A Veteran's Iraq Message Upsets Army Recruiters

[kpete]

A Veteran's Iraq Message Upsets Army Recruiters

Steve Burmeister for The New York Times


"Remember the Fallen Heroes," the sign reads, and then it ticks off numbers - the number of American troops killed in Iraq, the number wounded, the number of days gone by since this war began.

The sign, put up by a former soldier, has stirred intense, though always polite, debate in this city along the edge of Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota. In a way, many of the nation's vast and complicated arguments about war are playing out on a single block here, around a simple piece of wood.

The seven military recruiters here, six of whom have themselves served in Iraq, want the sign taken away. "It's disheartening," Staff Sgt. Gary J. Capan, the station's commander, said. "Everyone knows that people are dying in Iraq, but to walk past this on the way to work every day is too much."

But Scott Cameron, a local man who was wounded in the Vietnam War, says his sign should remain. Mr. Cameron volunteers for a candidate for governor of Minnesota whose campaign opened a storefront office next door to the recruiting station, and he has permission to post the message he describes as "not antiwar, but pro-veteran."

"We're still taking casualties from Vietnam, years later," Mr. Cameron said recently. "Is the same thing going to happen again?" Despite the location, he insists that his purpose is not to prevent new recruits from signing up for the Army, but to honor those who made sacrifices. Still, Mr. Cameron also says, "Before they join the military, people better know what they're getting into."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/national/27duluth.html?hp

[walldude]

1. I can't believe he said this:

"It's disheartening," Staff Sgt. Gary J. Capan, the station's commander, said. "Everyone knows that people are dying in Iraq, but to walk past this on the way to work every day is too much."
The families of those victims have to live with those "numbers" every day. Sorry if the truth is "disheartening".

[Beam Me Up]

3. No shit. Selling lies is harder work when the truth is being pointed out.

Just ask Chimperor McSmerky.

[deadmessengers]

6. Wow

It's got to suck for him, knowing that the kids who are there to sign up are getting both sides of the story. :sarcasm:

[Cha]

2. The truth smarts..

They should show those coffins coming back from Iraq, too, via freight or however they have them returning.

[BuyingThyme]

4. Dear Staff Sgt. Gary J. Capan,

You are a dick.

You are the greatest enemy America faces today.

[CoffeeCat]

5. "Disheartening"....

Interesting choice of words, Mr. Recruiter "Disheartening".

Gee. I wish he found this lie-based war just as "disheartening" as the truth about those who have died for BushCo's warmongering games. Mr. Recruiter finds the deaths and injuries of soldiers "disheartening", yet he'll recruit (and probably lie to) as many young, impressionable Americans as possible.

All these bastards want to do is hide the truth.

All we have to do is tell the truth--and they start whining or calling us unpatriotic--or worse.