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They've gone mad (Ollie North on the RATS)
Townhall ^ | 12/19/03 | Ollie North

Posted on 12/19/2003 3:19:22 AM PST by Elkiejg

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- American soldiers trapped him like a cornered rat hiding in a hole. And when he was caught, Saddam Hussein, the blustering, bloody tyrant who asked others to die for him, didn't even try to try to defend himself with the weapons at his disposal.

Just days before the capture, I interviewed Major Gen. Ray Odierno, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division, for Fox News, who told me that his troops would find Saddam near Tikrit. They did. But what the general didn't predict was that the apprehension of this mass murderer would apparently drive many Democrats and their friends in the media around the bend.

The day after Saddam was videotaped being examined for lice by a U.S. Army doctor, Howard Dean, the front-runner among the nine Democrat presidential candidates, declared: "The capture of Saddam Hussein is good news for the Iraqi people and the world. Saddam was a brutal dictator who should be brought swiftly to justice for his crimes." All true. But then Dean, who once mused aloud about whether President Bush knew about the 9-11 attack before it happened, went on to say that he remains opposed to what we're doing in Iraq because, "The administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help, and at an unbelievable cost."

The former Vermont governor followed this intellectual inconsistency with a schizophrenic assertion that: "The capture of Saddam is a good thing which I hope very much will help keep our soldiers safer. But the capture of Saddam has not made America safer." How America could be no safer with the Butcher of Baghdad behind bars was not explained.

Unfortunately, Howard Dean isn't the only Democrat with a peculiar perception of Iraqi reality. Two days after Paul Bremer proclaimed, "We got him," Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., accused President Bush of manipulating the capture of Saddam for political purposes. McDermott told a Seattle radio audience that U.S. troops could have captured Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted." He went on to posit, "It's funny, when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something."

Bizarre? No more so than Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's assertion to Morton Kondracke of Fox News, "Do you suppose that the Bush administration has Osama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?" Asked if she was joking, Kondracke replied, "She was not smiling."

Media coverage of the capture has been as surreal as the Democrats' conspiracy conjectures. After watching jubilant Iraqis celebrating Saddam's apprehension, ABC anchor Peter Jennings saw only sadness and morosely concluded, "There's not a good deal for Iraqis to be happy about at the moment." Jennings "informed" the American public that life for Iraqi citizens is "very chaotic ... beset by violence ... (and) not as stable for them as it was when Saddam Hussein was in power."

The anchors and talking heads pondered Saddam's trial and concluded that it could be "embarrassing" to the United States.

CBS' Leslie Stahl taunted Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld about torturing Saddam. "Would we deprive him of sleep? Would we make it very cold where he is, or very hot? Are there any restrictions on the way we treat him to get him to cooperate more than he has been?"

NBC's Katie Couric said Saddam's capture was only "symbolic." She'd be proved hopelessly wrong less than 24 hours later, as the 1st Armored Division, acting on intelligence secured from Saddam's capture, rounded up three former Iraqi generals who are suspected of supporting the terrorist resistance in Iraq.

All of this twisted, blame-America Bush-bashing and mind-numbing negativism has obscured some very important facts that need to be re-emphasized:

Saddam is responsible for two horrific wars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands. His record is replete with the kind of atrocities that brought the United States into two world wars, a bloody campaign in Korea and the war I fought in -- Vietnam. He raped, tortured, robbed, starved and murdered his own people. He acquired and used weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors and countrymen. He attempted to assassinate an American president. He trained and supported Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, and Muslim Brotherhood terrorists who killed Americans. Are we to believe that Al Qaeda was the only Middle Eastern terror group that Saddam did not support?

The image of Saddam as a filthy, decrepit, coward captured -- not killed -- by an American soldier is a powerful message to repressed people all over the globe that this is the way brutal despots go. Placing him on trial before the people of Iraq -- not in The Hague or somewhere else -- sends a clear signal to totalitarians be they in Damascus, Tehran, Pyongyang or Havana -- that they are accountable to the people they have tortured.

Now, the most committed followers of Osama bin Laden have cause to wonder if their bearded leader who wants them to die for his cause would ignominiously surrender himself to the tender mercies of the International Criminal Court to avoid an untimely demise.

Finally, the loopy leftist rhetoric in the aftermath of Saddam's capture obscures the extraordinary courage, training, persistence and discipline of the American soldiers who pursued and caught the Butcher of Baghdad. Rather than wasting time inventing crazy conspiracy theories and efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, the Democrats and their media allies ought to simply try hanging around with these heroes for a few days. It would be good for their mental health.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2004; albright; bds; conspiracy; dean; loonyleft; lostdems; mcdermott; olivernorth; ratssinking
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The demented anti-America screams from the left - political and media - is unbelievable and alarming. We can only hope that the average American is watching FoxNews or reading "real" newsprint such as Townhall, WSJ, Washington Times, etc. or even better FreeRepublic.
1 posted on 12/19/2003 3:19:22 AM PST by Elkiejg
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To: Elkiejg
From the Article "Saddam is responsible for two horrific wars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands."

I think I am right in correcting this by saying Saddam is responsible for 3 wars, Iran-Iraq, Gulf, and Iraqi Freedom. Not to mention his personal internal war against kurds and shiites. I think those last groups would call the actions against them war or slaughter.

2 posted on 12/19/2003 3:27:16 AM PST by Ispy4u
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To: Elkiejg
Unfortunately, the knowledge we take for granted because of our intellect, is non-existent in the Generally dumb
Public. They do not have a clue. Virtually everything happening with current events, Dean, the Rats, everything that is common knowledge to us Freepers and anyone who takes the time to read the news, is unknown to the normal working people. I tell a friend that Howard Dean implied Bush new 9/11 was coming and they look at me like I'M nuts!!! People are ignorant..totally ignorant. And the Rats count on it. That's shy they have a guranteed 40% of the vote without doing anything. The prey on ignoramuses.
3 posted on 12/19/2003 3:34:11 AM PST by Indie (Have you bought more ammo today?)
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To: Elkiejg
The left has descended into ranting, screaming demogoguery.
4 posted on 12/19/2003 3:41:55 AM PST by tkathy (The islamofascists and the democrats are trying to destroy this country)
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To: tkathy
Chris Matthews is screaming loudest as a talkshow host.He browbeats everyone "with no WMD..no responsibility for 911,no threat to US".His anti war rant is in full gear.
5 posted on 12/19/2003 3:47:46 AM PST by MEG33 (We Got Him!)
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To: Indie
Unfortunately, everything you said is true.
6 posted on 12/19/2003 3:50:29 AM PST by Samwise (There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.)
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To: Indie
Sad but true. The only hope is that the information is out there, much more than it ever has been, due to FNC, talk radio, and Internet sources like FreeRepublic.
7 posted on 12/19/2003 3:56:01 AM PST by FreedomPoster (this space intentionally blank)
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To: Indie
People are ignorant..totally ignorant. And the Rats count on it.

Truer words are seldom spoken, Indie.

However, based on the results of the Congressional Elections of 2002, whereas the 'rats and their media minions were calling the results days before as a "successful retaking" of the House and Senate by the Dems' turned out to be little more than wishful thinking. The reason? More and more voting adults are turning to alternate means of information and more and more voting adults are paying closer attention. And the media whores and the Dems didn't see it coming (I did) because they chose to ignore the signs and believe their own polling efforts and there wasn't a means available to them to measure what people were really thinking.

That's why I believe that the harsh rhetoric being spewed by all the leading Dem contenders is an effort to fling out as much crap as possible to see what sticks as an "issue", or what the under-educated grasps as a reality and are hoping for the best. And the best that they hope for? That more ignoramuses, ne'er-do-wells and bleeding heart liberals turn out to vote for them next November than informed, cognizant and rational thinking voters turn out for Republicans.

I say, good luck with that. Four more without Gore!

8 posted on 12/19/2003 4:11:08 AM PST by woofer
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To: Indie
Take heart, I don't think it is as bad as you think. Rush has over 20 million listeners (most of whom will vote), we also have Hannity, North, Savage, etc, not to mention FNC. If they weren't making a huge impact, the left wouldn't be attacking them so fiercely. I meet people on an almost daily basis who confide in me that they used to be Rats, but will not vote for them again. The truth is getting out. Here in Louisville, the "Communist Journal" always parrots the Rat line, yet people still know the truth.
9 posted on 12/19/2003 4:14:09 AM PST by anoldafvet (Democrats: Making the world safe for terrorists one lie at a time.)
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To: Elkiejg


10 posted on 12/19/2003 4:14:44 AM PST by Diogenesis (If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us)
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To: anoldafvet
I pray you are right...every hour of every day/.
11 posted on 12/19/2003 4:16:35 AM PST by Indie (Have you bought more ammo today?)
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To: Elkiejg
"There's not a good deal for Iraqis to be happy about at the moment." Jennings "informed" the American public that life for Iraqi citizens is "very chaotic ... beset by violence ... (and) not as stable for them as it was when Saddam Hussein was in power."

They can't help their socialist roots, and their love for a despot. It comes from fond memories of the Soviet Union, especially if the despot, is black, athiest, or muslim.

12 posted on 12/19/2003 4:24:07 AM PST by I still care
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To: Elkiejg
The demented anti-American screams from the left - political and media - is unbelievable and alarming.

All this left-wing idiotic spew is par for the course...Rush says it best. When conservatives are in power the left goes whacko, more than they normally do anyway.

Bush has got high approval ratings despite all the B.S. the libs and media thrust upon the American public...For at least a decade it's over for the left because of their stupidy of selfishness and morale corrupting power hungry contemptions.

13 posted on 12/19/2003 4:28:16 AM PST by sirchtruth
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To: Elkiejg
Go Ollie, Go.....
14 posted on 12/19/2003 4:28:21 AM PST by The Wizard (Saddamocrats are enemies of America, treasonous everytime they speak)
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To: Diogenesis; PhilDragoo; Grampa Dave; The Hose; hchutch; MizSterious; MeeknMing; MJY1288; Liz; ...
Rather than wasting time inventing crazy conspiracy theories and efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, the Democrats and their media allies ought to simply try hanging around with these heroes for a few days. It would be good for their mental health.

Their mental health is beyond help. Great pic's Dio.

15 posted on 12/19/2003 4:31:20 AM PST by BOBTHENAILER (One by one, in groups or whole armies.....we don't care how we getcha, but we will)
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To: Elkiejg
...the Democrats and their media allies ought to simply try hanging around with these heroes for a few days.

They'd melt into a puddle like the Wicked Witch of the West.

16 posted on 12/19/2003 4:37:03 AM PST by Carolina
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To: Ispy4u
I believe there was (is) only one war. The present miltary actions are a continuation of the war that started in 1990. I recollect that those actions stopped because Saddam had agreed to a CEASE FIRE

However, after 12 years of failing to comply with the terms of the CEASE FIRE, a president with guts resumed the original war. Also the President did this after many UNresolutions provided nothing more than very large expenses for the wining and dining in NYC of the bloated members of the UN, many of whom represent millions of starving diseased people in their countries!
17 posted on 12/19/2003 4:40:43 AM PST by leprechaun9
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To: Elkiejg
I interviewed Major Gen. Ray Odierno, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division, for Fox News, who told me that his troops would find Saddam near Tikrit.

Fox News told Ollie that where the troops would find Saddam? I realize you have to give your employer a plug, amigo, but can't you do it without misplacing your modifiers? I expect better from you!

(Sorry, I can't help myself, it's a school day!)

18 posted on 12/19/2003 4:45:11 AM PST by Tax-chick (Nobody's indoctrinating MY children ... except me!)
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To: leprechaun9
Technically the current operation is a continuation of the 1991 gulf war since only a cease fire agreement was signed.

Although due to the different campaign ribbons, operation designations, and congressional authorizations given to the current war, I think it should be counted as a separate war with consideration to one of the reasons being violation of the previous cease fire agreement.

Look at it this way, if hostilities were to resume on the Korean penninsula, that could be viewed as a continuation of the Korean war, but the dynamics behind it and reasons for it would be a completely different. Because of the long break in hostilities the war would likely be known as Korea II or some other name.
19 posted on 12/19/2003 4:47:42 AM PST by Ispy4u
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To: anoldafvet; Indie
I think you are right, vet, people are more aware than we give them credit for. I truly think the support for the left's position on the war is very very slim. That is why none of the candidates are "cathching fire", except Dean who appeals directly to that narrow slice of people.

9/11 woke up America, it does really amaze me that people like Katie Couric are still in a coma, but she's one of an extremely small number.

The dems have been losing steadily since Clinton's first election. If the republicans had run someone other than Bob Dole (a fine fellow but a poor candidate at least at that time) it's possible he could have been ousted in '96. As it is, their campaign themes of rage and negativity will win them few votes. We (by which I mean most Americans, even the politically unaware) like our tax cuts and we like making war on the Islamofacists who want to kill us and we like President Bush, personally. Until the dems can come up with something that beats that they are doomed.

I hope!
20 posted on 12/19/2003 4:51:00 AM PST by jocon307 (The dems don't get it, the American people do!)
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