Recruiter-turned-peacenik hits nerve in N.C

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. — If you were young and tough and wanted a challenge, Jimmy Massey was the man to see. He was gung ho. He was Semper Fi. He was the strutting, cussing, tobacco-chewing Marine recruiter.

The staff sergeant won scores of recruits in this and other patriotic mountain towns by talking courage, honor, commitment. Then, following his own adage — "you gotta walk the walk" — he went to Iraq.

That was two years ago, before Massey left the Marines, returned to Waynesville, and began saying things about the war that make people wonder whether they really knew him in the first place. These days Massey carries a sign around town that says he killed Iraqi civilians. He confesses to having enticed some recruits with false promises, and encouraged others to lie on applications. He has gone to Canada to testify for an Army deserter seeking asylum, and he has spoken at peace rallies.

He left a Marine recruiter and returned a peacenik.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-20-recruiter-peacenik_x.htm

He is very brave for moving back to that backass town as well...


<snip>

Most local veterans regard Massey as "an outcast," according to Roy Pressley, an officer at the American Legion post here. He keeps to himself, and left his sales job because of tension over his comments on the war. He says that once, when he was out walking with his protest sign, a man driving a car swerved at him.

Why the one-man picket line? Isn't he afraid of looking like a nut?

"It's leadership by example. That's what the Marines teaches," he replies. "How can I ask another Marine to protest the war if I haven't done it myself?

"That lifestyle never leaves you," he adds. "Honor, courage, commitment — that still works well for me. I still eat and sleep the Marines. I'm still a Marine."

He pulls up his right sleeve to reveal, on his right arm, a big purple tattoo: the Marines' eagle, globe and anchor insignia.


Hereis a link to the original article in The Mountaineer..

http://www.themountaineer.com/archives/2004/02/11/topstories_thehighpriceofwarlea.html

This is a BRAVE man.....

http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2004-06-02/election.html



<snip>

The cause of the Iraqi revolt against the American occupation. What they need to know is we killed a lot of innocent people. I think at first the Iraqis had the understanding that casualties are a part of war. But over the course of time, the occupation hurt the Iraqis. And I didn't see any humanitarian support.

What experiences turned you against the war and made you leave the Marines?

I was in charge of a platoon that consists of machine gunners and missile men. Our job was to go into certain areas of the towns and secure the roadways.

There was this one particular incident--and there's many more--the one that really pushed me over the edge. It involved a car with Iraqi civilians. From all the intelligence reports we were getting, the cars were loaded down with suicide bombs or material. That's the rhetoric we received from intelligence. They came upon our checkpoint. We fired some warning shots. They didn't slow down. So we lit them up.

Lit up? You mean you fired machine guns?

Right. Every car that we lit up we were expecting ammunition to go off. But we never heard any. Well this particular vehicle we didn't destroy completely, and one gentleman looked up at me and said: "Why did you kill my brother? We didn't do anything wrong." That hit me like a ton of bricks.

He spoke English?

Oh, yeah.

Baghdad was being bombed. The civilians were trying to get out, right?

Yes. They received pamphlets, propaganda we dropped on them. It said, "Just throw up your hands, lay down weapons." That's what they were doing, but we were still lighting them up. They weren't in uniform. We never found any weapons.

You got to see the bodies and casualties?

Yeah, first hand. I helped throw them in a ditch.

To heal both themselves and make people aware of the batch of bogus reasons. That were used so this recruiter and others could be misused in a PNAC war crime of choice. But we can`t concern ourselves with a war crime in Iraq. That is taking many lives daily. No we have to go nuts over a woman who has been brain dead for 15 years. Bu$h and his flying monkeys sure do have America`s priorities straight don`t they?
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

because he came home from war and had the courage to tell the truth. John Kerry and Jimmy Massey are heroes because they "Speak Truth to Power". If we were to believe the mainstream press, the troops all support Bush and the Iraq war. We know a kid recently home from the war and he has told us
that the troops do not support Bush and that they "hate Bush and Rumsfeld".
Two years later, the truth begins to be told.

the IRAQ war.

Bush's Iraq war.

Faced with the 9/11 lynch-mob running the country after 9/11, Kerry had to act, at best, sympathetic to the blood-thirsty desires of the populace.

The only reason he is not now pulling the troops out of Iraq?
His election was stolen.

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Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Props to Staff Sergeant Massey on his Awakening.

an Amerikan disgrace. Many in the Military are turning into sociopathetic
torturers and murders, others are mentally wounded and some are refusing to return to the killing grounds.

This man is one of the few men of honor. It is unfortunate that many Marines or other branches of the Military are not living up to their code of honor as this Marine is doing.

from DemocracyNow!
Interview from March 18, 2005

snip>
Chris Dugan is a graduate student at Hunter College. He served in the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999 and has worked as a recruiter assistant. He is now a member of the Campus Antiwar Network and has protested against recruiting on campus.
snip>

more...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/18/1450222

...Some people do, eventually.

My brother was a Navy Recruiter. He SAID, outright, that they lie to people to get them to enlist. Tell them whatever you have to. It's a SALES job....and he said that multiple times. He had QUOTAS to meet and he used to sweat that.

Recruits are cannon fodder and little else. They'll tell you anything to get you to enlist. A 20-year recruiter (he's now retired) told me so - several times. It was his job...

Whilst the country wrings it's hands over pulling a tube from one innocent, the blood of thousands more drips from it's ledger.

Mr. Massey, Sir, I thank you for your continuing service to our country.
You are the kind of troop I support.

Semper Fidelis -- always faithful. Faithful to the USA. To its people. And to the people of the world.

If there's an afterlife, I imagine that "Old Gimlet Eye" Smedley Butler must be beaming with pride over this Marine.

--p!

out to be crazy. It spent at least 9 paragraphs painting him as just some crazy depressed guy. That's *exactly* what Stalin did to folks who said anything that opposed him.

This simple interview was 100 times more informative that the McPaper article:
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2004-06-02/election.html

Massey is the embodiment of a true American and a true patriot and it ticks me off to see *anyone* dishonor this man.

Not that Mr. Massey doesn't have enough on his mind, but I wonder how many young men and women, inspired by this sort of rhetoric, went over to Iraq to walk the walk and came home in a container?

And the Marines don't have a corner on "honor, courage, commitment", either. I'm glad to see Mr. Massey speaking out. I wonder how many of the townsfolk who now see him as a liability have actually been to Iraq, and have a really good grasp on what we're forcing our military to do there in the name of spreading freedom?

:kick:

he scares the chickenhawks who support Bush and the war, because he is the most terrifying symbol they can imagine..he not only represents a military man, he also represents the truth about whats going on over there..and that burns the chickenhawk Bush supporters to no end..it makes them look in the mirror and actually see themselves, and they would rather kill someone then take a long hard look at their own self justification and lies.