Winter Soldier Updates

Back at the PC after a few intense days at the day job, which were scheduled months ago. Good in their own right, but those and weekend follow-up is what made me know long ago that I wouldn't be able to get to WSI to blog.

However, in that regard, we could not do better (and probably worse if I were there!) than those who are live-blogging there now:

Thus Spake Ortner, active duty Army and veteran of OEF is live-blogging at The Sniper. TSO also delivered a fine piece of work at VFF (Vets For Freedom) earlier this week.

Likewise, Jonn Lilyea, Bronze Star Medal winner, is live-blogging at This Ain’t Hell - but you can see it from here.

They are doing great work! Unless I'm mistaken, expect to hear from Rurik, also a Vietnam veteran, Combat Engineers, at Veteran American Voices – Silent No More.

Michelle Malkin is giving the story coverage, and linking to TSO and Lilyea. Thank you Michelle!

Michelle also linked to Scott Swett's takedown of the LA Times on the first WSI in 1971 and what did they know and when did they know it at FrontpageMag. She also linked to Bruce Kesler, founder in 1971 of the Vietnam Veterans For a Just Peace (the anti-Vietnam Veterans Against the War), who unloads on the Winter Soldier redux at The Democracy Project.

On the left media, there is Democracy Now!, with an article under the heading of:

Winter Soldier: Hundreds of Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Gather to Testify in Echo of 1971 Vietnam Hearings

And just in case someone didn't fully get the headline, the first line of their story is:

Hundreds of veterans and active-duty soldiers of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are gathering today for the Winter Soldier hearings.

Hundreds! According to Thus Spake Ortner (TSO) on site, there are a lot of folks significantly older that what we would expect from OEF and OIF veterans. It's the old left guard of the VVAW and VFP.

Live-blogging at the Sniper, TSO wrote:

Incidently, for those playing at home, the demographic in this room is decidedly not OEF/OIF. Lilyea and I are counting heads, and there appear to be 4-8 people who might have served in the war. Most the people in here may have been young enough to fight in Nam, but I kinda doubt that. This crowd was following the Grateful Dead in 1968.

TSO also notes that there will be about 50 IVAW veterans testifying, the number bandied about by IVAW since they dropped the "over one hundred" some time ago. That was not long after they dropped their claim that WSI would be the largest gathering of Iraq and Afghan war veterans when challenged on it.