voxpopgirl
This Girl's Voice


Tuesday, August 05, 2003  

Army of One



"We have done our job and have done it well, we have fulfilled our obligation to this operation, but we are still here and are still being mistreated and misled. When does it end? Do we continue to keep the liberators of Iraq here so they can continue to lose soldiers periodically to snipers and ambushes? My unit has been here since September and they have no light at the end of the tunnel. How many of my soldiers need to die before they realize that we have hit a wall?" -- From: "A Concerned Soldier" in Iraq


U.S. troops in the midst of guerilla warfare in Iraq are pissed off and they want Americans and their Commander in Chief back home to know about it; a Commander in Chief who told them over 2 months ago on the deck of the USS Abraham that "Combat Operations in Iraq have Ended".

Despite being disciplined by their superiors for having spoken with the media, they have been persistent in their efforts to reach the American people and their Military and Pentagon civilian leadership back home and attaining some success in doing so via two particular sites: Soldiers for the Truth and Hackworth.com via the help of retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth, one of the most highly decorarated and awarded American military commanders who was at the front lines of the army's most important battles for half a century, spanning from the end of WWII, through to the recent meltdown in the "ex-Yugoslavia".

Hackworth, also a best-selling author and media commentator who was on the frontlines in both Korea and Vietnam, is a military dude whose years of frontline guerilla combat experience have earned him the confidence of troops on the ground around the world and from those now serving in Iraq; he has conservative creds to boot as a columnist for the conservative site World Net Daily.

Ret. Col. Hackworth has been receiving hundreds of e-mails, letters and faxes like the one posted here, from American soldiers on a daily basis, and they're not "whining", as the neo-cons and self-annointed conservative über-patriot pundits would wish for you to believe.

These soldiers are attempting to communicate to Americans back home about ill-communications, the lack of essential technical parts-support for their weapons and vehicles and vital unaddressed basic health & safety issues that they believe are having -- and have had life and death consequences -- concerns that are expressed in this email from an NCO in the 3rd Infantry Division who is still serving in Iraq.

Salam Pax, the now famous Baghdad blogger, is doing his part to bring the words and concerns of American soldiers in Iraq to a wider audience. Read Salam's latest post which includes quotes from a U.S. soldier telling it like it is on the ground there and asking aloud to remind him what it is he's there for.

So what do you get when you mix the Army's neglect of their soldiers' basic health and safety while out in the field, together with the Bush administrations' cutbacks of veterans' health benefits and pensions and broken promises to the military and their families when they get back home --dead or alive, throw in President Bush's jingoistic rhetoric,and add the U.S. Army's slogan "Army of One", a dash of the DoD's Total Information Awareness's all-seeing "eye", and stir it all up with The Cranberries' haunting track, "Zombie"?

Answer: Take Back the Media latest damning media spot "Army of One" which seems to be responding directly to those soldiers' pleas for help and attention to their concerns and welfare.

TBTM is trying to bring national attention to the Bush Administrations' flagrant disregard for the welfare of the individual young American men and women who are currently putting their lives at risk over in Iraq and other combat theatres around the globe for a cause their Commander in Chief told them was worth fighting for and dying for. While those soldiers are over there trying to do what they pledged they'd do, this spot is asking the American people why the Bush administration under the leadership of their Commander in Chief isn't upholding what he pledged to do.

Go here to watch Take Back the Media's media animation "Army of One". To help bring it to the nations' attention and get it on national television, throw some support at TBTM and click onto the "Make a Donation" button located below the animation, and contribute to the TBTM TV Commercial Fund.


posted by voxpopgirl | 8/05/2003


voxpopgirl
links
archives