thecages

John Jodka is a US Marine who was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison for his part in the shooting death (and subsequent cover-up) of an Iraqi civilian.
The details are not that important - war - atrocity - duty - superiors - whatever - fuck.

He joined the US Marines in May 2005, was in Iraq by February 2006 and in detention from 12 May 2006 for this murder.

His dad set up a site to raise funds for his defense at www.innocentmarine.com

My hero, PFC John J. Jodka, SAW Gunner, 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, Darkhorse 3/5, 1 Marine Division (REIN) — a citizen soldier called to duty in his conscience in the finest mold of the great general Cincinnatus of Rome, and in his small way, as heroic and enduring. John has served his country bravely and selflessly and now he needs help from those whom he has served and protected.

And got a lot of press around the whole thing.

Here’s the interview with John Jodka Sr., father of falsely accused Marine PFC John J. Jodka III. This is from our July 24th show. Tune in to Seeing Red with Kit and Heidi, on Monday/Wednesday/Friday nights from 10pm to midnight Central Time.

According to PFC Jodka's attorney, the young Marine is "100% innocent" and "will not take any deals the government offers." Joseph N. Casas, the attorney on the case, says the Marine looked him eye to eye and didn't flinch. He won't back down, which is not a light statement, because the death penalty could be the punishment.

With a copy of his son's dog tags around his neck, John Jodka sat in his living room talking about how proud he is of his son, who is facing possible charges in connection with the death of a 52-year old civilian in the Iraqi town of Hamandiya.
"Knowing my son as the ultimate marine, I choose to defend him" says Jodka. His son, also named John Jodka, is a 20-year old private first class with the Marine Corps, who was on his first tour in Iraq when he and 7 other servicemen were brought back to the brig at Camp Pendleton.

All of this is standard in the catastrophic insanity that surrounds us.

But here's the hectic part.
He, like every other yahoo on the planet, has a MySpace - hooraay.

It contains three blog entries:


It also links to other MySpacers






Compare absolutekim.net or Alex's blogs to John's.

He answered that most fucked up call of all - the call to duty by some flag, shot an innocent man and has been a bound prisoner for 7 months. Nice way to spend your twentieth year.

Theirs is filled with frat-house partying and brain farts; I luv u babe shoutouts and ramblings about movies.
Its the story of an deadly average person's deadly average life playing out in messy typeface.

His blog entries are the dull horror of someone who should really still be hanging out at those same dollar-fifty bars - puking out the window of some yahoo-ing guy's pickup.

Here's what absolutekim.net wrote the day after Jodka made his confession:

1. i bought a disney princess tv and it is the most AWSOME thing in the world! it is pink and when you change the channle Cinderellla pops up in the corner and when you adjust the volume ariel swims across the screen! it kicks major ass!

2. i have become the most crafty person EVER. and i dont mean crafty as in sneaky, i mean crafty as in i keep making braclets and necklaces and i started knitting a lot. so if you get a crazy creation for christmas, i am sorry. but i have no life.

3. i have been going crazy trying to figure out what to be for halloween, but i think i have figured it out! i am going to be a sexy sherlock holmes! i think it is both funny and ironic (seeing as my last name is sherlock, in case you didnt know that). so yeah...what do you think? if it sounds uber lame, please tell me cause i dont really want to make a fool of myself. but i figure i will wear a plaid skirt, knee highs, mary james, a white button up shirt, and then find a cape and hat thingy, maybe a pipe (like in the movies not like in a smole shop)....so yeah...okay

till the day i die, and the real party begins,

Kim

His blog entries are few and span the time from just before his entering the military service, going to Iraq, experiencing some personal dissapointment and then total, fucking, silence.

Here's Kim again on 31 August 2006.

sometimes i wish i would have stayed home. but then i realize that things would be the same there, just different surroundings. i would probebly live in a tiny apartment all on my own, no family around (they left for nor cal today), no real friends to send time with (they are all away at school or too busy for me) and with a job that will take me no where. Thanks life, thanks for shitting on whats left of my spirit.

john had his article 32 hearing yesterday and i had to read about it on the damn internet. why wasnt i there? oh yeah, cause i listened to rachel and moved my ass half way across the country so i could be alone and curled up on the bed crying. isnt that a great way to spend the next year of my life. alone, depressed and too poor to do anything about it. i cant go to a shrink cause i dont have health insurance and there fore i cannot get on any meds, and i am too poor to buy weed. at least some of the guys at work are nice enough to chill with me, but i dont get enough hours at work so who knows what i am going to do.

i guess all in all i just needed to get out how sucky this all is. i dont really have anyone to talk to now that i dont have a shrink. i dont want to worry my dad with all this stuff, and with the lack of friends, and john in jail i have nothing. not even a cat.

well, my time here is almost up. i guess i should go, plus i kinda ran out of shit to bitch about. untill next time.

I have little sympathy for him.
He chose to go to war, chose to shoot that man and has chosen to remain loyal to a system that has spat him out.

But there is something telling about the brutality of his MySpace in comparison to his friends'.
Its fractured content in some way mirrors his fucked up year.