the hero and the general...

In the last update on Adam Kokesh, I reported that the military panel recommended a general discharge and that it had to go to the general to whom Adam wrote one of the emails for final adjudication. Well, the general made his decision. The decision is the one that most people expected:

Anti-war Marine receives discharge below honorable

An Iraq war veteran was kicked out of the Marines with a general discharge after he wore his uniform during an anti-war demonstration, the military announced Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. John Bergman, commanding general of Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, agreed Monday to give Adam Kokesh a general discharge under honorable conditions, based on a military panel's recommendation. Chicago Tribune, Jue 14, 2007

Now what do you suppose the decision would have been had a different general had to make the final decision? Right! The exact same one.

That's no going to be the end of it. Kokesh and his attorney intend to appeal, ultimately moving into the courts.

Mike Lebowitz, an attorney for Kokesh, said he planned to appeal to the Navy Discharge Review Board in Washington, which he described as a step toward getting the case into federal court.

Part of the problem, remember, is that Adam Kokesh had already been given an Honorable Discharge. This was an attempt to remove him from that status. They originally wanted to revoke it and replace it with a Less that Honorable discharge, in which case Adam would have lost all veteran's benefits.

And it's not stopping there:

Two other Iraq veterans were contacted by the Marines about their protest activities. "Now that the Marine Corps is going after honorably discharged members, who are in fact civilians, for free speech rights, we are fighting back," Lebowitz said Wednesday. "We are seeking a precedent in federal court."

So what's going on here?

You can be in the military to fight for the freedom and democratic principles of the country. However, when you exercise those rights by questioning the involvement of the country in a war that you no longer believe in, then you become a...

a what?