"Only Christian soldier is a good soldier" by Lt. Gen (R) James Vaught

[No Passaran]

edited for spellcheck.

I don’t have a link for this “yet” but I was an eyewitness to this

On November 2nd, 2003 there was a welcome home party for one of the battalions stationed in Ft Stewart who just returned home from Iraq. The party was held in Savannah, GA at the Hyatt Hotel. Guest speaker was Lt. Gen. James Vaught, a retired special operations commander with the Pentagon and a member of the Pentagon's Special Operations Advisory Board. His speech was, how can I put this, something out of a bad movie. Among other things, Lt. Gen Vaught said this:

"I'm glad we didn't free those hostages in Iran back then, which would have just meant another four years under Jimmy Carter.

"Lyndon Johnson lost Vietnam war"

And the one that made a lot of Muslim soldiers and their wives walk out of this event, he made remarks defending recent remarks made by one of Pentagon’s top Generals:

Looks like Gen Vaught still believes in his old age, he turned 77, that this is 1940’s and everyone around him is Christian. Needless to say, many soldiers and their wives in attendance (soldiers returning from Iraq, all combat veterans) were Muslims who walked out when he started making these remarks. Later on, confronted by one of the wives, General had this to say “I only was talking about bad ones (muslims)”.

"Only Christian soldier is a good soldier. We know we (Christians) are not the enemy so you figure out who is" “Now is not the time to be politically correct”.

*note: this is all just from my memory. I can not remember his exact words but I think if I had them and used them; it would sound worse than this.

I’ll try and see if newspapers cover this fiasco (with our luck there won’t be any reports of this)

[MinnFats]

1. Whew....that is stunning!

was there any press there? did anybody tape this speech?
this really ought to be reported by some major media....it gets worse every time i re-read it!

any decent news outlets nearby?
if necessary a couple of reporters could reconstruct enough of that speech to make a story out of it and get it on a wire service.

it just gets worse every day....

[No Passaran]

4. I'm not sure...

There might have been reporters, but I really wasn't looking for any. Needless to say, people were stunned by this. These are all combat veterans and many are Muslims who spent 11 months being deployed in Kuwait+Iraq. Muslims and many of their "battle buddies" did not appreciate these remarks. I don't think he realized how many Muslims were in attendance last night. He probably still thinks this is 1946 (the year he joined the service). Someone also told me (I didn't hear this myself), that he used racist remarks when mentioning Koreans (in his remarks towards North Korea). I can't really say that last thing was true or not. I walked out halfway thru his speech.

It was a sad day for that unit.

[9215]

21. If it was taped the tape is probably already ashes.

[Punkingal]

2. Another Pentagon wacko......

this is beyond ludicrous.

[Cloud]

3. Unbelievable

I hope some major media was there. First the thing with Boykin and now this. This needs to get out.

"I'm glad we didn't free those hostages in Iran back then, which would have just meant another four years under Jimmy Carter.

That one upsets me the most. This guy doesn't want hostages to be free if it means 4 more years of a Democrat. I shudder to think of the backlash if a democrat had said something like, "I hope we fail in Iraq so we don't have 4 more years of Bush."

[No Passaran]

6. You want to shudder some more...

He served as Joint Task Force Commander of the Iranian rescue mission (Operation Eagle Claw, Desert One) under the Carter Administration.!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. HOLY CRAP!!! he caused the mission to fail omfg! Operation Eagle Claw,

[Art_from_Ark]

15. Is this really true???

A man who was entrusted to help rescue Americans held hostage was GLAD the mission failed???

:wtf:

[9215]

18. Do you have a link for this!!!

Please see my topic on this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=629531

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Check out this link

which refers to "Army Maj. Gen. James Vaught, the Joint Task Force commander for Eagle Claw"

http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0401/hostage.html

[9215]

24. Thanks

Check out the link to my topic above. I want to get as much info as possible.

[salin]

22. Oh my Gosh!

So he is charged with this work - and believed that the hostages should NOT be rescued - for political reasons.

These jerks need to be called on how un "pro-life" they are (who gives a damn about those hostages - we don't want Carter to be president); and how unChristian they are (remember the good samaritan ? the good rabbi does nothing to help, the unreligious one is he who does the right thing - and it is the ACT not the 'religiosity (in absense of action)' that matters.

What an offensive idiot. So the Jewish, Muslim, and atheist soldiers, riskiing their lives and limbs for this country, aren't "good soldiers".

More of the new "PC" on display. Using a claim against PC as a cloak for offensive, rude, bigoted behavior. Call these twits on this behavior - and YOU are the badguy - because only THEY have the right to free speech, YOU do not have the same right (in terms of calling them on the content of their speech.)

[leesa]

19. I thought I just read something about this rescue being sabotaged

Maybe he was there?

[Occulus]

5. Ok, so why don't people

shout these people down? Oh, something like, "HEY- FUCK OFF, BIGOT!"

WTF?!?? Why do people just... walk out? Why don't they stand and deliver?

The people who walked out only empowered him- those that were left had no problem with his statements. That only made his position that much stronger.

[No Passaran]

7. think about it

You want an enlisted soldier to shout "Hey-Fuck off, Bigot!" to a General in front of his commander? That's court martial and a discharge buddy.

Walking out was the only thing left for us to do.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. the soldiers wives should/could shout the pig down!..they can't be

court martialed....i would have!

[salin]

23. Those walking out - and their family members

should all write personal letters to their congressional representatives. They should object to being asked directly (or a loved one asked) to risk life and limb for this country - while then being spat upon as not being a "good soldier" based on religious beliefs. Enough letters arrive at a few congressional offices, and even the christian coalition type congressmen will have to respond. Even they (or their staffs)know that it is inappropriate to ask servicepeople to serve their country - and then to declare them as null and void.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

13. amen!!! why evil prevails? because good men say and do nothing!

shout these bastards down!

[SoCalDem]

8. You HAVE to read this from 1991..Vaught speaks again

Terrorism threat triggers alert in nation and anxiety in public
http://www.boston.com/news/packages/iraq/globe_stories/020691_terror_threat.htm

By Ross Gelbspan, Globe Staff, 2/06/1991



....snip....


Lt. Gen. James Vaught, a retired special operations commander with the Pentagon and a member of the Pentagon's Special Operations Advisory Board, said in a telephone interview: "Everyone's whispering about the fear of terrorism. But that's a victory for the terrorists. . . . What people should be doing is reading the statistics and getting on with their lives." Still, Vaught and others concede the probability of a terrorist attack in the near future is high. Last week, the FBI said it had identified people linked with four Middle Eastern terrorist groups who already were in this country, at least some of whom had entered legally. Meanwhile, thousands of security personnel have been deployed at airports, nuclear power plants and military installations around the country.

...snip....


Analysts say the government should be focusing on what types of attacks to expect, what counterterrorism strategies are most effective, and what steps to take to combat a public perception of vulnerability.

....snip.....

"Any truly sophisticated operation which targets major systems or facilities would require much logistical preparation, the movement of substantial sums of money, and a great deal of communications between terrorists here and their commanders in the Middle East," Ulsch said.
Such operations are susceptible to detection by the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance and other detection strategies,.......

snip...

But some critics, dismissing assessments of inadequate intelligence, blame the Bush administration for being too passive and say it could cut off potential attacks in this country. Vaught, who is director of the Federalist Research Institute in South Carolina, a think tank for military policy, said: "We know who many of these groups are and how they operate. The military has plenty of resources, but the White House won't let them move." this was BUSH, The Poppy's term

...snip.....

"All of our systems are in place and operational," Hughes said. "The things that need to be done to prepare for this day which is upon us have been done."

SIDEBAR TRAUMA, RATHER THAN INJURY, IS CITED AS TERRORISTS' AIM

While some terrorist acts are designed to cripple a nation's ability to function, the more common aim of terrorism is to intimidate people, create a climate of suspicion and undermine a country's confidence in its government. Specialists point out that the psychological impact of terrorism normally far outweighs its physical threat. "In an unprepared population, it usually creates alarm, fear, sometimes even panic," said Martha Crenshaw, who teaches government at Wesleyan University.

...snip....

Dr. Joseph Margolin, a Washington-area psychiatrist, noted that a primary effect of terrorism is to "make people mistrust each other and to question ability of the government to protect them." He said it is important for the government to foster "a sense of fellowship, a sense of the reliability of your neighbor. It sounds very corny, but that's why patriotism and flag-waving are especially useful at times like these."

...snip....

[DuctapeFatwa]

9. Boykin and this guy speak for the voting class mainstream

There is no need to cover it in the media.

Even if it were splattered all over every paper in the world, other than a small segment of American readers, in most of the world the main complaint would be why take up column inches with Bear Shits in Woods.

Why would you expect Crusaders to say anything different?

[izzie]

10. Terror does not need something big to get to you.

It is the thought that they can do these things that makes the point.I will give you a thought on this. The Czar of Russian is blow up, and years later the Grandson if still killing off people because of this. He never could get it out of his mind. That act did its job for both sides for years.Hitler burned down the Rheinstag(sp) and used that to gain alot of power saying what it was not. It was in the minds of the people it was terrorist and they needed Hilter to be safe.

[alphafemale]

11. Our local RW rag? Being objective?

Don't hold your breath.

[dusty64]

16. These "people" are

scary as well as insane.

[9215]

17. hee, hee, hee.......the fascisti are going NUTS!!!

These assholes are coming apart!!