Another military blogger silenced

[AussieDave]

Picked this up from Buzzflash - a link to the site "The Tattered Coat":

http://www.tatteredcoat.com/archives/2005/10/23/another-military-blogger-silenced/

"It is too late because Daniel has been silenced, against his will. And not only has he been silenced — he has been forced to publicly declare himself “a supporter of the administration and of her policies.

"A stop-lossed soldier angry that he is still serving in Iraq, seven months beyond his original enlistment agreement, Daniel is no longer free to post on his blog. Though he had taken care to adhere to the code of conduct to which he is bound, it is likely that a post of his on the Operation Truth website brought his views to the attention of military officials.

"Daniel’s final post is heart-breaking; the single most chilling thing about it, if you know your Orwell, is its title: Double Plus Ungood."

http://goetzit.blogspot.com/

Democracy and love of the First Amendment in America - I think it's worth looking through The Tattered Coat link and Daniel Goetz's blog. The Pentagon can't afford independent voices, it seems - don't be surprised if this brave young man comes home in a coffin......

[fooj]

1. OMG! Not again! We can't let this happen. We just can't!

I'm writing my Congressman and my Senator.

Peace.

[AussieDave]

3. Infinitely sad - yet the Bushies look upon this kind of free speech

as treasonous - why doesn't he support the troops ??

Oh wait, he IS one........

[obxhead]

2. Look for his name on the list soon.

so sad, so sad. One more reason for me to hang my head in shame as an American and to march in DC protests.

[bonito]

4. Keep this kicked

[babylonsister]

5. Yep, Daniel is fighting for

our freedoms as well as his own. :sarcasm:

Thanks for this, AussieDave. It's so damned unfair.

Can you elaborate on "Double Plus Ungood"?

[AussieDave]

6. I don't know my Orwell much, but here's what I could find:

You've got to know the story of Orwell's 1984 to get this. In that novel, the government attempts to control its citizens by a variety of methods, one of which is "dumbing down" the language to reduce people's ability to reason. So in the language of 1984 (newspeak), that's how you say, "Bush Really, Really Sucks".

Also: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DoublePlusUnGood

It's Daniel's one last zing at his military overlords......

[MaggieSwanson]

24. "Double Plus Ungood"

from George Orwell...

"...any word - this again applied in principle to every word in the language-could be negated by adding the affix un-, or could be strenghtened by the affix plus-, or for still greater emphasis, doubleplus-. Thus, for example, uncold meant "warm", while pluscold and doublepluscold meant, respectively, "very cold" and "superlatively cold".

"...Given, for instance, the word "good", there was no need for such a word as "bad", since the required meaning was equally well-indeed better-expressed by ungood."

It means very, very bad news, 1984-style, for Daniel.

Thread nominated. This is outrageous.

[meganmonkey]

7. Oh man, the shit they made him spew in that last blog entry

:cry:

This is NOT HOW AMERICA BEHAVES!!! This is not my country.

:(

[fooj]

8. Kick for Daniel!

:patriot:

[annabanana]

9. If you follow "tattered coat"

to Holly (his girlfriend)
you can get a message to him, through her, and offer encouragement.

[AussieDave]

10. Good idea, but of course his incoming messages could be monitored

welcome to 1984, kids....

[EnfantTerrible]

Fascist fucking assholes

:mad::cry::mad:

[SeattleGirl]

11. This makes me so sad and so angry!!

What they made this man write in his final post is nothing less than a loyalty oath to Bush! The men and women in the military literally lay their lives on the line, and in return they get told to shut up. If he was not giving away anything about his unit, their position, or their job (and apparently he was not), then the only reason he was shut down was because he dared to be critical of the irresponsible, sloppy, dangerous way this war -- and the military -- are being run. If these men and women who are being stop-lossed don't have a right to be angry, then who does?

I, TOO, WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!! :cry:

[hootinholler]

19. Hmmm. They forced him to recant all he has said.

This is a first ammendment issue, and borders on forcing him to violate his oath of enlistment.

-Hoot

[SeattleGirl]

23. I agree.

I was just chilled to the bone when I read the statement they made him post.

[ourbluenation]

12. Am I being paranoid by thinking he should go awol, quicklike?

He's unbelievably eloquent...an essayist of the first degree.

[PhilipShore]

13. One famous conscientious objector of war said

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. ~John F. Kennedy

[Peace Patriot]

15. I didn't know JFK said that! Wow! No wonder they offed him.

Prayers for Daniel, this honorable and eloquent speaker of the truth, that he will survive, that his spirit will be undamaged, and that he can one day help us all to create a peaceful world.

[AussieDave]

16. Welcome to DU Philip - great quote

[newyawker99]

30. Hi PhilipShore!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ngGale]

14. OMG...

will he survive to get home, I have a bad feeling about this.:cry:

[burrowowl]

17. KICK!

[Cults4Bush]

18. Hey moderates, can we call it fascism yet?

This is 100% fucked up... hey many more military voices will they threaten in order to maintain their death grip?

[texpatriot2004]

20. How many soldiers have been shut down now? nm

[obxhead]

21. KICK! put his name in the MSM so he doesn't get on to the

gotta get rid of list!

[proud patriot]

22. this pisses me off

:grr:

[deadparrot]

25. Wow. That's disturbing and disgusting on so many levels.

DoublePlusBad, to be sure. :(

Best wishes to Daniel.

[neebob]

26. The administration is a girl?

That's bizarre.

[AussieDave]

27. Ships are usually referred to in female terms

this particular ship (the misAdministration) seems to be taking in water........

[Kailassa]

28. Of course it's female; ...

it's Miss Administration.

:kick:

[AussieDave]

29. LOL - thank you so much

I missed that one completely !!!

[helderheid]

31. disgusted, sad, angry, OUTRAGED

Saturday, October 22, 2005
Double Plus Ungood
I thank all of you who have been so supportive recently. I have never before received so much positive feedback, and it was very heart-warming to know that so many people out there care. Having said that, it breaks my heart to say that this will be my last post on this blog. I wish I could just stop there, but I can not. The following also needs to be said:

For the record, I am officially a supporter of the administration and of her policies. I am a proponent for the war against terror and I believe in the mission in Iraq. I understand my role in that mission, and I accept it. I understand that I signed the contract which makes stop loss legal, and I retract any statements I made in the past that contradict this one. Furthermore, I have the utmost confidence in the leadership of my chain of command, including (but not limited to) the president George Bush and the honorable secretary of defense Rumsfeld. If I have ever written anything on this site or on others that lead the reader to believe otherwise, please consider this a full and complete retraction.

I apologize for any misunderstandings that might understandably arise from this. Should you continue to have questions, please feel free to contact me through e-mail. I promise to respond personally to each, but it may take some time; my internet access has become restricted.

[insane_cratic_gal]

32. More then their first amendment

we need to stop this..

From Daniel's own blog:

In the months that were to follow, those justifications collapsed - and with them, my confidence in a nation. In those days, my colleagues and I would often patrol the streets of Baghdad with the infantry in a bid to quell boredom. We were also looking for hope among the Iraqi people; we could live vicariously through their optimism, and perhaps therein find meaning for our occupation. But hope betrayed us as the insurgency swelled. It was when the fighting began again in earnest that we left Iraq. By the end of August, I was back in The United States, free to pretend Iraq never happened.

But it had. And nothing could wrench the darkest memories from repression like the knowledge that we were to return. Worse, our year in America was wasted. Almost every week, CSPAN would feature one committee or another complaining that our armed forces hadn't enough service members in critical jobs like intelligence and military police. I wanted them to know how poorly we were thought of in our own units, and how little job-specific training we received before we left. At one point, we were told to study Arabic only on our own time. That was hardly possible when we were kept late every night, sometimes doing only menial tasks like weapons-cleaning until three in the morning.

The last straw was "stop loss". My enlistment contract ended in March of this year. It is seven months hence, and I am still in Iraq. I propose that, in order for me to respect my commitment, the army ought to respect the contract we agreed upon. It was for five years, not six. Proponents of this form of conscription argue that I signed it nonetheless, fully aware of possible outcomes. True, I ought to have prepared myself better. But to remain bound to an expired commitment - exposed to prolonged peril in support of an unjustifiable cause - was beyond my expectations.


This just breaks my heart.. who do I need to rave at to remove all of these guys from Iraq.

[slay]

33. "the army is trying very hard to muffle the cries of battered soldiers"

That's from his October 14th blog entry. Guess they succeeded. :(