From Senator who got "Misled": too few to fight, too many to die

[SLClemens]

http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/111303/LOCvoices.shtml


Voices of Carolina: The truth about Iraq

Voices of Carolina

The author is U.S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings.

The majority leader of the Senate, Mike Mansfield, quietly opposed the war in Vietnam for years. He had a practice of writing memos in opposition to the war to Presidents Johnson and Nixon while publicly supporting the war on the floor of the Senate.

But finally, when Cambodia was invaded under President Nixon, he snapped. Going on television, he said Vietnam was a mistake from the get-go.

The next day he received a letter from an admirer who had just lost her son. She said: "I just buried my son to come home and watch you say that the Vietnam War was a mistake from the beginning. Why didn't you speak out sooner?"

I came to the Senate in 1966, and if Mansfield, an expert on the Far East, had spoken out at that time, we might have saved 50,000 lives.

I have reached my "Cambodian moment." In August and September 2002, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld all cautioned that Saddam was reconstituting a nuclear program.

On Sept. 8, the vice president said that we "know with absolute certainty" that this was what Saddam was about. On Oct. 7, President Bush went further, saying, "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof - the smoking gun - that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

Four days later, I voted for the Iraq resolution. I was misled. Saddam was not reconstituting a nuclear program, and in no way was he connected to 9/11. There were no terrorists in Baghdad, no weapons of mass destruction, and Saddam was no threat to our national security. Iraq was not a part of the war on terrorism.

Now we have another Vietnam. Just as President Johnson misled us into Vietnam, President Bush has misled us into Iraq.

As in Vietnam, they have not met us in the streets hailing democracy. Thousands of miles away, we are once again "fighting for the hearts and minds."

Again, we are trying to build and destroy.

Again, we are bogged down in a guerrilla war.

Again, we are not allowing our troops to fight and win - we do not have enough troops.

Again, we can't get in, can't get out.

Again, instead of Vietnamizing Vietnam, we are trying to Iraqify Iraq. And already, with Rumsfeld's memo, we have the Pentagon papers.

Once more we are blaming intelligence. It's not bad intelligence; it's because we refuse to listen to good intelligence, like that from Gen. Brent Scowcroft.

We had plenty of warnings. Iraq was under sanctions. We were overflying the north and the south; and you can bet your boots Israel knew whether or not Saddam had nuclear systems. Its survival depends on knowing.

Iraq was no more a part of the war on terrorism than North Korea.

If the troops are to fight, there are too few. If they are to die, there are too many.

My goal is to stop the killing and injuring of our GIs. To support the troops, we need more troops - at least 100,000 more. Get in, clean out Baghdad and the Sunni triangle. Get law and order. Then get a constitution and victory.

But since Gen. Eric Shinseki said we need "several hundred thousand troops," Secretary Rumsfeld is determined not to send troops, but to argue structure. "Operation Meatgrinder" continues.

Apparently, the game plan is to give 200,000 hungry Iraqis a uniform, a square meal, and then announce we have security and leave. We'll end up with exactly what Secretary Rumsfeld said we wouldn't have - a Shiite democracy, or another Iran. And, of course, a lot more terrorism.

For the first time in history, this administration, this Congress, will not pay for the war. And for the Guardsmen we are sending this time, Washington hopes they don't get killed so that they can hurry back and be given the bill. We are not going to pay for it; we need a tax cut.

We should have listened to former President "Papa" Bush, who wrote in

"A World Transformed," "We should not march into Baghdad ... turning the whole Arab world against us ... assigning young soldiers ... to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war."

 

[jimnyc]

I suppose he does care about our young soldiers, as long as they fit his stereotypes...

By Rush Limbaugh

After the abominable, partisan Enron hearing chaired by Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings on Tuesday, I was on the lookout for an issue this embarrassment to South Carolina could oversee with credibility. Well, I think I've found an issue he - with former paid KKK recruiter Robert Byrd (D-WV) sitting by his side - could hold with credibility. Here it is: a supermarket in Pennsylvania advertised a sale on fried chicken in honor of Black History Month, causing outrage.

Now, I don't know when this became an insult, but because of the stereotype, it is. Nor do I know what kind of brain is associated with the marketing department of this store. You have to wonder where people's heads are. This, as I say, is a Senate hearing just waiting to happen - and Hollings and Byrd are two guys eminently qualified to handle it.

What's the resume of 'ole Fritz Hollings? Let's bring his record to the forefront here, because while the media loves to accuse certain Republicans of racism, we never, ever, ever hear about guys like Hollings and Byrd. What I'm saying may offend some of you, but you need to hear it. First, I remember when good old boy, Fritz, called Senator Howard Metzenbaum "the Senator from B'nai B'rith."

Furthermore, Hollings once labeled all Latinos "wet backs." He has also called blacks by the offensive, racist term "darkies." Nor does the senator's bigotry stop at the water's edge. He actually joked about African heads of state being cannibals. Can you imagine if any Republican had uttered even one of these slurs? They'd be run out of town - and if by some miscarriage of justice they weren't, you can guarantee the media would mention these statements (and Byrd's KKK leadership position) in every article ever written. Instead, this is probably the first you're hearing of this.

Finally, we know a big deal has been made of the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina state capitol building. Have you ever wondered who put that flag there? As first disclosed here a long time ago, it was then-governor "Fritz" Hollings who hoisted that flag - which the NAACP calls a symbol of racism and oppression - into the air. So where are the protests of Hollings? He put the flag up there! It was not some Republican, and it was certainly not Pat Buchanan.

To this day, I'm not aware of any reporter who has confronted Hollings about his role in the flag hoisting. Heck, I'm not even aware of one softball question, never mind a confrontation! No, as they chased down that scandal of the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina statehouse, the mainstream press led us to believe that it was some evil Republican who hoisted the flag and kept it flying.

Look, Hollings can say what he wants about George W. Bush, but I know this for sure: Bush is no bigot. I don't know if we can say that about Senator Hollings, given these comments that he's made. I don't know that we can say it about Robert Byrd, given his high position in the KKK. But I do know this: the Republican Party has disowned David Duke. Did the Democrats ever disavow David Duke when he was a Democrat? Oh, you didn't know he used to be a Democrat? Well, he was - but the press had no interest in him back then.

Despite all this bigotry - or perhaps because of it - the Democratic Party loves old Fritz. They love Byrd too. They love Byrd so much, they voted this former Klansman to be president pro tem of the Senate, third in line for the presidency. There's such a double standard here. For crying out loud, how many times have we heard these liberal Democrats get away with saying things that are traditional insults?

I'll betcha a Democrat could have gotten away with that fried chicken ad at the food store. Why, it sounds like it could've been Fritz Hollings' idea! Yet this is the guy looking into Enron. He's the one who's going to find justice for all Americans. I guess this is what the Democrats mean by having a big hood, er, tent. They welcome bigots and former Klansman, and never say a word of criticism against them.

It's just one more reason to be a Republican, folks.

http://www.burlingtongop.org/National News Archive 2002/good_old_fritz.htm

(linked to this site because Rush's site is a members pay site which I don't have access to)

 

[SLClemens]

Thanks for the interesting post. If this duped bigot can see the truth about what's happening in Iraq maybe there's hope for others.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by SLClemens
Thanks for the interesting post. If this duped bigot can see the truth about what's happening in Iraq maybe there's hope for others.

Maybe this duped bigot is speaking his OPINIONS to further the interest of his political party. Sounds like someone who I would take seriously.

 

[SLClemens]

Originally posted by jimnyc
Maybe this duped bigot is speaking his OPINIONS to further the interest of his political party. Sounds like someone who I would take seriously.

This is very possible. If that's the case, then thankfully more Democrats are standing up and demanding answers and their cowardly leaders are emerging from their hiding places to question why the hell we went into Iraq, rather than fretting about saying something that might possibly be construed as unpatriotic.