For a long time after I got back from Iraq I was looking for a way to express my displeasure about the way the war in Iraq was going. For a couple of years I visited kos, Crooks and Liars, TPM, etc. to find out what was really going on. Being that until recently I was still on active duty I was prevented from actually speaking out and didn't even want to create the slighest impression that I was violating military policy--we all know what the righties would do to me then.
Then, this past spring I met Brandon Friedman through this website. We started talking about military issues and I finally found a like-minded individual who was fed up with the way things were going and wanted to do something about it. He encouraged me to join VoteVets and I did.
Last month, as many of you know, we made our trip down to Washington, DC to try and get Senators to approve the Webb Amendment which sadly failed, even though a majority of the senators in Congress supported it. It failed because of poor leaders in the Pentagon only divulging the truth too late for anybody to do anything about it. It makes me so mad to see the leadership of my army not having the courage of its convictions to help the troops when they actually had the chance.
But it was on this trip that I met two men who I hope to be friends with for a very long time: Brandon Friedman and Brian, aka brokenskull. Brandon and Brian served together in Afghanistan. They shared stories with me about their times in Afghanistan and Iraq that left me awed. These men are heroes to me and I will stand behind them through thick and thin no matter what. Brian especially inspired me with the stories of his recovery from terrible injuries and his strength to get better.
And then this all started to snowball big time with VoteVets' response to Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment. Because apparently Rush, and his listeners, take everything he says on face value. I am a phony because I question the way this war was being fought. I question the billions of dollars being thrown away in a cesspool of violence. I question the way our soldiers are treated when they come home, left to their own filth in Walter Reed or simply quickly drubbed out of the army for a psychiartric conditions when they have severe cases of PTSD and TBIs. I question people who question my ability to speak on the issue. I'm not going to listen to draft-dodging, deferment seeking pundits who have a bully-pulpit to carte blanche insult and degrade people.
The problem I have is this--these people are hard-headed and refuse to look at anything other than the opinions Rush feeds them. I mean, I guess I can understand that. They would no more watch Countdown, than I would listen to a drug-addled draft-dodging radio host spew his invective across the airwaves. But they never question anything he says. They never seek different opinions. They are intellectually lazy. Rush says it, so it must be true and all who question Rush's views are libelous cowards who probably never really served in action. Rush is right and I am an idiot because I can't actually think for myself. When something peeks my interest on Countdown, I immediately seek out more information about it. I want more information to form my opinion. Because it's only with those facts that I can be fully informed. In Rush's world, it's only what he says that matters--you don't need anything else, because, you know, Rush never lies.
Well you know what? I can think for myself! How else do you think I got to this point where I am so fed up that I had to take action. I had to stand up and say something for the soldiers who are not allowed to say it. Sure, there are soldiers on both sides of this divide, but one thing we can't do is question their patriotism or intelligence simply because they disagree with you. I disagree with Pete Hegseth and Vets for Freedom because of their position: they represent maintaining the status quo. I don't disagree with them simply because they disagree with me. Men like Brandon and Jon Soltz and Brian are my heroes because they have stood up and stood out and stood strong to make a difference. And every time one of them stands up they are attacked and vilified by the right, because, let's face it, no intelligent and sane person could ever think this war is a disaster or that our soldiers deserve better, better leadership and better care once they return home, or heck, even the same amount of time at home that they are deployed. A sane person could only think that eternal war is better. A sane person could only think that we must keep people in Iraq forever because the bad people might come here someday.
Frankly, this is intellectually lazy, and it's a thought process run by fear. Fear of the unknown. It's much better to occupy a country in the midst of a civil war so it gives the appearance of protecting us, when all it does is give Al Qaeda and their ilk the biggest recruiting tool they ever needed.
Please Rush-o-philes. Think for yourselves. Not everything Rush says is true. Seek out different opinions. Find the real transcript--not the one doctored by Rush to make it look like he was saying something he shouldn't. Do not insult me and my friends by thanking me for my service on the one hand and then calling us cowards and idiots the next. That is insulting to me. It's insulting to the friends I have left over there. It's insulting to all servicemen and women who are trained to be defenders of the peace. We sweat, bleed and die so that you can listen to Rush every day on the radio and then defend him by questioning the sacrifices we made.
Frankly, it's not good enough for me to accept these insults on their face value. Rush Limbaugh called soldiers who question the war phony soldiers. He did not call Brian a suicide bomber, but he compared him to one--wildly inappropriate when Brian was nearly killed by one. How can you not even find the comparison offensive? Comparing any one of our brave soldiers to a suicide bomber is simply an indictment on Rush's intelligence and the intelligence of his listeners to actually understand the comparison Rush was making without actually hearing Rush say the words "This guy is a suicide bomber."
The right will continue to say what they will, and attack Brandon and Jon and Brian and me and anyone else who questions to Great War to Eliminate Islam or whatever else they want to call it, because they fear to question the way things are. They want a world where someone spoon feeds them the answer so they don't have to think for themselves.
I will respect them when they can say they disagree with me and my friends based on sound logical reasoning, and I will respect the opinion they represent. I will not call them an idiot for having that opinion. That is the way they view the world. But don't just denigrate me and my friends simply because we disagree with you.
But with the way they work, I'll never be able to respect them, because they will continue to attack all of us for seeing things in a different way and never making an effort to understand why we might see things that way. Too bad, because I'm sure we've got some ideas over here that they might actually agree with if they actually turned of the smear machine and listened.