I am a member of the United States military. There, I said it.
I’ve bitten my tongue and held this FACT inside of me for the three-plus years this blog has been in existence on the “Internets” out of fear of retribution from President Bush and/or members of his Administrtion, and/or, his “bidness buddies” in Congress. After the Limbaugh comment, I’ve had enough — I cannot stay silent any longer.
Folks, the time has come for me to admit to you that I am a CURRENT member of the Individual Ready Reserve (“IRR”), recently, HONORABLY discharged (June, 2007) from a reserve component of the U.S. Air Force after being activated for a year in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to Rush Limbaugh, I am a “phony Soldier”, which is why I’ve been on such a RANT over the last forty-eight hours over his insensitive comment which resulted in his bashing of AT LEAST HALF of my military bretheren who oppose either “The Surge” or the war in Iraq altogether. By admitting this, I’ve placed myself in danger of legal troubles. Just ask Marine Sgt. Adam Kokesh for more information on that one…
More here — from The GTL — June 5th, 2007:
Marine Corp Downgrades Honorably Discharged Veteran’s Discharge Status For Anti-War Protests
“… I applaud Mr. Kokesh’s vow to fight on in the courts, but I disagree with his point of view that the military “pussed out” and refused to take a clear stand. The Pentagon’s position on free speech for honorably discharged military veterans who are still TECHNICALLY under contract in the Inactive Reserves is LOUD AND CLEAR to me: “Keep it zipped, or risk having your discharge downgraded”. While the downgrade could have been even lower, a downgrade in discharge status is a downgrade in discharge status no matter how you slice it. This is just UNPRECEDENTED behavior, and quite unnaceptable.
Meanwhile, the Commander-In-Chief of the U.S. military has stood idly by as this has developed, supposedly, below him in the chain of command, which puts this SHAMEFUL decision squarely on the shoulders of President Bush. Some might recall President Bush himself wore a military uniform while delivering his “Mission Accomplished” speech onboard that Navy aircraft carrier not so long ago, which underscores the blatant hypocrisy of this President and his military leaders in the Pentagon.
This was a gutless and shameful decision by the military, and a clear threat to all veterans who gave honorable service during these times, but who have earned their honorable discharges. This ruling effects each and every one of them since they would all still be TECHNICALLY under contract in the Inactive Reserves. Should Mr. Kokesh fight this discharge downgrade in the courts as he has vowed to do, we shall all see that it was also VERY ILLEGAL for the military and President “Surge” W. Bush to go this route once the final gavel slams.
Nice try, Mr. Bush. Heckuva “recruiting tool” there, Sir….”
Note how, at the time, I referred to my military service in the past tense? I’ve always done that on this blog out of fear of being put in the same position as this brave, HONORABLE, “phony Marine”. Actually, while this was developing, I was still an ACTIVE member of the U.S. military, which is why I’ve always blogged anonymously as “The GTL” as opposed to proudly revealing my true identity along with the fact I’m a member of the military. We have this little book of law called the “UCMJ” which stifles any troop’s speech unless that troop is in lock-step with the Commander-In-Chief’s talking points. What I’m trying to tell you all is, this blog is, and always HAS been written by one of Mr. Limbaugh’s “phony Soldiers Airmen”, and this is why I am SO FRIGGING OFFENDED.
Not to mention the fact that I’m VERY disappointed in my fellow military veterans (right-wingers) who KNOW better than to try and mislead the Public with statements such as this one:
“… No one claims that there are not soldiers against our actions in Iraq but their numbers do not compare to the active military speaking up in support of the mission, their numbers do not compare to the numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that are in support of the mission and their numbers do not come close to comparing to the veterans that support the troops and their mission.
When the anti-war left can start producing those kinds of numbers, then perhaps they will be given more credibility to their arguments. …” – Wake Up America
I’m APPALLED. If “spree” is TRULY a military veteran, she KNOWS FULL-WELL that “the anti war left” cannot even BEGIN to produce the “numbers” she is challenging. She is FULLY AWARE that “the left” in the military has been virtually SILENCED under the Uniform Code of Military Justice because their opposition to the war would be a vocal opposition to our Commander-In-Chief, which puts them in LEGAL PERIL. She is either lying about being a U.S. military veteran, or she, and others of her ideology are intentionally MISLEADING people who don’t know any better — that left-leaning troops — roughly, HALF of the military, cannot speak out as military members against our CIC without putting ourselves in LEGAL PERIL.
Then, we have the President’s staff, SUPPOSEDLY speaking out against Rush’s insensitive comment, but then, of COURSE — they have to throw an OBVIOUS (to any military member or veteran) LIE in there at the end. Click on the YouTube video for more information on that one…
The White House and President Bush are distancing themselves from Rush Limbaugh — a GOOD thing, correct? Until you catch the blatant LIE:
… “The President believes that if you are serving in the military that you have the rights that every American has which is you’re free to express yourself in any way that you want to. And there are some that oppose the war, and that’s okay.” … – TPM Election Central
Dissent within the military is “okay” AS LONG AS… those dissenting troops remain anonymous (just ask our friend, Kyle E. Moore for more info on that one), as I have since the birth of The Gun Toting Liberal blog, and as I choose to remain now. At least, the President will have to obtain one of his illegal datamining and wiretapping warrants (or rely on one of his unconstitutional, ILLEGAL “signing statements”) in order to learn whom I REALLY am before the hammer can fall on me for admitting my CURRENT military affiliation… FINALLY.
Last but not least, I’d like to point out the FACT that Rush Limbaugh is a LIAR. If you listen to the offensive Limbaugh comment, he didn’t say “phony Soldier”, he said “PHONY SOLDIERS” — PLURAL. To come back the next day and claim he was talking only about one particular Soldier is a blatant LIE. He said what he meant and he meant what he said — left-leaning troops are “phonies”. I’m surprised it took THIS long for people to finally figure out that he and his right-wing, “Christian, draft-dodging, talk radio warriors” DO hate all left-leaning troops who they ALSO know full-well are suppressed under the UCMJ from speaking out against the war or their Commander-In-Chief. Many a time I have heard these CREEPS blast left-leaning military members when they call into their shows. Never ONCE has a single one of these jackasses thanked THEM for their service before muting them and/or ripping them to shreds, or calling them LIARS for claiming their military affiliation.
They’re HYPOCRITES, ALL OF THEM, these two-bit, right-wing radio SHOCK JOCKS. It’s good for “bidness” if their gap-toothed dittoheads and “you are a great American heads” are led to believe only far-right, Christian neocons have the GUTS and HONOR to put their lives on the line in order to serve in the U.S. military. SHAMEFUL exploitation, and I’m glad the hammer is finally falling down on the oh-so-boisterous, draft-dodging, yellow-bellied cowards of the right-wing talk radio circuits…
CASE CLOSED.
***
Thanks to our friend Kyle of Comments From Left Field for linking in with his latest “must read”
Thanks to our friend and fellow veteran, Jolly Roger of Reconstitution 2.0, for linking in
Thanks to our friend Rocky of iVoryTowerz for linking in
MemeOrandum’s blogger roundup HERE
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11:56 pm on September 28th, 2007 1
[...] Gun Toting Liberal™, The Carpetbagger Report, PoliBlog (TM) and JammieWearingFool, Horses Mouth, The Gun Toting Liberal™, AMERICAblog and Corrente, Horses Mouth, Think Progress and Taylor Marsh, Crooks and Liars, MyDD, [...]
12:01 am on September 29th, 2007 2
Hey G,
Airforce, huh? Everytime I tried the Airforce recruiting offices they were always out to lunch. Okay, I gotta know, were yall’s mess halls as good as the rumors say? That one’s been bugging me for YEARS.
Okay, seriously. Thanks for this. When I first read the comments I think I went straight to a place of anger I couldn’t be trusted to write cogently about it. Mike, thankfully, covered it.
Heh, I’m still stewing about this.
Part of that is because we’re put in a particularly unpleasant position. As you mention, we’re not allowed to make political statements as representatives of the military. Considering the fact that being in the military is a 24/7 gig, that pretty much means all the time.
Funny thing, and feel free to correct me on this, the political thing is blanket if I remember correctly. You’re not supposed to make political statements only if your opinions are contrary to those of the CIC but even if your opinions are in concert as well.
But that’s beside the point. Good luck on finding that particular rule being enforced evenly, not when the Administration needs every ounce of good pub it can get.
The point is that, being in the military and opposed to Bush’s policies presents a harrowing situation. You are granted only a very narrow latitude to express yourself, but you will also find that there are those to the left of you who will dog you for not doing enough.
I’m going to say it here because this feels like an appropriate place to say it. But in our fund drive in honor of two more of Rush Limbaugh’s “phony” soldiers, Crooks and Liars has been a HUGE help. But in the dedicated post they provided, I was checking out comments and some of the things I read there made me kinda sick.
I’ll not go into detail but the gist is that there are a group of folks out there that are faulting the soldiers, and their justification is twisted and uninformed. They say that the UCMJ has a provision in there about not following lawful orders, and since the war in Iraq is illegal, fighting in it is an unlawful order.
I’m trying real hard not to get emotional on this,and it’s not easy, but what’s happening is that people are getting so entrenched on this stuff that what they aren’t realizing is that the rope they’re using in their tug of war is made of real people.
Back me up on this. For much of the military, it’s just a job. Sure, it’s an extraordinary job, but it’s a job, complete with people who hate it, love it, and everything in between…
fuck
sorry
can’t finish…
12:08 am on September 29th, 2007 3
I’m backing you up, brother. It’s easy to say “don’t follow unlawful orders”, but harder to go through bootcamp and serve in the desert. You know what I’m talking about. Easy to blame us for not being “left” enough; screw ‘em. Let them lace up their boots and teach us how…
12:26 am on September 29th, 2007 4
I’ve got your back, GTL. This wasn’t an easy decision to put out there. If the gub’mint gets on your back, I know a few former national security lawyers…
7:27 am on September 29th, 2007 5
Thanks, Sir!
9:26 am on September 29th, 2007 6
Guns knows a lawyer or two, as well…
I’ve heard others suggest that the Iraq war is an illegal war, but that’s untrue. The action in Iraq is (ultimately) a continuation of Desert Storm; that action did not end at the end of hostilities. It was subject only to a cease-fire. The effect of this is that the original UN action never ended, and Operation Iraqi Freedom results in being an operation in furtherance of the action for which our Congress issued an AUMF in 1990.
In other words, the 2002 AUMF for the invasion of Iraq was superfluous from a justification to invade standpoint. The real purpose of the 2002 AUMF was to ensure that the 2002 Congress approved of the invasion and thus would guarantee funding for the invasion.
All the other purported reasons for invading Iraq (i.e. the ones that were used to “sell” it to the public – Congress was going to be an easy sell with the huge popularity of the president and the huge capital of his administration’s credibility, which had not yet been damaged by, well, itself) were really window dressing, and even though we never found proof of WMD production and Iraq had started complying with the IAEA, and by the President’s own admission, no connection between Hussein and Al Qaeda was found, the war was still justified.
And if you want to skip all that and go straight to the bullet point (I better earn a 5 EPR for this) – the war was never illegal.
9:02 pm on September 29th, 2007 7
[...] for keeping my military service “mum” in public even though he’s known all along I am a CURRENT member of the U.S. military until now, when I’ve finally revealed the fact for the first time — Thanks, [...]
9:30 pm on September 29th, 2007 8
BY THE WAY — John Popper’s the real deal. One HELLUVA guy; genuine, doesn’t care if a troop is “left” or “right”, just appreciates their service and serves the troops regardless of their ideology. Something that CAN’T be said of the dittoheads and their fearless leaders. My hat’s off to John Popper. You wouldn’t believe how much the accomodations SUCK for these “support the troops” tours for these entertainers. Better than ours were, but that isn’t saying alot…
9:37 pm on September 29th, 2007 9
One of the reasons I like Al Franken. You gotta admit, the guy’s done how many USO tours? Actually, I gotta lotta respect for pretty much all those performers doing the tours. We had the Redskin cheerleaders visit on the Ike once (my buddy had them at his reenlistment… you should have seen the photoshopped pictures from that event). And Garth Brooks and Jewel played a concert on our flight deck (of course, I didn’t get to go, but then, I’m not a musical fan of either), and both instances really made a huge difference.
9:44 pm on September 29th, 2007 10
Hey, we had the Patriots Cheerleaders! Woo-HOO!!! They spent the whole day just going around, coughing up sand, hugging troops and smiling for the cameras. They’re ALL awesome… ALL of these performers who put their comfort behind to ride on uncomfortable military planes and stay in uncomfortable tents. Al Franken, Kid Rock, John Popper, The Redskins and Patriots cheerleaders — ALL of ‘em. It can’t be fun for them. It HAS to come from the heart or they wouldn’t do it. And it’s so awesome to have them come to break the monotony…
5:28 pm on September 30th, 2007 11
[...] Gun Toting Liberal reveals himself to be a “phony [...]
6:07 pm on September 30th, 2007 12
Brother, you know how I feel about the yellow-magnet chickenshit “patriots.” The closest that any of them come to being in a uniform is when they dress up for roleplaying games down at the DC Madam’s joint.
9:01 pm on September 30th, 2007 13
I know, bro… I know. And somehow, I have this little feeling you aren’t surprised ONE BIT at my revelation. Thanx for the link and the comment
10:46 am on October 1st, 2007 14
Speaking of “phony” soldiers, I for one am puzzled as to how a person who was known to be performing in gay porn was allowed into the USMC? Three guesses who that is.
sorry, the “no homo” excuse doesn’t count when you’re taking heavy traffic up the keister for money on film.
good on ya for your service GTL. Wearing a uniform doesn’t mean you belong to a particular party, it means you belong to America.
btw- did you ever know anybody in CombatCam? Old family friend is a retired Lt. Col.
4:38 pm on October 1st, 2007 15
Hanginjohnny, didn’t know anybody in combatcamera, but sure do respect those folks for what they do! Talk about guts…
2:14 am on October 2nd, 2007 16
[...] case you missed it — I’m a “phony Airman“. And, I do NOT demand an apology from these people, I simply wish to refrain from supporting [...]
10:47 am on October 2nd, 2007 17
[...] called any soldier that is against the Iraq War conflict phony, he was not only very wrong, but offended a significant portion of the armed forces(you should really check out GTL’s main page, he’s gotta righteous multipost rage going [...]
3:58 pm on October 2nd, 2007 18
[...] on purpose), left-of-center, libertarian (small “L” on purpose also), and as a “phony Airman“, I’m QUITE offended by the comments of this IDIOT, right along with probably at least [...]
12:46 am on October 3rd, 2007 19
[...] Forces Radio Network. I say put Randy Rhodes, yet another one of the draft-dodger’s “phony Airmen” (served honorably in the Air Force Reserve during the Cold War) on the network to even [...]
2:58 am on October 9th, 2007 20
[...] about at “Phony Airman” Comes Out Of The Closet: Rush Limbaugh’s “Phony SoldiersR…, – Last Updated – 4 minutes ago Follow This Story Change Your [...]