Tuesday, March 06, 2007

THIS JUST IN! NO PLAN! AGAIN!

 
TODAY, AS THESE REPORTERS LISTENED TO THE BULLY BOY OF THE UNITED STATES ADDRESS THE AMERICAN LEGION, OUR CELL PHONES WENT OFF.  IT WAS A FORMER WHITE HOUSE INSIDER TELLING US, IF WE'D MEET WITH HIM, HE COULD REVEAL THE WHITE HOUSE'S PLAN FOR ADDRESSING THE WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER SCANDAL.
 
MEETING AT THE LINCOLN MONUMENT AT EXACTLY 4:30 P.M. TODAY, OUR SOURCE, WHO ASKED THAT HE BE CALLED "ARI FLY-FLY" INFORMED US THAT THE PLAN WAS TO MAKE THE SPEECH TODAY AND THEN . . . DO NOTHING.
 
"DON'T YOU GET IT?"  ASKED ARI FLY-FLY.  "HE'S NOT GOING TO ADDRESS IT AGAIN UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2, 2008."
 
THESE REPORTERS LOOKS PUZZLED.
 
"IT'S JUST LIKE WITH HURRICANE KATRINA!" ARI FLY-FLY EXCLAIMED.  "HE'LL WAIT A YEAR AND 6 MONTHS AND THEN SHOW UP AND SAY 'YOU HAVE NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN'."
 
ARI FLY-FLY THEN HANDED US A FOLDER MARKED "FOR KARL'S EYES ONLY" AND ENTITLED "HOW TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING."  THE 5 POINT MEMO INSIDE BACKED ARI FLY-FLY UP.  BUT BEFORE WE COULD QUESTION HIM FURTHER, HE WAS OFF.  SAID HE HAD TO HELP SCOOTER PLAN FOR HIS BIG BLOW OUT BASH BEFORE HE GOT SENT TO THE BIG HOUSE.
 
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance, today, in Germany Agustin Aguayo's court-martial began. 
Ashraf Khalil (Los Angeles Times) reports that Courage to Resist's Jeff Paterson expects "Aguayo will get up to a year in jail followed by a less than honorable or bad conduct discharge."  Agustin Aguayo faces charges of missing movement and desertion.  And Paterson made a strong guess.  Catherine Hornby (Reuters) reports that Aguayo was convicted of the charges: "Aguayo, 35, pleaded guilty to going absent without leave and missing his deployment, but denied charges of full desertion.  But Colonel Peter Masterton, the judge at the court-martial in southern Germany, said the court had found Aguayo guilty as charged and sentenced him to eight months in prison."  AP notes that with the 161 days already served, Aguayo "could be free within a few weeks" and quotes Aguayo: "I respect everyone's views and your decision.  I understand that people don't undestand me.  I tried my best, but I couldn't bear weapons and I could never point weapons at someone.  . . .  The words of Martin Luther come to mind, 'Here I stand, I can do more'."
 
Agustin Aguayo did enough.  He stood up and he was counted.  The father of two eleven-year-old girls, husband of Helga, used his voice and refused to take part in an illegal war. As his two daughters wrote in a letter to him, which Helga spoke about in a video posted at Courage to Resist, that said "We are strong.  We will get through this.  Never forget that."  Aguayo reasons may not be understood by all (and some pretend not to understand them) but he made his point and he stood up.  That's a lot more than many do.
 
Yesterday on  KPFA's Flashpoints, Dennis Bernstein and Nora Barrows-Friedman hosted a speak out on the war.  Of course some speak out and some whimper.  The whimpers came first.  Yes, it's the e-activists, the WalkOn kids, doing nothing but eating up air time.  Listen, if you dare, to hear statments glorifying following orders (even when you think the war is illegal and/or immoral), statements of "I do the job I was hired for," statements of wimpering little children who take swipes at Ehren Watada more and more.  As though their bended knee plea to a Congress shows any strength or has made a damn bit of difference.
 
Jonathan Hutto "But at the same time we have to make it clear that we're not" a long list of nots -- things they are not.  And they're not smart and they're not accomplishing anything and they need to find a better use for the time.  Hutto on Watada: "I personally don't believe that individual acts of refusal or desertion is what's going to change the actual culture of our country, the actual mission of the military."
 
"Is"?  I guess the revision/recast of Hutto is so out of control that now he isn't even a college graduate who grasps subject-verb agreement?  It is honestly hilarious to watch Hutto come off less and less educated with each interview. And you have to wonder what anyone thinks that will accomplish?  (Or if they believe that past interviews aren't archived for those who want to seek them out?)
 
The e-activists aren't accomplishing anything.  How many, Dennis Bernstein asked, Congress members had signed up to their plea?  There was a long list of ones who had handed out 'atta boys, but in terms of actual support?  Ten?  Beg on your bended knees, boys and girls, but don't kid yourself that you're accomplishing anything with your anonymous activism (which applies not just to the signature but the marketing as well). You've been ignored by Congress, you've been brushed off.  A few patted you on the head and that's it.  Aguayo stood out, as have others, they wait on bended knee.
 
The e-activists were supposed to produce a petition and supposed to deliver it to Congress on MLK day but someone in the brain trust was too stupid to grasp that MLK Day is a holiday and Congress would be out of session.  So they delivered it on the 16th of January.  Why are they still boring everyone with their petition?
 
Is it 200 more signatures to a useless petition since then?  "Patriotic!" they keep insisting!  "Wouldn't want to do anything that wasn't okay with the military!" they brag.  Is that really something to brag about, 200 more?  Almost two months later?  Does the toothless, symbolic petition have a point because most points have an ending but this is never ending -- or maybe the egos are just too mighty to nah-nah-nah-good-bye already.  "I support continuing to do the mission," an e-activst with Appeal to Whimper told Dennis Bernstein.  That would be the illegal war.  It's past time that the peace movement and the anti-war movement stopped promoting those people who can't call the war out.  Patrick Buchanan showed more bravery than these supposed anti-war activists.  Dennis Bernstein attempted to bring up the issue of the principles outlined in the Nuremberg Trials.  And the response?
 
"I chose to wear this uniform and I'm going to continue to do what I'm paid to do.  But at the same time, I don't think there's anything wrong with petitioning Congress in this appeal for redress to say 'Hey, we could use a little help over here.'  So that's my thing, I think that we should be able to appeal for redresses and at the same time getting on with the business of what we volunteered and are paid to do and that's uh go where we're told and do what we're told" at which point Jonathan Hutto tries to rescue his pro-war buddy.  It's too late for a rescue.  And it's past time that the left leave the nonsense e-activism to the 'left'. 
 
Segment one plays out like a joke.  Segment two is worth hearing (featuring Iraq War Veterans Against the War) as Garrett Reppenhagen, Prentice Reid and Jason Lemieux speak strongly (no whimpers in this segment).  (This is the section Elaine chose to start with when she wrote about the broadcast last night.)  Reid spoke of participating in a protest in support of Mark Wilkerson because he feels the war is wrong.  He feels the war is wrong.  It's not that difficult to say -- unless, like the Hutto crowd, you've attempted to pass yourself off as something you're not and surrounded yourself with War Hawks just to get a electronic signature on your petition.  (What might you do for a wet signature!)  Reid's not been polished and doesn't have a crew of advisors, but he can speak proudly and strongly.  Garrett spoke of his service and how Iraq was different from the way it was sold,
"I think that the administration bascially abused our sense of patriotism our sense of courage and our sense of values to motivate this nation to back the war.
And I wasn't happy about it.  So the people I killed in Iraq and the missions I went on I don't feel supported American security, I don't think that it was very moral and just what we did,
and it went against what I was actually being trained for, as far as army values,
and as far as the characteristics of what a soldier represents and the values of the country."
 
Segment three features a heartbreaking story told by Tina Richards about the struggles her son Cloy had after returning from Iraq: "When he got back from Falluja he was completely broken, he suffered severe PTSD.  He often called me where he was doing his MP duty at Camp Pendleton to tell me he had a gun in his mouth, he had to pull the trigger, he could no longer live with all of the innocent women and children he killed over in Iraq and that he didn't deserve to have a mother and a sister.  And that is . . .  It just, as a mother, tears you apart.
and you don't know what to do.  And when he was deployed I was torn apart because I felt so helpless.  And when I was trying to get him help  through the VA system which, first the military and then the VA system which completely failed him I finally started getting involved with varioius activist groups such as Veterans for Peace , Military Families Speak Out."
 
Then a speech by Cloy Richards was played where he discussed being told that they were shooting advancing insurgents and, looking at the bodies later, it was "women and children, elderly," about how his brother served in Iraq and has been torn apart by it (and is now headed to Afghanistan).
 
Jeff Paterson pointed out that Courage to Resist is a resource for everyone -- it provides information, it raises money, it provides support.  Most of all, Jeff Paterson pointed out,
"We heard a soldier  earlier speak saying individual resistance doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter unless there's a community, a movement, backing them up.  That they're part of something, that they're part of stopping a war.  And that's what Courage to Resist is dedicated to."  Ramon Leal (Iraq Veterans Against the War) spoke of how the war was illegal and how "now that we know it's illegal, what to do about it?"
 
Amnesty International had an observer in the court room where Agustin Aguayo's court-martial took place today and they have issued a statement:
 
Agustin Aguayo  is a legitimate conscientious objector who should not be imprisoned for his beliefs, Amnesty International said today after Aguayo, a U.S. Army medic, was sentenced by U.S. court martial to eight months in prison for his refusal to participate in the war in Iraq.  The organization considers Aguayo to be a "prisoner of conscince" and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.
"Refusing military service for reasons of conscience isn't a luxury -- it's a right protected under international human rights law," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.  "Agustin Aguayo wasn't just complaining about his assignment -- he clearly made the case that he objects to war itself.  He should be released."
It is evident from the statements made by Aguayo and members of his family that he is a legitimate conscientious objector whose opposition to war developed over the course of time and evolved further in response to his experiences in Iraq.  Amnesty International believes that he took reasonable steps to secure release from the army through applying for conscientious objector status.
 
Aguayo stood strong and stood up today.  He didn't whimper.  He didn't say, "Give me my orders."  He didn't, as an e-mail activist told Bernstein, say of course the war is illegal but he's happy to serve in it.  Aguayo is part of a movement of resistance with the military that includes others such as Ehren Watada, Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Joshua Key, Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 

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