{"id":24427,"date":"2007-02-01T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:05:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T06:05:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:05:07","slug":"disgusting_washington_blogger_slams_troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/02\/01\/disgusting_washington_blogger_slams_troops\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgusting Washington Blogger Slams Troops"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I missed this, and I have an excuse. I don\u2019t read the Washington Post blogs, and I don\u2019t read the New York Times blogs, but there was a post yesterday on the Washington Post blog by a man named William Arkin<\/a>. They have hired William Arkin to be their expert on national and homeland security. He posted a blog yesterday which just had everybody who read it roiling. I want to read it to you. <\/line>He writes, ?I\u2019ve been mulling over an NBC Nightly News report from Iraq last Friday in which a number of soldiers expressed frustration with opposition to war in the United States. I\u2019m sure the soldiers were expressing a majority opinion common amongst the ranks – that\u2019s why it is news – and I\u2019m also sure no one in the military leadership or the administration put the soldiers up to expressing their views, nor steered NBC reporter Richard Engel to the story. I\u2019m all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn\u2019t for them to disapprove of the American people.?<\/line>What happened was in this NBC report (VIDEO<\/a>), a bunch of soldiers said they\u2019re sick and tired of being told that they are supported as troops but that their mission is not supported. This caused this columnist here, this blogger, William Arkin, to blow up. ?Friday\u2019s NBC Nightly News included a story from my colleague and friend Richard Engel, who was embedded with an active duty Army infantry battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington. Engel relayed how ?troops here say they are increasingly frustrated by American criticism of the war. Many take it personally, believing it is also criticism of what they\u2019ve been fighting for.? First up was 21 year old junior enlisted man Tyler Johnson, whom Engel said was frustrated about war skepticism and thinks that critics ?should come over and see what it\u2019s like firsthand before criticizing.? ?You may support or say we support the troops, but, so you\u2019re not supporting what they do, what they\u2019re here sweating for, what we bleed for, what we die for. It just don\u2019t make sense to me,? Johnson said.?<\/line><\/p>\n

They quoted another guy and so forth, and here is William Arkin\u2019s reaction. ?These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President\u2019s handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect. Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order. Sure, it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail. But even at anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the policy. We don\u2019t see very many ?baby killer? epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon. So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?<\/line>?I can imagine some post-9\/11 moment, when the American people say enough already with the wars against terrorism and those in the national security establishment feel these same frustrations. In my little parable, those in leadership positions shake their heads that the people don\u2019t get it, that they don\u2019t understand that the threat from terrorism, while difficult to defeat, demands commitment and sacrifice. ? I\u2019ll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to believe that they are manning the parapet, and that\u2019s where their frustrations come in. I\u2019ll accept as well that they are young and na?ve and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never changing situation in Iraq. ? America needs to ponder what it is we really owe those in uniform. I don\u2019t believe America needs a draft though I imagine we\u2019d be having a different discussion if we had one.?<\/line>Then he goes on to basically refer to them as mercenaries. They\u2019re simply volunteering and fighting for the money and so forth. His point here was that the troops should shut up, even though he acknowledges that they have First Amendment rights, that they should not be critical of the American people, they should not tell the American people that they don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re talking about. This is what happens — a blog is not edited. I don\u2019t know if the Washington Post let this guy up without it being edited or whatever, but this is exactly the kind of sentiment that is felt throughout the far left and the anti-war hate-America crowd, and it\u2019s been embodied perfectly by William Arkin here on his blog at the Washington Post. <\/line><\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/line>RUSH: Couple observations here about this William Arkin piece. It really has to be read to be believed. But what got him all fired up was a bunch of troops out of the state of Washington who were asked a question, ?How do you feel about such widespread criticism of you and the mission and so forth,? and they answered the question. They said we don\u2019t like it. They didn\u2019t say the American people should be shut up. They didn\u2019t say the American people should be silent about it. They just answered a question. It is this William Arkin who, after reading their answers to the questions they were asked, suggests they shut up. Then he has the audacity to call them mercenaries — uh, then he corrects himself and calls them volunteers. Do you know what a mercenary is by definition, Mr. Snerdley? What? You tell me. That\u2019s right. Well, particularly a paid-for soldier fighting for a country not his own. So to even bandy about the term that these people are mercenaries, is just? and of course today there\u2019s been so much reaction to this, Arkin thinks this reaction is great<\/a>, proves him right, with all the knuckleheads responding to him. <\/line>He supposedly served in the military from \u201974 to \u201978, in the intel division somewhere in the Army. I\u2019m not exactly clear about it. Anyway, the value of it is to simply illustrate that this whole notion that the left supports the troops but doesn\u2019t support the mission, they don\u2019t support the troops, they resent the troops, and they hate it when the troops speak up, and they think the troops are a bunch of dummkopfs, mercenary volunteers on a wasted, worthless mission and so forth. That\u2019s the value of it, is to illustrate once and for all without any editing, without somebody getting a hold and say, ?Whoa, we can\u2019t say that, it\u2019s just out there.? <\/line>RUSH: Here is Kenny in Roanoke, Virginia. Kenny, thanks for the call, sir.<\/line>CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Been listening to your program for a long time, and I\u2019ve been voting Republican for a long time. However, I do want to respond to the US News report that you was talking about how the Democrats are concerned we may strike Iran.<\/line>RUSH: I have to tell you something, Kenny, I mean I don\u2019t want to be disrespectful, but you don\u2019t sound like a Republican to me.<\/line>CALLER: Yes, sir, I\u2019m a Republican. Well, I\u2019m not a registered Republican, but I —<\/line>RUSH: That\u2019s what I thought. I can spot them a mile away when you\u2019re not. I knew it.<\/line>CALLER: I think Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest.<\/line>RUSH: Well, I think Harry Truman was one of the greatest, doesn\u2019t make me a Democrat.<\/line>CALLER: That\u2019s true. But I do think the Republican Party has changed a lot, and I am concerned they have not showed the trustworthiness, there were no weapons of mass destruction, even the president himself had to admit that, and how should we trust this intelligence or this current administration talking about these things in Iran?<\/line>RUSH: Kenny, can you hang on here just a second?<\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER: Sure.<\/line>RUSH: I just exhaled some cigar smoke, and I looked up, and I looked at the vent where the cigar smoke — and it is filthy up there, so we gotta get the cleaning crew in here. It looks like it hasn\u2019t been dusted off in a long time. (interruption) Oh, cram it. I don\u2019t inhale these things, so don\u2019t tell me imagine my lungs. I\u2019m just telling you it needs to be cleaned. Kenny, what are you telling me, that Republicans and Iran and WMD, what was it?<\/line>CALLER: Well, I don\u2019t think the Democrats are always wrong about everything they say. They do have some legitimate concerns —<\/line>RUSH: Oh, yeah, of course, of course, absolutely right. Well, the problem is it\u2019s the Democrats that are worried here, it\u2019s the Democrats who are not objecting. The Democrats are not suggesting that things coming out of Iran are not coming out of Iran. The Democrats are not suggesting that the Iranians are lying when they say they want to blow Israel off the map. The Democrats are not suggesting that the Iranians are not in Iraq ambushing American troops. The Democrats have not denied reports that the Iranians are manufacturing and distributing the IEDs, those explosives. This US News story is the result of Democrat panic over the fact that Bush might take some action to stop it, and that could rally the American people to him.<\/line>CALLER: I understand that. But what I\u2019m saying is, the intelligence told us all these things about Iraq, which just about none of it is true on the weapons —<\/line>RUSH: No, no, no. That\u2019s not the correct way to look at it. We know that he had weapons of mass destruction because he used them. Look it, I\u2019m tired of giving this history lesson. I\u2019m not going to. I\u2019ve wasted enough time with this. You don\u2019t want to know the truth. You\u2019re calling here for your own little version of propaganda. I know who you people are. You are little Democrats and you\u2019re out there getting marching orders from somebody to call here and get yourselves on the real shows that are listened to because your own aren\u2019t and this is the way you get your little propaganda stuff out there and you try to preface it all by saying, ?I\u2019ve been a Republican all my life, and I really love Ronald Reagan.? You can\u2019t fool me. I have been going through the history lesson of what happened in Iraq for as many years as we\u2019ve been in Iraq, and you know it as well as I do. You\u2019re just not interested in the truth, Kenny. Nothing you say could convince me otherwise. <\/line><\/p>\n

&lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/blog.washingtonpost.com\/earlywarning\/2007\/01\/the_troops_also_need_to_suppor.html#more”>(WP: The Troops Also Need to Support the American People)&lt;\/a><\/line>&lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/blog.washingtonpost.com\/earlywarning\/2007\/02\/the_arrogant_and_intolerant_sp.html”>(WP: The Arrogant and Intolerant Speak Out)&lt;\/a><\/line>&lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/powerlineblog.com\/archives\/016662.php”>(PowerLine: The Peril of Newspaper Blogs)&lt;\/a><\/line>&lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/media.nationalreview.com\/post\/?q=MDkwNmU1MjI0YWUyYmE5ODQwZDI1MTc1MWJiNzViMDA=”>(National Review Online Blogs)&lt;\/a><\/line><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I missed this, and I have an excuse. I don\u2019t read the Washington Post blogs, and I don\u2019t read the New York Times blogs, but there was a post yesterday on the Washington Post blog by a man named William Arkin. They have hired William Arkin to be their expert on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDisgusting Washington Blogger Slams Troops - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/02\/01\/disgusting_washington_blogger_slams_troops\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Disgusting Washington Blogger Slams Troops - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I missed this, and I have an excuse. 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