Neuharth Call for Pullout in Iraq Draws Massive Response

[3days]

NEW YORK An E & P report on USA Today founder Al Neuharth’s Thursday column for that newspaper has quickly drawn dozens of (mostly negative) emails. In the column, Neuharth, noting how many soldiers were far from home and in harm’s way at Christmas, called for a U.S. pullout from Iraq “sooner rather than later.” Neuharth proudly served in World War II in France, Germany and the Philippines vet, but suggested that avoiding service in Iraq was proper today. And he noted that in WW II, troops were “properly equipped.”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000742016

[Sterling]

1. Wow USA today published it?

That is pretty huge considering it has been such a huge cheerleader for the war to this point. Is it not owned by that douche bag Gaylord from Oklahoma?

[LiberalEsto]

2. That's fantastic!

I've always thought of him as a horse's patootie, but this is a courageous thing for him to say. Thank you, Al!

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. and it got a negative response?

Why, do people like having our soliders killed?

Do people honestly belive that there is some secret last level to this like Super Mario Brothers and we can kill the Toad King and finally achieve victory?

God, people are so dumb.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Hell, you know damn well that not wanting war is unpatriotic and

anti christian.

(Yes. They are.)

[truthseeker1]

19. That is hilarious

ROFL! Do people honestly belive that there is some secret last level to this like Super Mario Brothers and we can kill the Toad King and finally achieve victory?

That is so funny I'm sending it to my husband who is a game head! He'll love it too :bounce:

[pinerow]

4. A firm grip on the obvious...

nt

[Voltaire99]

9. Heh. The oligarchy is getting worried.

When an elite cheerleader for imperialism such as Neuharth gets knock-kneed, there's worry in the marbled halls....

It's growing likely the US will be forced to declare victory, and then cut and run, by next fall. Economically, it won't be able to sustain the war.

[tabasco]

14. Economically maybe but manpower-wise - no way !

Unless there is conscription. Oddly, freepers are not heeding their Nation's call to service. Military units are feeling great strain from lack of personnel. Recruiting numbers are down. Since the Iraqis decided not to throw flowers at our feet, the neocons must choose between the draft or scaling back military operations. I'm not sure which way they will go. :shrug:

[3days]

6. Here's the article

They can only dream of holidays at home
By Al Neuharth, USA TODAY Founder
Most of us love to spend Christmas with our families, but many cannot. Some numbers of this year's can-dos and cannots:

• More than 62 million of us will travel 50 miles or more to be with family.

• Most of our 2.4 million military men and women will be unable to go home for the holidays.

snip

Support Our Troops" is a wonderful patriotic slogan. But the best way to support troops thrust by unwise commanders in chief into ill-advised adventures like Vietnam and Iraq is to bring them home. Sooner rather than later. That should be our New Year's resolution.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/neuharth/2004-12-22-holidays-troops_x.htm

[Voltaire99]

10. Intriguing propaganda approach: the touchy-feely way out of war

I don't for a minute think Neuharth or his class cares what the hell happens to the troops from Wal-Mart land who are fighting and dying for this losing cause in Iraq. If he thought the war winnable, he'd sacrifice any pile of them.

But elites who oppose the war know that their arguments against continuing it--destabilizing US security, alienating the entire planet, running up bills the US can't afford, breaking the army, turning once-happy consumers into gloomy pessimists--will all fall on deaf ears while patriotic fever has still got the average Dick and Jane in its clammy grip.

Elites want out of this mess before it ends up costing them plenty, but now find themselves in the untenable position of having led pep rallies for the war and only laggardly realizing that all the neo-con and neo-liberal pipe dreams (yes, that means you, Mr. pro-war John Kerry) were foolish. Essentially, it's time to cut and run. Our ass has been kicked. By a small poor tribe. Again.

So how to reach the masses, who have been well and truly fooled, and will cry and wail and want heads to roll once they awaken to the fact? Well, USA Today, of course, has been doing this kind of thing for 20 years--transforming US journalism in the process into the mushy, gooey storefront of confections it is today.

Go for the sentimental line, of course. Go for the "heart."

The nation is going to reel before this mess is behind us...

[bpilgrim]

15. brand AMERICA is getting it's a$$ kicked in the global market place

Article published Sunday, December 19, 2004

EUROPE: BASHING CORPORATE AMERICA
Once popular brand names targets of growing backlash

By MICHAEL WOODS
BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU

BARCELONA - The late John Stuart, founder of the Quaker Oats Company, knew what puts gold plating on every package.

"If this business were to be split up," he remarked of a company with annual sales now exceeding $2 billion, "I would take the brands, trademarks, and goodwill. And you could have all the bricks and mortar - and I would fare better than you."

Brand USA, by some accounts, is running perilously short on goodwill in the global marketplace these days due to anti-American attitudes.

Some American brand names such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, General Motors, and Starbucks, could take a beating if consumers launch serious boycotts of American products.

more...
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041219/NEWS08/412190363/-1/NEWS

the captains of industry are definitely taking notice...


peace

[Voltaire99]

20. Interesting article. Thanks.

Leaving aside the immorality of imperialism for a second...

What a *hapless* imperialism it is that *shrinks* the nation's economy and *empties* its coffers.

Fucking screwballs! The Three Stooges could have run things better!

[acmavm]

7. Yeah, you'll notice that they're sitting here not worrying about 350

tons of C-4 coming in their direction.

[NorthernSpy]

8. man states obvious, gets flamed for it

Newharth is only right. Anyone who flamed him for saying this needs to enlist immediately, or be a liar. Until the chickenhawks are willing to put their own asses on the line, their "support" for this war won't mean a damn thing, and their criticism of anyone who forthrightly opposes this mess will be nothing more than hypocrisy.

[caligirl]

11. My own letter in reply after reading some sickening comments

Mr. Neuharth raises concerns which I too share. While I have been connected in one way or another to the vast Military system, I also think the troops should be brought home sooner than later. But I also realize the fervent belief some people have to stay and fight on. The war in Iraq reached a turning point months ago when too many mistakes in judgement (Shinseki, Bremer, Rumsfeld, et al.) were made and now we are left with an unsalvageable situation. So I offer a different solution to those wanting to stay. Men and women who believe we must stay, show your patriotism and concern for both your country and the 18-21 year olds being blown up and take their place. If every person like you signed up to act on your passionately held belief to stay in Iraq, no draft of young sons would be needed. Last night I was informed of the death of a 30 year old newlywed Sgt from Pennsylvania killed in the Mosul attack this week, his wife is really suffering now. Her mother and I spoke of their loss. If you believe, go enlist. If you believe and your under fourty and haven’t enlisted you are a cowardly wannabe. Unless you have dug a hole and slept in it you have no room to talk.

[Raster]

17. Not one of the warmongers will take you up on your proposal.

You see, most are paper tigers, plenty tough when there is no danger to themselves. The entire Iraq war, from start to present is a lie. There weren't any weapons of mass destruction. Saddam was not linked to 9/11. It was all a ruse for Corporate Imperial Amerika to control the flow of oil in the middle east. People on both sides are being maimed and are dying for no good reason. One country's greed and one man's hubris and vanity. Both man and country have ignored fact and embraced fiction.

Support our troops, bring them home now. And in the future, never again let Congress abdicate their responsibility to declare war. And never again should we allow a corporate coup to install a despot in the people's house. It's time for this country to rediscover our humanity.

[caligirl]

18. Yeah and I had to restrain myself to keep it clean. n/t

[hatrack]

12. Dozens of emails = "massive" response, tens of millions of protesters

= "focus groups". OK, it's all clear to me now . . . :eyes:

[Wapsie B]

13. Way to go Al!

Takes some brass ones to stand up and question the status quo in this country, especially a war. He better not take any rides in small planes anytime in the near future.

[Kolesar]

16. USAT seemed to me like an early phalanx of the Right Wing Media

I could see how different they were than the local newspapers I was reading at the time (1981?). They ran a front page editorial by nuclear madman Edward Teller after the election when many cities and states adopted anti-nuclear resolutions.