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Friday, May 13, 2011

Michael Prysner Speaks at UC-Irvine (Who Cares?)

Prysner (l), author (r)



Michael Prysner is a young Iraqi war vet who has turned against not only that war, but apparently against his own country as well. He is against the US, Israel, the government, the corporations, capitalism and I suppose apple pie too. Yesterday, the Muslim Student Union once again embarrassed itself by bringing in a speaker who despises his own country.

During his speech, Prysner went from A to Z, but not according to any plan. First it was A-then F-then X, then P and so on. I won't recount everything he said, but here are some highlights.

The US "murdered an unarmed Usama bin Laden in cold blood in front of his family". "The US wants to bomb Iran".  (That was said after the speech in the Q and A.) In referring to the Zionists in  the crowd, he contrasted them to the younger and more diverse MSU folks and added that "fortunately" the former were disappearing (translation- Those old white folks who support Israel are dying off and being replaced with younger, more diverse folks who oppose Israel. I am paraphrasing.) When he made that last statement, I turned and looked at several of the MSU males because I was sitting right next to them. They applauded the statement and a couple of them looked directly back at me with that knowing smile on their faces.

During the Q and A, the moderator reluctantly called on me with a remark, "Sure, why not?" as the MSU students laughed. I joined in the humor, and before I made my statement (not a question), I looked at them and said, "This is going to be good. You're going to like this."
My comments to Prysner as my fans in the MSU look on.


I told Prysner that I was also an army vet, but unlike him, I had not served in combat, and that I respected his military experience. However, I did not respect the things he had said after leaving the service. I told him that he had defamed the military and his fellow soldiers by accusing them of terrible crimes. I told him that I had worn the uniform with pride, but that he had brought disgrace and dishonor to the uniform since he left the service. Finally, I said that I had seen many despicable speakers brought to campus by the MSU, but that he took the cake. In the below video produced by the UCI-MSU, my turn in the Q and A comes at about the 3:30 mark.

http://youtu.be/6UJojKD_5Go

Later as he was walking up the steps and being asked questions by several people, I had a chance to take another shot at him face to face. I told him that I did appreciate his service in Iraq  but that I took exception to something he had been quoted as having said previously about the first Gulf war, a war he had no part in. That concerned the so-called "highway of death" incident, when US aerial forces destroyed a convoy of Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait City. Prysner had described the dead as "innocent families fleeing the violence." I told him that this incident was not from his war and that the dead were Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait, many in commandeered cars and many carrying loot. He replied that certain investigating commissions, which he never identified had gone over to the site and seen dead and burned children. I asked him which commissions he was referring to and mentioned Amnesty International. He asked if I would discredit AI, to which I said they have done some good things and some not so good. I stated that every report I had ever seen on this incident identified the dead as Iraqi soldiers and that retreating soldiers are a legitimate target. At this point, other people began asking questions.

Final comment: The MSU made a serious blunder in bringing this guy as a speaker. Not only does Prysner hate Israel, he clearly has no love for his own country. That is hardly the message the MSU should be sending out.

Side note: I had planned to go to the Thursday evening event and give the what for to Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian, but it had been a long week and I had better plans for the evening than listen to his tired old sob story, which I had heard all week.


"Take a break, Fousesquawk."

Don't mind if I do.

4 comments:

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Many of us who are certain humanity can do better than capitalism love apple pie. I make a mean apple pie myself.

I respect that Prysner could critically examine the war he was sent to fight in, but he does not sound like he came to any very coherent conclusions. VVAW had their act together. This guy doesn't.

But obviously you care, or you wouldn't take the time to respond at some length.

Squid said...

I also went to the Michael Prysner presentation and agree with your statements. What a waste of time! It must be said that Prysner joined the Army at the ripe age of 17 and spent four years to the day. I do not think that he was much of anything in the Army, as he was a ground surveillance guy, staring at screens all day. He has no "combat action badge", so he saw little of what the boots on the ground, real heros experienced. His claims of combat are suspect. This may have been a good thing for Prysner, because he is a petite sized man. So now he is doing the Napoleon thing by getting his rocks out of preaching anti-America, anti-Capitalism, Socialist/Marxist/Maoist-ANSWER rhetoric to his anti-America, anti-capitalist, Socialist/Marxist/Maoist-ANSWER types and the MSU. This is how Mike gets his applause and makes himself feel like a big man. At UCI, he did add some false information about the defamed and disgraced Goldstone report. I guess Mike did not get the memo.
Indeed, the MSU made a big tactical error in having Prysner speak.

Squid

Siarlys Jenkins said...

There are people who believe that anyone expressing opposition to government policy or wants to end a war now is a leftist or Marxist or Communist or something.

One such demographic is made up of the collectives running any leftist newsrag available in the U.S.

Another such demographic is curmugeon's like Miggie.

The difference is, Miggie can't tell the difference between a Maoist, a Communist, a Socialist, a Social Democrat, or even a liberal, whereas, the average leftist newsrag can't find one point in common between itself and the next leftist newsrag.

P.S. Liberals believe in laissez-faire capitalism, free trade, and the free market.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Oh, its you Squid. Most times I can tell the difference between you and Miggie, but today you sounded almost alike.