Silent wingnuts the world over just “missed” this testimony:
Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey, testifying on troop strain before the Senate Armed Forces Committee Tuesday, said there is “no reason to doubt” Sen. Barack Obama’s military shortage story during CNN’s debate in Austin, Texas, last week.
***War supporters have challenged the story, but Casey said he had “no reason to doubt what it is the captain says.”
“We acknowledged and we all worked together to correct the deficiencies with equipment that we saw during that period, not only Afghanistan but in Iraq,” he said in response to the question posed by Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a longtime supporter of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.
Both Sen. Graham and Sen. Warner tried to play politics with this, and the Army Chief of Staff backed Obama. That has to smart.
So, to recap, Obama didn’t make the Captain up, he most likely was telling the entire truth, and Iraq did distract us from Afghanistan. In other news, water is wet. But hey, nutters- someone just emailed me something claiming Obama was a stealth muslim!
horatius
I think the right word is double secret muslim. That’s what Obama is.
BTW, I heard Mike Tyson and OJ said they’ll vote for Obama. When is Obama going to denounce convicted rapists and wife-killers? Let me read a quote by OJ, and will Obama denounce and condemn this quote? blah blah blah
The Other Steve
Oh hell… I heard John McCain is going to ask David Duke to be his VP to buff up on his anti-immigrant credentials.
PaulW
Do you want to know the horrifying truth?! The real, God’s-Own-Words truth about Obama?!?!
He’s a secret Purplebelly.
That’s right! He fought for the Alliance at the Battle of Serenity Valley! Can any of you Browncoats say you can vote for the man now?! How can you?!
…
Okay, so I’m trying to screw around with teh geek vote…
Zifnab25
This only proves that General Casey has been compromised by our enemies(*).
* Enemies may consist of the Democratic Party, anti-war activisits, intelligent military strategists, anyone who didn’t kiss Rumsfeld’s ass, the reality based community, and occationally reality itself.
Grand Moff Texan
The Bushtards staked their military credibility on dismissing this story.
So much for their military credibility.
.
Halteclere
I’m sure Gen. Casey isn’t politically naive, and realizes that Graham was playing politics by trying to get Casey to impugn someone who has a good chance of being Casey’s future Commander-in-Chief.
I’m not saying that such calculations are the reason Gen. Casey said what he said – I have no reason to suspect that Casey would not tell the truth in any other situation. But as the selection for a new CinC draws closer, I can see career military people being less willing to be used as political pawns for the current administration (and those who still defend the current administration).
libarbarian
Not if that violates SOP. Violating SOP is impossible.
Anyone who has ever served would know that it all operates like a well-oiled machine that never skips a beat – take it from someone who hasn’t.
cleek
BUT!BUTBUTB!B!BUT!!! Obama said all of this stuff happened last week, not in 2003! and he said our soldiers were torturing Taliban prisoners and looting weapons from the dead Obama hates America and is going to turn it into a Islamocommie reeducation center! he wants to be the second coming of teh Che! CHEHCHE!
Dork
This is certainly bad news for the Democrats.
Dave
Why does General Casey hate America?
Punchy
So….I went to Amy Proctor’s website to see how she’d spin it, and I instead came across this in the comments, discussing how nothing of real value was looted from the Iraqi museums during the initial invasion.
Anyone heard this before?
RandyH
Um, John- O/T but you’ll love this
.
TheFountainHead
Well duh, Obama stood up for the constitution last night by acknowledging that he hadn’t in that case, and we all know how wary the neo-cons get when you start talking about defending THAT piece of well-preserved toilet paper.
Davis X. Machina
Anyone heard this before?
Yes, but not in Iraq…
Compare the 12 ancilia ordered made by Numa Pompilius, legendary second king of ancient Rome.
jcricket
Somehow this is good for the Republicans. And it proves their point. And 9/11 changed everything.
zzyzx
Yeah, I wish you had kept watching John. I started reading this site during the Schiavo fiasco. At the time I just thought, “Wow, here’s a conservative saying what I am about this.” Little did I know that that would be the action that would lead you to our side.
Timb
I emaield John a link and text to a story from the NY Times Sunday edition where a Airborne captain doing one of the toughest things I have read about in years desribes one of his men of “lost it” in Iraq and burning down Iraqi homes when they claimed not to know anything. The Cpt said this guy had gone through treatment and was on meds and things seemed better,
BUT could you imagine if Scott Beauchamp said combat veterans shot civilians and burned down homes willy-nilly?
The link is here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/magazine/24afghanistan-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin
Some time today, as we get caught up in the minutiae of our own lives, we should take a moment to think of the young officers and enlisted men we send to try to untie the Gordian Knot. Cpt. Kearny’s problems seem a little more troublesome than mine.
TheFountainHead
On that note, I’m not really sure why Obama chose to pull out the Schiavo vote last night as one he got back. Perhaps it’s because he, or someone close to him, saw that that actually was a crystalizing moment for moderate republicans and republican-leaning moderates, and he needed to come down on the right side of it. Or maybe it just genuinely was the one vote he’d take back. Or both. Either way I thought it was really an interesting choice of topics to bring up.
Neal
Yep, this just means the General hates America and our troops.
Oh, wait, he is a “troop”?
Shit.
Honestly guys, it’s just like anything else with these idiots. Bitch bitch bitch about anything a Democrat says and if someone calls them out on it, ignore ignore ignore.
Fucking fucktards.
Scrutinizer
Well, Amy Proctor. She may be a tool of the Evil Empire, but all the same, she’s, you know, kinda hot. I mean, I’d let her tie me up and punish me for being a godless librul.
Just sayin’.
Face
WTF?
SteveinSC
Well, Vahjainyah’s
SenileSenior Senator is still expecting, any minute, now, any minute, now, that they’ll (drool, snooze, snore) find those cash-ay’s of Wepuns of Mahss Distruckshun that his BFF George, our commander in chief has promised him are there. It’s hard to tell who’s a bigger asshole Twinks Graham or the “No fool like and old fool” from Virginia.And by the way didn’t Twinkle Toes the Baghdad Rug Buyer tell us he was going to smack the Eye-rackies with his purse if they didn’t show “real” political progress if the surge worked?
Neal
Personally, I thought it was great. He didn’t have to go there but he did. It shows some real thoughtfulness on his part. I love his rationale too – that as a professor of constitutional law, he should have known better. His demeanor with stuff like this always impresses me.
I also thought he handled the “are you the most liberal member of the Senate?” question extremely well. Great response.
TheFountainHead
I agree completely. His brand of humility is so unbelievably refreshing in light of the last eight years. Even Hillary cannot muster it herself.
jrg
John, John, John…
You’re missing the point. The secret to winning a war is to believe that you’re winning.
Just like science – all you have to do is believe what your
witch doctorpastor says, and all questions are answered.Evidence is for liberals. Blind submission to authority is the way, the light, and a means to liberty and absolute truth. Ask Kim Jong Ill or Pat Robertson.
Clearly the Army Chief of Staff is letting “facts on the ground” cloud his judgment. We’ll never be able to wish ourselves into victory with a doubting Thomas like this around.
We need a surge of puppies, ponies, rainbows, and patriotic flair to win in Iraq! Someone give this man a cheerful Powerpoint presentation, stat!
Martin
John needs to clap harder.
Tsulagi
Easy explanation. Casey and that captain are not part of the patriot wingnut pipeline formed enabling them to see The Big Picture completely illuminated. At the end of their big picture pipeline, an incandescent bulb shining on Cheney’s ass. Nothing distracts them from their focus on that.
tBone
I’m thinking you weren’t burdened with an overabundance of schoolin’. So why don’t we just ignore each other til’ we go away?
Jake
Yes, dummies made a real long time ago like 6,000 B.C. And, and, and then, Saddam Barak Obama Hussein hid the WMD in the real museum pieces and smuggled them all to Obama bin Laden’s caves!
Speaking of dummies, Amy…
Bubblegum Tate
Yeah, that’s a head-scratcher to me as well. The best theory I can come up with is that it’s wingnutese for “partial-birth abortion ban.”
Jake
It makes me think of a car seat or something.
But let’s leave the fRighties to their own devices in their race to create bathos or fear every time they speak. As much as it may pain us to watch them ravage the language, they’re well on their way to isolating themselves from the rest of the world.
For English, Press 1.
Para Espanol, Marke El Numero Dos.*
For Double Plus Protectified fRightWing Speechifying, Hang Up And Scream Real Loud.
*Sorry, this is my best guess.
binzinerator
from Amy Proctor’s web site:
You’d think if she was so super christian and all, she’d be interested in Jesus’ message of peace. Or if she was so hyper catholic, she’d agree with the Pope about this war, and on war in general. You know, that whole sanctity-of-life starting-from-conception thing that the Catholic Church specializes in. (That refusal to take to heart the Pope’s condemnations of the war didn’t keep her from putting “I Heart the Pope” on her web site.) For the love of a genuinely loving Christ, at the very least you’d think someone who boasts of being so fucking proud of being Jesus’ follower would have at least some misgivings about war.
But no. This is a republican christian. These kind of christians are against peace.
“Stood against the anti-war movement“. How the fuck can you brag about how Christian you are and then say something like that?
A proud follower of Christ who protests against peace, harasses people who want peace, and supports war. You’d think that level of cognitive dissonance would create some kind of inner conflict with her faith and conscience to the point of mental illness.
Why are fundie republican christians so devoid of any sense of their own hypocrisy? You really have to be really fucking stupid to be unaware of such moronic hypocrisy. Or be paid to be that unaware.
So what’s Amy’s angle?
There ya go. The bushies are funding christian cheerleaders to cheer on their dirty little war.
Why are taxpayers funding this war-mongering hypocrite? Or any religious organization, for that matter? Fuck Bush and his conservative religious assholes, these christian hypocrites like Amy Proctor.
John Rohan
Well, I guess I’m a “tool” like Amy Proctor, but some of us decided to read up a littl further.
First of all, Casey didn’t say he agreed with the story. He said: “I have no reason to doubt what it is the captain said”.
Incidentally, there is a little more to the story that you don’t get from the CNN piece. And this doesn’t come from some right-wing site but from the Huffington Post:
I hear crickets chirping…