You have to admit the irony is delicious

[still_one]

most of the U.S. soldiers voted for a deserter to lead them in a second term

we have just given power to a fundamentalist Islamic government in Iraq, who has close ties to Iran, which we see as a threat

The Republicans had an opportunity to prevent us from going into Viet Nam, but didn't

The Democrats had an opportunity to prevent us from going into Iraq, but didn't

[MADem]

1. In my considerable experience, most servicemembers

...don't even vote. Yes, they are contacted by a voting officer at the unit level, they are given instructions on how to send for an absentee ballot, but I have to say, the level of voting is probably about the same or even less in a good election year as it is here in the states...and that ain't too good. Also, the perception that most troops vote lockstep GOP is simply untrue. I think we might be surprised if there were ever a scientific poll taken of those in theater--not one of these point and click internet things, a real poll, by real pollsters. Those kids just want to come home.

[roscoeroscoe]

2. well, i'm a democrat

but i do think that along with general population, the ones who are loudest are ditto heads. they've been liberated to be loud obnoxious and spout their crazy ditto opinions. weird, the delight taken in being loud and smug and totally, sadly wrong and misinformed and selfish all at the same time.

[newyawker99]

17. Hi roscoeroscoe!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[still_one]

3. agree, they want to come home, but you are wrong about who they voted for

Who do you trust more to handle the responsibilities of commander in chief of the military: George W. Bush or John Kerry?
George W. Bush: 69%, or John Kerry: 24% annenberg
...and it doesn't stop there, on almost every question the military preferred Bush to Kerry by the same margins.

See a movie called Hearts and Minds, it is about Viet Nam, and near the beginning of the war, as far as the soldiers were concerned, it was my country right or wrong

I know people in the military, and most voted for *

[MADem]

10. I served with about a 55-45 split

I am speaking from personal experience. The officer corps was weighted GOP, the enlisted weighted Democratic. The total number who actually bothered to vote was less than half of those eligible.

[ET Awful]

14. Odd that two of us who were actually in the military say exactly

the same thing about the division in political views between officers and enlisted eh?

Then again, what do we know? :evilgrin:

[MADem]

16. Heh, heh...

We know enough, I imagine!!! If we knew any more, they'd probably have to kill us!

[still_one]

4. Here is the link

http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/naes/2004_03_military-data_10-15_report.pdf

propaganda? maybe

[ET Awful]

7. Actually, I've seen articles analyzing that poll which determined

that the majority of those polled were officers.

Enlisted personnell tend to see things very differently than officers (having been an enlisted man, I can vouch for this).

[still_one]

8. OK, let me accept your premise

even with that, you indicated that they probably didn't even vote, and that in itself says something. In other words, they didn't feel it was important enough to vote in an election which most likely would determine their fate

[ET Awful]

11. I indicated what?

I indicated no such thing. Perhaps you have your posters mixed up.

Actually having heard soldiers say they would ask Rumsfeld for his resignation, and having heard soldiers say that they weren't allowed to say what they really thought of Bush due to disciplinary threats, I'd say there's a pretty good chance they did vote, and voted against him. Especially the National Guard and Reserve troops that make up 40% of those on the ground in Iraq.

Read the accounts from some of the soldiers at Operation Truth, and you might be surprised at what soldiers actually think.

Please don't put words in my mouth or allege that indicated anything, especially when my post made no mention of what you say I indicated.

[still_one]

12. sorry, you are correct, I mixed up posters

[MADem]

13. It's not a question of IMPORTANCE

It is a question of PRIORITIES, not having access to info, not knowing the issues, not getting enough sleep, having to use the little free time you have to try to get your clothes clean, wait in line to use the phone, grab some chow, find a hot shower...

And then you've got the late ballot problem. It's happened to me, MANY times... The ballot that shows up a week after an election is useless.

[Sweet Pea]

9. Really?

While I can't say with exactitude, my unit was likely 100%.

[MADem]

15. Having done the VOTING O thing at a number of installations

...you had an unusually civic-minded unit, and they should be commended.

I found that more requested ballots than actually used them, some due to not bothering, not wanting to get someone to sign the outer envelope, not having return postage, forgetting, and the old "ballot arrived too late" problem. The further out in the supply chain you get, in the combat and combat support areas specifically, the problems are exacerbated due to environmental stressors in addition to the issues previously cited. The person stationed stateside does not have the same challenges as a kid who is in Kabul or Karbala.

Voting is a problem for those who are deployed. The Pentagon has yet to fix it, and the towns and cities that are responsible for mailing the ballots just do not allow enough time for the ballot to be marked and returned before the deadlines in many, many cases. It's systematic disenfranchisement of cannon fodder, IMHO.

[Ilsa]

5. This morning on the local news report on our NPR station,

they reported on how a soldier from Houston who had been wounded in the suicide/mortar attack on the mess tent had been returned to duty and then died from a roadside bomb or something. The father of the young soldier said his son has said, "Dad, just tell them that freedom isn't free."

I feel so badly for this family that they have lost a young one. It is even more pathetic that they are buying into this garbage about how this war is specifically contributing to our freedom, and then perpetuating it. (I agree with the concept that a military is needed for freedom, but certainly not this war.)

[still_one]

6. You and I are in total agreement

unfortunately it is blind allegence

[LynnTheDem]

18. Your first remark is incorrect.

Some rightwingnut myths just refuse to die. The "most US troops are republicans" is one of them.

There are MORE DEMS AND INDYS in the US military than there are repugs.

GET OVER IT!

" 9 out of 10 of the people I talk to, it wouldn't matter who ran against Bush - they'd vote for them," said a US soldier in the southern city of Najaf, seeking out a reporter to make his views known. "People are so fed up with Iraq, and fed up with Bush."

A Military Times survey last December of 933 subscribers, about 30 percent of whom had deployed for the Iraq war, found that 56 percent considered themselves Republican - about the same percentage who approved of Bush's handling of Iraq.

Half of those responding were officers, who as a group tend to be more conservative than their enlisted counterparts.

****So of those who voted, 50% were officers; officers are mostly republicans. Say every officer who responded was a repug; that would mean ONLY 6% of the others who responded were repugs.

And OFFICERS ARE ONLY 15% OF THE ENTIRE MILITARY.
*****

Among officers, who represent roughly 15 percent of today's 1.4 million active duty military personnel, there are about eight Republicans for every Democrat, according to a 1999 survey by Duke University political scientist Peter Feaver.

Enlisted personnel, however - a disproportionate number of whom are minorities, a population that tends to lean Democratic - are more evenly split. Professor Feaver estimates that about one third of enlisted troops are Republicans, one third Democrats, and the rest independents, with the latter group growing.

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines04/0921-02.htm

So 15% of the military -officers- are republican.

THE OTHER 85% of the US military are ALMOST 70% NOT REPUBLICAN.

In my husband's unit, ALL voted for Kerry except one (republican) who did not vote at all.

US soldiers ARE NOT MOSTLY ALL REPUBLICAN.