"America Supports You" leaves eveyone wondering who the "you" is

"America Supports You" leaves eveyone wondering who the "you" is
by
Chaplain Kathie
What was sold to the American people and the military families, was that this was a wonderful way to show support for the troops. After all, isn't that what we kept saying? We support the troops. The problem is, they really were not too clear on who the "you" was in any of this. As you can see from the investigation, a lot of money didn't go to the troops or really have anything to do with what they need. The bottom line is, when it comes to supporting the troops, it isn't the government even though that's what they want the public to think.

We see this when they come home wounded and are forced to wait without money to have their wounds taken care of when they cannot work. We see this when they come home sick because of burn pits and depleted uranium along with contaminated water. We see it when reports came out saying they knew about the tactic the Iraqi insurgents would use as the weapon of choice, IED and that the up-armored vehicles would have saved lives. We see it when they come home and PTSD is still trying to kill them. The list goes on, so please keep that in mind when you read the following and see if you are as infuriated as I am.

Report: Problems with America Supports You

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 12, 2008 17:39:04 EST

About $9.2 million in appropriated funds were inappropriately funneled to the independent newspaper Stars and Stripes to finance a Pentagon program aimed at telling troops how well they are supported by the general public, the Defense Department Inspector General has concluded.

And a senior Pentagon official conducted that program, America Supports You, in a “questionable and unregulated manner,” producing “results that were not consistent with the program’s objective,” the IG report said, adding that the official had “too much authority and control over the ASY program.”

Stars and Stripes officials also “lost visibility” of $4.1 million in appropriated funds — those authorized by Congress for specific programs. The IG’s Dec. 12 report also concluded that about $1.9 million from Stars and Stripes’ nonappropriated fund account was spent to subsidize expenses of the ASY program.

Stars and Stripes, which falls under Pentagon public affairs management but is editorially independent, is supported primarily with nonappropriated funds. Pentagon policy bans the use of nonappropriated funds, raised through the on-base sale of goods and services, from being used for or to support public affairs activities.

The audit also found that the Pentagon public affairs directorate provided “inadequate oversight” for an $8.8 million contract with an outside public relations firm. The audit questions the “nature of work, cost and competitive process” of the contract, said Bob Hastings, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.
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We also have a ton of info just from this one page;

Fundraising activities under investigation
On May 11, 2007, officials said that the Pentagon is "looking into complaints that Defense Department officials charged with building public support for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan might have been engaged in improper fundraising," David S. Cloud reported in the New York Times.

Officials said the inspector general is "examining whether officials who run 'America Supports You,' a three-year-old Pentagon program lauded by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, helped arrange a fund-raiser for a private foundation"—the America Supports You Fund—set up in December 2006 "by former Bush administration appointees," Cloud reported. In a January 2007 memo explaining the ASY Fund, Allison Barber wrote: "What we have learned is that the American people are beginning to fatigue, even in their support for the troops. ... I don't think we have a minute to lose when it comes to maximizing support for our military, especially in the new political environment."

Stars and Stripes involvement
In October 2007, the U.S. Defense Department Inspector General's review of "America Supports You" widened to include the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes. "Both America Supports You and American Forces Information Service -- the parent organization for Stripes -- are headed by Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs," Stars and Stripes reported on October 20.

Freedom Walks
On September 11 in 2005, 2006 and 2007, America Supports You held a "Freedom Walk" in Washington DC, "to commemorate the attack on the Pentagon and honor all lives lost on September 11." ASY describes the walk as a "new national tradition," and encourages local cities to organize their own Freedom Walks. An America Supports You "teaching supplement" in the Weekly Reader, a periodical for grade-school students, encouraged the students to organize Freedom Walks, among other activities

Other activities

In July 2006, National Public Radio reported that "one recent effort is a campaign to get people at major league baseball games to 'text-message' their support to the troops on their cell phones... even though those messages aren't actually sent to the troops." According to former ASY webmaster Chris Moore, the messages were simply archived on an ASY computer database.

On December 2, 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld presented an "America Supports You" dog tag to Bill O'Reilly on his Fox News show, calling O'Reilly "a terrific supporter of our troops." President George W. Bush also plugged the "America Supports You" campaign during an address to Marines and their families at Camp Pendleton, California

PR firm
In December 2004, O'Dwyers PR Daily reported that the PR firm Susan Davis International (SDI) "is handling the Pentagon's 'America Supports You' campaign to drum up support for the nearly 150,000 U.S. forces that may be occupying Iraq during the next four years". "America Supports You," a Defense Department campaign, was originally planned to run through May 2005 but as of August 2007 is ongoing. SDI was paid "at least $2.7 million" for the first year of America Supports You alone, reported National Public Radio.

Operation Tribute to Freedom
ASY's predecessor of sorts appears to be "Operation Tribute to Freedom," which was launched by the Defense Department in May 2003. A Department press release explained it as "a sustained and widespread program of activities in appreciation for our men and women in uniform and the families that support them." The program's now-defunct website says it "encourages and facilitates public participation at every level -- from corporations and organizations to families and individuals. It reinforces the bond between citizen and soldier."

Infuriated? If not, then you haven't been paying attention. What if you were one of them?

But this one is the one that gets my blood boiling

Converting U.S. troops and Iraqis
The "evangelical entertainment troupe" Operation Straight Up, which "actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military," is an official arm of America Supports You, reported Max Blumenthal on The Nation blog in August 2007. Among OSU's future plans are mailing "copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq." The game is based on the Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins books, and players must "kill or convert ... non-believers left behind after the rapture."

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Fundraising activities under investigation

Now think of that. Not only are you told they can keep you as long as they want to under stop loss, tell you that if you have problems you need to go talk to someone and then they send you to be "saved" in a way you didn't expect. I really doubt it would matter to them if you had been saved by Christ as a Catholic or any other denomination of Christianity, or were of another faith or even no faith at all. They blurred the line between taking care of your spiritual needs by taking advantage of you in a weak moment of despair to convert you. Wouldn't that bother you? Would you feel totally betrayed? Taken advantage of? Made to feel as if you've just been targeted by a cult?

For Heaven's sake! I wonder how many men and women were pushed away from Christ because these people couldn't get a grip on reality and actually do the work of Chaplains taking care of the spiritual needs of anyone in need? More to the point, how many were pushed away from the psychological and spiritual help they needed in a moment of crisis? Shame on them for betraying the very people they were selling themselves off as helping and "supporting" when the "you" turned out to be someone else.