What Was The USO Thinking?

I had fond memories of the United Services Organizations. "Had" is the operative word.

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At one point, while in transit between my ship and home during leave, it was a small USO center at an airport that provided hot coffee, doughnuts, and a caring staff that made my layover easier to deal with. It was the USO that brought Bob Hope and Wayne Newton shows to my carrier, boosting morale during our long Persian Gulf deployment. With that, I am dismayed by the unholy alliance between the USO and… MoveOn.org?

"USO is partnering with an anti-war, anti-administration organization that castigates the efforts of General Petraeus and our troops - past and present - who have served in Iraq. I am disgusted by this action." – Vietnam veteran John Gioia, in an email to other USO directors and employees, who called for USO President Edward Powell to be fired over his decision to accept more than $350,000 from MoveOn's members to buy phone cards for troops overseas

Is the USO that hard up for cash that they'd accept funding from an organization like MoveOn.org? Let's not forget the many things they wrote and said about General David Petraeus, and our soldiers overseas. In protest marches, their members called our soldiers rapists, torturers, and even killers. They've impugned the intelligence of our soldiers. They've routinely called the President of the United States a warmonger, liar, and called for his impeachment. Now, the USO, an organization dedicated to aiding our servicemembers and their families during the peace and during times of war, has accepted money from a group dedicated to our defeat in the battlefield. MoveOn.org has spent more time indicting the United States of America, and seldom condemns the very al Qaeda that has created the murderous instability in Iraq and Afghanistan that has prolonged the conflict. What was the USO thinking?