Palin giving the date of her son's deployment is a breach

[medicswife]

of National Security. My husband is in Iraq right now. Palin claims her son will deploy ON 9/11. That is bullshit. It's either purely political and should be called what it is, or she has just given Al Quaeda the date that a large number of troops will be gathered. Now, as the spouse of a soldier who has deployed to Iraq more than once, I know that her claim is bull shit. My husband didn't even know when he would be leaving for sure. We were given a 'window' both times. I want this aspect jumped on. I think it was her first big mistake.

[spanone]

1. political theater - nothing less

[texpatriot2004]

8. Indeed! nt

[jakem]

2. i thought she said he signed up on 9/11...

[apnu]

3. Well how about "he signed up on 9/11" then "... he's deploying on 9/11"

That's worse that Rudy.

[medicswife]

7. No, she said he will deploy on 9/11 let me double check

myself, but she said, paraphrased here "Our oldest son cannot be with us today....blah blah blah..."and then she said he'd deploy on 9/11, but I'll look again.

[apnu]

10. check it. she said 9/11 twice about her oldest son in less than 60 seconds.

See here from 13:30 (introduces her family, starts with the oldest boy) and again at 14:18 where she specifically mentions he deployment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKByFPy7-RU

(edited to add link, whoops)

[medicswife]

11. BBC has it in her bio that she stated he enlisted AND will deploy

on 9/11 that is a breach of OPSEC. I think that it's actually something that they could run with.

[WheelWalker]

23. That's what she said. Enlisted last year on 9/11. Deploying this fall on 9/11. I heard both.

[spanone]

20. again the republicans shamelessly walk on the graves of the 911 victims

i bet there were a few democrats in the rubble of 911.....

[LynneSin]

4. Even with Biden all we know is Beau goes September/October

and that's about it

[betharina]

not only is he deploying on 9/11

he enlisted on 9/11 as well. that is some coincidence!

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Good catch!

[Kool Kitty]

6. Look, cut her some slack, will you?

Rudy obviously helped her write her speech (if you want to believe that piece of drivel was actually written by someone), and he told her that mentioning "9-11" as often as possible was a sure winner. I mean, look how well he did with it.

[eshfemme]

9. yeah, WTF? Beau Biden will be deployed but it's not like we were trying to shove that in their faces

We had more than enough to shove in their faces without using the children for political gain.

[EatTacos]

12. I new the exact date I was leaving for Iraq, 2 months in advance

It's really not that big of a deal. Al Qaeda has people watching the bases here. They know when a unit is preparing for deployment, it's on the freaking news. They know when the units leave, that's on the freaking news too.

The units all go to Kuwait, Al Qaeda knows this too. What Al Qaeda doesn't know is when or by what route the units will be leaving from Kuwait to enter into Iraq.

[medicswife]

13. Well, then you were lucky that you knew the exact date so far in advance.

Both times my husband deployed, and anytime that any of my friend's husbands deployed, we did not know until the day OF the deployment.

[Minimus]

15. My nephew also - two deployments to Iraq both were waiting games

and his wife just deployed to Afghanistan - same thing - just a time frame of when she might go. She then e-mailed us when she got to Kuwait.

[EatTacos]

30. Why Kuwait if she was going to Afghanistan?

That is some weird as hell logistics if they sent her to Kuwait when her destination is Afghanistan. Did she say what was up with that?

[Minimus]

36. Just that they would spend about a week in Kuwait acclimating to the conditions.

Logistically, where do you think the troops should go when heading to Afghanistan?

[EatTacos]

37. Guess I never really gave it much thought....

Kuwait isn't really that far from Afghanistan, I just figured it would be better to acclimate to Afghanistan at one of our bases in southern Turkey or someplace with mountains.

My unit trained for the desert, not at the desert warfare school at NTC, but at the jungle warfare school, Tigerland, located in the swamps of Fort Polk. I guess it makes as much sense to acclimate for Afghanistan in Kuwait as it does to send a unit to jungle warfare school before they deploy to the desert.

[EatTacos]

16. Active duty?

Is your husband active duty? That may be the big difference. I never knew when I was on active duty what the exact deployment dates would be. My last deployment was in the national guard. They have to give the guard exact dates for leaving and getting back so the leave of absence can be coordinated at the civilian jobs. We were also in another state doing training just prior to deployment, so they let us know, to give everyone a chance to have their families come visit the weekend just before we left. Wife went home on Sunday, I was on a plane on Monday.

[medicswife]

17. Yes, my husband and everyone else that I have known who

deployed was active duty. Palin's son is active duty as well. So, this is a big, fat no no especially if the date is accurate. If it is not accurate, the other person is exactly right: A noun, a verb, and 9/11. And that is NOT ok either. Because it means she already has flat out lied for political gain.

[EatTacos]

22. If the date is accurate...

it's really not that big of a deal. It will be on the television news when the unit deploys. It will be in the local newspapers when the unit deploys, and there will be a couple of thousand wives and girlfriends on the internet posting in forums that their hubby/fiance/bf just deployed to Iraq. If Al Qaeda doesn't know about it before the planes are wheels off the ground here, they will know about it several hours before the planes are wheels on the ground in Kuwait.

The planes my unit flew on had a layover in europe for about 4 hours before we started the final leg of the flight. I feel pretty confident in saying that Al Qaeda knew when our planes left that airport, and give or take 2 or 3 minutes, the approximate time our planes would be landing in Kuwait.

[medicswife]

24. It will be on AFTER they deploy. Not the day of. nt

[EatTacos]

28. Everyone's experience is a little different I guess.

We had tv news crews doing interviews with us on the tarmac as we were standing in line to get on the plane to leave.
We had embedded reporters from newspapers and a camera crew from the Discovery Channel getting on the plane to go over there with us.
Our arrival in the middle east was definitely not a surprise to anyone.

Remember when our troops first arrived in Somalia, shortly after Desert Storm? They came in the landing craft from the ships, stormed onto the beach, and were nearly blinded from the floodlights on the news cameras. The reporters were on the beach waiting for the troops to arrive. They started interviewing the soldiers before they even got both feet in the sand. It was crazy.

[Veruca Salt]

18. I 100% agree with you

It was the same way for my baby brother and my best friend when they deployed. Heck, just trying to get a feel for when my little bro comes home is giving me a headache... I want to be there when he comes back and now the plan is that mum calls when she knows and I start driving.

[medicswife]

25. Yeah. We haven't got a clue when my husband is

coming home either. And I just found out I have to have surgery next week too, and of course he can't come home for that. I'll have to take care of our 4 kids myself afterwards.

[Veruca Salt]

38. Oh no! You'll be in my thoughts,

I hope the surgery and recovery goes smoothly. I'd like to say take it easy and one day at a time, but I don't have any kids... so I hope they're on their best behavior while you recuperate. Take care of yourself and I hope your husband comes home soon! :hug:

[EatTacos]

27. coming home was a totally different issue

We literally left Iraq in groups of 10-20. We're talking about brigade of nearly 6000 soldiers. I was sitting in Kuwait for so many days I lost track of what day of the week it was. In the middle of the night, they came and alerted a couple of hundred of us that we were going to the airport in 2 hours. When we got to the airport, we were hiding out in the back forty. A plane rolled out, and we had to run out to the plane, up the stairs and get on board. As soon as the last person was on board, the plane started rolling. We didn't even have the door closed yet. Managed to get the door closed and everyone seated while the plane was lining up at the end of the runway. I called my wife several hours later and told her I wasn't in Kuwait anymore, our plane had landed in Ireland.

[Veruca Salt]

39. Wow! I'm sure it wasn't fun at the time,

but that is an excellent story to hear! I hope my brother has some of those when he gets back - it's rather tough because when we do talk, or through email, there is stuff we have to shy away from speaking of. The most we heard about his trip over there was that he waited in Virgina for forever and then they wouldn't let him off the plane on their stopover in Germany (he was bummed about that). Do you live in the UK or was Ireland just a stopover for you? If it was, I hope they let you out go out for a bit!

[EatTacos]

40. Ireland was just a stopover.

We flew from Ireland to Maine, then on to Dallas. We were able to get off the plane in Ireland, but we were confined to a small area of the airport terminal that had been closed off to the public. At least we were able to get some booze from the duty free store to take back onto the plane with us though. It was party time from that point on.

[MadrasT]

14. Noun. Verb. 9/11.

[nichomachus]

19. So that might explain why she was picked

She's probably the only Republican with a relative actually taking part in Bush's invasion and occupation -- and they needed something to counter the effect the Dems would get from Biden's son going over.

[justiceischeap]

21. Anyone fired this off the M$M? Probably should. (eom)

[medicswife]

26. I'd love to, but not sure how to!

I did text it to the 62262 number for the Obama campaign, but don't know if anyone will actually read it.......

[justiceischeap]

29. Let's see if I can help with that...

Here's the National Media List here on DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x1903

[medicswife]

31. thank you. :) I'm going to try to cause a stir.

Maybe Keith Olbermann is the right person to give this info to.....what do you think?

[justiceischeap]

33. I just shot off an email, so should you

The more he gets on this subject, the better IMO.

Good luck!

[medicswife]

34. cool man nt

[Lucinda]

32. Link to where she said his DEPLOY date?

[justiceischeap]

35. Didn't watch but here's a link to the video on BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7588435.stm