PHONY LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS IN IRAQ?

[donsu]

http://counterspin.blogspot.com/2003_10_05_counterspin_archive.html#106587184158441668

HONY LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS IN IRAQ?: This is one of the most disgusting things I've seen in a while. I was tipped off by the folks at American Politics Journal about the appalling possibility that someone wrote a letter about how wonderful things are in Iraq, near Kirkuk, and signed several soldiers' names to the letter without them approving it, or their knowledge.

Turns out the astroturf letter part, at least, is true. Someone is sending the exact same letter to different newspapers across the country...only each letter is "signed" by a different soldier living in that paper's area of circulation. A blatant propaganda ploy. To see for yourself, do the following:

-snip-

Here are the names of soldiers that ave been used so far:

1. Spc. Nathan Whitelatch.

2. Sgt. Shawn M. Grueser.

3. Pfc. David Deaconson.

Deaconson is the one who was injured in the explosion.

4. Pfc. Jason Marshall.

5. Sgt. 1st Class Edwin Gargas Jr.

And...

6. Sgt. Chris Shelton.
-snip-
-------------------------------

FINAL UPDATE: Yes! The scam is confirmed! Here's the Gannett News Service article, published in the Olympian.
"Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.

And all the letters are the same.
-----------------------------

sounds Rovish

[Kamika]

1. ofcourse

Each side (dem/rep) has tons of phony letters or stories. I must say i do see alot more of the reupublicans but we got some too, dont worry.


a clear example is the letter where these all american guys at a coffee shop throw out some harward proffessors that are talking bad about bush or something and then everyone cheers them, they all pray etc etc etc

[atreides1]

2. Do You Have A Link

N/T

[smaug]

3. The Link

Here's the link to the story:

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031011/frontpage/121390.shtml

:-)

Sounds like a stupid public affairs officer (PAO) to me - I was in the military years ago, and those clowns would publish and fabricate anything. Natural Rethuglicans <big grimace!>

[Kamika]

4. The best one i ever read..

And i cant find it :(

It was HILLARIOUS

It was based as a letter written where this wife/mom telling the reader how her husband justified the war in iraq by using rethorical means, now what was incredible was how the dad did it.

I cant do exact quotes but i shit you not it went something like this

son: dad why do they invade iraq
dad: son, when your neighbour beats his wife what do you do?

son: you ignore it?
dad: But son you CANT ignore it!
son : you call the cops?
dad: BUT THE COPS WONT COME UNTIL SHES DEAD !!
son: but what do you do?? what do you do??

atthis point my son started to cry

dad: YOU BREAK IN AND RESCUE HER YO BREAK IN AND RESCUE HER!!
son : BUT dad im SCARED im SCARED
dad: BUT YOU HAVE TO OR HE'LL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN
son : BUT IM SO SCARED !!!
dad: BUT you have too !!!
son : Dad im SCAAARED
dad: YOU GO RESCUE HER ITS YOUR DUTY !!
son: Yes dad i SEE NOW we must rescue her we MUST RESCUE HER !!!

at this point my son and husband both cried and hugged eachother and i was so proud over my son. I went and prayed for them both


------

and if you think this was stupid this wasnt half of what they said the original letter was more then twice as long. id LOVE to find the original i remember me and my friends talked about how the dad could atleast have done this without making his son need theraphy.

[iverglas]

6. here you go

I googled for iraq dad son neighbor wife rescue, taking my cue from what you wrote (and backspacing over the "u" in my Canadian "neighbour"!)

http://ashleysmilitarypals.tripod.com/ashleysmilitarypenpals/id61.html
LESSON TO MY SON by A PROUD AMERICAN - Irma S. Chambers

It's big and nasty-looking to read. And because it has a name attached, and although I suspect it's pretty much public domain, I won't reproduce it and you'll have to go look at it yourself.

Ah, here we are, a less obnoxiously laid out version:
http://www.titus2women.com/AmericaSeries/LessonToMySon/PrinterFriendly.shtml

And aha. Irma S. Chambers seems to be responsible for the International War Veterans Poetry Archives: http://www.iwvpa.net/chambersis/
which seems to be the original source of the thing.

As an antidote, I recommend Country Joe McDonald's site: http://www.countryjoe.com/
(warning to other luddites: it crashes antique netscapes)

I'm especially fond of his Florence Nightingale tribute page: http://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale/
for a little truly selfless sacrifice if one is in need of inspiration.

.

[trof]

5. another link

to the thread in LBN.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=160905&mesg_id=160905

[morebunk]

7. We should hold the press accountable for this. They know it's phony

yet they continue to publish the letters anyway. We need to bombard every call in show with this information. Write letters to the editors and hound O'Reilly about it. Just another lie by the RWingnuts. Demonstrates what they really think about the American people and our troops. They defame them both.

[kaitykaity]

8. Locking.

Please see rule #2 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=463744

2. The subject line of a discussion thread and the entire text of the message which starts the thread may not include profanity, excessive capitalization, or excessive punctuation. Inflammatory rhetoric should also be avoided. Exceptions may be allowed for threads about our shared political opponents and/or policies which we generally oppose.