Is this a subtle PUBLIC RELATIONS campaign to get more young people

[diamond14]

to sign up in the military? Is this effort being heavily PUSHED so parents will envision their kids as HEROES, and push them into the military? Is everyone an automatic HERO, if they serve in the military? Does this "HERO HERO HERO" diminish those who are REAL HEROES?


Is Chris Matthews sending his own draft-aged sons to the military, or just doing this Military PR to dupe others, and save his own sons?



Hardball heroes tour
Join Chris Matthews live from Camp Pendleton with California's First Lady Maria Shriver and veteran Marines Brian Dennehy and Ed McMahon.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Hmmm Let's see, would Bush and this govt be that duplicitous?

:silly: Of course!!!!!!!!

[Wisc Badger]

2. Would You rather have our troops that served in theater

refereed to as Baby killers, or scum as their fathers or grandfathers were when the came home from Nam?

I was active duty back then I remember (and no I did not serve in Nam, I was riding boomer subs at the time).:eyes:

[meisje]

3. many here would

[annabanana]

5. no...not many......

a very vocal few. Don't paint us with that brush.

[ieoeja]

6. Which was worse?

The no-nothings calling you Baby Killers, or the WW-II Vets who shunned you for not fighting in a "real war"?

[Wisc Badger]

9. Neither actually

although I though Sub service was honorable, some older vets did look down on the Zumwalt navy.

[patdem]

13. I rode a train with a WWII vet who trashed the Viet Nam vets....I recall

this vividly...(20 years ago) The WWII vet..."I am really angry about those Viet Nam vets thinking they have a right to claim PTSD in order to collect disability." Another passenger asks...why he brought that up? WWII vet..."cause it takes away the funds available to the WWII vets wounded." Another passenger asks..what he did? WWII vet "I am disabled veteran. I have a back problem."...YET HE WAS ON A TRAIN SITTING FOR TWO DAYS FROM NEW ENGLAND TO FLORIDA FOR THE SUMMER... :grr:

[Jacobin]

8. I would describe them as duped military personnel

who enlisted to serve their country, and whose lives are being squandered in an ill-advised, useless and unwinnable tragedy, by a government bent on world domination, theft of resources and protection of Zionism.

"Hero"?

Not unless you count the ones who refused to torture, who reported the torture, who are resisting feeding the war machine by refusing to go to Iraq.

THOSE I would reserve the term 'hero' for.

[rocktivity]

11. How ironic that it's referred to as "theater"

The objective of Operation HERO HERO HERO is not to "cheer up" either the soliders or the public. It's about trying to lend legitimacy to President Mightymouse's war on Islam, I mean, terrorism, and to make it look ilke a glorfied video game to entice young recruits without what would surely be a politically suicidal draft. "Hey kid, you wanna come sit in one of our tents, shoot down Iraqis with a joystick, and come home to crowds greeting you with candy, flowers, and appearances on Larry King?" Heroes? No, victims of a thieving power-mad AWOL commander in chief right along with the rest of us.

:headbang:
rocknation

[diamond14]

17. part of the reTHUGlican PRO-war propaganda: those LIBERALS screamed

"baby killers" and they spit on our war heroes.....


BOTH those stories have been debunked numberous times on DU, and only serve to perpetuate the reTHUGlican war-profiteers....Democrats were very sympathetic to OUR returning soldiers plight...it was Democrat JOHN KERRY who fought for medical care for OUR soldiers,

it was Democrats who pushed through rehabilitative care for PTSD, and Agent Orange....

and Democrats did NOT abandoned these soldiers or call them names...on the contrary, we have nursed them back to health as much as possible, fighting for housing, medical care, and mental health care for OUR Veterans...

the reaguns and bushite reTHUGlicans have destroyed all help for OUR Veterans...here in OUR Nation's Capital, there are now 18,000 HOMELESS people, HALF ARE VETERANS....

Rather than helping OUR Veterans, the response from the cruel war-profiteering reTHUGlicans is "oh, look, it's those liberals...they caused all this because we THINK that they called our veterans nasty names and spit on them....see, it's all those liberals...they did this to our veterans...."

THE TRUTH is that IT'S OUR GOVERNMENT that treats Veterans badly, NOT our people, who care for them as best they can... Veterans are trash to bush*...disposable heroes...throw away people....9,000 of these throw away people are laying on the sidewalk right outside the White House in OUR Nation's Capital....RIGHT NOW....



Disposable Heroes from Vietnam War
http://www.vvaw.org/gallery/1970s.php?which=13

Detroit VA Patient Walkout for Better Treatment, 1975


Disposable Heroes from Iraq War
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/purplehearts_intro.html

BLIND with one leg...living ALONE in a TRAILER, in Dunbar Township, Pennsylvania October 19, 2003.

[annabanana]

4. I'm hoping it's a push for more money for returning vets........

(and old vets)
More health care, mental and physical. Better rehab, faster response to their needs and the needs of their families. It's an opportunity for a spotlight on the way some of these kids have been abandoned.

[Wisc Badger]

10. Amen to that!!

Only took them 10 years to start allowing me VA medical after discharge and another 3 to authorize my service connected disability (and at that I was told I was lucky if I had known (which I did not) about being eligible for disability benefits upon discharge I would have been turned down). Clinton and 9/11 opened up more positive disability claim decisions.

[rocktivity]

12. Speaking of money, check out this MSNBC page

BY THE NUMBERS: Military Pay

A U.S. Army master sergeant stationed in Fort Benning, GA. in his ninth year of service
Pay: $3,193.50 per month, or $38,322 annually

A U.S. Navy seaman apprentice stationed in San Diego, Calif. in her first year of service
Pay: $1,384.50 per month, or $16,614 annually

A U.S. Marines second lieutenant stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii in his third year of service.
Pay: $2948.10 per month, or $35,377.20 annually

A U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel stationed in Little Rock, Ark. in her 15th year of service.
Pay: $6,048.60 per month, or $72,583.20 annually

Plus housing and subsistence allowances...

:headbang:
rocknation

[ieoeja]

7. Subtle?

[ultraist]

14. "Subtle public relations?" Don't you mean insideous propaganda campaign?

Would the government use the media to launch a propaganda campaign?

[stanwyck]

15. Very interesting topic

as I'm the mother of a Marine. We're all liberals. (including my son). But people continuously make assumptions. My son gets treated as a hero. For being in the military. To me, he's a very warm, loving young man who likes being a Marine. (he's been to Iraq and goes back next week). A hero? Not at this time. He's doing the job he signed on to do. My dad served in WWII. He came home, was a wonderful father and husband. He taught high-school "industrial arts" (shop) for 37 years. Since his retirement, he's devoted himself to a number of charitable causes, lending his time and carpentry skills. His former students think of him with respect and appreciation. He's a hero to me. My son may be a hero someday. Right now he's a young man with a job. A dangerous job, yes. But he knew that when he enlisted. I support his decision. I have grave reservations about our current administration and their motives. Let's all try to keep who is and who isn't a hero in perspective.

[JAbuchan08]

16. I realize that this is a sensitive topic, but I have to ask

how do you feel knowing that odds are that part of your son's duty is to kill Iraqis? Obviously I don't know whether he is support or what, but its really hard to separate the soldiers from the war they are fighting, especially if they do their "duty" in the good faith that what they are doing is right.
I have relatives in the army and one in Iraq so I'm faced with the same kind of quandry so I was wondering what you feel.

[stanwyck]

18. gut-wrenching question

and one we very carefully avoid talking about...because that is the dark nature of war. You kill the enemy and hope, finally, that the powers that be will end the killing. Meanwhile, thousands of innocents die. We, personally and as a country, don't talk about the Iraqis who are dying who merely got in the way. My son tells us it is virtually impossible to tell who the "friendlies" are. I guess people think our guys just shoot those who shoot first. That's not reality. War is ugly and dehumanizing and civilians die. Those who find it glorious and exhilarating have never been a part of it.
As to how I feel about my son's part in this? I hate it. I wish he could always be one of the Marines on a humanitarian mission -- handing out food and supplies. But that's not what he does.
I love him. I always will.
I live a very duplicitous life.