RUSH: Let’s go to the phones and see what’s percolating there. Bruce in Alexandria, Virginia, welcome, sir. It’s nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: My first question, sir, is, to my understanding there are 130 to 140,000 troops on the ground in Iraq, and with the president’s surge of 21,000 additional, what difference does 21,000 more troops on the ground going to make? And my second question is, today on his speech, he specifically said that you can disagree with his policies — notably his troop surge — and still support the troops, when you all have adamantly been saying, how can you not — how can you support the troops and not support the president’s —
RUSH: Let me just say, I strongly disagree with the president on that.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I think the president’s just going out of his way to be nice to you people, for whatever reason I can’t understand.
CALLER: On national TV to be nice to the public?
RUSH: The president is not a partisan guy. He is not going to tell you that you’re threatening the success of the mission.
CALLER: So the president is going to tell the American people what they want to hear?
RUSH: No, he leaves it up to people like me to do it — which, frankly, gets a little tiresome.
CALLER: But he’s the president and he’s supposed to be honest with the American people.
RUSH: The fact is, if you’re going to go out there and rip the troops you can’t at the same time support them.
CALLER: So you would say that the president is lying?
RUSH: Here you hate Bush and you’re trying to take comfort and solace in what he says about you?
CALLER: You don’t know whether I hate Bush or not, sir. That’s an incorrect statement.
RUSH: It’s not an incorrect statement.
CALLER: You don’t know whether I hate Bush or like Bush!
RUSH: I know who you people are. I’ve been following you for all my years behind the microphone.
CALLER: So you’re saying that the president is lying to the American people.
RUSH: I’m saying the president is nice.
CALLER: No, you’re saying that he lied to the American people.
RUSH: Listen to this, Bruce. The president is president of all the people. He is not going to sit there and tell you that you are being unpatriotic, while at the same time people like you are calling him Hitler and calling him a dunce and calling him the biggest idiot —
CALLER: Sir, you are incorrect in your assumption of me. You know absolutely nothing about me. You don’t know whether I’m in support of the president or against the president, here.
RUSH: Yes. I can tell by the tone of your questions.
CALLER: No, sir. You absolutely cannot.
RUSH: You libs are all the same.
CALLER: I’m only making a general observation.
RUSH: You’re not making a “general observation.”
CALLER: Yes, sir, I did. I specifically made an observation about what the president is saying.
RUSH: You’re calling here to be provocative and you’re doing a good job of it and I’m on a short fuse today because I feel rotten.
CALLER: Well, sir, that’s your problem. That is not our problem. I’ve only made an observation of what the president said.
RUSH: You know, my only problem is people like you.
CALLER: This is what the president’s surge serves.
RUSH: I love the country and you keep looking for an out to disagree with me.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, with all due respect, this is what the president said.
RUSH: Now you’re looking for an out for the president! This is amazing to me.
CALLER: With all due respect, this is what the president said.
RUSH: You don’t
CALLER: Sir, with all due respect this is what the president said.
RUSH: All right, start at the beginning. I forgot what you said. What were we talking about?
CALLER: Okay. Well, my first question was: There are 130 to 140,000 troops on the ground —
RUSH: Oh, yeah, let me answer that.
CALLER: — what more difference is 21,000 more going to make?
RUSH: Let me answer that because I talk to the generals every week. We have 125, 130,000 troops that are stationed in various places around the whole country.
CALLER: No, sir. On the ground in Iraq today there are about 130 to 140,000 troops.
RUSH: What did I just say?
CALLER: You said “
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: I’m talking about Iraq specifically.
RUSH: That’s what I’m saying. What is Iraq? Iraq is a country!
CALLER: You said “around the country.”
RUSH: I said around the country. Iraq is a country!
CALLER: No, no, no, you said “around the country.” When you say “around the country.” That means other countries other than Iraq.
RUSH: No, no.
CALLER: We’re talking about —
RUSH: This is a total waste of time.
CALLER: We’re talking about Iraq specifically.
RUSH: You cannot be this dumb.
CALLER: Oh, well! Smarter than you, sir.
RUSH: You cannot be this dumb.
CALLER: Sir, you absolutely know nothing about my background. As far as you know, I could have a Ph.D.
RUSH: No, I know you don’t have a Ph.D.
CALLER: Well, that’s where your wrong. That’s where you’re wrong, Mr. Limbaugh. That’s where you’re wrong.
RUSH: Let me ask you a question. We’ll cut to the chase here real quick. How do you spell
CALLER: I’m sorry, how do I spell what?
RUSH: Star.
CALLER: Okay. I don’t understand your question, and I’m absolutely not going there.
RUSH: Well, then you’re not a Ph.D. A Ph.D. would have answered the question. How do you spell
CALLER: I am absolutely not going there.
RUSH: (Laughing.)
CALLER: You are trying to avoid the question.
RUSH: No, you won’t deal with it.
CALLER: Answer the question. What more would 21,000 troops make in Iraq?
RUSH: I tried to answer it and you purposely misunderstood what I was saying.
CALLER: No, you went into trying to get me to… You want a spelling bee.
RUSH: There are 135,000 troops that are stationed and positioned throughout the country of Iraq. They are not all in Baghdad. They can’t be recalled from various areas of the country. They have duties that are assigned that go on daily. We have a different strategery in Baghdad today. What’s happening different today than the past, is we would go in and clear out neighborhoods and then leave, without leaving security forces behind, leaving the neighborhoods open for the bad guys to come and retake.
CALLER: Okay. Still…
RUSH: The 21,500 —
CALLER: The 21,000 additional troops is not going to make that much difference, if there are 130 to 140,000 troops in Iraq today. However, again going back to my second question —
RUSH: You know something? This is —
CALLER: — with all due respect, Mr. Limbaugh —
RUSH: I am answering your specific question and you’re calling to obfuscate and I’m tired of it. It was fun for a while. It was fun for a while, but I’m really questioning my IQ. The longer I speak to you, the lower it’s going to go, and I can’t afford that to happen since I feel so rotten today, anyway. Nice try. It was fun while it lasted, but I’ll tell you one thing I took away from your call. I think you ought to be ashamed. The first thing you want to know is whether or not you can feel patriotic — when President Bush says that you are — even though you disagree with his policy. Yet day in and day out you have been massacring this guy, you and your people, and all of your supporters. You people on the left have been doing everything you can to destroy this guy. Now you want to take solace in the fact that he doesn’t think ill of you! Well, that’s big. That is really big. It’s also gutless and timid. You ought to go try to get a Ph.D. and then you could spell
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: David in South Bend, Indiana, I appreciate your patience. Thank you for waiting. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing? I was going down the road listening to that clown that called you and, you know, trying to argue with you about troop numbers and all that. It’s just incredible. I don’t think these people seemed to understand — and obviously our news media can’t make it clear to anybody — that we’ve been fighting Iran for 30-something years. You know, the president of Iran was the guy that took over the American Embassy back in ’79. That’s who we’re fighting. That’s who we’ve been fighting. The whole reason he’s got sabers rattling and all that type thing, is he’s got us on both sides of his country. All this with the Muslims and what have you, it’s just spooky, but yeah. I was just over there for a year and I just want to say that the American troops that are over there are doing a fabulous job, and some of the finest American people that this country has to offer are there putting their lives on the line. For people like that to make a phone call, it’s just sickening.
RUSH: Well, this we know. I can imagine how sickening it is. It’s frustrating to all of us to listen to that kind of drivel. You have to understand that that phone call was taken primarily for its comedic value. As to fighting Iran, I have long suspected with this whole thing in Iraq was actually a proxy for dealing with Iran in any number of ways, just as the Hezbo war in Lebanon with the Israelis is a proxy for Iran.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: The dangerous thing here, David, is that people in this country, the anti-war types and the Drive-By Media will say, “Wait! Wait! How can we believe anything you people tell us about Iran? You got it all wrong about Iraq. You lied about the intelligence or the intelligence was wrong, so how can we believe anything you say about Iran?” That’s why I think we’ve got our hands tied now.
CALLER: I was going to say, Rush, speaking of media: the thing is that since I have been back, I’ve had more people come up to me — just like people like in stores or anyplace I’ve been; I’ll war a jacket that has a military emblem on it or something — and the first thing they ask me is, “Are we winning over there? Is the news media telling us the truth,” and I’d say, “We’re winning, and the news media is not telling you the truth,” and they go, “That’s what we thought.” It’s amazing how many people say that. They do not believe the news media. As far as they’re concerned, CNN and al-Jazeera are the same thing — and when I’m sitting back here in the states watching this stuff, it is incredible to me. I read a book just before we deployed called “Militant Tricks,” and it’s incredible how when you look at the television today and they blow up a cafe in Baghdad how people think the entire country looks like that. I was there for a year. It does not look like that. I sat through briefings. We were attached to the 1st Marine Division, and we are clearly winning, and all this type stuff about whether or not Iran is supplying the IEDs and stuff? We have briefings every single day. They know where this stuff is coming from. We know who’s supplying these type of IEDs and where it’s coming from.
RUSH: All right. Let me give you the scope of the problem. The scope of the problem is that for four years… See, back in Vietnam days, Walter Cronkite was able to end the Vietnam War with one broadcast. It’s taken the Drive-By Media this time about three years, three-and-a-half years of never ending, daily assaults on the American people with televised newscasts featuring pictures such as you just described: a burning car representing the entire country of Iraq. There are more people than you know in this country who do not get news from anywhere but the 6:30 and seven o’clock newscasts. Most of them are middle-aged and up, and that’s all they watch. They don’t watch cable; they don’t read newspapers. That’s all they watch and that’s what they believe. So the polls in this country, you can’t discount them. They ought to be what they are, given the never-ending assault on the senses that the Drive-By Media news reports for the past three-and-a-half years have been — and look, I’m going to tell you something. When the president will not criticize the media for misrepresenting the facts and so forth — for whatever his personal reasons are, his professional reasons — it makes it all the more difficult for stories like yours (told the countless times they’ve been told on shows like this) to permeate the public mind, because there are no pictures associated with your words, and they’ve been bombarded for three-and-a-half years with pictures to the other effect.