Posted by
Tzimisce on Monday, February 26, 2007 5:02:59 AM
The Pentagon has decided to crack down on soldiers who are speaking out. Officials have sent out warnings to personal that criticism against (in particular) the president will not be tolerated. Arguing that civilian power is higher than military, the Pentagon has barred the use of "contemptuous" language against the president of the United States. In fact, a memo sent to members of the Air Force actually warning that "insulting, rude or disdainful" speech/writing about the president is against military code.
This is not surprising response considering all the soldiers that are now darlings of the left from Ehren Watada who is in a trial for insubordination to military personnel who appeared on a recent episode of "60 Minutes" denouncing the war. These modern martyrs find themselves becoming instant media sensations by the unbiased, non partisan mainstream media – which isn’t a surprise either.
What is surprising is the Pentagon’s crackdown reference in the first paragraph was from 1998 in response to growing cynicism by soldiers to then President Bill Clinton. The libs didn’t think it was cute back then. There were no television cameras to talk to people like Marine Major Shane Sellers. There were no grinning info babes demanding to talk to Army Colonel John Baer. In fact, most leftists at the time were telling us how soldiers should keep their mouths shut. They were happy when the (at the time) Marine deputy commandant General Terrence Drake advised Marine generals to stay out of the debate over Clinton. One Socialist online paper even put it:
"There can be no doubt that the ongoing assault on Clinton by his right-wing opponents, culminating in the Lewinsky scandal, has emboldened those elements within the military who consider Clinton's foreign policy insufficiently aggressive."
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http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/oct1998/pen-o21.shtml
Most disturbing to the Clintonistas of 1998, soldiers had actually started an online petition to get Saint Clinton impeached. By all accounts this was deemed illegal, unethical and punishable by the echelons of military command at the time. According to the "60 Minutes" story "Dissension in the ranks" soldiers have started a petition to get out of Iraq. It will be interesting to watch the contrast.
I’m still stunned that liberal Dems are suddenly interested in the opinion our troops. Wouldn’t the best way for someone to get their opinion out in a Republic like ours is to vote? I guess it’s too bad that leftist closed down voting booths at military bases outside the country. Thus if you want to vote and you’re a soldier, you have to vote absentee – but wait, a lot of army mail comes without postmarks. So any unmarked ballot arriving after the election should be thrown out right? This is what Al Gore did when he was trying to win the presidency in Florida. I guess the military didn’t matter then.
In the wake of this action, Republicans in Congress introduced legislation to reopen military voting booths. But the usual cast of Lefty characters in Congress insured that the debate would go on right up till the Congress would close its voting year.
Too bad soldiers just like the poor – you’ll have to take another hit for Team Socialist.