> "Olin"
comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:7cqdnfrlFM7-lArbnZ2dnUVZ_vamnZ2d@comcast.com...>>> "Richard Thomas"
dicksonlife.com> wrote in message
>>> news:sqld935squ24ebbkmp56plheo0sr1oln46@4ax.com...>>>> On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 21:44:33 -0500, Boston Blackie (PA Robert Black, or
>>>> is it the other way 'round?)
mail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>Nixon on Fred Thompson: "He's Dumb as Hell"
>>>>>Source:
http://tinyurl.com/2sd8lz
>>>>>
>>>>>Pres. Nixon didn't want Fred Thompson as minority counsel during the
>>>>>Watergate hearings because he doubted the mental capacity of the future
>>>>>actor and lobbyist.
>>>>>
>>>>>Nixon to Haldeman: "Oh shit, that kid!" Haldeman: "Well, we're stuck
>>>>>with him."
>>>>>
>>>>>Thompson, then 30, was appointed counsel by his political mentor,
>>>>>Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker, the top Republican on the Senate
>>>>>committee. Thompson had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville
>>>>>and had managed Baker's re-election campaign...
>>>>>
>>>>>Nixon was disappointed with the selection of Thompson, whom he called
>>>>>"dumb as hell." Nixon did not think Thompson was skilled enough to
>>>>>interrogate unfriendly witnesses and would be outsmarted by the
>>>>>committee's Democratic counsel.
>>>>
>>>> Nixon? Nixon? Let's see, those history lessons were so long ago...
>>>> Cherry tree? Nope. Stovepipe hat? Nope. Ah yes, "Richard M Nixon,
>>>> world famous for his infallible good judgement".
>>>>
>>>> Rich
>>>> --
>>>
>>> Tzactly.
>>>
>>> Thompson, being human, is not perfect but at this point seems to be way
>>> ahead of anyone else in either party.
>>>
>>> Olin complains about the treatment of veterans and somehow connects it
>>> to Thompson. I can remember my step-father and his friends (WWII vets)
>>> complaining about the VA even before the Korean "police action." That
>>> abomination spans at least 6 decades and both parties.
>>>
>>
>> To paraphrase.... Kent, you ignorant slut. Fred's connection to veterans
>> is obvious. He's IN FAVOR of continuing an Iraq policy that a growing
>> number of OTHER republicans have decided is already a failure. That
>> policy INCLUDES the Pentagon's current decision to treat any and all PTSD
>> victims as having pre-existing personality disorders. If Fred's gonna
>> tout the current party line, he doesn't get to cherry pick which parts he
>> touts. He's not said where he stands, far as I know, on the issue of
>> veterans and nobody, far as I know, has asked him.
>
> Post Traumatic Shock Disorder has had various other names dating back to
> at least WWI. Shell shock, battle fatigue, and some that I cannot recall
> before coffee this morning. One of the very few stories I over heard my
> step-father tell was about a crewman from another B29 who purposefully
> walked a the spinning prop.
>
Yep. Been around since men have fought men. Many different names, and here,
the policy has always been to deny its existence until everybody just goes
away... or dies off.
This one is particularly heinous, given that news coverage had a military
shrink noting that it's often best for a particular unit and the soldier
suffering to be separated. She didn't comment on, nor was she asked about
the Army discharging a bipolar soldier who also had a touch of PTSD and then
RECALLING him, arming him and putting him back into a unit.
Nor did she comment about the denial of any benefits whatsoever to the
soldiers.
> What is your proposal to settle Iraq? Cut and run, leaving Iraq to be
> gobbled up by the dangerous manic from Iran? To chalk up another defeat,
> not on the battlefield, but in DC to the cheers of the left-wing Democrats
> and the media just at happened with Viet Nam?
>
You just don't get it, do you? We had every justification imaginable to go
into Afghanistan and chew Al Quaida's ass. The proper way to do that is
mount intelligence to find out where the enemy is and go kill him and all
his friends.
Did we do that? Nope... not when that feather up the butt turned up to
spread the war to Iraq.
But, you do raise yet another parallel to Vietnam, something that supposedly
did not even exist until just the past couple months. And as then, you blame
the media for pointing out (though, truthfully they've been woefully
inadequate this time around at uncovering most anything), the fallacies of a
war's prosecution.
Vietnam surely had its share of strawmen, but Iraq mostly IS a strawman,
seeing as how Al Quaida is now about as strong as it was on 9/11/2001.
But none of that, including your response, speaks to the issue I've
raised... one that's been raised practically every time we've gone to war.
What's our collective responsibility to the casualties and their families?
The White House, any White House, could have easily fixed the problems that
led to the eventual discovery of the abuses at Walter Reed and the rest of
the Veterans' Administration facilities. I have never met a single veteran
who would willingly go to a VA hospital, and there's always been a very good
reason for that.
This White House has done nothing at all in that regard and even expressed
surprise that Walter Reed was in the shape it turned out to be in, then
promptly appointed a new director who was already on record as telling
Congress the facility wasn't all that bad. This White House could quickly
tell the Pentagon to stop simply dismissing soldiers with a cheap insurance
company trick of claiming pre-existing personality disorders without so much
as even a cursory medical evaluation.
But, it hasn't.
Fred Thompson is on record as wanting to continue the policies of this
administration, and I believe it to be an entirely valid question to ask him
and ALL other candidates, precisely what they plan to do for the people
who've been irretrievably broken doing OUR bleeding and dying for us.
Nice try, though, with that attempt to divert the issue by asking what my
plan would be. First of all, I'm in no more of a position to influence
policy than are you. Second, do a little googling and you'll find that I've
never been opposed to going after Al Quaida, yet... old Osama seems to be
still at large, unless of course he's managed to croak while in hiding. Even
the Shrub has admitted Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
He's also admitted that a member of his cabinet leaked the identity of
Valerie Plame, but without apology and claims it's now time to move on.
Sorry, that dog don't hunt any better than clinging to a failed war policy,
doing everything on the cheap except handing over cash to Haliburton and
contracting agencies while we screw our own troops as quickly as we can
process the paperwork.
>> What I said was I'd love to see him asked and to hear his answer.
>>
>> Nice try, though, trying to divert the issue to the democrats, especially
>> when I've said repeatedly that they have no better record than the
>> republicans on such matters. The hypocrisy here is so thick it'd take a
>> steak knife and two sharpening stones to cut it, because for twelve years
>> the GOP has been in charge of such matters and has done absolutely
>> nothing to improve care of wounded soldiers. Nothing. Zip. Diddly squat.
>>
>> Precisely the same result as the democrats, but given that they're still
>> currently in charge, who else you gonna blame? The party in power, or the
>> wannabe democrats?
>>
>> Oh yeah... that's right. There's always Bill Clinton.
>>
>> Sorry, but it's the entire country to blame for this mess. It's never
>> changed from the day that old saw was first said, in wartime, it's hey
>> soldier let me buy you a beer, but in peacetime, it's soldiers not
>> welcome here. That's not a direct quote, but it captures the sentiment
>> pretty well.
>>
>> Fred can run his campaign ever how he likes. That's his perogative, but
>> when he runs that "stay the course" line of strategy, even he has to know
>> there are some rather sticky questions to come, and among them, are you
>> gonna treat your casualties with dignity and fairness OR are you gonna
>> adopt the tried and true money-saving tactic of simply claiming you owe
>> them nothing?
>>
>> From the way you responded, I can easily surmise your answer.
> "Surmise" is your substitute for "assume"? Remember that my father
> "bought the farm" (literally since that's what my greedy grandfather used
> his GI insurance for) during the Battle of the Bulge. While I haven't
> personally experienced the reported horrors of a VA hospital, I do known
> from what my mother went through with the red tape that the VA stores on
> re-cycled steel spindles.
>
>
> --
> Kent Finnell
> From the Music City USA
>
