RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites ’cause I told you earlier today that Obama did a 180 on the way he was treating Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Here Obama welcomes Karzai after his regime has spent months trashing Karzai.
OBAMA: Mr. President, thank you and welcome to the United States. More importantly, this visit’s an opportunity for us to assess the progress of our shared strategy in Afghanistan and to advance the strong partnership between our two nations, one that’s based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
RUSH: Now, we would forgive Karzai if his mouth fell open and he fainted after hearing this. Because they tried to defeat this guy. Obama was working to get this guy defeated in an election in Afghanistan. It got so bad that Karzai threatened to quit and join the Taliban. He denied saying that, by the way. Now all of a sudden this 180 and Hamid Karzai is one of the most beloved world figures to Obama. CNN’s White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux said, ‘President Karzai, is there anything that you can do, your government, your people to maintain this deadline, the endgame of July 2011? And have you found your meetings with Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to be helpful or hurtful in your relationship with the Obama administration?’ Obama answers the question.
OBAMA: Let’s be clear about what July 2011 represents. What I have said is is that having put in more troops over the last several months in order to break the momentum of the Taliban, that beginning in 2011, in July, we will start bringing those troops down and turning over more and more responsibility to Afghan security forces that we are building up. But we are not suddenly as of July 2011 finished with Afghanistan. But after July 2011 we are still going to have an interest in making sure that Afghanistan is secure; that economic development is taking place; that good governance is being promoted.
RUSH: My God, folks, can you imagine what his kooks on the left-wing fringe are doing after they hear this? Well, we’re not leaving in 2011, oh, we’re going to build schools and we’re gonna build roads and we’re gonna build ’em houses, and we’re going to have good governance promoted. Yeah, and they were going to close Club Gitmo this past January as well. He said we’re breaking the momentum of the Taliban. And yet the Taliban, sic, the Taliban just happened to sneak a bomb into the country and almost blew up a portion of Times Square recently. So Obama now gets fired up when talking about civilian casualties. And remember, this was not his attitude when John Kerry and Jack Murtha were calling our troops — in fact, let’s grab sound bite 26 first ’cause this is August 1st of 2007, New Hampshire campaign event, then-Senator Barack Obama had this to say about Afghanistan.
OBAMA: We’ve gotta get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we’re not just air raiding villages and killing civilians.
RUSH: So he’s demonizing the troops under Bush, air raiding villages and killing civilians. And that’s his take. It was right along the lines with Jack Murtha and John Kerry, the haughty John Kerry, served in Vietnam, by the way, who were calling our troops rapists and murderers and terrorists and so forth. So now here is Obama talking about civilian casualties and defending them.
OBAMA: War is tough and difficult and mistakes are going to be made, and our troops put themselves at risk oftentimes in order to reduce civilian casualties. Because of General McChrystal’s direction, oftentimes they’re holding fire, they’re hesitating, they’re being cautious about how they operate even though it would be safer for them to go ahead and just take these locations out because part of what the American military stands for is that we distinguish between civilians and combatants. I want everybody to be clear, especially the Afghan people, I take no pleasure in hearing a report that a civilian has been killed. That’s not why I ran for president. It’s not why I’m commander-in-chief.
RUSH: What? What? Hey, by the way, you people in Afghanistan, I didn’t run for president so you’d get killed. I didn’t run for president and don’t want to be commander-in-chief so you’d get killed. What a thing to say. By the way, to the people in Afghanistan, I don’t take any pleasure in hearing that one of you has died, as though there’s some question about it? As though Bush did, as though Bush wanted you to die? Is this what this is? Damn right it’s what it is. But now, okay, killing civilians, it’s tough out there, you know, war, tough, mistakes are made. You know, if you listen to these sound bites and you put ’em all together, he’s gonna build roads, he’s gonna build schools, have good governance, he’s gonna build houses. Obama simply cannot comprehend the Taliban can’t be bought off. He’s like anybody else on the left, just throw enough money at them and you own them and they’ll run away and not be a problem.
These guys are true believers. You know, Hamid Karzai has offered the Taliban government jobs, Hamid Karzai as offered them payoffs, and they don’t take it. They are the epitome of the true believers. Here’s Obama, he knows that Karzai doesn’t have a whole lot to offer money-wise, so he’s upping the ante, ‘I’m going to build you some roads and I’m going to build you houses and schools and I’m going to get you good governance. By the way, when civilians die, that’s on me.’ And this is our foreign policy. This is our esteemed leader in a press conference televised around the world. Obama, with this statement, has put our troops at risk to prevent civilian casualties. It’s not the troops’ idea to do that. So it’s everybody else’s fault, the troops’ fault, (impersonating Obama) ‘I didn’t do it, people in Afghanistan. If one of my soldiers kills one of you, not me, don’t blame me. That’s George Bush and the troops. I didn’t run for president to kill you.’ It’s unbelievable.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, one other thing that Obama did here in this sound bite. I’m not going to play the sound bite again, but this is a commander-in-chief passing the buck. Obama said (impression), ‘Well, war is tough. It’s difficult. Mistakes are going to be made. Troops put themselves at risk oftentimes in order reduce civilian casualties.’ The troops are not putting themselves in these positions. Obama is! They’re Obama’s rules of engagement. Not the troops, and then he blames it on the McChrystal. He next says, ‘Because of General McChrystal’s direction oftentimes they’re holding fire. They’re hesitating. They’re being cautious about how they have to operate even though it would be safe for them to go ahead.’ McChrystal? It is Obama who’s ordered these rules of engagement, and he’s making it sound like the troops are handicapping themselves, and it’s in McChrystal’s rules? They can’t…?
Here are the rules: US troops in Afghanistan cannot fight near houses. They cannot fight at night. What else? There are all kinds of restrictions on them. If they see a civilian anywhere near where there’s a target — of course we know how the Tal-ee-bahn dresses as civilians — you can’t fire. So he’s saying, ‘War is tough, difficult. Mistakes are being made. Troops put themselves at risk oftentimes in order to reduce civilian casualties.’ Troops are not making policy! They follow orders — and don’t tell me that it’s McChrystal’s orders here. There’s no question this is Obama’s orders. I’ll tell you what Obama is doing here, folks. Don’t doubt me. Obama is giving himself an out to get out of this without victory. Pure and simple. There’s no question in my mind. That’s what this is all about. This is a man-child. This is a immature, childish man-child.
Here’s he’s got Hamid Karzai who yesterday he despised and hated. Well, maybe last week. He treated him worse than he’s treated Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and now all of a sudden he rolls out the red carpet. For four days, Hamid Karzai comes to Washington, DC. They do a joint press conference. Obama unloads on McChrystal and the troops for the mistakes that are made. I’m sure in Obama’s mind, he’s praising the troops. (Obama impression) ‘What do you mean, Limbaugh? Whatter you getting on my case for? I’m talking about how valid our troops are! Yeah, valiant, valor, whatever.’ They’re not taking every opportunity they can to kill enemy because they know they might kill a kid.’ That’s what he’s saying. He’s trying to make the troops think that they are defining the rules of engagement and in his way, it’s how he’s crediting them.
When in fact he’s got ’em in straitjackets! And then to dump on McChrystal? I know this know I know this is not the first time a president has dumped on a general, but this little man cannot even stand up and defend his own policy to. To dump on the troops this way and McChrystal. (interruption) What? ‘What about a medal for restraint?’ (interruption) You have got to be kidding! How did I miss this? You mean Obama has proposed a new medal of, a valorous medal for restraint? (interruption) Oh, it’s Obama. Don’t tell me it’s in… (interruption) You mean at the Pentagon instead of like the Purple Heart, the green heart, the red heart, whatever, they’re going to have the Yellow Heart for restraint? What are they gonna call it? (interruption) Holy cow, how did I miss this? I must have been reading a comic book or something. What is it, the congressional…? (interruption) The Military Medal for Courageous Restraint? Send me that. How the hell did my staff miss this? Well, you… (interruption) Yeah, you just told me about it, but you didn’t tell me about it when you found out about it. (interruption) Yeah, you were reading comic books, too. All right, so the mil Military Medal for Courageous Restraint. Well, see, it dovetails here. (Obama impression) ‘The troops, yeah! See, Limbaugh finally figured out. That didn’t take long.’ Obama: ‘Troops put themselves at risk oftentimes in order to reduce civilian casualties.’ The Military Medal for Courageous Restraint. Now, it’s a proposal rebuke right. It hasn’t been acted on. (interruption) Yeah. Okay. I’m looking at it now. It’s just a proposal at this stage.