A letter to Tampa Bay Times....

[Deleted]

EVERYONE IS ALWAYS SAYING THEY WILL LIKE TO HELP THE VETERANS... WELL HERE IS YOUR CHANCE...


All Veterans (or families of Vets)

It doesn't matter if you are a veteran or not. Please read and forward this to all your e-mail buddies. It needs to go viral. If you are not a veteran send this to those that you know who are, or to those who may know veterans.
The 2014 United States elections will be held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014. During this midterm election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested in this election. Get out and VOTE!!!!

A movement has been started by our armed forces to get out the vote in 2014.. They are organizing themselves, but this can be done by all of us. The President, the Commander in Chief, has made the Rules of Engagement (ROE) so difficult, that our troops are often killed before they can even get permission to fight. Nothing has been done to stop our troops from being murdered by the Afghanis they are training, either.

Now, the President wants the US to sign on to the UNs International Criminal Court (ICC), which would allow the UN's ICC to arrest and try US troops for War Crimes, without the legal protections guaranteed under US Law, and from which there is no appeal. The President, with his Democratic control of the Senate, has nearly all the power. If the Non-Establishment Republicans, and Conservatives, can take back the Senate in 2014, our troops can once again be protected from unnecessary danger. Please consider this, and send it on to your mailing lists.

Interestingly enough, when GWB was president you heard about the military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan almost daily. With Obama in the White House, the mainstream media has been strangely quiet. ---

More than 1,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan in the last 27 months. This is more than the combined total of the nine years before. Thirty have died in August. During the last month, over 50 additional NATO and US servicemen have been murdered, inside jobs by those who are hired to be a force for good in Afghanistan.

The commander in chief is AWOL. Not a peep, although he ordered the White House flag flown at half-staff for the Sikhs that were killed. There is a deep disgust, a fury, growing in the ranks of the military against the indifferent incompetence of this president.

It has taken on a dangerous tone. No one knows what to do about him, but the anger runs deep as the deaths continue with no strategic end in sight to the idiocy of this war. Obama has had 4 years to end this futile insanity, during which time he has vacationed, golfed, campaigned, and generally ignored the plight of our men and women in uniform. But, there is now a movement afoot in the armed services to launch a massive get out the vote drive against this president.

Not just current active duty types, but the National Guard, Reserves, the retired, and all other prior service members. This is no small special interest group, but many millions of veterans who can have an enormous impact on the outcome of the November election if they all respond.

The one million military retirees in Florida alone could mean an overwhelming victory in that state if they all show up at the polls. It might not keep another one hundred U.S. troops from dying between now and November, but a turn out to vote by the military against this heart breaking lack of leadership can make a powerful statement that hastens a change to the indifference of this shallow little man who just lets our soldiers die.

Veterans: Please forward to your lists. High Priority!


link to article www.politifact.com/vets-chain-email/


HERE IS A LIST OF ALL THE CONTESTED ELECTIONS FOR NOVEMBER 2014 SO YOU CAN GET AN IDEA WHERE THE PROBLEM AREAS ARE.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,_2014


thanks to Jester for the info

[3bid]

FWIW



Feb 26 2014 - by Forrest Allen

The Military Officers Association of America.

www.moaablogs.org/battleofthebilge/2014/02/gotv_email/

Questionable Get Out the Vote Viral Message

Should members of our military be subject to arrest under UN law and face trial in front of the ICC? The debate is nothing new, but if you have contemplated this question recently, chances are you have come across some of the same emails or blog postings as we have. A get-out-the-vote effort is spreading some interesting ideas about the Rules of Engagement (ROE) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), linking the Obama administration to several disconcerting statistics. The message does not identify its author nor does it identify the organizing group, but implies that the military is united in opposition to the Commander in Chief and that civilians need to rally behind them.

The message states, in part:

URGENT! A movement has been started by our armed forces, to get out the vote in 2014.. They are organizing themselves, but this can be done by all of us. The President, the Commander in Chief, has made the Rules of Engagement (ROE) so difficult, that our troops are often killed before they can even get permission to fight.

Nothing has been done to stop our troops from being murdered by Afghanis they are training, either. Now, the President wants the US to sign on to the UNs International Criminal Court (ICC), which would allow the UNs ICC to arrest and try US troops for War Crimes, without the legal protections guaranteed under US Law, and from which there is no appeal. The President, with his Democratic control of the Senate, has nearly all the power. If the Non-Establishment Republicans, and Conservatives, can take back the Senate in 2014, our troops can once again be protected from unnecessary danger.

It is easy to see the emotional appeal here; thirteen years of war and conflicting reports of progress make such claims logical for the reader. But what about the intellectual appeal – the facts, the reason? There are about as many factual inaccuracies as there are sentences in the message, so we will cover a few of the main points.

The first claim is that the Rules of Engagement are being dictated by the White House and states that troops on the ground need permission to fight. The RoE for any theater is determined by the military command at a far lower level than the White House, and there has been no change to that tradition. Complaints about the RoE restrictions have been going out long before President Obama took office. The current administration is more associated with changes to RoE than previous ones because it has aggressively pursued action against terrorist leaders primarily via drone strikes, and in those cases the final call on high value targets does usually come from the top. However, this is more of a change in technological capabilities and meta-engagement, and does not have an influence on battlefield rules.

Secondly, the casualty count pushed in the email states:

More than 1,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan in the last 27 months. This is more than the combined total of the nine (9) years before. Thirty have died in August. During the last month, over 50 additional NATO and US servicemen have been murdered, inside jobs by those who are hired to be a force for good in Afghanistan.

While there are many different casualty reports, those numbers simply don’t match most reputable reports. With a closer look, we found that 464 service-members lost their lives in Afghanistan over the last 27 months (Dec ’11 – Feb ’14), and 1,849 prior to that, dating back to November of 2001. Further, the Long War Journal reports that the number of “inside job” attacks has totaled 86 since the start of the war, which makes the email’s claim of 50 murders in the single month unlikely. Assuming the email is talking about 2012 casualties, there were 44 reported “green on blue” attacks for the year. That’s not meant to downplay the significance of even one American death, but the factual number has a much different tone when discussing the casualty rates in Afghanistan. Certainly steps have been taken to protect our troops more, but more can always be done.

Finally, to address the issue with the ICC, reference the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (ASPA) of 2002 (click here for the full act language). The US has typically been resistant to the ICC, as evidenced in Public Law No. 106-113, S 705-706, which prohibits US funds from going towards the court, and states that the US “shall not become party to the International Criminal Court.” The ASPA was enacted to “protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party.” If the government were to bypass such regulations, there is no doubt that Congress would raise some very big red flags. The provisions therein explicitly reject almost all means by which the ICC could hold authority over American soldiers, and permit the President to use all means necessary, including military action (yes, that would mean authorization of an invasion of Belgium), to prevent the ICC from wielding any such authority.

Not only are the facts of this message misleading, but its main assertions were wrong according to US laws. While refuting this story makes this particular get-out-the-vote effort seem like a sham, it is unfortunately not the only one of its kind. They come from both parties with different intentions and different facts. Misinformation about the military, particularly casualty rates, is a powerful tool of emotional persuasion, as was seen here. The International Criminal Court will not be trying United States military personnel, and casualty rates are not skyrocketing under the current administration as compared to previous ones. It could be argued that the Afghanistan theater casualty count was rising sharply in 2009-2010, but the lack of dating and context of this message belies its credibility.

Getting out the vote is always a noble endeavor. It’s not just our right to vote, it is our duty and everyone should take part in the political process. But being an informed voter is just as important, and messages like this don’t help.

For another opinion, check out the write-up done in January by our good friends over at American Legion’s Burnpit. They also handle the whole “Afghani” is a currency; “Afghan” is a person pet peeve that we tried to avoid commenting on (Ok, we just commented on it. Sorry, had to. Big pet peeve).