Also, the uniform he was wearing, while without insignia, was his actual uniform, issued by the military to him, and since he was still military, he couldn’t wear it to the rally…..you confused??….I sure am……lol

Anyway, my Uncle called this morning to tell me to check out the news….he was right, they gave him what amounts to a General Discharge and washed their hands of him.

The military is the military….the majority of them are really patriots and care about their country I think…..they can’t be happy about whats going on in this country anymore than the rest of us, but they can’t say it. The decision to do what they did came down so fast and hard, it had to be a ranking officer that just decided to end it all before the politicians could get involved and screw it up more.

I’m going to surprise you and agree with the general theme of your post. I wondered too why he would be volunteering for active duty and only after being turned down start protesting the war. There is probably more to this then he is letting on. Even if he is just a trouble maker, shit disturber, or whatever, to me, he has remained inside the law. This could all be just sour grapes on his part.

The big legal question that arises is how much the First Amendment applies to someone on IRR status. I read nothing in the Constitution that removes a citizen’s right to speak after being discharged from the military. And he was honorably discharged.

I disagree with your earlier post that he is beholden to an officer. If he has not been called up then an officer can hold no power over him, and that includes language. It might have been rude, but being rude is not a crime. There can be no military crime when the military has discharged him.

The other thing I disagree with is because he removed all insignia from his uniform, he was not in uniform. It only becomes a uniform when it is identifiable, until then it is just cloth. If he had shown up on parade dressed like that then he surely would have been busted. You can’t have it both ways.

I think his best bet would be to get a Federal Court injunction against the Marine Corp on First Amendment grounds. Otherwise, they will just bankrupt him with the nit picky bullcrap like this and endless hearings.

http://tinyurl.com/2ca4uo

Your link, to a site with a piece by some unknown author, on a page of pieces by unknown authors is, as our own Mr. Fusion would say (if it was pro-Bush), dubious at best. I hate asking for links, I try to take what people say on faith, that it’s true or they believe it is, but on something this serious, I’m asking for some form of independent verification of this.

Corp. Kokesh should have the right to express his opinion. When he’s discharged from duty on June 18th, 2007. Until then, he must obey the UCMJ, just like any other person in the military, active or inactive. I got confirmation today from my Uncle, who is active duty and an officer, that Kokesh, like others signed on for an 8 year tour of duty. That he must obey the regulations, though it’s not very often used against anyone in the IRR. My Uncle said that what screwed the pooch for this guy is his own words on his own blog. But my Uncle feels they will just give him a General Discharge or leave it Honorable and allow his time to expire, because of the bad publicity.

What I have a problem with is this, if he’s so anti-war, why did he apply for re-deployment to Iraq? And why did his anti-war activities start with/in 3 weeks of being told he couldn’t go back due to his previous actions (sneaking weapons back to the states, and some other insubordination issues)…..something doesn’t mesh here.
Unless Kokesh allows his records to be released, we will never know why he was busted to Corp. from Sargent….we do know part of the reason, the weapons thing, but apparently there was more.

Anyway, it appears more and more to be one of those he said, they said things, and people will believe the side that fits their political belief’s.

1st: Free Speech
1st: Freedom of Assembly
1st: Freedom of Expression
5th: Due Process (you have a property interest in your honorable discharge status and the benefits that go with it)
8th: Excessive Punishment
14th: Due Process – Arbitrary and Capricous
14th: Due Process – Incorporation of 1st and 5th and 8th Amendments

I think there is probably something missing in this article

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

This is so disturbing on so many levels, I just don’t know how to react.

Thanks for the link.

On invading Iraq: “It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks… I doubt six months.”
– Donald Rumsfeld, Mar. 7, 2003

“My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. … I think it will go relatively quickly, … (in) weeks rather than months.”
–VP Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003, on NBC’s Meet the Press

“The world will be at peace when the last king is strangled with the guts of the last priest.”
–Mikhail Bakunin, the “father of anarchism,” shortly before the czar banished him to Siberia

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
- Bush at 2005 Oval Office strategy meeting on renewing the unPatriot Act [reported http://tinyurl.com/9d8fw - never denied]

If there is a god, it doesn’t need protection. If there isn’t, it doesn’t deserve protection. But the country both needs and deserves it and those who put their lives on the line, finished their duty, and are now in private life, deserve to be able to speak in the political dialog.

I understand the military’s need to preserve the chain of command by placing certain restrictions on active service member’s ability to speak, but rules about uniforms seem like enough to me.

While I don’t buy the idea that military persons have more right than non-military persons to speak, I do think that if a guy has volunteered to take a bullet for me, I’m damn well gonna extend him the courtesy of listening to whatever he has to say about it.