US soldier refuses to report for active duty in Iraq

[David]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A month after US army reservist Matthis Chiroux publicly refused to deploy to Iraq, the former sergeant on Sunday set himself up for possible prosecution by failing to report for active duty with his unit in South Carolina.

"Tonight at midnight, I may face further action from the army for refusing to reactivate to participate in the Iraq occupation," Chiroux told reporters in Washington.

"I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation, the warriors of this nation...", Chiroux read from a statement as his father Rob, who had travelled to Washington from Alabama to support his son on Father's Day, stood beside him.

Last month, Chiroux rejected an order calling him back to active duty in Iraq, saying he considers the war "illegal and unconstitutional."

Chiroux served five years in the army, with tours in Afghanistan, Japan, Germany and the Philippines.

He was honorably discharged last year and was placed in the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR), a pool of former soldiers who can be "reactivated" in a national emergency or war.

Prior to the Iraq war, IRR members were rarely recalled to active duty, according to the Military Times, an independent newspaper for members of the US armed forces and their families.

"Many believed they never would be called -- but when the army found itself stretched by unexpected combat demands in Iraq in the summer of 2004 it began issuing mobilization orders," Military Times wrote in an article published a year ago on Sunday.

According to the paper, hundreds of IRR members "refused to report or simply ignored their mailed mobilization orders."

Matthis' father Rob, a rocket scientist who lives in the army town of Huntsville, Alabama, said mobilizing IRR members was a form of back-door draft.

"If our country is in such a dire emergency that we need to conscript manpower, congress has to vote to reinstate the draft," the elder Chiroux told AFP.

"But they won't do that because if congress said we need to bring back the general draft, the war in Iraq would be resolved very quickly," he said.

"Moms and dads, who represent millions and millions of voters, would say: wait a minute -- you want to draft my kid? Iraq's got to stop."





Iraq Veterans Against the War member Matthis Chiroux announces his refusal to report to Active Duty during a press conference in the Cannon House office rotunda on May 15, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

[Gunner Carvo]

I seem to remember that being in my contract when I first signed up. I guess he didn't read that part about "4 years active duty, 4 years inactive". What a pussy.

[case6326]

Then he should move out of the U.S. He does enjoy all the privledges that our soldiers fight to give us.There are no words to state how disspeakable is his action.
case6326

[darrels joy]

IVAW’s Chiroux responds

March 21st, 2009
In reference to the post I wrote from someone who knows Chiroux, another anonymous commenter sent me this from Chiroux who was writing in response to another series of posts that were broadcast around the internet from a fellow IVAW member (actually the one that TSO quoted here). Whoever sent it to me, thought that this would absolve Chiroux of charges of wrong doing. Heh, they don’t know me too well, do they? So here’s Chiroux’ email to IVAW;

My response as well as that of our entire organization should be complete condemnation for whichever member wrote and shared this piece of libel.

First off, I HAVE NEVER defrauded any of my supporters in any way shape or form. Every dime that has been donated to IVAW for my defense remains with IVAW and will be spent on my hearing as is required by law. As far as donations made to me personally or through my paypal (which have yet to exceed $1,000), the portion I have spent has been on professional expenses only as IVAW has not provided me any compensation for phone, travel or materials since early last fall, which does in fact exceed the amount donated to me by my individual supporters.

As far as my work ethic, few have put in as many thankless hours as me on some EXTREMELY difficult campaigns for as many headaches and as little compensation. Despite having maintained full-time enrolment in college, I manage to speak almost daily on some panel or to some group about my experience and the importance of supporting G.I. resistence.

It’s worth noting that through the course of what has been at least 100 speaking engagements, I’ve received humble honorariums only twice, which is far less than most IVAW members I know who travel and speak or have spoken regularly like I do.

Now as far as me wanting to be seen as a “war hero,” I think most who really know me will find this absurd. There is no such thing as a “war hero” especially in the context of the global war on terror. I believe it to be genocide, as most other U.S.-led wars and thus take nothing but BEAMING PRIDE for having had the good sense to say HELL NO on the first time around. My reasons for not deploying are based in this sentiment alone. In no way was “fear of facing” my “duties” a motivating factor in my refusal to deploy or in my decision to dedicate myself to the cause of peace and social justice.

Duties and war crimes have nothing to do with eachother, unless in such a sentence as, “Their duties to resist war crimes have been hidden by lies and indoctrination.”

And I did not join the Army because I was a fuck up. I joined the Army because society and my family are fucked up and both played a very ACTIVE role in ensuring military service was more or less in the cards for me. I didn’t join to “serve my country,” I joined to save my ass, which I acknowledge.

However having been in the Army (I consider it no form of service) for five years, I can honestly say that neither would be a suitable motivation for joining the Army. I didn’t serve my country or save my ass, I supported war crimes from the rear and was stripped my humanity in the process as well. I apologize to my country and the world for not resisting the crimes of my government sooner.

As far as my intellectual capacity…I think I’m doing alright, but should anyone question that, you’re welcome to “ask me any surprise question about a particular subject,” at any time. If I know the answer or have an idea I’ll tell you. If I don’t, I’ll tell you to ask someone else. If you think that’s dumb, you’re dumb.

This whole repeating reference to pot IS dumb, dumb, dumb, and hurtful to the organization as a whole.

In short, whoever wrote the above post is CATEGORICALLY in the wrong. I suspect this person of perhaps having a personal bone to pick with me or perhaps is jealous of the level of positive impact my story and organizing has had despite a perceived lack of self-contamination in the form of illicit deployments.

Let me make this clear: I apologize for no part of my activism or for my lack of combat experience. I reaffirm that I believe the Global War on Terror to be a crime against humanity and I reaffirm my pride in having refused to participate the second time around. I again acknowledge my first time around lasted only five days, however this makes me no less a veteran and no less complicit in this mess.

I know we are going through some tough times, folks, but if shenanigans like the above post continue, we can count on total self-obliteration in the coming year. We need to remember who we are and what we are doing. I for one believe we do not exist to glorify military service in any form.

Nor do I believe we exist to honor the combat experience.
I believe we exist to demand immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and reparations to both peoples for our crimes. I believe we exist to demand veterans who HAVE been made victims of occupation through deployment be cared for properly by this country. I believe we exist to challenge the American conscience to come to grips with the racist nature of our foreign policy. I believe we exist to support each other, above and beyond all else, in the process of personal reclamation.

Enough back-sliding and ass-biting folks! Enough people want to destroy us already. Let’s not help them along in this, OK?

Peace and Solidarity,
Matthis Chiroux

That was all pasted in exactly as he wrote it - the gross misspellings, piss-poor grammar and emphasis are all Chiroux - the great journalist and scholar.

Yeah, it seems to me that if you have to tell people you’re not ripping them off - they have good reason to suspect you’re ripping them off. And that part about his work ethic, he writes as if college studies are a big deal - while I was in college full time, I also had a full time job and was a work-study student in the campus VA office - all while I was fathering three teenagers - so I’m really not impressed that “I manage to speak almost daily on some panel or to some group”. Big whoop.

The part that gets me is the next paragraph - about him wanting to be a war hero. For one thing, Matthis, to be a war hero, you have to actually been in a war. Every time I see you, you’re spouting off about being an “Afghanistan veteran”. Six days on Baghram Air Base doesn’t make you an Afghanistan veteran. It makes you an accidental tourist. So to absolve himself of that, he says no one is a hero.

Now, those of you IVAW members who did serve in Afghanistan, how do you feel about a pussy like Chiroux who claims to be equal to you service-wise, telling you that what you did was as meaningless as what he accomplished in Afghanistan? That your sacrifice is worthless like his - he probably used more clean bedding in his six days than you did the whole year you were there. He probably took more showers in his six days than you did the whole tour. He probably had more hot chow than you had. But instead of raising himself up to your level, he brings you down to his. How does that feel?

Then he blames his parents for his miserable life; “And I did not join the Army because I was a fuck up. I joined the Army because society and my family are fucked up”. Nice. His father and his sister stood by him when he made the choice to avoid the IRR call up, and this is how he repays them.

I hope they get to see this letter.

“However having been in the Army (I consider it no form of service) for five years, I can honestly say that neither would be a suitable motivation for joining the Army. I didn’t serve my country or save my ass, I supported war crimes from the rear and was stripped my humanity in the process as well”. More intellectual masturbation. He tries to bring everyone down in the mud with him - the easy choice. When he says he supported war crimes from the rear, he means waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in the rear. He fought the Taliban from Japan and Germany.

He calls the pot smoking charges “dumb”, but he doesn’t call them inaccurate - probably because enough IVAW members have smoked pot with him to know he’d be lying and cast doubt on the whole statement.

“I for one believe we do not exist to glorify military service in any form.

Nor do I believe we exist to honor the combat experience.” That’s easy to say for someone who has no military service or combat experience, isn’t it? Every sentence that comes out of Adam Kokesh’s mouth has Fallujah in it. I suspect that Kokesh would take exception to Chiroux’s statement.

I’ve talked with some of the folks from IVAW and they’re proud of their service - the ones who actually served. Chiroux is telling them that their service is meaningless and cheap.

I know for a fact that many IVAW members think Chiroux is a blowhard and a pussy. He’s not much different than Jesse MacBeth except he lasted through basic training.

I wonder who’s paying for his college?

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=8984

[Robert Ryan]

That he says he served in the Army received an honarble discharge then disrepects vets by saying (I consider no form of serice). Read the fine print you obligated yourself for 8 years. Besides the back door draft is retaining those on active duty already while they unit deployed or ready to deploy which is also part of the contract.

[39mto39g]

The guy has a contract, what's the penalty for breach of contract? He volunteered. personally, I wouldn't want him. I would say he doesn't want to be here, we don't want him. let him pay for all the training he got and his contract can be torn up, like he never went in.

Ron

[darrels joy]

Making sense of the Chiroux/IVAW theater of the last few days

April 23rd, 2009
Yeah, I know, I was a little confused yesterday, too. I woke up to the news (in my email) that Matthis Chiroux had been recommended for an general discharge under honorable conditions. I’d talked to LTC Maria Quon the day before and she had told me that was the worst he could receive, so imagine my surprise when I read that he had called it a victory for the Left. It was the same discharge he would have gotten if he hadn’t gone to St. Louis and made a buffoon of himself. And dragged his groupies along with him.

And then, I saw his asshattery on the St Louis local news with the upside down flag patch on his sleeve like some spoiled child. I’m pretty sure he didn’t wear it like that for the board or they’d have thrown him irons on the spot. The only thing that’s distressed here is Chiroux.

So then I spent the rest of the morning talking TSO in from the ledge (his office in on the second floor, but still, he might have landed on a hobo and we wouldn’t have been able to get the smell off before the weekend and the MilBlog convention is like tomorrow). Soon after that, someone sent a copy what Kris Goldsmith wrote on his Facebook page about Matthis - the best part of the whole thing is that it jibes with what a former friend of Chiroux told us last month - almost letter perfect. Luckily, I was between TSO and the window this time.

Of course, I emailed some of the folks in IVAW who I know to get their reaction. One of them sent me Camillo’s (one of the VVAW handlers of IVAW) reaction to Goldsmith’s missive;

Camillo Mac Bica at 2:19pm April 22
Kris, this is truly overwhelming. Please know that I have always respected you and all you have done for the movement and I don’t question your honesty and motivation in coming out on this. Here is my problem, though, and this is what I worry about. Like it or not, deservedly or not, Matthis has become one of the most visible faces of the movement, the poster boy, if you will. As such, should “right wing bloggers” as you mentioned, get a hold of this, it will be the entire movement that will suffer a set back, a loss of credibility. Now I’m not saying not to let the truth be known, hey let’s air this out and let the chips fall where they may.

But can we do this in house, wthout giving the Fox fu**ers a hey day to the detriment of IVAW and the rest of the peace movement? If I can be of any assistence in resolving this with the least amount of chaos, please let me know. You are an intelligent and honest man, Kris, so I trust your ability to look at the whole picture.

Emphasis is mine. I found it odd that Camillo, was willing to throw Goldsmith, a long time member of IVAW, one of the well-known and arguably one of the most believable testifiers at Winter Soldier right under the proverbial bus and cover up for Matthis Chiroux, the habitual liar and the guy who has never served in combat in either Afghanistan nor Iraq.

But, as Camillo explains “Matthis has become one of the most visible faces of the movement, the poster boy“. Chiroux has been willing to say anything for anybody - for a price. He’s tall and blond and I guess Camillo finds that more attractive than the truth.

From what I’ve heard from members of IVAW as well as former members, Mejia is running off anyone from IVAW who won’t toe the International Socialist Organization line, and we’ve already seen Chiroux cozy up to World Can’t Wait, that had been established by the Revolutionary Communist Party. So while many IVAW members are a little shy about aligning themselves with folks who have far-Left tendencies, Camillo and Chiroux have no problem with that.

Here’s a reminder of what Camilo Mejia wrote to Army Sergeant last month about her patriotism and the Constitution;

What you have before you, Selena, is a typical GI Resistance publication, Vietnam-era style. Many such publications were the work of civilians who were working alongside GIs, which is the case of GI Special. Tom Barton works with members of VFP, IVAW, VVAW, etc and they reprint articles from papers like the Army Times, and from web sites such as our very own.

Your opinion of this publication is a reflection of just how out of touch you are with the organization you’re in. Have you ever checked out Vets For Freedom? They loooove the constitution, they’re flag waving patriots, and they want troops to reenlist. I bet they would have a similar opinion to yours about GI Special.

I’m not going to waste too much on this, Selena, but I really think you should explore other organizations that would better meet your desire to be a hard core patriot. IVAW is really not that place.

Yeah, see, if you happen to believe that the Constitution is a good legal guide for our country, Camilo doesn’t think you belong in the IVAW. If you happen to wave a flag right-side-up, you don’t belong in IVAW. Chiroux belongs in IVAW because he’ll prostitute himself - he’ll say and do anything for a price. As long he gets his nose full of cocaine and gets to live in a big expensive apartment in NYC, Chiroux will do anything. Kris Goldsmith reports that this pompous arrogance is what’s on Chiroux’ Facebook page this morning;

“Oh the fates are twisted! 8)8) Forgive the liars and the lame of heart. They know not what they do. Oh the splendid peace I feel; it shall not be moved from me. More to follow from Winter Soldier yesterday!”

Thought you guys might like that, how he’s projecting this bible-speak at all the sheep who can’t see that the crown of thorns on his head is made of compressed feces.

He’s like Ward Reilly (who by the way is recommending that IVAW investigate the charges Goldsmith has made about Chiroux - so that they can sweep it under rug before us wingnuts get a hold of it - too late, Ward). Reilly never went to Vietnam, yet he’s a Vietnam Veteran Against the War. Reilly dresses in jungle fatigues and boonie hats even though he was stationed in Germany (like Chiroux). And now Reilly is a useless, ghastly-looking old man who has never accomplished anything except fooled a new generation of warriors into thinking Reilly is someone. Reilly and Chiroux are nobodies.

The list of IVAW members who are disillusioned with IVAW’s support for Chiroux is growing, judging by the number of emails I’m getting.
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=10014