As part of the gear up for IVAW's Winter Soldier II, several bloggers are profiling some of the more infamous members of IVAW. Today, my friend TSO over at The Sniper took on the claims of Mike Hoffman. Hoffman is a co-founder of IVAW and is also a Veteran Advisor for the heinous "Traveling Soldier/GI Special" that includes Iraqi Resistance Reports (you know the ones where they claim things like "Martyrs have killed 100 US and Iraqi puppet soldiers").
TSO had so much to debunk that it required two posts. Here's one of my favorite parts of Post #1...
Hoffman statement: The VA has been just been absolutely gutted. Right now they are closing the Manhattan VA hospital, which is going to be a huge blow to that area. They also closed the hospital in Pittsburgh, which means you are putting a lot of burden on these guys to travel to different places...
TSO's response includes FACTS and first hand reports...
But how could they close down hospitals in Manhattan and Pittsburgh if they care about veterans? Um, well, they aren’t closing either. I got an email from a buddy of mine who works VA issues:
TSO,In response to your inquiry, the VHA Chief of Staff at VA says Pittsburgh VA Hospital definitely not closing and she doesn't believe Manhattan one is either.
As a matter of fact, this interview was over 3 years ago, and the 2 facilities that he claims are closed are VERY MUCH OPEN. As for Manhattan, the website notes that the VA has several facilities there:•
Manhattan Campus on the East Side of New York City
Brooklyn Campus in Bay Ridge
St. Albans Extended Care Center in Queens
Outpatient Clinics in Brooklyn, Harlem, Manhattan & Staten Island
But what about Pittsburgh?
Nope, the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System has three facilities there
Here's a claim that I completely missed when I read the interview...
I’ve seen some independent news articles talking about how the opium trade in Iraq is going through the roof and U.S. servicemen are starting to get involved, just like what was happening in Vietnam...
US Soldiers in Afghanistan are dealing opium? You'll have to go read TSO's response to THAT claim.
In the second post, TSO uses an extremely credible source to debunk Hoffman's claims about no foreign fighters. First Hoffman's claim...
But that’s not what’s really going on there. If you talk to the guys that are on the ground right now, they’ll tell you that who they’re fighting is not a bunch of militants from Syria and Lebanon and places like that—they’re fighting average Iraqis who do not want the United States there, who want to run their own country and control their own country. And I think they have the basic right to do it—that is the definition of sovereignty.
Now the response from SSG David Bellavia, the Medal of Honor nominee and author of House to House...
The only thing remotely connected in the stratosphere of reality with this guy is his claim that we DID NOT fight against "militants from Syria and Lebanon."
He is right. Not all of them were from Syria and Lebanon. They came from the Philippines, France, Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and the Sudan. There were Iraqi Sunni jihadists there, of course.
At least that is what I found personally from dead insurgents laying in the streets of Fallujah from the North Eastern Askari District to the south western Industrial district south of Highway 10. I photographed them, I bagged their paperwork (many had passports) and made hand receipts of their pocket money (Euros and American Dollars).
If you're not familiar with SSG David Bellavia, read the Medal of Honor nomination letter here.
Now who are you gonna believe? The Medal of Honor nominee or the IVAW co-founder who writes for a rag that is sympathetic to the Iraqi Resistance. The choice was extremely easy for me...
No comments:
Post a Comment