how much would you like to bet the veteran vote goes to the GOP the next two elections?
Not any more baby. Looks like the Vets are but the latest group to be disgusted with the Republicans. Look for the troops to turn on the GOP soon also.
I'd just like these "Vets" tell me how they feel about a commander that says..
If in the course of your military experience you heard a commanding officer state: "our military is air-raiding villages killing civilians."
what would your response be KNOWING that the enemy doesn't care about "context" but the words excoriating military for air raids and killing civilians but will use those words to encourage more military deaths... possibly your own!
These words among others during the Iraq Liberation were found to be emboldening the enemy.
This Harvard study found here asked:
THE "EMBOLDENMENT EFFECT"
"Are insurgents in Iraq emboldened by voices in the news media
expressing dissent or calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq?
The short answer is YES!!! according to Radha Iyengar, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in health policy
research at Harvard and Jonathan Monten of the Belfer Center at the university's Kennedy School of Government.
STUDY ABSTRACT
Are insurgents affected by information on US casualty sensitivity? Using data on attacks and variation in access to international news across Iraqi provinces, we identify an emboldenment effect by comparing the rate of insurgent attacks in areas with higher and lower access to information about
U.S news after public statements critical of the war. (wouldn't you conclude the next president accusing the US military of methodically and systematically air raiding villages killing civilians.. dissent???) We find in periods after a spike in war-critical statements, insurgent attacks increases by 5-10 percent.
So I repeat.. what would you if you were in the military hear a commanding officer use terms like that without care that the enemy would use it do?
Would you really follow this commanding officer that thinks so little of your life that by according to Harvard study words like that encourage more deaths!