So I'm a "Phony Soldier," Rush?

As Media Matters reported today, Rush Limbaugh, on his show said that those troops who come home and want to get America out of the middle of the religious civil war in Iraq are "phony soldiers." I'd love for you, Rush, to have me on your show and tell that to me to my face.

Where to begin?

First, in what universe is a guy who never served even close to being qualified to judge those who have worn the uniform? Rush Limbaugh has never worn a uniform in his life -- not even one at Mickey D's -- and somehow he's got the moral standing to pass judgment on the men and women who risked their lives for this nation, and his right to blather smears on the airwaves?

Second, maybe Rush doesn't much care, but the majority of troops on the ground in Iraq, and those who have returned, do not back the President's failed policy. If you go to our "Did You Get the Memo" page at VoteVets.org, there's a good collection of stories, polls, and surveys, which all show American's troops believe we are on the wrong track, not the right one, in Iraq.

Does Rush believe, then, that the majority of the US Armed Forces are "phony?"

Third, the polls and stories don't even take into account the former brass who commanded in Iraq, who are incredibly critical of the Bush administration, and it's steadfast refusal to listen to those commanders on the ground who have sent up warning after warning. Major Generals John Batiste and Paul Eaton left the military and joined VoteVets.org for that very reason.

Does Rush believe that highly decorated Major Generals are "phony soldiers?"

Finally, as Media Matters notes, just recently, members of the 82nd Airborne in Iraq wrote a New York Times op-ed, very critical of the course in Iraq, and suggesting it was time to figure out the exit strategy. Two of them just died. Will Rush call up their grieving parents and tell them that they should stop crying, because they were just "phony soldiers?"

Get the point here, Rush?

You weren't just flat out wrong, you offended a majority of those of us who actually had the courage to go to Iraq and serve, while you sat back in your nice studio, coming up with crap like this.

My challenge to you, then, is to have me on the show and say all of this again, right to the face of someone who served in Iraq. I'll come on any day, any time. Not only will I once again explain why your comments were so wrong, but I will completely school you on why your refusal to seek a way out of Iraq is only aiding al Qaeda and crippling American security.

Ball's in your court.

Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz

Comments

[MinneapolisBob]

I hope Armed Forces Radio broadcasts what rush Windbag said, in its entirety, to OUR service personnel over in Iraq. The right wing uses AFR to spread its propaganda: it would be good to know the troops response.

The parents and friends of our brave Iraqi war Vets should let them all know what this draft dodger said about thier fellow Vets.

[Kissydee]

I don't know if you'll read this, but thank you for writing this and thank you for speaking out.

We need more people like you who have actually fought to stand up and tell the truth. I'm sure it can't be easy. Thanks again.

[lthuedk]

Simply put, Rush is a betrayer of the Republic-an aberration who, as a top member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to overthrow the country, set out with the likes of Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and others, to polarize and divide the nation with hate.

They're killing our nation and getting rich in the process.

His destructive fascistic behavior continues to be maximally anti_American, and his brain-dead followers continue to lap up his un-American brew like Hitler's hate-driven brownshirts.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/coulter_limbaugh_oreilly.html

The real phony Americans are on the fascist right, and lately, they are really exposing themselves in a desperate attempt to toss the nation into the pit of a police state, where their hatred of the Republic is expressed through attacks on informed Americans, Liberals, and soldiers with conscience.

In other words, Rush, we see 'ya.

[RCSeattle]

The only thing that keeps Rush going is interest in him. Let's just drop it. He's irrelevant. He has said so many crazy things as that he might as well be ranting on a corner in skid row. He's the Dr. Laura of politcal discourse, totally without merit.

[certainot]

rush and the uncontested repetition of the GOP talk radio monopoly were essential for getting us into iraq.

[HBeachbum]

You are not a phoney soldier Mr. Soltz, just an ignorant veteran buying into the leftist lies. But that is your right.

[lthuedk]

And Tillman was a phony soldier???

http://www.light-to-dark.com/Innocents.html

Limbaugh is so anti-American.

[edgwynn]

You could start by reviewing the original broadcast transcript. "Phony soldiers" was a reference to Jesse MacBeth an the like - men who never served in Iraq, yet were given a platform to condemn the effort. Like Limbaugh or not, that is a simple, indisputable fact.

[NotBob]

Actually, if he's in the military, he's a soldier. I hate to think what you and Rush think of all the other soldiers serving this country throughout the world that are in harm's way but not in Iraq.

Why does Rush, who was never a soldier, never served in Iraq get to have his platform to spew whatever crap comes to his brain about Iraq, but all soldiers who haven't served in Iraq aren't allowed to have an opinion. It seems pretty hypocritical to me but I suppose as a Rush apologist it doesn't concern you at all.

[edgwynn]

An expected and typical response. He was in the Army - boot camp, I believe - for less then a few months and he never served as a Ranger, never served at all, never was in Iraq. Yet, he claimed he did serve in Iraq as a Ranger to give himself credibility for his critique - and the media bought it. When the media found out he was a phony (yes, PHONY), they went silent. This was not the first case of a 'phony' soldier, and it was to these men that Rush referred, nobody else. None of the text I see on this page refers to these facts in any way.

[Carrol]

Let us remember when Mortimer was feeling particularly pissed at the administration and said "I am tired of carrying water for these people..."
In that one sentence he succinctly stated his place in the administration. But I guess he got over it... did he not get a personal date with Bush at the White House? There has never been a bigger shill for arrogance, stupidity, and total disregard for Americans than Limbaugh..­. Hannity is moving into a strong second place.

[goodsnservices]

I marched in the protest against the war in DC a couple of weeks ago. I walked beside a friend who did 2 tours in Vietnam as a Special Forces marine. He is a recipient of the Silver Star and his main 2 jobs were to provide advance scout intelligence and to rescue POWs.

The cowards like Limbaugh who have the nerve to ridicule people like this, no words are low enough to describe them or their motives for being so vile.

[maddogbitesback]

Am I a typical liberal. I was attacking the war before it was initiated. I knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. And I knew that Bush was lying. Now we have real soldiers really saying the problems is much worse since the war began. The Iraq's aren't cheering. They aren't
a democracy - a light on the hill for the rest of the middle east. Now the same tired stuff is being talked about re Iran. But Americans know; "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me." The soldiers want out. They know they are agents of despair for Iraqis and they know their own lives are being ruined even if they get home in one piece. Iraq has cost close to one trillion dollars. That is debt that interest must be paid on. Add that to the price of gasoline and see how you like it. Not only is Iraq in worse shape than when America invaded it but America has lost rights and is despised throughout the world.

[BrighterStar]

There have been ads put on by left wing groups featuring people who claimed to be soldiers who served in Iraq, but were later shown not to have served. These are the soldiers that Rush was referring to. And yes they are phony soldiers. This story is just a typical liberal attack on Rush by taking him out of context.

[consrevil]

Then how do you explain his direct attack on Paul Hackett, who served in Iraq...

Please stop spreading your lies and trying to defend the draft dodging, pill popping Rusty Limpball on these threads. Nobody is buying it.

[MinneapolisBob]

Get your facts right and stop drinking the Kool Aid rush Windbag is feeding the narrow minded right wingers such as yourself.

Doesn't anything Jon Soltz has written in this blog make sense to you? rush Windbag doesn't even qualify to clean our service men and women's latrines much less criticize them. You should be ashamed of yourself defending this excuse of a man.

I bet you were upset about the move-on.org ad, but you defend this diatribe.

[BlueInRed]

Rush might not call Omar Mora's mother and tell her her dead son was "phony," but Bill O'R3iley would.

[rlmcintosh]

Jon - you are better than him. What is disturbing is that by virtue of him being on the air some people accept what he says as an authority. He loves attention regardless of whether it's negative or unproductive. He's a narcissist. I'm glad that you are who you are Jon and that you doing what you are doing. Keep up the good fight.
R.L.

[klosskid]

Now let's not be to harsh on Rush... Although often offensive and usually inaccurate, he saves the right wingers the inconvenience of actually thinking for themselves.

[Trustme77]

Okay, you'll get absolutely no argument from me that Rush deserves nothing but contempt. I'm going to enjoy watching him squirm. I agree that the guys who criticize the war are not "phony soldiers" at all; on the contrary, they're the sanest of everybody in the armed forces. However, I have to disagree with this:

"First, in what universe is a guy who never served even close to being qualified to judge those who have worn the uniform? Rush Limbaugh has never worn a uniform in his life -- not even one at Mickey D's -- and somehow he's got the moral standing to pass judgment on the men and women who risked their lives for this nation, and his right to blather smears on the airwaves?"

I hate to admit that there's anything similar about myself and Rush, but I never served in the military either.

And, as a person who has never served, I judge people who wear the uniform all the time.

I judge General Petraeus, I judge the sadists who ran Abu Ghraib, and I also judge the troops who are over there who didn't do anything criminal but who are big Bush supporters and think that the war was a great idea and that we should stay there.

Those people wear uniforms, but they are not better than me, or you, and I will judge them if I feel like it. They're grunts, not gods, and they're not doing anything to protect me or any of my loved ones by being in Iraq. This stuff about "how dare somebody who's never served judge somebody who has?" gets on my nerves. Soldiers are not superior to civilians.

I want to say this because the next time a soldier who doesn't happen to be very intelligent talks about what a GREAT idea the war is, the same logic ("if you haven't worn a uniform you aren't allowed to criticize") can be used to prevent supposedly lowly civvies like myself from pointing out his stupidity.

[sfpolarbear]

Disagreeing with someone is one thing. Calling then "phony" and disrespecting their service is another matter entirely.

[mamacat]

Why does anyone pay any attention to anything Limbaugh says? By this time, it should be very obvious that listening to him is a complete waste of time.

[Sanjong Thapa]

1) The Clinton-Soros Group Media Matters for America takes Rush out of context. (Rush never called soldiers who oppose the war in Iraq "phony soldiers."­)

2) The Drive-By Media runs with the lie.

3) A reporter challenges President Bush's spokeswoman to repudiate the quote (that Rush never said.)

4) Democrat senators and House members trip over themselves to condemn Rush, demanding he apologize (for what he never said) and challenging Republicans to condemn him.

If reporters had bothered to check the transcripts and audio at RushLimbaugh.com, or even to call the EIB Network for comment, they wouldn't look like such fools.

Rush was talking about phony soldier Jesse MacBeth. MacBeth portrayed himself as a decorated Iraq war veteran who opposed the war. Since "Corporal" MacBeth fit the left's anti-war template, the Drive-By Media lapped up his lies. The truth? Mr. MacBeth was just sentenced to five months in jail for being...a phony soldier. MacBeth never served in Iraq, never won a Purple Heart, never reached the rank of corporal, was never an Army Ranger -- and therefore never could have witnessed war crimes against Iraqi civilians as he claimed. MacBeth washed out of Army boot camp after 44 days.

Rush reminds us of how Democrats smeared General Petraeus, and how John Kerry, Jack Murtha and Dick Durbin attacked our rank-and-file soldiers based on lies. The full transcript of these comments is posted at RushLimbaugh.com. The Dittocam video of Rush's opening monologue is up on YouTube. Will the media bother to look at either?

The left had to go to a phony soldier to give them bad news out of Iraq. They need bad news because they're invested in defeat, and cannot accept the fact that the surge has brought Sunnis over to our side and away from Al-Qaeda. Frederick Kagan's piece in then Wall Street Journal, "Why We're Winning Now in Iraq," details the anti-war left's worst nightmare. The tide has turned, so much that every major Democrat presidential candidate has committed to staying in Iraq through 2013.

[consrevil]

Please stop with the bullshit, nobody is buying it. He said PHONY TROOPS, not phony troop.

Mega Dildo's JT

[dawlishgal]

Sheesh! The dittoheads are really obsessed with Souris, as in "how can somebody with all that money give it to DEMOCRATS?" Of course, it is perfectly fine with them when the slimeball Mellon Scaife spends until millions trying to get something (anything) on Clinton.

The thing that is the stumper for the empathy-challenged Republikkers (even the ones who scream the loudest about how "Christian" they are) is trying to explain why anybody would give money to a party that advocates for the poor, the young, the sick and the elderly. They continually claim that any Democrat MUST by definition be on the dole him or herself.

It never occurs to these dopes that with enough bad fortune THEY might end up among the needy. I have seen bad fortune happen to three militant Republikkers that I know personally, and each and every one of them was first in line for whatever goverment aid they (as they put it) "had coming."

And each time I naively thought that perhaps NOW they would have learned a lesson about empathy, but each time I was wrong. As soon as they scooped up the help available to them, they went right back to screeching about "welfare cheats."

Turns out (doesn't it) that among Republikkers what THEY get from the government is regarded as some kind of entitlement; what others get is some kind of frivilous rip off of THEM.

Believe me, there is some microchip missing from their brains, the piece in control of empathy.

[dawlishgal]

"BTW, it is quite amusing to hear dittoheads demanding the restoring of "context." Look at how they slimed John Kerry for "being for it before being against it"...when the context THERE would have easily revealed that Kerry was talking about two different versions of the bill in question..­.the first was acceptable to him; the second was larded with anti-union provisions. Same with Gore and the false accusation that he said he invented the internet.

Not all that much "context" is going to help Limbaugh, though. He used the pronoun "THEY" (instead of "he") too many times to have been talking about just one guy.