Something Bush refused to do...

[Dieterly]

The General Wesley Clark Campaign Releases documents highlighting Military Career

October 17, 2003 - The General Wesley Clark campaign released more than 200 pages of documents highlighting his distinguished military career. Highlights encompass earning numerous medals, commendations, and badges, including a Silver Star, Legions of Merit, and a Purple Heart.

 

[bart]

I notice the glaring absence on your list of the orders relieving him of command of NATO and ordering his early retirement.

You can put it in a calico dress and call it Victoria, but a pig is still a pig, or a Clinton stooge, whichever you prefer.

 

[FL000]

"I tremendously admire, and I think we all should, the great work done by our commander-in-chief, our president, George Bush,"[Clark] said in the January 22, 2002 speech.

About Face

Another videotape has emerged in the Wesley K. Clark collection of kind words for the Bush administration.

By MICHAEL WEISSKOPF

From Day One as a Democratic presidential candidate, Wesley K. Clark, the retired general, has had to defend his past praise of the president's national security advisers—some of those compliments coming in a speech Clark gave at a GOP fundraising dinner in Little Rock in May, 2001. At that event, he singled out top officials from Vice President Cheney to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, calling them a "great team" and saying that "we need them there."

Those remarks raised the hackles of Clark's rivals for the party's nomination, veteran Democrats who questioned whether Clark—who says he voted for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan—is a closet Republican who changed political stripes out of opportunism. Clark says at the time of that speech he had quiet doubts about Bush's team, but wanted it to succeed. "I still could have hope in early 2001 that this administration would learn its lessons," he said at a recent Democratic candidate debate in Phoenix, Arizona.

But another Clark speech recorded by videotape suggests that his hope wasn't snuffed out too quickly. Eight months later, even as some administration officials were making the case for war against Iraq, Clark still applauded the U.S. mission in Afghanistan as he addressed a large audience at Harding University, in Searcy, Arkansas. "I tremendously admire, and I think we all should, the great work done by our commander-in-chief, our president, George Bush," he said in the January 22, 2002 speech. The university provided TIME a videotape of his remarks.

Clark's presidential campaign adviser Mark Fabiani said that the former general was simply crediting Bush for the Afghanistan campaign for which "90 percent of Americans would have agreed" at the time. Fabiani said it was the president's Iraq policy, which had not fully flowered by the time of the Harding speech, that was the "turning point" for Clark and launched his political plans

 

[wil]

Clinton never released his medical records.
And, his agreeing to service and then the letter to the ROTC Colonel is all a muddled mess which ol' Slick willie got out of.

William Jefferson Clinton lowered the bar to where anyone above "convicted felon" can serve as President. You sleazy Democrats have brought our Presidency to this low point in our nations history (congratulations) so deal with it!!!

 

[saabcaptain]

The guy was pulled from command and forced into early retirment. Nearly everyone who knows him says he is very smart but a total jerk and intrested in nothing but his own personal advancement. Please, we could do better than this for our President.

 

[Timebuilder]

The word's the thing...

Those of you who have AOL may heave noticed the welcome screen today. A soldier is looking out of his vehicle at some civilians. The caption says "We knew occupation risk Study foresaw Iraq mayhem Military largely ignored report"

AOL calls this journalism, and so do some networks here in America.

First, we know that there is always risk in any military operation. This is here to prepare you for the idea that we did something even though we knew that bad things would happen.

"Occupation" is a word chosen specifically to evoke an emotional recollection of WWII, and liberal journalists hope you will think "Nazi Occupation" when you hear it. "Occupation? Oh, NO!!!"

"Mayhem" is ALWAYS a part of war. Show me a war that has no "mayhem". This word is chosen to suggest a lack of control, which people always want. When we have no control, we feel uncomfortable. This is what the writer wants you to feel.

"Ignored" is the most important word here. The implication is that our military leaders, from commander in chief on down, were derelict in their duties. It implies that the report was not properly taken into account, or discarded out of hand. Of course, there is nothing whatever to suggest that this is the case, but the writer is hoping that you will follow his lead in making an ASSUMPTION of wrongdoing. I find this is very typical of AOL lately. Another liberal media mouthpiece...

With all this in mind, let's look at the title of this thread:

Something Bush refused to do...

Here, the operative word is refused. It implies that he made a conscious choice to not do something. In this case, his military record and honorable discharge is being cleverly (?) held up to ridicule by someone because Bush lacks the medals, etc of Wesley Clark, implying that Bush was somehow derelict in his duties, or somehow less worthy of our respect due to his manner of service.

Of course, there is no evidence that Bush refused to do anything. He served in a prescribed, acceptable, and honorable way, and there is nothing whatever indicating a refusal at all.

The reason I bring this up is to encourage critical thinking when you encounter one of these captions or articles with a clearly biased approach. You have to look into how you are being manipulated by words that are going by you "unchallenged". Watch Peter Jennings for five minutes tomorrow evening during the Mideast coverage section, and see how many instances you can find of this subtle bias, in this case, against Israel. In other segments, you can clearly see the anti-White House bias.

Give it a try. It may open your eyes to what you aren't noticing right now.

When it comes to media, it pays to be an informed consumer.

 

[jetexas]

The press knows nothing of the military and such methodoligies.
For example, anytime a half dozen soldiers get in a skirmish, they refer to it as a "major firefight".
it is quite obvious and quite disconcerting what the press is trying to to do in this country today.

 

[bart]

Was reading about the Battle of the Bulge this weekend. That was a major firefight. Better than a thousand casualties an HOUR during the heaviest fighting. That is mayhem. Not to downplay the death and destruction taking place in Iraq today, but it does rather put things in perspective.

 

[Typhoon1244]

Was reading about the Battle of the Bulge this weekend. That was a major firefight. Better than a thousand casualties an HOUR during the heaviest fighting. That is mayhem. Not to downplay the death and destruction taking place in Iraq today, but it does rather put things in perspective.

Well, as long as we're putting things in perspective, let's remember that a little over 20,000 Indians lost their lives as the result of an earthquake nine months before 3,000 died in New York, Washington, and Shanksville. I don't remember reading about that on Flightinfo.com. (And no, I wasn't really aware of it either...just shows you where our priorities are.)

Originally posted by wil
William Jefferson Clinton lowered the bar to where anyone above "convicted felon" can serve as President. You sleazy Democrats have brought our Presidency to this low point in our nations history (congratulations) so deal with it!!!

Go get your encyclopedia and look up Richard M. Nixon (R), then come back and say that with a straight face.

That bar was lowered a long time ago, wil!

 

[prodigal]

Read some US Civil War history. Battle of Sharpsburg, +23,000 casualties in ONE DAY. Gettysburg, 53,000 in 3 days. Cold Harbor, the Wilderness, Fredricksburg . . . horrible slaughter.
What dedication those men had to their causes on both sides.
I have no doubt that our president and military today are up to the task at hand in Iraq and wherever else the war on terror will lead, but I fear our nation has grown too soft and spoiled to stomach what it may require. And worse, we tolerate the feckless intrusion of partisan politics into this war for our survival. Shame on you Ted Kennedy and all those of your ilk. You are a disgrace and an insult to the memories of those who have died in this war.
Have we already forgotten that feeling in the pits of our stomachs on the morning of September 11, 2001? God help us if we have.