Father who took up Iraq machine gun to avenge dead son is ready to go home

[sabra]

http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=4647075

Father who took up Iraq machine gun to avenge dead son is ready to go home



AL-ASAD, Iraq It's been six months since a grieving Georgia father headed to Iraq to avenge his soldier son's death. And Joe Johnson is ready to come home.

Johnson went to Iraq after his 22-year-old son was killed in a roadside bombing. He says there were a lot of reasons for getting back in the military -- a sense of duty among them. Johnson admits he does not "really have love for Muslim people." And he says he'd be lying if didn't admit wanting some revenge for his son, Justin.

Now, after spending time manning a Humvee's gun, Johnson says he "shouldn't even have come." Johnson says he doesn't want to kill innocent people and won't be upset if he returns to Georgia without any blood on his hands.

Johnson's batallion is due to return home in mid-May.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Sad.

He now knows his son died for no good reason. The weight of that must be unbearable.

[uppityperson]

2. Hope he gets home alive, in 1 piece AND without blood on his hands

maybe he will join IVAW. (Iraq vets against the war)

[MadMaddie]

3. I grieve for this fathers loss...but he has shown that

revenge doesn't fill that pain and anger. And it looks like he realizes that their are many Innocent Iraqi's dying in this debacle...

I hope he gets home safe....

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Although we may never hear/read of it

would be interesting if after his return he focuses on the REAL people who sent his son to be killed NOT in the name of democracy and all the US is supposed to represent.

[Shakespeare]

5. That's a heartbreaking lesson for a grown man to learn.

But at least he's learned, it would appear.

[monktonman]

6. Funny....

Seems to me a lot of people feel the same way about the death penalty.
After the person that murdered there loved one is put to death, alot of the families
say that they thought the execution would make them feel better but it didnt.

[peacebird]

7. ummm - and why exactly should he be allowed out when so many others

are NOT?
:wtf:

Sorry - he chose to go "in part" to get revenge for his sons death. I say, you support the war, stay and fight it. Let the military release all the folks who never wanted to go in the first place before those with "buyers remorse".

Like the poor "one weekend a month" reservists who joined before 2001 and were only trying to get money for an education.

He went with a blood lust, and while it may be cold of me to say it - he does not have my pity in this one.

Tho I hope he gets no blood on his hands, that prayer is for the innocent Iraqi's benefit - not his.

[DS1]

8. The unit he is attached to his rotating out

read the fucking article

[peacebird]

12. I did - the "Back door draft" exists - let him serve not THEM

" Army leaders are considering seeking a change in Pentagon policy that would allow for longer and more frequent call-ups of some reservists to meet the demands of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior Army official said yesterday."
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/009240.html

[FreakinDJ]

14. CAN'T "F"ing belive this

Army leaders are considering seeking a change in Pentagon policy that would allow for longer and more frequent call-ups

Heck my brother is on his 3rd 13 month deployment since 911 and they want more

[peacebird]

15. I know - that was my response too. Our poor military folk have

been righteously screwed by this mis-administration.

So sorry to hear about your brother, hope he makes it back safe.

:hug:

[Ben Ceremos]

31. Did your brother go to Iraq

to avenge 911? If so, he is a dupe and is being used to fight an illegal war. He should have thought about it before going...this father-joker-vengeful man has no sympathy from me. Anyone knows that killing (in retaliation) is wrong. Maybe he will get out unscathed, but he will still be a racist and a tool that Bush used. Yech!!!

[MADem]

45. That is an old cite, over a year ago

What they are doing now is pulling OUT the guard and reserves, and substituting ACDU forces. That huge recent plus-up in Iraq was predominantly ACDU. Also, they are deploying USN and USAF assets in increasing numbers to the theatre.

This way, the recruiters can show the potential GUARD/Reserve enlistees that the ACDU are taking most of the heat, now.

Of course, when they are drained dry, they'll roll the Guard/Res units back in there....

War without end, Amen.

[MADem]

9. He isn't asking to be "allowed out"

He is simply regretting his decision. He comes home in May with the rest of his unit.

Geez, give the guy a shred of cred for achieving a bit of enlightenment. It's a pity it took the death of his child to bring him to that point, but perhaps he'll be able to pass on what he learned to others who shared his mindset.

Some people learn easy, others learn hard, some don't learn at all. At least this guy finally got the picture, which is more than some can say.

[Dhalgren]

16. I think that if most of the war supporters that I know were

strapped to the top of a humvee and driven around Iraq for a few months they would "learn", too...

[saigon68]

18. Especially this creature

[auagroach]

30. Do you call that...

the school of hard knocks?

[madmark]

38. a drive from the airport to the greenzone should be mandatory for

for all the chickenhawks.

[superconnected]

21. He didn't say anything about who sent his son there.

I don't think he's fully caught on yet.

[MADem]

23. Would you shoot off your mouth in that situation???

Think about it--ya got the UCMJ hanging over your head if you say anything derogatory about the Flying Monkey in Chief, AND ya got two and a half months to go in the sandbox as a gunner on a Humvee. Open your trap, and you're the guy ordered to go forward and give that suspicious looking cardboard box on the side of the road a fast kick...

He's caught on. He just doesn't want his family to go through another funeral service. As it is, he said more than he should have, from the BushCo perspective.

[shanti]

34. wonder why he didn't just wait

until he got home to open his mouth. pretty stupid to do it with only 2 months left, unless you have a death wish.

[MADem]

40. Good question--Either a clever reporter, or maybe he has that feeling

You know, that feeling that something is going to happen....and then it does. If you have that feeling enough times, it can cause you not to hold your tongue, just in case you never get another chance.

Maybe he wanted to go on the record.

He cut close to the line, but his remarks do not disparage the commander in chief or suggest any sort of mutiny or failure to obey orders. He couches his remarks fairly closely, and puts all in the context of his views. He doesn't refuse to kill, he simply states he wouldn't be unhappy if he didn't.

[regnaD kciN]

26. Some "enlightenment"...

Geez, give the guy a shred of cred for achieving a bit of enlightenment.

I'd give him a bit more credit if he didn't admit that he still hates Muslims. And would only "not be upset" if he didn't manage to kill any. :eyes:

Maybe he'll be lucky, and manage to blow away some 12-year-old boy who might have been an insurgent, so that he can get his closure before heading home to his nice comfortable American existence.

:puke:

[The Straight Story]

36. Pretty much how I feel about those that flew planes into buildings here

They hated us and killed innocent kids. Heard several folks during that time quasi-justifying such actions on their part - which, I would guess, is somewhat what this guy was feeling when he went over there (someone wronged me, I should kill innocent people in their country - and hey some folks there will agree with me that they had it coming for things their government did to me).

As for giving credit, I would give a lot more to some nations/groups if they did not profess a rabid hatred of me and my beliefs - and I don't care how they try and justify it cause I never did jack to them.

Hopefully groups over there in the ME will stop preaching hate against americans, and folks here will stop preaching hate against them - the assholes in power are the problem. The avg joes in both areas just want to get along in life and get by IMHO.

[MADem]

46. So, unless he's perfect, he's a total asshole, eh?

He's going through a process. Many antiwar activists drank the koolaid once upon a time--that's how they learned. And that's how they earned credibility as antiwar activists.

This guy is on a road, it's a hellish road. If he makes it home, he could be a force for good. I give him credit for having the guts to actually go on record to a reporter. It isn't an easy thing to do in that environment.

[brentspeak]

48. "The prayer is for...not his"????

Yeah, that's nice.

[Gman]

10. If he really wants to avenge his son's death

now that he has seen what is going on there, he should start appearing with Cindy Sheehan.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. He's taken the first step

He has realized that vengenance doesn't work. May he come home and look at the real reasons for going to war and become even more enlightened.

[Jose Diablo]

13. Imagine what this guy will do when he finds out

who really is responsible for his sons death.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Here's a long version of the story:

Father Loses Taste for Revenge in Iraq
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent

March 17, 2006, 2:23 PM EST

~snip~
"It's a lot of things combined," he said. "One, a sense of duty. I was pissed off at the terrorists for 9/11 and other atrocities. Second, I'd only trained. I wanted combat." And then, he said, "there's some revenge involved. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't."

But there was more on the mind of this man who has done Church of God missionary work as far afield as Peru and the Arctic.

"I don't really have love for Muslim people," Johnson said. "I'm sure there are good Muslims. I try not to be racist." Although he hasn't read the Quran, or spoken with Muslims, he has "heard" the Islamic holy book "teaches to kill Jews and infidels. And it's hard to love people who hate you."

"If I go home and didn't kill a terrorist, it's not going to ruin my life," he said. "Maybe I'd just as soon not. I don't know what it would do to my head."
(snip)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-joe-johnson,0,4845543.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[gratuitous]

19. "It's hard to love people who hate you"

Well no duh, Mr. Johnson. You admit that you haven't read the Quran, and it's apparent you haven't done much reading of the Bible, either (emphasis mine):

6:27 "But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

6:28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.

6:29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don't withhold your coat also.

6:30 Give to everyone who asks you, and don't ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.

6:31 "As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.

6:32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

6:34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much.

6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

6:36 Therefore be merciful, Even as your Father is also merciful.

* * * * * * *

Yer old pal gratuitous again: How many times in this short passage does Jesus talk about loving enemies? And yet, so many evangelical or fundamentalist Christians construct an enormous industry out of hating people based on two or three isolated verses out of the entirety of the Bible. What did Jesus spend more time talking about? And what might that say to someone desiring a more spiritual walk?

[regnaD kciN]

28. Thanks for the reference...

:applause:

[Ben Ceremos]

32. These platitudes you cite

are human wisdom, not the word of Jesus. Jesus never existed and is a metaphor for the solar-cycle. Nice platitudes anyway, but the Bible as a source for positive human behavior is a joke, considering all the blood splashed in its name. Jesus spent no time talking; the gospels are false documents written hundreds of years after the period of the supposed life of Jesus. To honor humanity and to get off the dizzying ride of false religion, it would help to give credit where due. Many of these Jesus quotes are variants on ancient neighborly wisdom...just so you know. Evangelical extremists don't care about truth,they care about power.
Jesus ain't/wasn't, and Buddha, Krishna and the rest of the "gods" are also bogus, ie; mythological. If Killer Dad won't take the time to think before rushing off to kill Iraqis who are defending their land against the aggressor (his son and him), then I doubt he would understand the platitudes anyway. Religion is a licence to kill for true believers. Glad I live far away from this sort of 'murkan...


edited for spelling.

[gratuitous]

43. Thanks for your input

But if you're going to talk to someone, I would suggest using a language that person understands. Your post is riddled with errors (e.g., the gospels were originally an oral tradition, common in that era, and were written down decades, not centuries, after the time of Jesus; several of the letters of Paul were written within 20 years of the time of Jesus) but I'll set that aside to get back to my point, and that is that if we are to be in community, to remain in relationship with one another, we have to find ways around and through our differences.

Anyway, why do you call Mr. Johnson "Killer Dad"? There's no indication that he has killed anyone. He was a human being suffering inexpressible pain over the untimely death of his son. He took a path that seemed good to him at the time, but that he discovered to be a dead end. Rather than helping him on the path of enlightenment, even with a "platitude" or two, you seem willing to kick him over and over again for believing in our true national myth, that of redemptive violence.

You may be glad that you live far away from a particular "sort" of human being, but your intolerance and judgmental ways aren't all that far away from the very behavior you condemn.

[shanti]

35. hello!

:eyes:

[kestrel91316]

27. Maybe some day he will figure this out:

"And it's hard to love people who hate you."

I suspect it's hard for Iraqis to love people who hate THEM, too.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

37. "I try not to be racist."

Didn't this shithead realize Muslims come in as many different colors and ethnicities as Christians? :eyes:

[brentspeak]

49. Why is he a "$hithead"?

Guy publicly admits he's wrong about the whole Iraq War thing, and also has the guts to speak publicly about his inner thoughts re. Muslims. But here, we have the Thought Police calling the man a "$hithead".

[Starbucks Anarchist]

51. Because he said he tried "not to be a racist" re: Muslims.

A cursory google search, etc. would reveal Muslims come in many colors, but this guy apparently didn't know it at the time.

[oblivious]

47. This longer version shows the summary version to be highly misleading.

Turns out he didn't pick up a machine gun to avenge his son. He had been trying to get in a unit going to Iraq before his son's death hoping to serve in Iraq while his son was there. The headline, focusing on vengeance, and summary that left out this part made it seem strictly a revenge thing. I think that's a bit slimy of AP, but it's AP after all.

He wasn't there that day the tragic news arrived in Rome, Ga. Instead, the self-employed house-builder was in Fort Lewis, Wash., trying to qualify for a place in a Washington National Guard unit ticketed for Iraq.

With six years of long-ago Army and Navy service, Johnson had joined the National Guard in 2003, wanting to serve his country again, this time in combat, and to go to Iraq while his son was there.

[superconnected]

20. typical freeper, decided to go kill muslims to avenge his sons death.

Dumbass probably still hasn't figured out who sent his son there.

I doubt he'll wake up all the way.

I'm glad he didn't shoot up a 7-11 (yet), because liberals killed his son, or smth along those lines.

Sad story about the son. But sad also about the freeper fathers ignorance.

[stop the bleeding]

22. this must be really hard for him to admit he was wrong, not easy

for a person that is filled with so much hate.

I feel bad for him and the others that are starting to wake up.

[MADem]

24. I'm actually happy for them, and not in a mean way, either

Sure, the agony of the cognitive dissonance is gonna suck for awhile, but once his eyes are fully opened, he might end up a better person for it. Maybe he'll even learn about the people he was so ready to hate. Hey, if "they" lie to you about the reasons for war, then maybe it's time to start questioning everything that one assumes. One can only hope...

...He could love Iraqi children, though, and said he'd hoped "to see them grow up to know right and wrong." Somewhere along the way, however, the righteous passion cooled, as the over-aged corporal, like tens of thousands of other American soldiers here, faced the reality of Iraq.

Was it last Christmas morning, when roadside bombs rocked his convoy one after another, and Johnson thought he was next? Or was it when speeding civilian cars passed the Americans' Humvees and Johnson failed to level his gun and open fire, which "I think anyone else," fearing car bombs, "would have done."

"I really don't want to kill innocent people," he now says. "I don't want to live with that the rest of my life." Most of all, it might have been the telephone calls home to Jan, who was dealing not only with depression and other health problems, but also with the prospect that their elder soldier son, Josh, 26, might be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I don't like that Joe's there," Jan Johnson said when called by satellite telephone from al-Asad. "But it's something he felt he had to do. People heal in different ways. This is how he heals after Justin's death." ...

[Onlooker]

25. Another military crime

It's sad that the military exploited this distraught father, rather than tried to help him.

[Ben Ceremos]

33. Exploited himself.

Sad is that he let the anger at his son's death blind him to the truth of what is happening in Iraq. He will be lucky to get out alive, but then again the Iraqi resistance is effective.

[brentspeak]

50. Holy mackerel, It's not the Iraqi "resistance"

The goons blowing up both Iraqis and our troops are not "freedom fighters" (as if this even needs to be pointed out to anyone at this stage). They're a murderous mix of Sunni militants, Saddam loyalists, foreign Islamic terrorists, and garden-variety thrill killers and riff-raff. When they blow up a Shiite mosque or a downtown fruit and vegetable stand, is that "resisting" the American presence?

[Zhade]

29. K/R

NT!

[symbolman]

39. If he really wants to avenge his son's death

he should adopt a Muslim child and raise him as a Muslim..

I believe Gandi had something to say about that..

[Ian David]

41. I hope stop-loss keeps him there for years and years and years

Maybe then he'll figure out who really killed his son.

And it wasn't a Muslim. It was a "christian" named George W. Bush.

[ret5hd]

54. why? i'd like for him to come home and change his neighbor's minds...

just sayin'...

[Ian David]

55. I'd rather he stay there and change the minds of the people with guns

Isn't that what spelled the end for Emperor Calligula?

Abusing the military?

Nothing brings dictators down faster than a pissed-off military.

[ret5hd]

56. sounds to me like that is happening all by itself...

just sayin'.

[Wise Doubter]

42. Johnson's batallion is due to return home in mid-May...

I hope he makes it .

[happydreams]

44. If this isn't the best arguement for banning religion....

I don't know what is. I read this article in the Seattle Times today and was just blown away by the idiocy of it all.

[w4rma]

52. It's too bad some people actually have to go over there and see with

their own eyes what's going on, to quit believing some of the propaganda.

[ret5hd]

53. kinda reminds ya' of a guy named thomas, doesn't it...

always doubting till he sees for himself.

(standard disclaimer: i'm an atheist)