Astroturfing!
The Bush administration and DOD is getting so desperate re. the quagmire in Iraq that they are now using troops to "write letters" home and to the editors of newspapers to make it appear that the Iraqi situation is better than it really is.
This is illegal: firstly this is forgery....secondly the troops are not permitted to write home giving details of combat etc. situations (for obvious reasons). The troops must remain apolitical when in the field, and the Dept of Defense & the Pentagon is now using the names of troops in the field for political gain. Can this administration sink to any lower depths?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1011-08.htm
This is illegal: firstly this is forgery....secondly the troops are not permitted to write home giving details of combat etc. situations (for obvious reasons). The troops must remain apolitical when in the field, and the Dept of Defense & the Pentagon is now using the names of troops in the field for political gain. Can this administration sink to any lower depths?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1011-08.htm
Comments
Originally posted by Matsu
Your sources tend to stink like a horse's ass, but I hope this is true. Brilliant concept, shoddy execution, ah well, lessons for next time.
Apart from being at the event first hand with a video camera....etc...what sources would you prefer to recommend? If you with I could point you to some traditional-conservative/libertarian sites who despise this administration's empire-on-the-cheap machinations as much as the left do. You can instantly write off CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS as being government parrots.....the BBC are marginally better but still wanting.
Where do *you* get your news? Watch with Mother?
Originally posted by sammi jo
Apart from being at the event first hand with a video camera....etc...what sources would you prefer to recommend? If you with I could point you to some traditional-conservative/libertarian sites who despise this administration's empire-on-the-cheap machinations as much as the left do. You can instantly write off CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS as being government parrots.....the BBC are marginally better but still wanting.
Where do *you* get your news? Watch with Mother?
Jeez, Sammi! Don't you get it? You have to use sources that actually disagree with you to prove your point!
Get with the program!
Cheers
Scott
Originally posted by Matsu
Your sources tend to stink like a horse's ass, but I hope this is true. Brilliant concept, shoddy execution, ah well, lessons for next time.
Well, if you click through to the source for the article sammi jo linked to you'll see that (as far as I know) a reputable source actually wrote the article.
I think she's saying it's a forgery if someone is writing and sending letters in the name of someone else. That, I suppose, is illegal. She's also saying that it's illegal to expose the details that are exposed in the letters. So I think she has a point.
Either way it's low, and not a brilliant concept. Kind of sick in the head really. Maybe not sick in the head, but it is 'using' the troops in a way that the administration accuses other people of doing. So it's hypocritical.
Sammi jo, were you drunk when you posted this? Just curious.
Everythings fine. The Iraqi people love us and are so grateful for their new freedoms. I'll be home soon...
Photo from this CNN report
The concept is brilliant, but the execution is atrocious.
They used a bloody form letter, WTF?
Now, rather than fire off a multitude of letters. Craft a couple of good ones, enlist said writer in a safe capacity, and get him "published." Think "embedded" propagandist, something they were on the right track with WRT journalists, but ultimitately journos have their own agendas and are more difficult to control than a contract conspirator.
The US Army should have talked to me, I'd have done a much better job of crafting their campaign.
Originally posted by Matsu
The concept is brilliant, but the execution is atrocious.
My point was just that it's not brilliant if it's illegal.
Originally posted by bunge
My point was just that it's not brilliant if it's illegal.
Well, no. Brilliance is independent of ethics.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
Well, no. Brilliance is independent of ethics.
It's not a question of ethics for me, but skill. Playing within the 'rules' requires more skill and thus results in a more brilliant scheme. It's easy, and thus unimpressive, to come up with solutions that are effective but outside the 'rules.'
Cheers
Scott
Talkingpointsmemo chimes in:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
There?s an interesting new story making the rounds about letters to the editor from soldiers in northern Iraq showing up in local and regional newspapers around the country. The letters explain how things are much better than people think in Iraq and how the Army is helping to rebuild the country with support from the locals.
The only problem is that it?s the same letter --- the identical letter --- showing up in multiple newspapers over the names of at least a dozen different soldiers. The blogger who?s on top of this is ?Hesiod? who?s been on the story for a few days. And The Olympian, from Olympia, Washington, reported the story out in helpful detail yesterday.
This is just one example. And the search seemed to have been triggered when The Olympian got two copies of the letter from two hometown soldiers stationed in northern Iraq. In other words, I doubt this is the only example -- just the one where someone got caught.
It?s worth saying that most of the soldiers contacted by the paper said they agreed with its contents, though none of them said they wrote it, and one said he?d never even signed it. But clearly that doesn?t answer the mystery of who was behind the letter writing campaign.
I can imagine all sorts of different scenarios behind it --- including this being the innocent, but over-eager effort of a single Army public affairs officer somewhere in northern Iraq.
But there?s another possibility that deserves a serious look.
There are a number of firms in Washington whose business it is to orchestrate phony letter writing campaigns on behalf of pricey clients.
Usually, the gig works something like this. Say you?re the hot dog makers lobby and congress is fixing to hit you with some new regs about hot dog making. Let?s say it?s something truly outlandish like requiring you to include some meat in the product.
If you go up to the hill with your gripes as the National Hot Dog Makers Association you might not do so well. And your ideological compatriots in the media might not be able to get up much of a head of speed banging the table for a bunch of hot dog magnates. So you call up one of the phony letter writing firms --- let?s call one hypothetical outfit The Former Republican Communications Staffers and Speechwriters Group of Washington.
So you go to FRCSSGW. They find out what your beef is and they write up a letter to the editor. Then they go out and find some guy who runs a hot dog stand downtown in some major city and ask him if he?ll sign it for a few hundred bucks. Maybe money changes hands; maybe it doesn?t. It depends on the circumstances. Then they take that letter and find some newspaper to print it.
Local newspapers are usually easier to bamboozle than the big national ones --- though at least one major national paper is known to be an easy mark for phony letters with an appealing ideological tilt.
The letter usually has the nominal author of the letter telling congress that those woeful new regulations will make it impossible for an independent hot dog vendor to stay in business, etc., etc., etc.
Voila! Suddenly those new hot dogs regs aren?t just an annoyance to the hot dog makers. They?re a new burden to some struggling immigrant entrepreneur who?s trying to build his American dream one dog at a time.
I?d be curious to find out whether some outfit like our hypothetical Former Republican Communications Staffers and Speechwriters Group of Washington is doing some of their letter-campaign consulting for the White House or the Pentagon as part of the Great Push-Back.
-- Josh Marshall
Originally posted by Aquatic
Why is this so preposterous? I don't know how to prove or disprove it, but all I know is that Microsoft did the same thing, having letters of support written for them, and the people writing in letters were even dead!
...and we all know how much everyone here loves Microsoft!
Originally posted by Aquatic
Why is this so preposterous? I don't know how to prove or disprove it, but all I know is that Microsoft did the same thing, having letters of support written for them, and the people writing in letters were even dead!
That?s it! Microsoft is behind it, its some sort of conspiracy, you know, like on the X-files. I'm curious, what are they looking for in Iraq? I'm not familiar with Iraqi software market, can anyone brief me on that one.
Originally posted by bunge
My point was just that it's not brilliant if it's illegal.
The only reason you think it's "illegal" is because you don't like it. The law has nothing to do with it.
I grow so bored with liberals declaring everything they personal disagree with "illegal".
Originally posted by Scott
The only reason you think it's "illegal" is because you don't like it. The law has nothing to do with it.
Can troops legally write home details of the campaign? Are you even qualified to answer that question? If, hypothetically, it is illegal to write these details, how would that alter your opinion of the administration? Can you answer these relatively simple questions or are you just going to troll?
You get bored, yes. Breaks my heart.
Originally posted by Scott
Blah blah blah. Save your fake outrage for something else.
What outrage? How about you save your trolling instead?
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news...e/121390.shtml
No Matsu, it's a stupid idea, based upon the (false) premise that they can fool all of the people all of the time, just like they did when they tried it on with WMD. Once more the administration are being found out again as liars and frauds. If Americans were all 100% stupid, sheep-like dittoheads, then their schemes would work like clockwork. This letter-writing scam was a gamble to gain favor and it looks like its starting to backfire.
Regarding WMD, one scheme that must have been discussed at some poiint these last few months would be the planting (of WMD) in Iraq. The administration could have completely "justified" the war in the eyes of the majority of American people if (planted WMD) had turned up in huge caches throughout Iraq, and a watertight coverup could be maintained. But what a high risk gamble....the whole Iraq situation is already a shambles, and if caught out, it would surely be the end of the Bush administration.