“After Rush Limbaugh referred to Iraq war veterans critical of the war as ‘phony soldiers,’ he received a letter of complaint signed by 41 Democratic senators,” was the lead sentence in Dems' letter to Limbaugh fetches $2.1 million, by Stephanie Strom, New York Times (via the San Francisco Chronicle, of course).
The Washington Post story, Limbaugh Spins Reid's Letter Into Charity Gold, by Neely Tucker, reported the letter signed by 41 Democrat senators was “lambasting the syndicate's Rush Limbaugh, who had recently criticized U.S. troops who were against the war in Iraq.”
Near the end of its report, the New York Times noted: “Limbaugh has said that he was referring only to one soldier, who was critical of the war and had served only 44 days in the Army, never seeing combat.”
The Washington Post read more like an anti-Limbaugh editorial than a news report and didn’t mention that Rush’s remark referred to only one former soldier. In fact, all major media news reports I have seen to date don’t include anything about what Rush actually said, only that the Democrat senators’ letter said he called soldiers who were against the war in Iraq “phony soldiers.”
How difficult is it to find out what Rush actually said?
And of course, what did he actually say?
It is amazingly simple to find out what Rush actually said. The recordings and transcripts of his show are posted daily to his website, and archived for posterity.
Even I, with my very limited resources and lack of journalistic training and experience, was able to find what he said, and when he said it, in a matter of a minute or less.
I was able to find that everything started with a Morning Update Rush broadcasted on 25 September 2007 about a true phony soldier, Jesse MacBeth, who was recently sentenced to five months in prison and three years probation for falsifying his military records. He had been critical of the war in Iraq, had spoken out against it, and had recounted witnessing atrocities committed by American soldiers against Iraqi civilians while he served in Iraq. Unfortunately for him, and for the Left who showcased him and his stories, very little of what he said was true.
It was true he had been in the Army – for 44 days, just enough time to wash out of Boot Camp, and not enough time to be trained and deployed to Iraq, be promoted to corporal, and witness all sorts of atrocities.
In other words, his service and testimony were hauntingly similar to many of John Kerry’s “Winter Soldiers,” who testified to witnessing atrocities in Vietnam without inconveniencing themselves by actually serving there, and sometimes without any military service at all.
Do you remember “Air Force Captain” Al Hubbard, at one time executive director of the Vietnam Veterans against the War and John Kerry’s right-hand man?
Interestingly, ABC News had reported on phony soldiers and Operation Stolen Valor only two days before Rush made his remark, and phony soldier Jesse MacBeth was part of the report.
Have you heard of former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey? You probably haven’t heard much about him lately, but not long ago the Associated Press couldn’t feature him enough to satisfy the Left’s need for details about American soldiers’ atrocities against Iraqi civilians. But then Massey was found to be a total liar, and suddenly there was deafening silence from the AP about Massey.
Remember Micah Ian Wright? He fooled the Washington Post, Kurt Vonnegut, and his publisher, Seven Stories Press, all of whom I suspect were willing accomplices to being fooled by a phony soldier. Fortunately real Army Rangers were able to recognize and expose his falsehoods.
How about Josh Lansdale? Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill and retired General Wesley Clark wish you would cleanse him from your minds, like they quickly did from their ad campaigns when the truth of Lansdale’s service came out.
Or Amorita Randall? The New York Times is certainly working hard to forget her.
From what little research I’ve done, ably assisted by Michelle Malkin’s blog, it is obvious that Rush had plenty of phony soldiers to criticize, and not surprisingly these phony soldiers have all been featured by Democrat senators – John Kerry, Claire McCaskill, et al – and liberal news agencies – New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, ad nauseum – anxious to smear Rush and any other conservatives who have consistently both supported the soldiers and the Iraq War.
Ironically, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), phony soldier, was one of the signers of the Limbaugh letter.
During his service in the Navy, Harkin told Washington Post reporter David Broder:
One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions. I did no bombing.” But as the late Senator Barry Goldwater (R.-Arizona) was first to notice, nothing in Harkin’s military service file showed that he ever served in Vietnam. Challenged by Goldwater, an Air Force General, to explain why he was awarded neither the Vietnam Service Medal nor the Vietnam Campaign medal (decorations given to everyone who served in the Southeast Asian theater), Harkin changed his story. Harkin claimed that he instead had flown combat sorties over Cuba during the 1960s.
This was another Harkin lie. Harkin actually served as a ferry pilot who flew aircraft in need of repair between the Philippines and his base in Atsugi, Japan. Harkin at last acknowledged that he never flew air patrols in Vietnam. He began describing himself in speeches as “a Vietnam era veteran.”
John Kerry, phony Cambodian invader – who can forget his classic:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me.
Kerry earlier had told a Boston Herald editor:
I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real.
Not even John Kerry believes his story anymore, and has changed it several times since.
Rush was right. The Democrats keep trotting out phony soldiers and their phony stories, and then get some of them to sign stupid letters.
Fortunately for them they can trust the Main Stream Media to cover their miserable butts.
John Kerry and Tom Harkin. Does Operation Stolen Valor know about these two?
No comments:
Post a Comment