RUSH: This is Deanna in St. Louis, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, great, thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: First of all it’s an honor to speak with you. Second of all before I get to my comment I want to thank you on behalf of military moms of America for your voice and the lack of action on Obama’s administration with the current situation in Afghanistan. We appreciate it, because as military families we’re so frustrated. We’re so frustrated because I personally have firsthand knowledge of the situation on the front lines there because I have a son and several family members and friends serving there, so I hear all of the things that are coming in from the front lines, basically. And my point is this. It’s demoralizing to our troops over there that NATO can stand behind McChrystal and his strategy and our president cannot? And military families all over this country should be infuriated. We shouldn’t be worried about health care right now or cap and trade or any of these. These politicians —
RUSH: Deanna, I think they all are. I think there’s so much opposition to Obama and the Democrats, it just doesn’t get reported. It gets mocked. Whatever opposition to Obama there is is made fun of, it is impugned, even this Doug Hoffman NY-23, no matter where you go in the Drive-By Media as they report on it, the objective, they’re just dying to set up a big-time loss here. They just want Hoffman to lose ’cause they want to be able to write the story that mainstream conservatives have been so marginalized, they’re just freaky now. They’re out on the kook fringe, and it’s the media scared to death of the conservative ascendancy. The Republican Party is scared to death of it, parts of it, and of course the Democrat Party is as well. People sense this and it’s well within the realm of possibility that Doug Hoffman can win this thing. Scozzafava, she has no base to bring her back here. She has no base. So this is a conservative versus a liberal Democrat in NY-23. It’s going to be fascinating to watch this play out. And this is happening all over the country.
You talk about military families ought to be upset. Remember Anthony Zinni? Anthony Zinni was one of a few generals that the Democrats all of a sudden fell in love with. The Democrats generally abhor the military. But during the Iraq war and the early days of the war on terror, whenever any general came out and ripped Bush, why, they become the Democrats’ friend best friend, and one of those was Anthony Zinni. And here it is in the Wall Street Journal yesterday: ‘Anthony Zinni stepped up his call for the Obama administration to quit dillydallying and send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the insurgency. … The retired Marine Corps general, who had been the top commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, said the Obama administration needs more forces in Afghanistan quickly. Zinni said his own son was among the troops waiting to be deployed, adding: ‘I think that we owe them a decision. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why we’re still waiting for one.’ Zinni spent considerable time working with the Pakistani and Indian governments while he headed Centcom during the Clinton administration.’ And it wasn’t just Zinni. Remember John Kerry’s favorite general was Shinseki. Deanna, I’m telling you, the people of this country are upset over a lot of what Obama is doing, and particularly leaving military personnel out to dry.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Carol in San Francisco. Great to have you on the program, hello.
CALLER: Hello. Hi, Rush, thanks for having me on.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I just want you to please keep the pressure on with this defense issue with Obama ignoring General McChrystal. My son is in a first class university in this area. He’s in ROTC. He’s going to be graduating next June, and then he’s going to be commissioned. And I am just totally irate that Obama is ignoring General McChrystal, who is, I think, the world-class authority on counterterrorism, and putting all these men and women at risk. I mean these are bright, bright people who volunteered to serve their country —
RUSH: I know.
CALLER: — and Obama and his crowd just treat ’em like trash. I am just livid, absolutely livid.
RUSH: See, what I don’t understand about all this is why people are surprised. Now, I know I’m a bright guy but I don’t think I’m the smartest person around.
CALLER: Well, I’m not surprised —
RUSH: You heard the Democrats during the Iraq war. You heard them guaranteeing defeat, you heard them advocating for defeat. You heard them trying to make it sound like they were supporting the troops when here comes some charge that they’re raping and murdering Iraqis in Haditha. Jack Murtha, ‘Yep they’re rapists and they’re murderers.’ I mean the idea that Democrats have ever supported the troops I don’t know where people get this. So it’s not a surprise Obama would leave them like this. He doesn’t care. No commander-in-chief — grab sound bite number 16 — no commander-in-chief would say this if he had any idea what his job was.
OBAMA: I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests. I also promise you this, and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan. I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way. I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt. Because you deserve the strategy, the clear mission, and the defined goals as well as the equipment and support that you need to get the job done. We are not going to have a situation in which you are not fully supported back here at home. That is a promise that I will always make to you.
RUSH: That is a ten on the puke scale, a full-fledged ten on the puke scale. Do you know what that is? That is a continuing campaign against George Bush and the Iraq war. That’s what that is. That’s not about Afghanistan. He’s still running against Bush. The Democrats have nothing else they can do except Bush isn’t around anymore. But that’s what got ’em where they are, they think, and so they’re continuing to attack Bush and that’s all this statement is. I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way like Bush did in Iraq. I won’t risk your lives unless it’s absolutely necessary. Iraq wasn’t. And if it is necessary, we’ll back you up to the hilt. Bush didn’t. The truth is it was the Democrats who didn’t back the troops to the hilt. It’s the Democrats who aren’t backing them now. It is Obama. He’s acting like a candidate here, not the commander-in-chief.
They are in harm’s way. You’ve already sent some people into Iraq or Afghanistan. They are in harm’s way and you are not backing them to the hilt. You are dithering, and their morale is plummeting. Everybody involved does not understand why, Mr. President, you are not committed to the strategy that you announced in March. And then he said, ‘because you deserve that strategy, a clear mission, defined goals, as well as the equipment to support you.’ He’s attacking Bush, he’s attacking Iraq. He’s not even talking about Afghanistan. Because while all of this is going on in Afghanistan he’s pretending he’s telling people about Iraq to show how he’s not going to be like Bush.
In the meantime, everything he says he’s going to do is not happening. He is not backing people up to the hilt. He did send people into harm’s way, and he is risking their lives. Then he said ‘we’re not going to have a situation in which you are not fully supported back here at home’? Mr. President, you are stuck on Iraq, and you are stuck in campaign mode of 2008. We do have a situation in which the troops are not fully backed here at home, by you, the commander-in-chief. ‘That is a promise I’ll always make to you.’ This is insulting, it is outrageous, it is incompetent, and it’s delusional.