Senator Harry Reid: Language Undermines Fighting Men and Helps the Enemy

From John E. Carey at Peace and Freedom, posted at his request. Highly recommended:

I came to Washington DC the first time in 1972 to work in the office of a liberal Democrat Ohio Congressman. I took away from that experience my first taste of the unwritten rules governing good conduct and decorum that most groups stick to, from your local Elks Club to the U.S. Senate.

Most call it the culture or the ethos the organization lives by.

Unwritten rules exist to help an organization or team function harmoniously despite severe difference. For decades, even at the lowest moments of despair and disharmony, the Senate and in fact the United States of America, operated smoothly and got business completed. If two lawmakers wanted to lock horns, they were encouraged by the leadership to “take it outside.” Of course there are historically significant altercations on Capitol Hill but they served only to reinforce the rules.

Here are a few of the unwritten rules of Capitol Hill:

1. Disagree about international relations all you want on Capitol Hill; but when we travel overseas we stand as one nation and never criticize the president or his foreign policy.

2. When troops are fighting and dying in the field we do not undermine them or give the enemy hope.

3. Our Nation’s senior military officers who have served with distinction for 30 or 40 years deserve to be heard and given some level of respect.

What I cannot abide about the current Democrat leadership in the U.S. Congress is that they have no sense of any of this.

I respect the fact that many of our Democrat Congressional leaders feel deeply honor bound to end the war. I also realize that they believe they have a mandate from the American people to end the war, given to them by last November’s election.

It is not what the Democrat Congressional leadership is doing that upsets me: it is they way they are going about it.

In my view, Nancy Pelosi had no business in Syria discussing national and international matters. I think this was a breach of etiquette certainly and perhaps a violation of law that prohibits foreign policy freelancers and limits serious discussions of international matters to the President, Cabinet officers, the Secretary of State and appointed Ambassadors, diplomats and Special Envoys.

Harry Reid, it seems to me, has undermined our Soldiers and Marines on the ground who are fighting and dying for his and my and our country. I seem to recall some prohibition against giving aid and comfort to the enemy. This is why Jane Fonda was despised by Vietnam era military men for visiting Hanoi and sitting on an anti-aircraft weapon that could have been used that same day to kill U.S. aircrews.

It is a matter of “not getting it.” Jane Fonda didn’t get it. Now Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, enters the arena to prove that people that don’t get it still exist and persist.

Harry Reid said already that the war in Iraq is lost. Does that give aid and comfort to the enemy? You decide.

Yesterday, Senator Reid accused the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, of lying to the Senate and the American people. General Pace has served his nation honorably in more than one war for over forty years. He has proven that he is dedicated to his nation, to his Marines, and to all our military men and women.

General Peter Pace is now a liar? Senator: it just did not need to be said. First, it isn’t true. And Second, General Pace has practically been summarily dismissed already. And third, military men are prohibited from responding to such attacks.

So Senator Reid considers it appropriate and necessary to give hope to the enemy by criticizing, using falsehood, a four star general who has practically been fired and can’t respond.

I can’t think of a lower form of humanity

Almost as an aside, yesterday, Senator Reid included General Petraeus in his liar category. And General Petraeus is in the field leading the nation’s military effort.

If Harry Reid lived in Abraham Lincoln’s day during the War Between the States there is no doubt in my mind that he would be behind bars this morning.

I am sorry Senator Reid. Your conduct might not warrant an arrest for treason; but that is only because the other side plays by rules you could never, ever understand.

John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
June 15, 2007

Comments

[Debbie]

Rastaman, I agree with you when you say, "The Japanese have a saying I greatly appreciate:

"Fix the problem, not the blame."
The less time spent pointing fingers at each other, the more time our highly paid reps will hopefully spend fixing problems."

It seems both sides are spending their time looking for the sound bite of the day, rather than shutting up and sitting down to get the work done. So you and I are on the same page there.

[Rastaman]

As I said, I don't know anything about either of these guys and Debbie, I'm sure I can take your word for it. If you say Reid is a jerk, I've no doubt he is.
Even so, I still say that Carey did no one a favor by running his own mouth. I've had enough of this crap and heard enough of it. We don't pay these people to bicker.

The Japanese have a saying I greatly appreciate: "Fix the problem, not the blame."
The less time spent pointing fingers at each other, the more time our highly paid reps will hopefully spend fixing problems.

Careys rhetoric was excessive. True or not, it was excessive for someone who prattled about decorum in the same speech. Also, he did in fact invoke the same utter BS line that Bush repeatedly uses that those who disagree with the war, etcetera, are traitors. Bush is a traitor. Saying what Bush says is not a good idea.

I'd take both of them by the scruffs of their necks and toss them down the stairs.

Rastaman

[Debbie]

Rastaman, Harry Reid opens his mouth before he thinks. He says these things, then he backtracks and tries to take them back. His poll numbers are lower than Bush, the congress, anybody. Even the Dems don't care much for him.

He has made big mistakes in handling bills etc. coming to the floor. Lamar Alexander (who I don't really care for) said Reid makes Bill Frist look good.

It's all politics and Reid is playing to his folks.

Phil, thanks for visiting. Doesn't look like you and Rastaman agree, heh

[Phil]

Wrong Rastaman

Harry Reid is a traitor.

[Rastaman]

I totally disagree with the single exception that Reid could have refrained from putting down an old general

This is a completely partisan counter-attack by Carey. Reid has the same right of Free Speech as Carey, just for starters. Carey is talking through his hat when he says his ilk stands together overseas. "When we travel overseas we stand as one nation and never criticize the president or his foreign policy." What a load of gas!

I can recall 3 Presidents who were positively excoriated overseas by our congresspeople, Nixon, Carter and Clinton. Bush is overdue for it. Even Reagan got some bad press by a few of our people over in Europe for his tendency to fall asleep during meetings. But moving on...

Carey puts Reid in the same bag as Hanoi Jane. No. Wrong. Talk about your flaming rhetoric. Reid may be right, or he may be wrong but at least he spoke up for what he believed in and that does not make him or me or you a traitor.

The Iraq war is lost? Hell yes, the war in Iraq is lost and we all know it. So? Saying so is undermining the troops? Excuse me? Now Reid is a Hanoi Jane traitor for saying that the war is lost? Yeah? I think Carey is a traitor for trying to destroy Reids Right Of Free Speech. I don't know a damn thing about Reid or Carey or most of those Capitol Hill Clowns but I know spin when I hear it.

That's Bush's line. "If you disagree with me, you are unpatriotic." Most of us in both parties now understand that Bush is a traitor. Not the American public. Bush, and those who use his tactics. Like Carey.

Lastly, anything any prominent person says here in the US is immediately spread around the globe, now that we have this thing called Internet. That tired old BS about keeping criticism at home was great for the Greeks but times have changed. What we say here, we say everywhere.

If Reid should have kept his mouth shut, so should Carey as well.
Neither one of these gapemouths has done a damn thing to improve the mess we're in by spouting off. Those clowns think that by harping away at each other instead of working together to solve our problems, we out here will believe that they're earning their pay.

Well, sorry. We don't.

Rastaman
www.islamanazi.com