Williams: We Have Guys on Our Team Like Terrorists - Special Forces, First Responders

Hardball/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

by Mark Finkelstein

August 10, 2006 - 22:01

Hat tip to poster 'nutmeg' at Free Republic.

Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News might have meant to praise the heroism and selflessness of our various service people. But he employed what was at best an incredibly awkward, at worst an inappropriate, offensive and simply wrong manner of doing it.

On this evening's 7 PM ET edition of Hardball, Chris Matthews mused about the UK-born terrorists whose plot was foiled today:

"Here we have maybe 24 people who have lived in London and England and the free world for all these years that become citizens, subjects of the Crown, and, yet, after having gotten to know us, they want to kill themselves to hurt us. Isn't that an even deeper conundrum here than the chemicals being used in these attacks?"

Williams: "And that, Chris, that last aspect, the willingness to take one's own life -- I always tell people there are guys on our team like that, too. They're called Army Rangers and Navy Seals and the Special Forces folks and the first responders on 9/11 who went into those buildings knowing, by the way, they weren't going to come out. So we have players like that on our team."

Wrong. Our people are highly trained to accomplish their mission in a manner that gives them the best possible chance of survival. Yes, they heroically assume great risks, knowingly putting their lives on the line. But it is grotesquely mistaken for Williams to suggest that their commanders are sending them on suicide missions. To compare them with terrorists - often young, confused people being exploited by cynical masters who send them to their deaths - is disgraceful.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Hardball/NewsBusters clueless-Brian-Williams ping to Today show list.

[Howlin]

And that, Chris, that last aspect, the willingness to take one's own life -- I always tell people there are guys on our team like that, too. They're called Army Rangers and Navy Seals and the Special Forces folks and the first responders on 9/11 who went into those buildings knowing, by the way, they weren't going to come out. So we have players like that on our team."

And there you have it.

He wasn't trashing the Rangers and the Seals.

[Howlin]

But it is grotesquely mistaken for Williams to suggest that their commanders are sending them on suicide missions.

He did no such thing.

[RasterMaster]

Some fokkers need to be booted from our shores.

[webboy45]

The difference between our guys and theirs: our guys give their lives to save other lives, their guys take their own lives to destroy other lives. Trust a Dem to not know the difference.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

He wasn't seeking to trash them, certainly. But he gets it wrong. There is an important difference between someone taking on a dangerous mission but who has been given the training and tools to survive, and someone sent out by cynical masters on a suicide mission.

[ClaireSolt]

That's the view from the penthouses in New York City.

[msnimje]

There is the small matter of intention.

The terrorists are willing to die to KILL civilians and the US soldiers are willing to die to PROTECT them.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I'm interested to see you have a different take on this. Would you agree that the mindset of suicide bombers and their masters is different from that of special forces people and their commanders?

[Howlin]

But he gets it wrong.

Of course he did; nobody is arguing he didn't.

The argument is did he MEAN to say it; and if you watched, you surely can see he did not -- he misspoke. He did NOT say it with malice.

And, honestly, I think it makes FR look bad when we have these kneejerks responses like this.

He misspoke.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Thanks. Clumsy but not treasous.

[Just mythoughts]

Aw that Brian Williams, the same anchor who sat on his lofty perch in Kuwait when the coalition started taking out strategic point in Baghdad and said it was like the bombing of Dresden.

[Darkwolf377]

This is picayune to the tenth power.

I agree with what he said 100%, and everyone knows exactly what he meant. We shouldn't be looking for reasons to hate Matthews and Williams, there's plenty to hate them for, but we shouldn't be intentionally misinterpreting the few CORRECT things they say.

[Howlin]

I'm not arguing THAT point; I'm simply saying his mouth got ahead of his brain and he misspoke.

[jackv]

"they want to kill themselves to hurt us...
there are guys on our team like that, too"

I think he pretty much did say such a thing!

We agree, I think, tho, that he meant it as a [clumsey] compliment.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

I hate Brian Williams.

[Howlin]

I still say if he was intent on disparaging our military, he wouldn't have mentioned the rescue workers at WTC.

[MHGinTN]

What Brian 'the fool without his baubled hat' Williams was expressing is the mindset of liberalism ... it is a blindness akin to that described in the Bible! They actually do not see the huge difference in our first responders and professional soldiers and the murderous Moslem fanatics.

[Mo1]

Williams: "And that, Chris, that last aspect, the willingness to take one's own life -- I always tell people there are guys on our team like that, too. They're called Army Rangers and Navy Seals and the Special Forces folks and the first responders on 9/11 who went into those buildings knowing, by the way, they weren't going to come out. So we have players like that on our team."

That is even way worse then what I read on another thread

These people are beyond words