Jerkoff of the Week – Congressman John Boehner

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized Thursday after some veterans groups were offended by a department report about right-wing extremism.

The report speculated that foreign or domestic extremist groups might attempt to attract disgruntled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Napolitano said that the report was part of her department’s routine intelligence analysis, used to give law enforcement agencies guidance on possible security threats.

The assessment indicated that certain veterans might be more susceptible to recruitment because of the current economic climate and the election of a liberal African-American president.

Predictably, that corpulent rabid warthog, Rush Limbaugh, began almost immediately spewing verbal diarrhea from both ends "You have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama, Department of Homeland Security, portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong Il." And just as predictably Limbaugh managed to get his facts wrong yet again (I particularly like Rush’s opening paragraph in this transcript from his own site - tanks blew up. Yep), the man has a real skill for that, not that his listeners actually give a damn or have the cognitive ability to tell fact from fiction, or remember Limbaugh’s own endless veteran bashing, or his endless and relentless declaration that standard, ordinary, everyday non-conservatives (a lot of them veterans like, oh, me for example) are enemies of America and a threat that should be stamped out. Limbaugh’s listeners don’t care, most of them can’t read and aren’t exactly accustomed to thinking for themselves, they just want something to be outraged and offended over and they’re just as big of mindless hypocrites as he is.

Of course, if Rush is outraged, then it would follow that a number of conservative lawmakers and Veteran’s groups were outraged, since where goeth Rush so goeth the GOP like the good little doggy it is. The American Legion took offense* and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was spiting venom, “To characterize men and women returning home from after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable.”

Talk about your political hay-making rhetoric.

I'd tell Rush to shut up, but it’s like shoveling shit against the tide. And Representative Boner isn’t much better.

Do me a big favor, would you, Mr. Boehner? put a sock in it. You served, what was it? Eight whole weeks before you washed out of boot camp? Yeah, thanks, but you don’t get to be offended on my behalf, shut up, take Rush’s dick out of your ass, and sit down.

Speaking as a veteran I know a hell of a lot more about Vets than either Rush Limbaugh or John Boehner, and I’m not even remotely offended. In fact I think this assessment is spot on and exactly what needs to be said, loudly, and often.

Before I tell you why, let’s review, shall we?

First, most of us vets have certain particular skills - the kind of skills that make us very, very attractive to both Defense Contractors and extremist groups. You should be able to figure out what kind of skills I’m talking about without me having to spell it out. On top of which, we tend to believe in action and we tend not to be shy about violent action when necessary. We’re trained to work together, we understand organization, security, force application, intelligence, tactics and we know how shit works inside government operations. And most of all, upon leaving the military we tend to feel more than a bit disconnected from society and more than a little disenfranchised. Most of us get over it.

Most of us, but not all.

Take a good look around. No, look around with your eyes open and you’ll notice more than just few veterans from Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf who never managed to reintegrate into society. Most of them ended up on street corners, or some flop house floor on Skid Row, or dead in a ditch somewhere, or in prison. Or maybe they held it together enough to manage some semblance of a normal life and spend their spare time strung out on drugs, booze, and self-destructive behavior. A rather large lot of them commit suicide, sometimes by cop. Look around, the VA lobbies are full of them, so are the homeless shelters and the welfare mental health wards. Most of these people are invisible. Harmless. Disappeared. Full of demons and despair. Their minds lost to that winter in Chosin, or some POW camp in the fetid jungles, or the hellish heat of the desert.

But some, a few, are different. They’re full of anger and anguish and rage. They’ve come home and they don’t fit in any more and they're madder than hell that the country they fought for doesn’t seem to give a good goddamn and isn’t what they think it should be and they decide do something about it. From those outlaw motorcycle gangs composed of WWII vets, to failed Marine Lee Harvey Oswald to another failed Marine Charles Whitman to Bronze Star wearing Timothy McVeigh and his pal Terry Nichols, our history is full of veterans who became a serious threat to their fellow citizens. A significant number of vets returning from Vietnam ended up in extremist groups, less so with the Gulf, and maybe less so now – there may be a direct correlation between the length of the conflict, its intensity, and whether or not the soldiers fighting it are there voluntarily or not, the data is a little fuzzy.

But, however you slice it, to say that returning vets are a prime target for extremist groups is not only true, but it’s a far, far cry from calling all veterans “terrorists.” And it’s no more offensive to note it, than it is to point out that NYC cops are a prime recruitment target for the Mob. Based on voluminous, validated, and widespread historical data regarding veterans and their difficulties reintegrating into society upon return from extended combat, the Department of Homeland Security would be remiss in its duty if it didn’t examine this situation.

Fuck Rush, I couldn’t give a shit about his opinion or the opinions of his mindless followers. But Boehner’s rhetoric is exactly that, rhetoric. Grandstanding. Posturing. He pretends self-righteous indignation in order to score a few more political points – and what he is completely failing to understand here is that as a member of the US government, his response is one hell of a lot more offensive to an Iraqi Veteran like me than anything some DHS report said.

When what he should be doing is this:

First, before he opened his mouth and attacked the current administration on behalf of us veterans, he should have noted that this report was commissioned by the Bush Administration – so, it’s more than a little ignorant and stupid to attribute it to some liberal agenda to discredit veterans. Also note that Boehner was somehow not offended by a DHS report last month that targeted leftist groups – smell that folks? Yeah that’s the stench of self-righteous hypocrisy.

Second, ignoring substantiated data based on lengthy review and unpleasant truths in favor of a political agenda is exactly what got us into the current war in the first fucking place. Frankly, I think we’ve had just about enough of that, thank you very much and if Boehner is so worried about Veterans maybe he should knock that shit off.

And third, and most important, representative Boehner should be using this report not to fuel his bullshit indignation but to rally support for increased funding and expansion of veterans services – specifically so that those who come home shattered and broken and disillusioned and disenfranchised and alone and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder have some goddamned support. Maybe if veterans coming home from combat had adequate mental health care, counseling, medical treatment, adequately funded VA centers for retraining and job search, and support and a place to live and education and, you know, shit like that – they just might be a whole lot less likely to feel disenfranchised in the first place. Funny how Boehner fails to mention that he voted “no” on every VA funding bill in 1993 and 1994, and a big “no” on Mortgage Forgiveness for veterans, and another “no” on the Anti-Subprime lending act so that his buddies in the mortgage industry can just keep pushing those subprime, interest only loans on military veterans outside every single base in the country, or how he manages to vote no on every Defense Appropriations bill that would give troops body armor and up-armored transport and improved weapons and the things necessary to prosecute the war he voted for. Frankly, Boehner's record shows that he’s a whole hell of a lot more worried that a military member might get an abortion in a military hospital than that they have the tools to fight and the medical care they need when they get home.

What we have here, folks, is yet another flag waving conservative warhawk. All wind, shit, and excitement, hot with the heavenly fire of Jesus, eager for war against the pinko liberals, and all righteously offended on behalf of veterans.

And never served himself.

How typical.

What a complete jerkoff.

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* I do want to point out that my own veterans organization, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), looked at the report and their response was a resounding, “Yeah, tell us something we don’t know. Thanks.”