Adam Kokesh is one of the leaders of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the organization that set up today’s Winter Soldier conference. As part of a civil-affairs team supporting a Marine infantry company during the spring 2004 siege of Falluja, his macabre sense of humor came out: he and his Marines gave their unit the motto “We Care So You Don’t Have To.”

Now, he said, the vets in the room will appreciate that kind of joke. But he continued — and my transcript is inexact, as Kokesh spoke faster than I could type and was interrupted by applause — with this:

Step back — man! Some units care so others don’t have to? … We cared so that [former Iraq viceroy] Paul Bremer doesn’t have to. So that the chiefs of staff don’t have to. So that Congress doesn’t have to. So that Cheney doesn’t have to, if he ever pretended to. [Much applause.] So that the President doesn’t have to, while he says he does, while continuing a policy that is decimating the Iraqi people. So that the American people don’t have to.