From My Lai to Anbar Province - Why We NEED Winter Soldiers
West Point:
Even though they get a comission upon graduation, less and less West Point graduates are signing up to go gto Iraq. Part of Iraq's "Winter Soldiers" is a website titled: West Point Graduates Against the War Their purpose (I think) is eloquently stated:
Instilled by the Cadet Honor System with a fundamental, longstanding
respect for truth, we graduates of the United States Military Academy believe that honor is a basic attribute of character. That we are no longer cadets is irrelevant. We stand appalled by the deceitful behavior of the government of the United States and, in particular, its widely known malefactors. Lying, cheating, stealing, delivering evasive statements and quibbling not only has demeaned these deceivers and the United States of America, but has placed vast numbers of innocent people in deadly peril. We will not serve the lies. The war in Iraq was launched illegally. It has since killed tens of thousands of innocents, causing incalculable damage to Iraq and the Iraqi people, as well as the reputation of the United States of America. We will not serve the lies.
Comments on the site:
THANK YOU I would like to thank you for your courageous and righteous stand.As a citizen of South Vietnam, I served with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the last year of the war (1974-75).
If there is for sure a God, he could not possibly bless what the current Administration is trying to sell as "America." .... and who calls out pleas of "support the troops"... when, in fact, they hope the ignorant will convert their call to .... "support the Administration."There is a "real" America out here that is not yet dead.... and that your organization is showing the signs to defend. Keep up the good work.
From the initial testimonies of Iraq War's Winter Soldiers
Washington Independent (Spencer Akerman - 3/14/08):
Jon Michael Turner’s tattoos cover his arms almost entirely. They peeked out under the rolled up sleeves of his crisp blue shirt, on which were the medals and ribbons he earned as an automatic machine gunner with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines in Anbar Province in 2006. One of them is more like a scar. On his right wrist is the black Arabic lettering for FUCK YOU. It’s on what he called his choking hand, and it was what he looked at to let the anger wash over him when he choked Iraqis.On April 18, 2006 he had his first confirmed kill. "I don’t know his name. I call him the Fat Man," he said. He’s innocent. The Fat Man walked to his house and Turner shot him in front of his friend and his father. "Afterward he started 
screaming and he looked into my eyes," Turner testified at Winter Soldier. Turner, a handsome young man with a blond beard, turned to his friend and said, "I can’t let that happen." So he shot and killed him. At the conference center in Silver Spring nearly two years later, six giant screens displayed a photograph of the Fat Man with much of his skull missing and his brain exposed. "My company commander personally congratulated me," Turner continued. "That same individual said, ‘Whoever gets his first kill by stabbing them to death will get a four day pass when we get back from Iraq."Turner reminded the audience of the Marine credo: Once A Marine, Always A Marine. But he invoked another expression. "Eat the apple at its core." With that, Turner stripped his medals and ribbons off his chest and threw them into the audience. "I don’t work for you no more."He showed videos of a Marine bragging "I think I just killed half the population of northern Ramadi."... Fighting back tears, he showed images of memorials to five of Kilo Company’s fallen Marines. "With that being said, that is my testimony," Turner said. "I wanted to say I am sorry for the hate and destruction I have inflicted on innocent people and others have inflicted on innocent people. At one point it was ok, but the reality is, it is not. ... I am sorry for the things I did. I am no longer the monster that I once was."
The Scarlet Letter:
Should George Bush wear a Scarlet Letter? What would it be? L -Liar? F- Failure as a President? T - Torturer? Or maybe Dick Cheney should wear: LHB - Lying Halliburton Beneficiary!
My Lai Massacre
This next quote says a good deal:[From Donald Dzagulones, Viet Nam/My Lai veteran]
"We gathered not to sensationalize our service but to decry the travesty that was Lt. William Calley's trial for the My Lai Massacre. The U.S. had established the principle of culpability with the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis. Following those principles, we held that if Calley were responsible, so were his superiors up the chain of command — even to the president. The causes of My Lai and the brutality of the Vietnam War were rooted in the policies of our government as executed by our military commanders."
So there you have the thread: Students of War - Cause(r)s of War - Aftermath of War.
McCain and his RASPUTIN UPDATE:
I was wrong in stating that Pastor John Hagee was a leading spiritual minister to John McCain. That title goes to one Rod Parsley, a classic among televangelist hate mongers. He too wants the total annihilation of Islam.
Mr. Parsley has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it. He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable: "We find now we have no choice. The time has come." And he has bad news: "We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment." He also claims that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." Parsley claims that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on "deception." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received revelations from demons and not from the true God."
If this guy can drag Columbus into his thinking, he'll focus on anything. Next sermon: Kermit the Frog as Anti-Christ and how "The Power Rangers will destroy all of false Muppetry."
The idiocy of the man is presented well in Keith Olberman's Countdown (BTW, notice how Parsley is never granted the status of "Reverend"):
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