Posted on 02/12/2007 3:58:00 PM PST by captjanaway
From NationalLedger.com
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272611552.shtml
News Analysis
Barack Obama Attacks Australian and American Soldiers' Sacrifices
By Jackson Simpson
Feb 12, 2007
Barack Obama is off and running for president. The items covered first by the inexperienced senator from Illinois, attack one of America's great allies and their soldiers and attack the sacrifice of the soldiers from America that are laying their lives on the line in Iraq. First up, Australia. The sophomore senator sounded off like a sophomoric political hack.
Barack Obama Attacks Australian and American Soldiers' Sacrifices
His target was Australia's Prime Minister John Howard. "Howard had said that Senator Obama's call for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by March 2008 would deliver a victory for terrorists and destabilize the entire Middle East." Howard said: "If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."
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Obama fired back like a kid on a playground. "I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced...I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr. Howard has deployed 1400, so if he is...to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq....Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."
Scott Johnson called it this way. 'Obama not only insulted our ally, he formulated the insult in the inelegant fashion of an intellectual thug.' That's close enough. Right out of the gate, Obama wants to belittle the Australian troops in Iraq.
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Just so they wouldn't feel left out, Barack decided to belittle the American troops as well. The senator made this blunder during a speech at Iowa State University. On Sunday he criticized the war in Iraq as a conflict that had "wasted" more than 3,000 American soldiers' lives. Someone must have told Obama that was a poor choice as he did the quasi backtrack the very next day.
Speaking to a group of reporters in the kitchen of a Nashua, N.H., home after a gathering for Democratic party activists, Obama said he had misspoken in Iowa, adding that his opposition to the war was grounded in a desire for soldiers to return home safely to their families.
"I would absolutely apologize if any of them felt that in some ways it had diminished the enormous courage and sacrifice that they'd shown," Obama responded.
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Slam the Australian troops, check. Slam the American troops, check.
and it's no stretch to imagine where he's getting his money for his campaign....
Great post, rlmorel, thanks!
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