Sunday, February 25, 2007

Appeal for Redress on 60 Minutes

Per deadissue, tonight's 60 Minutes will feature the active-duty GI's who are filing the Appeal for Redress with regard to the Iraq War. These are regular troops, taking their careers in hand to halt the war the only way they honorably can. They aren't bailing, or hiding under a bush or going AWOL (not that those things may not be justified under the circumstances). This is the entire text of the Appeal:
As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.
You can read more about it here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jim! I thought I had my boys all worked up for it. They would respond positively when I'd mention the 'soldier show' in the hours leading up to it...I had their grilled cheese and cantalope all laid out for them with apple juice, at their table around 6:40. By 6:58 Sam was up with food in his hands, not getting the whole 'eat at the table or you're done, I've got to wash your hands' (no, no, no)...that was alright, but then as the program started he was mugged by Max over a large dumptruck...the attack took place out of my view, and the thing was starting, so I grabbed up Sam thinking he'd enjoy watching it with me, but that wasn't happening. All day long without a sustained WHAAAAA, WHAAAA moment and it happened then.

My wife is working tonight on some stuff for this week, so I was on my own. Not a problem unless there's something to pay attention to for fifteen minutes straight...

The way it should be. What the hell should they care about some news magazine anyway?

Lot of fun though - - - - shit I'm tired.

JKG said...

More than welcome, my friend. I can't vouch that anyone but me watched it because I can't imagine anyone but me read my post (ha!). I'm more than happy to lend some space to someone with an actual mission. As I noted, I'm not sure your sons missed much there. Any press is good press they say, but I was pretty disappointed in the lack of depth to the coverage. I mean, there are some real issues here. There's constitutional concerns, there's military justice concerns. The most interesting to me is the nearly unprecedented nature of a formal, public protest from men in uniform. They know the potential negative ramifications of speaking out--not just for their careers but for what it may actually signal about the military. But they've lost so much faith in the public institutions of our country (notably the PRESS) that they see no other way to drive the message home to the public. Because that's really where I see this going--congress can't do shit, really. The Services are the President's playthings. That's the way it is no matter who's in charge. Sure, you can rein him in a bit after three months, kind of. If you have the political balls (which, maybe, they're finding). But you can't stop him dropping fire whenever he wants to. So these guys are doing what they can to take it right into your living room. I wish them the best.