Monday, May 22, 2006

By Any Means Possible

The perfect example of civilization at war with itself is provided an antiwar video featuring a possibly fake US Army Ranger. Lt. Smash thinks the video is bogus and enumerates the defects in the interviewee's uniform.

1. Special Forces Combat Patch (Wrong) 
2. Two "Tabs" sewn above SF patch (Wrong- Only One) 
3. No Ranger Tab 
4. No Airborne Wings 
5. No Unit Crest 
6. No Sewn on Rank 
7. No One in the Army rolls their sleeves like that. Bonus: 
8. Mustache is out of regulation by extending past the corner of the mouth.

But this is all petty stuff. Let's give the alleged Ranger his full due. The interview text is posted in Socialist Alternative and reproduced in full here.

Jesse Macbeth, formerly a Special Forces Ranger in Iraq, is now active with Iraq Veterans Against the War in Tacoma, Washington. The Rangers are elite units sent door-to-door in Iraq to combat the insurgency. They were also sent into Fallujah to crush all opposition to the occupation of that city. Justice recently interviewed Jesse.

How did you end up in the military?
I grew up on the streets. I got into trouble for fighting. The same judge that I'd been dealing with my whole life told me that I wouldn't have to do adult time if I signed up for the military immediately. Sometimes I kinda wish I went to jail instead.

How did you become a Special Forces Ranger?
Basic training was easy for me. Growing up on the streets, I was used to running from cops. I was used to not eating for days. I got picked to go to Ranger School.

What did your division do?
I was in the Third Ranger Battalion. Our job was to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqi people. We would go into people's houses and plow down entire families. We would interrogate people. If we didn't like the answers that they gave, then we would kill the youngest child. If they gave more answers that we didn't like, then we'd move on to the rest of the family. They could've been innocent people. We would leave the bodies in the streets and blame it on the Shi'ites or the Sunnis. [In Fallujah] we were ordered to go into mosques and slaughter people while they were praying. I won't go into full detail because I'm still haunted by the memories.

What was the assault on Fallujah like?
Fallujah is where we slaughtered people in mosques. We provoked the people there. Some people escaped from the mosques and saw us. We would dig holes and leave mass graves of children, women, and old men. We were ordered to let people die on the street. We were told that the Geneva Convention means nothing to us in combat. We were ordered to fire on peaceful protesters in Fallujah. Somebody threw a rock at us, and an officer said that he thought it was a grenade. Then we were ordered to fire. When it's daylight in Iraq, it's daylight! Nobody really thought it was a grenade.

What medals did you get in Iraq?
I got a lot. I got a purple heart. Half of them, I don't remember. I got five or six medals just for landing. I got a bronze star.

What injuries did you get?
I got stabbed many times. I got shrapnel in my knee. I got shot in the back.

What do you think is the role of the U.S. in Iraq?
The military is terrorists there. Soldiers thought we were going to fight terrorism, but we became the terrorists. We were told we were going to liberate the country and find weapons of mass destruction. The real aim is to have the U.S. own the country. The U.S. wants oil.

How has the government treated you since you got back?
Like shit. I hate them. I'm not gonna be a terrorist or anything, but I hate them. They killed my battle brothers. They used me. They messed me up. They didn't care about me. They turned me into a beast, a machine.

What Veteran's benefits have you gotten?
I ain't getting nothing. A card and that's it.

Where do you work?
I'm an Iraq vet, and I work at Wendy's.

How did you get involved in IVAW?
Veteran's Affairs told me they had no money for me. I always knew the war was fucked up, but that motivated me to say something about it. The government throws us away. They did the same thing after Vietnam.

Why do you think people should get involved in the antiwar movement?
Because it's gotta stop. Innocent people are getting killed. Bush says we have to stay the course and that it's hard work. Bush doesn't know what work is.

Anything else you want to say?
Yeah. The news here is controlled. The military lets information out that serves their purposes. We slaughtered a sovereign nation. Reporters got killed. When I was growing up, everyone thought I'd be a criminal, but they were wrong. I'm gonna be one of the leaders of the revolution.

One emailer to Little Green Footballs apparently has problems with this narrative too, and perhaps others will occur to the readers.

I am a former Ranger and my son is currently w/ 3d Ranger Bn. This guy is the most obvious fake I have ever seen. He should hope he never meets a Ranger in person after this traitorous performance. In addition to the other indicators of phoniness, consider these:

* He has a profile page at military.com. On it he claims to have three combat parachute jumps (stars on his jump wings. Sorry, Jessie, but no one in 3d Bn made three combat jumps in 2001-05.
* He claims to be Special Forces qualified. (Claiming to be a “Special Forces Ranger” is almost a sure way to spot a phony. But, if he was SF and Ranger qualified, he would not be an E-4, unless he was busted. Although he claims to have an SF scroll, he does not list SF as his unit.
* He claims to have two CIBs. He would not have been awarded two CIBs for service between 2001 and 2005.
* He claims to have been w/ the Rangers in Fallaujah. To my knowledge, 3d Ranger Bn. was not in Fallaujah.
* He claims to have been shot, wounded w/ shrapnel and stabbed (multiple times), but only claims one Purple Heart.
* He claims to have been w/ the Rangers in Iraq for 16 months. Some reporter should ask him which company he was with and how long their tours were. The Rangers don’t go for one year tours like other Army units. And, public reports show that some of 3d Bn’s time has been in Afghanistan, not Iraq.

Commentary

Protein Wisdom asks the hypothetical question: what is if this guy is fake? Is this kind of behavior out of bounds? Or is that a stupid question to ask? 

And, if this “interview” is confirmed as the fake it appears to be (oops—it’s interviews, evidently) is it okay—and I ask only because, you know, I want to know the rules, is all—is it okay now to question the “patriotism” of those who’d lie about the behavior of our soldiers and commanders in order to undermine support for the war? Or is this just another example of the type of thing that is permissible in the service of “the greater good” as decided upon by a particular group of “progressives” who just happens to fancy themselves our moral and intellectual betters?

In an earlier post I wrote that the defenses of civilization consisted not merely of arms, but of belief, culture, law and commerce. The hallmark of a functional civilization is that these things are bulwarks against barbarism -- and not portals for it -- by common consent. Belief, culture, law and commerce were once used by civilization as a wall against savagery; not as means of providing their escalade. But as author Philip Bobbitt, pointed out, the replacement of the nation state by the "market state" has loosened many of the ties which formerly bound together the peoples of traditional nations. In the modern multicultural state the cement of culture is no longer what it used to be. In that context, Riehl's question can be interpreted as asking: is there any sanction in Western belief, culture or law which prohibits Socialist Alternatives from trotting out deliberate lies? We already know that many on the Left would be opposed to deliberate lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction. But is there any corresponding prohibition against impersonating an Airborne Ranger in a broadcast? If none, then it's anything goes and barbarism is no longer strictly without, it is also within.

In From the Cold links to a New York Times article describing negotiations to choose a facility site for a missile defense over Europe to protect against possible Iranian missiles. He remarks:

there's something a little unsettling about the prospect of deploying an anti-missile shield to protect countries (Germany, France) that have done little to help the U.S. in recent years. Admittedly, the missile defenses on the continent will eventually protect the CONUS, but our European "friends" will be the immediate beneficiaries, including those who have pursued an anti-American foreign policies.

Such is our modern "Shield of Achilles": a ring of marvelous strength around that which believes it will always be provided for. It's an illustration of arms unsupported by culture; bereft of belief and badgered -- not upheld -- by law. Missile defense joins GPS and the Internet as a quondam evil now become an entitlement, in a world where perhaps the fake Ranger is the most authentic thing of all.

30 Comments:

Blogger Oengus said...

Wretchard: "But is there any corresponding prohibition against impersonating an Airborne Ranger in a broadcast?"

Wouldn't laws against sedition constitute a prohibition? We do have in the United States laws against sedition, don't we?

Or I thought we did.

And if we do, then why wouldn't this incident be the perfect example of where those laws ought to be enforced with rigor?

5/22/2006 06:06:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Grew up on the street and was given the option by a judge. Horse feathers, the days of the US armed forces looking for high school drop outs and felonious reprobates went out with the Century project, if it even happened. Running from cops is a sprinters game, try that with an 80lb pack for 10-20 miles. Not the least bit credible. The one thing you can never learn on the street is how to respect authority. Try being a slovenly ignorant turd and see how far it gets you in boot camp.

Striking fear in the hearts and minds of the indigs is particularly absurd. The MEU’s are not up to that anymore.

Wait a moment… I’ve seen this, Oliver Stone wrote it, it was more of a haunting allegory than anything else. Allegories are fair game right? Well I guess until they throw in a pinch of history as well, no. That is why I never read the thoroughly debunked “historical novel”, “The DaVinci Code”. Now that it is a movie and has been successfully rendered to what it was always meant to be, a mystery thriller, I watch it. But even with the excellent Ron Howard at its’ directorial helm, I’ll wait for HBO to run it.

Totally incredible. Stabbed? I will read the rest of this post later. Sorry for the short fuse.

5/22/2006 06:09:00 PM  
Blogger enscout said...

Wow, I must admit this guy has a big set of cojones - trying to impersonate SF and Army Rangers to spew this type of dishonor & vitriole.

Once again the blogosphere proves itself the ideal tool to debunk this sort of lefty nonsense.

5/22/2006 06:17:00 PM  
Blogger Oengus said...

Wretchard: "…negotiations to choose a facility site for a missile defense over Europe to protect against possible Iranian missiles.

In my view, that they are even having such discussions signifies that the situation is probably far worse then what we are being told so far—to wit, that thing have reached the point where we probably cannot stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons along with the means to deliver them.

5/22/2006 06:18:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

An encouraging post on two points. First of course there are so few ex-military on the far left that they have to go to such absurd extremes. They can mostly get away with it because their audience of choice is rather lean on the veteran department. It is very difficult to pretend to having been in the military and be convincing to real military vets. Just look at Chris Mathews when he uses jargon or the Early Bill Clinton and the saluting. I digress. My second point is that the EUros were so excited to establish another GPS, Galileo, system more accurate than the US version. That may come in handy to the Iranians. Let them build their own defense system. They were absolutely contemptuous of “Star Wars” and I would suggest the US only cooperate if they name it such. For old times sake.

5/22/2006 06:43:00 PM  
Blogger What is "Occupation" said...

to claim be a Ranger and be a fraud is a crime...

can anyone say prison?

or better yet, deportation to Iran?

5/22/2006 06:44:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

A Little Comic Relief

McGreevey must be contemplating a run for the '08 DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION.

May 22, 2006 -- Jim McGreevey shockingly admits that before he became governor of New Jersey, he'd have anonymous gay sex at Garden State highway rest stops.

5/22/2006 06:49:00 PM  
Blogger snowonpine said...

Did a little research on military wannabes. There are many cases of fake Navy SEALS, Vietnam era LERPS, Special Forces, fake POWs, you name it. From the number of those exposed in news accounts or on websites, the number of such phonys could be in the hundreds if not in the thousands. These phony vets/war heroes are claiming and receiving all sorts of VA benefits, commissary priveleges, getting profiled in their local paper or otherwise honored on Veterans' Day based on their heroic service; its also a real chick magnet. Some supposed Vietnam vets have even regailed impressionable high schoolers with their tales of the bloody atrocities they committed in Nam. I understand the number of phony Medal of Honor winners that have been caught/exposed is greater than the number of those alive today who were actually awarded it. The breadth of this fakery is astounding--from people with no military service at all faking an impressive military background, to the small time puffery of someone who actually served, to enlisted men who parade around in officer's uniforms with a chestfull of totally bogus medals; medals are very easy to come by. For an idea of the breadth of this problem see for instance this overview http://www.roanoke.com/
roatimes/news/
story158445.html

Those fakers who want to go the whole nine yards will phony up or add to the basic discharge document, the DD214. The problem is that although there are federal laws against all this fakery, they are not very severe and are only very rarely enforced. It is only with the advent of the internet that real veterans have been able to ferret out some of these phony vets and expose them. The real worry is that some of these jokers, who range from stock boys to judges and former members of Congress,have apparently gotten on to military bases and into sensitive areas on the basis of their totally fake uniforms; not a good thing post 9/11.

5/22/2006 07:54:00 PM  
Blogger Starling said...

If the interviewee was really a Ranger, someone will "claim" him within 24 hours. That is to say, someone will see or hear about the video and will go public saying "Yes, I served with this guy" or "Yes, I was his commanding officer."

If the interviewee was not really a Ranger, someone (a civilian perhaps) will identify him within 24 hours That is to say, someone will say, "hey, I was in jail with that guy" or "hey, I flipped burgers with that guy" ir "I was his parole officer" during the time he claimed to be in this place or that one overseas.

If the interviewee is not who he says he is, someone (military perhaps) is going to want to reach out and touch him. His image is now plastered all over the internet and it will be impossible for him to retain anonymity. This might take more than 24 hours though.

5/22/2006 08:16:00 PM  
Blogger Dymphna said...

Definitely this guy got his script from someone who is retreading old material.

No judge can tell military recruiters to take felons. And felons wouldn't last twenty minutes under the thumb of authority.

As for flipping burgers at Wendy's why isn't he putting his great experience with weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, etc., on his resumé for a job in some security firm?

Sounds like a nihilist who got a hair cut and memorized some lines. Some would-be Hamlet gets his chance.

Boy, I'll bet Truth-Out is eating up this garbage.

If they're going to do the "fake but accurate" they could at least be accurate.

Twits.

5/22/2006 08:29:00 PM  
Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Imagine that you are a sergeant tapped for special forces. You are a vetted specialist. Now then, you got your long irons, you got your short irons, you got your flak jacket, your situational awareness, and consider this; You have been STABBED several times. Huh? Oh hell maybe. The first time? Maybe stabbed in the arm? Second time? Stabbed? There isn’t an SoF guy in the world who wouldn’t take some pleasure for racking up a knife kill. Well, a bit macabre that, but really. Who gets a chance to rack up a little hand to hand in daily life? Stabbed first. Shame on you. Stabbed again, shame on me. Stabbed a third time? Shame on my grandmother.

5/22/2006 09:15:00 PM  
Blogger Asher Abrams said...

Wretchard, great post as always, and thanks for posting the various nitpicks about the details that don't add up.

Honestly, though, I almost feel the story doesn't even deserve to be dignified with a formal "debunking". This nitwit's inarticulate rant is an insult to anyone's intelligence.

Look, if somebody is telling a story about something that happened to them in REAL LIFE (as opposed to their confused fantasy), they're going to have details. They're going to be specific. They're going to have facts and particulars about who they are, where they're from, what they did and what motivated them, what happened to them, and so on.

"How did you end up in the military?
I grew up on the streets.

How did you become a Special Forces Ranger?
Basic training was easy for me. Growing up on the streets...

What did your division do?
I was in the Third Ranger Battalion. Our job was to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqi people....

What was the assault on Fallujah like?
Fallujah is where we slaughtered people in mosques. ...

Where do you work?
I'm an Iraq vet, and I work at Wendy's...."

Well, that last detail, at least, has the ring of truth.

5/22/2006 10:05:00 PM  
Blogger Das said...

I like Wretchard's point that once you start hacking away at civilizations' narratives you have unleashed barbarism within. The left specializes in hacking at the roots of freedom.

From a literary perspective the tone of the soldier is way off. The bitter self-pitying aria sounds wrong; working at Wendy's. Then the wild accusations of child murder, mass murder, mass graves. Ah but the western press is covering up. Really? A booger lands on a Koran and the western press can't wait to rush story into print. The nail in the left's head is this: Volunteer Army. The left can't abscond with the soldiers' narrative they way they did in the Vietnam years. anyway the literary critic bets: 100% fake interview.

5/22/2006 10:07:00 PM  
Blogger Mike H. said...

I'm bummed about El Toro. My father worked on F4-U's there after WWII and during Korea. He was stationed at LTA Santa Ana during that period, then back to El Toro. I'll miss it.

5/22/2006 10:17:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Habu: 10,000 pounds!
First Flight 1954

Vietnam War (USN, USMC, 1965-1973)
Yom Kippur War (Israel, 1973)
Falklands War (Argentina, 1982)
Iraq - Operation Desert Storm (Kuwait, 1991)

1991!
Did they lob the nukes on a parabolic arc to give them time to get away?

5/23/2006 03:15:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Marcuse' famous studenten, Angela Davis still lives and breaths and spews her garbage.
At UC Santa Cruz, last time I checked.
Living proof we no longer prosecute for sedition, nor much of anything, anymore.

5/23/2006 03:25:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

This case is likely to take on the aspects of Al Sharpton's Tawana Brawnley accusations, - when it is disproved without a doubt the response will be "The principles brought forth here are too important for the truth to be allowed to get in the way."

But worst of all, even disproved, it will enter into the gestalt consciousness of the Left as a basic truth that justifies so many more lies.

As for El Toro - the base was in big trouble ever since those idiots built a hospital off the end of one of the runways. And then complained bitterly when two jets flew over and drowned out the dedication ceremeny!

5/23/2006 04:29:00 AM  
Blogger snowonpine said...

A further note--One of the major problems probably discouraging more exposures of these fakes is the possibility of legal action against those who expose them. Even if you have the documentation to prove the guy's a fake, the prospect of spending time and probably a lot of money on a court case to vindicate yourself can't be very attractive. Even if you pick your battles and just go after the most outrageous/harmful fakes you still have to have very deep pockets and a lot of time to spend in lawyers offices and court rooms at a couple hundred an hour. From things I've read it also seems that, with some exceptions, local authorities and the feds do not consider investigating or prosecuting such impostor's crimes to be worth their time. I believe this attitude may reflect disinterest in/lack of understanding of these types of crimes by a public in which real veterans are a shrinking percentage; the MSM, who are anti-military, could also be a major factor in why these crimes are not widely reported or taken seriously. From my perspective, anything that gets someone with phony credentials into a military/sensitive area is a major security threat after 9/11. One would think it was very much in the interest of the government to know and verify the identity of anyone who has access to, say, a major surface ship or military installation or even any area that could be a terrorist target.

5/23/2006 08:35:00 AM  
Blogger Dewage said...

This video has the potential of being very corrosive to the credibility of the MSM. If this poseur is indeed a fake, then it should be used by those who claim that "bloggers don't check facts".

Typically, the example of a false claim is one that debunks a conservative view. If the MSM were 'objective', why not use this as an example of dishonesty? ANSWER: Because it makes the Left look bad.

5/23/2006 10:40:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5/23/2006 12:34:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

rwe 4:29 AM,
So, it turned into a Defecation Ceremony Instead?

5/23/2006 12:35:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

There were a couple of recent great writers/professors/journalists just a few years back.
Memory does not serve.

5/23/2006 12:52:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Don't forget the Peanut farmer and his
fictional contribution to Whirled Peas.

5/23/2006 12:55:00 PM  
Blogger snowonpine said...

Doug--Funny you should mention Jimmah and fiction. I once had to check on Jimmy's claim to be a "nukeyur physicist." Turns out his experience with things nuclear consisted of being an officer responsible for some activities involved in commissioning a nuclear submarine and one or two classes in basic nuclear physics: probably just enough so that he could do what he needed to do on the sub. To me, his claim to be a nuclear physicist was only a step or two removed from the kind of diploma spammers advertise--no classes, no homework, no tests, no textbook, no pulse, no problem. Just send us you check and receive your diploma by return mail.

5/23/2006 01:07:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Like the Nobel Prize.
(actually you usually have to accomplish *something*, like enabling a sufficient number of tyrants here and there around the world to qualify)

5/23/2006 01:16:00 PM  
Blogger snowonpine said...

My favorite recent Nobel Prize winner, emblematic of all that is the Nobel these days, is Rigoberta Menchu who, it turns out, was awarded her 1992 Nobel for a totally fabricated autobiography titled, "I Rigobeta Menchu." She claimed to be an unschooled Mayan peasant and emblematic of the dispossesed indigenous peoples trying to rebel agains European oppression; forced to work in the fields all day so she couldn't go to school and from a landless family that was persecuted, then destroyed by landlords in her native Guatemala. Turns out, her father owned 2,700 hectares of land, she went to expensive catholic boarding schools and the epic struggle with "conquistador landlords" was really a family squabble over a small parcel of the 2,700 hectares. see for instance http://www.frontpagemag.com/
Articles/ReadArticle.asp?
ID=1186 . Such a nice little Marxist fairy tale.

But, hey, they gave her the medal and the money and after she blew all the cash on PEZ they could hardly yank it back.

5/23/2006 02:41:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

2:41 PM But, like the Rather Documents, it was Fake, but an
ACCURATE description of how the World REally Works!
It's the idea and good intentions that count.

5/23/2006 03:44:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Caroline Kennedy gave their
Profile in Courage Award to -
MURTHA!

5/23/2006 04:03:00 PM  
Blogger The Pedant-General said...

Your link to the Socialist Alternative article is knackered.

Try here.

Just out of interest, was this link checked? Are you certain it was correct? i.e. can we sure that Socialist Alternative is perhaps a little embarrassed about this and moved the article to avoid incoming links?

Just asking....

5/25/2006 02:33:00 AM  
Blogger Sorrel Jakins said...

Hey everybody - what if this guy is for real? I say we round him up and parachute him into Iran to stand trial for his war crimes....

5/25/2006 07:07:00 AM  

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