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Adam Kokesh, an Iraq Veteran Against the War

October 24th, 2008 cultural, historical, political

On Thursday evening I attended dinner and a lecture with former Marine Corp Sergeant Adam Kokesh, a veteran of Fallujah in 2004. Because of his experience, Adam has since become an outspoken opponent of the US-led occupation of Iraq. Someday when I become famous and my detractors dig up the list of radical characters I’ve associated with, I’m sure the 3 hours we’ve spent within arm’s reach will come into question—though I can’t argue that I was only 8 years old!

I’ve recorded the first hour of the lecture here (mp3, 26Mb) and have captured the full two hours including Q&A on video (but am currently experiencing difficulty transferring the two 2Gb files off the camera.) Please listen with an open mind and try to put yourself in the boots of the thousands of young men and women in these types of situations everyday. Challenge yourself to think more deeply than the soundbites you hear on TV about “the surge” and what the “generals on the ground” say.

Although the audience was obviously predisposed to agree with him, Adam clearly challenged the crowd when he explained his perspective on how Obama and McCain have essentially the same foreign policy. There were gasps when he boldly gave the reasons he believes that McCain would actually bring the troops home before Obama! He cited McCain’s response to a question about how the future would be in 4 years under his administration where he answered that the troops would be home by then. He puts more confidence in McCain’s ability to take charge of the military. Obama, he countered, has proposed keeping a force of 40,000 in Iraq indefinitely. However, he accused McCain of supporting policies that make it less desirable for soldiers to retire to increase retention. In the end, his opposition of the two main party candidates was quite obvious, and to me, refreshing.

Adam told his story with uncommon honesty, humor, transparency and eloquence. I hope he can return to speak before a larger audience at Tech, including the corp.