Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home

[Up2Late]

(I heard this on Harry Shearer's "Le Show" today, Looks like it was lost in the Holiday rush and such. I don't know that much about Capitol Hill Blue, but some folks swear by it.)

Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on leave

By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Dec 29, 2005, 05:44

Good soldiers follow orders and hundreds of American military men and women returned to the United States on holiday leave this month with orders to sell the Iraq war to a skeptical public. The program, coordinated through a Pentagon operation dubbed “Operation Homefront,” ordered military personnel to give interviews to their hometown newspapers, television stations and other media outlets and praise the American war effort in Iraq.

Initial reports back to the Pentagon deem the operation a success with dozens of front page stories in daily and weekly newspapers around the country along with upbeat reports on local television stations. “We've learned as a military how to do this better,” Captain David Diaz, a military reservist, told his hometown paper, The Roanoke (VA) Times. “My worry is that we have the right military strategy and political strategies now but the patience of the American public is wearing thin.”

When pressed by the paper on whether or not his commanding officers told him to talk to the press, Diaz admitted he was “encouraged” to do so. So reporter Duncan Adams asked: “Did Diaz return to the U.S. on emergency leave with an agenda -- to offer a positive spin that could help counter growing concerns among Americans about the U.S. exit strategy? How do we know that's not his strategy, especially after he discloses that superior officers encouraged him to talk about his experiences in Iraq?”

Replied Diaz: “You don't. I can tell you that the direction we've gotten from on high is that there is a concern about public opinion out there and they want to set the record straight.” Diaz, an intelligence officer, knows how to avoid a direct answer. Other military personnel, however, tell Capitol Hill Blue privately that the pressure to “sell the war” back home is enormous.

(more at link below)
<http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7918.shtml>

[Tom Joad]

1. All part of the big disinformation campaign. The selling of the pentagon

It is still a hard sell. Most folks aren't buying it.

Folks may want to check out this thread about how an embedded reporter defamed (swiftboated) a courageous war resister.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=150255&mesg_id=150255

[bluestateguy]

2. The troops must be allowed to criticize the war freely

If they can be forced to repeat White House talking points in local papers all over the country, then they must also be allowed to criticize the war, its management, and the Administration without fear of penalty.

[recoveringrepublican]

3. Here is one volunteer

*note, he says he's NOT in Iraq, but I've been talking with him, as have some of my military buddies, and we all believe hs is legit and is currently serving it Iraq.

http://americanshort-timer.blogspot.com/


12 January 2006
do the right thing
Oh! Oh! Oh! Me! Me! Me!

(I feel like one of those little asshole suckups from way back in the day, stretching and craning and frantically arm-waiving and doing everything but leap on top of the desk to grab teacher's attention... pick me Teach, pick me! Me! Meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!)

Check THIS sweet shit out...


The Army's Buying PR

Word comes from RL that the Army has hired PR firm Hass MS&L of Detroit to offer "exclusive editorial content" to blogs willing to run government propaganda.

"The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out," account executive Charlie Kondek has written to a number of pro-military blogs in a January 6 Email.

"To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content on a few issues you’re likely to be interested in," Kondek says.



This sweet shit came courtesy of an attentive reader--thanks again Mark!-- wondering if this had percolated down to my end of the sticks, and I just couldn't resist. You know me, ANYTHING to help the war effort... America! FUCK YEAH! Coming again, to save the motherfuckin' day YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

YO! YO! YOOOOOOOOOO! PR DUDES!!!!!!!!! Check this shit out yo! Kickin' ass and takin' names over in the Raqistan. Over in Da Sandbox. Fuck yeah. Kickin' some serious turrist tail yo. Makin' the Raq safe for Mocracy. And pro wrestling! And Jiffy Lube! Defending Muncie, Indiana and Flagstaff, Arizona and Oahu, Hawaii and Kodiak, Alaska from evildoer motherfuckers and Burqa-lovers and unsavory dark-eyed 13th century folk with evil intent and shit-stained fingers. Disrupting turrism and bomb plots and stompin' down hard on all the evildoer mud with every step. Just yesterday I single-handedly built twelve mosques, handed out four-thousand pee-aich-DEEs to said number of Raqi FEEEEEmales, established fifteen new Raqi political parties, eventhough I've never voted once in my life and don't believe in that shit but FUCK IT cause I'm super HARDCORE and mission-oriented and glass-floweth-over CAN DO SIR! to teach the sand people Jeffersonian majority tyranny cause command said MOVE OUT! and what else.... oh yeah, taught a battalion of newly badged Raqi pigs, I mean, cops, how to line up head shots! That's how much boy scout shit I did just yesterday, just me and my left hand (hint hint), in one day! HOOOAH!!!!!!!

Look, PR Dudes.... this is how it is... American Short-Timer is THE obvious choice for all your Insider Poop dispersion. I have like TEN confirmed Left Coast Commie Pinko Naysayer type regular readers, and I ga-RAN-TEE if they start hearing about all our good deeds from the Short-Timer's salivating mouth, word WILL go out in the hash dens and mosh pits and street corners of lefty Murka... We are WINNING the hearts and minds and guts and bowels of the Raqi people, a billion dollars at a time. Twenty thousand dead Joes and ten trillion dollars and fifty years from now this place will be just like downtown Detroit. Free at last, free at last... HOOOAH!!!!!!



So dudes... do the right thing...




PICK ME!!!!!!!!!






PICK MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






PICK MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






stodgy prejudiced fucks...

[fasttense]

4. They can try to get the troops to talk up the benefits of the Iraq

war, but the soldiers are going to do what they want to do. I was in the military for twenty years. During that time, our senior officers tried to get us to vote republican. I did what I wanted to do. The senior officers went so far as to tell us what books to read and not read. It is funny how the books on the "Not Read" list were all anyone talked about. The books on the "Not Read" list were all sold out around bases and most of them went on to become best sellers. You can try and make them be your PR machine but soldiers, sailors and airmen are going to do what they want when it comes to politics.

[teryang]

5. It's the Ollie North propaganda program

This is how he got started.

This is a direct result of Iraq war veterans opposed to the war running for national office. Murtha has galvanized these veterans. The Pentagon is counter attacking.

[Up2Late]

6. kick n/t

:kick:

[Up2Late]

7. punt n/t

:kick: