- BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- The
Idaho National Guard has issued a set of talking points for soldiers to
use when speaking to the media, reminding them to focus on support for
the war in Iraq and confidence in American troops.
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- In this month's newsletter to the 116th Brigade Combat
Team, the unit's public affairs officer told soldiers that referring to
the approved themes ''adds continuity to the message we are portraying
as a unit.''
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- The five ''command themes'' are:
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- Pride in being on active duty
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- Support for the U.S. presence in Iraq
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- Confidence in American troops
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- Commitment to unified forces
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- Appreciation for families and employers
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- ''Those are the messages we want out there right now,''
Capt. Monte Hibbert, who wrote the article, said Wednesday in a telephone
interview from Fort Bliss, Texas, where he is training with 2,000 other
Idaho National Guardsmen for a one-year tour in Iraq beginning this fall.
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- Hibbert said he did not intend to restrict soldiers'
comments to the media.
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- ''We just give them guidelines,'' he said. ''They can
talk about how the deployment is affecting them personally, and they're
free to express their opinion.''
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- Charles Sheehan-Miles, director of the Washington-based
organization Veterans for Common Sense, said that is not how most soldiers
perceive the message.
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- ''I suspect it's going to be received with a good deal
of cynicism,'' he said. He said the military is increasingly ''trying to
control the message, because the leaders and the Pentagon have taken a
lot of hits on the war, and they want a more positive message.''
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- Val Limburg, a journalism ethics and law professor at
Washington State University, was untroubled by the talking points.
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- ''In private-sector companies, you wouldn't expect employees
to disclose things that might be harmful to their employer,'' Limburg said.
''Now if they're asking them to be deceptive to cover up something that
was wrong that would be wrong and unethical.''
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- On the Net:
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- Snakebite http://www.idarng.com/SnakeBite.htm
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- Veterans for Common Sense http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org
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