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Open Letter to the Government from an AWOL Soldier
DeaconX
Member UncommonPosts: 3,062
Source: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/circello
"
By James Circello, Iraq Veterans Against The War
To those Businessmen and women holding seats in Congress,
To the Highest Court of America,
To every Department within the U.S. government,
To the President's Cabinet,
To the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
To the Vice President and President of the United States of America:
My name is James Circello. I am sure some of you already know who I am now that wiretaps and spying on American citizens has been approved.
Or maybe you've heard of me when you saw my name on a comprehensive list of Anti-War activists.
Or maybe you just know of me because I was a Sergeant in the United States Army and served as an Airborne Infantryman for six years, went to Iraq in March 2003 and served until March 2004, remained in the Army a little longer before refusing to take part in the Occupation of the Middle East and went AWOL.
I am writing you today, not asking for forgiveness for what I decided to do, but to give you an idea of what brought me to that decision to leave the Army and speak out against the Occupation. Though some will claim I left for other reasons and will try to force the discussion away from the facts and at the same time attempt to assassinate my character with half truths and out right lies, these are the facts. If later we wish to get into more of my personal life, we can do that: I have no fear of it.
I will first like to say that I am no longer a member of the United States Armed Forces. When I left the military on Easter morning, April 2007, I have officially resigned from service to that military. There are no ties between myself and an oppressive military regime set on occupying groups of impoverished indigenous people.
I am no longer a Sergeant or a paratrooper.
I will not respect an organization that can and does, at its own will, change entire enlistment contracts for the purpose of extending soldiers;
Gives quarterly sexual harassment courses and still allows roughly 30% of women to be sexually assaulted in some way, shape or form;
Openly discriminates against people based on homosexuality, race, gender and ethnic background;
Allows crimes against humanity and peace to occur and covers them up with internal investigations;
Actively recruits young boys and girls from low level income high schools and communities with false promises of health care, school and job experience and fails on all accounts;
Refuses to recognize conscientious objectors (C.O.), and when individuals apply for C.O. status that are administratively "punished" by their chain of command;
I refuse to be a part of a military and Administration that continue to abuse and torture, doesn't recognize the rights of detainees and allows them to be shipped to secret detention facilities for "National Security" purposes; a military that is illegally, based on all U.S. as well as International Law, inside of Iraq; a military that is over extended, under funded in a war with no foreseeable end (because time tables give our enemy a "sense of victory", but how can the enemy have victory when "Mission Accomplished" has been declared?); a military that watches billions of government contracts given to private military outfits, while they run through the streets of Iraq unchecked, and allows soldiers to be poorly equipped and the V.A. poorly funded.; the No Child Left Behind Act and it's policy of making it mandatory for schools to send out the information of all students attending the school to military recruiters, or they are threatened with being cut off from Federal funding (I thought school was a place of
learning, not a place of turning our youth into the:
"(insert Arabic country name here) Veterans Against The War".
This and many other reasons are why I tell you today, I do not recognize any of the warrants that may have been placed upon me. These warrants are merely a way to silence any opposition to this criminal war. I do not support the United States foreign policy and will not be the fool that enforces it.
The United States has a history of using the poor of this country to massacre and oppress the poor of other countries and I say to everyone that is able to read this - I am no longer a member of the United States Armed Forces.
I also say, this by no way makes me Un-American. I love this country and feel very strongly that it can be saved and that it must be saved."
Continued: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/circello
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Comments
So the guy deserted while on active duty. There is a proper way to channel your concerns. The maximum penalty for desertion in wartime is death. My guess is that he will get 5 years in prison.
So I see that the screen writers are staying active while on strike...that is good to know.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
It's ironic because that "oppressive military regime" is the very thing protecting his right to say this. He mentions it at the very beginning but doesn't go into detail...I wonder what his real reasons for going AWOL are. Assuming this isn't fiction written as propaganda for the website it's posted on. I'm not just going to believe he was in the military because he says so, I guess I'm just not that gullible.
That said, you should know what you're getting yourself into when you join a military -- and it ain't lollipops and snow cones.
EDIT: Seems he's claiming to be affiliated with IVAW ... I guess that gives him some credibility as being a soldier. Not that that means much.
----------
Life sucks, buy a helmet.
Everyone who reads this post should take the time to look at the rest of DeaconX's posts, seems like he has an insesant need to post anti-american crap on this websites off topic forums.
IF this guy was ever a member of the armed forces I just thank god that most men and women who sign up are made of better stuff than he is. The very organization he rips defends his right to express himself freely the way he is.
And for this so called vet to write what he has, then claim he loves this country makes me sick!
AWOL isn't a serious crime.
I know of one individual who went AWOL in the 70's and has never paid the price for that crime.
His name is George W. Bush.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
I am not at all anti-american... the fact that you see it that way saddens me. But I'm also not a blindly patriotic lemming brainwashed to cheer on a government regime that is quite literally RAPING the American ideology the nation was built upon.
THAT is not patriotic... that's blind loyalty.
I'm not burning American flags, I'm not protesting to destroy America... if you're not aware of what's going on, sorry for you. Get with it. Start thinking critically and just basically, start paying attention.
I LOVE what America CAN stand for. And it's by far not the only nation with problems hell there are nations in much worse shape. America has great potential but it IS the superpower of the world and because I do care about the world I live in, I care about what happens to America.
So is it ProAmerican to let things slip including freedoms? Guess I got the constitution all wrong.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
So I see that the screen writers are staying active while on strike...that is good to know.
ahahahaha comic gold!
As for the topic... a lot of the stuff they mention is why lots of us don't want to be in the military to begin with. We mention the stuff and it means nothing, let it come from a veteran and it gets press - go figure. Dunno about you guys but to DIE for something I need to believe in the cause and I just don't for this war. I think American leaders toss their weight around in other countries and are grasping at straws trying to remove all terrorists on the planet by taxing our countries economy and the result will be... ya continued trash talk about american policy, no one will appreciate it if it works. We need to look at some of our own issues internally like outsourcing our citizens into a jobless state or reduced wages, the cost of college even tho it has become mandatory, homeless folks that can't get help, our prison system being overwhelmed, welfare still existing tho the depression is OVER yet it's ok to just breed for money and they even give earned income credit on taxes for it. Teenagers know that the government will pay for it if they get knocked up, the milk, the hospital bill, the vitamins, continued healthcare. They instigate these losers to keep breeding maybe hoping that if they are uneducated enough they can use them for troops just by wagging a flag and telling them "good ol boys love their nation".
My brother got kicked out of the navy because he was so lazy, wouldn't get up for his watch etc. His commander even sent my mother a letter asking him to straighten up, she could only reply, I'm his mother but he's an adult - he won't listen to me. He went in because of the lies they told him about education expenses paid and because he is a macho type. He quit smoking to go in healthy. Then when he got to Japan they were so bored, he started smoking again. Sure, they will pay for you to go to their study programs but you don't get to chose your training. He wanted to go for engineering, they put him into a warfare program on ship control because they said they put you in what your tests show you to be proficient at. Now I don't know how marketable that would be in the real world on a resume. I know what buttons to press to shoot missiles. Anyway, once they removed him, they wanted all the money back for the training and have started garnishing his wages for it. During his removal he told us he was not allowed to speak. They just accused him of things and he was not allowed to respond. I guess military courts aren't like regular ones.
I am not at all anti-american... the fact that you see it that way saddens me. But I'm also not a blindly patriotic lemming brainwashed to cheer on a government regime that is quite literally RAPING the American ideology the nation was built upon.
THAT is not patriotic... that's blind loyalty.
I'm not burning American flags, I'm not protesting to destroy America... if you're not aware of what's going on, sorry for you. Get with it. Start thinking critically and just basically, start paying attention.
I LOVE what America CAN stand for. And it's by far not the only nation with problems hell there are nations in much worse shape. America has great potential but it IS the superpower of the world and because I do care about the world I live in, I care about what happens to America.
So is it ProAmerican to let things slip including freedoms? Guess I got the constitution all wrong.
I am quite aware of what is going on around me, and frankly it saddens me to hear you repeat the same unoriginal and in my opinion baseless dribble that ever detractor of the great country I call home spouts off with. To call me a brainless lemming is both insulting and inaccurate, I understand my rights as an american and instead of wasting my time bringing political garbage such as you have posted to a site based upon MMO's I exercise my right to vote, and allow that to do my talking for me.
It is easy to dismiss everyone who does not agree with you as a brainless lemming, much easier than admitting that you are not always right. America is a shining example of what democracy can and should be, its easy to bash us, but let Canada grow to encompass the shear volume of people that the U.S.A does and then see what kind of problems you guys have.
People ridicule our foriegn policy, saying we should mind our own business. Then these same people cry to us for help when it is in their best interest.
I hope people take the time to follow your source link, read the comments other people posted in regard to the susposed ex-soldiers letter, and see what kinda of thinking is being done on that site. Then if you don't agree sign up. and post a anti-OP response and see how long it stays there. Mine lasted less than 5 minutes, you have got to love a site that only allows the expression of a single point of view.
One guy even posts that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Bush, its is easy to be anti-war when the things that started it don't effect you. Imagine the World Trade Center was located in Toronto not 15 minutes from where I lived at the time, and then let me see what kind of material you would be posting here.
People such as yourselves want to bash us, and attack what you see as a degredation of our freedoms, well here if you don't believe in the war you can say it. Ask your self how true that would have been in Iraq before we went over there.
(CBS/AP) The number of Iraqis returning to their country after fleeing abroad is growing, with more than 46,000 people coming home last month, an Iraqi government spokesman said Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the Iraqi spokesman for a U.S.-Iraqi military push to pacify Baghdad, said border crossings recorded 46,030 people returning to Iraq in October alone. He attributed the large number to the "improving security situation."
"The level of terrorist operations has dropped in most of the capital's neighborhoods, due to the good performance of the armed forces," al-Moussawi told reporters in the heavily-guarded Green Zone.
HEHE,Time,Time,Time is on our side,Thanks to all men and ladys for making all this happen.
Trade in material assumptions for spiritual facts and make permanent progress.
since he was a sergent... and hes complaining about how gays get targeted and women get sexually assulted. i wonder how many gays or women were targeted under his watch in his unit?
No offense intended but if your post was intended to make the navy look bad, It really only succeeded in making your brother look bad. The navy needs to function if they just allowed everyone to pick a job don't you think everyone would pick engineer or doctor or something they could make a load of money with after discharge. They give you G.I. money after your discharge to train your self with real world skills, your brother was unable to make it to that point, and frankly as a tax payer I am glad he is being held financial accountable.
I also am sorry to inform you that the so called lies about post service education are not lies. I have three friends now and many in the past who have taken advantage of the G.I. bill.
I am not at all anti-american... the fact that you see it that way saddens me. But I'm also not a blindly patriotic lemming brainwashed to cheer on a government regime that is quite literally RAPING the American ideology the nation was built upon.
THAT is not patriotic... that's blind loyalty.
I'm not burning American flags, I'm not protesting to destroy America... if you're not aware of what's going on, sorry for you. Get with it. Start thinking critically and just basically, start paying attention.
I LOVE what America CAN stand for. And it's by far not the only nation with problems hell there are nations in much worse shape. America has great potential but it IS the superpower of the world and because I do care about the world I live in, I care about what happens to America.
So is it ProAmerican to let things slip including freedoms? Guess I got the constitution all wrong.
I am quite aware of what is going on around me, and frankly it saddens me to hear you repeat the same unoriginal and in my opinion baseless dribble that ever detractor of the great country I call home spouts off with. To call me a brainless lemming is both insulting and inaccurate, I understand my rights as an american and instead of wasting my time bringing political garbage such as you have posted to a site based upon MMO's I exercise my right to vote, and allow that to do my talking for me.
It is easy to dismiss everyone who does not agree with you as a brainless lemming, much easier than admitting that you are not always right. America is a shining example of what democracy can and should be, its easy to bash us, but let Canada grow to encompass the shear volume of people that the U.S.A does and then see what kind of problems you guys have.
People ridicule our foriegn policy, saying we should mind our own business. Then these same people cry to us for help when it is in their best interest.
I hope people take the time to follow your source link, read the comments other people posted in regard to the susposed ex-soldiers letter, and see what kinda of thinking is being done on that site. Then if you don't agree sign up. and post a anti-OP response and see how long it stays there. Mine lasted less than 5 minutes, you have got to love a site that only allows the expression of a single point of view.
One guy even posts that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Bush, its is easy to be anti-war when the things that started it don't effect you. Imagine the World Trade Center was located in Toronto not 15 minutes from where I lived at the time, and then let me see what kind of material you would be posting here.
People such as yourselves want to bash us, and attack what you see as a degredation of our freedoms, well here if you don't believe in the war you can say it. Ask your self how true that would have been in Iraq before we went over there.
1. I never called you a mindless leming, I said I am not one. If I wanted to call you something, I would say "You are a ...". I don't think you're mindless at all.
2. I've still yet to say anything hateful about America as a nation and as a people, please stop saying that I hate America. I simply care.
3. Not just American's died in the WORLD Trade Center. Despite what either of us know / believe about 9/11, it was a tragic international incident whoch occured on American soil.
We don't have to agree, but don't tell me I 'hate' America because I care about it please.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
This is so anti-govt it has to be fake. Freedoms were giveing up? If you hav nothing to hide they can check my email and phone converstions idc.
Im aginst anything anit-bush since if you look at the big picture its the germans fault. Im jk it was the CIAs fault for not waiting till they could talk to the guy the germans had and going into war on false info. Now i will say this. If you think that they didnt have WMDs your mentaly blind. He had them everyone knew he had them he just go rid of them before we got there. Also he talks about illigeal wars or somthing. yeah hes right we should sit by and watch him gas 1000s of kurds. And dont give me another country we should go after. The fact he DID have WMDs at one point and was gassing his own poeple should be enough. What is it only bad if americans are dieing? screw the rest of the world?
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
No offense intended but if your post was intended to make the navy look bad, It really only succeeded in making your brother look bad. The navy needs to function is they just allowed everyone to pick a job don't you think everyone would pick engineer or doctor or something they could make a load of money with after discharge. They give you G.I. money after your discharge to train your self with real world skills, your brother was unable to make it to that point, and frankly as a tax payer and am glad he is being held financial accountable.
I also am sorry to inform you that the so called lies about post service education are not lies. I have three friends now and many in the past who have taken advantage of the G.I. bill.
I never claimed he was a saint. But there were untruths imparted to him. I recognize he wasn't good at the job and deserved to be let go but his unhappiness stemmed from their deception. As for paying back the money, that was small print in the contract people don't read - something to the effect of if you aren't here x years you owe us your training cost back. It would hurt less if he had got training that he could take into the real world is the point. He was told he could choose his area of study then was told a different story by a different dept. The fact that commander could not control him and was petitioning his MOTHER to control him from across the world shows some incompetency in his leadership. That's nice that your friends were treated fairly but all aren't. Once you are in, you don't get the choice of where they put you or what happens is the jist, they can tell you anything to get you to sign just like any job that makes promises they don't put in writing.
I don't understand either why welfare recipients aren't forced to pay back the money they used myself but that's offtopic eh
I love how he starts out insinuating congress are just a bunch of selfserving business people and not publicly elected individuals. And his first sentence I see as a mark of a delusional conspiracy theorist.
quote:James Circello "I am sure some of you already know who I am now that wiretaps and spying on American citizens has been approved."
You know what, I bet they dont know who you are and further more dont even care. Like the rest of the world.
Hes just some scared person whos afraid hes going to get in trouble for being a deserter. Hes on a soapbox trying to convince everyone hes the good guy fighting against the evil empire.
The internet doesnt legitimise anything hes saying. I see him as nothing more than a quack with a sandwichboard on a street corner.
No one cares.
You are not important.
Just go away.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
This post is what I should have posted originally, BRAVO, Hokie
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
I call total BS on that letter. There are so many "fake" anti-war veterans out there and there is also a very active propoganda campaign ongoing in the US. Oh, and I am talking a literal propoganda campaign sponsored and carried out by Islamic extremist groups within our borders and abroad the likes of which we have not seen since WW2. A ton of the statements made in that "letter" I have seen several times before over the last few years, spoken in Arabic on Al Jazera and websites that you cannot reach from a US based ISP. Anyhow, I call BS propoganda / totally scripted.
I think il have to call BS and just to see what everyone else thinks here you are.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
I don't think some of you get the point. The soldier took an oath and broke it.When you join the military, you obey your commanding officers no questions asked. That is what boot camp is all about. You have to obey no matter what you are ordered to do no matter how absurd the order. If you don't then there will be chaos and not a well oiled fighting unit. It doesn't matter what you feel. After your service you can voice your opinion. Not only did this soldier go AWOL (and in my opinion deserted), he spoke out against the governmnent while under duty not to. To me that is treason. If I were the judge I'd be really harsh in his penalty). That is of course if he comes back to the states. If he doesn't I would revoke his citizenship.
What the soldier really needs to do is turn himself in and take the punishment. Maybe then his sentence will be more lenient.
Excatly when you join the military the presdient is your boss and you have no right to speak agisnt him w/o punishment. After all in a normal company if you spoke out on your boss he might fire you same rule apply to the military just more sever.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Hmm treason seems like a threatening action more than simple disagreement. I disagree with policy all the time but I don't think I'm being a traitor. Now if you attempt to do something about what you don't like violently or share some confidential secrets then that's treacherous. If the rant said I have this folder of secrets I'm giving to your enemies...well... get out the cuffs :P
The guy is still in trouble anyway - you don't just walk away, like someone else stated, you have to take the right channels out. My brother could have schooled him on the way out lol I'm gonna suggest to him to make a class next time I see him on how to get out w/out resorting to just walking away ha
7.11.09
fyi America is the name of the continent. Canadians, Mexicans even cubans are also americans. United States is the name of the country.
The ongoing occupation of Iraq is just a continuation of sadam's persecution against Kurd and sheite moslems. Bathest sadam from suni-arab-syria sole reason for assuming the 1968 dictatorship of Iraq was to help increase it's suni population from 8% to nearly 35% while committing genocide against the Kurds; and along the way became the payed US asset against pro-comunist sheite-Iran after Iran rebeled against the US backed overthrow of their "DEMOCRATICALLY" elected government and US enforced install of the shah dictatorship.
As long as the US can try to force a sheite-suni-kurd fiasco (not much different than the jew-philistine fiasco in Yisrael) in Iraq the neverending occupation is assured. And as long as the US forces acceptance of arab-suni with persian-sheite the merging of persian-Iran and arab-Iraq back into 1935 Persia will be prevented. Much to the delight of all other suni dictatorships/monarchies in the area.
edit:
ps. the NOT speaking out against a leader that was wrong is what the Nuremberg trial/executions were about !
Just my opinion but going AWOL in times of war is treason to me.
[Just my opinion but going AWOL in times of war is treason to me.]
The internet probably knows if that's true. I'm too lazy to look. Is it less of a threat to the country to not step up at all and fight
Some of us will never go willingly. If this is considered a time of war and you don't fight are you also committing acts against your country, this stuff is touchy.