[Peace-discuss] VoteVets and their current campaigns

[C. G. Estabrook]

I don't think it could be just as easily stated that VoteVets is co-opting 
pro-military people.  What would it be co-opting them to?  Opposition to the war 
because people kill and are killed? But they support the expansion of the war.

At worst, their emphasis on the "human cost of war" is meant to support their 
authority to call for an expanded war, because they were/are soldiers:

"Our forces are much more needed in Afghanistan right now ... to take the fight 
to al Qaeda where it is strongest, and make America and the world safer.”

=============AP reports

	Pentagon To Allow Photos Of Returning War Dead
	PAULINE JELINEK AND ANNE GEARAN | February 26, 2009 04:37 PM EST |

WASHINGTON — Families of America's war dead will decide whether the flag-draped 
caskets of their loved ones can be photographed by news organizations when the 
fallen return to U.S. soil, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. Gates 
said he decided to permit the photos at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the 
families agree. A working group will come up with details and logistics.

The new policy reverses a ban put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. 
Bush. Some critics contended the government was trying to hide the human cost of 
war.

"We should not presume to make the decision for the families _ we should 
actually let them make it," Gates said at a Pentagon news conference.

He cited a difference of opinion inside the Pentagon about whether to change the 
policy, based on concerns about what would be in the grieving families' best 
interests. He said he was "never comfortable" with the ban.

"We've seen so many families go through so much," added Adm. Mike Mullen, 
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said the goal is to meet family needs 
in the most dignified way possible.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama asked Gates 
to review the policy of media coverage. Gibbs said Gates came back with a policy 
consistent with one used at Arlington National Cemetery.

Gibbs said it gives families the final say and "allows them to make that 
decision and protect their privacy if that's what they wish to do. And the 
president is supportive of the secretary's decision."

A veteran's group welcomed the move.



Karen Medina wrote:
> Carl,
> 
> * I agree that VoteVets is not an anti-war group. * I agree that their
> position on Afghanistan shows their pro-military stance, which they do not
> hide. * VoteVets state quite boldly that they are "dedicated to the 
> destruction of terror networks around the world, with force when necessary."
> 
> But they are not afraid to point out the human cost of war.
> 
> It could be just as easily stated that VoteVets is co-opting the pro-military
> social network, if there is a single unified network of these folks.
> 
> I think that allowing the press to film the unloading of coffins is not a bad
> idea.
> 
> -karen medina
> 
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 2:22 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>> VoteVets.org seems to be another Astroturf (fake grassroots) group, 
>> well-funded presumably with money from Democratic party backers like the 
>> late unlamented "Americans Against Escalation in Iraq." Founded in 2006, 
>> they seem to have been part of the successful effort by the Democrats to 
>> co-opt the antiwar movement.
>> 
>> They support the expansion of the war in Afghanistan; see their press 
>> release on the day of Obama's announcement: 
>> <http://www.votevets.org/news/?id=0190>.
>> 
>> Their Board of Advisers has included war supporters like Tammy Duckworth, 
>> whom Rahm Emanuel used to destroy an authentic anti-war Democrat in an IL 
>> congressional election in 2006; former Sen. Bob Kerry; Leslie Gelb of the 
>> CFR and the "progressive" pro-war group National Security Network; Lawrence
>>  Korb of the Reagan DOD; et al.
>> 
>> They represent that Realist alternative to the Neocons that now shows
>> itself more aggressive and violent in AfPak than the Bush administration
>> was. --CGE
>> 
>> 
>> Karen Medina wrote:
>>> Dear Peace-discuss,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I also think it is interesting what VoteVets.org has as information 
>>> campaigns right now: * a TV ad responding to Rush Limbaugh's charge that
>>> veteran Brian McGough is a phony soldier for opposing George Bush's
>>> failed policy in Iraq. * StopIranWar.com * President Bush’s failed
>>> strategy in Iraq has led to a stronger al Qaeda 
>>> _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing
>>> list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net 
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