First, the article which is the genesis of this post is linked above. But the gist is that a guy left Americans Against Escalation in Iraq because they weren’t fighting the fight the way they wanted.
The leading Washington coalition for ending the war in Iraq has lost its highest-profile Iraq veteran. John Bruhns, a former Army sergeant who participated in the 2003 invasion, left his position as legislative representative of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI) at the beginning of October. He had started in May, but quickly became frustrated with the group’s lack of legislative success as well as some of its tactics.
Standard disclaimer applies here. He felt a certain way, joined a group, lobbied for his beliefs. I applaud him on all of that. We may be on opposite sides of this, but the guy served honorably, and I thank him for that. Also, I am not so dogmatic that I think that what he is doing is wrong. The Constitution says we have a right to petition for a redress of grievances, and he is doing that. Bruhns supports the Constitution, and his service shows that, I just happen to disagree with him.
But that is not what is so interesting to me, this is:
In May, Bruhns joined AAEI, which includes MoveOn, the Service Employees International Union and VoteVets. He was hailed by anti-war legislators for his experience and willingness to speak out.
Well, actually that is also the set up. THIS is the part that brought me up way short:
Mack said AAEI has another Iraq veteran on staff, Josh Lansdale, who is in charge of outreach to veterans
.
Why is that interesting? Well my friends, for that answer, you’ll need to step into the wayback machine with me. Here is Josh:
“Jim Talent doesn’t need to wait 6 months for an appointment, why should we?”
Good point Josh.
Describing his service in Iraq, Josh said this:
“It was a pretty hot zone. We took a lot of mortar fire, IEDs, car bombs, saw a lot of helicopter crashes and worked the UN embassy bombing. I dragged a lot of people out of burning buildings, cars, motorcycle wrecks and explosions.”
I was the 1SG and Fire Chief for the unit. I also was AGR for the unit for 17 years. We were deployed in May of 03. We were stationed at Camp Anaconda Iraq. We arrived there on or about the 23rd of May and departed on or about the 21st of April 04.
There was one Helicopter tire that blew up on a couple soldiers and messed one up pretty bad and killed the other. There was also one motorcycle accident when a soldier hit a honey wagon (Porta Potty Cleaner) and his head was pretty swollen when we got there. Other than that, There was not one plane or helicopter that crashed on us during this period. None of us even got close to Baghdad or any Embassy buildings other than when we drove on the outskirts on our way to Balad (camp Anaconda).
Yes we had many nights of mortars come in but only a couple even got close to us at the fire station and that was right at the end. 95% that they fired at us either missed everything or were duds. None of my fire fighters that fought any fires dragged anyone out of a building. We had 2 of our own fire fighters go down because of heat problems while fighting fires, but that was it.
I am sure that Josh Lansdale saw a lot of things that you would not see in the states, however he is blowing this way WAY out of proportion. I had 3 other soldiers that came a lot closer than he ever could imagine to being killed. I would have to see his medical records, but I can not even remember him hurting his ankle. He may have sprained it at worse if even that…
And his claim about waiting 6 months for an appt?
“We see them within 30 days of their entry into our system,” said Jane Alley of the VA Medical Center.
Alley is a nurse and one of two people at the medical center who oversees new patients. Mahoney said it should be easy to check Lansdale’s claims if he would produce his appointment schedule.
Naturally, Josh refuses to come forward with that info.
He may not be a “phony soldier” in the sense he actually served there, but he’s phony in just about everything he’s said since he got back. I actually menationed this guy in my MSNBC interview. And what did VoteVets have to say about him? Well….nothing. Getting VoteVets off their prearranged message is like trying to get Rosie away from the buffet table.
Enough already. Seriously. You clowns couldn’t identify MacBeth as a phony, when it took the vast majority of us 3.2 seconds, and even with this guys tales of woe and battlefield prowess being taken out like a lone jihadi caught in an L shaped Ambush, they hire him as a full-timer.
Meanwhile, Kos takes pot shots at Hegseth. It’s ridiculous. The credibility of these guys is virtually non-existent, and losing Bruhns isn’t going to help them. Find some guys who served, who don’t engage in standard Ghengis Khan type hyperbole and then get back to me.
There is no shame in doing your job in a combat zone. It’s when you start to embelish your heroism that I start getting a case of the monkey arse.
h/t to Hotair for The Hill article, and to Michelle Malkin for several great posts on Lansdale.
