After watching that, check out the details about the video from Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of Votevets.org.
We learn that the man in the ad was wounded in a suicide bomber attack while convoying in Mosul in 2003 and suffered traumatic brain injury as well as shrapnel to the head. As you can imagine, he has since become a vocal critic of the Iraq war.
Of course Rush got wind of this ad (a radio version will run during his show in some areas!) and had this to say about it:
"This is such a blatant use of a valiant combat veteran, lying to him about what I said and then strapping those lies to his belt, sending him out via the media and a TV ad to walk into as many people as he can walk into. This man will always be a hero to this country with everyone. Whoever pumped him full of these lies about what I said and embarrassed him with this ad has betrayed him, they aren't hurting me they are betraying this soldier."
People have been writing in en masse to tell me how I got the story wrong, and Rush supports the troops and so on. But this is what he has been accused of the whole time: holding veterans in superhero regard if they support the war to appeal to the patriotic senses of his listeners while simultaneously putting down dissenting soldiers, to appeal to the angry, resentful senses of his listeners. In 2005 when anti war veteran Paul Hackett ran for the Ohio Senate, Rush called him a military "staff puke," saying he volunteered for Iraq simply to pad his resumé so he could run as a war veteran. A liberal hiding behind a military uniform! I'm sure if he was a pro-war, pro-Bush candidate, the praises would never stop. This strengthens the latest debate on his phony soldier remark last week. Rush's reactionaries and defenders have been telling me the liberal media (namely Media Matters) has taken his 'phony soldier' quote out of context in a smear campaign designed to make Limbaugh appear to be against any soldier against war policy. The article goes on:
The problem with the exchange, say critics, is that Limbaugh refers to multiple "soldiers." He gets to a conversation about Macbeth about two minutes after referring to "phony soldiers." In subsequent radio shows, Limbaugh attempted to clarify his position, but muddied the waters by editing out a portion of it, prompting outrage from the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, which has been driving this latest controversy.
Now where did this reporting come from? Daily Kos? Moveon.org? The New Republic? Why, none other than Fox News, the last refuge of information for the Rush elitists. How's that for bias?
Apparently Rush has no shame left, comparing Brian McGough to a suicide bomber on behalf of liberal jihadists. I am surprised, however, that he acknowledged someone who was phony in the first place. Thanks for your service, but you obviously have no independent thought Brian. You parrot leftist views while Petraeus, representing the political arm of the military, gives no BS assessments without ulterior motives to pad his resumé.
Now you know how Rush stands, here are some letters from his fans:
How does the old saying go:
Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.
Do your homework or pass on the subject. Simple, eh?
Now go kill an Iranian for me.
--Anonymous
If Rush and people like you put their money where their mouths are, you could kill plenty yourself and we would have no problem with troop levels in Iraq.
You are such a phony. Oh, the things you can do with Photoshop these days. You can even make a sniveling, liberal hippy peaceniks look like soldiers on the front lines. Good try, but your mom accidentally stepped out from behind the garage in one of the shots.
--Anonymous Douche
It's almost like this guy is accusing me of being....false? Bogus? Quick, what's another five letter word for a fake?
Unfortunately you should have listen or read the transcripts instead of believing second hand accounts and rushing to conclusion soldier. He is the biggest supporter of the military and family members and just a little bit of research would have revealed that. Semper Fi
--Anonymous
Unless you're an Iraq war vet running for the Senate! Then Rush calls you names. Again, thanks for your service Paul Hackett! Shitheel!
Read the comments yourself. Some can disagree politely while others are not as good as Rush Limbaugh at hiding contempt for someone who opposes the war.
AH
56 comments:
As Alex's father, here's my own personal favorite:
Anonymous said...
What a fucking loser you
are. Too bad your mother didn't
use her abortion rights on you.
The mind boggles at what this turd would end up looking look like if I ever met him face to face. It would be a real messy scene.
Alex's Dad
Navy Veteran
Father of Army Iraq War Veteran
Brother of Marine Vietnam Veteran
Son of Army WW II Veteran
Son-in-law of Army Korea Veteran
Grandson of Army WW I Veteran
Descendant of CSA Army Veteran KIA Gettysburg, Pa. July 1863
Fabulous post! (As usual!)
Here is what stands out in stark contrast to me...
When MoveOn ran the ad, politicians and poltroons got their outrage ginned up good and proper, but the military (where the "Betray Us" word-play started) was resoundingly silent.
Then Rush stepped on his tiny member, and instead of denouncing him, those same politicians and poltroons are deafeningly silent, and members of the military are speaking up.
Heh. Go figure. or should I say no one could have imagined...
Alex said: "Check out the details about the video from Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of Votevets.org."
Brandon, now living in the Dallas, Texas area, is the author of "The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War." I just finished it, it's a terrific read. Check it out.
Alex's Dad
Well Alex, I knew it would happen. Your last post got Americans sided off and slinging shit in the now usual polarized way, wasting the American dream with all of its great potential unrealized.
We could have been a better country than this.
I for one am no longer willing to argue with people who are bitterly, viscerally opposed to everything I believe and know.
All any of us have is our own reality, arrived at carefully or carelessly. Me, I'm a Democrat, lifetime. I study the Constitution and read the writings of the Founders. I think about what is required of an American citizen if our grand experiment is to survive. I read all I can from as many diverse sources as I can find to understand what's going on in the world. I arrive at my own views. I don't want them spoon-fed to me.
I didn't believe Bush even while he campaigned for the White House with his promise of a "humble" foreign policy. I knew who was behind him. I was right.
When 9/11 came I was as traumatized and angry as anybody. But I also knew there was something fishy about it, and something very convenient for the neoconservatives. Apparently, by the way they responded to Bush's way of talking about it, a lot of Americans thought 9/11 was as simple as a glass of spilled milk. They still do today.
When within weeks 9/11 rage was steered onto the need to crush Iraq, I KNEW there was something fishy about it. I knew a lot about Iraq. After all, we'd been to war there ten years earlier. I was highly skeptical of the allegations coming from the White House all pressing for war. I was 100% skeptical about the flowers and chocolates and cakewalk talk, because I knew about the way the horrible Hussein had with blood and fear held together the incompatible ethnic and religious divides in that country, had been keeping the lid on what would explode into chaos without him or someone like him.
I knew Iraq and al Qaeda in league was an impossible farce. I knew it. I knew it, damn me. I knew it but I let the administration sow doubt in my mind.
And then, the only way I can put it is, Americans became the victims of terror for the second time in a year. What am I referring to? I am referring to the specter of a "mushroom cloud over an American city" -- Saddam's nuclear weapons given to his partner bin Laden and blowing us up. Who could have the gall to terrify Americans, reeling from 9/11, with this if it wasn't true?
Cheney said it. Bush said it. Rice said it. Rumsfeld might have said it, I can't remember.
Then Limbaugh screamed it. Hannity screamed it. O'Reilly screamed it. All of FOX TV and AM talk radio screamed it. A bunch of Paul Reveres, apparently... patriots sounding the call to arms.
And then, like 95% of Americans, I blinked. I flinched. I turned my back on everything I knew about the matter, because in my heart of hearts I did not believe any US government could lie to the American people about something like that. To do so would be an unspeakable act of cruelty and cynicism inflicted on a whole country suffering varying degrees of PTSD from watching those planes hit the skyscrapers again and again, hundreds of times, thousands of times. I fell back to the usual place we go when we surrender our freedom and sovereignty as citizens, accepting that I did not have the intelligence that the White House had, that this was something only they could know, something they would never say if it wasn't true, and doubt it as I might, I could not afford to disbelieve it, which would be tantamount to inviting the blinding sun-bright mushroom of death over my own city and my own loved ones.
So when Shock and Awe came, I was all right with it.
But I was wrong and 95% of America was wrong. Bush lied. Cheney lied. Rice lied. They knew they were trick-fucking a defenseless public and they had the cold heart to go right ahead and do it.
And so did their cheerleader Rush Limbaugh.
Americans want to trust their leaders. But the unspeakable has happened and we've been had.
It's all out in the open now. But many still can't face the truth.
And here we arrive at the end of my little confession. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
I will not be a child who trusts his child molester daddy. I will not be a wife who trusts her wife-beater husband.
The architects of this war, and their media mouthpieces, have committed the ultimate acts of savagery and contempt against the very people who depend on them with their lives for nobility, for courage, for selfless leadership, for the TRUTH. They have betrayed us, over and over again, day in, day out, with their lies and their fear mongering.
Look at the comments on your last post. Why are we a divided nation, as divided as we've ever been since the Civil War, divided friend against friend, father against son, family against family?
Because of LIARS, cynical, heartless liars with hidden self-serving agendas that cannot stand the light of day. Liars do not heal or unite or produce happy outcomes. But they can divide. Look at us.
I don't care about Rush Limbaugh or George Bush. Just don't tread on me any more, fellas. Keep the snake oil to yourselves. I am awake again. And I'm not going back to sleep. I am committed to only one thing: trying to pick my country up from the rubble of division, confusion and fear to which it has been reduced, and to attempt CPR on the American Dream until somebody pulls me off the body politic and pulls a sheet over it. That's all there is left to do.
God bless you Alex, and God bless America.
rush has always been a blatant fraud. As he and his fellow bushies continue to lose all but the most ignorant and fanatical mouth breathers of their audience, the vast majority of the public increasingly sees them for the true cowards that they are. In panic mode, their rhetoric gets more and more insane and confrontational.
Screw limpdick, screw bill orally, and screw any and all of these armchair "warriors". They are beneath the contempt of those of us who still honor the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the advantages of diplomacy over illegal unilateral war with the wrong country.
I commend and thank you for your service. Keep speaking up for so many vets who despise the rush limpdicks and orallys; their lies and cowardice. Where were they when it would have counted?
A Navy Vet
Another great post! The Limbaugh-lovers kept getting dumber and dumber in their arguments to you. In a way, I pity them. When talking about how Rush was going to prove you wrong, they sounded like schoolyard kids: "My big brother's gonna come beat you up!" Very sad.
Well, I am glad that your mother was not in a situation where she felt the need to "use her abortion rights on you." As for Anonymous's mother, I can't say...
Well said, Sonny!
Jeff
My Dad had told me about your "phony soldiers" response and told me that I should check it out. I'm glad I did as I felt it was well written and very powerful. I'm glad that people continue to stick up for what they believe in, even though it may be contrary to what people expect of you. Like everyone else I'd like to thank you for your service to our country.
Petty Officer McDowell
sonnycollie said,
"I knew Iraq and al Qaeda in league was an impossible farce. I knew it. I knew it, damn me. I knew it but I let the administration sow doubt in my mind.
And then, the only way I can put it is, Americans became the victims of terror for the second time in a year. What am I referring to? I am referring to the specter of a "mushroom cloud over an American city" -- Saddam's nuclear weapons given to his partner bin Laden and blowing us up. Who could have the gall to terrify Americans, reeling from 9/11, with this if it wasn't true?
Cheney said it. Bush said it. Rice said it. Rumsfeld might have said it, I can't remember. "
Yes, that's exactly how it played out. Most Americans were stuck in a traumatic coma of grief after 9/11 and the majority of them didn't wake up in time to see the great injustice of lies and deceit being perpetrated against them until it was too late.
I came out of my 9/11 coma about 3 months after the incident. During the run-up to the Iraq invasion, I had numerous arguments with friends and family over this new target for our 9/11 bloodlust, and it mostly fell upon deaf ears. Sadly, I lost the debate and so did America.
War is ugly, always. For people like Rush, who never served, to chastise anyone who served honorably is beyond the pale. The fact that he earns millions each year spewing his vitriol sickens me. The fact that he's broadcast on Armed Services Radio makes my blood boil.
i am a new reader and very impressed with your writing / from the first time i heard Rush LImbaugh on the radio in the late 80's i thought he sounded hysterical / yes, like an hysteric / and so i guess that makes him a "girly man"
thank you so much for your powerful message.
I am a proud Navy Wife. My husband has served with the US Navy for almost 20 years. We have moved 7 times in the last 10 years and my husband has been away from his family, proudly serving his country, for half that time.
We have served overseas twice. Armed Forces Radio is often the only English language broadcast available. Rush Limbaugh was broadcast during the commute hour of 5pm at a time when most of us were looking to be informed of the events back home and around the world while we served in a foreign country.
While in Japan our car only had a radio, no cassette or CD. I am a news junkie and I love music. I always have the radio on while in the car, for relaxation, information and enjoyment. I sat for many, many hours stuck in the extreme traffic that surrounds Tokyo, in silence rather than be subjected to the diatribe that spews from Rush's mouth.
My husband would often listen and come home disgusted with the slanted, emotional rants broadcast on Rush's radio show. And he rarely allows these kinds of things to irritate him.
There was public debate on Armed Forces Radio during our tour about whether or not to move Rush's program to a more appropriate hour so that our service members were not held hostage if they did not wish to listen to his show at the hour they were most likely to turn to Armed Forces Radio for news or entertainment. I was appalled to listen to a person defend Rush's program as "news" and state that Rush gave the facts and allowed his listeners to make up their minds. You can agree with all that Rush says, you can enjoy his brand of talk radio but you will have a very difficult time defending his show as "news". Rush himself will admit that he is a talk show host and not a journalist. I never called in and I regret that. I do wonder how many others felt as I did and never called. Those that did call were far less emotional and defensive than the voices in favor of keeping Rush during the commute hour but they were brave in my mind to stand up and voice their opinion, if not in an extreme manner as the Rushies did, in a respectful and honorable way.
Our second overseas tour we had children. The tone of Rush's show is inappropriate for them to listen to even for a moment while starting the car or switching stations.
Rush Limbaugh's program has no business being on Armed Forces Radio at all in my opinion but it is just my opinion and if his program is truly that popular it will be difficult to remove it entirely. That said, to have him broadcast to our service members during the commute hour as news is horrifying at best.
what's the difference between rush limbaugh and the hindenburg?
one's a big fat nazi gasbag,
the other's a blimp.
A lot of people have accused you of taking Rush's comment out of context. This whole mini-comment war brought out a lot of aggression from the right side, who accused you of mindlessly taking whatever news you here and reporting it as fact.
People like Dittohead, who commented on your previous post multiple times, further vindicate their own ignorance of also being fed non-truths by their right wing media, just as they accuse liberals of. Here is a nice example:
"rush is just speaking the truth, and I know this because he tells me it's true, and foxnews (teh best news if you ask me) confirms it for me later in the day."
Excuse me while I go laugh my liberal, take-any-news-I-can-get pants off.
Alex
I first and foremost want to thank you for service and thank you for your willingness to share the truths of your experience in Iraq and also your political views regarding current world events.
I am not a Rush Limbaugh supporter and never have been. I do not disagree with you either that Rush has in the past and continues to demonize soldiers who don't support the war. For this I am deeply sorry to all soliders with or without actual combat experience. This is undeserved and disguisting in my opinion.
What you said the other day was wrong. Rush did not call actual soldiers, phony soldiers. He called actual "phony" soldiers, just that.
As soldiers, these "phony soldiers or phony veterans" whatever you want to call them, have become a big problem, especially for those of you in the military, because they are seeking disability payments for combat injuries they didn't sustain, and awards that they do not deserve. For those of you who doubt it, read this - http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/marine_vafakers_070924/
Many of these "phony soldiers" in many cases as in Vietnam and Korea and even World War II although it was much less in that day, have surfaced and been exposed at anti-war demonstrations, etc.
If anything is to come of this debate I want you to know that as a young conservative, I respect your right to be against the war, and I also respect your right to have very unapologetic opinions about our administration and current foreign policy. I also like many other young conservatives that I know consider them to be patriotic, and not the opposite.
I also want you to know that like minded citizens of this country aim to see that members of our military are not cheated and/or victimized, and that we do not allow people like MacBeth, or David McClanahan to pervert the stances of actual veterans of this war or others, or to pervert the military system that we as Americans fund.
Once again, thank you for your service. If there are things that you as troops need over there that we back in this country can supply you with, do not hesitate to let us know.
sorry, misused "here." i meant the "hear" kind!! :)
Alex,
Keep up the great work. I am setting up a new site soon (should have a basic site up in a few days) - www.fightagainstfear.com. I am going to be featuring your blog as the first thing to read.
Your blog entries are not only extremely well written, they are not embellished or exaggerated. They bring back many memories and I am glad that you made it back safely.
Thank you for your courage!
Dan Kaufman
Former SGT USMC
Iraq Veteran
it amazes me how Republicans continue to defend this group of hypocritical swine that has somehow floated to the top of the conservative cesspool. Here is a person, divorced three times, who babbles about family values, has a drug problem, and is a bully pulpit war monger who avoided military service during the Vietnam war due to a boil on his butt. This is dark humor in the theater of the adsurd. These creeps, Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and so on, either dodged the draft outright or served in non combat positions. It’s a hell of a thing, trying to gag and laugh at the
Do you think any Republicans even understand what fascism is? Oops, did I say that? I take that back. Please take me off the enemies of America list. I promise to parrot what ever Rush says and pretend I’m an original thinker. Hope I’ve pleased someone.
Do you remember the boys in your grammar school? Bush was the spoiled deviant who liked to torture cats and Rush was the fat slob who made fun of others handicaps. Sad how in America we elevate these misfits to power.
Rush Limbaugh is Father Coughlin reborn. The same followers. The same fascists. The same Fifth Column. The same Roman Anti-Christ. The same pedophiles. The same caesaropapist Tories. The same treason.
To Navy Wife @ 8:55 AM:
Your husband is one lucky dude. I’m happy for him.
Former O-4
nice work, Dude!
Dude-
I'm not stalking you, but I did want to let you know that you inspired a blog post.
Peace.
You are a true patriot. Tell the troops about Ron Paul. He's ready to bring you home today.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=clhO-qPTZ1g
The video says:
-To the troops serving bravely in Iraq
-WE SUPPORT YOU!!!
-and want you home with us!!!"
I'm sorry you still haven't bothered to listen to the episode that started this smear.
I'm sorry you haven't tried to actually read the facts.
I'm sorry you didn't like war.
Your entries suggest you feel like a victim.
I'm thankful of your service. Thank God you're safe. I'm sorry you lost a good friend.
We all do the best we can.
Alex, I was directed to your blog by a post in an oklahoma democratic forum. I read your entire blog from pre-deployment to now in the past couple of days. I have a family member on their second deployment in Iraq. Our whole family is worried about his safe return. Personally I have tried to keep communication upbeat and have avoided asking detailed questions about what he is going through. Your blog has filled in the blanks for me. Thanks for your service, your courage and your honesty in Iraq and here back home. You have a unique talent. I hope that you carefully cultivate it. As I read your posts yesterday I couldn't help think of the famous WW2 correspondent Ernie Pyle. You seem to have his soul and his talent for prose.
Wow, Alex, you don't seem scared at all by the big bad commenters. It seems almost like you're a real soldier, instead of just a phony one.
sonnycollie, stop riding the coat tails.
AH, Looks like it's time to hold up the white flag.
You boys have made it clear. You want to surrender. You want to walk away from all that has been sacrificed.
When all this mess started. I thought i was too old to make a difference. Now that i hear what "Hero's" have to say, the heck with that. I may be 40+, but i bet i could handle the PT. Hand me your gun son. And go sit on Oprah's couch to sell your book.
SIgned - Ditto Head
I honestly don't think that any soldier is a phony soldier. Anyone who thinks that a soldier is a phony soldier is not greatful to have people protecting our country.
I am so thankful for your service along with the others put there.
Thank you so very much.
L. Racela
everybody who is against mindless wars, for the end of the iraq war and for a restoration of the constitution, should check out the antiwar candidate Ron Paul:
www.ronpaul2008.com
www.dailypaul.com
Rush Limbaugh today was dropped two miles outside the green zone with a horse, a Colt.45 and a striped blanket.
oh and mirrored shades.
he’ll find the phony soldiers if it takes all day.
DittoHead,
I've got a job for you...you'd have to take orders from people a lot younger than you though. Shit I'll even let you carry around a 240...if you think you can carry it around for at least 8 hours a day...well we better stick with the M-4 for ya. Just shut up and leave the fighting to the phony soldiers and go pleasure yourself to pictures of Rush and Condi.
SIgned - A Phony Sailor (I'm sorry I only did one tour for a mere six months in the country where their's a phony forgotten war called Afghanistan)
Hey Ditto Head, Instead of sitting their on your couch waiting for Alex's appearance on Oprah, Why don't you call your local recruiter or click on http://www.army.com/ Being 40+ is no longer an excuse to stay home...and son, You won't need Alex's gun. They will give you one of your very own. Hmmmm? the thought of you with a gun ?? You know what, nevermind.
Hey Ditto Head, Instead of sitting their on your couch waiting for Alex's appearance on Oprah, Why don't you call your local recruiter or click on http://www.army.com/ Being 40+ is no longer an excuse to stay home...and son, You won't need Alex's gun. They will give you one of your very own. Hmmmm? the thought of you with a gun ?? You know what, nevermind.
"I may be 40+, but i bet i could handle the PT. Hand me your gun son. And go sit on Oprah's couch to sell your book.
SIgned - Ditto Head"
They're accepting people your age, pufferfish. Git, sign up, yuh dang MOE-RAWN! He's there, you're not, so what you're saying is you'd do it if you had a spine and a single once of courage in your so-called convictions. The fact is you shit-swilling parasitic humanoid mosquito, you DON'T believe a fucking word that oozes out of your disgusting fetid fat little blood-drinking face. You want fine young men and women to give up their lives for the military industrial complex, so it begs the question, at which teat of that beast do you suckle? Yes, you fluffy little transparent tribble-grote, you drink human blood from the tit of a machine. That's just how sick you are. It's also why women think you're CREEPY and ICKY.
Now go grow a spine, and next time you post, make sure it's not blatantly self-contradictory. If you're just too damn stupid to figure out when that's happeneing, hire a see-eye putz or a keeper or something. And brush your teeth, your breath is necrotic.
Speaking of those (LIBERUL MOONIEBATTER JEWFAG COMMIES)over at Media Matters:
" in the same broadcast, Limbaugh expanded the group of "phony soldiers" to include Vietnam veteran Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) and Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, who is currently serving in Iraq. In asserting that he was originally "talking about a genuine phony soldier," Limbaugh went on to state: "And by the way, Jesse MacBeth's not the only one. How about this guy Scott Thomas who was writing fraudulent, phony things in The New Republic about atrocities he saw that never happened? How about Jack Murtha blanketly accepting the notion that Marines at Haditha engaged in wanton murder of innocent children and civilians?"
According to Murtha's biography on his congressional website, Murtha joined the Marines in 1952 and volunteered for service in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts."
Huh. So much for the BIG FAT HORKIN' LIE that he was talking about vet impersonators. Rush is a liar, and his fans can be divided into (impotent lonely) co-liars and/or (impotent lonely) TOTAL MORONS! You think that after a decade, they'd consider switching to a guru who could maybe help 'em get laid, instead of just trying to blame the rest of the universe for that whole rotting clown stank thing.
Bats of The Moon 2, Evil Molemen of Mordor 0.
DUDE! ROCK ON, ROCK HARD, COME HOME *ALIVE*!!!
PEACE!
JIK
I'm so sorry that you have to put up with this bullshit, dude. You don't deserve this treatment, and because these jackasses are incapable of feeling shame, I will feel shame for them.
I wish you and your family the best.
I went and typed 'Limbaugh' into the search engine on my blog, and after skimming for a little bit, found a lot of good stuff. Enjoy:
“He is exaggerating the effects of the disease,” Limbaugh told listeners. “He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act…This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.” For some reason people got upset over Rush’s analysis here, and he appologized, before pointing out that parkinson’s has made Fox almost as sick as liberalism has. (10/24/06)
(from an editorial entitled "Purple Heartbreakers") The political tactic of playing up the soldiers on the battlefield while tearing down the reputations of veterans who oppose them could eventually cost the Republicans dearly. It may be one reason that a preponderance of the Iraq war veterans who thus far have decided to run for office are doing so as Democrats. A young American now serving in Iraq might rightly wonder whether his or her service will be deliberately misconstrued 20 years from now, in the next rendition of politically motivated spinmeisters who never had the courage to step forward and put their own lives on the line. (Jim Webb on 1/19/06)
(from "The United Chickenhawks of America") Did it come as any surprise that Rush Limbaugh shamefully attempted to trash Marine Major Paul Hackett by saying he was “hiding behind his uniform” or that he only went to Iraq to “pad his resume”? Considering how Republicans have underfunded the VA budget, is there any more evidence needed for anyone to realize that in spite of all the rah-rah, these righties actually feel contempt for those who served?
Because what both Hackett and McCain represent is a chickenhawk’s worst nightmare. In the face of a real man, the psychology turns to notions of inferiority, and its then that they’re most vulnerable...This person must be destroyed or minimized in every way possible, and that is exactly what happens. A short list of men who threaten the right-wing facade include Wesley Clark, Max Cleland, John McCain, John Kerry and Paul Hackett. All trashed by men who never had the guts to enlist, let alone go to war. All living examples of how truly lost our society has become in accepting the poisoned rationale of these shameless frauds.
Now there’s a vast majority of Americans who never have to put on the uniform, yet have the nerve to take claim of a patriotic high ground over someone who did based on politics. How is this perversion of logic and justice rationalized? ...
Rush Limbaugh even has the nerve to profit financially off of a product line called ‘Club Gitmo’, which celebrates the mistreatment of detainees. The abuse scandal at Abu Gharib prison, strengthened the enemy in Iraq, and soldiers who took part are behind bars. This would lead one to think that the American government condemned the behavior, but if that were true, Armed Forces Radio wouldn’t be marketing ‘Club Gitmo’ gear to the insurgents, general Iraqi population or the soldiers five days a week. That’s right, the enemy doesn’t have to rely completely on Al-Jazeera and the mosques to misinform, enrage and recruit. (8/8/05)
(from "What Happened to 'Support the Troops'?!? 2/8/05) I just heard a 78 year old WW2 veteran on Limbaugh’s program who said that his prescription cost through the VA during the 90s was $32 dollars a month. Under Bush it has gone up to over $90, and the new budget calls for this man to pay even more. Cuts to VA benefits are described in just about every article that’s been written on the President’s budget for next year. My question is, when is the press going to point this out and start asking how such a thing could ever be justified?
I’m so sick and tired of blatant hypocrisy going unchecked in this country. The other night before the super bowl we cheered veterans from past wars, and earlier in the season we celebrated the memory and sacrifice of Pat Tillman. There isn’t a single opportunity to shower our troops with praise that goes unused when it comes to our elected leaders and talking heads. They eat it up. The chance for a public figure to gush over what the troops have sacrificed for this country is a giant hot fudge sundae that none of them can resist, yet the lack of outrage over raising health care costs on these beloved political mealtickets tells me that it’s all a load of opportunistic crap and has been for decades in this country.
Any public official or talking head who’s leveraged a ’support our troops’ spiel to promote themselves and hasn’t come out against VA budget cuts is a traitor to this country and everything it stands for...
What’s utterly despicable though was the Limbaugh replacement host asking the question, “Aren’t you thankful the government subsidized your prescription costs for all these years?” After the caller hangs up he then tells us that he’s also against the cutting of VA benefits. He characterized this man’s complaint while he was on the line as if he should be grateful for getting anything, then only after the call ended did he concede that the veteran shouldn’t have to pay more for anything. He couldn’t even provide this veteran the courtesy of an honest conversation on the subject, yet once it’s over there’s no hesitation whatsoever before uses the very cuts the man was complaining about to express his support for the troops. I’ve had enough. There should be no more opportunity for people like this to have it both ways.
There were so many more, but time is short, and without going further into the archives, it's easy to see a pattern here. Limbaugh hasn't just screwed up this one time, but in fact, he has been happily fanning the flames of anti-American sentiment in Iraq and around the world...because the fat bastard has to MAKE MONEY off of his Club Gitmo gear...
Why are people sacrificing their brains, their credibility, for this guy? What about Rush Limbaugh is so honorable, that it would make you come onto an Iraq War vet's site and call him a "fucking loser"?
Unlike Vietnam, the technical age brings with it an enormous amount of public records, just like this post right here, that can be referred to ten years down the line, when Republicans are once again pretending to be the only people who support the military, serve in it, etc. The vets of this war may be handicapped, but they'll also have blogs, YouTube and other venues to tell their stories. They won't be as silent as the right-wing would prefer they'd be.
It is burning them up right now, that a veteran can get publicity and say things that go against their world views. That they're not long-haired hippies only makes it worse. They haven't been able to blame these opinions on drugs, free love...no, they now rely on the argument that the vets are too stupid to think for themselves, form their own opinion.
They are manipulated, just like suicide bombers are. Nice...
It's all in writing. It's not going away, ever.
SO ALL YOU HATEFUL RIGHT-WINGERS ACTING LIKE LITTLE BABIES NOW, CALLING VETERANS WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU "FUCKING LOSER", IT'S TIME TO PUT DOWN THE COMIC BOOK ONCE AND FOR ALL. RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A PERFORMANCE ARTIST. THAT'S RIGHT...YOU'RE ONE OF THE STUPID PEOPLE WHO HEARD THE MODERN DAY VERSION OF 'WAR OF THE WORLDS' AND BELIEVED EVERY WORD OF IT.
ALEX - ROCK ON!
As I said before, don't listen to the haters. I got all kinds of hait coments after I did the commercial. But it just makes me laugh. It seems to be the same comment over and over. And they say I cant think for myself. If you are interested think about joining VoteVets. If you ever need anything you can get at me through my blog.
Brian McGough
Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but it seems to me that the phony soldiers are Rush and the haters. They pretend they would go if they could, and get off on cheerleading. Then when a real player says the game is BS they feel their own phoniness. They need to pretend they're fighting while young Americans are dying for real. You take away their game and they feel empty, weak and angry--so they make a new enemy, you...
Megadittos to the author of this site. Rush Limbaugh is a drug-addled, phony patriot who insults and disrespects his fellow Americans every day.
Hey dude,
I ended up here from a link to your original Limbaugh post and, like another reader, have devoured your blog in a matter of 2 days. I loved reading your stories on the banalities of Army life, being an Army vet as well. I was in military intelligence and the old (and far too often quoted) joke of that being an oxymoron is only funny because its true....there were alot of smart people, but when you have them run around in circles with their eyes closed, it turns into a clusterf**k as always.
I never saw action in a "war" personally but I was shot at on two separate occasions and stabbed once in the leg. Like you, I grew up on war movies and westerns and I always thought it cool how the tough, good guys always ended up winning out over the bad, "wussy" guys. However, I would say, looking back that I had a liberal upbringing despite the fact that no one actually ever talked about politics all that much. I was just taught what was right and wrong, what was worth fighting for and what was not, and on tricky subjects like religion, instead of being force-fed, was given free rein and support to investigate all arguments and come up with my own conclusions. In the end, I always did(and do) come back to the golden rule..."Do unto others as you would have done unto you" or put simply, Don't be a hypocrit.
But I have found throughout my life and travels that so many of the people on the opposite side of issues from me are the personification of hypocrisy, while ALWAYS claiming the higher moral or nationalistic ground. People like Rush and the others who have written in nasty comments to you invariably prove their hypocrisy with every statement they make.
How can somebody claim to be pro-life and support killing other people for anything that is not clear and easily proven self defense? Seriously, is this really that hard to understand? I can't and won't speak for other people who are, or were, in the military but one of the key things you have to think about (some people more deeply than others of course but everyone considers it) is the fact that you might have to kill another human being. Honestly, my conclusion in the end is there is never a "good" reason to kill another person. The only legitimate reason for doing it in my eyes is because you had no other choice. It was your last resort. One of the incidents where I was shot at was by mostly young teenagers holding semi-autos that were almost bigger than them. I had the drop on every one of them and could have put them all down but I didn't need to and in the end they were just kids, scared shitless and just doing what they were told to do. In OUR military, we are trained the same way...."forget anything you THINK you know maggot, you don't know DICK"..."we will tell you when to sleep, we will tell you when to eat, (we will tell you what to think)" When you are shown that any sort of disobedience to your superiors is the stupidest thing you can ever do (and likely to get you killed in active duty) you start to put your own thoughtson a shelf and just do what you are told, no matter how much you may or may not understand the merits of right and wrong in the situation. This is why people saying they "support the troops" or giving military people more respect for their opinions than anyone else is ridiculous. First off, there are very few people anywhere who don't "support the troops" for real. There are a very few sad, fringe people who believe that we can live in society without war at all and all military are bad people who just like to kill and honestly I think they are just as hopelessly deluded as the people who think a yellow magnet is supporting the troops. What those people should say, if they weren't hypocrits, is that they support the war, they support the president, and they support the willingness to sacrifice young men and women, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters for the cause of war. But if the cause is so unclear (outright lie would be more honest but I try to bend over backwards to allow as many people to see the point as possible) then you are, if you are honest with yourselves, supporting sending troops to a risky situation where they may die for unclear reasons and where, in possibly an even worse fate, they may be forced to kill many people for unclear reasons, and have to live with that guilt for the rest of their lives.
Which brings me back to my point before of the mental agreement you have to make with yourself when you sign up, when you sight your weapon, when you practice on the range: am I willing to kill another human and how will I deal with the aftermath of that. Here "in country" we take serial killers into custody who have killed dozens of people in a willful, deliberate way and the worst we do to them is give them multiple days in court (maybe its not always fair but its something) and then execute them, in the "most humane" way we have worked out so far(yes I know there are a million things people want to say now about the death penalty but get over it, its not the point). Yet these armchair warriors feel justified in sending young boys and girls into another country, into a messy political situation where no matter where you stand there is no black and white or good or evil, and tell them to kill anyone there that even appears threatening. Yes I know the rules of engagement and I also know reality. When you are in the shit and you have lost friends its about staying alive and nothing else. And these same people think it is justifiable to kill hundreds of these people who are defending their country the same as we would defend our own. Are there bad guys in Iraq? Yes for sure there are...but considering we have 300 million and htey have roughly 20 I'd be willing to bet there are more "bad" people in America than in Iraq. Why is it more ok to kill an Iraqi for questionable reasons than it is to kill a truly bad American for perfectly justifiable reasons? When you have questions like that in the head of an 18 year old kid who has never left his hometown for the most part, that kid is invariably going to come home a broken young man in some way or another, if he comes home at all. The innocence and hope inside is forever touched by darkness.
And again, then turning around and vaunting the words of a soldier into the headlines, or denigrating them as "phony" if you disagree with what they said, is just as much a recipe for disaster. Just as Alex has said here, for the most part their head is down and they don't know anything about what is happening right in front of them. Like asking an enlisted guy what he thinks of a commanding officer like Petraeus that he might have seen once or twice is like asking an English guy if he knows John from Devonshire because of course everyone in England knows him right? Or asking an E1-E4 grunt what he thinks about how the war is going when he has been in relatively calm Basra or Mosul the whole time - to him, the "war" is probably "not going so bad" or "isn't near as bad as the media shows" but that is just from their perspective. Ask another guy who has been in the thick of it in Sadr City every day for three tours and he'll probably tell you its "so bad you can't imagine" or "the media aren't even getting half how bad this really is". And this all is even answering the wrong question because really the question of whether a soldier can give you an expert opinion on wartime policy and war governance should be rejected as a premise from the start. These people are trained by the military to do a job. They don't get to decide where they go or what rules to follow or anything of that nature. They do as they are told. Some may be brighter than others but that means nothing when you do what you are told or you are gone (or fragged). 99.9% don't have poly-sci degrees, 100% don't know all the details of the situation because it only gets to them on need-to-know basis or through numerous filters. They are no more or less capable of giving anyone an opinion on the war than anyone else. I respect every man and woman in uniform who took that oath and truly stands behind it but their opinion is not more valid than mine or yours, or even yours, hypocrits.
And that leads me to the real problem this is all about and why I have become so political and a news junkie... it all comes back to that oath. You are standing there with 15 or 20 other people shifting nervously back and forth while this serious dude at MEPS starts reading you the oath you are supposed to repeat. And you realize that you are swearing to kill another person if necessary to defend your country, your hometown, your family. And one of the most serious thoughts in your head is "please make sure I am never told to kill somebody in a questionable way". Why does that go through your head? Because we are taught from when we are little kids that killing is wrong, it is evil, it is murder, UNLESS you are defending yourself or someone else. That is how you justify it in your mind but when the people who have sent you to defend the nation and possibly kill or be killed have, at the VERY least, been fuzzy with the true reasons for the war, you start taking away that moral certitude that this killing you are doing is justified. And whats even worse is that "collateral damage" is often kids on the street or mothers and old people in their homes that have been bombed. We could understand, in some ways, the carpet bombing of cities in Germany to stop the mighty power of the German Empire in WWI and WWII. To truly weaken this great behemoth, that was one of the few tools we had and because of the great evil we were fighting, we could also justify the collateral damage of civilians killed. Same with Hiroshima and Nagasaki (yes I know there is more to it than that but again its for the point).
But imagine you are a young Iraqi man in 2003 and you hated Saddam but your life wasn't too bad and your family was safe and secure in one of the most advanced and secular nations in the Arab nations of the Middle East, not paradise but not hell either. Say you saw the news about all the WMDS and all that which the US government talked about and then shock and awe came and because you lived within 100 meters of the radio building that was blown up with a 500lb bomb, your mud brick house collapsed, killing almost your whole family, including your two young sons, but leaving you, your mother and your daughters alive. Say you then are told that you no longer have a job because the army you were forced to join at 17 was disbanded by the US who, by the way, never found any WMDs. So then a civil war starts and scary over-the-top religious people who used to be kept in check are now all over the place so the females in your charge can't go outside and you have to somehow feed all of them with no job and avoid being killed by the Shiite militiamen dressed up as Iraqi police or Iraqi army who might want to kill you because your family has a Sunni name. So to defend your family, you have a weapon or two and you have heard stories of militias doing raids in your neighborhood and taking women away and doing unspeakable things to them. So one day in 2007 the US military in conjunction with Iraqi forces kick your door down in the middle of the night and you pick up your weapon to defend yourself. Now, you are in those shoes.....bang your dead because that 18 year old kid couldn't take the chance you would shoot him with that weapon you are holding. Possible scenario? No doubt... Justifiable killing? ? ? ? ? ? And how is that 18 year old going to feel in 2020 when people look back on this war and realize how banal and evil it really was and he realizes he killed someone, not in defending his country, but because he was told to be in the wrong place and put in a situation where he was forced to kill someone WITHOUT a just reason. There is nothing more evil than putting that around someone's shoulders. Sending someone into Afghanistan to get the people who really did 9/11? Not a single rational person questioned that decision. Sending them to Iraq and forcing them to make the hardest decision any human EVER has to make, for BULLSHIT reasons? EVIL plain and simple... Seriously can you think of anything more evil than telling someone else to kill someone for the wrong reasons or for no good reason at all?
And the worst thing is that we are going to pay for this for decades to come....not just in money although we have fought an unjust war on credit, but because we have created millions of people who are justified in not liking us anymore and if you have millions of people feeling like that, then there are likely to be at least a few who REALLY hate us and have nothing to lose, because we have taken it all away. We are also going to pay in the sense that for decades again, people will not trust their government enough to do the right thing and not send them to war for lies or for their own benefit. So instead of honest and honorable people signing up, we will lower the standards (as is already happening) and we will let our military be made up of people we wouldn't want walking down our streets unarmed, let alone handing them a semi-auto weapon, and those people will make the lives of true-believers like Alex or people with no other choice like extremely poor country kids lives a living hell.
There are so many ways this makes my blood boil but it really comes down to this: put up or shut up... if this really is "the most important war of our time" then send 500,000 troops right now and have them standing on every street corner....if you really, truly believe this is a just war, then stop making pathetic excuses and sign up, or tell your kids to, and take the place of people who were forced to go when they didn't believe in it...if you believe that every "life is precious" then do everything in your power to stop a war where thousands of lives are being lost, including very young children... but those things will never happen because they are hypocrits who believe in nothing but their own personal gain...
Sorry for the long comment Alex but I don't often get to talk to a kindred spirit... Keep on ignoring the poor lost souls who refuse to see reality (btw to all of you idjits that keep saying "read the transcripts" you really need to get that everyone is trying to tell you he ALTERED the transcripts to make it sound the way he wanted it to) and I hope you are enjoying your time at home and the sound and fury (or mind numbing boredom/terror/boredom) of war is slowly fading in your mind...but that the fire is not ;)
Later dude
Dude, I found your blog on The Economist article - they quoted you and made the quote the title of the article! I posted the article on my blog and I read with great interest your post in which you wrote:
"The only thing more impressive than the Shiite IA’s ability to beat the hell out of Sunni civilians is their inability to do anything on their own accord. They simply cannot conduct patrols without us, but 1920 reigns freely in the neighborhoods they operate in. In a few months they are confident in their ability to combat Al Qaeda with minimal help from us, and the IA refuses to do a thirty minute patrol alone. And we still refuse to take off the training wheels."
That sucks.
Stay safe and I hope to read your next post soon.
The reich-wingers are so far gone I don't even recognize them as Americans anymore.
But the days of them spewing their treasonous venom unchallenged is over.
Yeah, I'm one of those ex-phoney soldiers. 11B1P back in the day. Its because of my military service that I know what a big steaming pile o crap this whole thing was destined to become.
I am pretty convinced that all war loving chicken hawks are really cowards who are trying to overcompensate for their bed-wetting fear and minuscule 'guns'.
Rock on Alex!
Welcome back to the land of the big PX.
-SnarkyShark
Wow. I truly am bewildered at the contempt being shown on all sides of the debate. I personally find the Limbaugh controversy to be contrived and crass political gamesmanship. That is nothing new, especially when it comes to Limbaugh--- again, from all sides.
This particular incident seems to have given light to a lot of resentment I was unaware existed to such a degree.
To have interpreted those comments as an indictment of anti-war soldiers as 'Phony' is a stretch. It appears to be a willful exercise as a means to express anger with those who find the mission to be honorable and necessary and find the effort to end the mission to be wrong-headed. To use noble sacrifices as you have done here to denigrate that support, perhaps is no better than what you have accused Limbaugh of doing.
That doesn't make you 'phony' by any stretch, just wrongheaded in MY view. That in no way takes away from MY great admiration and gratitude from what you have done in the service of our nation at war, regardless of how you may perceive it.
You are an individual with a viewpoint and represent it well. But you stray into putting yourself forward as somehow speaking for your fellow soldiers and using their service to promote your viewpoint to an extent that borders on the crass which could lead some to characterize your views in much the same way you have characterized others.
Why not leave the service as just that and honor it? Why use it to support, or denigrate, a viewpoint? As a veteran, you deserve gratitude and respect for your SERVICE. Your ideas and opinions are separate from that and should stand and fall on their merits.
I won't list my own genealogical bona fides on matters military, because they don't make me any more right or wrong on the subject. I admit it has taken me some time to realize that.....
First the offending article and then my response to it.
And the beat goes on...
=============================
http://www.samessenger.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=...
Let's ask who the real phony soldiers are
Friday, 05 October 2007
I don't get the opportunity to listen to the radio often but was fortunate
to be listening to Rush Limbaugh on September 26th. For those of you who
have not heard the story yet, September 26th is the date that Rush allegedly
called all soldiers who speak out against the war, "phony soldiers." That is
the story that the left needs for the American people to believe but it is
nowhere near accurate and those like Harry Reid are well aware that they are
spreading a lie. The transcript is readily available for anyone who wishes
to read it. Rush was very specific in talking about Jesse MacBeth and others
like him. Like him? Yes. For those who do not know, MacBeth claimed to be an
army Ranger, decorated with a Purple Heart, who had served in Afghanistan
and Iraq where he had witnessed American troops committing atrocities. The
truth is that Macbeth never made it out of basic training let alone into the
theater of combat. MacBeth is now serving jail time for falsifying a VA
claim and military records. Unfortunately he is not the only "phony soldier"
that has lied about military service in order to slander the real soldiers
who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whether it is Media Matters, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin or Wesley Clark, I
have a hard time believing that they are so dim-witted that they don't know
what Rush said had nothing to do with real combat veterans who choose to
voice dissent about the war. Unfortunately if their blatant
misrepresentation isn't out of stupidity or ignorance, it must be for a more
sinister and deceptive reason. When did we become so hateful? When did blind
ideological agendas become so powerful that reality can be so easily cast
aside by so many?
To clarify, the term "phony soldiers" refers specifically to individuals
who lie about their military record not to real veterans who happen to
disagree with the war. What should be offensive to everyone are these
disgraceful liars who have to gall to claim to be combat veterans when they
have never worn the uniform at all or if they have, they washed out of Basic
Training. While the anti war movement should welcome veterans who oppose the
war, they owe it to themselves and their supporters to distance themselves
from the hundreds of Jesse MacBeth's around the country whose deceptive
behavior only serves to undermine a valid point of view.
James Gregoire, Fairfield
=============================
Response:
The beat goes on, indeed. So many right wing talking points, so little
time. This is actually a decent example of some reasonably well-written
propaganda. But it's still a pantload of shit, so it's kinda fun to
take apart and look at what he's actually doing here.
First paragraph, It's great that Mr. Gregoire had the opportunity to
hear this on the radio, many of us only heard the recorded playback.
His statement is intended to imply that if we didn't hear it live, it
doesn't count. Sorry, I heard what Limbaugh said, via the magic of
recording, and I believe he is just trying to cover his ass. Limbaugh
put an edited version on his website, which cut a minute and a half out
of the middle of the content, which was the time difference between the
"phony soldier" comment, and the first mention of Jesse MacBeth. Why
would he edit it if it wasn't clear on its own?
So, I know what I heard, and Limbaugh should have just apologized... for
himself, and not all the others he had no right to "apologize" for.
Second paragraph, Mr. Gregoire believes he and Limbaugh are correct and
that everyone else believes their interpretation, but is merely ignoring
the truth and using this twisted version for nefarious, un-American
purposes. "Oh woe, woe, why does the left act so badly?" he implies.
Yes, he uses the words "When did WE become so hateful?", but is not
really implying that the right-wing is a part of the we, with his next
sentence.
"When did blind ideological agendas become so powerful that reality can
be so easily cast aside by so many? " This is a nice bit of
propagandistic framing. He at first appears to be non-partisan, but
then directs it only at one side, clearly saying that there is only one
ideological agenda that is good, or "reality", all others are at the
very least mistaken. As for the content of this sentence, if we take it
at face value, I can tell him EXACTLY how the ideological agendas became
so powerful. Limbaugh, Hannity, Medved, Michael Weiner-Savage, Laura
Ingraham, Melanie Morgan, and many, many others each have several hours
a day on radio to demonize anyone who doesn't agree with their
right-wing views, then they go on television with O'Reilly, Cavuto,
Coulter, Hume, Blitzer, Beck, Malkin, and a whole host of others, and it
becomes "truth". Reality? Really? I know what I heard, sir, and
Limbaugh was wrong to say what he said.
And finally, the last paragraph. Thank you, Mr. Gregoire, for
clarifying it all for me. I guess my sad little Progressive brain
couldn't get Limbaugh's words properly processed. Thanks for the
condescending attitude, but I think Limbaugh should be held to account
for this nonsense. Not in a crybaby, Senate censure of an advertisement
kind of way, but in a "yeah, you said it, I heard it, and you were
wrong" kind of way. The last part of his paragraph implies that Jesse
MacBeth has been embraced by the anti-war folks, but from all I can see,
he has been discredited and is certainly not being claimed by the left
as an ally. I certainly haven't seen anything of his alleged "hundreds
of Jesse MacBeth's around the country whose deceptive behavior only
serves to undermine a valid point of view", and I wish Mr. Gregoire had
some names to go with his allegation that they are out there, working
with IVAW and VoteVets.org to undermine the American way of life.
So, this letter was a valiant try to "spin" Limbaugh's recent
statements, and will certainly have some effect on those who simply
believe what they read, as long as it came from their "side".
Here's an interview with a "phony soldier"... a very sharp kid, if you
ask me. Has he been duped? Is he a valiant, misled soldier who has
just misinterpreted Limbaugh? As our propaganda-pals at Fox News say,
"We report, you decide".
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/06/countdown-gop-using-limbaugh...
And, just for the record, here's a synopsis of the whole sordid thing.
Media Matters did not edit his comments, but Limbaugh did. Why?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200710060005?f=h_top
The fact is, this all shouldn't matter, Limbaugh should just apologize
and move on. But since he won't, and since the right-wing opened the
door with the ridiculous outcry and Senate action against MoveOn.org for
their advertisement, this is now simply carrying on this discussion
regarding one of their leading partisans. If the troops and their
leadership are to be held up as fine examples of American patriotism,
they must ALL be held up as such, even those who disagree with the
occupation. Is their service and sacrifice any less than those who
still believe it was the right thing to do?
To those who are arguing that Rush didn't call protesters "phony soldiers", technology has made it possible to actually record a radio show and then replay it.
I'm not sure if you're aware of that.
There's really no need to use 1000+ words to split hairs here. I know it's the EIB way (excellence in babbling), but an audio clip is so much more efficient.
In fact, we could meet halfway and use the transcript instead. I know that using the audio or the transcript would kill your argument, but...actually, you've got it right. Rush Limbaugh is obviously a great man, and regardless of what he says or does, whoever comes out against him is obviously suffering from some kind of mental illness.
Jeff:
I recommend "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" by Chris Hedges. It was a finalist in the National Book Critics Circle awards for Nonfiction.
Alex:
You know you're on the right side of the issue when the "too bad your mother didn't abort you" emails start coming in from the basement lock-in bedwetters of the YAY FOR WAR 24/7 blogosphere.
Can't wait for your next post!
>>Julia said...
>>First the offending article and >>then my response to it
Sheesh, what a waste of bandwidth. My forehead hit my desktop before I could get halfway through this morass of medacity. Must...find...
No Doz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
At this point, I would say "Ya, Basta!" Enough already...I don't think any hearts or minds will be changed about the Limbaugh episode, and each side has pretty well gotten out information others can pursue so beyond everyone's continued venting you really are "rushing deeper into the hole."
Alex, What's life like back at your home fort? It's got to be quite an adjustment beyond being out of a combat zone, and into a cool, moist climate, among so many other things...
Is your unit still together? What lies ahead for you and for them?
Can you tell us anything about the debriefing and medical checkups and such? What sort of screening is being done for PTSD these days? We hear in the press attitudes and practices are changing but to what extent have they?
Alex,
Upon reading some of the posts from people who felt that you shouldn't be expressing your opinion and viewpoint as a soldier and worse, the "shut up and fight" from the likes of "Ditto Head". He seems to have all kinds of excuses for not putting anything of his own on the line for the war in Iraq but feels free to badger you about your professionalism and patriotism?
I got to thinking that it is no wonder that military members are getting more and more vocal and I am so thankful you are brave enough to be one of them.
After years of blatantly using our service members as a photo op for this administration (remember the plastic turkey?!) it is no wonder there is a back lash. It is shameful that our civilian leaders and the media did not called for an end to the shameless politicizing of service members-AND THEIR FAMILIES- as a whole.
Sorry, we are not cardboard props. If they want to hear from the members of the military that are good PR for this mismanaged Iraq war- then they have to also listen to those that may not make it onto their campaign poster.
Nobody is pro war. War may at times be necessary, it is of great debate that the war in Iraq was worth sending our men and women into harms way, but only psycopaths would call themselves pro war. I for one, am more at ease knowing that our service members are not yet driven to be mindless war machines and have the ability to share their viewpoint. Being married to a service member, I have no doubt that our volunteer military is the most upstanding and professional in the world. Regardless of personal ideology they continue to execute mission after mission while finding and extreme lack of inspiring civilian leadership willing to back them up. It is the least the citizens of this nation can do to allow these brave people to speak. They have volunteered to make the ulitmate sacrifice for their country so that others wouldn't have to.
Alex, thank you for your service and also for your gift of writing and for taking the time to share that with us all.
Proud Navy Wife
Rush needs to keep his mouth full of pills and stop talking trash about the troops. If he went to any FOB in Iraq with no media or bodyguard someone would probably punch his lights out.
That quote you attributed to me is not mine.
Jeremy C. Garland said...
That quote you attributed to me is not mine.
March 26, 2008 12:23 PM
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt since the comment has been deleted by the author already. I attributed it to 'Anonymous Douche.'
Looks like the chiefs get their bacon saved by the men on the ground while the real losers here are turning out to be those pushing the line of faked up media. Since it's clear how few of them represent intelligent mouthpieces of the people and how many desperately attempt to cram a flimsy propaganda job down our throats, it's beginning to look like divide and conquer is feasible on both fronts. The vets are going to have to be the ones doing this, though, since the hole card of terrorist plots is essentially an unlimited wild card. It's a situation which requires more tact and coalition-building than we'll get by grousing, and I'm sure the troops know what they're doing when it comes to that.
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