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IVAW goes to the people
By Jonn Lilyea | May 7, 2008
Back on March 15th, the Iraq Veterans Against the War partnered with their philosophical brethren, the Veterans For Peace and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and with the support of the labor unions tried to repeat their performance of the 1971 VVAW’s Winter Soldier. Their goal was to turn back the clock to the 1970s and reestablish the myth that the American soldier (Marine, sailor, airman) is a pathological, unfeeling killer and encouraged by the government to murder innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan indiscriminately.
Despite the huge presence of media types (about 30 different media entities by my estimate), including Al Jeezera and other traditionally anti-US journalists, the image of the American fighting men and women that IVAW was trying to portray just didn’t make it to the public.
It could’ve been because their stories were being fact-checked as they testified and were therefore watered down, or that this time they were being protested against outside their own event. Or it could be that the stories were weak - one commenter on my own blog called the testimony “a wet firecracker”. Whatever the reason, it was a propaganda failure, utterly and completely.
Not only did they fail in this endeavor, but because they’d asked other peace organizations to suspend their activities marking the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, those other peace organizations couldn’t assemble more than a thousand people in DC for their own protest later in the week. The whole peace movement suffered because of the IVAW’s inability to deliver on their promise of the final blow against the Bush Administration.
So the IVAW has taken their show on the road around the media directly to college campuses and high schools around the nation. This afternoon, Adam Kokesh spoke in Oakland, CA at the Federal Building, at Marin College and at local high schools. Two more spoke at Perdue University earlier in the week. They’re insinuating themselves into every issue on local TV programs. They’re “counter-recruiting” with Texas students.
Back in March, Evan Knappenberger, the lunatic who threatened to “blow up” Gathering of Eagles events and issued a “fatwa” on the life of Michelle Malkin, talked to high school students about his experiences in the war. Can you imagine this sociopath talking to your own children?
Two IVAW members even held an art show in Vermont depicting images of the war as they’d like us to think as what they saw in the war. As if there was a shortage of cameras to bring back actual images.
VFP and IVAW are still in the game, too;
Sandy Kelson, VFP, who organized two weeks of outreach at Ft. Stewart Army base, which is home to roughly 19,000 soldiers, of which approximately 15,000 are currently deployed, talked about direct outreach at the base. In February, 2008, he and others, stood at a traffic light right before the entrance and distributed 500 copies of “Sir, No Sir!”, the Dave Zieger film about GI resistance during Vietnam, and 385 copies of “The Ground Truth”, a film documenting resistance by the military against the war in Iraq, as well as 1300 packets of leaflets, including VFP and IVAW applications, Appeal for Redress, GI Rights pocket cards, and other materials. Sometime after they did this outreach they discovered that the PX and other locations on the base were discussing the materials that they had delivered.
Thus Spake Ortner at The Sniper discovered the IVAW’s intention to testify in front of a Congressional committee next week to counter General Petreaus’ testimony last month - from veterans who haven’t been in the theater since General Petreaus took command. As it stands right now, both TSO and I intend to team up again and attend these festivities like we did at Winter Soldier to bring you the unvarnished truth.
I guess the point of all this is that the battle for the minds of the people against this insidious campaign to pervert the truth and turn Americans against our returning soldiers, is not over and it may have just begun. We’ve scored some significant victories in the last 14 months, but the battle continues.
If you have comments, you’re welcome to comment at the corresponding post on This Ain’t Hell.
Topics: Jonn Lilyea |
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