Posted on 08/07/2002 10:40:38 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
As New Yorkers prepare to commemorate the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is addressing the notion of an American assault on Iraq timed for Sept. 11 of this year.
"I think it would be fabulous," Limbaugh said during his national broadcast yesterday. "I think a 9-11 act on Saddam ... you talk about getting this country up!
The statement came in response to a caller who suggested the upcoming memorial in New York City would send the wrong message one of weakness and vulnerability.
"You want to memorialize 9-11? Go kick some butt in Saudi Arabia or Iraq," Dave from Sacramento said. "[The president and Congress] are so worried about how our view is from the rest of the world, or the United Nations forget that. They're not gonna stand shoulder to shoulder and back to back with us in this war anymore."
"I'm sick of hearing Colin Powell say things such as 'We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,'" Dave added.
"I agree with that," said Limbaugh. "The State Department, you know you can put what they're worth in a thimble, and then fill it with bourbon."
The anniversary plans for New York City include a reading of the names of every person who died in the World Trade Center attack, along with recitations from the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence.
Flowers will be placed at Ground Zero by family members of the victims, and there will also be remarks by President Bush, candlelight vigils and a series of concerts.
"Wouldn't it be a great thing if people of New York are going through their candlelight vigils and reading the names and so forth and all that stuff and we are 'pow!' piling into Saddam?" Limbaugh asked rhetorically. "And on the way over we accidentally drop a couple bombs by mistake in the sand deserts of Saudi Arabia?"
Though the U.S. has not singled out the Iraqi leader as the prime sponsor of last year's attack, President Bush has made it clear he's looking to change the regime in Baghdad to reduce the risk of any future Iraqi offensive which may include the use of weapons of mass destruction.
"All this talk about Iraq is gonna culminate in [military] action," Limbaugh stated. "I think you should know it is gonna happen, it's just a question of when; 9-11 would be a good date."
Earlier in his program, Limbaugh denounced those who are urging restraint against force on Baghdad.
"Everybody and their uncle is begging us not to go into Iraq the little Europeans, the little West Germans, the Saudis," Limbaugh said. "While everybody wants regime change, they don't have the guts to do it. So if it's gonna happen, we're gonna have to be the ones to do it."
He cited President Reagan's successful use of force against suspected terror sponsor Moammar Gadhafi by attacking sites in and around Tripoli in 1986.
"[Gadhafi] has not been the same since his tent was bombed, and that's the episode if you recall where our friends the French would not let our [fighter planes] fly over France on the way to Libya."
Limbaugh spent much of his program discussing the need for deterrence, explaining the world is governed by the aggressive use of force, and that the U.S. is a prime target because of its role as lone superpower.
"When your enemy thinks and knows you've got something and you'll use it, it deters them. It's when you don't build, it's when you don't keep pace, it's when you just try to do this with words and treaties and all this weak-kneed, limp-wristed stuff that you subject yourself to attack.
"I think all this talk about, 'Well, you know the Europeans don't want us to go, Rush, into Iraq.' Screw 'em! If freedom in this country or around the world depended on all these people saying 'I don't think we should do it, Rush,' there wouldn't be freedom."
You've even gone further than Rush and said you were in the war zone in Nam. But unlike Rush, no one knows anything about you and because of your anonymity you can fire shots without anyone investigating every nook and cranny of your closet to look for skeletons. And because you are a nobody, no one really cares if they find anything there or not, nor does anyone care about your credibility.
A lot of people say that they were in Nam, but not all of them are being truthful when they say it. Some concoct stories of their peril and then run for the Democratic nomination. Some just make vague hints to give the impression that they had served in the military or had been under fire. For those who really were there, or those who served honorably in any fashion without exaggerating their experiences, I say 'thank you for your service.' But for those who lie about it because of their incomplete natures, each day to them is one of humiliation and bitterness, so I need not say anything at all. They get what they deserve in the smallness of their existance.
Rush has never said he was a military man. If you can find where he said he was, then you might have a case against him for being a fraud. But unlike a lot of his critics, he has never been antagonistic towards people in the military and has always been supportive of them.
You've slammed the guy and said he evaded the draft. Well, if you know his number was called, cough it up and cough up the day it was called. Cough up one claim by a person who would actually know that there was wrongdoing. A letter where he might have written of his desire to evade the draft or even something like what was found with Clinton and his ROTC note about 'loathing the military.' Find evidence that he was let out of it because of physical ailments which were proven to be nonexistant. No anecdotal stuff, please, because I know of people who were eligible but who were never called and I know of people who had problems which at the time they were called were grounds for passing them over.
If you are going to make negative claims regarding another person's record, you should at least provide proof when called on it of their wrongdoing and also provide some argument for why the alleged wrongdoing is relevent. What does 'credibility' have to do with entertainment and material that is advertised as a talk show (not news show)host's 'opinion?' You would think people would be more concerned about the credibility of people who claim to be 'experts' and are paid for their alleged expertise, or people who are advertised as 'journalists' but who do not live up to their name. There are plenty of them on the news every night, and in the papers every morning. Yet few people ever challenge them.
Rush was classified 4-F after a physical found that ehadan "inoperable pilonidal cyst" and a "football knee from high school." He was also classified as 1-Y which was then, and istoday, a "disqualifying condition" for induction. It is a congenital incomplete closure of the neural groove at the base of the spinal cord...The malady can be corrected by surgery, buy short of that is viewed by the military as a needless risk amid unsanitary conditions in the field.
Thanks for serving our country, but ditch the bitterness, please. Not everyone who didn't wade through a rice paddy and catch the clap from Ho Chi Minh hookers is a draft dodger.
Bomb them back into the stone age (a short trip) pave these countries over and make them U.S. gas stations
Why don't the socialist / liberals scream about the handful of unelected despots who control a natural resource (crude oil) which so effects the quality of life of the world's population with every whimsical price change ??
Consider the outrage if the U.S. owned all of the world's air or water and then chose to maxamise profit by controling the distribution and sale.
If the left had any intellectual honesty the Sultans of Crude would be the enemy .... not conservative capitalists
IMHO.....
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It's about time we stop asking for opinions and permission from every tom, dick and harriet around the world.
I agree with Limbaugh on this, but I'm less supportive of his bomb Iraq plan.
Bravo - I just wonder at what point he crossed from entertainment into the public arena of political credibility. He used to be fun & entertaining - now hes a talking head, no better than sam & cokie - I tuned out years ago
I was the only one that went to Nam and I volunteered.
The next class that graduated in 69 had 20 males and only one of the went to Nam BTW he was a volunteer also.
Only 4 served in uniform.
I know anecdotal information.
But all those graduates didn't go to college some went straight to work.
So out of the 40 male graduates only two can offer their lame opinions on the use of military force, I think not.
I sometimes think military veterans are more elitist in their opinions than the most obnoxious graduate of Yale.
Truly a "lame" excuse!
Don't let the medical mumbojumbo fake you out. A pilonidal cyst is literally a "wild hair up your ass." Again, my point was, when it was Rush's time he didn't show up. If every American through time had emulated him, we'd still be a collection of colonies kissing the Queen's pilonidal cyst.
Rush has a big blank spot when it comes to the Vietnam War, claiming the Baby Boomer generation, his generation, knows nothing of sacrifice. The facts are to the contrary. Millions of Boomers served in the military, millions in a war zone, and tens of thousands died. Just not him.
In contrast, since 1980 only about 650 Americans have died in uniform during hostile action.
So Rush is Rong, Clearly the Baby Boom generation knows a lot about war and sacrifice and service just like the WWII'ers, Unfortunately we have to deal with that group of Boomers, the Rush group, who know they are cowards and are a long guilt trip because of it. The major symptom of which, is a tendency to bloviate from an armchair about military matters beyond their comprehension, and a willingness to send other people's kids into battle overseas.
Maybe for those a couple of years older than Rush, but not for him- he was in one of the "draft lottery" cohorts- your likelihood of being drafted was a function of your birthdate more than anything if you were born in 1951.
Nam Vet
Nam Vet
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