Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Regarding "Appeal for Redress"

This UPI story points us to this site that contains a petition for redress that reportedly allows servicemen to request an immediate withdrawal of all troops and bases from Iraq. According to the UPI story:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- At least 346 active or former military members had signed on by Wednesday to a Web site asking Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq, organizers said.
And..

As of the morning of Oct. 25, 195 self-professed servicemembers had signed up, including at least 98 who had served in Iraq. The total included 11 veterans, including a veteran of the Korean war.

Eighty soldiers, 55 seamen, 21 Marines, 14 airmen and three Coast Guard members were on the list. A breakdown of the 346 as of Wednesday afternoon was not available.

Note the opertative words. Self-professed servicemembers. And note who started the site:
"The Appeal for Redress" was started by active duty service members based in the Norfolk, Va., area and by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and Military Families Speak Out. The Web site went live Monday.
Note not one of the organizations that are "speaking out" are conservative groups. Most are downright moon-batty. And a quick perusal of the form suggests that there is no means of verification of whether the person filling out the petition is really of military status. Which means that anybody can fill this out, and say that they're military. A recent mock MOB election shows how easily this can be done.

But wait!! --the moonbats would never stoop so low as to fake military service, would they?

Well... Remember this guy?

The thing about it is, UPI in a very sly way acknowledges that the respondents were "self professed" soldiers, and then goes on to report the rest of the story as fact.

Also, note, that out of 0ver 1,000,000 active armed forces members, at the time of the writing, only 340 folks signed the petition.

Looks like you got your work cut out for you, moonbats. Get busy on those proxy servers.


****UPDATE****
Robin at Chickenhawk Express has done some digging at the folks behind the scenes of "Appeal for Redress".

A must-read.