Democrats & Liberals: Archives

“So who’s behind this PR campaign”

Oh I know this one.

The Liberal media.
Da da dum! and Catwoman and The Joker.

This doesn’t appear to be a Bush campaign at all, but the work of a single CO who offered boilerplate letters to members of his command. Tired of the negative publicity, it seems.

My biggest concern is that we have an administration more focused on fixing the war’s PR image, than actually fixing the mistakes that were made.

Now that we’re there, our commitment to leaving Iraq better than we found it should be total, because that is the only way we leave Iraq better than we arrived there.

Letters falsely attributed to soldiers may only serve to mask problems within the units, and undermine morale and respect for the chain of command.

If the Bush administration wants to do this right, they get in the soldiers necessary to hold the country, and then they should get to work restoring utilities. We do not want to create a pattern of people mourning totalitarian leaders on account of our inability to leave their countries any better than blasted warzones.

Steve,

In my opinion, our government failed to take into account the cost to Americans when deciding to go into Iraq. The war should have been a U.N. venture with a sharing of the costs. OK! Water under the bridge. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake.

But to continue, now, when the opportunity exists again, to make some concessions to the U.N. in exchange for the U.N. coming fully on board and sharing the costs in deaths, injuries and taxpayer costs, is to act out of a tunnel vision view which will not allow the best interests of American soldiers in Iraq, or American taxpayers at home, to be considered in the equation.

I consider this to be an historic blunder on the part of this administration. The PR is needed from that blunder occupying to much front page. After all, an election is coming.

It’s confirmed. The letter source has been traced, according to USA Today (popup alert). Gold star to Mr. Courtright. He was right on the money.

Perhaps we are making things better in Iraq, but it will have been with difficulties than need never have arisen had the Bush White House not been so intent on proving a theory at the expense of the evidence.

Another problem is you get a kind of censorship of what the individual grunts out there are feeling. Instead of an honest picture taken from the variety of viewpoints the men could offer, we get one sterilized, propagandized view, one that might hide underlying issues that parents and loved ones of soldiers might otherwise see resolved.

The key here, the problem that the Bush Administration has, is that they fail to see their failings and mistakes in these things as a result of flaws in their own thinking, and instead blame such bad appearances on other people’s lousy attitudes. Consequently, they are acquiring bad habits and keeping a few pre-existing ones in how they are dealing with the situation. Their pride is costing the taxpayer, the American citizen abroad, and America’s image dearly.

There is an adage in screenwriting. Show, don’t tell. This administration does a lot of telling. They will tell us all kinds of good news, but until that good news shows up on our doorsteps, in our balanced budget, in our wages, in the news of substantial progress in Iraq and other nations, their words will continue to fall on deaf ears.

The US army must act in such a way that there is no debate as to the success of their actions, before they try and head off that debate at the pass. Americans must stop dying in Iraq daily, and conditions must improve beyond those of Saddam’s regime. Until then, they must learn to live with the melee of the press, and it’s criticism.