Letters to the Editor
rollotomasi
Published Letters: 187
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Even the name "Multi-National Force-Iraq" is misleading
[Read the article: Our rotted press corps, a division of "Camp Victory"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And many of those they don't call Al Qaeda are called terrorists, which is just as misleading. Anyone who doubts the military is seriously exaggerating the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and conflating insurgency with terrorism (Evil) just need to scan the entries at "Operation Iraqi Freedom" (yet another propagandistic name), the official website of "Multi-National Force-Iraq."
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=1&id=4&Itemid=21&limit=50&limitstart=0
Also, your book was in the mail earlier in the week, Glenn, and look forward to a good read.
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Retired Military Patriot: Thanks
[Read the article: Our rotted press corps, a division of "Camp Victory"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your articulate, first-hand perspective. I am no more criticizing individual military members or a particular group or blaming this mess on them than, say, a ground soldier, and realize they are just trying to do the best job they can at the pleasure of their integrity-challenged civilian brethren, the “Attention Deficit Administration of Spoiled Brats,” as you so well put it. In fact, this all must be even more frustrating for you, knowing how the caliber of people like those with whom you worked, some of whom may still work there (?), are being misused.
My point regarding the Multi-National Force – Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom releases was not only directed at the references to “Al Qaeda”; but also the conflation of insurgency to terrorism. The references to “terrorist(s)” and “suspect(s)” are just as prevalent as “Al Qaeda,” if not more so, on the list of releases at their website. I did not count the number of such references as you did, but a scan of the first couple of pages of the list made it pretty clear how the administration is trying to portray this through their military megaphone, to the point of creating an alternate reality. To me, this is a complicated, protracted civil war (that we set into motion), involving probably hundreds of different tribal strains, some of which reconfigure on a weekly basis if not more often, that the administration is trying to boil down to a war against terrorism. What better example could there be of Glenn’s “Good vs. Evil” scenario being played out by this administration?
A right-wing blogger who basically said Glenn was full of it in his post a week ago about the overuse of “Al Qaeda” cited the Multi-National Force – Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom website as proof that the MSM was not exaggerating the influence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and quoted some “Al Qaeda”-reference numbers as you did. Besides the obvious weakness in his argument that Glenn’s point was primarily about what was winding up in an unskeptical media of mass consumption and that the military website was but one vehicle the administration uses to disseminate their Iraq propaganda, I got to looking at the website and, again without doing any counts, it seemed like that every other release referred to “Al Qaeda”, “terrorist(s)”, or “suspect(s)”. As I pointed out before, the inclusion of “Multi-National” in the name is a misleading political statement itself.
One other thing I noticed and did do a brief count on the releases: we sure as hell appear to be “detaining” a lot of people over there (about a dozen stories from the last four days). I wonder if that might rouse the curiosity of our media of mass consumption.
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Isn't PoliticalRealityOnline
[Read the article: Our rotted press corps, a division of "Camp Victory"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]a few capital letters and exclamation points away from being The Major?
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Our military is a victim
[Read the article: Our rotted press corps, a division of "Camp Victory"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The military personnel, in particular those who have commented here, should be cut a little slack. Even though the military may be assisting in the dissemination of Bush propaganda, they are basically doing what they are told to do and are in a much different situation than, say, a Republican political operative who directs the message and can occupationally come and go as he or she pleases, especially with the generous assistance wingnut welfare provides.
It's not like a military member, upon being asked to do something personally distasteful, can simply refuse, talk back to superiors, or just tender their resignation and go home without likely severe repercussions. I sympathize with military members who regularly must deal with such morally compromising situations, many of which are far more pressing than being told to type "Al Qaeda" on a news release, without many of the tools of objection available to civilians. I imagine it has to range from frustrating to unbearable for many. And who among us here, even with these additional tools, has not at some point gone along with something you may have believed was either morally wrong or just a really bad idea at your own work?
The "Al Qaeda" deception is clearly being directed by a desperate administration who has nothing left but to try to control the message. The administration, like most everything else, has poisoned and weakened the military and its members with its extremist policies, gross politicalization and lying. How is the military under this leadership ever going to successfully recruit anyone having more than minimal career options after the way they have treated current members, in particular replacing experienced military leadership with those more politically aligned, forcing repeated and/or extended combat tours of duty, providing in many cases substandard medical treatment of those returning from combat, and using them as political props? The only way at this point without re-instituting the draft is to overpay for the underqualified or hire a contractor who may or may not have your national interests at heart.
Just another debt being run up by an ideological administration who is more than willing to leave the reality of paying it to future generations.