NYT: Pentagon Leaders Tell Ranks to Get Ballots and Use Them

[kskiska]

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan - Capt. Scott D. Stewart, a 20-year veteran of the Air Force, remembers that voting on American military bases was always a low priority, with registration seen as "a free-for-all, every man for himself."

But this time, Captain Stewart, a 40-year-old Floridian, dropped his presidential ballot in the mail in late September. This time, the Pentagon wants 100 percent voter participation here and at many American bases around the world.

The target may be impossible, but the advocates command attention: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Through e-mail messages, spots on military radio and television and orders down the chain of command, the message has reached bases like this one, a conglomeration of 1960's beige and brown government buildings surrounding a military air strip 30 miles west of Tokyo.

"It's very rare that you see a four-star general getting on television, telling soldiers to register and vote," said Captain Stewart, a base security officer assigned to help run the voter registration campaign, referring to General Myers. "It's been a huge, huge push to get everyone registered. It was coming straight down from the secretary of defense."

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/campaign/08vote.html?oref=login

[qanda]

1. I wonder who they want them to vote for....

:shrug:

[NMDemDist2]

2. let's hope they get all the gurad and reserve guys too

hehehehe

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Good. This will backfire on them big time.

If Rumsfeld and Myers are so delusional as to think that the rank and file are going to support Bush, then I hope they get their wish.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. IMHO, I think the entire military has had enough of the NeoCons.

[mike_c]

4. the rat bastards are worried...., still, the floggings will continue...

...until morale improves.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. My tin foil hat tells me that the military "Get Out the Vote"............

push is just another way for the repubs and neocons in the Department of Defense to STEAL several tens of thousands of soldiers' votes.

[oldhat]

6. Welcome to the club.

It's not tinfoil at all. It's pretty blatant what Meyers and Rumsfeld are trying to do here. "Please let us keep our jobs guys!"

[jwirr]

9. Well let's see?

They want to keep their jobs when:

-they lied and soldiers died;
-they sent soldiers to war without the proper equipment;
-they pay contractors 2-3 times as much as soldiers in the same war;
-they cut military housing and dependent services for military families;
-they paid Halliburtin for meals that were not delivered;
-they are using the back door draft for soldiers fighting under intolerable circumstances;
-they refuse to allow the media to tell the truth about the Iraq situation.

As I remember it back in the olden days when we were in Vietnam the guys were not as dumb as the brass thought - while military media was tell them one thing, they were listening to radio stations that were telling the truth. I don't know about you but with a record like the one above, I would fire the present administration and hire me a real soldier.

[huckleberry]

7. There are signs all over the Pentagon encouraging everyone to vote.

I didn't see any signs like these four years ago.

[w4rma]

10. Hope the folks on the font line get the same priority. (nt)