Veterans For Freedom at the Petraeus Hearing

On Tuesday, April 8th, 2008, a member of Veterans For Freedom sits in on a few minutes of the General Petraeus / Ambassador Crocker hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of their "Vets On The Hill" day of lobbying.

With a few other members of the DC Chapter, I sat in on all four of the hearings with Petraeus and Crocker. We heard the same bullshit over and over again. It got to be like boot camp when you would sit cross-legged on the floor for extended periods of time. First you would get pins and needles in your foot, and then it would creep up your leg, then your whole butt cheek would go numb and when they yelled at you to get up and get moving you would be in a lot of pain and walking funny for at least a few steps.

There's a lot more to be said about these last two crazy days, but for now I will leave you with this video. I hope you enjoyed it.

A Message From a Soldier

Relevant Quotes

You can believe in stones as long as you don’t throw them at me.
- Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from Los Angeles

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
- Emma Goldman

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You cannot expect people to believe in the promise of a better future when they are jailed for peacefully petitioning their government. And you cannot stand up a modern, confident nation when you do not allow people to voice their legitimate criticisms.
- President Bush, 13 January 2008, United Arab Emirates

Yes, George Bush ‘stands behind the troops’- several thousand miles behind!
- Gib S (Saltwater)

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress . . . But then I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is l like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
- Winston Churchill

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Ronald Reagan (1986)

When a cause is just, you are fighting for your country. When it is unjust, you are fighting for your government.

March 24, 2008: 4000? IT ISN'T WORTH IT

Today has been hailed as the day that we suffered our 4000th American casualty in Iraq. Really, it should be marked as the day that this administration was forced to admit that we have lost at least 4000 brave young Americans in the misguided occupation of Iraq. A fire team of IVAW members and I commemorated this occasion today with a vigil at the White House including a raising of the inverted American flag to signal a country in a state of distress. Hopefully, those that saw us, and fellow Americans who note this day, will join us in facing the reality that these people died for a lie. And the soldiers that died today after this “milestone” died for lie. And the ones that will die tomorrow will die for a lie.

I was there today because LCpl Phillip E. Frank, age 20, of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, was shot in a firefight on the Fallujah peninsula on April 8th, 2004. The bullet entered his right armpit through the gap in his body armor. I pulled my humvee with our Civil Affairs team on board to a position of cover near the firefight. Then Frank was loaded onto another humvee in front of us. We raced to Camp Taqadum with an “emergency MEDEVAC convoy” that was half as big as our security SOP dictated. As we went through our local “IED alley” and zig-zagged through barriers on our way to the surgical station, I watched our corpsman furiously work to stop the bleeding and save Frank's life.

When we pulled up the surgical tent, I saw the Marines from the humvee in front of me struggling to open the tailgate that was weighed down by water jugs and gas cans. I ran out and leaned against them to relieve the weight and the tailgate came down. I grabbed the end of the stretcher and passed it off, but because it was broken in the middle, I ended up holding the side to keep it from folding in half. Frank was moaning and fading in and out. His left arm flailed off next to me and I put it back on the stretcher and told him the only thing you can say in that situation: “You made it. You're going to be ok.” But I was wrong. The bullet had severed an artery and lodged against his spine. He died of internal bleeding within minutes. He has earned his place among those 4000 and the pantheon of patriots who died for love of country.

I was also there today for my cousin, Sgt Allen D. Kokesh of Yankton, South Dakota. On December 4th, 2005, his humvee was struck by an IED in Baghdad that killed two other soldiers from his guard unit. He was airlifted out of Iraq and ended up at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He was suffering from inhalation burns, a leg amputation, and numerous other injuries. President Bush himself visited him there while in recovery, and Allen even managed two enthusiastic salutes in the process. But the President's encouragement and blessings were not enough and he passed away on February 7th, 2006. He was 21. The President did not attend his funeral. It would have been his first and only for any soldier. He has also earned his place on the most hallowed of lists.

But these cases are in contrast to those like Sgt James W. McDonald. He also suffered injuries resulting from an IED attack in May of 2007. After extensive surgeries and still suffering from the effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) he was found dead in his barracks on November 12th. The Army has ruled that it was not suicide and not accidental, but have denied his mother's wishes to have his name placed on the memorial wall at Fort Hood. In it's desperate attempt to deny the costs of war, this administration has denied Sgt McDonald his deserved place of honor.

Among those who will never be counted are those who have committed suicide as a result of their service. Being put in situations that only occur in futile occupations where your morals are at odds with your survival instincts and your survival instincts win, can do that to you. According to CBS News, at least 6,256 took their lives in 2005 alone. Jonathan Shulze killed himself after seeking treatment and being told by the VA to just hang on a little longer; he was “number 26.” Will anyone from this administration even claim a shred of responsibility for these deaths?

I know that this “milestone,” as it is commonly referred to, is essentially meaningless. It doesn't mean anything to the families of one of four men that may have been the actual 4000th casualty. It doesn't mean anything to those who passed before them to be on a longer list. It doesn't mean anything to the administration that lied us into this war. And it doesn't mean anything to the Congress that continues to fund a very costly occupation. But if it means something to the average American who was not even aware that last Wednesday marked the start of our sixth year in Iraq, hopefully it can inspire them to do something about it.

You don't have to watch this video closely to get it, but take a second to think about the implications after you watch it. . .

Dennis Kucinich at WS, with a cameo by Adam Kokesh

Marines Appreciate Air Support During the Siege of Fallujah

I took this video during the First Battle of Fallujah in April '04. When we heard the Spectre Gunships whirring overhead at night we got an extra sense of security because the insurgents knew what they sounded like too, and learned to keep their heads down during that time. When we were in our sleeping holes trying to fall asleep, the whirring was like a lullaby, rocking us to sleep.

But we would also get excited when watching the helicopter door gunners "get some."

It was as if we knew that someone in the city was experiencing the same anguish that we experienced during mortar attacks.

FREE AT LAST!

Ok, not free of anything nearly as dramatic as slavery, but thanks to the judge's ruling today, I won't have to be checking in to pretrial services in person once a week at the courthouse, and I am now in full possession of my first amendment rights and am able to poster in the District of Columbia again. Not being able to poster in the district was a condition of my pretrial release. Thankfully, no one noticed [section redacted]

Today was the long awaited trial for the charges of defacing public property for defendants Tina Richards and Adam Kokesh and assaulting a police officer for defendant Ian Thompson. Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard represented Tina and I respectively and Mike Madden represented Ian Thompson. These guys are the best. Carl and Mara work at the Partnership for Civil Justice and are the best at what they do. Mike is sharp as all hell and I give him a big part of the credit for getting the September 15th charges dismissed against us.

After all of the preliminary motions, the prosecutor said that he wanted to introduce two videos as evidence in the case. He referred to them as the “Fox Video” and the “YouTube Video.” Then, “with the permission of the court” he took us downstairs to the witness room to watch the videos. When it came time to introduce them as evidence in court, he ran into some technical difficulties. About two hours worth of technical difficulties. They even tried to bring up the computer from the basement, but then couldn't log on because it was set up for the network. (Sounds like NMCI.)

[Section redacted]

By then, she had already granted the motion for judgment of acquittal in the case of Tina and myself. After the prosecution rested, the motions were requested and the judge granted them on the basis that the government had not proven that the box in question was under Parks Department jurisdiction rather than DC.

Anyway, so Tina and I got off and Ian and Carl had to call all of their witnesses and go through their defense, only to get a guilty verdict. For assaulting a police officer. For picking up a bucket.

So we scored a victory for freedom of speech in our cases, but the criminal justice system has managed to disgrace itself yet again.


This is me checking in at pretrial services. Since they screwed me at my arraignment by saying that I was delinquent by not calling in once a week, (which led the judge to order that I come in person) I requested a record of having checked in every time I went. Only once did I get a hand-written note saying I had checked in that day. Every other time I took a photo with my camera phone. Then, as I was walking away, someone would say, "You can't do that! You need to erase that photo. Seriously, I'm going to call security." "OK."

[There's a lot more to be said here, but I'm tired and have a plane to catch for a fundraiser in Santa Cruz in a few hours. Look for a video soon with interviews from key players in this case.]

Pack the courtroom!

Defend anti-war activists, defend free speech!

Come to the courtroom:
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 9am
Judge Kaye Christian
DC Superior Court
500 Indiana Ave. NW
The ANSWER Coalition urges everyone who can to attend an important free speech trial that begins Tuesday, Feb. 26 (tomorrow). On trial are three anti-war activists arrested on Sept. 6, 2007, while holding a press conference to publicize a mass anti-war march held on Sept. 15. The arrests, captured on video, provoked national outrage. The youtube video, which has drawn over 80,000 viewers, can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EAfPgX7gs0. Despite these intimidation tactics, 100,000 people turned out on Sept. 15 for a spirited march from the White House to the Capitol.

Now the activists -- Tina Richards (CEO of Grassroots America and mother of a disabled Iraq war veteran), Adam Kokesh (of Iraq Veterans Against the War), and Ian Thompson (ANSWER organizer from Los Angeles) are facing up to 6 months in jail wrongfully charged with defacing property and assault on an officer. This case is a fight for free speech: whether or not the anti-war movement has the right to publicize its events without persecution.

Come pack the courtroom, and let these brave activists know that they are not alone, that they speak for all of us, and we will not let the Bush administration persecute them for their pursuit of peace and justice.

Come to the courtroom:
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 9am
Judge Kaye Christian
DC Superior Court
500 Indiana Ave. NW

*from an email from the ANSWER Coalition*

Iraq Veterans Against the War DC & Ft Meade Outreach