Tony Snow Wants You (If You Are a Reserve Officer Who Supports the Surge)

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A reader sends this email he received today from a retired Marine general addressed to members of the Reserve Officers Association of the United States. Reserve officers of the supposedly non partisan association are invited to share any “positive (and negative)” developments in Iraq they believe the press may have failed to report.

Dear [xxxx], President Groskreutz and I recently had the opportunity to participate in a White House teleconference conducted by Press Secretary Tony Snow. Mr. Snow reinforced the President’s message about the preliminary report of Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus on the progress being made in Iraq since the “surge” of additional forces earlier this year. Mr. Snow repeatedly stated that he believed the country does not fully understand the critical nature of the threat in Iraq, and that the press has failed to report many of the positive things that have been happening. The press secretary asked that we use our best efforts to enable the men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to come forward with their own accounts of what they saw and experienced in combat, their own assessments of the nature of the threats facing our Nation, and their view on the need for our presence in these theaters of war. Many ROA members have a truly unique insight into the “ground truth” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sharing those insights with the American people and with our governmental leaders will help everyone to better understand the complex situation in which we find ourselves.

Do we have vital national interests in Iraq? Afghanistan?

Is the “surge” of forces working?

Are there positive (or negative) things happening that the press fails to report?

It’s important that the views of the men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are heard. To facilitate this, we’ve created the “ROA Deployment Blog” as a vehicle for our members to share their experiences and views. ROA will do several things with the submissions we receive. We will publish a report outlining the range of responses, highlighting key trends, and quoting from the your submissions. (If you withhold permission to quote you by name, we will honor that direction and your submission will remain anonymous.) ROA will also send this report to the White House, DOD and the Congress. The ROA Deployment Blog ….can be accessed from the links in this message or from the front page of the ROA web site. As an alternative, responses may be sent to me by mail or e-mail. …

LtGen [XXX] USMC (Ret)

Reserve Officers Association of the United States

Washington DC 20002

The recipient of the email sent an accompanying note, “Oh, this is great. ROA is becoming a shill for the White House…..!” And later informed me that he is resigning his membership in the group.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

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Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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