“At the first Winter Soldier investigation in 1971, one of the Vietnam veterans held up a similar photograph and said, ‘Don’t ever let your government do this to you. Don’t ever let your government put you in a position where this attitude towards death and this disregard for human life is acceptable or common.’ And yet, we are still doing this to service members every day, as long as the occupation continues.”
Kokesh is proud to be a Winter Soldier in America speaking up for his fellow troops--and for destroyed American dreams for us all and our country. [2]
Kokesh summarized the U.S. policy over the past 4 to 5 years as carried out by General Petraeus and America’s most expensive other soldiers, “But what it’s made clear is that this administration has chosen a policy for this country that values looking good over doing right. And as soon as you choose looking good over doing right, you will fail miserably at both. It is what we are doing as a country right now. It is what our leadership is doing. And it is what the Democratic Party has done, since it took power in 2006, when it decided that it would be more concerned with looking good than doing right, in terms of the policy towards Iraq, in order to secure an advantage for the 2008 election. My apologies to members of the Democratic Party in the room, but it is clear to me that that policy of looking good over doing right has been established firmly by this administration and has poisoned not only the military culture but our entire society and political leadership, as well.”
NOTES
[1] I am referring here to a later set of statements by Winter Soldiers on Capital Hill, whereby one speaker, named Vincent J.R. Emanuele. He stated, “I could also testify to the overwhelming majority of those I served with who did not think dying in Iraq was honorable or acceptable, nor did they enjoy or want to go back to Iraq a second or third time. Unfortunately, because of personal circumstances, whether they be financial or family issues, many indeed were deployed up to three times during their four-year enlistment. In fact, many, including myself, at times did not have intention of helping the Iraqis. Because of the hostile intent, as well as the loss of lives close to us, our best friends, our unit had a general disdain and distaste for Iraqis and their country. Further, our unit, for the most part, did not trust our command and had a general mistrust and distaste of this occupation from its inception onward.”
[2] For those in Kuwait who are wondering about how much depleted uranium might be blowing around the Iraqi and Kuwaiti desert, they might listen to or read James Gilligan’s statements, which include: “It was then that we drove on through the day and continued unhindered for most of the next two days, while American air power pounded the hell out of Iraqi armor and buildings with depleted uranium rounds. The amount of destruction was tremendous, and we watched once while in a traffic jam as a pair of Apaches laid rockets and gunfire into the heart of a city a few kilometers in the distance. Without a doubt, I have been in and around buildings destroyed by depleted uranium rounds, as well as vehicles, armored personnel carriers, tanks and corpses.”
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