Torture, Democrats and “24”

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It occurs to me that if “24” is inciting US military personnel to torture and murder —

RUSH: Which is absurd.

CALLER: Well, of course it is.

RUSH: It’s just absurd. It’s a mainstream media concoction that is filtering down through the rest of the media. It’s just absurd.

CALLER: Well, of course it is. To me, perhaps the answer is to do a little inciting of our own, but let’s do it with reality. Maybe they should interpolate clips of Daniel Pearl being beheaded with a machete. Perhaps they should show the actual news clips that never get on the Drive-By Media of body parts of children in blown-up buses in Israel. Maybe instead of just showing a mushroom cloud in “24”, they should show the real devastation of that city that supposedly had a nuclear bomb fall on it.

RUSH: That would be Valencia. Nobody would care.

CALLER: Well, perhaps. But the point being is let’s show ’em some reality. Let’s show why those soldiers or the Jack Bauers of the world have to do what they have to do. There is a reason for it. There really is torture and inhumanity taking place, but it’s not by our guys. It’s the other ones, and they’re not showing that.

RUSH: We can’t even show — we can’t even go back and look at — tapes of the airplanes hitting the towers on 9/11. “It’s too soon!”

CALLER: But what’s to stop an independent producer of a show like “24” from interpolating those news clips in, particularly if they could get them off of al-Jazeera, they don’t even have to pay royalties for them.

RUSH: Well, that’s the thing. The network wouldn’t clear those things to be broadcast.

CALLER: (Groans.)

RUSH: The network wouldn’t clear it. I guarantee you. Plus I don’t think the producers would want to do that. This is not commenting on your point here; I think it’s a great point. Did you happen to watch the videotape on the Internet of the Pearl beheading?

CALLER: I’ve seen two or three of them.

RUSH: Yeah. What made you want to watch it?

CALLER: Simply the fact that it was there and to me, these were the things that Americans should have been seeing, however horrendous they are. They tell us why we do what we do, and if they can’t make the connection, if the other guys are just “freedom fighters” with rocks and hand grenades and we’ve got nuclear weapons and assault rifles and we’re torturing everyone we catch —

RUSH: Yeah, that’s right.

CALLER: — that’s so incredibly one-sided, but if you can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality, for God’s sakes, let’s see some reality!

RUSH: Yeah, I happen to agree with you. I remember when the videotape hit the Internet of the beheading of Daniel Pearl. I mentioned that I had watched it, and I heard: “How dare you? How could you! That’s such a sacred moment! How could you do that,” and I said, “I want to see what these people are capable of.” I would think everybody would benefit from knowing exactly just what you said, “what we’re facing here,” and the fact of the matter is, we have been turned into the bad guys! They have been turned into the victims, and they are the ones being given excuses and reasons for doing what they’re doing because of some “atrocities” we’re committing, such as at Abu Ghraib, Club Gitmo, or even before that, like you said, just because we have nukes, or just because we support Israel. The whole theme of this program today is centered on the fact that there’s an ongoing effort to destroy the primary institution that guarantees the freedom and security of this country. That’s the US military. That’s what’s at stake here. That is really what’s happening with this resolution in the House of Representatives, and now Dingy Harry, he’s all bent out of shape because the Republicans have thwarted him, and he’s out there saying (paraphrased), “We want to do it in the Senate, too!”

The Democrats in the House and the Senate are racing each other to see who can be the first to come up with a resolution that supports defeat — and make no mistake that’s what this is about. They claim the resolution is supporting the troops by getting them out of the war zone and showing displeasure with the president’s ratcheting up of reinforcements, the good guys, the surge, whatever you want to call it. So Dingy Harry’s been thwarted because the Republicans in the Senate were able to stop him. The Republicans in the House are powerless. I hope… You know, they may not have even realized before the election how powerless they were going to be! They may not have, because I didn’t see a whole lot of effort from them about wanting to get reelected in the first place. I, frankly, didn’t. But they are utterly powerless; they can’t stop anything, and they’re running around whining about how the Democrats are breaking promises to let ’em be involved in competing resolutions and so forth. The Democrats don’t have to let the Republicans do anything in the House!

They’ve got no power, and amassing is it is what politics is. The Democrats consider power their birthright. They’re not going to come in and share it with the Republicans, and why should they when 12 Republicans are willing to join the Democrats in this silly resolution anyway? One of the darkest, most shameful days of the House of Representatives is going to be tomorrow when they take a vote on this resolution. Now, Republicans in the Senate have been able to stop some of this, and it’s made Dingy Harry mad, but this is a frightening thing, and (sigh) it’s got long-term consequences, and not just for the country. If you go back and look at the last time the Democrats tried this and the last time they succeeded, it was Vietnam and Nixon, and they ended up being McGoverned. They were branded the pacifist, peacenik, weak-on-defense bunch and they have not gotten over it, and they think that was their finest hour because they ended the war in Vietnam. They think this is going to be their second finest hour and it’s going to have long-term consequences. They may win the presidency in ’08 but they’re going to lose it big in 2012 if they do. It will be huge. Whoever wins the presidency in ’08 for the Democrats, if that happens, it’s going to be the worst four years in this country’s history.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Very quickly: Joe in Ellicott City, Maryland, welcome to the program, sir. Nice to have you with us.

CALLER: Hi. Thanks, Rush. I hope you’re feeling better soon. I’m just questioning in my mind as I listen to the program today how the convoluted thinking must work for individuals who, on the one hand believe that a fictitious TV drama would have impact on our forces serving overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq — but, oh, by the way — their elected officials in real life can go on the record, and can go on the news, and claim that the mission of those very troops is wrong and doomed to failure. How can you say the one followed by the other?

RUSH: That is an excellent point! That is an excellent point. We have “24” supposedly influencing American troops to the negative, but votes of Congress and public statements by members of Congress talking about the mission being immoral and lost, somehow don’t affect the troops? That’s a great, great point out there, Joe.

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