Stan Goff

Socialist writer, speaker, and consultant Stan Goff identifies his politics as "heavily influenced by Marxism, feminism, ecology, and revolutionary Black nationalism, and… opposed to dogma in any of these" [1].

On July 23, 2003, Goff's son, Jessie, "assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, was told along with the rest of his company at morning formation, to get his affairs in order. They [were] going to replace the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq." Three days later, on July 26, 2003, CounterPunch published Goff's "Don't Extend Them & Don't Replace Them. Just Bring 'Em on Home Now!," obviously published before his son had departed for Iraq. [2]

Goff, a "member of the coordinating committee of Bring Them Home Now!, a campaign of military families, veterans, active duty personnel, reservists against the war in Iraq," has been involved with the campaign since its launch on August 13, 2003. [3]

Profiles

Biographical

"Stan Goff entered military service in January 1970 and retired from the Army on February 1, 1996. His first assignment was to Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and he retired from the 3rd Special Forces, the unit he belonged to during the 1994 U.S. invasion of Haiti. In the course of his career, he was assigned to two parachute infantry units, three Ranger units, two Special Forces units, and Delta Force. In addition to working in a total of eight conflict areas, he taught small unit tactics at the Jungle Operations Training Center in Panama and Military Science at West Point.

"He has written two books, Hideous Dream–A Soldier’s Memoir of the U.S. Invasion of Haiti and Full Spectrum Disorder–The Military in the New American Century. He is working on a third book, Sex & War–A Soldier’s Notebook on Gender and the Military." [4]

Affiliations

• Member of Haiti Support Network, "a coalition of Haitian and North American groups and individuals which raises political and material support for democratic and popular forces in Haiti ... and a 'fellow traveler' of the PPN." - 2000.

• PPN is the Pati Popile Nasyonal (PPN), the National Popular Party, in Haiti.

• Organizer of the North Carolina Alliance for Democracy - July 2001.
• Organizing director of Democracy South, "a multi-issue, multi-racial, progressive network in 12 Southern states, for which public financing of elections is part of its mission. Democracy South is based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina." - October 2001.
• Member of Veterans Teaching Peace in Schools - September 2002.
• Member of International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic - September 2002.
• "From the Wilderness" Military and Veteran's Affairs Editor. See FTW Search for articles. [5]

Books

• Stan Goff, Hideous Dream: Special Operations, Racism, and Imperialism in the Haiti Invasion of 1994, Soft Skull Press, Inc., January 2001, ISBN 1887128638.
• Stan Goff, Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century, Soft Skull Press, Inc., February 2004, ISBN 1932360123.

Quotes

• "Goff, who recently wrote, as a member of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, that the Hague War Crimes Tribunal was 'about covering up the war crimes of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the US Government,' said that it was wrong to compare the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the attack on Pearl Harbor. ... 'The de facto executive branch and the compliant press are putting the historical spotlight right now on December 7, 1941, and Pearl Harbor,' Goff said. 'I think we need to aim that spotlight at February 27 in 1933 and the Reichstag fire.'" - September 2001. Note: The text inaccurately reads "North American Treaty Organization."

• "'These are rich men in expensive suits conducting statecraft not to protect the U.S., but to protect the profits of Halliburton and Bechtel,' two contractors with a large stake in the rebuilding of Iraq. ... 'Then they turn around and accuse us of being unpatriotic, ... That is truly Orwellian.'" August 14, 2003.

• "I'd like to be a bridge builder between the military and the left." December 18, 2003.

• "And so today we come to the comic political opera of the Swift Boat tempest, with the George W. Bush publicity apparatus baited by the John Kerry publicity apparatus. Now the spectacle is a strident dick-measuring contest over military service records." August 30, 2004.

Contact details

Website: stangoff.com
Web Page at http:/www.igc.org / Institute for Global Communications. Note: "IGC Internet is a project of the Tides Center."

Related SourceWatch Resources

• George W. Bush's perpetual war
• Paul Rieckhoff
• The Long War

External links

Book Reviews

• Stan Goff, "Book Review: Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism & the Overthrow of Communism (City Lights Books, San Francisco 1997), ibiblio.org, January 1998.
• Kim Ives, "Emasculated Invasion: A review of Stan Goff's Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the U.S. Invasion of Haiti," Haiti Progress, March 28-April 3, 2001.
• John Dolan, "Comrade Terminator," eXile.ru, March 2004.

By Stan Goff

Articles & Commentary

Undated

• "Question: Do Communists Have An Analysis of the Environmental Question. Answer: Communists and the 2nd Law," Communist Party of the District of Columbia website, undated.

Freedom Road Articles

• Index: 2002
• Index: 2003
• Index: 2004
• Index: 2005

1999

• "Inside U.S. Counterinsurgency: A Soldier Speaks," iF Magazine, November/December 1999.

2000

• "Iraq/US veteran of imperialism," June 10, 2000 International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia, posted on studentsforwar.org.
• "In your name: A soldier's story," Global Resistance, August 3, 2000.

2001

• "War Crimes and the Hague 'Tribunal'," Global Resistance, July 30, 2001.
• "The So-Called Evidence Is a Farce", Narco News, October 10, 2001.
• "A Summary of Thoughts on the Infinite War," neravt.com, October 14, 2001. [Home Link inactive to "Jay's Leftist and 'Progressive' Internet Resources Directory", May 21, 2005].
• "The Story we Hear on the News and Read in the Newspapers is simply not believable," Centre for Research of Globalisation (Canada), October 20, 2001.
• "Bush's War - The WTC Oil Gambit," Conspiracy Planet, November 20, 2001.
• Forwarded email, October 14, 2001, The Blacklisted Journalist, posted December 1, 2001.

2002

• Essay: "Is Columbia the Next Vietnam?" Workers World News Service, July 30, 2002.
• "The Infinite War and Its Roots," From the Wilderness, August 21, 2002.
• Email: Response to Patrick Bond's article "Are economists still unsustainable?", September 2, 2002.

2003

• "Nukes in the Dark. Blackout Left Emergency Diesels as Sole Protection at Nuclear Power Plants," CounterPunch, August 28, 2003.
• "Korea, China and the US," From the Wilderness, October 14, 2003.
• "Feeling More Secure, Yet? Bush, Security, Energy and Money," CounterPunch, December 3, 2003.

2004

• "The Energy Crisis Is Here," Scoop (New Zealand), January 2004.
• "Military Matters: Rape Culture and the Military," William Bowles, March 6, 2004.
• "The Bridge," CounterPunch, April 14, 2004.
• "Time for Kerry to Step Up on Haiti," The Black Commentator, March 18, 2004.
• "Full Spectrum Disorder," International Socialist Review, May/June 2004.
• "A Ramble through Gender & the Military," Freedom Road, May 16, 2004.
• Stan Goff comments on Fahrenheit 9/11 critiques, email to Marxism AT lists.econ.utah.edu, July 8, 2004.
• "The War for Saudi Arabia," posted on Thompson Region Greens (Canada), August 9, 2004 (written for subscription service Sanders Research Associates).
• "Swift Boat Dogfight. The Gendered Degeneration of American Politics," CounterPunch, August 23, 2004.
• "John, John, John...There You Go Again. Kerry's 'Energy Plan'," CounterPunch, August 13, 2004.
• "There's No There There. Debating a Neocon," CounterPunch, November 10, 2004.

• See Don Hammerquist's "Response to Stan Goff's 'Debating a Necon'" in Bring the Ruckus, Goff's "Reply to Hammerquist," Bring the Ruckus, January 15, 2005, and Hammerquist's "Reply to Goff," Bring the Ruckus, April 2005.

2005

• "The Porn Debate. Wrapping Profit in the Flag," posted on notforsale-book.org, February 2005.

• Ernest Greene, "And Now for the Refutation," hardcoregossip.com, February 14, 2005 (scroll down page, as another copy of Goff's article precedes Greene's response).
• pr, "Get Gough," Melbourne (Australia) IndyMedia, March 12, 2005 (scroll down page to article).

• "An Open Letter to Democrats. Listen to Galloway and Learn Something," CounterPunch, May 19, 2005. re British MP George Galloway.

2006

• "Sowing the Seeds of Fascism in America," truthdig, October 3, 2006.

Haiti & Venezuela

• Articles on Haiti posted at The Black Commentator.com.
• "Haitian labor leader appeals for solidarity," People's Weekly World, October 18, 1997.
• "A brief account of Haiti," originally posted at all4democracy.org, October 22, 1999.
• "Lavalas and the 'Laboratory'. The Haitian Conjunctu," uaia.org, 2000.
• "Haiti? The IMF?," all4democracy.org, April 19, 2000.
• Stan Goff on Haiti, Webster University internal email (forwarded), April 28, 2000.
• "Fear and Loathing in Haiti. A journal of Aristide's inauguration," AmonHotep.com, January 16-February 9, 2001. Scroll down page for article.
• "Diary of a Counterinsurgent" (Venezuela), ZMag, June 12, 2002.
• "Beloved Haiti: A (Counter) Revolutionary Bicentennial," AmonHotep.com, February 9, 2004. Scroll down page for earlier Goff articles on Haiti.
• "Haiti & Venezuela: Coup & Empire": Part I (March 23, 2004), and Part II (April 29, 2004), From the Wilderness.
• "Open Season in Iraq. MAMs (Military-Age Males) Are Back," CounterPunch, May 24, 2004.
• "ABC of Opportunism. 'Progressive' Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti," CounterPunch, July 3/4, 2004.
• "The Haitian Intifada": Part I (November 30, 2004) and Part II (January 9, 2005), From the Wilderness.

Iraq & Iran

• "Persian Peril: Just when the Bush administration seemed to have figured out that invading Iraq was a mistake, they announce the next stop in their Axis of Evil tour": Parts 1 through 5, From the Wilderness, August 9-December 6, 2004.

On the War in Iraq

Abu Ghraib

• "Jurassic Park, Pseudo-events, and Prisons: The fallout from Abu Ghraib": Part I (May 18, 2004); Part II (June 11, 2004); Part III (July 2, 2004); Part IV (July 15, 2004); Part V (September 24, 2004); and Part VI (April 28, 2005), From the Wilderness.

2003

• "Another Embittered Rant from a Former Soldier. State of the Union, MLK and 30mm DU," CounterPunch, January 20, 2003. See depleted uranium.
• "The Idiot Prince Will Have His War," From the Wilderness, March 17, 2003.
• "A short history of the Bush Mafia's war in Iraq," From the Wilderness, April 21, 2003.
• "Bring 'Em On?," CounterPunch, July 3, 2003.
• "Don't extend the troops and don't replace them... Bring them home now," CounterPunch, July 26, 2003.
• "The Missing Wounded. Injury and Decorum in Iraq," CounterPunch, August 1, 2003.
• Jamie Glazov, "Symposium: A Guerrilla War in Iraq?," FrontPageMagazine.org, August 4, 2003. Participants were Jamie Glazov, James Woolsey, Jacob Heilbrunn, David Kaiser and Stan Goff.
• "Gulf War II Syndrome? Military Equipment and 'Pneumonia'," CounterPunch, August 6, 2003.
• "'Sign On and Stop Whining!' The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure," CounterPunch, August 18, 2003.
• "The Infinite War and Its Roots," From the Wilderness, August 27, 2003.
• "DOGFIGHT: The Gendered Degeneration of Politics ," William Bowles, August 30, 2004.
• "The Occupation Runs Out of Gas. It Was the Oil and It Is Like Vietnam," CounterPunch, September 15, 2003.
• "'They weren’t liberating anything'," Socialist Worker Online, October 3, 2003.
• "Piss On My Leg. Perception Control and the Stage Management of War," CounterPunch, October 17, 2003.
• "The Left and the Military: Leaping the Chasm," posted on TalkAboutSupport.com, October 30, 2003.
• "Hold on to your humanity: An open letter to GIs in Iraq," The Socialist Party.org, November 13, 2003.
• "Hold On to Your Humanity. An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq," CounterPunch, November 14/23, 2003.

2004

• "War, Race and Elections," CounterPunch, January 1, 2004.
• Speech, Fayetteville, NC, March 20, 2004.
• "The New Line. The Democrats and Iraq," CounterPunch, April 19, 2004.
• "Timeline: Path to Pandemonium," From the Wilderness, April 20, 2004.
• "Body Count 1001. Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?," CounterPunch, September 8, 2004.
• "Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot. Witnesses," CounterPunch, September 14, 2004.
• "Today's Imperialism - Uniquely American. How credit and debt put the United States on top… so far," From the Wilderness, October 28, 2004.
• Speech: "We Will Reclaim Our Armed Forces!" given at the "December 11 [2004] Public Meeting and Speak Out in New York City," posted at Pottawatomie Creek blogspot, December 16, 2004.
• "We Will Reclaim Our Armed Forces!," December 19, 2004.

2005

• "Phase One Against Empire. A Period for Pedagogy," CounterPunch, January 1/2, 2005.
• "Murder by the Numbers. The Specter of the Draft," From the Wilderness, January 14, 2005.
• "Military Matters #32 -- Donald Rumsfeld & Porter Goss Say We Should Be Very Afraid… and We Should," Freedom Road, March 1, 2005.
• "The View from Cumberland County, North Carolina. On Revolutionary Optimism," CounterPunch, March 12/13, 2005.
• "Fayetteville: An Assessment Of Military Resistance," From the Wilderness, March 29, 2005.
• "A Trojan Jackass for the Anti-War Movement," CounterPunch, April 5, 2005.
• "Military Matters #35 -- What We Don't and Do Know: The Case of Hasan Akbar," Freedom Road, April 19, 2005. Reprinted from CounterPunch.
• An Open Letter to Democrats - Listen to Galloway and Learn Something, Counterpunch, May 19, 2005.
• "Out of Iraq, Now," News & Observer (North Carolina) (Common Dreams), October 27, 2005; also posted on TruthOut website.

Interviews with Stan Goff

• Mick McCormick, Transcript of the Interview with Stan Goff: "You've Got To Be Up Front," Narco News, November 4, 2001.
• Jennifer Van Bergen, Interview with Stan Goff, TruthOut, July 16, 2003.
• Transcript: "Veterans, Military Families Push to Return Troops to U.S.," CNN, August 13, 2003.
• Derek Seidman, "Bring the Troops Home Now. An interview with Stan Goff," ZMag.org, November 11, 2003.
• Jennifer Van Bergen, Interview: "Stan Goff on Iraq, FTAA, & Fascism," ftaaimc.org, December 18, 2003.
• Amy Goodman, Interview with Stan Goff: "Fmr. U.S. Special Forces Officer Describes Arresting Current Coup Leader in 1994," Democracy Now!, March 3, 2004.
• Anthony Fenton, Interview: "The Invasion of Haiti," ZMag.org, May 19, 2004.
• Derek Seidman, "Bring Them Home Now: An Interview with Stan Goff," CounterPunch, August 6, 2004.
• Rachel J. Elliott, "Stan Goff on Why U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers Us All," The Sun Magazine, November 2004.
• M. Junaid Alam, "An Interview with Stan Goff," Left Hook, December 20, 2004.
• Kiraz Janicke, "We can win, and we will win," Green Left Weekly, February 9, 2005.
• Rachel J. Elliott, "Behind The Matrix in Special Forces. Speaking With Stan Goff," Garlic and Grass, May 21, 2005.

Articles & Commentary

1997

• G.R. Quinn, Letter to The Prism, July/August 1997, re Stan Goff, with Goff's reply.

2001

• Jon Sanders, "A week after the attacks, speakers at UNC-Chapel Hill 'teach-in' compare U.S. with Nazis, terrorists," Clarion Call No. 123, John Locke Foundation, September 21, 2001.

2002

• "Slobogoogling: Stan Goff," Off the Kuff, February 24, 2002.
• Jon Sanders, "How to teach about the war at 'America's leading public university'," Clarion Call No. 173, John Locke Foundation, September 20, 2002; and posted in the Ashville Tribune, September 25, 2002.
• Jon Sanders, "Anti-American Protest at the University of North Carolina," FrontPageMagazine, October 9, 2002; originally published in The Carolina Journal, October 2002, and posted on Campus Watch: "...The hidden-economic-agenda-behind-the-war is a message Goff, a Marxist, has recycled since the U.S. intervened in Yugoslavia. As a member of the 'International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosovic,' Goff has put forth the notion that the well-documented July 1995 Srebenica massacre was a 'giant hoax' orchestrated by the U.S. in order to wage 'economic warfare' — that 'Milosevic is no war criminal' nor 'a dictator,' and that there 'was never any coordinated campaign of genocide or ethnic cleansing by Serbs, no massacres at either Racek or Srebrenica, and never any such thing as Serbian 'rape camps.'"

2003

• Elizabeth Wolfe, "Campaign Wants U.S. Troops Home From Iraq," AP, August 13, 2003.
• Patrick J. Dickson, "'Bring Them Home Now' speakers rip U.S. policy on Iraq," Pacific and European Stars and Stripes, August 14, 2003.
• Dave Lindorff, "Military Families Against the War," In These Times, September 5, 2003.
• Bill Gural, "Liberation or Occupation: a teach-in at UNC, Chapel Hill, NC Indymedia, September 8, 2003. Stan Goff was a member of the panel.
• Mark Hand, "Building a Vanguard Against the Apocalypse. Stan Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder," CounterPunch, November 8, 2003.

2004

• Megan Cornish, "GIs resist the war machine. From Vietnam to Iraq, redefining 'courage under fire," socialism.com, April/May 2004: "According to antiwar activist and retired Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff, possibly 1,700 troops have deserted while on leave. Others are taking a more tragic way out; among many suspicious deaths, 24 are documented as suicides."
• Jacqueline Kucinich, "Bring Them On? Bring Them Home!," The Nation, August 13, 2004.
• dru, "Responding to Goff" (parts 1-3), misnomer, November 26, 2004. Re Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century.

2005

• Justin Podur, "Stan Goff in 3D," Killing Train, January 5, 2005.
• Dave Zirin, "Mr. Frank's Fatwah. New Republic Calls for Death and Torture of Arundhati Roy and Stan Goff," CounterPunch, January 31, 2005.
• "Anti-war, anti-globalisation movements can win power," Green Left Weekly, February 16, 2005: "The March 24 public meeting that will set the Third Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference (APISC 2005) in motion will not feature a panel of speakers from Asia or the Pacific island countries. A single speaker — former US Special Operations soldier Stan Goff — will address the forum." See more Stan Goff links at Socialist Alliance.org.
• Jim Brown, "Columnist Feels Colo. U's AfroAm Program Promotes Leftist Ideas," American Family Association, March 17, 2005: " '... a book called Brothers: Black Soldiers in the Nam, which was written by Stan Goff, a former recruiter for the Communist Party USA.' According to the FrontPagemagazine.com writer, Goff claims America's own Central Intelligence Agency started the war on terror in order to get heroin from Afghanistan to fund further military operations."
• Johann Hari, "Stan Goff style Socialism is spreading!" Sydney IndyMedia, April 19, 2005.