DOD ordered troops to write LTTE? Capital Hills Blue

[ChairmanAgnostic]

Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on leave
By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Dec 29, 2005

Good soldiers follow orders and hundreds of American military men and women returned to the United States on holiday leave this month with orders to sell the Iraq war to a skeptical public.

The program, coordinated through a Pentagon operation dubbed “Operation Homefront,” ordered military personnel to give interviews to their hometown newspapers, television stations and other media outlets and praise the American war effort in Iraq.

Initial reports back to the Pentagon deem the operation a success with dozens of front page stories in daily and weekly newspapers around the country along with upbeat reports on local television stations.

“We've learned as a military how to do this better,” Captain David Diaz, a military reservist, told his hometown paper, The Roanoke (VA) Times. “My worry is that we have the right military strategy and political strategies now but the patience of the American public is wearing thin.”

When pressed by the paper on whether or not his commanding officers told him to talk to the press, Diaz admitted he was “encouraged” to do so. So reporter Duncan Adams asked:


http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7918.shtml


As Gomer Pyle frequently said, Surprise, surprise, surprise.

[hippiechick]

1. If true, it's disgusting.

"Dear Folks,
We're in a country that hates us, killing women and children for no apparent reason, and are really enjoying seeing our fellow soldiers blown up, suffering in the stifling heat with little or no supplies, not knowing if/when we'll ever get home.

War is fun and George Bush is a glorious leader and don't let those commie anti-war protesters tell you otherwise.

Signed,
GI Joe"



:mad: :puke: :mad: :puke:

[bullimiami]

2. if this isnt criminal it should be.

[Dirty Hippie]

3. The part about Leonard Clark

is definitely true. I was reading his blog until the end.

[bryant69]

4. This is not surprising

Certainly revealing that some soldiers were asked to participate in this program is going to negate a lot of the effect of such propoganda.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[GrantDem]

5. Hmmm..

Dear LTTE,

I think President Bush is the greatest preznit ever.

[wakeme2008]

6. grr

"The message is clear,” says one reservist who is home for the holidays but has to return and asked not to be identified. “If you want to get out of this man’s Army with an honorable (discharge) and full benefits you better not tell the truth about what is happening in-country.”

This new Army is just unfucking believable.

[mopinko]

hmmm, maybe this explains tammy duckworth

dlc'er rahm emmanuel's choice to torpedo progressive candidate christine cegalis for the 6th district in illinois.
this thread is about the long running pr campaign for her.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=150x10058
some background threads-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=150&topic_id=9709&mesg_id=9709
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=150&topic_id=9851&mesg_id=9851

there are some more threads in the illinois forum if you look around. curiouser and curiouser.

[Skidmore]

7. I heard a couple of chirpy, happy Iraqi interviews on one of our local

channels this past week and it sounded so discordant. I'm wondering how many of those leaves were given in exchange for doing this type of PR.

[Stephanie]

8. Found the original article >

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/46076

<snip>

On Aug. 18, Diaz and companion soldiers flew into Baghdad International Airport and rode in heavily armored buses to the city's International Zone. Shortly thereafter, he tackled his duties as an intelligence officer for U.S. teams that are training Iraqi police and security forces, including paramilitary public order battalions as well as commandos of the notorious Wolf Brigade. He said he works seven days a week and has only a few hours off each Friday morning.

"I develop an intelligence summary for the Americans who are mentoring the Iraqi police forces," Diaz said.

***

Did Diaz return to the U.S. on emergency leave with an agenda -- to offer a positive spin that could help counter growing concerns among Americans about the U.S. exit strategy? How do we know that's not his strategy, especially after he discloses that superior officers encouraged him to talk about his experiences in Iraq?

"You don't," he said. "But intelligence officers are not public affairs officers. We're analysts. I can tell you that the direction we've gotten from on high is that there is a concern about public opinion out there and they want to set the record straight.

"Have I been coached about what to say? No. Nobody said, 'Diaz, you've got to go out there and say this.' "

[Gman]

9. Great quote:

“Iraq is a classic FUBAR,” he (Sgt. Johnathan Wilson, a reservist) says. “The country is out of control and we can’t stop it. Anybody who tries to sell a good news story about the war is blowing it out his ass. We don’t win and eventually we will leave the country in a worse shape than it was when we invaded.”

[InkAddict]

10. Hey, she got the memo!

http://www.wdtn.com/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=18063

[Ron Green]

11. Yet another manifestation of the ALL-VOLUNTEER MILITARY.

Universal service is long overdue.

No mercenaries fighting in my name!!

[usedtobesick]

18. I hear and agree that this propaganda machine is wrong

but Universal Service doesn't stop this... there were people doing this in Nam as well remember. There will always be people who join the service and will be either in good faith doing this (ignorance or actually believe their position to be true and just, there are those out there that believe this) or under coercion for better assignments or good time off for good behavior. Duty Honor Country does mean different things to different people. Oliver North is not a one time one man show. There are many men and women who serve in different places that are as passionately for Bush and his agenda as we are against that same agenda... the key isn't getting everyone serving but education and winning the hearts and minds of America for Peace and Justice.

On edit maybe I should have sent this as another form, my intent is not to disrupt the point of this thread or the point you made but to add something that I think about a lot, maye I should have PM'ed you? My apollogies...

[Ron Green]

19. I think you're on the topic, which is the willingness of young people to

participate in propaganda, knowing by their own direct experience that it's based on lies. When I was in the Army from '66 to '69, the draftees kept everybody honest with their healthy dissent throughout the ranks. That didn't mean they weren't good soldiers; some of the bravest and most dutiful troops I ever knew were "Unwilling Service" (bearers of "US" serial numbers) who represented a cross-section of American youth much more than does our modern hired force. Do I think these guys would have written pro-administration letters to editors? Not for a minute.

[usedtobesick]

20. I think honestly that the percentage is the same

I was in this volunteer Army 83-96 and had always been surrounded by peers that would never had pulled this regardless of the offers on the table. We didn't buy what we where being told during the first gulf war, Somalia, Panama or Granada. The general rule is that you never trust politicians. They never have your best interests in mind. We knew Chaney and Dumbsfeld were crooks the first time we saw them under daddies rule and we did not like Powell. In the end we all had/have our own reasons for serving, just because you joined on your own doesn't mean you trust and believe what you read, hear or are told. I had/have friends of all ranks, socio-economic, skin color, sex that would have never written and have friends that are still in that will not do this. I think again why they are in is varied but they are not all drones I promise, I never was and I stayed in 13 years thru 4 conflicts and 3 reenlistments and visits to every vacation spot in the world. I think the ranks are kept honest now by the same type of people who are honest in their dissent and just as honest in their choice to serve. Sometimes we attempt to incite change from where we are, and in absence of that change coming we seek to make a difference in those we work with and around. Kind of the "if you can't love the one you want, you love the one you are with" approach. Sometimes you find yourself in the damnedest places in your life... and you seek to find your place and influence where you are.

[SpiralHawk]

12. BushCo = All propaganda all the time

Catapulting their BS everywhere. As usual.

We don't need no steenkin propaganda.

We need the truth, plain and simple.

[greiner3]

13. By definition, the military is fascistic. n/t

[KnaveRupe]

21. No it's not.

Fascism is defined as : "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

The military is by its very nature highly authoritarian, and very nationalistic, but it's not fascistic. It's militaristic.

The America that Bush, Inc. is trying to create, however, IS rather fascistic.

[Historic NY]

14. They got caught doing this early on.........

remember the exact same letters with only different signatures in several major newspapers. Just like the RNC ones.

[RamboLiberal]

15. More than letters - ordered to do interviews

So keep those eyes and ears open for this on/in your local TV, Radio and Newspapers.

[flyarm]

16. this was done once before as well!! who remembers when that

religous general made his troops write the same ltte a couple years ago around xmas time all over the country...??

but the papers got wise to it because the letters were all basically the same..and i thought this shit was supposed to be stopped then??!!

wtf...how much of this propaganda are we supposed to tolerate??

and why are our troops being used for propaganda...isn't serving in a war of lies enough to ask of them???????????????????????????

i hate these mtf in this fucking white house!!

can we tell i am seriously pissed yet????????????

fly

[SoCalDem]

17. But..newspapers are always "hungry" for stuff to run

They have cut their staffs to a bare minimum, and when "free stuff" comes their way, they will run it..especially if it's about the war.:( They will learn later that it's fake, but by then the damage has been done

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. which suggests that we are not doing enough

the truth needs help to get out.