(Gary Farber's home blog is Amygdala.)
As The New Yorker notes, not everyone in Iraq working for the CPA or to help Iraqis is a Republican.
"In late April, a group of Americans serving in Iraq sent a letter to John Kerry, appealing to the candidate as both an ex-soldier and a peace seeker. It read, in part, “Put bluntly: we believe you need to get over here, suck in some sand and sweat a bit in the desert heat while talking to, among others, U.S. soldiers, Iraqi technocrats, Coalition officials, private sector reconstruction contractors, and tribal leaders. Perhaps only then will you begin to get a real sense of the real Iraq, for Iraq cannot be understood from the halls of Washington or via briefing papers alone.” The letter concluded, “As our next Commander-in-Chief, the sooner you get over here, the better,” and it was signed, “Donkeys in the Desert.”
The Donkeys in the Desert are a small but increasingly vocal minority of Democrats working under the auspices of the Coalition Provisional Authority. They now number about two dozen, up from an original eight, last fall, and most of them are based in Baghdad, although satellite members can be found on the front lines in places like Baqubah and Ramadi. Roughly a third of the Donkeys are soldiers (from sergeants to colonels), and the rest are civilians working in various C.P.A. divisions—force protection, trade, foreign affairs—through private contractors or assorted government agencies.
The group meets weekly, on Monday nights at eight o’clock, at an old Republican Guard swimming pool within Baghdad’s comfort area, the Green Zone. They eat pizza, drink beer, and discuss voter education and outreach.[...]
Stratcom, the Coalition press office, is staffed by a number of former Bush campaign workers. One Donkey reports chafing at a colleague’s remark, “I’m not here for the Iraqis, I’m here for George W. Bush.”
“A lot of Republicans walk around talking Republican stuff,” Weston said. “We call them Palace Pachyderms.”
The Donkeys kept a low profile last fall and winter, during primary season, but lately, as the violence has increased, and as morale has sunk, the group has been emboldened, advertising its meetings with flyers taped up around the palace. In recent weeks, several of the flyers have been torn down or defaced—in one instance, with a derogatory reference to Al Gore. Continued bombings, meanwhile, have made the meetings’ prime attraction—good grub—harder to come by; the group’s pizzeria of choice is an Iraqi-owned establishment situated in the treacherous Red Zone.[...]
“There’s a misperception that if you’re in the military you’re going to vote Republican,” Weston went on. “But in the Army there are a lot of rinos: Republicans in Name Only. I think there’s frustration from a lot of reservists, whose terms of service keep being extended.” (One reservist, Specialist Kevin Fisher, a New Yorker stationed in Baqubah with the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion, e-mailed last week to express his frustration with, among other things, the adoption of the term A.I.F., for Anti-Iraqi Forces: “Kind of a funny term in my opinion since I would guess that they are increasingly made up of Iraqis who have grown tired of the Americans being in their country.”) It is from the ranks of these reservists that the Donkeys hope to recruit many new members. Political leanings within the Donkeys range from “very left” to ex-rino, but a hasty retreat from Iraq does not fall within the group’s agenda. “I think we’re pretty happy that Kerry has at least demonstrated that it is a complicated situation in Iraq, and not just a case of ‘Get out tomorrow,’” Weston said.
Remember when politics was supposed to stop at the edge of the border? There are things people in both parties, and no party, can agree upon, such as the need to help the Iraqi people.
Read The Rest Scale: 2.5 out of 5 for a bit more.
"It is from the ranks of these reservists that the Donkeys hope to recruit many new members. Political leanings within the Donkeys range from 'very left' to ex-rino, but a hasty retreat from Iraq does not fall within the group’s agenda."
What's disturbing is not only the inherant lameness of being in some sort of political club (in the military, the politically active are considered lower than D&D enthusiasts), but that both sides are so openly partisan. Recruiting members? Putting up politically-themed flyers?
Grab a rifle and go on patrol if you've got that much time on your hands, and leave the politics to politicians.
I personally find the idea of Donkeys in the Desert refreshing. I spent many years in the military as a "closet democrat", and if anyone thinks that the military is not full of partisan discussion they are either kidding themselves or are falling into the widespread delusion that that military is owned by the GOP so adhering to party line is simply doctrine. There is nothing against UCMJ about being involved in politics in the military (with caveats of course), and it is nice to finally see the "other" side represented.
Politics is too important to leave to the politicians. Politics belongs in the hands of the ordinary citizen. When we leave it in the hands of politicians only we get in BIG trouble. Please go back and read your Jefferson, Adams, Paine and de Tocqueville.
It might not be a good idea for John Kerry to visit the theater. Karl Rove could easily say it is a campaign stunt at the expense of the operation; certainly, the need for security for such a tour (even if sub rosa) might divert resources from forces already spread thin. And there's always the possibility of a Michael Dukakis/USS Abraham Lincoln flight-suit photo.
I say this as a lifetime Democrat and state party official, as well as a retired Reserve officer. I can sympathize with these (or any) members of the expeditionary force, but I do wonder if a theater of operations is the place for a campaign stop. Showboat diplomacy, as it were.
(And that goes for the incumbent, too, BTW.)
"It is well that politics are so terrible. Otherwise we might become fond of it." -- with apologies to R.E. Lee
Donkeys, yes. But informed donkeys. I have never so disliked and distrusted any public officials to the degree I feel for that odious regime in Washington. I strongly support any individual, any organization, or any government
(including the French and Germans) who legally and peacefully oppose those people and their twisted aims. God save America, they certainly aren't.