Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
This is what a real leader looks like
Last night I was pushed over the brink of sanity and can no longer maintain my own standards regarding language, so be forewarned. Consider this a post-regretful evening note to the Republican Party regarding their behavior last night. If you are the sailor-swearing type, feel free to insert a rousing chorus of F-Us at the end of each paragraph. I feel it’s warranted.
About last night, Republicans. Let me help you out, because you so clearly did not hear this country on November 8, 2008 when we cast our ballots in a mandate for change via Barack Obama. Yes, this was a scathing indictment of you which you chose to ignore. You did not listen as we cast aside your politics of hate. You did not listen as we turned our backs on your racism. You did not listen when we stood unified as a nation, proud of electing our first black President. You just keep on rolling out the hate.
And then yesterday, as the President got ready to announce the last combat troops were out of Iraq, and the nation could finally let out its war-weary breath on one front, you had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to warn the President of the United States to not take “credit” for Iraq.
Seriously?
No one is taking “credit” for Iraq. There is no “credit” to be taken. You have yet to admit you lied us into this war. You told us there were Weapons of Mass Destruction and then laughed when you were proven to have lied to us. You laughed. You didn’t even say you were sorry or show any shame or humiliation over such a huge lie. Lives were lost but you laughed.
You invaded a sovereign nation and called those of us who protested unpatriotic. You violated our rights at every turn. You abused your power and the power of the executive office. You treated it like a dictatorship. And you laughed.
You showed no sense of responsibility, no awareness of the consequences of your actions. One expects their leaders to have some grasp, however tenuous, on reality. As just an average American, I have never stopped mourning the loss of our morality and integrity as a country. Others who lived through Vietnam will say we never had any morality or integrity. But Vietnam could have been an anomaly were it not for your decision to lead us into an unwarranted war in Iraq.
The weight of those lost lives is heavy.
And instead of acknowledging these sacrifices over your mistake, instead of fighting for Veterans’ benefits, instead of finding one damn thing to be positive about, Republicans can not stop being ungrateful, petty, small-minded, empty-hearted partisan hacks.
Not only did the President give former President Bush credit last night in his speech, but he never took “credit” for ending this war himself. He acknowledged that he had kept a campaign promise, but it seems to escape the Republicans that he didn’t make that promise as some nod to his base, he made it because he did not agree with the invasion. He never did. It’s called integrity. It wasn’t a jingle. My god, I feel like I’m explaining Newton’s Theory of Universal Gravitation to children. The vastness of your inability to grasp complicated truths astounds me.
He never pretended to be rah-rah. He didn’t label this “Mission Accomplished”. He was somber, because the ending of an atrocity does not make it any less atrocious. And yet, we want to honor the troops who have given the ultimate sacrifice for us because we called upon them. Or rather, you called upon them. We were protesting and being called unpatriotic. But now that the war was started, now that they have served, we are trying to learn from Vietnam. We don’t want them feeling like the Vietnam troops did. Had the President questioned the justice of this war too much, he would dishonor the troops’ mission. And yet, he makes it clear that we want to examine how we got here, not to point the fingers, but so that we can learn.
Like a leader, he thanked the troops. He thanked everyone who sacrificed for this war, even though he didn’t start it and didn’t believe in it. He showed amazing grace and hit all the right notes.
The President is a better person than I.
This President has the grace and intelligence to hand you Republicans a huge political gift of non-partisanship regarding this war, not because he digs you and certainly not because you have earned it, but because he loves this country enough to want unify us. He wants to do this more than he wants to score political points. And this allows you a get-out-of-jail free card.
He wants to lead us into a healing arena and away from the rage that so consumes a nation that was lied to and betrayed and so he did not mention how you lied us into this war. He didn’t mention all of the ways you have failed to support the veterans. He went so far as to give Bush credit, rightfully so, for finally implementing the surge which became the train, advice and assist mission. He never pointed out that that mission would have failed if not for his own diplomatic approach to the Iraqis, who wanted dominion over their country back but were at the same time, afraid of our leaving.
None of this was Obama’s problem. He did not start this war. He was against this war. And still, he has managed to clean up your mess,the epic cluster-#*@* and put it all away, and never point the finger at you. If he merely points out that he inherited this war, you whine. That can only be because you are too childish and immature to own up to your own mistakes and instead would like this President not only to buy into your revisionism, but give you “credit” for anything he managed to salvage from it. Still, he extended a hand to you last night and to Bush. A bridge for our country. A gift to you.
And you took this gift and crapped petty partisanship all over it.
You buried it in the putrid stench of juvenile taunts and hubristic mocking, all meant to distract from your denial of your utter ownership of this debacle. You whined all over TV and your cowardly bunkers of Facebook about how you wanted credit for “Iraq”, never once admitting that we wouldn’t be there in the first place if you hadn’t lied to us. Never admitting that the surge you keep patting yourselves on the back for wouldn’t have been necessary if Bush hadn’t ignored General Shinseki’s recommendations prior to invasion.
Here’s their 2012 front-runner, Sarah Palin, and her mocking preemptive strike of her President courtesy of Jason Easley:
“”Later today, President Obama will speak to the American people about Iraq. No doubt he will laud the “end of major combat operations” by the date he randomly selected some 18 months ago. His press secretary Robert Gibbs also gave us a glimpse of what else he might say, telling the Today Show this morning that “What is certainly not up for question is that President Obama, then-candidate Obama, said that adding those 20,000 troops into Iraq would, indeed, improve the security situation, and it did.””
Yes, Sarah. Obama was paying attention way back when, before you even knew who the Iraqis were or where Iraq was on a map.
And now you want credit for the surge? The same surge that was actually you finally sending the amount of troops General Shinseki told you were needed from the beginning. Let me refresh your conveniently sketchy memory. The New York Times reported:
“General Shinseki, testifying before Congress in February 2003, a month before the United States invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, said “several hundred thousand soldiers” would be needed to stabilize Iraq after an invasion. In words that came to be vindicated by events, the general anticipated “ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems,” adding, “and so it takes a significant ground force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment.”
The testimony angered Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary at the time, whose war plans called for far fewer troops.”
Do you recall now? Do you remember now why we had to have a “surge”? This surge that you are screeching about was the result of your failure to listen to your own General. Allow me to reiterate again, in case you missed it as you are obviously slow, that the surge would never have been necessary in the first place if you had not lied us into war.
And let’s face it, Republicans, you didn’t want to implement a draft or make the war unpopular leading up to an election, so you knowingly sent inadequate troops into a slaughter. You did this because you were losing the war in Afghanistan and you wanted to distract the people so you could win an election.
How do you even hold your head up in public, let alone go around demanding attention and kudos for a poorly implemented invasion?
If you want credit for something so badly, why don’t you own up to your mistakes first. That’s generally how it’s done. Out here in Real America.
Have you no pride? No honor? Not a shred of shame?
Republicans, you don’t have the grace to know when to shut up. So let me help you. Now is the time to shut up. Now is the time to go hide with your tails between your legs. Now is the time to come out with bland but supportive statements of your President and the troops. Now is the time to just stop the craziness. Stop it now.
You go too far.
If for no other reason, I would not vote for a party so out of touch with this country that you don’t know when to shut the hell up. And, courtesy of this peace-loving and proud of it Liberal American patriot, let me add what the President could not last night: a loud, hearty, red white and blue F-U. And you can take that to the bank.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
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