GOP Sen. Leader Mitch McConnell Belittles Deaths of Troops

Election Central:

Uh oh -- looks like GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has got a problem on his hands. Check out what he said about the death of American troops in Iraq in a meeting with constituents this week, according to Kentucky's Grayson County News-Gazette:

Unfortunately, most of our friends on the other isle are having a hard time admitting things are getting better; some days I almost think the critics of this war don't want us to win. Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.

Read the whole story: Election Central

Comments

[SeriousBlack]

12:45 AM on 12/11/2007

Yet another revealing comment from that paragon of Republican virtue, "Beady-Eyes" McConnell.

[pkpeapod1]

06:10 PM on 12/10/2007

Truly remarkable! It is amazing that these people are able to put one foot in front of the other every day. If McConnell would check his facts, I believe a great number of the full-time professional soldiers in Iraq are actually reservists and National Guard. I for one don't believe that full-time professional soldiers should die, but to say that they are all there because they want to be is absolute poppycock.

[schatsie]

02:32 PM on 12/10/2007

Oh my gosh, he meant that we have more Blackwater folks there than anything else....and they have signed on for this...let alone that Black water feeds money to the GOPs to keep this fake war for oil going.

[JAMES GORMAN]

10:58 AM on 12/10/2007

MITCH MCCONNEL IS THE SAME BITTER BREW AS DONALD RUMSFELD--THEY SPEAK OF TROOPS AS SOME
KIND OF COMMODITY WHO CAN BE TREAT AT WILL
WITH NO SENSE OF PLAIN FAIRNESS. WE ARE NOT AT
WILL THE MASTERS OF SOLDIERS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY
SIGN-UP TO BE OUR PAWNS ON THE FRONT LINE. WE OWE THEM ASSURANCES OF REASONABLE DEMANDS IN
CONFLICT, CLEAR PURPOSES TO THE EXPENSE OF LIFE
AND FORTUNES--AND CERTAINLY THE GAURANTEE THAT IF THEY GET BLOWN APART, THEY GET FULL CARE AND REMUNERATION FOR THEIR LIVES. THEY ARE NOT
GEO BUSH OR CHENEY'S DOMINO'S TO EXCHANGE AT
WILL--BUT WHAT WOULD TWO OLD DRAFT-DODGERS
DO WITH AN ARMY ANYWAY?? J.MC CORMICK

[BC33]

10:47 AM on 12/10/2007

He is very prissy. I can wait until Larry Flynt exposing him for the closet queen he is.

[Kendo Nagasaki]

10:30 AM on 12/10/2007

We should perhaps invite all illegal immigrants to join the army and fight in Iraq.

We might then hear a reverse giant sucking sound.

[jingodoz]

09:50 AM on 12/10/2007

That's the way many people feel about professional politicians.

[Ashraft]

08:52 AM on 12/10/2007

Cyborgs controlled by the Upright Citizen's Brigade.

[VOTER]

07:59 AM on 12/10/2007

http://www.ditchmitchky.com

GO KY!

[Bongborg]

06:54 AM on 12/10/2007

This loser served a grand total of five weeks in the Army Reserve in 1967. He don't know jackshit about full-time professional soldiers

[Driver125]

01:30 AM on 12/10/2007

Every time I see his waxen face on TV he reminds me of a mole who has been temporarily caught above ground by the spotlights. Then he'll spout some ridiculous nonsense for the cameras that usually has only the most tenuous relationship to the reality most of us know before scurrying back underground (or back to whatever hole he resides in), where I assume he awaits the next call from his dark master in the White House to come out and speak for the GOP. Each time more sorry and pathetic than the last....

[VernonC]

11:56 PM on 12/09/2007

I presume most of the comments are from people in Kentucky because it went over their heads as does any comment of more than two or three words. Perhaps he should have said, as Senator Kerry did, that military personnel are in Iraq/Afghanistan because they are dumb. He was quickly forgiven but McConnell said they are full-time professional soldiers, apparently more insulting than saying they are dumb so he won't be forgiven. Liberals want us to believe that all soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors are lonely, homesick and terrified boys, cowering in their squalid trenches, but that is not so, the vast majority take their job, the military, seriously, no differently than others who face danger on a daily basis, e.g., policemen and firemen. Liberals, of course, picture policemen as cowering in doughnut shops and firemen in the loft at their stations. Military service is a job, it is not summer scout camp. Young members of the military utilize sophisticated military equipment and learn responsibility and dedication while their less ambitious peers are learning the fast food business. Does anyone think that a military pilot is less professional than an airline pilot? The vast majority of military officers are college educated and fit the definition of professionals as much as any member of the legal and medical professions.
McConnell is a jerk but people twisting his words are worse.

[susie1776]

11:03 PM on 12/09/2007

The majority of the troops fighting in Iraq are "citizen soldiers", in other words.....National Guardsman....NOT Professional Soldiers. But what difference does that make??? A human life is a human life. One is not more valuable than another. What a scumbag McConnell is! This is his version of "supporting the troops"???

[ClevelandTom]

05:22 PM on 12/09/2007

This highlights the fundamental problem with an all-volunteer military. It makes it politically easier for the administration (of either party) to get us into and keep us in ill-advised wars. Most of the public doesn't feel the impact and becomes passive about even stupid wars like Iraq.

I understand the military's need to retain people because of the level of training required but I really think we need to find a way to get back to the citizen-soldier approach that was used up until the late-70's.

If Bush has taught us anything, it is that we need restraints on the executive branch.

[MikeDu]

05:11 PM on 12/09/2007

Uh... so we're supposed to act *surprised* to read the GOP doesn't value the lives of the troops? well d'uh.
Do I have to remind you the ONLY reason why we were hurried into Iraq was because the neocons needed a jolly war to get their hands on presidential warpowers for domestic political purposes? Every dead soldier in Iraq gave his life so George Bush could ignore all constitutional checks. Tell me neocons, was it worth the cost?