So of course the NeoCon machine is going apeshit over Kerry’s bone-headed comment about how not studying gets you “stuck in Iraq.”
Kerry claims it was a flubbed joke, and that he was supposed to be criticizing Bush, saying that not studying leads you to “getting *us* stuck in Iraq.” Whatever — the reason why this story has legs is because we all know that the majority of people entering the military nowadays aren’t exactly our best and brightest. They’re often joining up because they have no other options. Hell, the military has had to LOWER recuitment standards to get enough people to join up. This isn’t a secret.
What pisses me off, though, is the double standard. “He’s INSULTED THE TROOPS!!! APOLOGIZE! APOLOGIZE!!!!!!”
Strange how they’re silent on the fact that Republican House Leader John Boehner blamed the military for screwing up the war on CNN (link includes a video of the statement — no bias there.). Trying to defend Rumsfeld, he said that we shouldn’t blame the SecDef (you know, who’s in charge), because “the fact is the generals on the ground are in charge.”
Directly blaming the troops. Silence from the Right.
Strange how they’re silent on the Bush administration shorting the Army of nearly 18 Billion dollars. Money that the Army says it needs, which the administration is not providing. Silence from the Right.
Strange how they were silent when Bush urged the insurgents to ‘bring it on’, and attack US troops in 2003. Strange how they were silent when Bush joked about the fact that his reasons for going to war turned out to be false. Silence from the Right.
Strange how they were silent on the fact that the WMD thing wasn’t true…..that Cheney said the insurgency was in its “last throes”…..that Bush already declared “mission accomplished.”
Keith Olbermann was right in his special commentary last night — it is Bush and his supporters, not Kerry, who owe the troops an apology.
But all we’re going to hear is silence from the Right.
Honestly, as a former soldier, I’m disgusted with how politicians have treated the military over and over. I’d agree that there is a bit of a double standard on this. However, Kerry really didn’t make his life any easier by trying to defend it and refusing to apologize. To quote a previous situation regarding Bill O’Reilly and a certain WWII massacre, when you’ve screwed up that bad, you’re better off to just take your lumps, shut up, and apologize.
With everything I’ve seen over my short life, I’ve come to the conclusion that “politician” is easily equated with “lying, opportunistic, money-grubbing, etc., etc., ad infinitum.” That’s part of the reason I don’t associate with one part or the other and politics just continue to disgust me. I have trouble casting a ballot for any one person because too often I’ve done so, only to find out later that the person I supported has changed their views or acted in a manner I’m not proud of.
In my opinion, Kerry owes an apology to the Army for that statement. Bush and his cronies owe much more for what they’ve done, but I don’t give a damn about anyone’s party affiliation. I tend to ignore party affiliation when I’m calling a lying fucker, a lying fucker.
My little cousin (I’m 11 years her senion) delivered a lovely baby girl this year. She and her fiance went to live together, only to find out that he’s a drug addict and was stealing from her and my aunt. She called off the marriage and moved home with said aunt, while he entered rehab — the condition Mandi gave for any continued contact with him. Now that he’s out of rehab, he’s apparently entering the army. He wanted to go air force, but the army is the only branch that would take him because of his drug use. I believe that in times past, they’d have said no too, but I guess they don’t turn away much of anyone these days.
In my opinion, Kerry owes an apology to the Army for that statement.
Which he gave. (Which the Right has ignored, and continues to bray.)
Which I am glad that he did finally give, but for quite a while, he completely refused to… which really gave me the impression that he was letting pride get the better of him. I’d have had a hell of a lot more respect for him, if his next words would have been, “Oops.. that came out really badly. Sorry about that.” I’d have probably just ignored the whole incident, but instead, he justified it, downplayed it, and had a pretty lame excuse for it.
And I totally give you that the Right just continues to act stupid in the face of the whole thing, but as you can tell from a lot of what I’ve said previous to this, I don’t have a high opinion of most politicians to begin with.
Quite a while= was it even 24 hours? It was only a few days, and he always said that it wasn’t what he meant to say. He just said he wasn’t going to appologize for insulting Bush, and all the papers carried “no appology” headlines.
I’m no Kerry fan, but the man is a decorated war veteran. He made one statement in a slew of Bush jokes and left out a word or two. Anyone listening in context would have clearly understood what he meant and clearly seen that he flubbed his line.
Yeah, he should have said, “oops, my bad, that came out wrong, and it wasn’t what I meant,” but really, this was always a mountain out of a molehill. And now that he has appologized, everyone is saying it’s not enough.
Cheers. Great points.
I re-posted the link in my journal.