"Message From Iraq" astroturf campaign?

[Shipwack]

I saw this letter originally on one web site, and thought, "Hmmm that's nice... I wouldn't mind being wrong on this issue (troop morale and sucess). Then I saw the same letter in another spot! I did a little Googling (the phrase "complained to General McKeirnan" seemed to get the most relevant hits; YMMV). Here's an excerpt to jog your memories, followed by some (but by no means all) sites that have published this "letter from the front". I tried to include only those that listed this as "being forwarded by a friend), and not ones that link the to the letter from other places. Is this a case of astro-turfing (planting a fake letter in various spots in order to create an impression of success and well being)?

>Subject: FW: Message From Iraq
>
>It Ain't Necessarily So.
>Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003, 11:09:09 GMT
>
>Hey Guys, sorry it's been so long since I've sent anything but a >quick note to you individually. However things have been pretty >hectic since the end of hostilities and the start of the real war. >Despite what the assholes in the press like to say over and over >about the Ba'ath Party and Feydaheen.
>2) It isn't any worse than expected;
>3) Things are getting better each day, and
>4) The morale of the troops is A-1, except for the normal bitching >and griping.

Free Republic

Commobunker.com

StrangeCosmos.com

Winds of Change.net

Sophorist.com

Quantum Philosophy.net

Yahoo Groups "Ulster Scots"

[arcane1]

1. ah yes, that's been posted right here on DU, too

by someone with like 50 posts, if you can believe that :-)

I give it a b+ for including so many right-wing talking points in one letter, but the less-than-covert racism cost it the A. Better luck next time guys!

and on the validity scale I'll say it's about equal to the Niger documents

[Shipwack]

3. ack... sorry about the repost, then...

I've just been seeing this newly posted in other places, so I thought I'd mention it.

It wasn't posted recently, so I thought I was safe. Just one more reason to become a "contributing member" so I can access that hi-tech search function... :)

[KellyW]

2. Something about this does not ring true.

For one thing he says “There are dual patrols of Iraqi cops and U.S./U.K./Polish MPs now in most of the larger cities.” But the email is dated July 1, the first Polish support staff did not even leave for Iraq until July 2. I don’t think that there are Polish MPs patrolling now. I think the target date was Sept. 1.
If you read all of the versions you see that the author is apparently a LT colonel who is a media minder. Although he says that > >I'm no longer baby-sitting the pukes from CNN and the canned hams from the networks, but have a combat mission coordinating a bunch of A teams.” This seems like an unlikely transition. He still must spend a lot of time in an air-conditioned room watching satellite TV News, but never mentions FoxNews. If this is a real guy it is understandable that his main job is propaganda and he likes doing his job. He also apparently has a firm return date (August) unlike most of the folks over there.
The slams on Clinton and the Dems only appear in a few versions. There is enough variation to raise questions, but there is also enough info to find the real person if they truly exist.

[pbeal]

4. well the date is all wrong for one

Its dated july 1, Kofman's story that started the whole morale snowball was released on July 15th.
5 miniute web search to find that out. What is it with these "morans" and easily discovered lies.

edit
also as on july 1 there were no Polish MP's in Iraq(none there now either).
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_coalition.htm

edit
also SpOpComm 5 is a fictional unit. He may be trying to assioate
with 5th SFG but no operator would refer to it by SpOpComm(since its wrong and doesnt exist outside of the authors post) and their higher up command is SOCENT.

Also the unit who is tasked to wrangle the press is the 478th civil affairs BN.

super astroturf search results on google
http://www.google.com/search?q=SpOpComm+5&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N&filter=0

[Shipwack]

5. Thanks for the insight, Pbeall

I should have at least caught the bogus units... They don't use standard military acronmyms ("Sp" vice "SPEC", "Comm" vice COM, etc...) But I'm learning better ways of evaluating info, so I can be more clueful next time... :)

[pbeal]

6. your welcome

actually the big tip off in the letter is how long it is and how the author takes pains to sound like a testosterone laden ditto monkey.

Soldiers are generally brief in their correspondence esp. from a zone of hostilities where their letters have the potential to be looked over to make sure nothing of intelligence value is being sent along, And the author claims to be an officer a SF officer at that SF prides itself on its ability to get along with the local population the author takes pains to insult the local population at every chance if a higher up caught this officer doing this his career would be finished.

[StandWatie]

7. yeah, well..

I get real letters and they don't describe anything like this going on over there.