Letter from Military family. Be prepared to be angry.

[roguevalley]

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=3117


LETTER FROM RET. MARINE CSM AND RET. MARINE MAJOR
22 comment(s).
As a military family with a combined total of 57 years of active service in the U. S. Army, myself, son, and daughter-in-law have accumulated over 80 combat medals, one or more of us have served in Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, El Salvador, Kosovo, Bosnia, and three of us served together during Desert Storm. My son recently returned from the Iraq War, his third war, and, being fed up with Bush lies and back-to-back deployments, applied to be discharged from his "indefinite enlistment" status.

Six days later he was under investigation for making "disloyal comments" about George Bush...which amounted to saying in general conversation with other soldiers that "Bush should have never started the war" and "Bush is no military leader." He was charged under Article-15 and was denied an attorney and could not cross-examine the case against him. His 14 years of military service up to this point was flawless, he was an excellent soldier, and in spite of numerous superiors who testified in his favor, he was demoted and sentenced to 45 days of extra duty.

His crime involved nothing more than expressing his personal political opinion as guareeteed under the Bill of Rights, the very document that he had risked his life defending. Our government claims to be fighting for democracy, however those who risk their lives for democracy are being denied their basic rights of freedom of speech and opinion. My friends, the Bill of Rights and democracy are dead under the Bush Administration. This is only a sampling of what will happen if this administration is re-elected.

For generations we have been a loyal and faithful military family, however with this recent action taken against a member of our family, we will no longer encourage military service to our future generations. In other words, we are going to do the same thing that Bush, Cheney, Wolfovitz, and most members of congress do, WE AIN’T SERVING NO MORE!!

The Iraq War was based on lies and exaggerations, poor intelligence, a mass deception with no rhymne nor reason for invading Iraq. For those who still have kids and loved ones in this illegal war, our blessings and best wishes go out to you. We pray for their safe return. It is refreshing to see an organization like Military Families Speak Out because our active service members are silenced by the system and need all the voices that can be mustered.

Charlie C. Carlson II
Command Sergeant-Major USA Ret.
Dot Diehl-Carlson

[physioex]

1. Things like this don't surprise me anymore.....

I am waaay beyond angry.......

[alittlelark]

2. Wars will stop being fought

when the children of the rich START fighting them..



Same story, different decade.

[In Truth We Trust]

4. This letter should be in every LTTE across the nation

DU: KICK it!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alittlelark]

9. I hope that it happens

I hope that this post is #1 for days, but there is just soooo much goin' on.......

Peace, Gina

[Ron Green]

12. True! All the more reason for universal conscription. n/t

[silverweb]

3. This can't hit the major media soon enough.

Thank you for posting it here.

[jukes]

5. we've been betrayed

goddamn these people.

[asianjoanne]

6. Just goes to show ya'...

"4 more years" will have ALL American citizens under the watchful eye of the SHRUB administration. And they're going to come up with excuses like "well, it's part of the patriot act! (annoying SHRUB giggle)".

I have a friend online who's an active military soldier. I asked in his forum his stance on the war and he replied back to me in his forum that he cannot talk about that for "obvious reasons". This letter proves that "obvious reason" he was talking about. Anything that a soldier may say against SHRUB or any of his stupid patsies will be considered "treason" or "betraying America"....something as small as saying "Bush didn't go about this war in the CORRECT way" would land a soldier in "45 extra days of duty".

This is f***ed up! What the hell ever happened to FREEDOM OF SPEECH?!? I guess everyone but the VERY PEOPLE defending that freedom get freedom of speech huh? (shakes her head)

This is ridiculous. ANYONE who votes for Bush again must have something terribly wrong going on in their brain...or lack thereof. I come from a military family and to see these soliders being CENSORED like this and reprimanded for their OPINIONS is an outrage! This gets me MORE than angry! This makes me want to go on a @$$-kicking rampage...just to start swinging wildly at all these people who treat our soldiers this way and to all these people who still think SHRUB is the "better, stronger" candidate. PUH-LEEZE!!!!

I'm ecstatic that the rest of this military family decided not to serve anymore. They shouldn't be SHRUB'S sacrifices for HIS dirty war!

[fortyfeetunder]

11. The soldiers are only the first ones

If we don't stop the Bushistas, we are next. Reminds me of pre WWII.

[miss_kitty]

7. the cheney-bush junta is shooting itself

in the teeny tiny foot.

[TheDebbieDee]

8. The letter states...........

"His crime involved nothing more than expressing his personal political opinion as guaranteed under the Bill of Rights, the very document that he had risked his life defending."

The fact is that as a member of the US military, a soldier has even fewer rights than the average citizen. Soldiers don't get guaranteed rights and freedoms. Even the most basic rights that citizens take for granted require authorization from the higher ups for the soldier. For example, the right to carry your own personal firearm, the right to marry a foreign national, the right to free speech, etc., etc., etc.

[JohnnyCougar]

10. Kick

[FighttheFuture]

13. Is this true?

I would like to have better confirmation becasue this could be pretty damming to the nazis. It could also be forged in his name to create an embaressment.

This is only on that site, thus far. He was also maintaining an Iraq Diary for the local paper,

http://www.seminoleherald.com/diary.htm

[cap]

14. dont we have military on the record about clinton...

shouldnt be too hard to find....what about all the remarks about respecting the office but not the man.

[Hobarticus]

15. Unfortunately, your rights end at the end of the dotted line...

...that you sign when you enlist.

DUers! DRIVE THIS HOME to young folks thinking about the service!!!

[johnnie]

16. Copied it

I am going to send this one out. I just sent it to my father who served in the Marines for 25 years. He is not a big fan of bush, but he has had too much "info" to be a big fan of Kerry.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

17. Um, when you go into the military...

don't they explain to you that you are no longer an individual and to keep your opinions to yourself until they give them to you? I'm not necessarily mad. I think it's a dumb rule, but of course, that's the way it is. It's called the sedition act and you have to sign a paper or something. Suck it up. If you go into the military and start running your mouth despite the warnings, it's your own fault.
Duckie