Same letter signed by different soldiers
 

This is pretty sad on Bush's part..

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-break...3813-6856r.htm

Astroturf campaigns will be caught in these days. Companies/governments/etc. can't get away with them anymore.

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news...age/letter.gif

Can't win public and military opinion, manufacture it.

I read somewhere the military told these troops, if they did not sign this letter they would have to do another tour in Iraq, then go to the afgan wasteland.

cynical bastards...let the soliders tell their own stories...

I think maybe that's what they're afraid of.

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=13644

haHA! one of these letters were posted before and we had a discussion about the legimate the letter was.

aaahahaaaaa, thats hilarious.

Actually if you guys bothered to read the letter you'll notice it is a completely different letter, every word of it actually. And its been verified at least by snopes.com as being a real letter. Unfortunately the group letters about Iraq that have been sent out will now destroy any credibility a soldier's letter might carry. This is of course to many people's enjoyment unfortunately. Some people love to be vindicated by bad news. The letter we were argueing about earlier has not yet been identified under anybody else's name. Read them both. They are quite different.

Snopes.com letter link

i really doubt that the pentagon has only 1 template that they use to send out these letters. i'm not saying that the one posted here before was fake, but it really sheds more light into the question of its legitamacy.


and just because snopes said something is true doesnt necessarily mean it is true.

Re: Same letter signed by different soldiers
 

Bush? What? For all we know, Jayson Blair could have written and distributed the letters.

Seems a little strange that someone would stage a PR "hoax" like this and use real soldier's names. After all, it took the media about 3 hours to track these guys down and ask them if they wrote the letters themselves. Sort of weak planning if you ask me. I might have just made some people up.

They were probably counting on the media not asking questions as usual.

And I really have very serious doubts that the Pentagon had anything what-so-ever to do with it.

Yeah, that's sort of what I was thinking when I posted before. Just didn't say it clearly enough.

I want to hear the experiences of a lot of different soldiers; the good and the bad...not the form letter of a single eager <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,108911,00.asp">"GOP team leader"</a> casting around the mess tent with a clipboard and a form letter.

From the link:
"This item is "true" in the sense that Eric Rydbom is indeed an engineer stationed in Iraq with the Army's 4th Infantry Division, and he sends monthly e-mail dispatches such as the one quoted above to fellow members of his congregation at the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach in Shorline, Washington. This piece was one of those messages, forwarded to the church's prayer chain and thence to the larger world via the Internet."


That doesn't seem like the most enthusiastic verification.

Frankly, the pentagon would be smarter than this. They have trained psyops and propaganda people.

This seems to me to be just some dumb soldiers, and maybe a dumb low ranking officer, with a really dumb idea.

Never assume a conspiracy when "dumb" will do.

No but it is a verification. If you have another letter that is nearly word-for-word like this one, then I will jump up and down and shout foul! But some are assuming that this was one of those letters. There is nothing at all to indicate this, and there is at least one independent source that verifies where the letter came from. The reason that it isn't enthusiastic is because Snopes doesn't really mess around with a political agenda. They just check up on background sources on things to say whether or not its an urban myth or rumor. I'm just disappointed in the military for having anything to do with a mass mailing letter, and here is exactly why. Now anybody who refuses to believe that there could be any progress in Iraq, is going to denounce any letter that comes out of there as a letter penned by Bush or the Pentagon to lie to the world about the current situation. The letter that I originally had posted up shows no indication that it is really one of these letters. If someone has another source saying its not real, then I'll sadly concede that this letter is BS too.

Re: Same letter signed by different soldiers
 

I'd really like to know on what you based this statement - Do you really think you can blame GW for everything that happens in this universe - Didja' see Bush push Zimmer down at the ballgame the other night! I think he should be impeached - the nerve! Pushin' an old man around like that.

This sounds like the most likely explanation. Its a shame. Its no doubt that propaganda is part of the military, but this is far too stupid of a mistake for it to be handed down by either the commander-in-chief or the pentagon. Whoever thought this one up should be punished for it. You can't get away with such blatant deceit.

I think you are giving the pentagon far too much credit. Come on both the military & politicians can do some bloody stupid PR stuff some times. As an example when the planes crashed into the twin towers, here in England one of Blair’s top PR people sent round an e-mail saying it would be a good time to release information on how bad the government is doing in certain areas, because it wouldn’t get reported. Her e-mail said “it is a good day to bury bad news”.

This happens all the time.

The first thing you do with your brand new platoon out of forming and into a series on Parris Island is sit on the end of your foot locker and write what the drill instructor dictates on your brand new px stationary issued for that very purpose. "I am being well cared for and trained hard. All of my needs are being met, I will be provided the best medical attention, and all of my nutrion requirements are satisfied. etc...Very common in my experience. Battalions would sit in the hanger deck of an LHA and write out identical letters, with coaching from the chain of command and with only some adding some personalization. Especially when the mom of that ~one~ dude, who never writes anyone, contacts her congressmen, and ~he~ wants to know why LtCol Scmuckatelli's battalion has a complaining mom...Address an envelope, lick a stamp and throw it into the mail bag, every fucking one of you. Then board the helo or LCU and head inland for some snoopin and poopin.

I will not belittle the apparently verified and very honorable accompishments of those men, OR those leading them because of a letter regardless of the flavor: form, dictated by the smadge, or other.

out,

-bear

Here's some interesting quotes from some of the soldiers involved, published at the mirror.co.uk:

(at this link:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews...name_page.html )

I tend to agree with the idea that it is an organized campaign, but not by the high ups, seems rather that some low level guys got sick of it/ wanted to impress the high ups, and started this thing- there have been soldiers who said that they did not write /sign the letter, but I could easily see some seargent or LT shipping off some feel good news thinking it wouldnt go to far/become an issue- I just don't see the pentagon bothering- then again, I also could not believe that we have found NO WMD's- Hell, not to support machieavelian tactics, but even if they do not exist, you make sure that they are found..... for the record, I support the war, and think that it was for the best- but often question the handling. I also belive that the media has ignored the improvements that we have made- DOES ANYONE THINK THAT IRAQ WAS BETTER, HAPPIER, OR MORE HUMANE UNDER SADAM?

We don't go to war to provide happiness to those in need -- we go to war to kill bad people.