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A word from Sergeant ThulSergeant David Thul is serving with our hometown heroes in the unit of the Minnesota National Guard that has been deployed in Iraq for over a year. Sergeant Thul writes with news that his "Appeal for Courage" will be delivered to Congress today:
I wanted to give you a heads up that we have lined up a group of Congressmen to accept the Appeal For Courage. The ceremony should be at 2:30 Eastern, with members of the National VFW standing in for Lt Nichols and myself. I'm not sure how much media attention we'll get, but every little bit helps. I'll be rounding up the coverage we get at my site Foreign and Domestic.
After a relatively mild spring, our second Iraqi summer is in full swing with temps already in the 110's. But this year we are facing a hugely diminished threat from IED's and that makes a big difference. That and the fact that we should start heading out of Iraq in the next couple of months.
Thanks again for all your help,
SSG Dave Thul
Minority Leader John Boehner's office also alerts us to this related Army Times story: "Appeal for Courage takes petition to Congress." The petition reads:
As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.
We'll be watching for news of Sergeant Thul's valiant effort today.
The Appeal.
The Appeal for Courage which was presented to Congress yesterday afternoon. You can read about the Appeal here. The Appeal was signed by more than 2,700 active duty servicemen and women. It says:
As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.
The Appeal was received yesterday in Washington by Minority Leader John Boehner and Senator Lindsay Graham. Did you read about it in your local newspaper? I didn't. Nor did I read about it on CNN, which, as best I can tell, has made no mention of the pro-Iraq war, anti-surrender petition signed by thousands of soldiers.
CNN did report on this, though: "Retired generals, Iraq veterans launch anti-war ads":
Three retired generals challenged a dozen members of Congress in a new ad campaign Wednesday, saying the politicians can't support President Bush's policies in Iraq and still expect to win re-election.
Other veterans promoted the campaign at a news conference in Manchester, the start of a six-state publicity tour targeting Sens. John Sununu of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and John Warner of Virginia, plus nine House members. All are Republicans.
This is almost like a laboratory experiment, isn't it? A handful of veterans (including three out of several thousand retired generals) oppose the war: News. Thousands of active duty personnel urge Congress to support the war effort: Not news. That pretty well sums up the journalistic standard that has been applied to the conflict in Iraq.
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