Friday, July 25, 2008

Letter from the Troops: 'Obama is a Buffoon, a Charlatan, a Hindrance to their Mission'


Hat tip to Miss Beth's Victory Dance

Now that Barack Hussein Obama has left the Middle East and is now doing his whirl-wind tour of Europe, letters and e-mails from servicemen and women are filtering back to the States. On Wednesday I posted one such letter from Afghanistan commenting how Obama blew off the troops so he could meet with the base commander and his staff. Then he had that infamous basketball game.

Today I present to you, dear truth seeker, this newest letter from a 23 year vet of more than one branch of the military. The name has been removed to protect the author. (All bold words and italics are my emphasis and not the authors.)
MY MEETING (ALMOST) WITH OBAMA

I had a first hand view of Barrack Obama's "fact finding" mission, when he passed through this base.

While I can't name it, it's one of the largest air bases in the region, with up to 8000 troops (depending on influxes and transients in mobilization/demobilization status), mostly Airmen and Soldiers, but some Marines, Sailors, Koreans, Japanese, Aussies, Brits, US Civil Service, contractors including KBR, Blackwater and Halliburton, among others in the news. The overwhelming majority of all of these are professional, courteous and disciplined. Problems are rare.

Casualties are also rare. This base has a large hospital for evacuation—twenty plus beds. I have yet to see a casualty in one, though I am told there are about three evacuations a week through this region, of which two on average are things like sports injuries, vehicle accidents or duty related falls and such. You can tell from the news that the war is going well. The ghouls are now focusing on Afghanistan, since there is no blood to type with here.

This oped is of course subjective and limited, but I will try to present the facts as I saw them. I wasn't able to see much, which makes a point all by itself.

When his plane arrived (also containing Senators Reed and Hagel, but the news has hardly mentioned them), there was a "ramp freeze." This means if you are on the flight line, and not directly involved with the event in question, you stay where you are and don't move. For a combat flight arriving or departing, this takes about ten minutes, and involves the active runway and crossing taxiways only. For Obama's flight, this took 90 minutes, during which time a variety of military missions came grinding to a halt. Obviously, this visit was important, right?

95% of base wanted nothing to do with him. I have met three troops who support him, and literally hundreds who regard him as a buffoon, a charlatan, a hindrance to their mission or a flat out enemy of progress. Even when the rumors were publicly admitted, almost no one left their duty sections to try to see him, unless they were officers whose presence was officially required.

Mister Obama's motorcade drove up from the flight line and entered the dining hall toward the end of lunch time. Diners were chased out and told to make other arrangements for food, in the middle of the duty day.

Now, there are close to 8000 troops on the base and its nearby satellites. No one came up from the Army side (except perhaps a few ranking officers). The airbase resumed operation, once he cleared the flightline, as if nothing had happened. The dining hall holds about 300 people and was not full. The troops did not want to meet him and the feeling was apparently mutual. In attendance, besides the Official Entourage, were the base's senior officers, some support personnel, and a very few carefully vetted supporters who'd made special arrangements. No photos were allowed. No question and answer with the troops. No real acknowledgment that the troops existed.

Obama left around 1530, during the Muslim Call to Prayer, so he's not a practicing Muslim. He was in a convoy guarded by (so I'm told) both State Department and Secret Service Personnel.

Less than three hours…

Within 48 hours he was in Afghanistan. It takes most troops longer than that to in-process and get cleared on safety, threats, policies and such. Yet he somehow made a strategic summary by not talking to anyone and not seeing anything.

Twenty-four hours after that, he was in Kuwait, back here, and then home, so fast we didn't even know he arrived the second time at this base.

I can't imagine any officer of the few he met told him anything other than what they tell the troops, and what their own leadership at the Pentagon tell them—we're winning. Our troops are stomping the guts out of the insurgency. The surge worked and is working. If the insurgents have to divert to Afghanistan, it means they can't fight in Iraq anymore. We should not change the rules and retreat with the enemy on the ropes as we did in Vietnam. We should finish kicking their teeth in. The Iraqi government now controls 10 of 18 provinces, with US assistance in the rest. Let us win the war. 90% of the troops I know, even those opposed to the war, say that is the way to win. Victory comes from winning, not from "change." In fact, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is on record as opposing Obama's strategic theory.

Since he obviously knew in advance that's what they'd tell him, and since he didn't care to talk to the troops (we're told by the Left that the troops are horrified, shocked, forced to commit atrocities with tears in their eyes, distraught, burned out, fed up with losing, etc) and find out how they feel, and was barely in country long enough to need a shower and a change of clothes, we can only call this for what it is.

A disgraceful PR stunt, using the troops as a platform for his ego and campaign.

In comparison, I've seen four star generals and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this base. They each held an all ranks call, met with and briefed the personnel, and took questions on every subject from tour length to uniform design to rules of engagement to weapon choice to long term policy, from the newest airmen to the senior NCO with TEN 120-180 day tours since Sep 11. It's very clear they want to know what the troops think, and to keep them informed of events. It's equally clear mister Obama does not.

From here we must move to my op part of the oped.

Obama clearly doesn't care about the troops, doesn't care about America, doesn't care about anything except hearing his own voice and the chance to sit at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…From where he'll bring us the proven Democratic wartime leadership of Bosnia and the Balkans (US forces still there), Somalia (US forces prevailed despite being ill equipped by executive order, and taking heavy casualties), Haiti (what were we doing there again?), Desert One (oops?), Vietnam (where we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory), Korea (still there), WWI, and the fluke success of WWII won by such wonderful liberal notions as concentration camps for Japanese Americans, nukes, FBI investigations of waitresses who dated soldiers in case they were "morally corrupt" and the (valid) occupation of and continued presence in Italy, Japan and Germany for 60 years, which they are conveniently pretending won't happen with Iraq.

That's not "change." That's "failure we can do without."


The troops fighting on the front lines are furious with him. They aren't there for a "photo op", they are there serving a mission. Our author writes: Victory comes from winning, not from "change." How very true. Victory is our to be had if we just hold fast to our convictions and plans. If we stay the course in Iraq and do a surge in Afghanistan we will win in the end. Obama's way is the way of Code Pink and other traitorous groups. It is the way of defeat and humiliation of our troops. It spits on the graves of those brave men and women who have died for this nation in those far away places. It dishonors the men and women who have served and continue to serve this nation. As this author so plainly writes:

That's not "change." That's "failure we can do without."



12 comments:

Right Truth said...

Failure we can do without. That says it all.

Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth

Winston said...

Hussein O is a failure

Anonymous said...

I remember reading this from another blog but this is sad.

The Lonely Conservative said...

"No real acknowledgment that the troops existed." That says it all. He dissed the wounded troops in Germany. To Obama the troops don't exist. He has no idea what kind of people serve in our military, they are so above him in every possible way.

CKAinRedStateUSA said...

The man's got no soul.

He has not earned the right to be the commander-in-chief of the members of our Armed Forces.

And he won't ever, regardless of whether or not he becomes POTUS.

BTW: Thanks for the post.

Maggie Thornton said...

We will be hearing lots of this, I think. The man cannot hide his disdain.

Maggie
Maggie's Notebook

Gary and Mel said...

Why they just don't get it.

We had a real candidate with hillary and the Democratic Selection Committee dis-regarded our vote..

we don' t need ahow piece we want a real candidate...



http://hillaryisourchoice.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php

IanMc said...

TF: During the past eight years we've seen the United States conduct a rather hostile foreign policy towards much of the world. America has attacked two Middle Eastern nations, resulting in many deaths, torture and the imprisonment of innocents. As President what can you do to correct these wrongs?

Senator Obama: As I have said from the beginning it was a mistake to go into Iraq for the reasons you cited. America has lost respect and does not have the creditability it had prior to the current administration. I intend to pull American forces out from Iraq as soon as we can. That's the first thing. What America has failed to do is seek justice. The current policy is more like a quest for vengeance, it is counter-productive. It has not made us safer.

We have to work with other nations instead of alienating them, we have common interests and we have to respect them and we have to learn how to work with other nations. We cannot be sloppy and cut corners. The Bush administration has been undermining the virtues of America that will I plan to lead America by.

TF: So you will stop the imprisonments?

Senator Obama: The Supreme Court has ruled that what the current administration is doing is illegal. It is a shameful chapter in American history when people are picked up in battle and imprisoned without access to legal representation. This has not happened before in American history. I intend to restore respect for the law and for human rights. That should always be the end-goal in all U.S. policy especially with foreign policy. We have to show our best, not our worst characteristics.

TF: Senator Obama, the people of Iran are understandably concerned that their nation may come under attack. What can be done between now and January to prevent another unnecessary conflict?

Senator Obama: We must continue to remind the current administration that war is not the solution here. Iran has not attacked us and Iran is not going to attack us. They have every right to develop nuclear power if that is their wish and removing American forces from Iraq would relieve tensions considerably.

We must not be afraid of diplomacy, not just with Iran but with Syria, the Saudis, Jordan, the United Nationals Security Council program members as well. Once it is clear that we’re not planning to stay in Iraq for 10, 20 years, all these nations will have an interest in working out how we can best stabilize the situation.

Findalis said...

The world has been talking with Iran, Syria etc... But it is like talking to a wall. You get a better response from the wall.

What Bush did was right. What Obama proposes is defeatism. When your nation is at war, you fight that war. That is supporting the troops. Not the leftist idea of bringing them home before the job is done.

You would know this Truth First if you ever had to fight a war.

As an American I mourn the death of our soldiers, but refuse to give in to those who would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Mongrel Porksword said...

This post is a joke. It probably came from a chain letter.

Anonymous said...

After reading this post, everyone really needs to read this article on the same topic.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/Military_blog.Obama_072508w/

FlyingPig said...

As a retired Navy Vet and proud to have served in the first Gulf War to liberate Kuwait, I am appalled at some of my fellow Americans for buying into the media driven propoganda train led by Obama. I can only rely on the hopes that "Common Sense will Eventually Prevail." Let's pray that the silent majority known as Conservative America will continue to speak the truth in the pool of lies being portrayed by CNN, NBC, ABC and liberal hollywood.

We must continue to shed light on the misrepresentation of our mission in the Middle East. Even movies like "Stop Loss" feed the machine that continually tries to push Obama into the Oval Office. Yet when the anger of those who are against the war are presented the question..."When was your son/daughter/nephew/friend DRAFTED into the Military?" It can only be answered with a blank look.

My 21 year old daughter has joined the Navy and will receive her commission upon completion of her senior year of college next May. I could not be MORE PROUD of my child for standing up for the foundation of what our country IS about. May God bless and protect our troops as the Real America spreads freedom and dignity to those who would otherwise...never taste freedom.