White House is ambushed by criticism from America's military community

[Nambe]

Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

George Bush probably owes his presidency to the absentee military voters who nudged his tally in Florida decisively past Al Gore's. But now, with Iraq in chaos and the reasons for going to war there mired in controversy, an increasingly disgruntled military poses perhaps the gravest immediate threat to his political future, just one year before the presidential elections.

From Vietnam veterans to fresh young recruits, from seasoned officers to anxious mothers worried about their sons' safety on the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah, the military community is growing ever more vocal in its opposition to the White House.

"I once believed that I served for a cause: 'To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States'. Now I no longer believe that," Tim Predmore, a member of the 101st Airborne Division serving near Mosul, wrote in a blistering opinion piece this week for his home newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star in Illinois. "I can no longer justify my service for what I believe to be half- truths and bold lies." ---

More considered analysis is also available online, such as this reflection from a 23-year-old serving in the US Air Force, who wonders what the Iraq mess is going to do to the future of the US military: "The powers that be are destroying our military from the inside, especially our Army.

"How many of these people that are 'stranded' (for lack of a better term) in Iraq are going to re-enlist? How many that haven't deployed are going to re-enlist ... how many families are going to be destroyed?" he asked. ---

Banish bush From Texas Too

[kalazh]

1. WAKE UP, WAKE UP

people please wake up before it is too late.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

24. Bush is weakening our country on purpose

He destroying our military, bankrupting us, exporting our jobs, and turning our allies against us. Why is he doing this? Does he work *for* Binladen? I can't believe we're letting them do this.

[ILeft]

38. I used to think it was "just" malicious incompetence...

...but every action taken by the Bush Regime has contributed to the weakening, and possibly destruction, of our Nation. It's becoming difficult to come up with an explanation for their actions that doesn't involve treason.

[saigon68]

25. CHIMPANZEE IS NO FRIEND OF VETERANS

Wait til these "kids" are old, disabled and without medical care etc.

They will then see what this AWOL MOTHER FUCKER is about.

At least under Clinton, benefits were granted to the truly deserving. These corporate scumbags (like Cheney) care nothing about the Veteran !!!!

[Barrett808]

2. Military ballots...and massive election fraud by Jeb and Kat

Disfranchising tens of thousands of voters had a wee bit to do with it as well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Yep I am seeing this

now very much in the open... the boy is NOT getting
too many votes from the military and yes they are
destroying the Armed Forces... as they tout them around.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. That'll teach you to not undermine the constitution when your ballot

needs to be postmarked by a certain date. I recall some bragging that they mailed their ballots late.

[Eloriel]

5. No threat from military voters

Bush has that sewn up: internet voting for our troops. Nothing but the best (of fraud-vulnerable methods). (Accenture, I think. Don't quote me.)

Eloriel

[tabasco]

7. How do you know?

I am military and I have been a Democrat since I passed out fliers for Hubert Humphrey when I was 13 years old.
Just curious what info you have that the military is such a solid republican voting bloc. Was there a survey or something? I have been in some units where it seemed both ways. I would be interested to see any poll info.

[Beetwasher]

9. Not Sewn Up Due to Voting Preference

But rather I believe Eloriel was referring to sewing up the military vote through fraud. If they have military personnel voting online, then there's practically no way to guarantee that it's tallied properly or honestly...

[tabasco]

21. Oh I see

Better reading comprehension required.
Thanks!

[meow2u3]

32. Internet voting can leave a paper trail

But you have to have the presence of mind to print out your vote before you press "submit."

[TahitiNut]

34. OT: Such a 'paper trail' is useless.

The only useful paper trail is an auditable paper trail. This means that a parallel voter-verified paper balloting process must be instituted. A casual paper record is of no more use than voter notations in their election guide. Unless uniformly collected, verified, and controlled, such notes are of no use whatsoever since tracking any individual's vote from casual paper notes is nearly unimplementable while still keeping a secret ballot. (Just thought I'd forestall this misapprehension.)

[loudsue]

10. That's not what she meant... she's talking about the way

the military industrial complex is trying to make military votes electronic so that the totals can be more easily manipulated. Eloriel is one of our heros in the fight against the corporate-owned, fraud-prone voting machines that are taking over elections in the U.S.

THAT is why she said bush had the next election taken care of...same type of crap that happened with Jeb bush's Florida, and the Texas and Georgia elections in 2002. Votes now show totals the machines are being programmed (or hacked) to show, not how people actually cast votes & for whom.

There are lots of DUers who are military and Dems, and Eloriel knows that. She wasn't calling military personnel all republicans.

Just wanted to give you a little history here for clarification.

:loveya:

Sue

[JPace]

15. I don't know if there are statistics

proving that the military favors the
repugs but would be interested in such
a survey. I have always been lead to
believe that it is true from sniplets
I've read in the news. If it is true
that the repugs finance the military
more it could be the factor. What will
be the new factor is the misuse of soldiers
in an unnecessary war and the sacrifice
of American blood and treasure. I don't
believe that would have happend under a
democratic government. This abuse of our
power will go down in history and perhaps
the military will change its preferred
party.

[drscm]

17. Republican or not....

the New York Times (sorry, no link) reported that when it came to counting absentee ballots from the military in Florida, the repugs challenged late absentee ballots which were from Democrats. Only the late absentee ballots from repugs were counted.

[seemslikeadream]

20. Just a little more on the military

making the machines and counting the votes.

Science Applications International Corporation SAIC has been hired by Maryland to verify Diebold Touchscreen Voting machines are secure.
Former President, Chief Operating Officer, and Vice Chairman of SAIC is Admiral Bill Owens, who is now Chairman of the Board for VoteHere. Oweens also served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was a senior military assistant to Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney. Carlucci's company is Carlyle Group, while Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer is Halliburton.

Diversified Dynamics has brought the election process to the technological level of the new millennium by designing the world's most advanced electronic vote recording and election management system. They are supported in this effort by the engineering and software capabilities of Science Applications International Corporation.

[teryang]

37. Thanks for the info

This is damn scary.

[izzie]

22. Can any one tell me when the service became GOP?

My ex was in for 20 years and I never met a rep. GOP did nothing for the service man it only gives its pals contracts for tanks and things.Their is even a quote that Ike once said all men should be willing to serve free.

[stlsaxman]

35. I don't know when it happened but-

when I was in Turkey/Bosnia/Kosovo in 1999 playing in a blues band for our
troops, even the mention of the name Clinton brought replies of hisses and boos.

They hate(d) Clinton. They had no idea why they were there keeping the
peace. Nary a soldier knew about the civil war in BH... they were kept
ignorant and Clinton was a handy scapegoat.

oh- and at the posts we played- in EVERY ROOM were pallets loaded with
bottled water.... and if you didn't have a bottle in your hand it was suggested
that you put one there. This was Kellogg Brown and Root supplied...

and now KBR has water rationed to two bottles a DAY????

no wonder our troops are "beginning" to turn on this commander in thief.

[punpirate]

26. As some have already explained...

... Eloriel was referring to how the votes were counted.

But on your point, I think a survey would be fairly hard to find--the military tends not to talk openly about personal political persuasion, in my experience, so whatever information available is likely very anecdotal.

My own experience from the `60s was that people talked a lot of politics, but rarely by saying something such as, "well, I'm a Republican and I believe this," etc.

What I did find, though, was a fairly prominent bias on the part of career military to any candidate that promised to increase military spending, or who talked tough about prosecuting the war. They agreed with that. In fact, even though it was very much against regulation, I had to sit through a talk like that from the unit XO in order to get a military absentee ballot for the `68 election. During that, it seemed, the bias was clearly toward Nixon, because he was talking that way about military spending and the war. I vaguely remember the phrase, "as a soldier, you have an obligation to support the candidate who will support us," with the military equivalent of nudge, nudge, wink, wink. To myself, I said, "yeah, right."

Cheers.

[SummerGrace]

13. Accenture

Offshore company captures online military vote
By Lynn Landes
Online Journal Contributing Writer

July 21, 2003—Last year, while George W. Bush marshaled U.S. forces for the invasion of Iraq, the patriots at the Department of Defense awarded the contract for a new online voting system for the military . . . to an offshore company.

It gets worse.

Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) is the system and Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting of Enron bankruptcy fame) is the company. And although Accenture has not been officially implicated in the Enron scandal, they have created a reputation of their own that is already raising eyebrows.

This is hot off the newswire—7/15/03 NEW YORK (CBS.MW)—Accenture Ltd., the former Andersen Consulting, disclosed Tuesday that it might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Chairman and CEO Joe Forehand, on an earnings call with analysts and reporters Tuesday, said the consulting firm's Middle East operations could be in non-compliance with the Act, which prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials by U.S. persons.

Accenture has a troubling track record, a close business relationship with Dick Cheney's Halliburton, and 2,500 partners of which more than half are not U.S. citizens.

Last month Accenture bought the public-sector election assets of Election.com, which suffered its own scandal this year when it was discovered that Osan Ltd, a firm of Saudi and other foreign investors, bought controlling interest in it. According to Mark Harrington of NewsDay.com, "Several shareholders of the company said they were surprised by the recent buyout and have asked for securities regulators to investigate."
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/072103Landes/072103landes.html

[RamboLiberal]

6. Again notice this appears in the UK

Where's the Friggin' American media. Too busy putting flags on their lapels!

And why the F*ck isn't there an Congressional investigation in to the shortages the troops face - like 40,000 Kevlar vests, lack of rifles for armor troops, still on MRE's and shortages of water.

Oh, I forgot this is a Repug congress and all they do is wave the flag and call liberals traitors as a distraction while they line the pockets of their corporate supporters and their own with our tax money!

[MoonAndSun]

8. I found the link to the letter to the Peoria Journal Star by Tim Predmore

it was written in august:

<http://www.pjstar.com/news/opedcolumns/b0gtbbgr059.html>



I don't think any major newspaper picked this up, so it just fell into the vast darkness until the Brits picked it up. How sad for our democracy that we have such media whores here in the US.

[RamboLiberal]

12. LA Times had it Wednesday

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-predmore17sep17,1,191205.story

Don't know how we DU'ers missed it.

[kskiska]

18. I posted it yesterday

fromthe Guardian:

http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=122173

[central scrutinizer]

11. if the GI's think it's bad now

wait until they are veterans then they will really discover how shabbily the Bushco treats them - cuts in health care, etc.

[Racenut20]

14. R U Aware of HOW he was elected by absentee military votes??

[Rose Siding]

16. The ones mailed late?

Maybe after a call went out from someone familiar with the kind of cash that flows through a repub Pentagon? Lieberman thought it was a good idea to count those, too, as I recall.

edit- What % of the military actually votes?

[IndianaGreen]

27. Yep, Lieberman threw in the towel on that one

even though it was obvious that the military ballots were cast after Election Day, in a desperate attempt to stuff the Florida ballot.

Bush had help from people in uniform in order to pull this stunt. I hope they are in Iraq today, enjoying the fruits of their election efforts.

[saigon68]

31. No they are retired

working as civilians for defense contractors

[msanger]

19. Is Clark relevant to this discussion? n/t

[snippy]

23. "our troops are still dying and our government is still lying"

Good quote. I also liked "half- truths and bold lies." The people identified in this article should expect punitive retaliation. Bush is a vindictive little fuck. And Rummy is worse.

[goforit]

28. Well, well, well..........Y'all are sacrificing your lives for a Tyrranny?

Hmmmmm..........This is the first step to self realization.

A little late, but it is better than never.

[0007]

29. A fraudulent administration in the name of greed,

has been exposed by the people for the people and of the people.

[NNN0LHI]

30. Kick

[TahitiNut]

33. "ambushed"?

It'll be interesting to see how often the words 'ambushed' and 'bushwhacked' are used in the media, and how the frequency of that use increases. It'd be heartening to see this increase in the corporatist American media -- a pretty clear indication of a damage control dam overflowing the spillway. (It's their way of relieving the backpressure.)

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. Sounds like the "New Sheriff in town"

is about to be run outta town. :evilgrin: Wonder how many of these military families would like to have the old sheriff back in charge? Remember, the one they despised so much, but also the one who didn't get their butts shot off daily.

[symbolman]

39. I wonder if the old

Bring Em On had anything to do with it..

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bringemon4.html

Watch my series of 15 second ads and spread the word please...

[Jack Rabbit]

40. To enlsited people and their families:

Hang in there. Help is on the way.