Meeting Notice
When: THURSDAY, December 18, 2014 at 7:00 PM
Where: WALDEMERE FIRE HOUSE COMMUNITY ROOM 2070 WALDEMERE St. SARASOTA (NEAR SARASOTA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL EAST OF US 41 ON WALDEMERE ST.)
Program: Transformational Guerrillas and the Iraqi Tribes Who Fight Them
Presenter: Terri K. Wonder, PH.D.
In 2008, Terri Wonder was hired by the United States Army to be a civilian social scientist in a mission-essential “Surge” program in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She deployed twice with U.S. combat personnel from Ft. Benning, Georgia.
While working for the Corps Theater Command of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, Camp Victory, Baghdad, from 2009 to 2010, she coined the term “transformational guerillas” to describe a special class of Islamic insurgent fighters who refused to stand down even after being given incentives to do so as part of Iraq’s tribal “Awakening” movement in 2007 and after.
Transformational guerillas are distinct from another class of fighters, “accidental guerillas” — local fighters who become caught up in the contagion of fighting at the outset of insurgent warfare — according to Australian counterinsurgency theorist, David Kilcullen, in his book The Accidental Guerilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (2009).
From her own research, Wonder concludes that whereas accidental guerillas may be persuaded to stop fighting and even join the other side in a counterinsurgent campaign, transformational guerillas are not easily disillusioned after joining an insurgent campaign. Totally committed to a higher cause, transformational guerillas are not persuadable and will continue to fight until they are captured or killed.
Presented a Superior Civilian Service Award in 2010, Wonder’s cutting-edge statistical and cultural research was credited for saving lives. Wonder ranks among the few people in the world who has had the opportunity to systematically research captive insurgent populations and create a socio-cultural profile of them.
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Citizen Paine Party
Florida Veterans for Common Sense Fund (FLVCS FUND) is hosting the annual Thomas Paine Birthday Party on Saturday, January 17, 2015 at the Bent Tree Country Club starting at 6:00 PM. Light bites, cash bar, dancing and fun. A highlight will be the presentation of the FLVCS Thomas Paine Award to Rhana Bazzini who walked from Sarasota to Tallahassee to overturn corporate personhood.
Tickets are only $45 of which $25 will be tax deductible. Tickets and can be purchased by check payable to FLVCS FUND through Treasurer, Doug Brough,1225 39th St. Sarasota, FL 34236.
Net proceeds from the party will be used to fund the first statewide FLVCS Women Veterans Conference in the spring.
Please circulate this notice to your individual and group contact lists. We want to fill the house to honor Rhana.
Rhana ‘Way Down Upon the Suwannee River’
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VA policy to disclose errors in medical care not always followed.
VCS is quoted prominently in this article.
http://veteransforcommonsense.org/2014/12/13/vcs-weighs-in-on-va-transparency-in-reporting-medical-errors/
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The War Hero and the Chicken Hawk
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/opinion/the-war-hero-and-the-chicken-hawk.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
“Choices McCain and Cheney made when they were young shaped what they said this week about an awful breach in American values….”
“We don’t have to become bad guys to fight bad guys. And if that argument is not persuasive enough, consider the record on torture’s efficacy: It doesn’t work….”
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FLVCS on WSLR Radio:
FLVCS President, Gene Jones, and FLVCS Environmental Working Group leader, John Darovec, will be guests on The Surreal News 9-10 AM Friday, December 19, 2014 to talk the FLVCS Climate Change Report. Call in with your question, or comment.
The show will be live streamed over the Internet if you out of the Sarasota listening area.
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