Department Of Defense Directive 1344.10, Section E3.3.9 (August 2, 2004) states that an armed services member on active duty shall not:

…Participate in any radio, television, or other program or group discussion as an advocate for or against of a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.

Today, Robert Novak writes:

At the same time, the Bush administration is going directly to the public with its war message. Raul Damas, associate director of political affairs at the White House, has been on the phone directly to Republican county chairmen to arrange local speeches by active duty military personnel to talk about their experiences in Iraq.

Seeing as how these group discussions are being set up by the Bush Administration associate director of political affairs, and are intended to promote the Bush war policy, this looks to be a rather blatent violation of the DoD directive.

More from Robert Schlesinger.