The original story was from a Howard C. Wright, Sgt USMC, 1st Force Rcon Co,
1st Plt PLT RTO. He recenlty wrote the following letter:

Dear Readers,

Almost 5 months ago I sent an e-mail to you my faithful friends. I did a wrong thing that needs to be cleared up. I heard by word of mouth about how Starbucks said they didn't support the war and all. I was having enough of that kind of talk and didn't do my research properly like I should have. This is not true. Starbucks supports men and women in uniform. They have personally contacted me and I have been sent many copies of their company's policy on this issue. So I apologize for this quick and wrong letter that I sent out to you.

Now I ask that you all pass this email around to everyone you passed the last one to. Thank you very much for understanding about this.

Howard C. Wright
Sgt USMC
1st Force Rcon Co
1st Plt PLT RTO

 

Starbucks Corp. replied:

Starbucks has the deepest respect and admiration for U.S. military personnel. We are extremely grateful to the men and women who serve stateside or overseas. We sincerely appreciate that they are willing to risk their lives to protect Americans and our values of freedom and democracy. While Starbucks as a company cannot directly donate to military personnel, many of our partners (employees) show their support by donating coffee.

Recently, there was an e-mail circulating the internet that contained misinformation about Starbucks and our support of the military. Starbucks was able to locate the author who turned out to be a Marine Sergeant. He was very grateful that we contacted him and apologized for any misunderstanding, as he did not intend to spread the rumor. He subsequently sent an e-mail to his original distribution list correcting his mistake, which I've included at the end of this e-mail.

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify Starbucks policy regarding charitable contributions. We are able to donate to nonprofit organizations that are designated as public charities under Section 501(c) (3) of the IRS Code, including public libraries and schools. The U.S. military or individual military personnel do not qualify as a public charity.

However, on an individual level, many Starbucks partners have collected and shipped numerous pounds of Starbucks coffee overseas. Starbucks partners receive one pound of free coffee each week as an employee benefit (known as "partner mark-out"). Many of our partners have elected to send their weekly mark-out of coffee to members of the military or military families, and related organizations.

As an example of this generosity, our partners in our Atascadero, California store sent their weekly mark out coffee to troops in Afghanistan so they are able to enjoy a little piece of home. Our customer relations department in Seattle donated hundreds of pounds of coffee to the sailors in the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group. These are just a few examples of our partners supporting the troops. We recognize and appreciate the very personal connection that customers have with us and how they might miss their Starbucks Experience while overseas.

Thank you again for writing. We ask you to accept our deepest appreciation to servicemen and women and hope you remain a valued Starbucks customer. If you have any additional feedback or would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact us at (800) 235-2883 or email us at info@starbucks.com.

Sincerely,

Matthew
Customer Relations Representative
Starbucks Coffee Company

So, once again, the posted email is a HOAX and COMPLETELY UNTRUE?

This is getting to be way too frequent of an occurence here at Adland. Please can people start researching the source of these alarming reports before they start posting them and sending a wave of panic and/or blistering hatred through the community!

Every week we read these posts, and people start worrying about using plastic in the microwave, or boycotting some company for something they never did, or performing tests based on false information to see if there's lead in their lipstick.

Bottom line: if you get an important news story, warning, or report in an email forwarded from a friend and originating from an anonymous source, it's probably a fake! Just copy a line or two into Google and see what comes up:

Urban Legends and Folklore: Companies and Products

The latter denies any knowledge of it. The Microwaved Pet An elderly woman comes up with a novel way ... Starbucks Refuses to Donate Coffee to U.S. Marines ... urbanlegends.about.com/od/business/ - 41k - 13 Nov 2006 - Cached - Similar pages

Starbucks Denies Anti-war E-Mail Claim

The e-mail charged that Starbucks' reply to the Marines was that the company does ... Starbucks officials told Wright the coffee donation request was denied ...
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/6/30/143149.shtml?s=ic - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

KATHY YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOUR SELF BY SENDING OUT A HOAX! YOU SHOULD CONTACT EVERYONE YOU SENT THIS GARBAGE TO AND TELL THEM YOU SENT A HOAX! YOU SHOULD CONTACT WHOMEVER SENT YOU THIS GARBAGE TO AND TELL THEM YOU SENT A HOAX! LAST YOU SHOULD ALWASY CHECK THINGS TO SEE IF THEY ARE HOAXS BEFORE OU SAND THEM OUT AND IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO THAT YOU SHOULD LEARN HOW TO DO IT! -------------- NOW TO RUDY AND OTHERS OF HIS UNINFORMED (OR STUPID) ILK. THE IRAQ WAS, & IS FULLY JUSTIFIED AND IS A NECESSARY PART OF OUR WAR ON TERROR. ANYONE WHO DOES NOT KNOW THAT IS EITHER IGNORANT OF SUFFICENT FACTS OR THEY ARE TOO STUPID TO BE ABLE TO COMPREHEND FACTS! LAST ANY JERK WHO SAYS THEY DO NOT SUPPORT THE WAR AND YET SUPPORT THE TROOPS IS AN IDIOT AS YOU CAN NOT DO BOTH! NEIL C. REINHARDT

ROBERT, SINCE YOU SAID YOU DO NOT SUPPORT THE WAR, YOU JUST PROVED YOU ARE NOT 1/2 AS SMART AS YOU SEEM TO THINK YOU ARE! NEIL

No, Kathy, you should NOT be ashamed. Just more careful in the future.

And here are the facts:

The war in Iraq was entered under the false pretense as a part of the war on terror. However, the Bush government has already stated that it never had any proof that the Hussein regime had any connection to Al Qaeda, and therefore effectively lied to the American people with regard to the reasons for its invasion in Iraq.

The only official reason given for the Iraq invasion that the US government has admitted to is that it wanted to liberate the Iraqi people from the regime of the Hussein government. Most Americans have indicated they would be more in favor of this effort if the government had been honest about its intentions in the first place, and from that perspective it is very reasonable to say one supports the efforts of the troups, but not the principles guiding the invasion.

So where does that leave your interpretation, based on your post?