You may have heard of the “Appeal for Redress” group stood up by a couple of anti-war service folks with some interesting antecedents, neither of whom had served in the Iraq theater of operations – the press made quite a stir when they delivered up their petition to Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Since their 2006 stand-up until today, 1843 serving military personnel signed their appeal for the “prompt” withdrawal US forces from Iraq. Speaking truth to power, as was their perfect right.
But the concept of service people communicating directly with their political leadership was not invented by the likes of these, being instead protected by DoD instruction. And John Donovan points us to another website stood up by active duty servicemen, the “Appeal for Courage,” which has attracted 2,122 active duty, reserves and Guardsmen for a different proposition:
As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.
I look forward to the full-page coverage in all the nation’s media of these daring young folks, speaking truth to power.
Color me an optimist.
1843, Huh? About 1/2 a brigade…
That’s only 0.00072 of the total force of DoD….Statistically significant?
I want to see that other number rise. I’m forwarding that link to everybody I know on AD. Home email o’course.
It’s their right, right?
b2
Reservists can sign it, too. I did…couple of months ago.
Good call pard, I updated it.
Long time reader, first time posting…
Somewhere around the 1080 mark is the name “CPO Dick Hertz” serving on the USS Stennis. It took me all of 5 minutes to create a hotmail account and sign the petition. I bet reknowned sock puppets Ben Dover, Jon Bon Jovi and Albert Einstein are on that petition as well.
For the record, I have never been on the Stennis, but I did watch it being built when I was on Building 65, the Big E.
[...] There’s related commentary by Victor Hanson, who decries double standards in such things. Like Lex today, it’s a bit optimistic. [...]
I had a one-on-one with Dennis during his wilderness years. It was ‘92, and he was running for an open congressional seat in NE Ohio, with a cast of thousands. He hadn’t held office, or a job, since he was booted out as Mayor of Cleveland about twenty years earlier. He’s about 5′3″, darkly died black hair, and all the wrinkles of methusala. I said, “Dennis, you’ve been around since I was a kid. I’m a political junkie, but for the life of me, I have no idea what you stand for?” He just looked at me blankly, and up until this point, we’d been having a friendly animated conversation. He had no idea what to say. He’s an airhead. He didn’t come close to winning the primary. Four years later, he knocked off a sitting conservative in a very rotten democrat burough. Now we’ll never be rid of him. But that’s a good thing, because if I had to pick my enemies, I’d want them all to be idiots like Dennis and Nancy.
It won’t happen, the Appeal for Courage bunch, and all the people that have signed their petition (myself included) are just a bunch of brainwashed Kool-Aid drinkers.