[Peace-discuss] VoteVets and their current campaigns

[Karen Medina]

You know that I completely agree with you on Afpak.
I just think it is a positive thing to have even a pro-military group
that wants the military out of Iraq and wants a dialogue with Iran.

-karen medina
=========================================================
On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 3:48 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> 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.