Many soldiers, same letter (form letters from Iraq touting success...)

[CreekDog]

This is Orwellian...although the soldiers quoted said that the thrust of the letters was true. Read on...


========================

Many soldiers, same letter
Newspapers around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq

LEDYARD KING GANNETT NEWS SERVICE The Olympian Online

WASHINGTON -- Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.
And all the letters are the same.

A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.

The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters.

The five-paragraph letter talks about the soldiers' efforts to re-establish police and fire departments, and build water and sewer plants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit is based.

continued at the link:
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031011/frontpage/121390_Printer.shtml

[jbfam4]

1. Part of the Bush push

to justify the war. How many newspapers published it? I am e mailing mine to warn them.

[underpants]

4. Notice two of them are from W.Va. a battleground state in the election

BTW Welcome to DU :hi:

I posted an article a couple of weeks ago that many in West Virginia support the war but the $87 Billion price tag for this year was a shock. Rove must have seen this article (I'm not supposing from DU) adn I wouldnt' be surprised if these are sent mostly to "battleground" states all over.

[underpants]

2. Coincidentally the White House started a PR push last week

Great they used in INJURED soldiers name without his consent.

A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the local newspaper in Beckley, W.Va.

"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing) style."

He spoke to his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson, at a hospital where he was recovering from a grenade explosion that left shrapnel in both his legs.

They say they support the contents but this is cheap.

[wryter2000]

3. What's astonishing

What's astonishing is that the media noticed. Even more astonishing is they're giving it air time. It think this is a very positive sign.

[bowens43]

5. The freepers blame Clinton

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/999482/posts


To: ObjectiveDame

everything must be bush's fault.

I'll bet Clinton is behind this. He's tring to make President Bush look bad. You have to admit, the evidense points to it.


14 posted on 10/11/2003 10:36 AM PDT by Doe Eyes

[baby_bear]

6. Here's another article on it, from the UK Inquirer

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12049

<snip>
A NEWSPAPER has noticed that several US media have published identical letters from soldiers based in Iraq but which are signed by different people.
And many of the letters have already been published in US newspapers.

The latest case of so-called "astroturf" is reminiscent of a story we broke in January - Google hunts down "President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership".

It transpired then that the Republican Party was behind the "astroturf".

According to The Olympian, it received two identical letters from different soldiers in the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, but on doing a news search discovered identical letters in 11 different newspapers.
</snip>

The previous article from January can be read at http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7308

This is truly disgusting and has Karl Rove written all over it.

Too bad this story is not getting much play. It's also in the Arizona Republic, but I couldn't find it in other online newspapers.

s_m

[Dr Fate]

7. Send this info to your candidate ASAP

...I'll bet Gen. Clark or Sen. Kerry would be especially concerned about the GOP exploiting troops in this manner, if their staffers ever gets this info to them, that is....

[VolcanoJen]

8. Dupe... locking

Please continue discussion by posting within the original, earliest LBN thread on this topic, which can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=160905

Thanks!
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator