Okay! Southern Bashers! Stan Goff....Raleigh, NC..Making his Case!

[KoKo]

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff07032003.html

[DrBB]

1. Nothing but respect for southerners from me

...and Goff is only one of the reasons why. Anyone who missed that one should read it.

[KoKo]

2. I can't copy the site..won't let me..but he's the "Bring 'em Home Guy!"

Please click on the link.....because when Cockburn & Sinclair focus on him it's important.

Some Websites don't allow one to "click & copy" or I would have.. Please "click the link" to see where this father who has his son serving in Iraq is coming from.....

If they re-institute the DRAFT! It could be your daughter or son..........

[berry]

3. Stan Goff was also on the news conference today by Veterans for Peace

C-span ran it, and it was incredibly moving. I *think* it should be available to be viewed at the website? Well worth looking at.

And, koko1, thanks for this link--from his spoken remarks, I was already impressed. If he ran for office, I think he'd have a VERY good chance of winning.

[JNelson6563]

22. hear!! hear!!

He was great!! Very articulate. Dashing too. With his military background etc. I couldn't help but be reminded of our own HurricaneHawker. ;-)

Julie

[phillybri]

4. I'm going to try to get Mr. Goff to speak to my Dem Club....

The Wake County Democratic Men's Club (Just a name. We have female members and officers, don't flame me!)

I'd love to get him to come speak to my club. We'll see...

[KoKo]

18. Philly.....he must have been at the big Raleigh Anti-Iraq Demonstration...

and I'm going to try to find him from one of the Peace groups......

Yes, it would be great to meet with him....His name is familiar...like I know it. But, I will do some digging into my files to try to find where he's been here before he suddenly showed up as a spokesperson.

I think he would be a good person to meet.

[liberalhistorian]

5. Wow! What a wonderful, eloquent piece of writing,

and coming from a vet who's served his time in the hellhole of war and paid his dues people are far more likely to pay attention to him.

[berry]

6. At the press conference, he mentioned a long list of the places

he had served in--besides Vietnam (mentioned in the article) and Haiti (one of his books is about this), he was in Columbia, and iirc also Guatemala, Nicaragua, and 1 or 2 other places, mostly South America. I think he has at least 5 or 6 more books in him. He also said that not once had the press ever gotten a story completely right. He acknowledged that it was partly because the military didn't want to tell anything. He also explained how embedding works to muzzle reporters, how it doesn't improve reporting.

I really want to read his book on Haiti. The repubs are always using that as a Clinton failure (and maybe it was--I have no way to judge), but Goff's views would be very interesting. And credible.

ON EDIT--the Military Families Speak Out press conf will be on again tonight on C-SPAN. It is REALLY worth watching!!! You can hear Goff for yourself.
09:30 pm (eastern time)
(0:55 long)
News Conference
Military Deployments in Iraq
Military Families Speak Out

[4dog]

21. The book on Goff's time in Haiti is a good, even great read.

As in the linked story about Vietnam, the soldiers on the ground are the ones who find out about the difference between the rhetoric and the reality. They were sent there to "restore democracy." For Goff, that meant neutralizing the thugs supporting the coup leadership and doing what he could to support ordinary Haitians. For the Army, it meant cooperating with the thugs and suppressing the people. Eventually he and his captain got booted out.

[KoKo]

23. Berry....thanks for that link....I tuned it in....and yes Haiti would be

good to know about. It must have been somewhat successful because we don't hear of any trouble there except when someone bashes Clinton. But, I was against us going in there just like with Reagan in Grenada and Libya....but as long as our congress gives free reign to our Presidents (against what Founding Fathers wanted) we are going to be in these wars.

But Iraq is unspeakably awful. Thanks for links to Goff.

[berry]

25. Correction--

I've just come from googling Stan Goff and reading several other articles and interviews by him--highly recommended if you ever have time. His take on Yugoslavia is very very interesting.

But anyway, it's too late to edit, so I have to add this--I was wrong about Nicaragua (of COURSE, I feel stupid about this). He was in Grenada, Panama, El Salvador, Peru, et al.

[blm]

7. he was great on CNN, KoKo...

btw...guess who may be moving to Raleigh soon.

[KoKo]

17. Okay..I'm back...BLM! No! You're moving to NC!

PM me with details...

[Mel]

8. Hey KoKo01

Ya think we can point Stan out the next time someone wants to just forget about the southern votes and calling us all a bunch O' morons? Huuurrrmph!

Thanks for posting this! When I heard Stan this morning the thought of posting 'hey any of you southern bashers watching C-Span?' crossed my mind but I decided not too. Glad you did.... you put it much nicer than I would of. :-)

I usually don't even bother with those posts and got into one yesterday I just couldn't take it anymore.

[KoKo]

19. Yes, Mel.....we might be on the "cutting edge" here in NC with so many

families who have been affected by Bush and his War.....So, to have a Stan Goff is really good to see. It takes someone who is dealing with it all whose been there themselves and now has a son in Iraq to fight against Bush's War.

We here in the South aren't all tobacco spitten' folks who can't wait to send "Johnny out to war!"

We are just like the rest of America......wondering "what the hell is going on."

Yes.....there are the " Limbaughites" and the "Rapture Freaks" but there's lots of us who are just like everyone else here on DU....... Thanks.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. Goff is an inspiration

He was on Blitzer at noon as well.

And if you haven't read his analysis of the airforce "response" on 9/11, do yourself a favour.

"The So-Called Evidence is a Farce":

http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=76880&group=webcast

Some excerpts:

"As a former military person who's been involved in the development of countless operations orders over the years, I can tell you that this was a very sophisticated and costly enterprise that would have left what we call a huge "signature". In other words, it would be very hard to effectively conceal. So there's a real question about why there was no warning of this. That can be a question about the efficacy of the government's intelligence apparatus. That can be a question about various policies in the various agencies that
had to be duped to orchestrate this action. And it can also be a question about whether or not there was foreknowledge of the event, and that foreknowledge is being covered up."

"They are putting together some very deliberative technical solutions in response to a larger situation that is slipping rapidly out of their control. Like clear cutting. There's a very smart technology being employed to do a very dumb thing. What they are responding to is not September 11th, but the beginning of a permanent and precipitous decline in worldwide oil production, the beginning of a deep and protracted worldwide recession, and the unraveling of the empire."

"I say emphatically that we can not accept anything from this administration; not their policies nor their bullshit stories. What they are doing is very, very dangerous, and the time to fight back against them, openly, is right now, before they can consolidate their
power and their agenda. Once they have done that, our job becomes much more difficult."

[DinahMoeHum]

10. There's a great interview with him at Truthout. . .

link:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/073103A.shtml

(snip)
"...I tell people not to buy into the hype about US military invincibility. Person for person, and dollar for dollar, the US military is the most inefficient in the world. And the most fragile. They are fragile because of their overwhelming dependence on high technology, and fragile because the troops come out of a pampered consumer culture where real physical hardship is anecdotal. Sustained hardship, as we are seeing in Iraq now, devastates morale..."
(snip)
"...Bush is making more politically fatal mistakes than I can count these days. His so-called build-up of the military is one of them. He is not in fact building up the military, depending on how you define that. He is building up the weapons industry, at the behest of his mad military advisor, Donald Rumsfeld - a weird man who has convinced himself without a shred of evidence to support it, that he is a military genius..."
(snip)
"...This is the most lawless administration in living memory, and that's a real accomplishment given the parade of arch criminals who have occupied the Executive Branch for the last 100 years...People say we should be cautious with the term fascism. I agree. We are now faced with a wannabe fascist administration. They would do well to recount how Mussolini ended up..."
(snip)

Lots more. Enjoy!!

:skull:

[revcarol]

11. Sounds like Kucinich criticism: "building up the weapons industry."

I saw him this AM and he was SO ARTICULATE.....unlike, oh,well...

[KoKo]

12. I have to be out.....but Stan Goff is a True Patriot...so a Kick!

This man is trying to organize our Vets...to "Bring Our Troops Home." Please "click on the link" andread his please!

He's a Viet Nam Vet! His son is in Iraq!

Thanks.

[Karenina]

13. If there is one place

that the term "GET OVER IT" really applies, it's in the totally brainwashed, polarized collective brain of America. North, South, East West, Black, White, Gay, Straight, Native, Foreigner, Jew, Gentile, Muslim, Wiccan, Mit uns, Agin us, YOU PEOPLE!!! ;-)

First thing to be "grokked" is: if you are not inside *cabal's "personal" circle, YOU are in the crosshairs. I don't care how much money you *think* you have, what percentile you *think* you be in, be your a$$ets under 3 digits in the MILLIONS, you need to seriously wake up and watch your "less financially endowed" family, friends, neighbors, communities, even "personal interest groups" getting chewed to bits and spat out because it may not be YOU today but that light at the end of the tunnel IS an oncoming train. NO ONE on the earth will be unaffected by the absolute lunacy calling itself American politics today. Has America become so enamoured of consuming and having "stuff," alienated from her fellow wo/man that the deepest cuts can no longer be treated by her scant health professionals?

The Fourth Estate was, in its prime, a public health professional. Tragically the *HMO :poison: $$(HACK MANKIND OUT)$$ :poison: bought 'em off. People like Max Cleland, Stan Goff, Cynthia McKinney, Molly Ivins, Ann Richardson, Greg Lyons, Jim Hightower, Al Gore, are ALL public health professionals and they ALL be from the South and they all be saying REAL PLAIN SPOKEN LIKE where it's at, what questions need to be asked and where it's going and it IS NOT where we want to go because we really don't. Trust me. ;-)

And while I'm on the subject of health professionals, may I say loudly and clearly, if the health of those returning to the U.S. (physical AND MENTAL) is accorded the same consideration and respect that it has commanded in Iraq, the horrible manifestations of what America has exported will be brought home by her sons and daughters. What did *dauphin say, We will export death and destruction to protect our great nation. Anyone got an exact quote and date?

And after you read Stan Goff, check out Smedley Butler if you've not run across him yet. It's time. The technological advances married to a corrupt corporate structure are wreacking havoc worldwide. It is threatening the survival of Homo Sapiens on this planet. So NOW what do we do? How 'bout dissing the South! :shrug: :evilgrin: :shrug:

[G_j]

14. nice post

:toast:

www.bringthemhomenow.com

[supernova]

15. Thanks Karenina!

Well said! :toast: :thumbsup:

We need more articles like this. More individuals in the military coming forward with their disgust and ambivalence. I hope this is only the beginning.

[KoKo]

24. A Great Rant, Karenina........well said.

:-)'s

[in_cog_ni_to]

16. No southern bashing from me

either. My parents are from Oklahoma and I was born there...I don't think they would appreciate it. :-) I saw Mr. Goff on C-Span this morning and he touched my soul. I also saw him on Wolf Blitzer and then on MSNBC. He and all southerners have my respect. I hope he continues to get airtime!

[KoKo]

20. Goff is coming up soon on C-Span Repeat: 9:42 (est)

If folks want to catch the repeat.....It's good!

[G_j]

26. ~bUMp~

well worth a read.