It Would be Helpful If Guys Like Bob Gates Would Tell the American People What They Know

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | January 18, 2014 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Is it any surprise that Barack Obama -- see, this is my point, in a nutshell, this is it, this is it. Is it any surprise that Barack Obama and his gang don't like the military? Is it any surprise that everything they do is a political calculation? No. None of this ought to be a surprise to anyone.

The real question is -- and I don't know Robert Gates -- you know, this is becoming a trend. You got journalists who are covering campaigns who do not report things that could have impact on the outcome. They save these things for a book long after the election is over. They are in it for the money, which is fine with me, except journalists are the ones that attack people like me and conservatives for being in it for the money.

Now, here's Bob Gates, and everybody that talks about Bob Gates has nothing but great things to say about him, great character, integrity, morality, all that. I don't know him, and I don't dispute that, but it is clear that Bob Gates knew a bunch of stuff that he held in reserve for a book long after the release of any information would have any impact on anything. Can you imagine if the people of this country had been told that Obama's opposition to Iraq was purely political?

Gates says he's in a room and Hillary and Obama are there, and Obama says (imitating Obama), "Hillary, you know what? My position on Iraq, purely political. I had to oppose you in the primaries." And Hillary says (imitation), "Well, my opposition to it was political." We all knew this. Everything the liberal Democrats do is political. This is my point and I think it'd be really helpful if a whole bunch more Americans knew that. You know, Obama and Hillary get away with supposedly having principled opposition to the war in Iraq, and there was nothing principled about it; it was all political. And then here's Obama (paraphrasing), "I don't think we should go into Iraq. We need to be in Afghanistan. That's where this thing started. That's where the War on Terror started. That's where we need to go."

Then we find out he's not even committed to it. We find out that his involvement in Afghanistan is perfunctory at best. But, you know, the real problem with that is, there are real men and women that he's sending into harm's way in something he doesn't believe in. Nobody, by the way, is saying what Gates said isn't true. The left is going through pretzeled conniption fits trying to react to that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I watched Alan Colmes today on Fox. It's hilarious watching these libs try to explain this all away.

(imitating Colmes) "Well, you know, at the end of the book Gates talks about how much he appreciates Obama and how much he loves Obama and how qualified Obama is and how dignified Obama is." I'll tell you why I think Gates put that in there. I think he put it in there probably 'cause he means it, but it also gives his criticisms added oompff. If he had just launched into criticism of Obama and there wasn't anything in there that was complimentary, then people would say, "He's just got it out for Obama for some reason," and discard it.

But all through the book there are positive references to Obama balanced by these serious criticisms -- and the positive references give the criticisms, I think, even more oompff. I mean, I have some of the highlights of the Gates book. I really haven't touched on 'em. I mean, Obama's heart wasn't in Afghanistan but he sends people in harm's way to a battle he doesn't believe, a war he doesn't believe. Oh, and the other big one is as opposed to George Bush.

Gates says Bush loved hanging around military guys. He loved to have the generals, the admirals and all that up to the White House, and he really learned from 'em and he enjoyed 'em. Gates says Obama couldn'ta cared less. He's totally uninterested in the military. What's the surprise about this? These people are liberal Democrats. We know that they hold the military in disdain. We know that they think one of the biggest problems in the world is US military, and the only reason it should exist is for Meals on Wheels programs around the world.

We know this.

We know they disdain the military.

We know that they make every calculation political. Obama and Hillary don't know enough about the surge. They opposed the surge in Iraq before the surge had been announced. Remember the Petraeus hearings? They called him a liar before he'd even said anything! Of course it was what...I don't want to sound like I'm calling everybody dumb. That's not it. I'm frustrated. This ought not surprise people. It's not hard to know what liberal Democrats are, who they are, what they think, particularly about everything they do is a political calculation.

Because everything they do is oriented toward their agenda. There isn't any principle behind it, and the second thing is, the fact that they don't love the military and don't respect it? Is anybody really surprised by that? I'm just kind of surprised that people are.

END TRANSCRIPT

[Kaslin]

The rest of the title is About Democrats When It Matters

[dhs12345]

Hope and change, hope and change.

[AU72]

Gates has a book to flog but he’s about to get the Phil Robertson treatment.

[PowderMonkey]

"Can you imagine if the people of this country had been told that Obama's opposition to Iraq was purely political?"

Nothing would have happened. "Hope and change," Obamaphones, Obamacare, free stuff...Who's on American Idol? Those things matter. November of 2008, the republic committed suicide. All that remains is a cargo cult.

[onyx]

Rush is right.
Gates had info that our soldiers deserved to know.

[Jim Scott]

I agree with Rush that folks such as Bob Gates who remain quiet as they observe the mendacity of Democrats in power, such as President Obama and Hillary Clinton, his Secretary of State, then ‘tell all’ years later when the information is useless other than to validate what conservatives already knew, are doing a disservice to their country. That the left is scrambling to minimize the damage from Gate’s book and the media will help all they can tells us that Gate’s observations were correct. Democrat politicians are all about appearance (’politics’) that are intended to further the leftist agenda which is to reduce the United States of America into a second-rate socialist state, complete with a dictatorship and police powers that make citizens little more than prisoners-at-large.

[FES0844]

How he remained silent is disgraceful. The money he makes from his book should all go to our wounded warriors.

[ExTexasRedhead]

How many American heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice because of the goons in this Regime? Iraq, Afganistan, Benghazi!

[ExTexasRedhead]

Hear anything out of the Joint Chiefs? How about Benghazi?

[vetvetdoug]

Gates served life in the Army. He may have some honour.

[Norm Lenhart]

Yet another in an endless line of examples of why electing people with principles... who STICK TO THEM... matters. They do things like appoint other principled people to non elected positions. SecDef for example.

[onyx]

How he remained silent is disgraceful. The money he makes from his book should all go to our wounded warriors.

I'm absolutely stunned by his silence.

Why didn't he promptly resign and go public?

Your wounded warrior idea is most worthy.

[onyx]

How many American heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice because of the goons in this Regime? Iraq, Afganistan, Benghazi! >

Too many!

There has to be Hell and there should be Hell on this earth to pay.

[clintonh8r]

Gates had a chance to be a patriot by resigning and going public THEN, instead of waiting a year and publishing a book. What he knew could have kept FUBARaq from being re-elected.

[oldbrowser]

Think of the brave men and women who gave their all on a war that was only intended as political posturing.

Their lives were sacrificed so that Obama could deceive the voters.

Dying for a greater good is sad, but dying to prop up a jackass's political ambition is beyond contemptible.

[clintonh8r]

The Chiefs should resign en masse. But they won't.

[onyx]

Agree with you 100 percent.
I’ll never buy nor read his damn book.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

From the article in the WSJ I predict this guy isnt going to burn anyone. He bashed both sides equally so dont expect any great revelations.

[lentulusgracchus]

[Art.] We know they disdain the military.

Not strong enough, Rushbo. Try "loathe and despise, with a coruscating hatred and contempt."

That'd be closer to it.

[Lumper20]

When a Pres who is a down LO clown forces the abominations on the military in wide open fashion, as opposed to don’t ask don’t tell, the public needs to know who did it. In my day a queer was a queer and thrown out.