Missing Soldier in Iraq Has Become Part of Ohio Community's Consciousness

[NNN0LHI]

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) - Right after "How ya doin'?" and before "Have a nice day," people in this southwest Ohio community are likely to ask, "Have you heard anything new about Matt?"
Army Reserve Spc. Keith "Matt" Maupin, the only soldier the U.S. Army lists as captured in Iraq, has become part of the social fabric that binds this town of about 2,000 residents.

A three-member Army board of inquiry is to meet Wednesday in Alexandria, Va., for a routine annual review of his status, Robbins said. The board's decision is not expected to be announced until next week

The family has not let up on the pressure. When it was feared that the Army might downgrade Maupin's status from "captured," Carolyn Maupin swung into action.

"The phone tree lit up, and we all called the Army," Kathleen Blanchard said. "She was afraid if they changed his status, they'd stop looking for him."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBK71R467E.html

Why would the military want to change his status from captured to something else? My guess is that POWs are bad for bidness.

[Sabriel]

1. Something stinks about this story

Why has there been no word on him, or any mention by either Iraqi or U.S. military sources? Hmmmm....

[NNN0LHI]

2. It is because he is not the only one

And anyone who thinks Maupin is the only one is only kidding themselves. After seeing the kind of "fraternity pranks" the US military plays with Iraqi POWs, it would get future enlistees thinking what kind of "fraternity pranks" the Iraqis have in store for them if they are captured. And Americans might not be so inclined to laugh off the kind of torture that our military is inflicting on the Iraqis if they start thinking about some of our own soldiers getting some of the same treatment...or worse. That is whats going on here. That is the 800 pound Gorilla in the room.

Don

[NNN0LHI]

3. That is why this thread is dying too

No one wants to talk about this. Its also the reason the military is accepting people into the service with 9th grade educations. They aren't smart enough to think about this possibility until it is too late for them. Their parents probably aren't either. And no one wants to talk about it here either, because even when those with a 9th grade education realize what is going on they won't enlist. Then comes the draft. Just wait and see.

My daughters fiance thought the Abu Ghraib prison photos were funny until I asked him what he thought about the same thing being done to American soldiers. His big shit eating grin was gone real quick after I asked him that question and he didn't want to discuss any further. If by some stroke of fate I had a kid in Iraq right now I would tell him not to let himself be taken alive under any circumstances. I would advise him to put a bullet in his own head if he knew he was about to be captured. That is the truth.

Don

[MaineDem]

4. I've been waiting for more details on this soldier

I wish the military would tell us more.

[Straight Shooter]

5. Hey, so-called "culture of life" people. Matt Maupin has (had) a life.

Where is your concern for him?

Thanks for posting this, Don. Every time Maupin's name comes up, I wonder about the truth. There was that grainy film supposedly showing him being executed at gunpoint after digging his grave. But, there was no follow-up to confirm it was Maupin. Maybe the Army got his body back and he had been tortured and beheaded. *shivers*

[ninkasi]

6. I've been wondering why we haven't heard about POWs

It seems to me an impossibility that there haven't been many more of our troops captured. Iraq is in such a state of chaos, so many ambushes, not knowing whose side people are on, it would be astonishing if Matt Maupin were the only one captured.

I know the U.S. politicians and media scoff at news sources other than the tightly controlled MSM here in America, and I know that exaggeration is something both sides do, but I've read excerpts from quotes in some of the Mid Eastern papers of troops being captured. Sorry, this is just from memory, and it is proof of nothing, but still...

Another point I'd like to raise is this; Americans could very well be captured by individual families, as acts of vengeance against what some of their relatives suffered when at the hands of American forces. This is a tightly knit, tribal society, with very close extended families, and the humiliation and torture many have endured at our hands practically guarantees that if the opportunity presents itself, there will be payback.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Ask some combat veterans if they think after 2 years of a guerrilla war...

...that only one US soldier has been taken as a POW. I asked some and got laughed at. They know better.

Don

[ninkasi]

8. I thought as much

It is absolutely mortifying that citizens in this country would rather protest removing the feeding tube from a woman in a vegetative state, even though enormous time, money, and emotional pain have been caused, than to spare a thought for the soldiers sent to fight an illegal, immoral sham of a war.

All of us on DU knew that the atrocities committed with the approval, and even the orders, of an out-of-control administration, would make things for our troops who have been captured sheer hell. This country has so far fallen into lunacy, that the things that keep me from sleeping at night don't raise even an eyebrow among Chimp's followers.

We have, as we have discussed, a press so cowed, or bought off, that doing any meaningful investigative work on the issue of our POWs or MIAs is something they aren't going to do. How has our country come to this? Is democracy so fragile that one man...one wealthy, corrupt, sociopath, can simply take over the country, change laws at his whim, encourage his followers to take control of schools, the media, and the courts?

Our Founding Fathers would be horrified at the current attempts to change our government to a theocracy, and allow a minority of citizens to call the shots, determine the news, and change the whole ethos of our country. I can't believe that so many of us are so blind, so ignorant, or so uncaring, as to let things continue on the present course.

We must demand that our Democratic leaders lead, and oppose these measures. In 2006, we'd better do everything in our power to recapture at least one branch of the legislature, or risk sinking further into the kind of world no sane person would wish to live in.