General Shinseki: Democrat Hack

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | May 16, 2014 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We've got veterans dying because they're not getting adequate medical care. Do you remember this name Shinseki, this guy that's running the VA. Eric Shinseki, do you remember why he's famous? Do you remember why he's even at the VA? Shinseki was one of the first uniformed military people to trash Bush and the Iraq war for the Democrats back in the second term of George W. Bush. And I'll never forget, John Kerry, who, you may not know, served in Vietnam, was running around quoting Eric Shinseki day in and day out.

I'm gonna have one of my researchers look into it. I'm gonna find out exactly when it was that Shinseki first popped up as a uniformed -- this is key now, active duty uniformed critic. He was one of the first and he became an instant hero of the left and the media. So they put him over at the VA, and just like everybody else in this administration, they can't run diddly-squat. But you tell these people that our troops are raping women and terrorizing children in Iraq, and they'll believe it just like that, and they'll make a move to put 'em on trial just like that. You put 'em in charge of actually doing something for people and they fail miserably. But you put 'em in charge of caring and saying how much they care, and they excel at it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Eric Shinseki. His notoriety began even before the Iraq war began. Eric Shinseki was a uniformed Democrat, actively opposed to Iraq before it started. John Kerry loved him, the John Kerry that served in Vietnam, constantly quoting him. One of the things that Shinseki said, he was the Army chief of staff at the time. I mean, this isn't an insignificant position. General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, told Senator Kerry he was going to need several hundred thousand troops -- this is in response to a question of the committee -- several hundred thousand troops.

General Shinseki said there was no way to win the Iraq war. No way to go in there. No way to occupy unless we sent several hundred thousand troops. And then John Kerry said they retired General Shinseki for telling him that. The president hasn't listened. This was in a debate on October 8th, 2004. This was Kerry talking to the American people in a debate. So Shinseki's been a hero of these people for a long time. If you think you've heard the name, that's why. Army chief of staff opposed Iraq, said it wouldn't work, it's impossible. Bush wasn't adequately prepared, no way. Kerry loved it. Now the guy's running the VA into the ground, patients are dying.

New York Times praised Shinseki back in 2009. A second act for General Shinseki. They love this guy. You have to understand, folks, this is classic. The guy's not qualified to run anything except in his own mind and the in minds of these leftists 'cause he cares. He made his bones, he came out, he humiliated Bush, he thought. He criticized Bush. He was anti-war, anti-Iraq. And he was the one that allowed all the Democrats to -- let me reset this picture here for just a second because the vote authorizing use of force in Iraq was a two-phased vote.

The Democrats misread the public mood, and when the original vote authorizing President Bush to use force in Iraq was taken, a lot of Democrats voted against it. And then they learned that the vast majority of the American people were for it and they demanded a second vote. Bush acquiesced, okay, if you want to vote again, go ahead. He had the Republicans in Congress, go ahead and let 'em vote again. So the Democrats could all go on record as supporting the use-of-force authorization in Iraq.

Now, another thing that you may not remember. This didn't happen overnight. Bush spent 18 months building up his case, making his case, traveling all over the country and making speeches, going to the UN and, you know, General Powell, the weapons of mass destruction. But my point is -- I'm not trying to relive the WMD thing. The point is Bush didn't say on a Friday we're going to war on Monday and do it. It was a year and a half. The president made his case.

The American people overwhelmingly supported him in the first vote to authorize use of force. I mean, the president even withheld action until Congress had voted. He gave them an opportunity to be part of it, and the first vote, a whole slew of Democrats voted "no." And the outrage directed at them from the American people was such that they demanded a second vote. Hillary, John Kerry, all of them ultimately in the second vote voted to go to war in Iraq. That's why everything that they did after that is hypocritical and phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock 'n' roll because they voted for it.

They wanted to act like they never did. They then spent six years saying Bush lied. Well, we went back and found out that Bill Clinton in 1998, in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal, used almost the same statistics and the same reasons. It was uncanny, the words that Bill Clinton used seeking support from Congress to use force in Iraq in '98 that Bush used in 2002, 2003, really was uncanny. And when Clinton wanted the authorization to use force in 1998, every Democrat voted for it without thinking about it, granted, Democrat president, Democrat Congress, you got it.

Here comes Bush, four, five years later, same arguments, folks, do not doubt me, same arguments, Democrats want no part of it, 'cause they politicize everything. Then they see that the American people are all for it, they demand a second vote. And after the second vote, General Shinseki pops up and says, well, this doesn't have a prayer. You can't do this without hundreds and hundreds of thousands of troops, we're not ready, this isn't gonna work, and that's all it took.

Shinseki gave the Democrats the cover to run away from their "yes" votes on the use of force in Iraq and allowed them to pretend those "yes" votes never happened. And so over the next six years, the Democrats and the media did everything they could to destroy Bush, to secure defeat in Iraq so they could hang that around Bush's neck. You remember the Daily News stories of the body counts, all the stories of terrorism committed by American troops.

The now deceased Pennsylvania Congressman had an airport named after him. John Murtha. Some of the stuff that they were saying about our troops, folks, was unconscionable. And it was all political. But the guy that really paved the way for all these Democrats, particularly in the Senate, to run away from their authorization to use force votes was Eric Shinseki, uniformed, Army chief of staff, ripping into Bush gave 'em all cover. Because here's a military guy, expert, he's Army chief of staff. So he was paid back by being named VA -- here's the New York Times story in 2009.

"Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the retired Army chief of staff who presciently predicted that stabilizing Iraq would take more troops than had been committed to the invasion, pledged Wednesday to transform the Department of Veterans Affairs to better fulfill the nation’s promises to those who have served in uniform." As Obama's nominee -- Obama hadn't even been immaculated yet. This is before the inauguration, January 2009. This is two days, in fact, January 14, two days before I went public and said, "I hope he fails." Just to give you some timeline.

"As President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the second-largest bureaucracy in the government, behind the Pentagon, General Shinseki said that if confirmed he would streamline the disability claims system, use new information technologies to improve the delivery of benefits and services, and focus on unemployed and homeless veterans. ... When he retired in June 2003 after 38 years as a soldier, General Shinseki was the highest-ranking Asian-American in United States military history." That speaks for itself, too.

So that's the guy they sent over there to run the VA that's made an absolute mess of it, as big a mess of the VA as Obama has made of Obamacare. It's such a tragedy. It is a genuine tragedy that these people are in leadership positions. They just don't have the qualifications. And, I'm sorry, folks, but caring just isn't a qualification, not by itself.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: October 8th, 2004, St. Louis, Washington University. It's the second debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, the haughty Senator John Kerry, who at one time in his life served in Vietnam. They're talking about the Iraq war. Remember, Kerry was part of the cabal that asked for a second vote. After first voting "no" on the use of force, they all wanted to vote "yes" to get on the right side of public opinion. And then Shinseki came out and said, "You can't do this without multiple hundreds of thousands of troops." And, by the way, he was not right. I mean, the surge, the maximum number of troops we had in Iraq's 170,000, and Shinseki said we needed at least twice that. But we pulled it off with the surge, and we eventually got out of there victoriously.

What's happened since is another story, but the Iraq war -- see, the problem is too many people think we lost it. The media has got everybody convinced we lost the Iraq war, that we were humiliated, Bush didn't know what he was doing, because there weren't any weapons of mass destruction. So it was all lost. It was just a humiliating experience for the US and another reason why we shouldn't use our military very much. See, the left loves military failure, particularly when they're not in the White House, because it just gives 'em another bit of ammo to advocate for not using the military, except for Meals on Wheels type thing, social experimentation, this kind of thing. But military failure, "Oh, yeah, man. See that? We have no business being in Iraq."

Now, if the hashtag doesn't work to get the girls back you wait, these same people are gonna say we should send maybe some armed drones in there instead of just camera-equipped drones. But I just want to play for you, 2004, St. Louis, presidential debate, here's John Kerry, who just a year earlier had voted for the Iraq war.

KERRY: We didn't have enough forces. General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, told 'em he was gonna need several hundred thousand and guess what? They retired General Shinseki for telling him that. This president hasn't listened.

RUSH: Now, my point in playing this is Shinseki has been a hero to the left since 2003. He got the VA gig because of it. Kerry was one of his big champions, loved him, loved him, uniformed military Army chief of staff ripping into Bush. That's all the cover they needed. I got sick and tired of hearing the name Shinseki here, Shinseki there. He was the only person according to the media or the Democrat Party that had any military credibility. Rumsfeld didn't have any, General Myers didn't have any, nobody active duty prosecuting the war had any credibility. Shinseki had all the credibility. And now look at the VA under these people. It's an embarrassment. It's worse than an embarrassment. It's a disaster.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, one other thing with John Kerry. He claimed that George Bush fired Eric Shinseki for his disagreement statements on Iraq. Not true. Shinseki's retirement was announced in April of 2002, long before he testified about the Iraq war. His retirement was announced easily a year and a half before he said anything about Iraq. So Kerry just made that up.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. Shinseki has fired somebody at the VA. They got a scapegoat. Have his name right in front of me but he's gone. Shinseki stays, predictably so.

END TRANSCRIPT

[MtnClimber]

The White Hut considers vererans to be probable terrorists. Better to give preference to Boko Haram or the MoBros.

[GreyFriar]

I will dispute one point with Rush over Gen Shinseki and his opposition to the Iraq war. He said it would take an occupation force of 200,000 soldiers for 10 years to change Iraq. Rumsfeld would not hear it. He wanted a quick in and out, all done in a few months.

What happened? we ended up in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 and deployed over 100,000 soldiers there for several years. Shinseki’s opposition was based upon an analysis of every occupation after a war that the US ever did, beginning with the Mexican War. He wasn’t a “democrat hack” on this but had a firm position that it would not be what Rumsfeld hoped for.

And I have several nephews that deployed.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Shinseki was also the moron who switched all of the U.S. Army to wearing black berets.

[wally_bert]

That made absolutely no sense to me.

[Swede Girl]

Wasn't Shinseki the one who forced the Army to put black berets on everyone? That was not well-received by the Rangers.

[razorback-bert]

Thanks, I couldn’t remember why I disliked him first.

Geez, I hate those berets and lately I have noticed fewer wearing them.

[Future Snake Eater]

Berets are worn pretty much only in dress uniform. They can be worn in ACUs, but only if the commander of a formation requires it. Otherwise the duty headgear is the soft cap. The policy was changed in 2010 or so.

[BerryDingle]

“Today, I accepted the resignation of Dr. Robert Petzel, Under Secretary for Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs," Shinseki said in a statement.

Interesting since no investigation has been completed yet. Under Zippy, no investigation may be started either. Shouldn't Shinseki be stepping down first?

[BerryDingle]

“Today, I accepted the resignation of Dr. Robert Petzel, Under Secretary for Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Shinseki said in a statement.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/veterans-affairs-official-resigns-as-white-house-says-theres-just-a-suggestion-of-scandal/article/2548546

[Theoria]

Rush has zero credibility on the military and foreign affairs. He is still trying to figure out who the LRA is.

[bagman]

Yeah, Mr Limbaugh did not make a good argument. General
Shinseki was correct in his estimate (and I continue to beleive that the Iraq invasion was a good idea), but Bush did not want to (or could not) expend the political capital to deploy more troops than were used. He and Rumsfield attempted to fight the war on the cheap.

One shouldn’t fight a war if (a) political support for it cannot be generated and/or (b) it is to be fought on the cheap.

[Alternate Universe]

It was more than Shinseki changing the Army to black berets. He spent millions of dollars buying new berets at a time when the military was having a hard time finding adequate funding to have pistol ammunition for our troops to train. Not only that, but he decided that the new berets had to be implemented right away. Because the purchase time-frame was so short, no company in the U.S. could make them in accordance with Army specifications (they would have needed several months to re-tool), so they were made overseas (China, IIRC). So he made bad decisions, just like he is doing at the VA.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Yep, and no one wanted them. The Rangers were offended, the common soldiers didn’t like them, and none of the command structure understood the need for them. It was Shinseki’s vanity, pure and simple.

[Nifster]

Another political ‘general’ just like Weasley Clark

[Nifster]

yeah from a guy who announced his retirement 8 months ago.

[AZhardliner]

Yep, I had to wear the Shinseki saucer!

[Graewoulf]

Why, oh why do We, the People have any compelling reasons to vote for any Doormat Republicans, or Obama Democrats who have promised to advance Obama’s Agenda to “Fundamentally transform the United States of America” by increasing the number of undocumented Democrat voters who are Illegal Alien Invaders from Mexico?

All Doormat Boehner has tio do is NOT bring his Boehner Amnesty Bill in the House up for a vote and Reid’s Senate Amnesty bill dies a well-deserved, and NECESSARY death.

We, the People have seen our Federal Politicians in the Republican and Democrat Party enable Obama, for over five years, to bring great harm to the United States of America.

Those, in “both” political parties, who can’t stand America, stand against We, the People.

We, the People know that it is time, - - - time for a change in 2014.

[servo1969]

This is the same -sshole that took black berets from the Rangers and and made everyone in the Army wear them.

*************

“The black beret was being worn by formations Army-wide, when it was approved by the Army for wear by the Ranger Regiment in 1975. Today, it remains one of our symbols of excellence in The Army as reflected by its wear in the Ranger Regiment.

We are transforming today’s most powerful Army in the world from a Cold War Legacy Force to an Objective Force with early entry capabilities that can operate jointly, without access to fixed forward bases, and still have the power to slug it out and win campaigns decisively (Intent, June 1999). This Transformation will correct the condition in today’s Legacy Force where our heavy forces are too heavy, and our light forces lack staying power. To master this strategic transition and to establish the parameters for decisiveness in the 21st century, The Army must become adaptive to be strategically responsive and dominant across the entire spectrum of military operations.

To symbolize The Army’s commitment to transforming itself into the Objective Force, The Army will adopt the black beret for wear Army-wide.”

SHINSEKI - 030011Z NOV 00

[MacNaughton]

12 Yeah, Mr Limbaugh did not make a good argument. General Shinseki was correct in his estimate (and I continue to beleive that the Iraq invasion was a good idea), but Bush did not want to (or could not) expend the political capital to deploy more troops than were used. He and Rumsfield attempted to fight the war on the cheap.

One shouldn’t fight a war if (a) political support for it cannot be generated and/or (b) it is to be fought on the cheap.

Churchill warned posterity that once a nation chooses to engage in war, the winds of war are unpredictable, e.g., Turkey not allowing POTUS #43 GWB to invade Iraq from their country.

Sun-Tzu also warned that prolonged war weakens a nation - Vietnam ~ 10 years, Afghanistan ~ 11 years. And we finished WWII in ~3.6 years.