Meet Iraq veteran Adam Kokesh, the new mouthpiece of the anti-war movement

AT EASE After a long day lobbying on the Hill, Adam Kokesh kicks back in an empty office next to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs

When Cindy Sheehan called it quits in May, her seat was barely cold when the peace movement hoisted its replacement trophy aloft: a younger, more photogenic mouthpiece with unimpeachable credentials. Marine Corporal Adam Kokesh, a decorated Iraq war vet, was already in the middle of a nasty dispute with his military superiors over a protest he had attended, the details of which only further endeared him to the cause. Within weeks, the unknown soldier from New Mexico had metamorphosed, as Wonkette put it, into "the Pentagon's biggest public relations nightmare."

"I'm just a regular guy in the middle of a shit storm," says Kokesh. "But it's been fun"At five feet ten inches, 205 pounds, Kokesh is no pantywaist hippie. He's built more like your prototypical killing machine, which goes a long way in explaining his appeal to the mainstream media as an antiwar provocateur. Thrust onto the national stage—including appearances on Good Morning America and Paula Zahn Now—the embattled reservist appears to be awed by his newfound fame. And he doesn't take the responsibility lightly.

"I'm a vet and that gives me some unique credibility. No one can say we're cowards or traitors or don't know what we're talking about," he says. "There's power in that platform. I have a moral imperative to be doing this."

Naturally, it's taken some time for Kokesh to adjust to his new role. He's still mystified by the idea that there's a Wikipedia entry in his name. But he seems to have the right perspective.

"I'm just a regular guy in the middle of a shit storm," he says. "But it's been fun."

FAREWELL TO ARMS Kokesh, left, with members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, directly before the protest that led to his clash with the Marine Corps over a uniform violation

On this summer morning in D.C., it appears that all the fun may have finally caught up with Kokesh. When the burly 25-year-old pulls up to meet me in his white Ford Bronco, he looks haggard. "Late night," he admits. He had been partying the previous evening at the Wonderland Ballroom, a Columbia Heights bar. I offer him my cup of Starbucks, but he shakes his head, flicking his unfiltered cigarette out the window. He doesn't drink coffee, he says, because "It stunts your growth."

After a few minutes with Kokesh, it's easy to see how he's made it this far: The man's assertive. "When people ask me what my experience in Iraq was like, I tell them hot, dirty, and dangerous." Then, waiting a beat, he takes a pull from his cigarette and winks, "Just the way I like my women." (Later Kokesh informs me I'm the most attractive reporter who's interviewed him so far.)

"Cindy Sheehan wanted to talk to Bush. I want to stop the motherfucker"The subject soon turns to Cindy Sheehan, the formerly vocal mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, to whom Kokesh is often compared. Last year, in Crawford, Texas, a young Marine described Casey Sheehan's death to the press as "an acceptable loss." Instead of getting angry, Kokesh recalls, Sheehan put her arms around the young man and led him off to speak privately. "I couldn't hear any of the words, but I knew exactly what she was saying to him, and I cried," he says. Realizing how callous he had been to his own mother about being deployed, Kokesh called her to apologize.

Though he admires Sheehan, Kokesh is quick to point out that their philosophies diverge. "Cindy Sheehan wanted to talk to Bush. I want to stop the motherfucker," he says.

Corporal Kokesh's stormy relations with the U.S. government began on March 20, when a photo of him in desert camouflage appeared in the Washington Post. He had participated a day earlier in a mock combat patrol to mark the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Along with 12 other vets, he "patrolled" the area from Union Station to Arlington National Cemetery with an imaginary assault riffle, manhandling suspected "terrorists" at simulated gunpoint, to give Washingtonians a taste of U.S. occupation . Nine days later, Major John R. Whyte sent Kokesh an e-mail informing him that he was under investigation by the Marines for wearing his uniform in a political protest.

Furious, the young GI composed an e-mail reply to his superior admonishing him for devoting valuable resources to what he viewed as a trivial matter—the political activities of a reservist—while his fellow servicemen continued to die in futility overseas. He closed with a request for the investigating officer to "please, kindly, go fuck [him]self."