I gotta tell ya, this statement from a United States soldier about being against the Iraq war is the rationalization of a coward:
"Just because we volunteered for the military doesn’t mean we volunteered to put our lives in unnecessary harm and to carry out missions that are illogical and immoral."
Where did I get this statement? From the upcoming 60 minutes in which they talk to active duty members of our military and their petition against the Iraq war:
They say they are not disloyal. They say they are not shirking their duty and that they do not oppose war. But over 1,000 active-duty and reserve members of the U.S. military are against the war in Iraq and have said so in an unusually public way — by petitioning Congress last month. Several of them appear to explain their actions in a Lara Logan report to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday Feb. 25 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
"I’m not anti-war. I’m not a pacifist. I’m not opposed to protecting our country and defending our principles," says Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, an Iraq war veteran who, along with another veteran, initiated the petition. A 1995 law called the Military Whistleblower act enables military personnel to express their own opinions about Iraq in protected communication directly to Congress. Hutto and others spoke with 60 MINUTES while off duty, off base and out of uniform as conscientious citizens. "But at the same time, as citizens, it’s our obligation to have a questioning attitude… about policy," Hutto tells Logan.
You can view their website here, where you will see that they are sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans For Peace and other Sheehan socialist groups.
These people believed that THEY get to choose where and when they fight. I mean just because you sign up to serve your country doesn’t mean you have to go to just ANY war right? He/she has to agree with it…..geez.
Lets take a look at one of the soldiers described in the above article. Marine Sgt. Liam Madden say’s "If he’d known the United States was going to invade Iraq, U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Liam Madden says he probably wouldn’t have enlisted a month before. Still, he has no regrets."
Get that? He enlisted in Feb of 2003, we invaded in March of 2003. What kind of retard couldn’t have seen the handwriting on the wall one month earlier?
I call bullsh&*.
How about Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto who was quoted in the article. Antimedia found out that he served one six month tour on a ship taking pictures:
The sum total of Hutto’s experiences of Iraq is one six month tour in the Persian Gulf taking photographs aboard the Theodore Roosevelt.
So we have a Sgt who believes he should be the one deciding which war to go to and a photographer serving on a ship. Wow….
What gets my blood boiling even hotter is the fact that these 1000 soldiers represent .04% of our military (2,375,000/1000). But .04% is what makes news in our country now….
Still not seeing any bias?
At least this soldier has it right:
Other Iraqi war veterans still on duty there believe Appeal for Redress misses a larger point. "As an American soldier, I feel like we took an oath to obey the orders of our commander-in-chief and officers appointed over us," says Army Spec. James Smauldon. Said another serviceman in Iraq, Army Capt. Lawrence Nunn, "I know what I’m here fighting for, to give the Iraqi people some democracy and hope, so I am 100 percent behind this mission. You don’t sign up to pick which war you go to."
Ooh rah!
Personally I feel each and every one of these cowardly POS’s should be drawn and quartered. They swore and oath to protect and defend this country, they don’t get to choose where and when they go and they knew that full well when they signed up.
UPDATE
Antimedia found much more about this photographer:
Furthermore, Hutto himself has a history of liberal activism. In 1996, Hutto enrolled in Howard University, choosing political science as his major. He quickly became close friends with a controversial classmate, Sinclair Skinner, who admits to being expelled from Tuskegee University for his activism. Together, they helped organize the Million Man March.
In the summer of 1995, Skinner helped organize students nationally for the Million Man March. He, Eames, and Hutto came under the wing of civil-rights legend Lawrence Guyot, who helped all three get elected as advisory neighborhood commissioners. Skinner, who served six years on the U Street/Lower Georgia Avenue ANC, developed a following at Howard. He regularly brought a herd of Howard students with him to important community meetings.
Along with his civil rights activism, Lawrence Guyot has compared the GOP to "Nazis" on national talk programs. Guyot himself has been an anti-war activist since the 1960s.
When Hutto graduated from Howard, he worked for the ACLU and then for Amnesty International. Hutto has expressed disdain for President Bush, stating "[Bush’s] agenda is not only anti African/African American, but anti-labor, anti-woman, anti-environment and anti-human rights", has called the Iraq war "illegal" and the United States "imperialist".
Like I said, bullsh&*.
A Marine Sgt signs up a month before the war and then is surprised when he actually has to serve there. Then a longtime antiwar lefty activist signs up for the military in 2004, takes some photo’s, and joins a anti-war group…..
Come on!
And this is what 60 minutes deems newsworthy.
UPDATE II
Even more on Hutto:
Hutto described the military as “an institutional culture laced with discriminatory behavior based on race, gender, sexual orientation and geography.” He lauds “the movement of soldiers and sailors against the occupation of Vietnam was pivotal in ending U.S. Imperialist aggression against the Vietnamese people.”
What a digusting POS.
Other’s Blogging:
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Curt – Don’t forget about Greyhawk’s great takedown of this “Appeal for Redress” group at Mudville Gazette:
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/007574.html
Appeal for Redress should be called Appeal for Retreat!
Hutto needs to learn history and not what is taught in Soviet-era propaganda books on the US. The US military is one of the least race/class concious organizations out there. They dont care what you are as long as you perform. Hutto signed up it seems to he could do this great expose on the military. So he is taking six months of steel beach duty and spinning it into ‘expertise’ on a war he never experienced first hand.
What movement by soldiers and sailors against VietNam? I am seriously scratching my head over this one. Unless he has cloudy ideas over the Arnheiter Affair in 1966. Until proved otherwise methinks Hutto has eaten too much lotus. “Imperialist aggression” is classic Soviet agit-prop by phrasing it that way any regular American will tend to shy away and oppose such a concept.
And sadly the only way to counteract the lies and distortions of the Huttos and Watadas out there is for the rest of the US military to become more politically active. Which will cause more frission and dis-unity in the ranks as people become painfully aware of each other’s leanings while provoking from the left fringe even more screaming of a possible military coup. The US military and the US as a whole is a loser due to this process.
Curt, I only point this out in the interest of keeping some lefty from making a straw man argument about it. Your math is all wrong: 1) I very much doubt that there are 250 million members of the military considering that there are only 300 million citizens in the U.S. 2) A nitpick, for sure, but your equation is backwards. It should be (1000/250,000[,000?]). So the headline should read .4% (1,000/250,000 = .004).
Thanks kbiel, it was a math error inside of a typo. Argh! Fixed now along with an updated number for our troop level….
I’d like to know who recruited Hutto for the Navy, and exactly how desperate he was to make quota that month.
The traitors in congress are determined to turn a small percentage of the military members into traitors and thats exactly what they are the moment the go against their sworn oath. Never let one of them get around me and let me know they are one of the traitors. Put them all in the same unit regardless of branch of service and station them in Sadr city at night seven nights a week. Tell them to call congress if they need help.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed that the main person it this whole thing is David Cortright. I only have a second and can’t put the links in but… Cortright wrote the book that supposedly got Jonathan started thinking about things… Cortright spoke at the Sir, No Sir screneing… Cortright and his books are a big part of Sir, No Sir… Cortright is the President of Forth Freedom Forum, the Peace activism oganisation who’s address the site appealforredress.com was registered under… Cortright was the person who called the Fenton Communications group to organize the initial press conference.
It is strange that this David Cortright wrote two books about this very thing… soldiers speaking up to stop wars (Soldiers in Revolt and Left Face) and he is connected to this petition of soldiers speaking out, in everyway, but he is not in the MSM’s story, outside of the free publicity of his book.
I guess the media thinks that a story about a simple soldier wrestling with his conscience about the war he comes to think is wrong, finally deciding to speak out and trying to make a change is better than a global peace activist group that has been against the current war even before it started, recruiting active military to revolt against the Commander and Cheif then backing them with money.
Amazing!
actually, after looking up a few things, I think Cortright is the right man but the Fouth Freedom Forum is not the right organisation. I think Cortright’s “Win Without War” group is the big force behind the petition.
Well, I watched it, and don’t think it was all that bad; only that it is a story told, from the perspective of the anti-war left. So, it will be spun to support the anti-war sentiments in the same way that the military times poll has been used for political fodder (and cited on 60 Minutes, as well).
There is an opposing movement started in gaining strength, we’ve got 1100 signatures in 15 days, more than they got in 5 months.
http://www.AppealForCourage.org
We use the same mechanism to send the opposite message, that we support Victory in Iraq and want Congress to stop calling for politically motivated calls for retreat.
If you’re currently serving military please sign, or pass it on.
And ours really is a grassroots movement started by myself and a Vietnam vet.
Thanks,
LT Jason Nichols
MNF-I, Baghdad
jason@appealforcourage.org
A question. If it be improper as a matter of form for members of the armed services to make public statements in opposition to those of the commander in chief, is it also bad form for other members to make statement in support of him?