New Veterans’ Groups
Prior to “Vietnam Veterans Against the War,” I only remember the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and AMVETS. VVAW was specifically designed for a particular agenda revealed by, oh, I don’t know… their name, perhaps? In other words, the particular political leaning of its members was pretty obvious. They are useful to those who hold a similar agenda, providing a military legitimacy to their cries.
With the new millennium came a new war and new groups. Now we have several groups who have sprung up specifically for veterans of the current conflicts. Iraq Veterans Against the War (gee… I wonder where they came up that that name?) popped up along with their despicable “Winter Soldiers.” They were countered by Vets for Victory, proving that not all veterans of the current conflict were whiny little boys and girls who unwillingly committed war crimes under the supervision of reincarnated Waffen SS leadership.
Then we have VoteVets, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) who have now managed to embroil themselves in a number of issues, although they describe themselves as non-partisan. Let’s take a look at the issues that they have chosen, though. Here’s the IAVA Founder on veteran’s issues…
Yeah? Really? And how about this?
So, let’s get this right… this is a non-partisan group, giving “objective” information, but the information they give clearly benefits Obama and they are on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC (there is something oh-so-sexy about a woman who usually only talks out of the right side of her mouth.) Now who, do you think, was less objective about the presidential race than Rachel Maddow?
Ummm… Keith Olbermann. Good point. Okay, after Keith Olbermann, who was less objective about the presidential race? Daily Kos? That’s on Rachel’s preferred reading list. It’s also on the weblinks on the VoteVets Blog page.
Then, when our amateur-in-chief comes up with the idea of having wounded warriors’ private health insurance pay for their service-related injuries, suddenly Paul Rieckhoff is a good guy on our side, standing up to the president who he helped get elected. Nice call Rieckhoff, you dumb fuck.
These guys are all about themselves. They didn’t want to take the years and years it would take to establish themselves as players in the other, established organizations, and so they formed their own. It’s really not too hard… just get a website, solicit donations and place ads. Next thing you know, you’re making money, so you hire a few people, keep sharpening up the website, and get a few news gigs claiming to be a spokesman for veterans.
Bullshit. Paul Rieckhoff doesn’t speak for me. He screwed that up when he provided some bullshit voting advice on who would be better for veterans and that guy turned out to have a plan to screw us all. Nice call, Paul. I wonder how you couldn’t have seen that one coming? I’m not giving my money or my support to a twit. Paul Rieckhoff is a twit.
Next we have this little wonder from our good friends over at VoteVets. Brandon Friedman, author of The War I Always Wanted in which he whines that the war in which he found himself wasn’t the war that his childhood fantasies and West Point dreams of glory promised him, now has a petition up to put an end to “don’t ask, don’t tell.” I’ve got news for you, Brandon… when you figure out how to get the funding in the budget to install “gay only” showers on every military facility, then I’ll support you. Until then, I don’t care to be looked at as a sexual object in the shower or latrine and know it. If someone is going to take mental pictures of my heinie for later reference, I’d just as soon not know about it. It’s easy for you to suck up to the Pelosi’s of the world when you don’t have to live with it, isn’t it?
So, basically, we veterans of the 21st century are so special that all previous veterans’ organizations are now obsolete. We couldn’t wait for the old ‘Nam vets to die off so that we could take over, so we formed our own. Oh, and we get to make our living off of it, too.
These guys are making a living off of claiming to represent me. One of them can’t figure out who the president least likely to pull a fast one on vets is, and the other wants for me to have to shower with openly gay men and like it. Hell, he wants for me to sign a fucking petition saying so. Sorry Brandon, not gonna do it. Rieckhoff got the dumbfuck award, but you get the Thursday’s Child Memorial Bumfuck Award. You shower with them, Brandon.
IVAW is a fringe group and obviously so. I would like to invite them to the range sometime for a little target practice… as the targets… but they are probably less insidious than these two “gentlemen” who lobby for crap that those of us who still wear a uniform and who are still trying to make a contribution in all of this know without a doubt are bad ideas.
I think that those who contribute to these people are either gullible boneheads or non-military types whose agenda is furthered by having “veterans” to point to in their corner. Personally, I have no use for any of them, and above are two examples of why.
Posted on April 3rd, 2009 by Andy Wahl
Filed under: Congressional branch, Uncategorized
I talked to my husband about this and told him…until y’all find your voices, and are ready, willing, and able, to go toe to toe with these types of people, these people will ultimately get the bigger voice. The voices of our military need to be heard loud and clear through the groups that really do hear you. Join those groups, paper your car/truck windows with their bumper stickers, send a message that is undeniably clear. It’s time to embarass the entities that claim to speak for you.
Thank you so much for this post – This needed to be said and known by all !!!