Conservatives Wanted: The Telling Failures of Operation Yellow Elephant

[Ian David]

Conservatives Wanted
The Telling Failures of Operation Yellow Elephant

BY ELI SANDERS

Somewhere in Washington State, in a conservative town he would rather not name, is a lonely liberal man with a high-speed internet connection, a sarcastic wit, and a suggestion for how the U.S. military might fill its recruiting gaps: With pro-war College Republicans.

The man calls himself General J.C. Christian, Patriot, and he runs the online campaign "Operation Yellow Elephant," which has been exhorting young conservatives to carry their support of the Iraq war to its logical conclusion by enlisting for duty on the front lines.

The General, as one might guess, is not having much luck. But the more he fails, the more he highlights a division between the war's political enablers and those who end up dying while fighting in support of a mission that was supposedly "accomplished" long ago. It is the same division that existed in the Vietnam era, when President Bush and other sons of privilege dodged active-duty service, a class division that allows the comfortable to pontificate on the theoretical virtues of war while those in lower tax brackets bear the brunt of its human cost.

This pisses the General off, as do Republicans in his small town who lecture him about his lack of patriotism when he voices opposition to the war. So when the General heard about the military recruiting shortfalls, his mind immediately turned to the young Republican movement: "I thought, 'Well, these people are always talking about patriotism, and always equating patriotism with support for the war, it's time that they walk the walk.'" That sentiment is summed up on his web site, operationyellowelephant.blogspot.com, with the motto: "It's their war. Why aren't they fighting it?"

More:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=22220

Related thread:
Is everyone here aware of Operation Yellow Elephant?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4158412

[BillZBubb]

1. "It's their war. Why aren't they fighting it?"

That's a great question, but a rhetorical one. We know why the wingnuts aren't fighting.

[BOSSHOG]

2. An attempt to get conservatives to do the right thing!

Of course its a failure.

IT'S THEIR WAR, WHY AREN'T THEY FIGHTING IT?

Come on flag waving, love it or leave it Americans, fight for it. Unless of course you are just all talk, pencil dick little cowards. Prove this combat zone vet. Hell, this intensely liberal retired Sailor could do it, Why can't you?

IT'S YOUR WAR, WHY AREN'T YOU FIGHTING IT?

Share with us your private thoughts when you look in the mirror and know, without a doubt, that liberals like me are right about scum like you. C'mon. I got a shoulder you can whine on.

[MrBenchley]

3. THEY know it's an incompetently-run, dishonest disgrace

and their public cowardice shows the rest of us they know it too...no matter how much their words lie.

I love Operation Yellow Elephant.

[Jack from Charlotte]

4. Operation Yellow Elephant shows that the Red States are really.....

just yellow states.

I wish someone in OYE would quantify their attempts to recruit. For example, go to every Young Repub club on campus and find out the number of members. Then after attempting to recruit them, record the number that signed up (which will be ZERO) and compare it to the number of members recruited. That would have more impact to the regular media, IMO.

[silvershadow]

5. Excellent idea

[MrBenchley]

6. Good point. Hope our DUers in college

will do so. (You ought to start a thread in the activism folder)...

[Toots]

7. Your red state comment got me to thinking

Is there a marked difference in recruitment levels between the red states and blue states and if so maybe it should be news. I suspect that there is a noticeable difference and that difference would not bear well for the red states. :shrug: It is just an idea and I could be very wrong but I still would find the study interesting.

[Bucky]

9. Blue state enlistment runs moderately higher, but casualties are mixed

I saw a map that showed where the war's casualties come from--and it's pretty much the same as a map showing where populations are concentrated. The division in casualities of this pointless oilgrab is mostly economic--working class people go and get their fingers and legs blown off while upper and upper middle class people say "Freedom's on the march, but don't show me the footage. I'm busy filling out the kid's college loan paperwork."

[toddaa]

8. It's time to drop the Red/Blue State nonsense

It tells you absolutely nothing. The world is not black and white (or red and blue). DUers, of all people, should know this.

[Bucky]

10. Thank you for this. Yes, all our kids are "red" when they get IED'd

We wear black, not red or blue, to their funerals. Red and blue is meaningless compared to the American and Iraqi lives being wasted for oil.