Wow.....Lawrence O'Donnel Speaks

[AnnInLa]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/rangel-is-right_b_34667.html?view=print

snip

In my one conversation with Kissinger, which occurred on TV, I asked him if he knew anyone who got killed in Vietnam. He was completely thrown. He doesn't go on TV to be asked such small-minded questions, he goes on TV to pontificate and TV interviewers are happy to let him do it. Kissinger sputtered and ran away from the question, leaving the distinct impression that he did not know anyone who was killed in the war he managed. His memoir of the period does not mention a single casualty. If you have ever stood at the Vietnam Memorial and run your hand over the name of a relative on the wall, as my mother and I did last month, you can get as angry as Charlie Rangel does about people like Kissinger deciding how long our soldiers should be exposed to enemy fire in a war we know we can't win.

snip

Advocating war is easier when you and your family are not endangered by it. I've reached a Rangel-like breaking point with my TV pundit colleagues who championed the Iraq war and now say we can't leave even if we went there for the wrong reasons. For every one of them, I have a simple question: Why aren't you in Iraq? Or why did you avoid combat in your generation's war? The one unifying characteristic that all of us men in make-up on political chat shows share is fear of combat. Every one of us has done everything we can to avoid combat or even being fitted for a military uniform. Just like George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Dick Cheney, we are all combat cowards. It takes a very special kind of combat coward to advocate combat for others. It's the kind of thing that can get you as angry as Charlie Rangel.

more at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/rangel-is-right_b_34667.html?view=print

[Nomad559]

1. Have you seen this video?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x6703

:)

[eleny]

8. Thanks for that vid link

I saw him on the show that night and wanted to see it again!

[MrCoffee]

2. hey, he gave young President Bartlet five across the lip...

jerk.

And I agree with him: "Advocating war is easier when you and your family are not endangered by it."

[Minnesota_Lib]

3. K&R

[rosesaylavee]

4. .

...John Kerry's line about Vietnam--who is going to be the last soldier to die for a mistake?...

[Morgana LaFey]

6. I think the line was actually

"How do you ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

I'd like to know how you ask ANYone to even be in danger of dying for a mistake.

[rosesaylavee]

7. I know a few I would ask

but I need a ride to DC to make the inquiry face to face.

[pacalo]

5. Nothing would make people sit up & pay attention

to what's really going on in government more than a draft. Too many people don't care what's going on because it doesn't affect them personally. When their own sons & daughters are vulnerable to be drafted, that's when they'll start thinking about the reasoning behind these wars & start questioning the government...then they'll get angry & stop voting these corporate neocons whose aim is to line their own pockets into office.

[me b zola]

9. I was so impressed when he went on his rant the other night

I must admit that prior to O'Donnell's rant I was becoming agrivated with him, wondering just who he was speaking for. Then came that oh-so-rightious-rant! O'Donnell's thoughts & feelings on the war and the idiots who want to continue to sacrifice the lives of our men & women in uniform are unquestionably those of a sincere--and fed-up--person.


Lawrence O'Donnell, :toast:

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. I see the MSM whooooores are still spinning it that the Dems

don't plan to pull out, just cut back the numbers a shade. They were at it again tonight on CNN.

Well, boys and girsl, the truth is that the new progressive Democrats - not necessarily the minority beltway types - one human being to another, just happen to wonder how it would feel for a soldier out there to have the futility of the Russian roulette they're having to play, nicely formalised in terms of having a specific timetable to ponder, as they're making their patrols.

"Will I live that long? Will I go back with a severe brain injury, with arm(s) and/or leg(s) amputated? Or will I be able to make it just with my mind screwed up?"