Letters from the frontline. Hey, I've seen this before!

[MellowDrama]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/i...ers-usat_x.htm

Um... yeah.

[ren28]

Leave it up to this Bush administration to serve up some bogus crap so he can get re-elected.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by ren28

Leave it up to this Bush administration to serve up some bogus crap so he can get re-elected.

immediately you think the repubs are behind this.... that is truely sad...

most likely it is the case of a bunch of people at home with nothing better to do than basically transcribe a note and sending it around to various newspapers... I doubt highly that the government is behind this....

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Danny

immediately you think the repubs are behind this.... that is truely sad...

most likely it is the case of a bunch of people at home with nothing better to do than basically transcribe a note and sending it around to various newspapers... I doubt highly that the government is behind this....

actually the article says that soldiers over at Iraq were asked to sign letters and asked the names of their hometown newspapers. my guess is that most likely it's an effort by certain people over there to boost morale support from home. but i'm not ruling out that it came down from the Bush administration as to help sway public opinion about the Iraq occupation.

[lethal]

I don't think came down from Bush or his immediate charges, but there was some plan and organization to this from somewhere. Possibly from the Pentagon. They just didn't think this through too well.

[ren28]

Originally Posted by Danny

immediately you think the repubs are behind this.... that is truely sad...

most likely it is the case of a bunch of people at home with nothing better to do than basically transcribe a note and sending it around to various newspapers... I doubt highly that the government is behind this....

You have your thoughts and I have mine. It's only an opinion without the hard facts so don't be an ass about it.

[Danny]

I was listening to hannaday on the radio and he summed it up fairly well... Belieavble in fact.... this is a letter that was circulated amongst the troops in Iraq and sent to their local papers as letters to the editor... /this is his conservative rant/ he says that the troops are so pissed off that the media is covering the negative a lot more than the positive and thought that sending these letters would show that a lot more postive is being done than what the media is leading on about /end rant/

[ism]

Originally Posted by Danny

/this is his conservative rant/ he says that the troops are so pissed off that the media is covering the negative a lot more than the positive and thought that sending these letters would show that a lot more postive is being done than what the media is leading on about /end rant/

Agreeing with a letter that is factually correct (about re-establishing infrastructure in Kirkuk) can be extrapolated to a general dissatisfaction with the way the media is reporting the news? I'm not exactly sure what Hannity is proposing -- that the media not report soldiers getting killed daily? I'm pretty sure the soldiers over there appreciate the way the media is informing us how dangerous their job is.

Also, it's a less believable explanation when some soldiers never even saw the letter:

Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it. One said he didn't even sign it.

A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the Beckley, W.Va., newspaper. "When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said, 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said of the phone conversation he had with his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson.

The media in the U.S. has kept the news as positive as possible. You'd never find this article about the high suicide rate in Iraq in a domestic news source.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by ism

The media in the U.S. has kept the news as positive as possible. You'd never find this article about the high suicide rate in Iraq in a domestic news source.

I disagree with that statement.... the media goes for the most bang for the buck in regards to the news... when a soldier is killed, granted, that should be the lead on the newswire, but how many stories do you hear about in regards to community building? Competent Police being able to control their little areas? Roads being fixed for the first time in 13 years? There is a lot of good that is coming out of Iraq that most people in the US do not see.

The reason for the downturn in opinion in regards to Iraq is becuase of the negative news coming out of Iraq. Everywhere you turn, the lead story and really, the only story coming out of Iraq is that our soldiers are being killed, Shi'ite's in the streets screaming and yelling about an occupation. You can't have a small minority give you the essence of what is really going on over there.

[yoMAMA]

can't say I'm suprised.

[ism]

Originally Posted by Danny

The reason for the downturn in opinion in regards to Iraq is becuase of the negative news coming out of Iraq. Everywhere you turn, the lead story and really, the only story coming out of Iraq is that our soldiers are being killed, Shi'ite's in the streets screaming and yelling about an occupation. You can't have a small minority give you the essence of what is really going on over there.

I read NewsMax and some other conservative spin sites, and even they don't report the stuff you're asking for. If they're not reporting it, I don't see how anyone can expect mainstream media to. Fox News, having the highest TV ratings, is in an excellent position to present the conservative case, and they have, but they report the "negative" things too. How can this be a "small minority?"

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Danny

I was listening to hannaday on the radio and he summed it up fairly well... Belieavble in fact.... this is a letter that was circulated amongst the troops in Iraq and sent to their local papers as letters to the editor... /this is his conservative rant/ he says that the troops are so pissed off that the media is covering the negative a lot more than the positive and thought that sending these letters would show that a lot more postive is being done than what the media is leading on about /end rant/

i can understand where they're coming from, but i'd rather see them back in the US, where they're definitely safer, than over there in Iraq.

and about the media covering the negative a lot more, all i got to say is - boohoo. i didn't see any conservatives complaining when most of the media, and probably all of the most popular American media, wouldn't report the negatives about committing to this war in the first place, which really helped sway opinion on the deployment of troops itself.

make no mistake, American troops and Israeli people are still dying over there because of the occupation. yes, occupation. Israeli people aren't stupid. they know the difference between liberation and occupation.

by the way, Al Qaeda was spawned in the first place because American troops wouldn't leave after the Gulf War.

[yoMAMA]

The U.S media loves to report negative things......that's how they get their ratings up....

Just turn on your TV, watch the local news.....and what do you see first?

Murders/car accidents/drawnings/police brutality/scandals