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If We Defeat Al Qaeda, "We" Will Have Paid "A Small Price" In Iraq
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| If We Defeat Al Qaeda, "We" Will Have Paid "A Small Price" In Iraq
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| Bronks Breasts |
GOP Leader Boehner: If We Defeat Al Qaeda, "We" Will Have Paid "A Small Price" In Iraq
September 12, 2007 -- 4:18 PM EST
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ho...leader_boeh.php
Okay, if this isn't portrayed as a major gaffe, with wall-to-wall condemnations from the pundits, it'll be stunning. (Editor's note: That was meant to be bitterly ironic.)
I've just received some advance excerpts of an interview CNN's Wolf Blitzer has done with GOP House leader John Boehner. It's set to air this afternoon. Take a look at this chunk:
BLITZER: 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? 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?
BOEHNER: I think General Petraeus outlined it pretty clearly. We’re making success. We need to firm up those successes. We need to continue our effort here because, Wolf, long term, 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.
Note that Boehner is specifically answering a question about troop deaths here -- which he calls a "small price," should we win the war.
This is an obvious point, but it bears making again, anyway: It's really uncanny how often those who aren't sacrificing anything for the Iraq war, aside for perhaps their health in the polls, are willing to...
(a) Describe the very real sacrifice being made by others as not being such a big deal
...while simultaneously...
(b) Describing the sacrifice others are making as their own.
Also, it bears pointing out that Boehner's overall thought here -- that we'll have made a small sacrifice "if we're able to stabilize the Middle East"-- is a pretty big "if." Of course, if you're not really sacrificing anything in the quest to realize this big "if," then there's not much to be lost in going for it even if it is a real long shot, now is there. |
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| JTProcess |
What a douchebag.
He's basically saying that if we defeat the Al Qaeda cells that were created as a result of our invasion all the troops dying is worth it?
So if we fix the huge disastrous mistake that the Bush admin made all those troops dying is cool... in essence Boner is saying that it's cool for American troops to die as long as they fix Bush's mistake. |
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| ArivacaCharlie |
AlQaeda is undefeatable. It is not just a group of radicals, it has become a political ideal....a sort of religion, in a matter of speaking.
Once introduced, it is always there.....like Nazis, socialists, communists, facists, etc.
The only way to get the upper hand on AlQaeda is to lead by example and show AlQaeda's followers that there is a better way. They'll never be beaten by force and will, in fact, become stronger.
Bush is AlQaeda's greatest recruitment tool......and, possibly, Scott DePace. |
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| NC-Stern-Mark |
In Iraq, Boehner draws link to 9/11
By Jackie Kucinich
September 12, 2007
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a conference call from Iraq, told reporters Wednesday that it is fair to draw a link from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to the current fight in Iraq because of the continued presence of al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists in the country.
“If you look at where 9/11 came from, it clearly was from al Qaeda, [and] when you look at the violence in Iraq, it’s from al Qaeda [and] radical jihadists,” Boehner said.
The minority leader is leading a congressional delegation of six members that departed for Iraq following the testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on the situation there.
Two members of the delegation, Republican Reps. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Pete King (N.Y.), joined Boehner on the conference call and agreed with his assessment.
“There is a strong consensus that [Petraeus’s] testimony was on target,” said King, the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee.
Boehner said that in early meetings with a dozen military and diplomatic officers, it was evident to the lawmakers that progress is being made in some of the more troubled regions in Iraq and that the last three months of the president’s troop surge have yielded many successes.
Hoekstra, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, said that the lawmakers would also be making trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan so that they can bring further context to Iraq’s role in the region.
Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson (Ohio) and Republicans Patrick Tiberi (Ohio), Tom Latham (Iowa) and Devin Nunes (Calif.) were also on the trip.
Wilson is scheduled to have a solo conference call Thursday with reporters.
Taking a shot at a Government Accountability Office report released earlier this month that detailed less than stellar progress in Iraq, King said the benchmarks in some of the most troubled provinces, where there have been successes, were barely mentioned.
When asked how the delegates could possibly assess the situation in Iraq after having been in the country for only a few hours, Hoekstra shot back that the trip was part of a larger study.
“This isn’t about one briefing, this is my ninth trip ... this is about continuing research and study of this issue,” he said.
Boehner, when asked about how the current state of Iraq might affect the 2008 election cycle, stated that Democrats could find themselves in trouble if progress continues to be made.
“Our Democratic colleagues have vested all their political capital in failure in Iraq,” Boehner said. “I’m not sure they know where they are going … the left and the anti-war left, I’m not sure where they go.” |
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| Bronks Breasts |
He is the minority House leader... I wonder if he has passed out any tobacco lobby checks lately
Blunt, Boehner Share Broad Network of Lobbyist Ties with DeLay
Bloomberg
Tuesday 10 January 2005
Representatives Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Boehner of Ohio have been among the key intermediaries between Republican lawmakers and lobbyists since their party took control of the U.S. Congress in 1995.
Now, with both men vying to succeed Representative Tom DeLay as House majority leader, those ties may loom as an issue.
Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said concerns that the two men are too close to Washington's K Street lobbying corridor may encourage a dark-horse candidate to run against them. "We have three weeks until this election, and a lot can happen between now and then," Flake said.
DeLay's Jan. 7 decision to permanently relinquish his leadership post came after former aides were mentioned in a plea-bargain agreement with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. House Republicans, who will hold a new vote the week of Jan. 30, have pledged to address ethics issues, including a possible overhaul of lobbying rules.
Blunt, 55, and DeLay, 58, share a network of ties as extensive as any in Congress, including links to lobbyists.
Blunt, who was tapped by then-House Republican Whip DeLay in 1999 to be his chief deputy, has been acting majority leader since Texan DeLay stepped down after being indicted in September on unrelated money-laundering charges in Austin.
Both men's political action committees employ Jim Ellis, who was indicted along with DeLay. DeLay's PAC gave Blunt's committee a $150,000 donation in 2000, and Blunt's PAC gave $10,000 to DeLay's non-profit foundation that same year. Both lawmakers' PACs have employed Alexander Strategy Group, a Georgetown-based firm whose partners include former Abramoff and DeLay associates.
Liaison with Lobbyists
Blunt also has served as the Republicans' official liaison to K Street. In one meeting at the Capitol last April, he rounded up some 200 lobbyists to talk with top Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, about the party's agenda.
Boehner, 56, who has been in Congress since 1991, has said he and DeLay have had conflicts in the past, and other lawmakers say they are not close. Even so, Boehner has strong connections to lobbyists: He met weekly with leading lobbyists to enlist their support and discuss strategy during his four years as House Republican Conference chairman, from 1995 to 1998.
Sallie Mae
The top donor to Boehner's leadership PAC in 2003-2004 was SLM Corp., the Reston, Virginia-based student-loan company better known as Sallie Mae. SLM contributed $65,170 to Boehner's Freedom Project, more than twice as much as the second-biggest donor, New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The money came as the House Education and Workforce Committee, which Boehner chairs, prepared to write new legislation governing student loans.
In 1995, Boehner handed out campaign checks from the tobacco industry to members on the House floor at a time when lawmakers were considering eliminating a tobacco subsidy.
Representative Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican, said he believes that Boehner is even closer to lobbyists than Blunt. "The problem John faces is that he's so close to K Street; that's the challenge he's got," said Shays, who's backing Blunt.
Boehner's office declined to comment on lawmakers' concerns about his ties to lobbyists.
Jessica Boulanger, a spokeswoman for Blunt, said the lawmaker has met regularly with lobbyists because it's part of his job.
"In his role as whip, Congressman Blunt welcomed assistance from any group, from lobbyists to labor unions to family groups to farmers, willing to support House Republicans' agenda," Boulanger said.
"He is 100 percent committed to swift enactment of lobbying-reform legislation and pledges to make it a top priority if elected leader," Boulanger said.
'K Street Project'
A decade ago, DeLay orchestrated the "K Street Project," an effort to get trade associations and lobbying firms to hire Republicans and raise money for the party. Blunt, who was elected the party's vote-counting whip in 2003, worked to get the same groups to help push the Republican agenda.
Beginning in 1999, DeLay tapped Blunt to harness Washington's lobbyist community into a force that could help win votes on issues ranging from a $1.3 trillion tax cut to a $720 billion Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Blunt was DeLay's ambassador to the community, said Gregg Hartley, Blunt's former chief of staff and now vice chairman of Cassidy & Associates, Washington's second-biggest lobbying firm by revenue.
Reaching Out
"We formalized the process of reaching out to them," Hartley said. "You could talk to Tom or Tom's people, or Roy or Roy's people. It was all the same."
While they helped push through the Republican legislative agenda, those ties could be a disadvantage in the post-Abramoff era, said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican.
"Roy is going to have to convince every member of the conference that he is willing to break with the old ways of doing things," LaHood said of Blunt. "It looks to the public like K Street is running everything."
Blunt's name has come up in connection with the Abramoff investigation. In May 2003, he wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton opposing a casino for an Indian tribe that would have rivaled one operated by an Abramoff client. A month later, Blunt signed a similar letter along with DeLay, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor. Blunt said on Jan. 4 he would donate to charity $8,500 he received from Abramoff.
Tobacco Link
Blunt also has links to the tobacco industry. In 2002, he tried to insert language into a bill creating the Homeland Security Department that would have aided Philip Morris Cos., now Altria Group Inc., by making it harder to sell cigarettes over the Internet, the Washington Post reported. Blunt later married Altria lobbyist Abigail Perlman.
New York-based Altria, whose Philip Morris unit is the nation's largest tobacco company, is Blunt's biggest career campaign donor, giving $202,909 to his campaign committee and leadership PACs through 2004, according to a review of campaign- finance disclosures.
"This slate is not going to be the new broom to sweep clean," said Celia Wexler, vice president for advocacy at Common Cause, a Washington-based group that's pushing for tougher ethics laws. "There's no indication that Boehner and Blunt have ever bucked this way of looking at things or doing business. They have been part of the K Street clique."
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| Max-the-Silent |
| I'd love to take Boehner for a walk out in the world - the world every enlisted man and NCO has to live in while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. |
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| Bronks Breasts |
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?"
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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?
http://www.huffingto
npost.com/john-kerry/boehners-small-price_b_64259.html |
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| Halcyon |
Quote: Originally posted by JTProcess
What a douchebag.
He's basically saying that if we defeat the Al Qaeda cells that were created as a result of our invasion all the troops dying is worth it?
So if we fix the huge disastrous mistake that the Bush admin made all those troops dying is cool... in essence Boner is saying that it's cool for American troops to die as long as they fix Bush's mistake. |
So it's ok if American troops die from a situation that America's leaders started in the first place as long as we kill all the enemies we created there.
What a fag. |
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