AOL Poll: Sign Tallying Iraq Casualties Causes Stir

[1monster]

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051230155609990007&ncid=NWS00010000000001

What should Scott Cameron do with his sign tallying U.S. Iraq deaths, casualties?
Leave it up 77%
Take it down 23%

Is it an effective way to spotlight the treatment of veterans?
Yes 66%
No 34%
Total Votes: 30,489


Article snip:

Sign Tallying Iraq Casualties Causes Stir
Army Objects to Minnesota Vet's Memorial to Fallen Soldiers
By PATRICK CONDON, AP

DULUTH, Minn. (Dec. 31) - Scott Cameron never imagined his modest memorial to American troops in Iraq would transform a quiet street here into the latest front of the nation's tense debate about the war in Iraq.

His sign tallying the war's dead and wounded rests feet from the local Army recruiting office, and Cameron's refusal to take it down despite Army requests has drawn national attention. The fuss is giving the Vietnam veteran a chance to air a view he wishes he'd expressed long ago.

"The way veterans have been treated in this country is shameful," Cameron said this week.

His tribute has irritated the military recruiters next door, who dislike the daily reminder of friends lost. Staff Sgt. Gary Capan, the post's commander, requested that the sign come down for his colleagues' benefit.

"They're saying, 'Why should we have to look at that? We lost people over there,"' said Staff Sgt. Gary Capan, the post's commander. "It's not just a number to them."

Some of Cameron's supporters believe the sign will hurt recruiting.

[sasha031]

1. I had AOL a long time ago

on the run up to the war, I entered the idiot chat room. Oh they were so gun ho of blowing everything up. Chatting on the outside wasn't much better. I came to the conclusion that I lived in a nation full of morons. Hadn't discovered DU at the time, my loss.

[1monster]

3. I belonged to one of those message boards. About ten of us had enough

of the Bush loving Ann Colter-like commentators and split off on to an invitation-only board elsewhere.

Every now and then, I go back to the original board just to see if things have changed. They have only in that it seems that where before there is more ignorance (and more ignorant people) than before, there are fewer people willing to post the truth to them. They cling to and glory in their ignorance.

However, if you have been following AOL polls, there has been a very significant shift in attitude. AOL polls used to be almost guaranteed to go the way of the conservatives. That is not true any more.

[MoJoWorkin]

2. done. n/t

[PDJane]

4. AOL has this ugly tendency

To sell your information too; I ditched AOL for highspeed supplied by a Canadian company, and haven't had nearly the amount of drive-bys, spyware, trojans......

done, btw.

[niyad]

5. I hope it DOES hurt recruiting--and I applaud Scott for his stand-

people need to have those numbers in their faces 24/7 until the sheeples finally wake up and demand an end to this insanity.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Freeper comment interesting

After voting, I read some good posts (Impeach Bu$h, etc) and one freeper comment that said in effect that hey, there have been a lot more soldiers killed in other wars, so we shouldn't post the death number. I'm not an AOL member, and won't sign up, but my reply would be-this is a way to HONOR their SACRIFICE, thank you. When we live in a society where rwingers picket all military funerals to push their own agenda, when we have freepers discounting the numbers of fallen, I am more and more sure that people like that don't support the troops and don't care a lick about them! Even in the minor skirmishes during the Civil War, somewhere there is always a plaque with the names or numbers of fallen, honoring their sacrifice.

[Historic NY]

7. They don't support the troops......

they support the agenda which used the troops as tools. If they were such supporters they would be screaming to increase VA benefits, not allowing them to be diminished.

[Vidar]

8. done

[OhioChick]

9. Done n/t