"Morale is high?" Clark's response to Bush

[robbedvoter]

"Morale is High??"

Little Rock - In a speech in Little Rock today President Bush suggested that troop morale was high.

Morale is high?
http://clark04.com/press/release/070/
Last week, Mr. Bush alerted another 43,000 reservists and National Guard troops that they could be called up for a one year tour in Iraq.

Twenty percent of National Guardsmen and reservists don't have health care when they're not on active duty.

The Bush Administration has proposed closing schools on bases.

Reservists' and National Guardsmen's families are struggling to make ends meet.

And President Bush has no clear strategy to clean up the mess in Iraq.

A recent survey of 1,935 soldiers in Iraq published last week by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes found that 49 percent rated morale in their unit as low or very low.

"Morale is high? It's easy for Mr. Bush to tell donors at a $2000 a plate fundraiser that morale is high," said Communication Director Matt Bennett. "I'd love to see what he has to say the nearly 400 grieving families who've lost a loved one and the 1,800 soldiers recovering from their wounds."

[Gloria]

1. LA Times says it's something like 7500 wounded passing through

Walter Reed...

So what's with the 1800 wounded figure??

If it's higher, I wish Clark and the others would keep pounding it in....

[alcuno]

4. I think it's 7500 sick, pregnant, or afflicted with psychiatric problems.

There have been closer to 2100 wounded in Iraq. I read an article about the number of soldiers lining up every morning for medical attention. 7500 have been sent out of the "theater of operations" for medical reasons.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

18. I'd bet at this point that the number of wounded is at least 3000-3500...

...there are waaaaay to many soldiers waiting for medical care at the various medical facilities in Iraq, Germany, Spain, and the U.S. for most of them to be merely sick. Most of the physically ill would be treated in Iraq, not flown to other bases.

"Pregnant"?? Just what percentage of the total number of American casualties do you really believe are pregnant...one-half of one percent, perhaps?

And as for thr "forgotten war" in Afghanistan, my casualty estimate has us well over 2500.

[alcuno]

29. I'm just giving you the reasons they send people out - other than

accidents or attacks. People get sick or need psychiatric care because they have a meltdown. There's only one other way you get out and that's if you're pregnant; no stats there.

If you are seriously ill, they are NOT going to keep you in Iraq. What do you think they are going to do? Put you up at an Iraqi hospital? Yes, they have facilities for Americans but they have to keep those places clear for everyday disasters.

Here are the numbers and they are terrible. We don't have to try and make them worse.

[salinen]

5. moral is low

o.k. george, down on your needs. i'm going to count to ten. all you need to do is tell the truth once in your miserable life and you can avoid this. "ah, ah, the morale is high" blam!

[salinen]

6. oops! i meant knees. so sorry

[UpInArms]

I thought you meant "meds"

:D

[kalazh]

2. You have no idea

how thankful I am for what you just posted for reasons that you have no idea. When this country is going to wake up? Thanks

[kodi]

3. clark has to have an edge of righteous indignation that gore just showed

i know it will not be easy for clark to do it, since he appears so steady, but he has to show his anger in his voice, and bang his fist on the table when he speaks of these things. just pointing out the miserable facts of bush wont cut thru the fog of voter apathy.

imagine the difference if he just recited the liteny of bush lies, and nodded his head, as opposed to after the last item he mentions have him say "we are not going to stand for this" then bangs his fist on the table. it is theater for sure, but words and action are more inspiring.

dean has this passion, clark had better get some or he's not going anywhere. and i say this as one who just sent the dude some silver.

[phrenzy]

7. Absoloutley

Kodi, you 100% on the money

Clark is missing this. And he needs to find it. He does not show enough passion. Passion is exactly what is the missing element from his almost perfect equation.

Kucinich has the passion by a mile.

[Upfront]

11. Carefull Now

We don't want him perceived to be angry, or "gasp" agrrogant. Just kidding, he could use some of Deans fire.:)

[Blue_Roses]

8. I totally

agree. I like his humility, but he has got to get some "fire and brimstone" in his voice when he speaks of the atrocities that are happening under this administration.

[mgc1961]

10. Amen to that brother.

Although Clark is not on the top of my list I wholeheartedly agree that some display of emotion is needed. The failure to do so makes him appear uninvolved or disinterested.
That's one of things I like about Dean. He catches flak for it, but the man has every right to be angry about what's being done in our name. It's his responsibility as an American citizen to stand up and, as forcefully as needed, express honest dissent.

:grr:

[DemCam]

13. Odd.....our perceptions..

All I see is fire in the belly...backed by experience. It is real...AND...therefore not theater.

[truthisfreedom]

9. curiouser and curiouser

the eerie blanket of lies that bush cloaks himself in is beginning to have a strange effect on the way everyone is looking at him. it's as if the whole country is slowly waking up to an outsider in our midst... someone who lives in a place where none of the rest of us live, and sees and experiences things in a way that has nothing to do with reality. he just can't open his mouth anymore without making himself look like he belongs in an institution... a ward of the state. it's diminishing him... he is shrinking, and the once great boy king is losing his daffy charm and beginning to sound like a seriously troubled boy... one who makes up outlandish stories that draw a hush around the table, whereupon he is sent directly to his room to think about what he has said.

it's like his cable tunes to a whole different set of channels.

[Voltaire99]

26. Although I agree with your take on Bush...

fully half the nation does not.

[Donna Zen]

12. Clark and passion

Does a candidate need to bang the table every time to please the masses?

Have you seen him deliver this message? He can hardly speak..and when he is finished the room is hushed and no one can hardly speak.

Clark has lived this hell...he can express his anger anyway he wants.

Instead of criticing Clark's style, I will be donating clothing and international phone cards to the wounded doing without in Germany. So much money for Halliburton, so little care of the people. Hey...what'sa an 87 billion dollars gonna buy?

[peterh]

14. Headline on pg 8…LA. Times today….

Morale is Called High in ‘a Frustrating War’

Underneath…Soldiers in Iraq are in good spirits, some commanders say. But a Starts and Stripes survey finds 49% of troops describe mood as poor.


It’s the games, the fucking games an editor gets to play on it’s readers that are really fucking frustrating….

[salinen]

15. highly morale

yeah this soldiering over here in iraq is a great assignment. yesterday i saw a helicopter crash and g.i. body parts flying all over. maybe tomarrow i'll get my leg blown off by a grenade. god i love this war.

[LeftistGorilla]

16. morale is high...

for Bush... I mean...
he's a dumbass AND the president of the US...
he's doing just fine... his troops and country are not...

[Zen0]

17. as someone who might be a little closer to the war...

I can say that most if not all polls on whether the soldiers are happy, err... content with the situation are all skewed. And not lightly skewed either. The soldiers fighting here have no say with the media ever since they voiced their opinions saying they wanted to go home.

[gratuitous]

19. You claim morale is high, Mr. Bush . . .

Based on what? Your extensive combat experience? Well, since you went AWOL for a year from the Champaign Squadron, that can't be it. Based on your extensive contacts with the rank and file troops in Iraq? No, can't be that, either; you get all your news about Iraq from REMFs who don't know what they're talking about.

So, what is the basis for the claim, Mr. Bush? We'd all like to know.

[tokenlib]

20. Clark expressed"righteous indignation" from the heart on Monday..

"I took it personally when our president refused to adequately fund our VA hospitals," Clark said, referring to his 34 years of service in the Army. "I took it personally when he failed to give our disabled veterans their full benefits. And I took it personally when he sent our soldiers to Iraq without a plan to win - and thanked them for their service by cutting their benefits ... I've got four words for you: not on my watch."

http://www.clark04.com/story/15

His Veterans Security Plan and the need for it is a golden spike to drive through the evil hearts of Bush and the GOP who have betrayed our veterans and soldiers. I hope Clark hammers that spike repeatedly in the coming months.

[RamboLiberal]

23. This is why I think Clark has to be on the ticket

President or Vice-President, I don't care - I think the message he can pound home about Iraq, our stupid unilateralism, troop morale, the way our troops, their families and vets are treated like crap will resonate with the majority of Americans except for the brain-washed ditto heads.

[FrenchieCat]

21. I like how Clark is doing this....

It's easy to slam your fist down when you are mad...it's much harder to keep yourself cool and use your words (like my mother always said). There will not be a commercial put out by the RNC of Clark blowing his top......so that they can say to the people, the Dems are just mad with no solutions.

Also Clark has to be Clark. And Clark is a diplomat.

Furthermore getting mad will only fuel the RW talking points that Clark is arrogant, not a team player, and tightly wound. Why should he give the Repugs what they want?

I think the man is playing just right.

Remember this? Notice that he kept his collective cool? Now that's what I like!

[eileen_d]

22. Indeed

I don't need Clark to scream and shout to show he's serious either. I'd like to feel less angry in 2004, personally...

[jumptheshadow]

27. Thank you!

Less anger in 2004. It feels good even thinking about the possibility. And I feel so much more responsive to Clark's calm approach than I do to the fire and brimstone of Dean and Kucinich, even though I agree with Dean and Kucinich.

[Donna Zen]

24. True oh so true!

DTH posted about seeing him speak in California about junior treatment of all things military. He said that there are flames behind those eyes when he talked about the dress-up flyboy. "Republicans like weapons, Democrats care about the people."

Did you see my post in another thread about that pix? The body language has much to say.

New Clarkism:

"He can't find Osama bin Laden. He can't find Saddam Hussein," Clark said. "We have to help him find his way back to his ranch."

[neuvocat]

25. I recall an article

talking about morale being so bad that the troops were at the point of madness. I had no idea it was that important even after I served.

[xultar]

28. That is why they are shooting themselves over there...

Some are committing suicide others to get med leave so they can go home. Some of the self inflicted wounds intended just to harm are actually killing themselves my mistake.