Troop Censorship
"Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened."
"Last season, despite the rule, officials say as many as 450,000 pieces of mail not addressed to anyone in particular managed to reach Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. But they were returned or, if they had no return address, were thrown out altogether. . . spokesman Terry Goodman said.
"'A lot of this is because of security concerns . . .' Goodman said. 'Also, being a democratic society, there could be inappropriate mail from someone who, say, doesn't support the war, and then you've got a wounded soldier getting it (U.S. Refuses Any Wounded Soldier' Mail.)"
Democratic society? Stopping the mail? Surely it is no surprise to anyone in our democracy that there are opponents to the war. And surely anyone also knows that someone who would write something hurtful to a soldier is not worthy of consideration. The vast majority of the letters would be from well-wishers, I would imagine.
One of the first responses to the above post showed contradiction:
"Sometimes our church would have the children write me letters and the Pastor would send them to me and they were welcome and wonderful. I carried a letter from a little girl that I had not even met until it fell apart and was unreadable. One of the first things I did when I got home was to call her and thank her for her letter.
"Now for the other side of the coin, a letter from someone I do not know meant nothing to me or anyone else I knew. Who wants to get a letter from some feel good liberal that is just doing something to make them pretend that they did something for the "support the troops" crowd. Want to do something to help the troops and raise their morale? Get off your duff and jump on the politicians that are holding up funds, jumping on their Generals and the commander in chief . . ."
What is implied here? First he says letters that are from unknown people mean nothing, yet he kept the letter from the unknown girl until the end of his posting. Why was the letter from that unknown girl any more important than that from another unknown writer? Because she was a member of his tribe (=church), therefore, not really "other"?
Next, he accuses the "feel-good liberals" of assuaging their conscience. Um, that would be "feel good conservatives," wouldn't it? Well, it shows great confusion. I can't see how a letter from anyone would make such an individual's vision any cloudier.
Labels: troop censorship, u.s. refuses mail to "any soldier"
posted by Lisa at 3:31 PM
7 Comments:
It certainly sounds to me as if he realizes all those "To any soldier" mails would be coming from liberals rather than the war-lust folks.
lurch,
Too ecumenical of a gesture, eh?
Indeed. We can't have any of those possibly already discontented, disenfranchised troops realizing that a goodly portion of the population DOES support them not loving the war that wounded them.
labrys,
Bingo. Divide and conquer.
L.
they will never understand that not supporting the war, or their policies has nothing to do with the troops they command. it goes contrary to one of their cherished myths. that hostility to the returning troops by a society that turned its wrath on the army that fought an unpopular war. i never experienced that as more than a myth. i was never shouted at, harrased, or otherwise made to feel that i was anything other than a person who saw his duty and did that. of course, some folks might see things like my unit insignia and figure there were far safer targets for harrasment. when i came home i was wrapped pretty tight. still, in my time in college i didn't experience much beyond interest and concern from my fellow students and faculty (there was one professor who enjoyed singling out and messing with vets but he was just showing off for the young coeds). many times i was asked "what really went on there." and i would say "you don't want to know. really. you don't." and that would be that. one of the best things we ever received was a package that had been addressed to "any frontline unit." it was a case of pre-sweetened koolaid packages from a second grade class in washington state. they had heard that the water purification tablets we used made the water taste like ass and that the koolaid would help with that. it did. we sent a unit photo and a thank you letter.
the stupid incompetence of this administration goes to all levels. it's disgusting.
MB,
In the middle 70's, approximately 20,000 officers were rif'd from the U.S Army, the great majority of whom were VN veterans. This was a greater scorn than anything heaped upon them by the civilian world.
I receive criticism today that I am a traitor the Spec. Op. community, but when the rif's were happening, there was no loyalty shown by that community toward me at that time. The same thing will happen to today's troops--the institution will spit on them, not the citizens.
p.s.--of course, the above comment is ranger's not mine.
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