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Thursday, April 26. 2007

Life Marches On.

Corporal Pat Tillman

Not for the soldiers killed in Iraq this week, nine in one suicide blast on Monday, which also wounded over 20 others. The president is going to veto the war-funding bill that Congress is sending to the White House because it has provisions for starting a phased withdrawal of troops in six months.

This is the funny part — or it would be funny if so many of our people weren’t dying for this horrific blunder: The president says he won’t sign a bill that ties the hands of the generals on the ground, that politicians in Washington shouldn’t be telling the generals how to do their job.

First of all, the president is the commander in chief and it’s his job to tell the generals what to do. He sets the objective and the generals set the strategy and tactics to achieve that objective. Since the president ignores the will of the people — over 70% want our troops out of Iraq — Congress is in the position of telling the president what to do. The money in the defense appropriations bill is more than what the president requested, but it will be the president who denies the generals what they need if he vetoes that funding bill.

To his credit, Senate Majority Leader Harry Read of Nevada isn’t backing down. He will send the bill to the president and let him veto the appropriations.

Jessica Lynch

The war has been one lie after another. The Tillman Family, along with former Army private Jessica Lynch, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about the lies that were perpetrated by the Army and this administration to make their ordeals into recruiting posters. Pat Tillman, as we know, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan and for a month, the Army covered up the true details of his death. Lynch was taken captive by the Iraqis early in the war when her convoy was ambushed and her vehicle hit by an RPG. The Army portrayed Lynch as fighting off the Iraqis until her ammunition ran out when the reality was, she was knocked unconscious by the blast.

Pat and Kevin Tillman

Although she earned a one million dollar advance for a book, Lynch took the high road and told her true tale and at the hearing, told the Committee, “The American people are capable of determining their own heroes...and the don't need to be told elaborate lies...The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype.”

Kevin Tillman, who served in the same platoon as his brother Pat, had this to say about the Army’s deception: “Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters, so the truth needed to be suppressed.” More pointedly, he admonished our government for perpetrating the lie and covering it up, offering his road to redemption, “The least this country can do for him in return is to uncover who was responsible for his death, who lied and covered it up, and who instigated those lies and benefited from them; then ensure that justice is meted out to the culpable.”

Good luck with that, Mr. Tillman.

And after a record number of “I don’t recall” answers from the Attorney General, the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a request to the AG to answer all the questions for which he responded with an “I don’t know” answer. Just yesterday the president said his pal’s testimony in front of that committee increased his confidence in the attorney general. That entire administration is out to lunch.

Rudy Giuliani — First Lady?

Next week should be even better! Mayor Rudy said voting for Democrats in 2008 would mean another terrorist attack. Dude! That backfired in the 2006 midterm elections! Not to mention, New Yorkers think you’re incompetent and can’t believe people are seriously considering you for president. And let’s not forget which party was in charge of our security on September 11, 2001. You say the Democrats are on defense when we ought to be on offense in this fight against the terrorists? You did neither before 9-11 and neither did your president!

Even when all your security experts told you not to put the disaster command post in the World Trade Center, you did it anyway, to disastrous results. Even after the WTC was bombed in 1993, you did nothing to ensure the safety of your city.

Rudy Giuliani: does he play offense or defense? Maybe he’s a switch hitter! He apparently has the wardrobe for it!

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Just a correction from my last post: the Virginia Tech gunman killed a woman and a man first, not two women. And the woman he killed apparently wasn’t even an acquaintance.

Posted by Tim Forkes in NEWS and POLITICS at 17:37 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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