Shocked, America? If So, The Reason You Are Is Solely Due To To The Fact Political Free Speech In The Military Is Limited To Vocally Supporting The Policies Of The Current Commander-In-Chief…
Yep — SHOCKER, indeed — although, I’ve been trying to tell America for years “The Troops” are anything BUT a bunch of Bush-Cheney-McCain backers (Lots of good stuff there, by the way) but you’d never know it if you have never served in the U.S. military and had never been exposed to the HIGHLY limited “Freedom of Speech” standards our troops must adhere to under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (“UCMJ” for our acronym fans).
During the Bush-Cheney Oligarchical “Big Oil And Nation Buildin’ Bidness” in Iraq, far-right, neconservative, Pro-Bush, Pro-Cheney, Pro-Mccain U.S. military member sites such as the ones represented by my brothers and sisters over at the MilBlogs have FLOURISHED — while we “military lefties” have had to either bite our tongues or blog anonymously, as I have done HERE since early 2004.
What happens when you limit the opportunity for free political speech in the military is — America becomes deceived — they believe all of the troops serving in “The Desert” are hard-core Bush-Cheney-McCain “fans” and if you fail to support their agendas, you are failing the troops. If you took some time to read some of my previous articles on the subject, you learned the military, in my point of view, is a cross-section of America. You also learned that while I personally ate sand in that God-forsaken place on this planet as the futile search for those WMD’s of Saddam Hussein’s, which never actually existed in the FIRST place was ongoing, the majority of troops I personally served with over there, while mostly not “activists”, were pretty torqued off at President Bush, his policies, and his G.O.P. cronies.
In other words, in my “unprofessional” estimate — back home, President Bush had about a 28% approval rating during the time I spent over there, accumulating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Again — just for the acronmym fans — “PTSD”), I saw no real evidence to suggest his approval rating was any higher amongst my fellow troops who were eating that disgusting sand along with myself. But, hey — that was just in MY experience.
Meanwhile, the MilBlogs flourished. FoxNews praised our “Heros and fellow supporters of President Bush” who were serving in “The Sandbox”, and America bought it; hook, line and SINKER. Why? Again — because the OTHER half (LOWBALLING, of COURSE) of us who were pretty torqued off at our administration weren’t able to go on cable news television, write activist blogs and Op-Eds using our REAL identities, and give that very valid “Other Side” of the argument from the foxholes. Result? Obviously, to argue with a “Bush-Cheney-G.O.P Choirboy Of The Moment’s” pro-neocon point of view was to let “The Troops” down.
I’ve often wondered aloud what will become of those MilBloggers — my brothers and sisters despite our political differences — once the NEW “Commander-In-Chief” of the military was selected and (gasp!) happened to be a Liberal. If you want to know how I feel about it — I sincerely do hope the UCMJ is revamped to the point where they (Right-leaning troops), as my fellow U.S. Citizens serving in the military, are able to blast the policies of their “Commander-In-Chief” without enduring the same consequences the REST of us (Left-leaning troops) have had to endure over the course of the last eight years under our Commander-In-Chief, Richard “Dick” “Shotgun” Cheney. Free speech in the military is a GOOD thing and it’s only right the American People should be enabled to hear ALL sides of the story from ALL sides of the political spectrum represented by my diverse-thinking brothers and sisters in the war zones. Again though — that’s just MOI.
With all of the above stated, and assuming I have a made valid argument, do you REALLY find this to be “surprising” or “shocking” news (Source: Open Secrets‘ Luke Rosiak; H/T to MemeOrandum for the pull…)?
Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama
“… According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.
Despite McCain’s status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall — whether stationed overseas or at home — are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama. …”
(Snip!)
“… Army Specialist Jay Navas contributed $250 while deployed in Iraq, but it wasn’t over the Internet. “It took some effort to get that check. I had my mom send me my checkbook and I walked to the post office in Camp Liberty in Baghdad with an envelope addressed to Barack Obama in Chicago, Illinois,” he said. “He was right on Iraq long when others were jumping into the sea like lemmings, and that’s hard to do. We’re soldiers and we respect courage.” …
‘Nuff SAID — for NOW. I do believe I, and Open Secrets, have framed my years-long-argument quite well and I hope you’ll agree. If not, feel FREE to sound off in the comments section, however; remember, I highly suggest you do NOT bring your knives…
Don’t forget — We are those “Phony Soldiers” Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest of those far-right wing talk radio pundits are talking about and OVER during their deceptive broadcasts…
***
Other blogger opinions — all sides represented (Remember, these are just my biased “snippets” — please click on the links to read the entire post from each blog):
Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish (The Atlantic):
“… It would be a good idea for the press to ask McCain (or, better, Lieberman) why he believes this is so.”
“… I think we’ve always been led to believe that people in the military will overwhelmingly support the Republican candidate, but that doesn’t seem to be the case… “
Pamela Leavey of The Democratic Daily:
“… Iraq was a big mistake, based on lies. John McCain is in no hurry to bring the troops home, so it’s no small wonder more members of the military are donating to Barack Obama. …”
Crooks And Liars’ Steve Benen:
“… Eight years ago, Bush outraised Gore among military personnel almost 2 to 1. Four years ago, Kerry did better, but Bush raised $1.50 for every dollar Kerry raised.
And yet, now the numbers have shifted to Obama… “
“… You won’t hear a word about this on talk radio, Fox, or many other news outlets. The traditional media won’t be able to spin it. …”
“… The military donations streaming to Obama, Rosiak reports, breaks a historical trend that saw Republicans lead among the enlisted ranks. …”
“… Not only is Obama’s withdrawal plan — redeployment within 16 months — seemingly more popular amongst U.S. troops, but is also favored by Iraqi government officials. Even many wealthy donors in the United States who contributed to Bush in 2004 have been reluctant to donate to McCain because of his Iraq policies.”
And… from the “Right” — Wizbang says:
“… So yeah, Obama has outraised McCain from US troops stationed overseas, by overwhelming ratios in both number and amount. But the actual numbers are so damned small as to be statistically irrelevant.
And I think I kinda like that 99.9% of our troops aren’t spending at least $200 on presidential campaigns.”
SEE ALSO: The always lively discussion going on over at the Drudge Retort…
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4:16 am on August 15th, 2008 1
Thanks for the linkage, GTL, but I kinda wish you’d pulled another part of my analysis — that using the very same numbers, overseas troops gave more donations and more money to Republicans than Democrats. Weighted, unfortunately, by a rather hefty Ron Paul contingent.
But the real killer number here is 292. That’s the total number of donations from troops abroad, out of about 370,000. I don’t think ANY conclusions about the attitude of the whole can be drawn by statistical manipulation of such a tiny sample.
The whole story is a big nothing, in my opinion. And I think that the actual numbers (drawn from the same source as the original article) bear that up.
J.
9:41 am on August 15th, 2008 2
Hi Jay — I had forgotten to put the (please read the entire post) thing up there on my blogger roundup intro like I usually do. As always, I thought you had made a great counterpoint, which is why I included your “snip” last. Hopefully, people went to your site to read the entire post? Anyhoo — I admit — I’m a biased, selective “snipper”
Appreciate your dropping by and hope you’ll do so more often. Frankly, the “Righties” have a field day over here in our quite civil comments section and I wouldn’t have it any other way
Blog ON…
10:01 am on August 15th, 2008 3
I am a righty who believes that we never should of went into Iraq. I believe that we never should have went into Afghanistan either.
I believe that there are no moral wars. No just wars. No righteous wars. That they are only wars.
I have suffered ptsd since 1970 when coming home from Vietnam. It has ruined my life. I believe it is also why I am a conservative. I believe in changing things slowly because of my PTSD and as a result politically I ascribe more to the conservative movement then I do the liberal one.
However I believe that the US military must NEVER be allowed to become partisan or political. EVER. To do so would encourage horrible things that I am afraid to even contemplate. Our forces follow orders as they should and it is the best hope that those giving the order know what they are doing.
The minute that our forces begin questioning the orders of those giving them then we end up with anarchy or at the very least a military that is dysfunctional at best and it does not bode well for their safety and wellbeing on the battlefield.
99.9 percent of all orders given are legal/moral/justified. We cannot run our military based upon that 1/10th of a percent of orders given that might not meet muster.
Military neutrality is a must. Not because I want our soldiers to have no political opinion but because I want them to believe in the unified chain of command.
This is a volunteer force. If that is so then any doubts they have about following orders should translate into joining the merchant marines or going to college rather then joining the military and then becoming political activists.
10:27 am on August 15th, 2008 4
You may be right. If so, then the folks in the military whose political opinions are well-represented by the CIC at any given time need to keep their traps (and blogs) shut as well on political matters. The problem with the UCMJ as written is half the military gets to mouth off politically at any given time and the other half has to grin and bear it…
11:47 am on August 15th, 2008 5
Its a tough call when a soldier decides to blog and call his commander a liar or what have you. This is the line in the sand that I draw.
I do not advocate that military personnel cannot blog I just simply think that they should blog about everything under the sun except their own military orders.
They have a job. Do it. Talk about the weather, talk about the military. Just dont question orders and mission objectives. There are plenty of civilians and politicians doing that for them. It is a matter of keeping the military cohesive.
I was in Vietnam and the military was a shambles. Everyone hated everyone. Every order was questioned. It was chaos and anarchy in the field. It was horrible. I fear authority after seeing the idiots who were put in charge simply so they could get their CIB to promote and further their careers in the military.
Our military is strong and powerful and effective today because they are well trained, volunteered for being where they are and they trust in their chain of command and they trust that they are doing basically the right thing.
I have talked to 100’s of returning military personell from Iraq and about 90 percent of them believe we are doing good over there and we are making a difference, albeit perhaps too little too late.
This is what keeps a military strong. Focus. Losing focus by having political activists in a unit is damaging beyong comprehension.
1:46 pm on August 15th, 2008 6
Neocon, you’re probably correct that this leads to an organized and effective military machine but if what they are doing is based on lies and serves little or no good purpose whatsoever, then what is the point. My country, right or wrong? It is a soldiers duty to uphold and obey the Constitution, not to follow orders blindly, no matter what. I thank every soldier for their willingness to defend this country, but on the other hand, the soldiers in Iraq are the moral equivalent of hit men for the mob. This war is a giant crime against humanity, orchestrated for corporate profit, not for any legitimate purpose.
6:01 pm on August 15th, 2008 7
girardia, I highly disagree serving in the desert is equal to lacking morals. The witchhunt for the ones lacking morals should begin in the White House and in Congress where they’re continually ordered to serve over there and funded to do so. Can’t blame the troops for following technically “legally issued” orders by the C-I-C. Some of us bought the lie — that Saddam was GOING to attack us and volunteered to DEFEND the United States and our loved ones only to find out later it was a lie…