'Law & Order' actor: I know more about war than troops

According to actor and comedian Richard Belzer, American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are too uneducated to be expressing support for the U.S. military mission since they're just "19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job" and "they don't read twenty newspapers a day."

Belzer, who's best known as Detective John Munch on NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit," is a frequent guest on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." On one previous appearance, he threatened to walk off the set when told columnist Ann Coulter was also appearing, calling her a "fascist party doll." On Friday night's live broadcast, Belzer attacked claims by fellow guest Florida Congresswoman Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen's that U.S. soldiers continue to express support for the war.

In the lively exchange, captured by the website NewsBusters, Belzer dismisses Ros-Lehtinen accounts of meeting with troops in Iraq and their credibility as "bull----."

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: "Having been in Iraq a few times, and Afghanistan, having met the troops one-on-one with free reign and asking them what they're doing, they're saying 'We're proud of our mission, we know what we're doing over here. We don't want you guys in Washington to lose it over there'. And there is a great sense of determination that what they are doing is making a difference. And yes, it has been an important mission what we're doing ... come on."

Belzer: "Okay, fine. No one questions the nobility and the honor that these men and woman who are serving and what they're doing. No one questions that. But now they're targets, they're not going out. Now they're just protecting each other and they're in the middle of a civil war. So it's really not fair to have these people who volunteered their lives to protect our nation under false pretenses to now be a target ..."

Ros-Lehtinen: "Ask them. Ask them if it's fair! Wait a minute, wait a minute. My stepson, wait a minute, my stepson ..."

Belzer: "That's bull----: Ask them! They're not .. they don't read twenty newspapers a day. They're under the threat of death every minute. They're not the best people to ask about the war because they're going to die any second."

Ros-Lehtinen: "Wait a minute! You are talking about my stepson, my stepson who just finished last week eight months of duty ..."

Belzer: "God bless your stepson. Doesn't mean he's a brilliant scholar about the war because he's there. And God bless him."

Belzer: "Well I have more time, I'm not there. My life is not under threat."

Bill Maher: "I think the point he's trying to make is that a 19-year-old who is in that army because he probably couldn't find other employment ..."

Ros-Lehtinen: "He's a college graduate. He's a Marine officer. He volunteered for the Marines."

Belzer: "You think everyone over there is a college graduate? They're 19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job ..."

Maher [to Belzer]: "Woe, woe, woe. Come on. Wait, wait, wait. That ... Don't."

Belzer: "It's this patronizing thing that people have about if you're against the war everyone's lumped together. You know, the soldiers are not scholars, they're not war experts ..."

Maher: "You're going to lose even me like Michael Moore did when he came down on Charlton Heston in Columbine."

Belzer, a conspiracy theorist who once hosted several conspiracy-themed specials for the Sci-Fi Channel, is the author of the 1999 book, "UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe."

To view the exchange between Richard Belzer and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, click here [Note: Contains vulgar language].

Incredible. What a horrific slam on our troops!

My son was smart enough to know not to believe anything a leftist says at the age of 18 when he got his deployment orders. And he's smart enough to know it now that it's been 3 years since he went to Iraq.

This is disgusting, mystery. What a blatant attack on your husband and son, and my son. Disgusting!

How low can these bottom dwellers sink, anyway?

Something I couldn't resist transcribing from last night's Boston Legal. Alan Shore is defending a woman for evading $400.00 in federal income taxes.

Alan Shore:

“When that ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up. Hah. They didn’t.” Then, when the Abu Ghrab torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in ‘rendition,’ a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture…I was sure, then, the American people would be heard from. We stood mute. Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called ‘terrorist suspects,’ locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly we would never stand for that. We did.”

“And now it’s been discovered that the Executive Branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough.”

“Evidently we haven’t.”

“In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is: We’re okay with it all.”

“Torture, warrantless search and seizures, illegal wiretapping, prison without a fair trial--or any trial, war on false pretenses…We as a citizenry are apparently not offended. There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there‘s no clear indication that young people even seem to notice. Well. Melissa Hughs noticed. Now, you might think instead of withholding her taxes she could have protested the old fashioned way: Made a placard and demonstrated at a presidential or vice-presidential appearance but we’ve lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare ‘free speech zones’ to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.”

“Stop for a second and try to fathom that. At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you’re wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.”

“This in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. This in the United States of America.”

“Is Melissa Hughs the only one embarrassed?”

Aside to judge: “Long speeches make me so tired. Actually, I’m sick and tired. And what I’m most sick and tired of is how ever time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled ‘Unamerican.’

Interrupted by the DA: “Evidently it’s speech time.”

“And speech in this country is free, you hack. Free for me, free for you, free for Melissa Hughs to stand up to her government and say, “stick it.’”

Interrupted by the DA: “Objection.”

“I object to government abusing its power to squash the Constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And God forbid anybody challenge it, they’re smeared as being a heretic.”

“Melissa Hughs is an American. Melissa Hughs is an American. Melissa Hughs is an American.”

“Last night I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29-year old but the book contained a speech by Adelai Stevenson, the year was 1952. He said,

‘The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live. And fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism.’

“Today it’s the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, “It’s far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.” I know we are all afraid. But the Bill of Rights… we have to live up to that. We simply must.”

" On one previous appearance, he threatened to walk off the set when told columnist Ann Coulter was also appearing, "

I bet he did try to run when he heard Ann was going to be on.............she wouldn't have put up with the crap he was spewing for 3 seconds. She would have (figuratively speaking) stomped a mudhole in his chest. And ugly phrase to be sure but one that is somehow appropriate for this creep.

Thanks for the smile and the chuckle........

Seriously where does he get off saying that our 19 and 20 year old troops are too dumb to get a job or know anything?

My daughter DEP't out in the navy as soon as she turned 18. She had graduated at 16 and gone to 2 years of Community College. She was not unusual. She went into firecontrol and was 1st 1st in her class at Great Lakes. At her C-school in Virginia she was 2nd and her friend who was 3rd to her 1st at A school . Fire control is 2 years of training. I would bet dollars to donuts that this cop wannabe couldn't get 80% on his name and address.

I met alot of Firecontrol and Nato techs through my daughter and they are some very intelligent young people. And the young people in our military are some of the bravest and most focused. I can't express the pride and admiration that I felt watching these "dumb kids" bringing those jets on and off the deck of a carrier, or at their work centers guiding and protecting their countries, their ships and their shipmates. I believe the other branches of the service have just as much to be proud of.

Shame on this elitist idiot. Shame shame shame!

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