Rubicon & Sean Griobhtha
Being in Germany broadened my perspective on myself and on society, because in that fire-bombed and horribly ravaged city I witnessed both the best and the worst that lurks inside every human heart.
Harry Leslie Smith, Harry’s Last Stand; 2014, Icon Books, London; w/
, JM SmithTo this day the sadness over having participated in this atrocity pervades my being. It’s one thing to attack and kill those who don soldiering outfit and gear – they know what they’re getting into; but to slaughter those whose sole purpose is to support, protect, and provide aid to the afflicted and innocent... (X Rubicon, Nuns)
Memorial Day
[expanded] from X Rubicon, Memorial Day
“Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. From 1868 to 1970, it was observed on May 30. Since 1970, it is observed on the last Monday of May.” (Wikipedia)
While a US holiday, we’re sure many countries have remembrances that are effectively the same, so let’s widen the expanse of this to include them, because militaries in all countries tend to overreach into society. While some form of this writing was always meant to be another book chapter, we were reticent because non-combat pretenders (NCP) can be quite stupid and vitriolic. But today, because my (Sean’s) daughter was in a marching band, I once again had to go and witness this disgusting display, and get triggered.
First, let me describe the event in this city. The starting line is set up by two fire department ladder trucks raising a giant flag over the street. The first participants are a motorcycle club, yet dressed as a motorcycle gang. Why they’re here, I don’t know. But of course, in this country, nothing speaks more of Remembrance, morals, and ethics than a motorcycle gang. Next came a police cruiser… ditto. Then marching bands playing military anthems; and while I enjoy hearing them play… ditto. Then the “veterans” come in waves. Some of you may think we’re cruel here, but we are combat veterans, and we know what we’re speaking of; and we have the right to call this out. These days it’s almost exclusively VVA and Vietnam & Korean War VFW [and non-combat Gulf War] personnel who participate. There’s a noticeable absence of combat veterans extant, and Gulf War combat veterans and above; and of those that are participating, they are almost exclusively Non-Combat Pretenders. Some of them are 100lbs+ heavier than they were when they were in the military, but they wear costumes expressing that their identity is military and fake, and many participants have gone and bought fatigues in their new size, and emblazoned them with patches and even medals that have never existed. A military personnel truck comes along pulling an artillery piece. On the front of this truck the idiots have tied a rubber hand emblazoned with bloody gore… and they’re proud of this. Another truck pulls a trailer full of these “veterans”, and a single black man, obviously a true veteran of a recent (90’s or above) conflict, who has lost the use of his legs, is made to follow behind this trailer on his scooter – he truly just wants to be a part of something, to make sense of losing his ability to walk. The “veterans” in the trailer suck down cold water and ignore him, and don’t offer him water. My wife and I (Sean) give him water. There are decorated garbage trucks, which makes me think how totally appropriate they are; and they remind me of the movie Idiocracy. Another police cruiser ends the parade. While this is just a tiny fraction of say, a Soviet May Day parade, it is no different except in the idiocy.
“When I made Idiocracy, I didn’t know I was making a documentary.” -- Mike Judge
In previous chapters, Rubicon’s and my feelings regarding some of these things pertain:
“Thank you for your service” won’t cut it, won’t even satisfy a basic need for these combat vets; primarily because you haven’t got a clue as to what “service” you are referring. It’s a statement you would make to your food server, gas station mechanic, etc… Military personnel such as swim instructors, clerks, generals, cooks, officers off the battlefield, etc… all love this attention, but they don’t deserve it, and every combat veteran knows this.”
and,
“To this day I feel the guilt and responsibility of these actions. It astounds me that I went so long with such a laissez-faire attitude about killing. When people say “Thank you for your service” it makes me cringe. While other people rise and sing the National Anthem, I feel disgust and pain. When at meetings where people rise to “Pledge Allegiance”, I can’t make myself say it, and I want to stop my kids from saying it.”
I include these quotes here because of those Non-Combat Pretenders (NCP). Combat veterans tend to avoid these parade displays of orgiastic patriotism, because they are fraudulent and highly triggering. NO combat veteran (unless he’s a psychopath) would do these things, let alone decorate a truck with a bloody hand; that’s how we know these participants are NCP.
“My neighbor is younger than I am. He spent time in Germany in the Army and praises it. He pretends to have been in Vietnam (not possible by his age). He’s for slaughtering all over the globe, praises conservative “values”, rants about government spending, and wears his 9mm in his butt-crack as he does his gardening. Yet, never having been in war, he proclaims himself a “disabled veteran” and had the VA install a ramp on his house and got them to give him a scooter, and he’s never used either one – he’s too busy chopping wood behind his fence where he thinks no one sees. I had another 20-something neighbor who believes in the military way of life, yet he too is a virgin talking about sex. He wears his 9mm stuck in the back of his pants as he washes his truck – we don’t live in a violent neighborhood – it has never been violent. They follow the teachings of Clint Eastwood (military swim instructor), another virgin talking about sex who seems to be in love with Antebellum slavery times. These are all NCP, Non-Combat Pretenders.”
X Rubicon – Boys And Men
But these NCPs are not just fraudulent “veterans”, they are the fraudulent civilian population as well. I noticed one of the firemen carrying a 9mm – no firemen in this city have ever been shot or even threatened… and why is he wearing this to a parade? As we went back to the car, we passed 3 young men jogging with flags, and a 4th jogging wearing body armor and an American flag as a cape (and I wanted to run him over). So, WTF is going on here?
Much of this is due to government propaganda, and yes, it IS propaganda. The VA, DoD, veteran “help” programs from WWP to Rush, with major funding from corporations, have ALL started calling ALL vets (of whatever experience) “Warriors”. A military psychiatrist (VA) has written she is a “warrior” just like her patients (men who have actually been in combat and have ALL the mental gifts that come along with it). A military psychologist has self-described himself as an in-the-know “warrior” because he completed Ranger training (yet he’s NEVER been in combat!). I know that many men have completed SEAL training, and then quit, just so they could say they did it, like they’re somehow special, as though it’s like an obstacle course; and, sooner or later, they start describing themselves as combat veterans.
One of the “warriors” I sent a book to in 2022, an officer in the [Michigan] VFW, posted a trashing review on Amazon. When I looked at his bio, I understood. He’s a member of the VFW, but he’s NEVER been in combat, let alone a foreign war. He enlisted in “peacetime”, was stationed in S Korea attending a gun emplacement, filled a military career with no war or combat, joined the Reserves where for some reason they made him an honorary Lt; yet, he has never placed his life or mind on the line. This is a failure of the VFW (quasi-NGO) to respect combat veterans; and it says something about their criteria inviting and elevating “veterans” just because they were stationed or went temporary duty in another country. We’ve known many combat veterans, including ourselves, who were triggered by their VFW invitation, because, as our fathers-in-law (WW2 combat veterans) used to say, “It’s full of a bunch of drunks and pretenders who never served in combat.”
These people (men AND women) pretend because civilians are in love with the military, and these people love their accolades, and they enable the Presidents, Congress, and the military to spend more and more on imperialism. The frauds and their lovers are Virgins Talking About Sex. The egos of the frauds and their lovers have swollen out of proportion to all reality. Do these people have any clue what this patriotic Bullshit does to combat veterans? We think not!
"Within 2-1/2 years I became guilty of planning and assisting in the slaughter of thousands, and was directly responsible for the killing of >300, from a distance, close up, and personal. I had become everything I despised...”
What should we be doing on Memorial Day?
Memorial, In Memoriam, Remembering. If you truly want to show respect for combat veterans, those who have died and those still alive, get off your knees and stop sucking military cock! Start remembering history and how we got in all those wars, conflicts, and actions in the first place. Learn. Educate yourself. Become present and aware. Take your own responsibility as citizens seriously. Every time you blindly praise war, its pain, and its costs, you blindly disrespect ALL those who have lived it. Stop draping yourselves in flags. Stop saying your Republican is not a war monger. Stop saying your Democrat is not a war monger. Stop letting Zionists (Psychopaths, Terrorists, & war mongers) commit the US to war and war mongering. Stop expecting other men to do your fighting for you. Stop insisting that you’re not a fascist, supporting lebensraum, when the fact is that you ARE. Stop bathing in the blood of infants & children, young men, men & women, old people, and those with different religion, beliefs, or melanin than you. Stop being psychopaths!
Learn to express Love. Learn to embrace Truth and accept it. Teach your children how to love, and how to love Truth. Teach your children and grandchildren to seek wisdom. Teach them to discern falsehoods, obfuscations, and lies. Teach them to build and not to destroy. Teach them to embrace humanity and put away the childish nonsense of superiority.
But the ONLY way you can do this is through learning and putting away propaganda and patriotism. You MUST read, especially history! You MUST be honest with yourself and accept that your country, just like EVERY country in the world, has committed numerous atrocities. We are supposed to be making ourselves better than we have been. You MUST become aware that your government is traveling down the self-destructive road to machismo (men AND women), sadism & masochism (which feeds a victim mentality), and fascism.
It’s time for you to grow up and become a man or a woman, with a conscience!
*****
Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same--and War's a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz--
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench--
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?'
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack--
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads--those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.— Siegfried Sassoon, War Poems, Aftermath
You love us when we're heroes, home on leave,
Or wounded in a mentionable place.
You worship decorations; you believe
That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace.
You make us shells. You listen with delight,
By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.
You crown our distant ardours while we fight,
And mourn our laurelled memories when we're killed.
You can't believe that British troops 'retire'
When hell's last horror breaks them, and they run,
Trampling the terrible corpses--blind with blood.
O German mother dreaming by the fire,
While you are knitting socks to send your son
His face is trodden deeper in the mud.— Siegfried Sassoon, War Poems, Glory Of Women
The US has been at war for the overwhelming majority of its’ existence; and since the supposed end of WW2 we have slaughtered millions around the globe. This video follows X Rubicon with the Pretty Reckless, 25…
If you have any heart at all, killing damages you and changes you permanently. Your DNA is changed, your outlooks are changed, trust is radically changed. Jim, because of his schedule and travel time, never had the chance to become involved in love or having a lover. Because of this he went further into darkness than I did at the time. While I had a lover and fiance, Jim was absolutely alone. (Rubicon - A Young Man Named Jim)
A Young Man Named Jim
"We're Not At War"
It was over this wall that the Blackhawk sped like a demon and dropped to the canyon floor and continued for .5km and stopped. I took my personal gear, M11 with suppressor, M16 with scope and suppressor, knife, and an odd assortment of killing tools. The explosives and other tools stayed in the chopper, to be called for later, and the chopper lifted and turned and was gone to sit waiting at the top of the canyon wall…(X Rubicon, Drugs of the Sierra Madre; I Had A Dream)
I Had A Dream
"Take heed of the dream"
We offer our children war...
While calling it opportunity
Responsibility for Death and Wars
Yes! I'm talking to you!
Forgiveness
"Anyone who’s gone through the trauma of combat knows that there is no cure."
Atrocities, PTSD, and Responsibilities
SubstackSean Griobhtha Amazon
**********
Rubicon spent just under three years as a military Scout. During that time he was awarded the “AF Cross, 2 Silver Stars, 4 Bronze Stars, Defense Superior Service Medal, AF Good Conduct Medal, and the CIA Distinguished Service Medal” (ODNI). When he refused to kill further, he was stripped of these awards and was abandoned with his PTSD by the military and thrown away.
Sean Griobhtha (gree-O-tah) is a combat veteran. His latest book is X Rubicon: Crossing Life, Sex, Love, & Killing in CIA Proxy Wars: An indictment of US Citizens: ignorantia non excusat, which details the life of Rubicon (“2.5 years of Deception & Death; 40+ years of locking away Emotions & Truth”). It’s important that you read the Foreward (Vanguard); written by a highly intelligent woman with a heart of empathetic gold; she’ll bring you in gently, which neither Rubicon nor I would ever do.
Read the Foreward (Vanguard) free at Substack. Learn more about the author and Rubicon at Substack and @seangriobhtha (FB). 40% discount available for book clubs, student groups, humanitarian groups, We Are Not Your Soldiers groups, Veterans for Peace groups, & more: Inquire at O.Griobhtha+XRubicon at gmail.
Flashback Memorial Day 2011 ~ Dispatch From Tripoli ~ NATO’s Feast of Blood
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY originally posted on: May 25, 2011
(the original link has disappeared, big surprise so I have to give you the repost I did on my wordpress)
https://piazzadcara.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/flashback-memorial-day-2011-dispatch-from-tripoli-natos-feast-of-blood/
Somehow your poignant post reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the 1990s.. where bombs were raining from the sky over the heads of Serbian villagers and one man said to his cowing wife.. "Don't worry, dear they're NATO bombs". I certainly learned enough in my 17 years in the Army to where my.. now twenty five year old son.. knew better than to ever join.