Rush Limbaugh On Saving Troops' Lives: "Whatever"
September 27, 2007 -- 4:26 PM EST // //
Newsflash: Rush Limbaugh just described soldiers who are in favor of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers."
This will naturally explode into a huge controversy. Pundits like Richard Cohen will scowl darkly and demand that Republicans condemn Rush over it, just as they demanded that Dems condemn MoveOn for criticizing Mighty Scholar-Warrior Petraeus. Pundits will say for days and days that it has put the Republicans on the defensive. (Editor's note: Sarcasm too heavy-handed here. Please tone down.)
Seriously, Media Matters has a great catch: In a conversation on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, a listener named Mike said that antiwar people never talk to "real soldiers," adding that they take their cues from soldiers who are against the war and "talk to the media."
To which Limbaugh rejoined: "The phony soldiers."
Listen here. As Media Matters points out, two soldiers who wrote that infamous New York Times Op ed criticizing our war policies are now dead in Iraq. Last January a Military Times poll found that 37% of members of the military think we shouldn't have gone to Iraq, while one in five thinks we should have zero troops in Iraq or less troops than there are now. All these people, apparently, are "phony soldiers," according to Rush.
That's bad enough. But I'd also like to highlight another Rush quote from the same radio episode that I think is equally telling and reprehensible:
"What is the imperative in pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? I don't think they have an answer for that, other than, `It's gonna bring our troops home. Save the troops. Keep the troops safe. Or whatever. It's not possible intellectually to follow these people."Whatever?
Note Limbaugh's self-professed inability to even follow the argument that saving troops' lives should be something we consider as a positive when deciding how to proceed in Iraq. This has accents of GOP House leader John Boehner's recent assertion that troop deaths in Iraq would be a "small price" to pay for defeating Al Qaeda. The point here is that for Limbaugh, Boehner and other war supporters, the lives of the troops simply aren't part of the equation in any meaningful sense, and once in a while, this dirty secret slips out.
This is perhaps inevitable, the natural extension of the view that no amount of American lives is too small to sacrifice in exchange for realizing George Bush's vision in Iraq. Whatever.
How many Republicans will come out and condemn this? Over to you, Richard Cohen. Start scowling.
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Update: Think Progress issues a challenge: What lawmakers who voted to condemn MoveOn will now denounce Rush? To which we'll add: What pundits who blasted MoveOn will say word boo about the talk show host?
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