Winter Soldier '08: For Better or For Worse

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is putting on a "Winter Soldier" symposium on March 13-16 where Iraq vets are going to discuss atrocities committed during the time on the ground in Iraq and why the US needs to get out. I'm a little skeptical on this one because it seems like it's going to play into the propaganda imagery employed by the extreme liberal and even moderately liberal blogosphere. You go to any one of these sites and I guarantee you'll see more Abu Ghraib and Gitmo imagery than any of Al-Qaeda's daily worldwide atrocities. I've wrote about vets being exploited for political purposes before, and I fear that's what may happen this time around (it's deja vu all over again). I've been in-country for 7 months, and while I'm not on the ground, the only thing which could be construed as a "war-crime" in my time here was that whole Blackwater fiasco.

To not repeat another Jesse Macbeth debacle, IVAW has invited any milblogger to attend the event in case the bullshit flag needs to be raised. Army SGT over at Active Duty Patriot will fill you in on all the details. I've spoken with him and he is good people (yes, it's okay to befriend people who have different political views in my book). Here's a link to a post regarding attendance of the event (bring a DD 214). I wanted to go, but I'm a little busy at the moment. I admit that I did go to the Democratic National Convention protest in LA in the summer of 2000. I didn't agree with most of the protesters, and I just wanted to go to go. A fun time was had by all, except when I got teargassed. I'm sure this event will be no less interesting, even if I don't agree with its principles.

The new winter soldiers better not have a smarmy fancy-lad accent