Dear Michael:
Thank you for writing to me regarding Rush Limbaugh's recent comment about “phony soldiers.” I believe that remark was in poor taste and is a disservice to our servicemen and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. I registered that belief in my correspondence with the CEO of Clear Channel. I understand that Mr. Limbaugh has claimed he was only referring to one soldier, Jesse MacBeth, who pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for pretending to be an injured Iraq war veteran. However, after reviewing the full written transcript it is clear that he was referring generally to soldiers critical of the war in Iraq.
Our troops have done everything that has been asked of them, and they have performed valiantly under exceedingly challenging circumstances. For this reason alone, our troops deserve better than partisan squabbling over an outrageous comment. I am focused on addressing the serious challenge we face in Iraq. Today, nearly four thousand brave young Americans are dead, and tens of thousands more have been wounded as our troops have become targets of the exploding sectarian violence in Iraq. Our military has been strained to the limits, and the cost to American taxpayers has already reached hundreds of billions of dollars.
In the coming months, I will continue to push for a new course in Iraq that
immediately begins a safe and orderly withdrawal of our combat troops, that changes our military mission to focus on training and counter-terrorism, that puts real pressure on the Iraqis to resolve their grievances, and that focuses our military efforts on the real threats facing our country.
Further, the American servicemen and women I have met inside and outside Iraq are courageous people. I admire and have confidence in them. I know they want to keep America secure and bring democracy to Iraq, and that they care deeply about their honor and America's honor. They deserve our utmost respect and gratitude for fighting for our country, and we should not undermine their ability to do their jobs in Iraq or ignore their needs when they return home to the United States.The American people may have disagreements over the conduct of the war in Iraq. I would hope, however, that there would be total agreement that our troops need and deserve our full support.
Thank you for writing, please stay in touch in the days ahead.
Sincerely,Barack ObamaUnited States Senator
Now, I have a few problems with some of the things that the Senator said and I will use this forum to address them. First, I have no problem with the anti war diatrobe that he went on which frankly was only generally related to what I asked about. He is a politician and that is politics. I disagree with his position and I will use future pages here to demonstrate the fallacy of his arguement however that is for another time.
First, the Senator said it is clear from the transcript that Rush was talking about all soldiers against the war. Well, it isn't clear to me and the Senator doesn't explain how it is clear to him, and thus I don't think that it is clear to him either. Second, and this is important, he refused to condemn the Betray Us ad. He refused to vote for a resolution condemning Moveon.org even though he voted for a previous resolution condemning all personal attacks, a resolution that tried to equivocate this attack on the General in war time to what the swift boat vets did to Kerry for instance. He referred to the matter as a political stunt. Well, he had no problems using his standing as a Senator and Presidential candidate to pressure the CEO of a public company in a similar matter, and thus, it seems the Senator picks and chooses his political stunts.
Furthermore, the Senator is no stranger to his own controversy vis a vis belittling the troops. Here is what he said
We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there.
Now, there were plenty of people that took those comments as condemnation of the troops. I think someone should be given the benefit of the doubt. I give the Senator the benefit of the doubt and to be fair he should have done the same thing with Rush Limbaugh. He didn't. He did vis a vis a far left group, and so I can only conclude it is political. What say Senator?
5 comments:
Hmmm. The transcript of what Rush actually said:
LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.
LIMBAUGH: You bet.
CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.
LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --
LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."
CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --
LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.
CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.
LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.
CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.
LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --
CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.
CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.
Ok, so we have a transcript. It is very clear that, and if you go to Media Matters you'll see that he's actually referring to a previous caller who said he was a soldier, he's referring to any soldier who would disagree with the war in Iraq. SPECIFICALLY IRAQ.
The Issue with General Patreus is he was speaking as a political tool (something he's not supposed to do) of the Republican Bush Administration. "His" report was written and edited by the White House. How is that not political? MoveOn has every right to say what they did, really just as Rush did. But, while MoveOn singled out a specific person, Rush was referring to ANY and ALL soldiers who would disagree with the Iraq war or the policies of why we're over there, that includes the 9 who wrote an op-ed in the NY Times "The war as we saw it," 3 of which have sicne died in action.
This does NOT make them phony. They serve their mission and do their jobs with honor and valor and deserve to be treated no less than the heroes they are.
Right,
caller:
No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.
(the caller was indicating that the soldiers they pull aren't real and they make up stories a la Jessie MacBeth, Scott Thomas et al)
Rush responded: phoney soldiers.
so if it is clear to you that he was talking about anti war soldiers it is because you want to believe it.
daimeon - I don't need to go to any transcript, I was listening to the show that day. Rush did get a caller who said he was a soldier that disagreed with the war (do you have any idea how many activists, and liars call him to try and either cause a scene, or incident - and/or misprepresent intentionally?
Rush has previously, and the media (only a day or two before) had done a news report segment on "phony soldiers". Rush has been, basically the mast, of troop support from radio broadcast for 20+ yrs - they even request him.
And it is unbelievable that so many of the democrat party are so full of vitriol toward our soldiers (Murtha, Kerry, Durbin, Kennedy, Schumer, ect.. and lead loser Reid - fueled by the leftist of hollywood and activist groups like code pink, moveon, ect.. - and socialist Soros) who have been on record numerous times calling our troops renegades, mercenaries, and murders. And yet, even worse, many idiots in this country can't see them as they really are. Devious liars.
Going back into the Clinton years, and up till Iraq II, they said Saddam should go, had wmd, committing genocide of his own people, even voted for the war. Then don't want to finish it, but, declare defeat, let more genocide ensue, and Iran take over as we turn our backs on the Iraqis that did help, and support us, and wanted a more free life. It's all on record in clips, and sound bites - indisputable and tragic.
I grew up a democrat; but, do not recognize this party any more, as it has been taken over by leftists, socialists and PC activists that will embrace anyone (Chevez, Castro,ect.., illegal imigrants, before a christian, conservtive (R) "US American" - to coin a phrase from one of our deomcrat controlled education system - call our Pres. Hitler and a terrorist, believe @ apx40% 911 was an inside job to some degree, and on and on in such delusional suppositions and charges). I might add - in order to discredit conservatives, and republicans for the sake of gaining power. Will act against the interest of this counrty in the pursuit of power.
While they allow a mental disconnect to the lie after lie, and distorions of history (re; the war and wmd "we were deceived", "I voted for the war before I was against it" - I didn't say what you think I said even though it is on record that I did - and on and on. Liars, even lying about lies. They won't come on FOX because they they are scared of debate, truth - and these people want you to trust them to negotiate with dictators, tyrants, in the best interest of this country? Ensure our protection? These chicken shits that are afraid of news personalities - OMGosh!!
signed - right4us
They, also, appear to be afraid of the moveonites, and other activists within their base now, who will eat their own - without hesitation for straying from the fold.
And, sadly this is now the norm for many of the liberals/leftists from the democrat party, who now embrace openly the preference of propagada, rather than open news sources, debate, and conceptual challenge.
Will only go on "preferred" channels (cnn, msnbc, nbc, cbs, abc, pbs, ect..) as they are ideologically similar, and infact, are trying to shut down talk radio because of it's conservative outreach.
These same social facists would not have one problem if it were dominated by the left. If they want to bring back fairness, as in the fairness doctrine - they need to first equalize tv (equal rep to dem ratio - not one against many) fire practically 40/45 % of dem supporting teachers and replace them with rep to balance our education sys - incl all the boards, organzations, and subject content committees, ect.. - we can talk about the radio if everything else is equal.
But, don't count on that from the party that demands their free speech, but, wants to shut up other opinions they don't agree with. Woh don't want us listening to terrorist who want to kill us, but, want to listen to Rush, Hanity & Levin because they may say something offensive in their mind - unbelievable!!
Sorry for hogging the board - but, it irks me to no end how the democrat party can be so anti-troops at the drop of a hat on a reported charge, or repeat the anti-war talking points from biased, even anti-American sources as their message. Then act like it never happened when it proves out otherwise of our military/personnel, or the war. Ignore good news, and are even the first to accuse our military without due discovery, and will bring in "phony solders" as propaganda to try and influence Americans - repeatedly.
And yet, then try to rush to the defense of the military in a trumped up incident like this.
signed, right4us
p.s. I forgot to sign the last.
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