Boehner's "Small Price"

Just yesterday on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked John Boehner, the leader of the GOP in the House, this question (video on Horse's Mouth):

"The loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month, how much longer do you think this commitment, this military commitment is going to require?"

And Mr. Boehner responded:

"The investment that we're making today will be a small price if we're able to stop al Qaeda here, if we're able to stabilize the Middle East, it's not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids."

What a stunningly cavalier statement about the lives of the young men and women who serve our country.

Whether you support or oppose the Bush escalation, no American should ever for even a moment think the cost of war is small.

A single life is a large price to pay for any endeavor. Sometimes, in our national interest, we choose to pay that awful price, but we must always make sure that the policy is worthy of it.

Visit our wounded warriors at Walter Reed hospital and ask whether the price they paid was small. Talk to the mothers, fathers, husbands and wives of those who have been killed and ask them to measure the price of war. Young lives stopped short, children who won't have a mother or father there as they grow up, when they graduate, when they get married -- that loss is many things, but it is not small.

Where is Representative Boehner's apology? And where is an Iraq policy equal to our soldiers' tremedous sacrifice?

Comments

[CarmanK]

Such callous disregard for the "sacrifices" made by American families by Boehner is no surprise. The invasion of Iraq was orchestrated by men measure people's worth by the amount of money they have in the bank. I want to know, Did the Iraqui people at the time of the election of Maliki, vote for a timeline for withdrawal of American troops and if so, why has this position been muzzled when Bush harps on the fact that the Maliki govt is duly elected? And why has this vote (if it occurred) been overlooked by the Democrats in their arguements for the timeline for withdrawal as being the wishes of the Iraqui people as supported by the referendum.

[susanlno]

And where is your vote to defund the illegal war on Iraq, Senator?

[GeorgiaBlue]

Rep "Boner"! How fitting is his name, it's spelled with an O, but he chooses to pronounce it with an A! I can't believe his comment about a "small price", for what???? So America is less safe, more hated, bankrupt and in debt to a billion Chinese who are rapidly building up their massive military and joining forces with Russia? Just shows how Republican know- nothings who are sacrificing nothing put their own welfare from their corporate bosses above that of the American public, our brave military who are forced to carry out their orders and keep quiet about their feelings. Guiliani getting exorcised about a newspaper ad and demanding that Hillary apologize? How twisted is that? "Boner" should not only apologize, but be required to meet those "fallen angels" coming in to Dover and tell their parents that their loved one's life is just a "small price". He is an outrageous, ignorant, uncaring pig at the public trough and should be run out of town on a rail.

[Blink2X]

Since Mr. Boehner is such a dedicated supporter of this fiasco..perhaps he should encourage his two daughters to don some gear and jump into the fray..it's a small price to pay.

[oogabooga]

Did Bohner ever fight in a war? Or is he just another chest-thumping chickenhawk? Aint no glory in war bud.

[tandrmcdonald]

Boehner thinks squandering the lives of our men and women in uniform is a small price. Fine let's hand this blow-dried mutt an M-16 and let him go over to Iraq and pay part of it.
Gramma Rose

[NotMyPrez]

Just curious, why you did not mention the preceding question to Boehner right before ?

"How much longer will U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $2 billion a week or $3 billion a week as some now are suggesting the cost is going to endure? "

Seems now taking that in to consideration he was talking more about money and less about cost of lives, or as is want to be, being ambiguous at best. Just saying.

[Violababy]

Just called Boehner's office. Talked to a flunky, told said flunky I'm an Ohio voter, and asked if he will be explaining himself today for his remark Yesterday that the price we're paying in Iraq is worth it.

She argued that he was talking in a financial sense--the price being the money spent!! I told her his remark is not being interpreted that way here in Ohio or across the country, and that over sixty years ago my father was killed in WWII. Our family was shattered, we paid a terrible price for his loss and I still feel it. My mother was left with no money and all her hopes and dreams for a bright future for her two girls were smashed. And that was a war deemed worth fighting for--a war that people felt was worth the sacrifice--unlike the horrible disaster that is Bush's war.

I said Ohio voters will decide on his future and hers too--because when an elected official goes down his staff goes down too.

[NotMyPrez]

"Stop Al Qaeda here"...as in Iraq? Boehner lives in a bubble- when most of the foreign fighters/insurgents/bombers are streaming in from neighboring Arab States, where exactly is "here"?
This corporate meat-grinder kow-towing attitude is indicative of all these hawks who know nothing of the humility involved in serving and dying for one's country, not to mention the sheer hubris in thinking the US can "stabilize" the Middle East when, for centuries, greater empires and nations have tried unsuccessfully. Did France try to "stabilize" the US during the Revolution? Did Germany? Did Spain?
Please, we must stop this unmitigated arrogance, people like Boehner need to be flipping burgers or greeting at Walmart and not making decision that affect the world.

Politicians ( present company excluded, as I know you have had battle field experience in a previous unpopular war) are not Statesmen anymore- they are cheerleading Yes-Men ( and women ).
We need to resuscitate the truth of the matter. We need stop letting Casey run the locomotive and pull the emergency brake. Iraq should be an independent democratic nation ( if that's what they want), and they should have all the help available- but they have to be responsible for cleaning up their own backyard.
Time to kick out the crutches and let em walk on their own. Thank you Senator.

[Purple Girl]

Yes John we need to get out. Out from under this tyrannical administration first. Get US out of Iraq (and the middle east) but also get Bush/Cheney and fiends out of the White House !! That ignorant Emperor is stuttering is junk do the aisle towards Iran, with his henchman penguin waddling behind him feeding him his lines. They ae the stumbling block to progress. their the embodiment of the "insurgency" sabotaging all construction- their blowing up the water treatment plants (figuratively) and we're all getting Cholera. Break the insurgency that has invaded our Executive branch and steadily seeping into our other two reserves.

[easyrider1969]

Why isn't the Mayor Malloy of Stamford running for Congress vs. bush rubber-stamp, Shays?
Instead the Fairfield dems surrender and plan on running some kid no one has heard of.

[diogeron]

I called Boehner's office a few weeks ago after one of his outrageous comments and asked if he had served in the military. The staffer who answer the question (a woman) told me he had been in the Navy. After I read his bio on his web site, I noticed there was no mention of military service, a strange omission, I thought. When I called back to re-confirm, they refused to answer my question. In short, they lied.

[JNagarya]

I think it can be assumed with significant certainty that Congressman Bonehead spoke truthfully -- for himself and his patriotic party-before-country flag-waving: it's a small price for Bonehead, and all the other Republican't-find-the-time-to-enlist chickenhawks, who are unctuously forthright in their patriotic zeal to sacrifice the lives of others for political gain.

Don't be too hard on them: they're doing the best they can in the face of their overwhelming cowardice.

[win2kpro]

John Boehner has vast military knowledge. He "reportedly" served in the Navy for 8 long WEEKS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boehner

I would guess that he probably has a "bad back" problem that apparently afflicts many republiCONS, it's called yellowstreak backitis.

"Boner" is truly a Bush patriot. He wants to send someone else to do the fighting. Then this bag of monkeyshit has the audacity to say; "The investment that we're making today will be a small price if we're able to stop al Qaeda here, if we're able to stabilize the Middle East, it's not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids."

I doubt that a family that has lost a loved one in the quagmire in which we are now involved would feel that the loss of their loved one was a "small price". This SOB owes an apology for that statement to every family that has lost a loved one.

I can only hope that the good people of Ohio can see through this bastard, and "retire" his ass in 2008.

[reinaldok]

Boehner sure isn't the only one with this surely warped kind of thinking. Have we quickly forgotten Dubya's famous Bring 'Em ON speech. The people of Washington state sure know of George Nethercutt. A long time politician, he was narrowly defeated for the senate in 2004. His most quoted spiel about the Iraqi quagmire, "The story of what we've done in the postwar period is remarkable.-It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day"
During the cold war time I spent two years in the US infantry stationed in the well known Fulda gap in Germany. If at that time there were voices like Boehner, Nethercutt, Bush and their ilk spouting their garbage, I doubt if I would be writing this.