Afghanistan Vet Running for Office Smeared for His Service

by: Brandon Friedman

Wed May 14, 2008 at 11:19:55 AM EDT

Unfortunately, Jason is facing a problem: He's currently being attacked publicly for his service in Afghanistan by those who--for whatever reason--have an interest in seeing him defeated later this year.  And frankly, it's disgusting.  It seems that there's a bit of a whisper campaign going on in Kansas City to discredit Jason's honorable service--and it's not just coming from those on the Right.  In fact, a good number of the smears appear to be coming from fellow Democrats, because Jason is currently in a tough primary battle.

Most of the anonymous comments are emanating from the message boards of a single website, though it is apparent to Kander's supporters that these rumors are being spread systematically throughout the district to reinforce the comments you'll read below.  The rumors, like the swift boat-style comments, are created anonymously.  I spoke with the Kander campaign and they refused to place responsibility on their opponents personally, but they do believe it to be a group of their opponents' most avid supporters.  Many of these commenters call him a "phony soldier" or imply that he's some sort of war criminal because he is a Military Intelligence officer.  

However, as the Vice Chairman of America's largest political organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, I can attest that Jason is neither a phony soldier nor a war criminal.  Rather, he's an up and coming Army officer and public servant who has done nothing to invite these attacks on his character.  Either way, here is a sampling of the anonymous slander Jason is facing.  The comments below come from two separate blog posts on a single, prominent Kansas City political blog called Gone Mild.

From the post, Play Ball!! Quarterly Campaign Finance Reports Time! on April 15, 2008:

"You wrapped Jason in the flag when you introduced him on your blog, even though we have no idea whether he spent his time incarcerating people without trial. He has never even made the unit he served in public, which makes me wonder whether that unit might show up in some reports on collateral damage or the like. You just heap praise on the little patriot without asking."

That's funny, because Jason served with Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan, a unit that received the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, the second highest unit distinction that the military bestows.  More:

"A real soldier would still be overseas fighting. Ms. Butter Bar went to Afghanistan as a way to further his political career. Enough said."

Like I said, nauseating.  This is what Kander--a veteran of Afghanistan who's decided to continue his public service--is facing.  But it gets worse:

From the post, Candidates, Slander, and the 44th on April 17, 2008:

"Is Jason still in the military? If so, isn't there a good chance that he will be called back up for duty?

"I guess it is conceivable that he could miss the 2009 and 2010 legislative sessions because he is in Iraq or Afghanistan. Is this right?"
::
"So did Kander resign his commission to run for office, or will he be redeployed? If he is still in the military, isn't it highly likely he will miss one or more legislative sessions in his first term (if he wins)?"

"Highly likely" that he'll be unable to represent his constituents.   I love the wording there--even though it has no basis in fact.  This is classic concern trolling.  The commenters are deliberately using Jason's military service to cast doubt on his ability to carry out his duties in the district.  And here's another full frontal attack by a keyboard commando hiding behind his computer at home:

"My guess is that this guy is faking his war record. He sat back at the camp and drank beer while poor guys went out into harm's way. I lost jobs to people like that over the years."

Classy.

" I've heard him describe his service as being a Military Intelligence Officer. 'Finding the bad guys.'  'He questioned people', correct?  Did he interrogate them?  Did he recommend that people undergo interrogation techniques? . . . Did Jason make judgments and recommendations that resulted in Afghanis, and others, being interrogated?  Well, if his job was to 'find the bad guys' then he probably did recommend interrogation or do some of that himself, correct?  What were the interrogation techniques he and others downstream used? . . . Did Jason's actions results in Afghanis and other being waterboarded?  Did he recommend people to be detained?  Were these people in turn sent to other countries to be interrogated? . . . We know for a fact that human rights abuses have been perpetrated on Afghanis and Iraqis for the sake of U.S. National Security.  Was Jason a part of that machine?

With absolutely no evidence, that reader is trying to plant the seed that Jason is responsible for waterboarding Afghans.

"Do the people of the 44th have any idea what the "psyop special operations" teams do in Afghanistan?  Mr. Kander should provide documentation as to what he did and did not do . . .This is the area where people were grabbed and held without trial and some were deported against international law. It is the special ops teams that turned people over to contract CIA personnel for torture.

I am damn well sure that young Mr. Kander has some explaining to do. If he was associated with any of the wrong doing by "company" contractors he should not even practice law let alone write law."

Disgusting.  The Catch-22 they're setting up is to declare Jason guilty until proven innocent, knowing full well that his work and the documentation that supported it are classified.  As if there were any doubt, Jason has a full description of his job in Afghanistan and excerpts from his performance evaluation available on his website.  

These comments that I've excerpted are only the tip of the iceberg.  There are a slew of others, but I don't want to go overboard in giving them the satisfaction of reprinting their handiwork here.

As you can see, these swift boat style attacks have no place in civil political discourse.  This guy volunteered for dangerous duty, upheld the highest legal and ethical standards, and he's being baselessly attacked for it.

To learn more about Jason Kander, or to help his campaign, please visit his website:

Kander for State Representative

We need to help push Jason over the top.