Daily Archives: October, 11, 2012

Biden Laughs and Smirks His Way Through VP Debate – Ryan Wins (Lots of Updates)

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First of all – what did we just witness, tonight? Why was Joe Biden emulating Chris Matthews on crack?

I realize that the  rap on Obama’s debate performance was that he wasn’t aggressive enough – so Biden’s handlers probably told him to be assertive (like Romney was!) but Biden overcompensated, interrupting Ryan 82 times.   CNN’s Gloria Borger said Biden Came Off As Condescending, Brit Hume called him a ‘Cranky Old Man’…while Greta Van Susteren said he just was very unlikeable.

Romney may have been aggressive, but he was polite, and always a gentleman. He wasn’t overbearing and didn’t come off like an unhinged, condescending crank, like Biden did for this entire debate, laughing, sneering and mugging during all of Ryan’s answers – even on serious issues like Libya, Afghanistan, and Iran. What was that all about? Romney was fighting for equal time in a debate where Obama was allowed four minutes more time. Biden was merely fighting. Chris Wallace said “I’ve Never Seen a Debate Where one Candidate Was So Disrespectful”.  He got a minute more time than Ryan who was interrupted at nearly every turn, either by Biden or by the moderator – the two of them seemed at times  to be tag teaming him.

In spite of that, Ryan remained calm, winning easily on debate style, and holding his own on debate substance in the face of the blizzard of lies coming  from Biden – a problem Sarah Palin also encountered back in 2008..

Dana Perino quipped:

Anyway, from the GOP rapid response team, Joe Biden Cackles During VP Debate:

UPDATE: Via the RNC, an excellent video compilation of Biden’s seriously inappropriate laughter: Laughing at the Issues:

Joe’s bizarre smiling and cackling act got panned by the left and right alike on Twitter:

Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan were the two candidates on stage at Thursday’s vice presidential debate, but a third character emerged: Joe Biden’s laugh, which didn’t escape the notice of tweeting politicos. (And led, of course, to at least three satirical Twitter accounts: Laughing Joe Biden, Biden Smirk, and yet another Laughing Joe Biden.)

Weekly Standard’s Mark Hemingway: “Joe Biden’s laughing through talking about Iran sanctions?”

TIME’s Michael Scherer: “Not sure debate cameras have been light tested for Biden’s teeth. Best to watch with sunglasses.”

Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein: “Biden’s strategy seems to be to laugh at Ryan constantly. Will it work to infantalize Ryan, or backfire like Gore sighing?”

(PHOTOS: Joe Biden over the years)

NBC’s David Gregory: “Biden’s smile is out of control.”

There’s more, here.
And Ace has the results of CNN’s undecided poll: Ryan Wins CNN’s Poll of Undecided Likely Voters, 48-44% Also Wins on Likability, Ryan 53% Biden 43%

Not a crushing victory, but a victory nonetheless — the sitting VP was bested by the challenger.

So Romney passed the Threshold test — spectacularly — and Ryan passed it as well.

And in both debates, they won.

Alex Castellantos on CNN had a point: The post-debate buzz will be about Biden’s buffoonish mugging.

I hate to say this, but as I said in the liveblog, Biden’s Mission Number One was to reassure and re-energize the base. He did that. He at least stopped some Democrats from defecting to Romney, or deciding not to vote.

And see – this  is why some people think Allahpundit and Ace are the same person:

I expected “table-pounding atmospherics” from Biden but I didn’t expect him to act like a total jackhole for fully 90 minutes. Give him credit for knowing his target audience, though: His task tonight was to get the left excited again after Obama fell into a semi-coma in Denver, and evincing utter disdain for Ryan — grimacing, shouting, laughing inappropriately, constantly interrupting, the total jackhole experience — is just what the doctor ordered. He might have irritated independents and undecideds, but probably not so much that it’ll change people’s votes. The Democrats needed someone to go out there and clown for liberals, and if there’s one thing this guy knows, it’s clowning.

Foreign Policy fact checked Biden on a major point: Biden contradicts State Department on Benghazi security:

Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the administration wasn’t aware of requests for more security in Libya before the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi during Thursday night’s debate, contradicting two State Department officials and the former head of diplomatic security in Libya.

“We weren’t told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there,” Biden said.

In fact, two security officials who worked for the State Department in Libya at the time testified Thursday that they repeatedly requested more security and two State Department officials admitted they had denied those requests.

Paul Ryan fact checked Biden’s attempt to throw cold water on the charge that the HHS mandate is an assault on religious liberties:

Biden try to explain away the Obama administration’s pro-abortion assault on Catholics, evangelicals and other religious groups and businesses.

“With regard to the assault on the Catholic church, let me make it absolutely clear, no religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy Hospital, any hospital, none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact,” Biden falsely claimed.

“Now, I’ve got to take issue with the Catholic church and religious liberty,” Ryan retorted.  “Why would they keep — why would they keep suing you? It’s a distinction without a difference.”

That’s all Ryan was able to get in before he was cut off. Shhhhh!!!!

The mandate compels religious employers to pay for and refer women for abortion-causing drugs, birth control, contraception and sterilizations.

The left has tried to turn the right’s objection to this into the phoney Republican War on Women™.

UPDATE:

Like I said, Biden’s smirking and sneering got panned by almost everybody:

We’re about thirty minutes into the debate and already Vide President Joe Biden is receiveing pretty tough reviews for his bizarre smiling and smirking as debate moderator Martha Raddatz talks about issues as serious as Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

These aren’t exactly conservative media types, either.

In 2000, Al Gore was just being a smug jerk trying to rattle George W. Bush. Gore also probably thought he was off-camera. Biden was obviously trying to rattle Ryan, but he also knew the camera would be on him, so other than hoping to distract the audience so they wouldn’t hear Ryan’s superior arguments, I have no idea what this debate game-plan was intended to accomplish.

My guess is that Team Obama simply didn’t expect moderator Martha Raddatz (who might be the worst debate moderator in history) to open things with a serious topic like foreign policy — and this is where Biden got in trouble, even with left-wingers like Tom Brokaw…

Another huge lie caught by Washington Free Beacon. I somehow missed this one (why didn’t Ryan call him out on it?): Biden Claims He Voted Against Afghanistan, Iraq Wars:

“By the way, they talk about this great recession like it fell out of the sky–like, ‘Oh my goodness, where did it come from?’” Biden said. “It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card, at the same time, put a prescription drug plan on the credit card, a trillion dollar tax cut for the very wealthy.”

“I was there, I voted against them,” Biden continued. “I said, no, we can’t afford that.”

Then Sen. Biden voted for the Afghanistan resolution on Sept. 14, 2001 which authorized “the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.”

This was such an obvious, blatant lie. Ryan’s been in Washington long enough to know the truth. Why did he get Biden get away with it? The day after fact checks are not where the action is. You have to call them out on their lies when you have the chance, or most people will never know the truth.

Pundits and news anchors are expressing post-debate shock at how smirky, condescending and arrogant Vice President Joe Biden was tonight. They buzzed on Twitter at his “malarkey” rebuke of Paul Ryan’s foreign policy criticism.

But this is all old, tired recycled behavior and rhetoric from the last election cycle. Remember? Go back and read my VP debate thread from 2008. It was titled: Sarah vs. Smirky. Go back to 2008, when Biden derided Sarah Palin for her “malarkey” about Bill Ayers.

Tonight, just as in 2008, Biden sighed.

But more significantly, Biden bald-facedly lied.

In other words: Biden was…Biden.

Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard:Biden Bombed:

You don’t win a nationally televised debate by being rude and obnoxious.  You don’t win by interrupting your opponent time after time after time or by being a blowhard.  You don’t win with facial expressions, especially smirks or fake laughs, or by pretending to be utterly exasperated with what your opponent is saying.

That’s why Vice President Joe Biden didn’t win the one and only debate last night with his Republican rival, Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan.

In fact, though Ryan had several weak moments—one of them was on Syria—the only conceivable takeaway from the veep debate was Biden’s out of control conduct.  It will be long remembered—and not favorably.

There’s one person who should be delighted with Biden. That’s Al Gore. He had the honor of having delivered the most over the top and weird performance in a presidential campaign debate when he sighed and frowned and acted frustrated in his first debate with George W. Bush in 2000. Now Biden has taken that crown—or dunce cap—from Gore.

Finally, via Twitchy, the Tweet of the night, as far as I’m concerned:

UPDATE:

Another fact check via Yid with Lid: Joe Biden Has Never Been a Big Friend Of Israel:

When Biden was in the Senate and the upper-body sent out “non-binding letters supporting Israel, Biden support was missing:

  • November 2001, Bond/Schumer Letter Urging President Not to Meet with Arafat until the Violence Ends, 89 Signers: Sen. Biden did not sign this letter urging President Bush not to meet with Arafat until Palestinian violence ceased. The letter had 89 signers.
  • March 2004, Schumer-Hatch-Clinton-Smith Letter Urging Kofi Annan to Reverse Support for ICJ Hearings on the Security Fence, 79 Signers: Sen. Biden did not sign this letter urging Kofi Annan to reverse support for the International Court of Justice Hearings on the Security fence which ultimately had 79 signers.
  • December 2005,Talent/Nelson Letter Urging Pres. Bush to Press Palestinian Leadership to Bar Terrorist Groups from Participating in Palestinian Legislative Elections, 73 co-signers: Sen. Biden did not sign this letter barring ter
  • ror groups from participating in Palestinian elections which ultimately had 73 co-signers.
  • June 2008, Landrieu/Collins Letter to President Bush Supporting Israel’s Quest for Peace, 77 Signers: Sen. Biden did not sign this pro-Israel letter which had 77 signers.

Joe Biden is one more reason for supporters of Israel to be concerned about the Obama Administration.

Ah, yes – so true!:

https://twitter.com/CAAmyO/status/256677770434846720

SEE ALSO:

Bookroom Room: Joe Biden breaks into Jennifer Granholm’s medicine cabinet and tries to overdose *UPDATES*

The good thing was that Ryan was able to make his points quickly and efficiently.  The bad thing was that he occasionally looked like a deer in the headlights.  I understand that this look reflected his amazement at Joe’s behavior, his shock at Joe’s bald-faced lies, and his frustration that both Joe and debate moderator Martha Raddatz kept cutting him off and giving the floor to the crazy uncle.  Still, I wish he hadn’t been such a polite Midwesterner.

Thinking about it, though, Ryan may have done just the right thing.  While the base probably found Joe’s performance exciting and emotionally honest, I suspect that millions of Americans did not appreciate that Joe made a mockery of a ritual performance that is meant to enhance the honor of the presidential office and to give voters an opportunity to compare the two parties.  If people were actually comparing the two debaters, Ryan was an attractive, polite, stable, normal, well-informed young man.  Joe was the bloviating, obnoxious drunk at the bar who had grabbed Ryan by his lapel and wouldn’t let go.  You could practically see Ryan’s hair melt from the noxious odors wafting out from behind Joe’s peculiarly whitened dentures.

What? Benghazi is Only an Issue Because Romney/Ryan Made it One? (Video)

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As she repeatedly demonstrates, there really is no lie too low for Obama’s simpering Deputy Campaign Manager, Stephanie Cutter.

Ace calls what you just saw there,  a “Kinsleyan Gaffe”:

A Kinsleyan Gaffe is a statement in which a politician reveals her real, but repulsive, beliefs.

Stephanie Cutter just committed a horrific one.

She views the abject failure of Obama to provide adequate security in Benghazi — due to his naive view that a disarmed consulate would deter armed aggression — as a purely “political” issue.

A “political” issue to be spun, reframed, recontextualized.

A “political” issue that just happens to have a bodycount.

This explains why the Obama Campaign lied about the attack for two weeks: Because, as Stephanie Cutter just told you, they view this as a “political” issue to be spun and won.

This explains why the Obama Campaign lies to the face of the mother of Sean Smith. Because, as Stephanie Cutter just told you, Sean Smith’s death is just a “political” issue to be won in a newscycle.

This explains why Obama jetted off to a Vegas fundraiser on the day of Chris Stevens’, Sean Smiths’, and two SEALs’ murder. Because, as Stephanie Cutter just told you, this is just a “political issue” and for Obama to cancel political plans would suggest it might be more than that.

Read the whole thing – there’s more – plus John Sexton’s observation, Jay Carney trotted this “politicization” claim yesterday so this isn’t even a gaffe – it’s part of the same  bogus narrative they had so much luck with initially with the help of their willing accomplices in the media.

 Naomi Emory beautifully describes what the Obama camp is trying so desperately to resurrect:

On Sept. 12, the day after mobs ransacked American embassies, burned the flag and Obama in effigy, and killed one Marine, two Navy SEALs, and one ambassador, NBC’s Chuck Todd took to the air almost in shock and seemingly tearful, because Romney critiqued an official in Cairo who apologized for provoking the riots, citing a barely-seen YouTube video as the pretext for the violence. Voice shaking, he channeled the shock on the part of the White House (which later itself condemned the apology).

For days after, Romney’s “mistake” was the story. On Sunday, after a week in which Obama was burned in effigy on several continents and his Middle Eastern policy exposed as a failure, he lost his best (perhaps his sole) campaign issue, and questions were raised about criminal negligence. But Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post said that Mitt Romney had had “the worst week in Washington.” Obama’s failures had turned out to hurt Romney, most of the press corps agreed.

Stephanie Cutter, today: Come on guys! Romney and Ryan are totally politicizing this, right???

Sadly, the overwhelming stench of the regime’s  cover-up has made it too difficult for even the most craven MSMers to play along.

SEE ALSO:

Jen Rubin: Cutter: Libya is only a campaign issue:

Andrea Saul, spokeswoman for the Romney campaign released a statement, which reads: “President Obama’s campaign today said that Libya is only an issue because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. They’re wrong. The reason it is an issue is because, for the first time since 1979, an American ambassador was assassinated and President Obama’s foreign policy strategy of ‘leading from behind’ is failing. This administration has continually misled the American public about what happened in Benghazi and, rather than be truthful about the sequence of events, has instead skirted responsibility and dodged questions. The American people deserve straight answers about this tragic event and a president who can provide leadership, not excuses.”

UPDATE:

Cutter doubles down on Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier: BLOWOUT!… Obama Spokesperson Stephanie Cutter & Bret Baier Clash on FOX (Video)

Ace of Spades HQ: Stef Cutter Flees Interview; Makes Mistake of Not Fleeing Bret Baier

Ace of Spades HQ: Brutal: Obama Campaign Press Secretary Ben LaBolt Has Disastrous Radio Interview; Hangs Up

BenghaziGate: The Dumbest Cover-up Ever

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Who’s going to be the fallguy for what some are calling “the dumbest cover-up in US history?”

My money’s on Susan Rice. As Lauraw so aptly put it at AoSHQ, she’s a useless, unserious person.

Sunshine State Sarah took the time to read some of her Tweets: Unbelievable: @AmbassadorRice’s Actual Twitter Account 

Ladies and Gentlemen, on the day that the United States House of Representatives held hearings on the terrorist attacks on our consulate in Libya, the attacks about which she repeatedly lied to the American people, one of our ambassadors was breezily tweeting about how marvelous the United Nations is about supporting gay rights:

Not to be outdone, Debbie Wasserman Schultz appeared on Piers Morgan last night…

Yid With Lid: HUH? Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “Wrong Statements on Libya Doesn’t Mean They’re False”:

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is proving once again that Ron White is correct when he says you can’t fix stupid. Just to prove how desperate the Obama campaign is getting, they have called her back from exile to go back on the talk show circuit.

Yesterday she appeared on the Piers Morgan show on CNN.  When asked about the administration’s reluctance to part with the truth about Libya she came up with a twisted piece of logic that would make Yogi Berra jealous.

When Morgan confronted her about the administration putting out information that was completely wrong, dumb-dumb Debbie responded with

“Well that doesn’t mean it was false.”

And Morgan of whom it could be said English was his first language, said:

Morgan: What?! Now wait a minute. If you put out a false statement, then it’s false, it’s wrong. It’s both of those things.

What she meant to say was that the false statements were not “somehow deliberate.” And of course, she went on to blame the intelligence community for the false YouTube video story, a narrative that has already  resulted in a so-called “revolt of the spooks…”     who are not at all interested in being thrown under the proverbial bus:

Mere hours after the attack — purposefully timed on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington — the nation’s spooks knew that al-Qaeda had just opened up a new front in its long battle against America and the West. Heck, the nation’s schoolchildren knew that, too. And yet the administration persisted in peddling its ludicrous YouTube story — and throwing an American citizen in jail for the crime of spitting on the sidewalk.

Now, it seems, that Team Obama has decided to try and save U.N. ambassador Susan Rice — whose reputation in the IC could hardly be lower — and perhaps press secretary Jay Carney as well by tossing the nation’s spooks under the bus, in which direction they’re also nudging Hillary Clinton.

***

Alienating spookdom, however, is a new order of magnitude stupid. Because spooks fight back — hard and dirty. Bob Woodward and Jake Tapper are only phone calls away. And CIA Director David Petraeus is just one press conference shy of bringing down the whole house of cards.

Speaking of stupid – Dinocrat calls Benghazigate: Perhaps the dumbest cover-up in US history:

US foreign policy, or at least its PR, is apparently being run by campaign consultants with focus grouped catch phrases that they think will help get their candidate elected. Worse still, UN ambassadors and secretaries of state play along with such obvious and childish nonsense. And the US looks the fool to every serious country in the world. Help!

Liz Cheney calls it One of the Worst Cover-Ups Probably in History of the Republic” (Video):

“This is one of the worst cover-ups probably in the history of the republic. In terms of, we’re not talking about a policy that went awry here. We’re talking about an ambassador and three other Americans who were killed. We’re talking about a nation under attack… A lot of people have asked me, ‘Why would they lie about something so critically important?’ The reason they do is is because they got to get the American people to believe that this president has been an effective national security president.”

The mother of Slain State Dept. official Sean Smith is Tired of Being Lied To and Stonewalled by Obama Administration:

She appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper, last night, and had quite a story to tell…

Here’s the rush transcript:

COOPER: So you’re still waiting to hear from somebody about what happened to your son? About what they know? Or even what they don’t know.

SMITH: Right. Right. Officially yes. I told them, please don’t give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff. I don’t want political stuff. You can keep your political, just tell me the truth. What happened. And I still don’t know. In fact, today I just heard something more that he died of smoke inhalation.

COOPER: So you don’t even know the cause of death?

SMITH: I don’t even know if that’s true or not. No, I don’t. I don’t know where. I look at TV and I see bloody hand prints on walls, thinking, my god, is that my son’s? I don’t know if he was shot. I don’t know — I don’t know. They haven’t told me anything. They are still studying it. And the things that they are telling me are just outright lies.

That Susan Rise, what — she talked to me personally and she said, she said, this is the way it was. It was — it was because of this film that came out.

COOPER: So she told you personally that she thought it was a result of that video of the protest?

SMITH: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. In fact all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this and he said, trust me. I will tell you what happened. And so far, he’s told me nothing. Nothing at all. And I want to know.

COOPER: It’s important for you to know all the details no matter how horrible.

SMITH: Yes.

COOPER: Or no matter how tough they are to hear.

SMITH: Exactly. I told him, if it’s such a secret thing, fine, take me in another room, whisper in my ear what happened so that I know, and we’ll go from there. But no. No, they — you know, they treat me like — at first I was so proud because they were treating me so nice when I went to that reception. They all came up to me and talked to me and everything. I cried on Obama’s shoulder. And he — then he’d kind of looked off into the distance.

So that was worthless to me. I want to know, for god’s sakes. Or for Allah’s sake or whoever’s sake is there.

As the political heat rises, Allahpundit asks: Hey, how come Jay Carney’s not holding televised press briefings anymore?

Good catch by the Standard. Carney’s held gaggles with reporters recently, but gaggles are inferior for reasons Daniel Halper explains at the link. According to the White House website, there’s been no full-fledged “face the nation”-style televised press briefing in more than two weeks. How come? Can’t be that Carney’s busy with campaign stuff. As surreal as it may sound, he technically works for you and me as an employee of the executive branch, not for Team Hopenchange. Why isn’t our press secretary out in front fielding questions about the day’s news? Could it be because … he ended up becoming the public face of the White House clusterfark over Benghazi? And now, after two more weeks of evidence about how negligent the State Department was in failing to protect Chris Stevens, the administration’s less inclined than ever to send him back out there in front of a camera?

Wizbang says: Someone Has Finally Thrown Obama himself Under The Bus And Her Name Is Hillary Clinton:

What other conclusions can one draw from this from the AP?

WASHINGTON — The State Department said Tuesday it never concluded that the consulate attack in Libya stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam, raising further questions about why the Obama administration used that explanation for more than a week after assailants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

The revelation came as new documents suggested internal disagreement over appropriate levels of security before the attack, which occurred on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S.

Well, I would conclude that they’re just parsing their words, myself. No one wants to be stuck with this particular tar baby, and they’re backing slowly away from it like the craven rats they are. But Hillary was a willing participant in the disinformation campaign about the YouTube video and that stemmed from the executive branch, not the intel community. That will be her ignominious legacy as Obama’s Secretary of State..

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Video: Mother of Fallen Seal on Security Leaks: “They Put a Target on My Son’s Back”

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Hannity debuted a powerful new ad that hammers the Obama regime for the Bin Laden raid leaks, and then interviewed the parents of Aaron Vaughn,  the fallen Seal Team 6 warrior. Karen Vaughn explained what she meant by “they put a target on my son’s back.”

“When…we take out the main figurehead for al Qaeda for everything that’s been waged against our country, it’s very simple to me that if we announce who was responsible for that, all hell is going to break loose, on the people who are responsible for taking that man out…”

Stay to the end when the father emotionally decries the regime’s “criminal” rules of engagement, begging for a high ranking officer to have the courage to come out and expose how these ROA are killing our warriors.

 

The controversial rules of engagement were put into place by Gen. McChrystal and his team in July of 2009. They placed dangerous restrictions on the ability of our troops to hit the enemy in certain locations and situations, but were meant to save lives in the long run, supposedly, by “winning the hearts and minds” of the Afghani people.

Here’s the result of those ROEs:

Daniel Greenfield reporting for FrontPageMagazine:

Obama’s Afghanistan Surge was coupled with tightened Rules of Engagement aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the locals. The ROE’s restricted how soldiers could fight the Taliban and cost plenty of lives, but it appears that ISAF’s Hearts and Minds project has hit a new low.

***

Soldiers were ordered not to open fire on Taliban fighters planting mines in case they disturb local people, it has been claimed.

U.S. military chiefs ordered troops to exercise ‘courageous constraint’ and even warned them they could be charged with murder if they shot any Taliban without permission from above.

The claims were made by a former Royal Marine who spoke out following the inquest into the death of Sergeant Peter Rayner last week.

Father-of-one Craig Smith, 36, who quit his job with 40 Commando in January and now works for a Newcastle security firm, documented the ‘outrageous’ orders issued to troops in a diary of his six-month tour of Afghanistan’s Helmand province last May, according to the Sun.

His notebook cites several examples and claims troops were ordered to stand and watch when they spotted a Taliban fighter as the sound of shooting would ‘wake up and upset the locals’.

He also reveals how they were told not to shoot or use mortars for illumination when they came across Taliban soldiers in an area full of hidden explosive devices.

He told the newspaper: ‘In Kajaki I saw Taliban digging in IEDs and was denied the chance to do anything about it for fear of upsetting the locals. Permission to open fire was denied as it would alarm the population.’

Let Them Fight or Bring Them Home has been singing this tune for over three years, now:

Our concern as a people of a nation should be for the well-being of our War Fighters – FIRST! If Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Libyans, Tunisians, Algerians, et al want to lessen their plight, they have the exact same opportunity as our Fore Fathers did; fight for it! We owe them nothing and certainly not our trust or the blood of our finest! The problem is, they don’t see their condition as a scourge or a plight; they see it as the spiritually enlightened condition of men who have given themselves to the doctrines of a man who claimed to have conversed with a ‘god’. Any man in this country who thinks we have anything to offer people who have given so much of themselves to so vile a religious construct as Islam is simply arrogant – and ignorant! Asking better men to sacrifice themselves for this arrogance is the height, width and depth of moral depravity! Demanding they continue in light of such absolute proof of the total and abysmal failure of such an arrogantly conceived battle plan, is simply criminal!
***
Afghanistan is a cesspool of humanity; a mass grave for honorable men compelled to serve in her sewage by the arrogant, delusional and cowardly politicians of the day. Nothing good has come of our efforts; nothing good will come out of the next two years.
Our political establishment has lost its way or maybe the American population has lost its moral compass and have consciously chosen men of unscrupulous character and such a deplorable lack of courage to represent them. In either case the affect is the same on our War Fighters.

Michael Yon does an exceptional job of providing insight into the latter days of this our most miserable martial effort in the midst of a demonically charged and hate-filled culture.

How many more lives must be destroyed before those who dare call themselves “Statesmen”, will muster the courage to draw that metaphoric line in the sand and demand this fratricide committed by our leaders against our War Fighters, end?
Happy Reading…

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/stuck-in-the-mud.htm