Rich Warner, a wounded veteran of the Iraq war describing why he is against voting for Ned Lamont.
Rich Warner was respectful to U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont on Saturday at a picnic in Wallingford and patiently answered all his questions about serving in Mosul, Iraq, last year.
But when it was over, Warner – who fought in Iraq with the U.S. Army 25th Infantry until he was wounded by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in March 2005 – was lukewarm about the encounter.
"I don't agree with him," Warner said, referring to Lamont's position critical of the Iraq war. "We should stay the course. If we pull out now it's all for naught."
That is exactly the problem the anti-war Lamont is up against. People do not want to see the sacrifice wasted. They do not want defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. They do not want people to turn against the troops or what they have done and continue to do. Lamont is also scrambling to defuse the major, major error he made a few days ago.
While Lieberman's staff on Saturday pointed to Lamont's recent criticisms as hypocrisy in light of the 1998 e-mail, Lamont said he stands by its contents.
"Look, I understood the content of his statement. But I would have taken it to the president privately if I had been a friend of his for 30 years," Lamont said Saturday while campaigning at a country fair in Hebron.
He also said he stands by his position that the public rebuke exacerbated the situation.
Good luck with that line. I saw earlier that a few Lamont supporters were going so far as to whine that Lieberman hadn't been fair by releasing that email. You know, violation of privacy and all. Oh dang. Now you find out how it is played in the major leagues instead of in the echo chamber.
> “We should stay the course. If we pull out now it’s all for naught.”
My “it’s all” does that mean:
- An Iraq civil war with dozens of civilians dying each day
- Hatred of America by Muslim countries at all time high
- US seen as the world’s greatest threat by European counties
- An explosion in the size of the US government
- 3 billion a week of deficit spending in Iraq
- civil liberties infractions requiring supreme court intervention
If leaving Iraq meant all of the above was ‘naught’, I’d say start packing tomorrow.
What’s your son saying about Iraq? He’s over there and can offer an media-unbiased view.
Yup, you’re reliable. We can count on you for all the lefty talking points.
I’ll let my good friend PAT BUCHANAN say the same thing:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PatrickJBuchanan/2006/08/08/condis_new_middle_east
Surely you wouldn’t accuse PAT BUCHANAN of being a left winger.
No thoughts on Iraq from your son?
You’ve more than proven your complete lack of understanding on pretty much everything. Quoting an extremist from the right to justify extremism form the left pretty well ices the cake.
Stop being a buffoon.
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As usual the Anchoress nails it. Lamont takes the term “empty suit” to whole new levels, he’s a vacuum in a suit.
> Stop being a buffoon.
What would you call someone who calls massive deficit spending and explosive growth in government left wing talking points?
I guess in the neo-con world, any criticism of the ruling party must be branded “left-wing” or “extremeist.” I believe Rove did a test group and found Americans respond negatively to those words.
> You’ve more than proven your complete lack of understanding on pretty much everything
Let’s see, well, Iraq has gone pretty much EXACTLY as I predicted. Is your well-informed world view playing out in Iraq? Now granted, I thought there would be a draft by now, because I didn’t think Bush be so fiscally and morally irresponsible as to bring in tens of thousands of mercinaries. But troop readiness has fallen a multi-decade low, so who knows what the future holds.
And is it fair to assume that you’ve been ringing the North Korea warning bell ‘lo these years urging action? (I have). Or, did you take the neocon view that “North Korea is China’s problem..let them handle it.”? Well as one of your other posts points out, N Korea has the bomb now, and there plenty of evil regimes that are scared that we’ll invade them that want one too.
“We should stay the course. If we pull out now it’s all for naught.”
Couldn’t that justification be used forever? If we’re still in Iraq 5, 10, 15 years from now, and we’ve lost even more soldiers, spent even more money, and been hindered from responding to even more global threats, couldn’t someone still say that?
How long is too long for you, gaius? I’m assuming you don’t wish our military to occupy Iraq forever, so when will it be too much? 10 years? 20 years?
If a war was a mistake to begin with, then it’s already for naught, no matter if we stay the course or leave. So, if Iraq was a mistake (which a significant majority believe), then let’s not have any more soldiers die for naught.