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".