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Fred Wellman Profile picture
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5 Jan, 5 tweets, 2 min read
I've been a fan of @Militarydotcom and am friends with the editors and reporters. Publishing the OpEd asking for a pardon for Robert Bales is an outrageous and awful decision. The piece is full of lies and disgusting twists of the truth and should never have been published.
But, worse is the timing and misrepresentation of the piece itself. Donald Trump will think this is the opinion of many who serve. He will believe this is another situation like the others he pardoned wrongly as well. This has the very real chance of making this happen.
Bales is a cold hearted evil man. He left his post under cover of night and murdered 16 civilians including multiple children. The idea it was some kind of lone warrior counterinsurgency mission is so patently ridiculous it should have been laughed out the door not published!
Instead it is displayed prominently on one of the leading websites for the military community. It barely even says it's an opinion piece. Its unacceptable. Over 4 million Americans served honorably in the GWOT and only Bales murdered over a dozen civilians. His acts dirty us all.
This must be taken down and condemned. A piece from a right wing organization obsessed with undoing any prosecution of service members for war crimes. We cannot accept the idea that war crimes are acceptable. We are not the enemy. @Militarydotcom retract this garbage now!

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More from @FPWellman

Fred Wellman Profile picture
25 Dec 20
When I was in northern Iraq at Q-West for Christmas 2003 with the @101stAASLTDIV 6-101st Aviation @KyraPhillips then at @CNN asked me to gather photos of how our soldiers were getting into the spirit. We had to decorate as best we could then.
The one thing you learn about soldiers early in your service is they will always find a way to make do with what they have.
We got an absolute ton of boxes from home. We had asked our families and friends to send gifts we could deliver to the many local villages we were supporting with civil affairs support. The response was incredible.
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Fred Wellman Profile picture
24 Dec 20
Last week I went to see the ‘Sunken Treasures of Egypt’ exhibit at the @vmfa. It’s a fascinating look at mostly the Ptolemaic Period of almost 2K years. Then in 395 AD the Roman Emperor outlawed pagan worship and the entire religious universe of the region was thrown in the sea. Image
That was it. In one short time all that history was simply thrown out and they moved forward. So, please don’t tell me the Republican Party can’t end because it’s been around 160 years. That’s a blip in history and this is not the GOP Lincoln founded. It’s Trump now. It’s over. Image
It doesn’t need saving anymore than the worship of Osiris, Isis and Horus did 2000 years ago. We need to accept it’s gone. It’s not conservative. It’s not Constitutional. It’s not even American. It’s an authoritarian organization trying to stop us from voting to cling to power. Image
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Fred Wellman Profile picture
11 Dec 20
I don't want to miss the VA OIG report today on @SecWilkie and his teams handling of the sexual assault report in the DC VA Hospital. It confirms everything we have been saying for months. It shows he is a toxic, thin skinned, and despicable leader. (1) washingtonpost.com/politics/va-wi…
When reports came in the victim was also a Congressional staffer Wilkie decided that it was a political attack on him and then proceeded to launch a campaign to discredit her. To do this he enlisted his appointees to do his dirty work. That's where this gets really sinister. (2)
@DeptVetAffairs leaders decided attacking the victim was right. He connected with Dan Crenshaw who deployed with the victim to get dirt on her (that was false). Then Curt Cashour a public affairs official literally called a NYT reporter to shop it. (3) wsj.com/articles/va-se…
Read 15 tweets
Fred Wellman Profile picture
10 Dec 20
But, I have to be honest. I'm absolutely shocked by this. With the incredible talent available among vets, previous VA leaders, and others...why pick a non-veteran who has never run anything larger than a staff for the 2nd largest govt agency? This doesn't make sense at all.
Yet again we have a decent person as a choice whose main qualification seems to be they know Biden personally from the past. There is so much to unscrew at the VA HQ after Wilkie and Powers poisonous leadership but there are 18M veterans in the US and not one of them fit? So odd.
The key will now be who is DepSec, Chief of Staff and leads the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. I hope that McDonaugh chooses from the many talented veterans who have worked with the community and will leave the partisan bullshit of the last 4 years behind.
Read 4 tweets
Fred Wellman Profile picture
20 Nov 20
I've known Jim Byrne for years and the term Boy Scout comes up a lot about him. He went into this Admin wanting to serve veterans and gave up a great paying job for it. He was not prepared for the Machiavellian insanity that is the Trump Admin and the thin skinned SecVA.
This story is even worse than what's printed. VA public affairs political appointees did try to shop dirt on the victim calling several reporters and as a testament to their profession none of them printed any of it. The idea that Crenshaw and Wilkie didn't talk is ridiculous.
They used the exact same "numbers" in separate sources. How did Wilkie know about these alleged 6 reports that Crenshaw mentioned months later? Crenshaw said he wouldn't slander the victim then he did it...on the record. A member of Congress smearing a professional staffer.
Read 7 tweets
Fred Wellman Profile picture
27 Oct 20
Continuing my review of Trump's many acts of disrespect to veterans and service members today. Back to 2017, just a few months after taking office he sat on his toilet at 7:00 AM and kicked thousands of patriotic service members out of uniform in 3 tweets over 15 minutes. Thread!
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In a surprise early morning tweet thread spread over 13 tense minutes Trump lied and said he had consulted with his "generals" and decided to implement a ban on the service of transgender individuals. The news shocked the Pentagon and service members.
Read 11 tweets

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