If The Shoe Fits...

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23111

If The Shoe Fits...
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-05-30 18:59. Media

By Milo Freeman, SPC, United States Army, Iraq

Memorandum for Record: Military Spending Concerns

FROM: SPC Freeman, Milo; US Army, Iraq

TO: Senate Democrats, Republicans, and "American Idol" viewers across the nation.

1. You. Punk. Ass. Pantywaisted. Bitches.

2. You had a chance. You could have put your money where your mouth is--could have put some ass behind all those claims of "favoring an end to war."

3. And you fucking choked.

4. Let me explain something to you. Your children; your spouses; your lovers and friends and parents and CONSTITUENTS are hostages to this war. They're dying for a conflict with no concrete objective. They're losing marriages and childhood moments to a neverending cycle of extended tours. Their equipment, their morale, is stretched thin. And some of them--those of us smart enough not to buy the fucking hype--were counting on you to find your fucking testicles and put an end to this shit. We were counting on you to save us from ourselves; to find a way to put us to use serving our country in ways perhaps more effective in rebuilding our nation.

5. And you. Fucking. Choked.

6. I haven't gotten a current edition of the paper in months. It's always a day behind. I don't get to check the news--I barely have the time. So what am I to think when I read yesterday's Stars and Stripes, and hear about this shit? Is that supposed to tell me that my leaders, my countrymen give a flying FUCK about what happens to me or my wife? Is that the message I'm supposed to glean from this STUNNING lack of cojones? Because I gotta tell you, America, I'm not seeing it.

7. I'm so sick of hearing this wretched war talked about in terms of Victory or Defeat. "If we leave, the terrorists will win."

8. Fuck that.

9. Today it's Terrorists. Yesterday it was Blacks/Gays/Jews/Hippies. Before that it was Communists. Before that, it was Uppity Colonials with Secondhand Muskets and Pitchforks. It's always fucking something with you people, isn't it?

10.You just need your little wars to feel good about yourselves, don't you? Something to make you feel threatened; something to make you feel heroic; ANYTHING to make you feel like your pathetic lives are more than just you against the Big, Black, Scary Infinite. Well, obviously, it's working.

11. You don't magically "win" an occupation. It's an inevitable bleed-out. We're stuck in a situation beyond our powers to fix, in a country that WE voted to destroy, whose history and people we neither understand nor care to try. We bought the hype, hook-line-and-sinker.

12. Fuck Victory. Fuck Defeat. Any way you slice it, This. War. Is. Wrong.

13.You don't keep trying to win the game after it turns out you bribed the refs. You fire the coaches and/or players responsible, and you hand over the Title. You take your lumps like a fucking man and try to rebuild. Accept it.

13. Hope you're happy, America. Clutch your pearls about all those dirty liberals who voted against the proposal ("They didn't Support The Troops!"). Whine about all the evil elderly schoolteachers and librarians protesting the war on a Saturday morning outside your courthouse.

14. But when your son or daughter or spouse or first lay comes home airfreight, mangled into a closed-casket service by a daisy-chain of 155s buried under Route Tampa, remember this:

15. It won't be the dirty liberals who put them there.

16. Hoo-ah.

//

ORIGINAL SIGNED

Milo Freeman, SPC

United States Army, Iraq

[Dhalgren]

1. Seriously kicks ass! K&R!

[Squatch]

38. Probably a fake.

I can't find any SPC Milo Freeman on AKO.

I can't find anybody named SPC Milo XXXX Freeman or anybody SPC XXXX Milo Freeman or anybody who's name even contains Milo and Freeman.

Since I can't open his blog at work, can somebody tell me if he's using any other name?

[rox63]

58. He may be using a fake name so that he doesn't face retribution from his commanders n/t

Or maybe Milo is a nickname. :shrug:

[Squatch]

68. Either way, what you have here is the bloviating of another

anonymous keyboard commando.

Today:
I'm SPC so-and-so...fuck Dems, fuck Repubes, fuck everybody. War sucks. I'm not playing nice anymore.

Tomorrow:
(CDR) SPC so-and-so, attack that hill!
(SPC) Yes, sir!

I immediately have to categorize his diatribe as pure Bullshit.

[Divine Discontent]

75. why do you have to categorize what was said as bullshit

regardless, the message is spot on. and I've watched videos of very angry troops on youtube (check the video section for one of them)

[Squatch]

76. Oh, I don't know...because of the fallacial appeal to authority?

[Divine Discontent]

77. ..

I'm not familiar with that word. I think you mean the lying behind it, right? I understand your point if so.

[Squatch]

78. Appeal to authority:

Person A makes claim B;
there is something positive about person A,
therefore claim B is true.

And that's *just* on the surface. There are so many things wrong with this and his other blog posts that it's extremely easy to raise the BS flag on this person.

[Karenina]

80. Would you care to elucidate?

[SemperEadem]

73. fake or real, it was still well said and no word of it can be denied

[TahitiNut]

2. I'd guess that's an opinion shared by MANY stuck in Iraq.

It's tough to have patience with any kind of clay-footed cowardice when you're in a combat zone.

[mdmc]

13. many indeed

more each day...

[maggiegault]

63. My brother agreed with him, and I have the instant messages from him archived to prove it

[polichick]

3. Wow, is that for real???

Love the style, love the content, love the passion!!!

[PDJane]

4. I hope he doesn't come home in a body bag.......

The supporters of the Cabal don't like truth from anyone....and I hope he didn't expect his vote to have counted in the last election.

He might have been on one of those "caging" lists.

Hate this Shit, you know.....and I'm not an American.

[Joe Chi Minh]

69. It's nice to think they may be caged behind real bars before too long.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. A rant worthy of a rec and kick...

:kick:

[quinnox]

6. Rec - very powerful stuff

A salute to this courageous soldier.

[porphyrian]

7. Hoo-ah, and I'm a civi. - n/t

[Cults4Bush]

8. Wait he included Dems! he doesnt understand politics and how its actually

good for us that he has to stay over a bit longer...oh wait maybe he does.

[Jim Sagle]

18. Let's send Jagoff Joe Biden over to explain it to him!

;)

[hootinholler]

9. LOL...

This guy knows the game! Because it's addressed to Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, it should be covered and exempted from being speech he can legally be hassled for.

-Hoot

[tabasco]

10. Stay safe Specialist Freeman!

We need ya' back home.

[bobbolink]

11. Now *THAT'S* a WARRIOR!!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread babylonsister.

[Straight Shooter]

14. Clutch your pearls!

He nailed those holier-than-thou warmongers and babs bush in 3 words.

[jazzjunkysue]

15. Do I look old? Lol. He knows the old school marms like me are trying.

At least he knows that. Someone hasn't forgotten him.

I hope Keith can get ahold of this and put the kid on air, or at least someone from his family.

[Mister Ed]

16. K& R n/t

[BeHereNow]

17. RECOMMENDED!!!

Now we need about 10,000 more JUST like this one to speak the truth.
BHN

[BeHereNow]

19. kick

bhn

[BeHereNow]

20. WHY is THIS thread not at the TOP of the forum???

:wtf:
HOW can that BE?

BHN

[Madspirit]

21. k&r...n/t

[Kurovski]

22. K&R. (nt)

[emilyg]

23. R

[uppityperson]

24. kick and highly recommend.

[lonestarnot]

25. Kick and a highest recommend!

[SeattleGirl]

26. Wow!!!! Not THAT is some piece of writing!

Thank you, Milo Freeman, SPC! :applause: :applause: :applause:

[WritersBlock]

27. His blog: calmbeforethesand.blogspot.com

More powerful reading there.


http://calmbeforethesand.blogspot.com/



(edit for subject clarity)

[Tekla West]

28. Sir

I salute you for your clear and impossible to misunderstand language. Many here could learn from it.

[anambrose]

29. Truth Be Told No One Be Listening

I want....no need you to keep your shit together; your head on straight, and head on a swivel eyes focused on getting through. Why? When Nixon took over Vietnam in January of 1969 there were maybe 20,000 dead. At the Paris Peace Talks Nixon was telling Kissinger to stall the talks until they agreed on the shape of the negotiating table. The Generals and Colonels who are Generals in waiting didn't want the war to end there was too much money being made. So it's torture to have on one hand the fatalistic view of "I'm not getting out of here alive." and "if they would just get their shit together and pull the plug me and my buddies could get out of here and get Back Home." The former will at least not make it easy for them to kill you and you must make it as hard as possible. The latter while more than righteously justified and written were the same thoughts going through the heads of the next 38,000 who wound up listed on the Wall. I thought those thoughts too but had the good fortune to have my Platoon Sgt slap me upside the head when it counted. So we need you to come back so you can tell us the truth you lived. Many will not want to hear it, many will not understand it, but it needs telling just the same and you have the gift for telling it. For any who think politics doesn't matter just read Milo's Email. For those who think politics is beneath them read Milo's Email. Hey Milo! Do What You Have Got To Do And Get Back Alive.
From one 11Bravo to Another.

[Kurovski]

30. Welcome to DU, anambrose.

thank you.

[SaveAmerica]

39. Welcome and thank you for your service, 11B

[Missy Vixen]

31. Brilliant. K&R

SPC Freeman and his wife deserve better than they've gotten.

In the meantime, why isn't this guy running the military? He seems to have a much better grasp of How Things Are than those currently in charge.

Julie

[midnight]

32. Boy this man says a mouthful and still it is not going to matter to

those who embrace the motto that "Money trumps Peace". Here is a sigh of grief for that soldier who understands more than he ought to how lost our congress is in their need for money.

[acmavm]

33. Just read this and I have to say that this describes exactly

what everyone should be thinking and feeling about the pissants we elected last November.

Now I gotta go look and see how many 'but we didn't have the votes' or the 'we had to fund the troops' whiners posted.

edit: Thankfully none so far.

[Karenina]

34. K&R!!!

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[mak3cats]

35. K & another R (n/t)

[noamnety]

36. "Today it's Terrorists. Yesterday it was Blacks/Gays/Jews/Hippies. "

Correction. Today it's terrorists and women. Sometimes known as panty-waisted bitches.

[Vilis Veritas]

40. Perhaps he meant something different entirely...?

Words have many meanings and while the word he used is virulently wrong when applied to women in general, perhaps his intent was to imply something other than an insult to women.

I refer to the following quote from Wikipedia...

"Bitch is a term for the female of a canine species in general. It is also frequently used as a derogatory term for a woman, taken to mean that she is malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, or unpleasant. This second meaning has been in use since around 1400.<1> When used to describe a male, it confers the meaning of "subordinate", especially to another male (as in prison). More recent variants of bitch are bitchy, ill-tempered (1925), and to bitch, to complain (1930).<1>"

Granted that the first usage is correctly calling out the vulgar and crass usage of the term, however, the second meaning cited, PERFECTLY describes the author's intended audience - those who subordinated themselves to the nations supposed male leader, SHRUB.

If you take into account the obvious intelligence of this fine example of a human being known as M. Freeman, then I must, no I plead with you to not assign the vulgar usage to his text and take heart that he was using the vernacular of the times to put the 'smack down' on the people as a whole and not singling out women.

Peace.

[noamnety]

42. Analyze that second meaning.

"When used to describe a male, it confers the meaning of "subordinate", especially to another male (as in prison). "

The REASON it means subordinate is that it equates the man to a woman - the subordinate. Especially a male in prison - because the way males (not ALL males, blah blah blah) assert their SUPREMACY over women is by fucking/raping them.

Is the poster intelligent? Sure. Is he reinforcing an entire system of MALE SUPREMACY? Oh, you betcha.

Instead of appealing to ethics, morality, and courage as a gender neutral term, he is embracing yet more macho dick-waving swaggering male aggression through the halls of congress. Do people really need to be reminded that it was all the macho dick-waving must-be-real-men-grunt-grunt-grunt bullshit, combined with feminisation of anyone who WOULDN'T agree to wave their dicks in the face of the terrists, that got us into this mess?

Again, I ask, if this had been the same message, couched in racist terms, would we embrace it the same way? Would we have people posting alternate meanings of the word nigger and talking about how it's used in the vernacular?

The basis of the EMOTIONAL plea here is that congress needs to stop acting like a bunch of girly girls and find their balls and act like MEN.

FUCK THAT MESSAGE. I don't care what is in the package, if that's how it's wrapped, I ain't impressed. He's part of the larger problem even if he IS fighting against this particular war.

[Vilis Veritas]

47. Disagree.

He is knee deep in the shit and you want to argue semantics?

Lots of personal RAGE in your post. I wish you well. I hope you can find peace somehow...

Peace.

[noamnety]

53. He's knee deep in shit

that was created by bullying macho attitudes. He hasn't connected the dots yet.

As for your patronizing you seem angry I hope you find peace line, I'm not so much looking to "find peace" by smiling nicely and appeasing those who use derogatory language. The best response I can think of to that is "bless your heart."

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

37. Aw, man! Shake 'em up, SPC Freeman!!!!

HOO-AHHHH!!!!! :salute:

[Vilis Veritas]

41. Well done.

Come home safely, soldier.

We need your truth.

Peace.

[kwyjibo]

43. k&r

[info being]

44. I was just thinking...pissed off soldiers may not be a good thing...

...they're trained killers and starting to realize the real enemy is not the enemy they've been trained to fight. I wonder what will happen when they finally do come home.

[Virginia Dare]

52. I agree with your take..

my first instinct after reading this was not to say "woo yeah, you rock". It made me profoundly sad, and scared.

[bigtree]

45. his inclusion of Democrats in his rant is ridiculous

fuck that. NOTHING in his statement applies to the majority of Democrats who were well aware of "supplies stretched thin" when they voted for the spending legislation. It's a lie that the spending bill is keeping him troops in Iraq. BUSH is, and his REPUBLICAN enablers. PERIOD.

Democrats have voted overwhelmingly for an end date to the occupation and are prepared to do so again and again until Bush and his republican enablers come off of their obstruction.

But, WHEE! Let's all join in and continue the LIE that Democrats are responsible for Bush keeping the troops there; as if *Bush and his republicans deserve the slightest bit of cover for their crimes.

[mike_c]

60. yeah, democrats didn't have anything to do with authorizing war crimes against Iraq...

...or maintaining the funding to pay for permanent U.S. imperialism in the middle east or keeping the slaughter on for another couple of years.

Oh, wait....

[bigtree]

82. no, they didn't

but, go on . . .

[Jacobin]

81. democrats are in it up to their fucking eyeballs

they voted for the IWR shit and they gave Bush another blank check and were too cowardly to face Bush down on his veto. Which is why their approval ratings have gone into the tank in the last few weeks.

Not to mention, listening to the OP screaming for help.

This isn't a sports team debate. This is real life and death.

[bigtree]

83. Democrats didn't 'authorize' anything of the kind

Bush actually ignored the IWR in his push to invade and occupy Iraq. He said he didn't care what the republican-controlled Congress did before they voted, and he proved that.

The Democratic spending bill Bush signed was no blank check. Did you read the bill? Will you let him off the hook for the provisions in the Democratic spending bill which call for accountability?

What is the purpose in trashing Democrats? The majority of them stood against the invasion, and still stand for an end date to the occupation, despite their vote on this one supplemental. Why let Bush and his republicans off the hook for their complicity and obstruction? Just one vote by a veto-busting margin of republicans and the troops come home, money and all.

[Ganja Ninja]

46. The Democrats should be telling Bush right now that ....

this is the last check he's going to see for his war. This is the pull out money and he needs to use it for that. No more bills will be voted on because no more bills will even make it to the house floor.
If they don't they'll just get punked again in 6 months when Bush needs more money for his failure.

[Virginia Dare]

54. Do you honestly think he would listen?

there is no reasoning with a psychopath.

[Ganja Ninja]

56. Doesn't matter if he listens or not.

They should say it publicly so he can't come back and act like they are pulling the rug out from under him. He can't wait until funds run short and claim the Dem's are responsible for food or other shortages. That's why they should be saying it now and they should be saying it over and over again as loudly and as publicly as possible.

[Virginia Dare]

65. He's still the President and he still has the backing of ..

the Repubs in Congress, plus he seems to get some kind of a get out of jail free pass from the mainstream media, so therefore, it still matters.

[earth mom]

48. K & R! Wow just Wow!

:applause:

Reading the blog now too....

http://calmbeforethesand.blogspot.com/

[HughBeaumont]

49. Yep, I just rec'd this. And it's the absolute TRUTH.

They all caved to the Failure Fuhrer. They all let us down. Most importantly, they all LET THEM down.

It's not about "having the votes". Challenging this diaper-wearing shitbag is what's RIGHT. Calling this should-have-been-one-termer on his colossal fraud and catastrophic destruction of nations is what WE ASKED of you.

I don't even KNOW this country anymore. How can anyone call this "the land of opportunity" when 125 service men and women died this month for NOTHING?

[AzDar]

50. Infuriating and heartbreaking.

---signed,
A Dirty Liberal

[myrna minx]

51. Wow!

:applause:

[CabalPowered]

55. I just caught up with an old friend back from Iraq

He's flying apaches for the Army. His feelings are the same.

Kicked and Rec'd

:kick:

[emald]

57. I expect any enlisted and most O3s and below have this same attitude

No one with half a brain, and even some of those, knows there is no mission but holding on till Iraq goes nuclear. Since these soldiers enlistment contracts seem to be null and void they must all be conscripts, save the top brass who are all stupid enough to think having their noses up gwbushits asshole will lead somewhere besides entropy. So we have a slave army on foriegn ground with thin support. I expect they will withdraw through Iran where they will meet the Navy coming ashore.
He just can't be that stupid, can he?

[Raster]

59. Kick it and keep kicking it!!!

The Iraq War - brought to you by the Texas-American Petroleum Cartel and the Military Industrial Complex.
"Leave no one's child left behind."

The Iraq War is a LIE, plain and simple. This debacle should have been over within weeks of Election 2006. After all, that was what it was about. Fully 75% of this country want out of Iraq. Why, I ask, don't at least 75% of Congress?
:kick:

[veness]

61. K & R ! n/t

[John Q. Citizen]

62. A beautiful example of the sexualization of power, or the lack there of. Kind of

wrecks his rant for me.

[Joanne98]

64. Bravo Milo Freeman SPC. Hang on dude. We haven't given up!

We know our leaders are gutless and we're beating them over the head everyday.

[npincus]

66. f*cking brilliant.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

67. Passionate and powerful words

He kicked some serious ass.

[orleans]

70. jesus. k&r. n/t

[Maestro]

71. Real or not, it is the truth -nt

[npincus]

72. I wrote to the author of the piece

my letter rambling, not well-consructed. Outrage does that.

Dear Spc Freeman,

I ead your blog entry on this thread at Democratic Underground:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1005716&mesg_id=1005716

I've never quite been able to articulate my outrage as you so brilliantly have concerning the hideous, immoral behavior of our government and the passivity of Americans on the subject of this so-called "war". That freak in the White House, undeserving to be the janitor washing toilets there, has played '"soldiers" with you and all our military, rather than with green plastic toys which are more appropriate to his education and skill set. He's toyed with complex geopolitics, fucking with the middle east by invading and upending a country that was no threat to us, uprooting/ destorying millions of lives, like he's playing a game of 'Stratego" in Mommy's basement. And the mass exodus of Iraqis (4 million ?) from the failed state of Iraq he's created is ignored by our so-called media, the blood you see and spill over there is cleansed from images Americans are allowed ot see ... all that would really tell the story of what a deadly fuck-up Georgie created. And our Congress sits on their asses, inhales, exhales, pontificates and then funds this calamity. (Don't you just love those war-cheerleaders that come to Iraq for photo-ops, "stroll" the Baghdad markets with massive security forces, don't learn a fucking thing, and then tout "progress" there (McCain. Lieberman). )

Most tragic of all is the betrayal of people like you, who had the honor and decency to serve our country, as volunteers, no less. And trusted in the wisdom, judgement and adherence to rule of law supposedly followed to by your government, your Commander-In-Chief. That guy that was a fucking chicken and couldn't even show up for the Air National Guard service Daddy arranged for him when it was his turn to serve. All he could do is play dress-up like a real soldier, pretend to land a plane on an aircraft carrier and brag, "Mission Accomplished!". That thing is your Commander-In-Chief? He is mentally unfit to be carrying out his duties, incapable of admitting error and adjusting his startegy accordingly, and you are stuck there in the Hell of his making. I was no fan of Reagan's, but he did the RIGHT thing when those Marines were killed in Lebanon in the 80's... he recognized the US was in the wrong place and got us the hell out. Not THIS president. Only Congress or an act of God can get you guys home. No wonder you wrote your piece... Congress failed this country, and most of all, our brave military, people like you, are stuck over there. I pray for you, and stand with the anti-war demonstrators and activists who were RIGHT from the beginning, and only the rest of the country is beginning to catch up.

Those motherfuckers play politics while you are in the firing line every minute of every day... they DISGUST and DISGRACE this nation. They WILL lose their jobs come election time.

I pray for you, your family, all our soldiers, and will raise my voice in protest for you.

Be safe and keep writing. Sorry for rambling and poor sentence strructure!

Thank you,

(me)

[Divine Discontent]

74. ahem....

well deserving of current most recommended thread...

love ya progressives!

the rest of the frauds, you know who you are (esp. the pols), who are afraid of losing their seats or if not a politician, are afraid of seeming weak or America failing, are only enabling the failure of America by spending nearly $1,000,000,000,000.00 on this war which bankrupts us over a false enemy created especially when dumb-f*ck W uttered, "Bring 'Em On!".

I'm a believer, and as one, I pray for the end of this obsession with war, I know that man has always loved fighting, you can see it everyday on playgrounds, in sporting events, and talk shows, but dammit, those of us who are active in politics need to scream about only sacrificing our troops when we're in a true world war, and our own intelligence dept's say this is NOT that situation!

$1,000,000,000,000.00

Most of which is profit to these ungodly war machine industries!


www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- check it out, top '08 stuff

[NuttyFluffers]

79. that warmed my cockles. k and r, no/text

[GabrielSyme]

84. Here is the real author of the "Milo Freeman" blog

In the USMC, we learned attention to detail, and it's the details that prove to anyone reading his blog it is fake. If you like his writing there is a great deal more of it at his other fiction site, along with the same poems and Zen meditations and so on. And another "Milo Freeman" story from 2002. And a picture of what he really looks like. If. You. Are. Interested. And. Like. Lots. Of. Periods.

http://www.williammichaelian.com/index.html

[noamnety]

85. That's the most interesting post I've read all day.

amused and confused

[StinkyMcPinknose]

86. Looks like we've been duped

http://www.williammichaelian.com/earlyshortstories/shortstory11.html

do a text search for "Milo".

[dogday]

87. Kicking this for truth

everything he said and more....