statement presidential candidate Barack Obama directed at U.S. military personnel fighting al Qaeda and Taliban remnants in Afghanistan. The AP story, “Obama Gets Warning From Friendly Voter,” reported that “voter” Maggie North of Claremont, New Hampshire, warned Obama that he needed to avoid public disputes and nasty exchanges with his Democratic rivals if he wanted to be considered different or a “fresh” alternative to the usual political nastiness associated with Washington DC. All but one paragraph of the AP story dealt with Obama’s verbal exchanges with opponents, how campaigns “thicken a candidate’s skin,” and the evil influence of Washington lobbyists.The one paragraph that should have stood out to readers and received the most attention was not analyzed at all in the AP report or challenged in any way as to its accuracy by the news organs that published it. It contained a slap in the face to U.S. troops in Afghanistan but was effectively obscured by the report’s focus only on the naïve and ill-advised confrontations Obama has engaged in with his party rivals.
Obama has frequently criticized the war effort in Iraq, claiming that he would pull troops out of Iraq and redeploying them in Afghanistan or sending them into Pakistan in pursuit of the Taliban and al Qaeda. His Democratic rivals and conservatives alike rightfully repudiated his stated intent to send troops into Pakistan with or without Pakistani President Musharraf’s approval. Yet during a campaign stop in Nashua, NH yesterday, Obama made a specious claim against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, accusing them in John Kerry-esque manner, of murdering innocents in a foreign land. When asked about pulling troops out of Iraq to fight elsewhere, Obama made the following comment about Afghanistan:
We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we'renot just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.
The question that reporters and potential voters who speak to Obama on the campaign trail should be asking is, “Where do you get your information about what our troops are doing in Afghanistan?” The oft-repeated and never proven claim that our troops are bombing and killing civilians in Afghanistan or Iraq are mainstays of anti-American news sources such as Al-Jazeera, but do not match U.S. military reports of daily actions in either of those countries. On this issue perhaps more than any other, Obama demonstrated knowledge starvation while a virtual feast of front line data was available to him from those actually doing the fighting.
It is no small thing for a presidential candidate to accuse the military of killing civilians and fanning the flames of anti-Americanism in Afghanistan, but the AP apparently felt his comments about lobbyists and having “thick skin” during a campaign were more newsworthy than the knife he plunged into the backs of our troops on the front lines in the War on Terror. Perhaps such daggers have become so common from Obama’s party that certain news organizations no longer consider them unusual or significant enough to cover properly. Our troops, on the other hand, have long memories and do not suffer lightly such accusations or blatant disrespect.
John Kerry “swift-boated” his own 2004 presidential campaign by opening his
mouth in 1971 and falsely accusing his fellow Vietnam servicemen of committing atrocities against, and killing, civilians. That well-documented testimony to Congress was replayed throughout 2004 on conservative talk radio and served as a constant reminder to potential voters of Kerry’s true feelings toward the military and those who served in the Vietnam War far longer and with more honor than he did. Obama’s false accusation that our troops are now killing civilians in Afghanistan should likewise hang as a proverbial albatross around his campaign’s neck throughout his presumptuous run for the presidency.Technorati Tags:
Barack Obama, Afghanistan, US Troops, Redeployment, Civilian Deaths, John Kerry, War Crimes, Swift Boat Veterans, US Military, Presidential Candidates, New Hampshire
3 comments:
Apart from such noted sources as Reuters, the BBC and AP themselves raising the question of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the Afghan president warning US and NATO forces about the Afghanistan population's poor view of the continuing civilian deaths and Jan de Hoop-Scheffer, the NATO commander, admitting civilian casualties, apart from all that you are quite right.
Support the troops, believe only US military reports.
Boy,
If you go to www.newsbusters.org and perform a search for any of the media sources you cited above, you will find examples of inaccurate reporting, fabricated stories, and documented political agendas. If Obama relies solely on those sources for his "intel" on what is occurring in Afghanistan, then he is woefully uninformed. Perhaps he should visit the countries he criticizes and spend some time observing conditions there and chatting with our troops.
The fact in Afghanistan is that the vast majority of "civilian deaths" are the result of actions by Taliban remnants and al Qaeda elements rather than indiscriminate or, as Obama suggests, irresponsible bombing of civilians by US forces. Have some civilian casualties resulted from bombings? Yes, but not in the context Obama implied with his comments in NH. Obama wants to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. If the civilians in Afghanistan have a "poor view" of on-going anti-terror efforts in that country, how pleased do you think they would be when tens of thousands of US troops fly in from Iraq? If creating favorable public opinion in Afghanistan is the goal for Obama, then that is surely not a way to achieve it.
My point with Obama's sources was merely to ask what they are. From whence cometh his briefings on conditions in Iraq or Afghanistan? Should a US Senator running for president rely more on biased media sources for his intel than he does on the US military and US intelligence community? If you believe the media is a better source, then we have a fundamental disagreement. Nevertheless, I welcome your contribution to the debate and thank you for commenting.
90% of military intelligence comes from public sources, and despite bias in presenting a story the facts will always be the facts.
Your original post had the quote "Obama made a specious claim against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, accusing them in John Kerry-esque manner, of murdering innocents in a foreign land." Well, they have. I mean, this isn't even worth debating. Whether or not the US servicemen responsible should face murder charges is questionable, but that they intended to kill their target and that that target was not an enemy combatant there can be no doubt.
We can debate whether or not there should be more troops in Afghanistan until the cows come home, and as my speciality is intelligence and not planning I do not intend to enter that discussion.
But as for who I trust more, the media or the military, well that should be obvious. Whilst I realise that there is a liberal bias in the media that does not prevent me from going to the original source of a story, of finding differing views, of finding contradictory facts and publicising them. And whilst I realise that the military protects its own at the expense of the truth, that does not stop me from going to alternative sources, etc.
In short, there is no difference between military and media, both should be treated as sources of information rather than the sole wellspring of truth. _Never_ sucker yourself into believing one source over others. That is lazy and blinkered. It can also lead to really stupid decisions, like ignoring all evidence from the ISG in favour of three lines of a radio transcript and the testimony of one army officer to support the case for Iraqi WMDs. I had a simpler proof of the non-existence of WMDs which my betters refused to listen to. The existence of Kurds in Iraq. Still, one lives and learns. Consult every source possible, accept nothing at face value, question your beliefs daily and you'll do alright.
By the way, your troops are being shot at and blown up daily. I think someone in the US accusing some of their fellows of murder is the least of their worries.
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