Anti-Bush Troops

The Truth is beginning to leak out through every crack in the Bush Facade...

--ryan


A STRIDENT MINORITY: ANTI-BUSH U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ

By Ann Scott Tyson, Correspondent of The Christian
Science Monitor

Though military personnel lean conservative, some vocally support Kerry - or at least a strategy for swift withdrawal.

Christian Science Monitor
September 21, 2004

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p02s02-usmi.html



WASHINGTON -- Inside dusty, barricaded camps around
Iraq, groups of American troops in between missions are
gathering around screens to view an unlikely choice
from the US box office: "Fahrenheit 9-11," Michael
Moore's controversial documentary attacking the
commander-in-chief.

"Everyone's watching it," says a Marine corporal at an
outpost in Ramadi that is mortared by insurgents daily.
"It's shaping a lot of people's image of Bush."
The film's prevalence is one sign of a discernible
countercurrent among US troops in Iraq -- those who
blame President Bush for entangling them in what they
see as a misguided war. Conventional wisdom holds that
the troops are staunchly pro-Bush, and many are. But
bitterness over long, dangerous deployments is
producing, at a minimum, pockets of support for
Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, in part because
he's seen as likely to withdraw American forces from
Iraq more quickly.

"[For] 9 out of 10 of the people I talk to, it wouldn't
matter who ran against Bush -- they'd vote for them,"
said a US soldier in the southern city of Najaf,
seeking out a reporter to make his views known. "People
are so fed up with Iraq, and fed up with Bush."
With only three weeks until an Oct. 11 deadline set for
hundreds of thousands of US troops abroad to mail in
absentee ballots, this segment of the military vote is
important -- symbolically, as a reflection on Bush as a
wartime commander, and politically, as absentee ballots
could end up tipping the balance in closely contested
states.

It is difficult to gauge the extent of disaffection
with Bush, which emerged in interviews in June and July
with ground forces in central, northern, and southern
Iraq. No scientific polls exist on the political
leanings of currently deployed troops, military experts
and officials say.

To be sure, broader surveys of US military personnel
and their spouses in recent years indicate they are
more likely to be conservative and Republican than the
US civilian population -- but not overwhelmingly so.
A Military Times survey last December of 933
subscribers, about 30 percent of whom had deployed for
the Iraq war, found that 56 percent considered
themselves Republican -- about the same percentage who
approved of Bush's handling of Iraq. Half of those
responding were officers, who as a group tend to be
more conservative than their enlisted counterparts.
Among officers, who represent roughly 15 percent of
today's 1.4 million active duty military personnel,
there are about eight Republicans for every Democrat,
according to a 1999 survey by Duke University political
scientist Peter Feaver. Enlisted personnel, however --
a disproportionate number of whom are minorities, a
population that tends to lean Democratic -- are more
evenly split. Professor Feaver estimates that about one
third of enlisted troops are Republicans, one third
Democrats, and the rest independents, with the latter
group growing.


POCKETS OF AMBIVALENCE

"The military continues to be a Bush stronghold, but
it's not a stranglehold," Feaver says. Three factors
make the military vote more in play for Democrats this
year than in 2000, he says: the Iraq war, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's tense relationship with the
Army, and Bush's limited ability as an incumbent to
make sweeping promises akin to Senator Kerry's pledge
to add 40,000 new troops and relieve an overstretched
force.

"The military as a whole supports the Iraq war," Mr.
Feaver says, noting a historical tendency of troops to
back the commander in chief in wartime. "But you can go
across the military and find pockets where they are
more ambivalent," he says, especially among the
National Guard and Reserve. "The war has not gone as
swimmingly as they thought, and that has caused
disaffection."

Whether representing pockets of opposition to Bush or
something bigger, soldiers and marines on Iraq's front
lines can be impassioned in their criticism. One Marine
officer in Ramadi who had lost several men said he was
thinking about throwing his medals over the White House
wall.

"Nobody I know wants Bush," says an enlisted soldier in
Najaf, adding, "This whole war was based on lies. "
Like several others interviewed, his animosity centered
on a belief that the war lacked a clear purpose even as
it took a tremendous toll on US troops, many of whom
are in Iraq involuntarily under "stop loss" orders that
keep them in the service for months beyond their
scheduled exit in order to keep units together during
deployments.

"There's no clear definition of why we came here," says
Army Spc. Nathan Swink, of Quincy, Ill. "First they
said they have WMD and nuclear weapons, then it was to
get Saddam Hussein out of office, and then to rebuild
Iraq. I want to fight for my nation and for my family,
to protect the United States against enemies foreign
and domestic, not to protect Iraqi civilians or deal
with Sadr's militia," he said.

Specialist Swink, who comes from a family of both
Democrats and Republicans, plans to vote for Kerry.
"Kerry protested the war in Vietnam. He is the one to
end this stuff, to lead to our exit of Iraq," he said.


'WE SHOULDN'T BE HERE'

Other US troops expressed feelings of guilt over
killing Iraqis in a war they believe is unjust.
"We shouldn't be here," said one Marine infantryman
bluntly. "There was no reason for invading this country
in the first place. We just came here and [angered
people] and killed a lot of innocent people," said the
marine, who has seen regular combat in Ramadi. "I don't
enjoy killing women and children, it's not my thing."
As with his comrades, the marine accepted some of the
most controversial claims of "Fahrenheit 9/11," which
critics have called biased. "Bush didn't want to attack
[Osama] Bin Laden because he was doing business with
Bin Laden's family," he said.

Another marine, Sgt. Christopher Wallace of Pataskala,
Ohio, agreed that the film was making an impression on
troops. "Marines nowadays want to know stuff. They want
to be informed, because we'll be voting out here soon,"
he said. " 'Fahrenheit 9/11' opened our eyes to things
we hadn't seen before." But, he added after a pause,
"We still have full faith and confidence in our
commander-in-chief. And if John Kerry is elected, he
will be our commander in chief."


GETTING OUT THE MILITARY VOTE

No matter whom they choose for president, US troops in
even the most remote bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
elsewhere overseas are more likely than in 2000 to have
an opportunity to vote -- and have their votes counted
-- thanks to a major push by the Pentagon to speed and
postmark their ballots. The Pentagon is now expediting
ballots for all 1.4 million active-duty military
personnel and their 1.3 million voting-age dependents,
as well as 3.7 million US civilians living abroad.
"We wrote out a plan of attack on how we are going to
address these issues this election year," says Maj.
Lonnie Hammack, the lead postal officer for US Central
Command, an area covering the Middle East, Central
Asia, and North Africa, where more than 225,000 troops
and Defense Department personnel serve.

The military has added manpower, flights, and postmark-
validating equipment, and given priority to moving
ballots -- by Humvee or helicopter if necessary -- even
to far-flung outposts such as those on the Syrian and
Pakistani border and Djibouti.

Meanwhile, voting-assistance officers in every military
unit are reminding troops to vote, as are posters, e-
mails, and newspaper and television announcements.
Voting booths are also set up at deployment centers in
the United States.

"We've had almost 100 percent contact," says Col.
Darrell Jones, director of manpower and personnel for
Central Command, and 200,000 federal postcard ballot
applications have been shipped.

"We encourage our people to vote, not for a certain
candidate, but to exercise that right," he said, noting
that was especially important as the US military is
"out there promoting fledgling democracy in these
regions." Many of the younger troops may be voting for
the first time, he added.

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