Obama takes advantage of fallen soldiers return for Photo-Op to bolster image.

[RetiredGySgt]

If only Obama didn't have to take time constantly fighting the slanderous lies of the right.

George Bush didn't allow the caskets of fallen soldiers to be photographed because he, Cheney and the Republicans desperately wanted to keep as much of their fiasco as quiet as possible. One way was to secretly "sneak" into the country the bodies of fallen soldiers as far from the press as possible. Believe me, if they thought they could have dumped those soldiers bodies somewhere over the Atlantic to hide what they have done to America, they would have.

Obama asked the families of the fallen if they could be photographed because he wanted to show America the cost of these wars.

Republicans refuse to see the young lives cut short. They see "dithering". To Republicans, stopping the dithering is more important than these young soldiers. Of course, to the vast majority of Americans, what Obama and his administration is doing is formulating a strategy and careful planning, something that if Republicans had done in the first place, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in.

Bush never visited Dover once. He couldn't stomach what he had done.

BUSH TOOK AWAY THE CHOICE. That's right. Bush never allowed those families the choice. He simply took it away from them. That's what Republicans do. That's why many want to secede. They hate this country and what it stands for. They don't want choice. They want to "rule".

Obama asked each and every family because he is an American and he understands that America needs to see the cost of it's actions.

There used to be 1.2 to 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq. Now, the estimate is less than 400,000. Where are they? Where do they live now? Ask the Republicans. They enabled this to happen. They bear the responsibility. Instead of looking at all the terrible things they have done, the damage, they want more. Well, America is on to them. WE KNOW.

Retard the policy was in effect since 1991. But hey thanks for proving you are brain dead and stupid.

 

[DiamondDave]

The only people I have ever heard use the phrase "teachable moment" have been on the right. Alan Keyes, New Gingrich, Dick Cheney.

Obama promised transparency. HE WOULD NOT HIDE THESE DEATHS.

Come on, Republicans don't even want to give the families of the fallen THE CHOICE. Can you be any more disrespectful? You just laid a big fat turd on their rights as American Citizens. YOU WANT TO STIFLE THEIR RIGHTS.

Worse, you use this as a political ploy to "get at Obama".

You guys can't dance your way out of this one. No matter how loud you scream, it's you guys who are despicable. You guys who are odious.

GIVE THE FAMILIES OF THE FALLEN THEIR RIGHTS. If they want photos, let them have photos. Don't be like Bush.

You ignorant fuck....

The families have the choice to publish whatever photos of their loved ones they wish, as long as that fallen soldier did not have something to the contrary listed in some legal document.... so if those families decide to do so, whether I think it is dishonorable or not, they have that right..

But that does not excuse Obama and his administration for using the photos of the honorable fallen for political gain.... having the C.I.C. and the government not use the fallen in this way is not hiding the fact that we have military casualties.... it is showing honor to the honorable dead....

The deaths are not hidden, as they are reported... and you don't need a political statement photo for use in some presidential message to prove that we have casualties

How are you so wise to know that Obama was not trying to gain personal insight in the real loss of the fallen? Because Limbaugh says it is so? It is you that makes lite of the matter with your obnoxious words. Have you no decency?

And he can do that without using the photos for political gain.. or without having any photographers present or allowed at all....

but nice try

It is those that are trying to use the bodies and caskets of my fallen military brothers and sisters for 'statements' or political 'lessons', that have no decency

 

[EriktheRed]

So without having read through this whole thread, is there any kind of written code of ethics as to what the POTUS is supposed to do or not do concerning the return of the remains of US war casualties?

 

[LibocalypseNow]

This President has done nothing to help our kids over there so he can jam his disgusting "Message" Photo-Op straight up his wow hole. I don't need Socialist buffoons "Teaching" me with their "Teachable Moments" and "Messages to the American People." That's just ridiculous condescending Bull Chit to me. Save those "Teachable Moments" for the dimwitted Hopey Changey sheep. I don't need an amateur "Community Organizer" teaching me anything. What an ego this guy has huh? This White House's arrogance and incompetence just gets worse by the day. What a sad scam.

 

[EriktheRed]

This President has done nothing to help our kids over there so he can jam his disgusting "Message" Photo-Op straight up his wow hole. I don't need Socialist buffoons "Teaching" me with their "Teachable Moments" and "Messages to the American People." That's just ridiculous condescending Bull Chit to me. Save those "Teachable Moments" for the dimwitted Hopey Changey sheep. I don't need an amateur "Community Organizer" teaching me anything. What an ego this guy has huh? This White House's arrogance and incompetence just gets worse by the day. What a sad scam.

^^^^^^

Yup, I think we have the real source of the problem right here.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

Well they do control the Media i guess. Their own words. Pretty sad stuff.

 

[saveliberty]

So without having read through this whole thread, is there any kind of written code of ethics as to what the POTUS is supposed to do or not do concerning the return of the remains of US war casualties?

Written, no EriktheRed, practice has been quite different from ALL prior Presidents. Obama is not consistent with past practice.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

I hate to say it but i have to agree. This was clearly a carefully calculated Photo-Op for this President. Using dead kids to gain politically really is the lowest of the low in my humble opinion. This President should actually be ashamed of himself for his Half-Hearted approach to helping our kids out over there. Our Commander in Chief really has let our kids down. Unfortunately this President has chosen to make this and many other issues all about himself. It's actually very sad. God Bless all of our kids serving.

ALL of my retired military friends and family have said that Obama needed to be there. BEFORE you try talking FOR our military people, perhaps you should try talking TO them, first?

That's pretty pathetic...sitting around the house calling everyone you know and asking them whether Obama should have went to Dover AFB so you could start an argument on a message board. Get a life!!


anyway....Look. The Commander in Chief's job isn't easy. I find the hipocrisy here laughable at best. Obama fails our troops in Afghanistan, cuts the military budget, claims the military is broken yet does NOTHING to fix the problem other than try to stop "Don't ask, don't tell."

The Commander in Chief is perfectly within his rights to go to Dover AFB and pay his respects to the soldiers he sent to die in Afghanistan and Iraq. I think Limbaugh should keep his mouth shut on this subject. The leftwing loons have done NOTHING to support our troops and they only use them for political gain. The right doesn't need to stoop down to their level.

 

[HUGGY]

I hate to say it but i have to agree. This was clearly a carefully calculated Photo-Op for this President. Using dead kids to gain politically really is the lowest of the low in my humble opinion. This President should actually be ashamed of himself for his Half-Hearted approach to helping our kids out over there. Our Commander in Chief really has let our kids down. Unfortunately this President has chosen to make this and many other issues all about himself. It's actually very sad. God Bless all of our kids serving.

ALL of my retired military friends and family have said that Obama needed to be there. BEFORE you try talking FOR our military people, perhaps you should try talking TO them, first?

That's pretty pathetic...sitting around the house calling everyone you know and asking them whether Obama should have went to Dover AFB so you could start an argument on a message board. Get a life!!


anyway....Look. The Commander in Chief's job isn't easy. I find the hipocrisy here laughable at best. Obama fails our troops in Afghanistan, cuts the military budget, claims the military is broken yet does NOTHING to fix the problem other than try to stop "Don't ask, don't tell."
The Commander in Chief is perfectly within his rights to go to Dover AFB and pay his respects to the soldiers he sent to die in Afghanistan and Iraq. I think Limbaugh should keep his mouth shut on this subject. The leftwing loons have done NOTHING to support our troops and they only use them for political gain. The right doesn't need to stoop down to their level.

How many troops in afgahnistan before Obama took office..how many now? Do you have even the slightest clue of which you speak?

 

[PatekPhilippe]

ALL of my retired military friends and family have said that Obama needed to be there. BEFORE you try talking FOR our military people, perhaps you should try talking TO them, first?

That's pretty pathetic...sitting around the house calling everyone you know and asking them whether Obama should have went to Dover AFB so you could start an argument on a message board. Get a life!!


anyway....Look. The Commander in Chief's job isn't easy. I find the hipocrisy here laughable at best. Obama fails our troops in Afghanistan, cuts the military budget, claims the military is broken yet does NOTHING to fix the problem other than try to stop "Don't ask, don't tell."
The Commander in Chief is perfectly within his rights to go to Dover AFB and pay his respects to the soldiers he sent to die in Afghanistan and Iraq. I think Limbaugh should keep his mouth shut on this subject. The leftwing loons have done NOTHING to support our troops and they only use them for political gain. The right doesn't need to stoop down to their level.

How many troops in afgahnistan before Obama took office..how many now? Do you have even the slightest clue of which you speak?

Do you????!!!

Obviously not because if you did you would realize that President Bush sent his required combat troop contingent as agreed to in the NATO conference immediately following 9/11 in which our NATO allies PLEDGED THEIR FULL AND UNFETTERED SUPPORT in Afghanistan.

How many combat troops did our NATO allies commit to achieve the agreed upon number of 120,000 combat troops? Why is the U.S. shouldering the entire burden in Afghanistan?

 

[EriktheRed]

I hate to say it but i have to agree. This was clearly a carefully calculated Photo-Op for this President. Using dead kids to gain politically really is the lowest of the low in my humble opinion. This President should actually be ashamed of himself for his Half-Hearted approach to helping our kids out over there. Our Commander in Chief really has let our kids down. Unfortunately this President has chosen to make this and many other issues all about himself. It's actually very sad. God Bless all of our kids serving.

ALL of my retired military friends and family have said that Obama needed to be there. BEFORE you try talking FOR our military people, perhaps you should try talking TO them, first?

That's pretty pathetic...sitting around the house calling everyone you know and asking them whether Obama should have went to Dover AFB so you could start an argument on a message board. Get a life!!

Did he he say that's how he came by their opinions? Doesn't look like he did. And assuming what he's saying is true, it underdscores the fact that the military, past and present, are not in lockstep in their opinions on this issue.

anyway....Look. The Commander in Chief's job isn't easy. I find the hipocrisy here laughable at best. Obama fails our troops in Afghanistan, cuts the military budget, claims the military is broken yet does NOTHING to fix the problem other than try to stop "Don't ask, don't tell."

He didn't cut the military budget, not sure what you mean when you say he "fails our troops in Afghanistan" and I can't find anything anywhere citing him saying the military is "broken".

The Commander in Chief is perfectly within his rights to go to Dover AFB and pay his respects to the soldiers he sent to die in Afghanistan and Iraq.

How many did HE send to die in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I think Limbaugh should keep his mouth shut on this subject.

No argument there.

The leftwing loons have done NOTHING to support our troops...

You mean no "leftwing loons" have sent care packages to the troops or spoken out for increased troop benefits while at the same time opposing what the troops have been sent to fight for? I guess for some people you gotta be all in or you're nothing but an anti-American troop-hater, but I'm guessing most people don't feel that way.

...and they only use them for political gain.

You mean like holding up "the troops" as a sacred cow whose opinions should be respected at all times, except when a servicemember actually has an opinion that doesn't toe the Conservative line? Or telling anti-war protestors they should stop speaking up about something they think is wrong because it would hurt the troops, kinda like putting a Baby on Board sign on pro-Iraq invasion support so those dirty fuckin' hippies look bad no matter what criticism they give? That kinda thing?

The right doesn't need to stoop down to their level.

They already have.

 

[QUENTIN]

Obama fails our troops in Afghanistan, cuts the military budget, claims the military is broken yet does NOTHING to fix the problem other than try to stop "Don't ask, don't tell."

So by "cut the military budget", did you mean increase the military budget to the most it's been since WWII like he just did? Someone must read WaPo or watch Fox.

FY10 DoD Budget Release

Obama increased defense spending over $50 billion from FY 09, to give us a $680 billion dollar defense budget. The largest since WWII adjusting for inflation. Raise being the opposite of cut and all. That's not even including the extra $75.5 billion he got for the second half of 2009 in the supplemental bill.

The legislation also raises military pay by 3.4 percent and assigns 6.7 billion dollars for mine-resistant armored vehicles known as MRAPs. Obama's military budget also will revolve around former President George W. Bush's goal of increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 active troops, as well as Obama's call for improving medical treatment of the wounded and reforming the Pentagon's acquisition processes.

 

[rdean]

Obama fails our troops in Afghanistan, cuts the military budget, claims the military is broken yet does NOTHING to fix the problem other than try to stop "Don't ask, don't tell."

So by "cut the military budget", did you mean increase the military budget to the most it's been since WWII like he just did? Someone must read WaPo or watch Fox.

FY10 DoD Budget Release

Obama increased defense spending over $50 billion from FY 09, to give us a $680 billion dollar defense budget. The largest since WWII adjusting for inflation. Raise being the opposite of cut and all. That's not even including the extra $75.5 billion he got for the second half of 2009 in the supplemental bill.

The legislation also raises military pay by 3.4 percent and assigns 6.7 billion dollars for mine-resistant armored vehicles known as MRAPs. Obama's military budget also will revolve around former President George W. Bush's goal of increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 active troops, as well as Obama's call for improving medical treatment of the wounded and reforming the Pentagon's acquisition processes.

No one even knows what George Bush's military budget was because he refused to include the cost of either war in his budgets and his budgets still ran as deficits.

 

[rdean]

If only Obama didn't have to take time constantly fighting the slanderous lies of the right.

George Bush didn't allow the caskets of fallen soldiers to be photographed because he, Cheney and the Republicans desperately wanted to keep as much of their fiasco as quiet as possible. One way was to secretly "sneak" into the country the bodies of fallen soldiers as far from the press as possible. Believe me, if they thought they could have dumped those soldiers bodies somewhere over the Atlantic to hide what they have done to America, they would have.

Obama asked the families of the fallen if they could be photographed because he wanted to show America the cost of these wars.

Republicans refuse to see the young lives cut short. They see "dithering". To Republicans, stopping the dithering is more important than these young soldiers. Of course, to the vast majority of Americans, what Obama and his administration is doing is formulating a strategy and careful planning, something that if Republicans had done in the first place, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in.

Bush never visited Dover once. He couldn't stomach what he had done.

BUSH TOOK AWAY THE CHOICE. That's right. Bush never allowed those families the choice. He simply took it away from them. That's what Republicans do. That's why many want to secede. They hate this country and what it stands for. They don't want choice. They want to "rule".

Obama asked each and every family because he is an American and he understands that America needs to see the cost of it's actions.

There used to be 1.2 to 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq. Now, the estimate is less than 400,000. Where are they? Where do they live now? Ask the Republicans. They enabled this to happen. They bear the responsibility. Instead of looking at all the terrible things they have done, the damage, they want more. Well, America is on to them. WE KNOW.

Retard the policy was in effect since 1991. But hey thanks for proving you are brain dead and stupid.

Bush could have stopped it at any time and didn't. He also never visited Dover. He never asked the families of the fallen if they want photographs taken. Hell, he spied on the average American. He was a true Republican.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Another one of the duped!!!!!!

He didn't cut the military budget, not sure what you mean when you say he "fails our troops in Afghanistan" and I can't find anything anywhere citing him saying the military is "broken".

First of all YOU do not work for DoD...I do.
Obama's defense cuts are just right -- latimes.com

How many did HE send to die in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Are you serious? Do you know what the CinC does? Atleast 20,000...what rock have you been living under?

 

[acts]

If not a photo op then why did he take the photographers and press? He is a phony bastard running his lefty con. Smells of his handlers...axelrod, emanuel and fatassmichelle.

 

[QUENTIN]

Another one of the duped!!!!!!

He didn't cut the military budget, not sure what you mean when you say he "fails our troops in Afghanistan" and I can't find anything anywhere citing him saying the military is "broken".

First of all YOU do not work for DoD...I do.
Obama's defense cuts are just right -- latimes.com

Read your article. Not just the misleading headline.

From what you posted:

President Obama released his $534-billion military budget proposal weeks ago, but Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates fleshed it out Monday by listing specific programs to be cut or expanded. The plan would increase spending by 4% over fiscal 2009, though judging from the reaction of congressional hawks, one would think the Pentagon were being gutted. Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) commented in a blog post from Afghanistan that "President Obama is disarming America" and betraying our troops abroad. The fear-mongering won't end there.

Still, the opposition in Congress has a lot more to do with money than with national security concerns.

He cut individual weapons programs and substituted them with additional funding for other defense programs like increasing special forces and giving servicemembers a raise. On the whole, he increased the defense department's baseline budget to $534 billion, with an additional $130 for the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the $7.5 from the stimulus package. That's not including the additional $75.5 billion he got for the second half of 2009. His final defense budget is $680 billion, an increase any way you cut it.

On the fact that it's an increase, why and how it was dishonestly or ignorantly reported as a "cut":


Baseline 2010 Defense Department budget of $534 billion is up 4% from last year

White House Draws Line on Defense Budget

The "defense cut" falsehood from The Washington Post and Robert Kagan

Best of all from your department: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12652

The proposed DoD base budget represents an increase of $20.5 billion over the $513.3 billion enacted for fiscal 2009. This is an increase of 4 percent

 

[PatekPhilippe]

My my my...reread this line....

"You do not work for the DoD...I do."

Now please shut up. I know my operational budget here in the USN has been slashed by 17% this fiscal year....our fuel budget has been cut by 23% this fiscal year....and the dollar has tanked causing any increase to be eaten up by inflation.

Have a nice day.

 

[LibocalypseNow]

If it wasn't a Photo-Op why were all the cameras there? Pretty simple question no? Oh that's right,his lackeys told the NY Times they were there to "Teach" the American People about what war means. What a despicable load of excrement! As usual the Liberal creeps over at the NY Times lapped that excrement right up. Hey Hopey Changey,save your stupid "Teaching" chit for all your dimwitted sheeple ok? I don't need a failed "Community Organizer" teaching me anything. So according to the warped Hopey Changeys,this was a Photo-Op but it really wasn't. What a scam.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Liberals DO NEED to be taught what war means.....they think soldiers and the military are to be used for political gain in the House, Senate and the White House.