"Costly Slander, Cheap Redemption" (Durbin)

Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation website ^ | June 22, 2005 | Scott Swett

[Mach9]

Costly Slander, Cheap Redemption by Scott Swett, Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation

(6/22/2005) -

Eight days after viciously comparing the treatment of terrorist prisoners by American troops at Guantanamo Bay to Nazi death camps and Soviet gulags, Senator Richard Durbin offered a weepy semi-apology, expressing regret before his fellow Senators if his remarks "in any way cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military." Senator Durbin loves and supports America's troops, you see. "They are the best," he gushed. "I never, ever intended any disrespect for them." No one asked whether his respect for the troops extends to their intelligence. Senators from both parties thanked their honorable colleague, and made haste to declare the controversy at an end.

That evening, hosting a Democratic Party fundraiser, Senator Durbin was introduced as a man who "has a backbone and tells it like it is." It would be difficult to come up with a less accurate characterization. Of course, if they'd called him "a man who tells grotesque lies to slander our troops, then cries and grovels when things get hot," he might not have gotten as much applause. It's instructive to note that after a week of refusing to recant while blaming "right wingers" for the controversy, the esteemed Illinois Senator folded his hand just hours after powerful Chicago mayor Richard Daley publicly called his charges "a disgrace." Even so, Durbin managed in his "apology" to pander to his party?s radical base -- the ones who think President Bush is Adolph Hitler and openly cheer for America's efforts in Iraq to fail -- by skirting any direct admission that his claims were false. As a poster noted at DemocraticUnderground.com, it was "a very nuanced and targeted statement, essentially distancing himself from the imagery, but not the facts."

Ah, yes, the facts. Some 15 to 30 million Soviets died in the gulag; 6 million Jews died in the Nazi death camps; 2 million Cambodians were murdered by Pol Pot's savage regime. But oddly, no prisoners whatsoever have died in Guantanamo under the brutal Americans.

The Islamic network Al Jazeera took a considerably less nuanced view of the situation, broadcasting Durbin's Nazi fantasies to the Islamic world around the clock, confirmation from a high-ranking American of what Islamic radicals -- and American leftists -- have always believed; that America is fundamentally a force for evil in the world. There can be little doubt that Senator Durbin has made it significantly easier for Al Qaeda to recruit new terrorists to kill more of the American troops he professes to respect and admire.

Now, with the controversy officially at an end, Mr. Durbin returns to the warm, collegial bosom of the Senate, where he retains his influential position as the second-ranked Democrat -- the Minority Whip -- and is unlikely to suffer any long-term political harm from having helped America's enemies by lying about our troops in a time of war.

Even that could be considered progress of a sort. Thirty-four years ago, John Kerry launched the political career that brought him within 100,000 Ohio votes of the White House by comparing the U.S. military to "the armies of Genghis Khan." Senator Durbin may not receive a comparable benefit from his own slanderous remarks. Last year's presidential campaign provided many people with an opportunity to take a long look back at the Vietnam era: to recall just how badly America's returning troops were treated in those days, and why.

Today we find a new generation of Americans in harm's way, fighting far from home once again in defense of freedom. But they also need defending -- particularly from the likes of Senator Richard Durbin, who seeks to poison their reputations even as he pretends to praise their service.

Scott Swett is executive director of the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation

[R. Scott]

It would be better than what we have now - nothing.

[MinuteGal]

Dur bin Laden is a cheap hack pol from my home state of Illinois. He's a hair above the dese, dems and dos of Richie Daley.

Actually, Richie is a sophisticate compared to Little Dick Durbin.

When they say it takes 5 street workers to change a light bulb in a Chicago ward neighborhood, Durbin is the guy who pulls a match out to light it.

Leni

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

IS he redeemed?

Cheap grace from our very own pastel patriot, John M^cCain.

All very well to say that I haven't been in a POW prison and he has - but he presumes too much when he assays to speak for patriots in accepting from Durbin a head fake in lieu of an appology.

As so often, Rush is right - M^cCain thinks he's playing Big Journalism like a violin, but it is he who is being played by the Quisling Party.

M^cCain can be the Quisling Party candidate in the Republican primary, but he can't be the Quisling Party candidate in the general election against a pro-abort Democrat.

[Interesting Times]

It would be better than what we have now - nothing.

Oh, I don't know. We apparently have the ability to make the Minority Whip whimper and crawl on his belly like a reptile.

There's a certain quiet satisfaction in that...

[Nick Danger]

Gitmo: It's Deja Nam All Over Again

For most of my adult life, I believed that liberal Democrats opposed the war in Vietnam because they wanted the communists to win. That was why they continually called for bringing the troops home... for setting a withdrawal date.. When that appeared to be failing, they set about demonizing the military, and the troops themselves.

The most famous of the latter incidents was (now Democratic Senator) John Kerry's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971. Kerry was at that time the spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Kerry spoke of "war crimes committed in Southeast Asia... not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis, with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.  US troops personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot civilians and razed villages in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun..."

Sound familiar? To hear another Democratic Senator tell it, we have pretty much the same sort of thing happening at Gitmo, and in Afghanistan. Our troops are engaging in behaviors we would associate with the Nazis, or the regime of Pol Pot. And once again it's Democrats and their media bringing this to our attention. And once again it's Democrats, wanting to set a withdrawal date, wanting to know the exit strategy, demanding that we bring the troops home.

They say the more things change, the more they remain the same. That's a frightening thought, because there don't seem to be any communists around this time. Our enemy is a shadowy, stateless group of Islamic theocrats who appear to be stuck in the 7th century. This is an unlikely group to attract the favor of our mostly-secular liberal Democrats.

So why do we see them engaging in exactly the same behavior we saw from them twenty-five years ago? There really isn't a dime's worth of difference. It's the same act. I know; I was there for it. And here they go again. Stop the war! Bring the troops home! End the atrocities! Torture! Crimes!

If they don't want the Islamofascists to win — and I doubt they do — there can be only one explanation for their behavior. They want the United States to lose. That's what they wanted last time too, isn't it. Our liberals weren't communists. They just hate the United States. They want the United States to lose. They don't care who the enemy is, so long as we lose. So long as we are shamed.

I don't care much what people say they are about. I watch what they do. I saw what they did in the 1970's, and they are doing exactly the same thing now. An entire generation of veterans was smeared thanks to those people back then, and lo and behold, here they are doing it again... trying to get their own country to lose a war, smearing the troops while they go about it, and clucking about their own moral superiority the whole time. There's probably a word for such people, but I won't even give them the dignity of using it. Suffice to say they disgust me.

[workerbee]

It wasn't a real apology. He never said that he was sorry for saying it and that it should have never been said. He said that he was sorry if YOU took it in a way he didn't mean. So it is YOUR fault, not his.

Oh, pshaw! It's only those red state, backwater extremists who talk that way. Intelligent people understand the nuance of a Democrat's apology.

(/sarc)

[CyberAnt]

"... Senator Richard Durbin, who seeks to poison their reputations even as he pretends to praise their service."


Yes, Durbin was "pretending" when he said last night that he supports the troops .. because this is not the first time Durbin has said slightly disparaging things about the military .. or about the Bush admin.

[The Shrew]

Awesome article.

Even better post!

Regards to you both. I'm glad you're both on our side.

TS

[eeriegeno]

And all that Lott did was honor an elderly gent who served many honorable years in the Senate? Lott was ostracized and lost his leadership role for a remark that the liberal media found offensive? Where the hell are these clowns now? Can they not see that what Durbin said is a hell of a lot worse than what Lott said????????

Get the noose ready, I am all for carrying out Abe's wishes!!!!!!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Interesting Times]

Yes, Durbin was "pretending" when he said last night that he supports the troops .. because this is not the first time Durbin has said slightly disparaging things about the military .. or about the Bush admin.

Slightly disparaging?

Durbin compared the U.S. military to some of the most murderous regimes in history. What sort of remarks do you consider moderately disparaging?

[Chu Gary]

Nick,

You are deluding yourself. The Communist Party is alive and well, probably with funding from various European nations.

Many, many of the loud mouth groups protesting in the U.S. are backed by the Commies.

I travel frequently to a country (VN) that calls itself Socialist, but it is clearly Communist, as is China, Cuba, North Korea and probably a few others.

Communism is hardly dead.

Be well.

Gary

[zot]

Excellent article. Thanks for writing it. I hope it will be picked up and published in the print media.

[Interesting Times]

Excellent article. Thanks for writing it. I hope it will be picked up and published in the print media.

Thank you. If nothing else, it just netted me 30 minutes on the Victoria Taft Show. Victoria, a cheerfully conservative talk radio host out of Oregon, read most of it on the air.

Print media? Oh, yeah... dead trees.

[stockstrader]

Great post!!

Every democrat in those pictures you posted continues to lead the "Blame America First" Party. The democrats never miss a chance to 'give aid and comfort' to our enemies.

The 30-year-plus Democratic Party tradition of 'aid and comfort to our enemies' lives on thanks to democratic Sens. Durbin, Kerry, Feinstein, Boxer, Reid, Clinton, Kennedy, et all!!

The democrats get more anti-American, and pathetic by the day--as they solidly their role as the 'appeasement Party'!

[stockstrader]

.....as they SOLIDIFY their role as the 'appeasement Party"!!!!

[CyberAnt]

I was talking about stuff Durbin had said quite some time ago .. not the current stuff he said.

[R. Scott]

Yes, it was enjoyable to watch – but what did it actually cost him? The High and Mighty was humbled? I’d prefer something along the lines of arrest, trial and imprisonment.

[cvq3842]

Wonder why Durbin didn't use THAT Lincoln quote . . .

[Zacs Mom]

I wondered the same thing ...it's far more fitting!