I'm not buying that 70% of the military voted for Bush

[devilgrrl]

Sorry, I find it hard to believe that anyone would in their right mind would vote for their own deaths.

Is there anything that refutes this claim?

[slackmaster]

1. My brother is a naval officer, I talk to military people every day

I believe the 70% figure.

Military people vote their paychecks and/or their career paths. Commissioned officers are very strongly biased toward voting Republican.

[Nestea]

2. I'm surprised it wasn't 80%

The military has been pretty Republican for awhile.

[JI7]

3. you are probably thinking of that survey which is NOT

evidence of this years voting.

[RivetJoint]

5. I served 25 years

The wife is still in.

The military, especially the Officer Corps, is very conservative. For most of them, the election was the "lesser of two evils." I believe the majority did go for Bush.

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. Statistics for 2004 military voting are notably MIA

Normally by now, they would be bragging about heavy GOP support.

[pnutchuck]

6. Especially since the military is a collective mind

One of my friends just got back from Iraq, where his whole unit was killed except him and he spent 6 mos in the hospital recovering. He would listen politely to my anti-Bush rantings and just say that Bush supports the military. I asked him if he saw 'Fahrenheit 9/11' and he told me that his commander had ordered "them" not to. There are a lot of military who don't think the same way, but not as many that buy into this 'one mind', 'military stick together' bullshit.

[RivetJoint]

7. His WHOLE unit?

What unit was that? I have heard NOTHING about a whole UNIT, save one person, being killed.

[RawMaterials]

8. does it matter they all vote absentee and we know

what happens to those votes. dumped in the garbage.

[RivetJoint]

10. Really?

All were?

[RawMaterials]

22. sarcasm

[RivetJoint]

11. Self delete - dupe

[pnutchuck]

15. Maybe team.

It was 8 of them including him. They were doing a routine search and clear mission in an urban area, when they tripped a bomb. It was in the first days after the insurgent attacks began. Maybe about 8 mos ago. I've never heard anything about it on the news either. He can't tell me any real details, but he's really fucked up. Just before I returned to Paris, we were supposed to have dinner with a group of friends. But he's been going through hypno therapy at the base because has suppressed a lot of memories. The last session, 2 nights before dinner, they admitted him into a psycho ward for tearing up the drs office during the hypnosis. I've seen his scars, they're no joke and he can't bring himself to talk about it at all unless Billy Joel's song is playing, that one about leaving as brother's with the helicopter sound in the background.

[RivetJoint]

16. Okay that sounds more likely -

His squad. You had me worried with "unit."

I hope he recovers from this; it's gonna be tough.

[pnutchuck]

21. Tell me about it...

He's getting out on disability. Right now, he's been assigned to drive the Chaplins around. His back is really messed, but not as much as his head. He's lucky that he's processing out. My best friend's husband just returned and he was a nurse officer in triage (like there's anything else) so he's seen some pretty scary things. The last couple of times I went out with them he ended up freaking out and reciting all the names of the people who died while he was working on them. This poor bastard can't even go in for counseling. Any sign of mental defect in the medical field and they boot you automatically. He's a career man and can't take the chance.

[IrateCitizen]

9. No, it's quite believable...

As RivetJoint correctly pointed out, the officer corps tends to be very conservative. I know this first-hand -- I was an officer, and I was pretty much alone in being a progressive democrat.

The senior NCO corps is also pretty conservative, although probably not quite as much as the officer corps.

It isn't until you get down into the lower enlisted ranks that you start encountering anything resembling political parity. And even then, I'd bet that a slight majority tend Republican over Democrat.

The military was going to continue to fight and die in Iraq regardless of who won the election. So, in that sense, there wasn't much to sway them either way on the issue of Iraq.

[Trumanway]

12. There is no way to.....

assemble the statistics to find out.

The military vote largely by absentee ballot in their home county. The envelopes can be identified as a military voter, but once the ballot envelope is ruled as valid and timely conforming with the law, the secret votes inside are tallied with all legal absentee ballots that county received, not just military. This reduces accuracy to estimation. Then you would have to obtain the estimates from all the individual counties and average that, add in precinct on or around military bases, again estimates. By this stage you could be way off, so everybody just uses the opinions of military personnel.

[underpants]

19. Didn't the Pentagon say they would process the military votes?

I could have sworn I read that somewhere.

[Trumanway]

20. Yes,..

that was in reference to moving the applications and ballots back and forth and supplying postmarks that would pass the legal tests for a valid ballot.

The contents of the ballot remained secret to the pentagon. The ballots were opened and counted in the home county of the voter. Only then were the results known and those were mixed with all that county's absentee's. That made it difficult to tell which candidate the MILITARY absentees favored. Therefore they default to an estimate.

[devilgrrl]

13. Wow! Cuts to pay, medical care, extended stays in Iraq...

having to buy your own food and body armor...

Talk about voting for your best interests!

Good job Soldier!

[RivetJoint]

14. Sigh! I have to ask

WHAT cuts to PAY?

[pnutchuck]

17. Most of the officers I talked to in SD said they'd had 3 raises

since Bush took office. The cuts have been to the vet benefits and medical care.

[RivetJoint]

18. The military has received a pay

raise every year for at least the last 25. They are getting better pay raises than most civilians. There have been zero cuts to military pay.

[swhisper]

23. In NM, it was 60% Kerry from the troops

[RivetJoint]

24. Link?

[L84TEA]

25. I don't believe it either...

Infact most of what I have heard is OPPOSITE!! I guess the reserves are pissed off! soo... I don't buy it for a minute.

I know a few active military men and I know LOTS of reserves and I can only think of one I know voted for the shrub.