Friday, April 22, 2005

Civic Soldier Forum

Armchair Generalist pointed earlier in the week to an organization dedicated to building a bridge between civilian and military progressives. The group is called Civic Soldier Forum, and this is what they hope to accomplish:
We are building a progressive community within the military and bridging the gap that exists between civilian and military progressives.

By exchanging ideas and through grass-roots coordination, we ensure the progressive community reaches out to like-minded service members. We foster military service among progressives and build supportive networks within our Armed Forces. We advocate that the strength of our military comes not only from a dedication to duty and country but also from its ideological diversity. We assert that supporting your troops does not mean suppressing your conscience.

We are soldiers and veterans who have not shed our responsibilities as citizens, and we are citizens who understand our vital role in championing progressives in our military.

And these are their four basic missions:
* Find progressive service members and bring them together
* Introduce those service members to like-minded organizations
* Help progressives out of uniform connect with military progressives
* Frame progressive issues in context relevant to the military

Obviously I'm thrilled that a group has stepped to the plate to handle these difficult mission.

One hope that I have is that progressive organizations will open their leadership positions to military personnel. All of the 527s and 503(c)s that I worked with during the election were sorely missing the types of ogranizational, communications, and leadership skills that I believe that military personnel posses. By bringing in former service members into these organizations progressives could bridge the gap between themselves and the military, and at the same time make themselves much more effective and efficient organizations.

I do wonder what the last of their missions, the framing of "progressive issues in context relevant to the military" means to this group. Maybe if they could point to some bloggers or writers who write in such a way than I'd have a better idea...