Exploiting children for the pro-war right

[Oilwellian]

Here's a lovely story via Atrios:

don't even know exactly where to start with this one. Like we haven't already seen how low this crowd can go...

For two years the Daily Egyptian (the student newspaper of Southern Illinois University) has unwittingly been a tool in perpetuating a cruel hoax on it's readers. The story of a marine father deployed in Iraq, mostly told through the perspective of his young motherless daughter. One problem... He didn't exist and the child was a pawn who had been tricked into believing that she was involved in filming a documentary.

The hoax only began to unravel when the child's "caretaker" went one step too far - claiming that the father was killed in Iraq. The Daily Egyptian has now filed at least two mea culpa's but they've gone a step farther - they've scrubbed all of the previous articles, columns, and letters from their archives. Is that the responsible thing to do? I wondered. And I wondered what we would find if we could see them with 20/20 hindsight. So, I managed to dig up the very first "introduction" article regarding this fictional family in Googles cache. On the whole it's enough to make you puke, from start to finish - but, here I want to highlight this section:

But southern Illinois has proved to be just as much of a challenge. They keep her away from all the war coverage on television unless her dad shows up and home-school her because normal schools cover the war and try to keep her away from war protest.

That last one becomes a challenge anytime she comes to the SIUC campus with Matt. An avid Saluki fan, Kodee loves SIU, but she hates seeing "no war" scrawled on the walls of Faner and becomes confused when reading slogans such as "Bush is the Devil."

To Kodee, Bush is her father's boss and she does not understand why people think he is evil. She has also has a very difficult time understanding the war protesters and has begun to fear them the way most kids fear the boogeyman or monsters.

She calls them "the bad people," and is convinced they are going to come to her house at night to hurt her or camp out on the lawn and make her father not want to come home.

Every night, Matt and Colleen have to check under Kodee's bed and in the closet for "the bad people." They also have to double check to make sure the window is locked and investigate any sound that comes from outside.

Colleen said Kodee routinely wakes up at night screaming, fearful that "the bad people" are going to get her.

"To you and I, it's a crazy thought, but in her mind, it's as real as the telephone you're holding," Colleen said during a phone interview. "The fear is just so real."

You got that? While we're throwing everything (including the kitchen sink) into this emotional hoax - why not fashion a bludgeon to beat and shame the anti-war crowd for scaring brave little girls whose fathers are in harms way?

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Oh snap! Update time!

Not only did this wench use and abuse the emotions of people like this (who feel more like this today) - but it appears that she signed the name of a REAL wife of a soldier with the 101st to this letter! I don't think Shayla and DJ Goldsmith would approve....

In addition this column by the little fake girls 'mentor' Jack Piatt has also been scrubbed from the website. A little "passive agressive" solicitation of "support" for the troops? You know - c'mon all you anti-war people, it's not our troops fault so please don't spit on them!

http://outside--the--box.blogspot.com/2005/08/depravity-of-war-whores.html

[whatever4]

1. I saw a similar story

It was on tv, but from what details I remember, it isn't the same story. I'm actually surprised, because I thought that's what you were posting about.

In the incident I saw, a woman passed herself off as a wife with a husband in Iraq. She made in phone calls to a local radio station, turns out she was mostly driving around, talking on her cell phone. The station went with it all the way, until she provided too many conflicting facts, and acted out of character too much, finally. She went so far as to say she joined the military herself, detailed her experiences at boot camp, and then said her husband died in Iraq. They said...she didn't seem as upset about it as she should be. I recall the radio personalities being shocked when they realized how much they'd fallen for it, and broadcast.

No, be surprised at nothing these people do. Lies to cover lies. No shame at all; they'll turn to god for THAT forgivness, these liars and murders. That's their plan. The rest of us can just deal.