New Democratic ad: Why did Norm Coleman send this couple’s son to die in Iraq?
posted at 7:43 pm on September 16, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Via Ace, who’s holding his breath for a sequel to Olbermann’s very stern lecture about using the dead for political leverage. We’ve gotten dozens of e-mails over the past week pointing us to the “Dear Mr. Obama” video on YouTube in which a wounded vet calls out The One for his Iraq policies; I didn’t post it because I thought it was a weak tactic, a hawkish version of Cindy Sheehan trying to rebut a policy argument with guilt over her suffering. But evidently this is a game the left wants to play, so you’ll kindly find that video embedded below. Exit question: The Democrats must feel pretty sure that Obama’s bluffing about extending the war in Afghanistan if they’re willing to set a precedent like this, huh?
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It is tragic that the DNC exploits the lose of the couple for political opportunism purposes.
BTW Didn’t the war resolution (as it were) received nearly unanimous approval from Congress? Only a couple of senators voted against it.
Captain America on September 16, 2008 at 9:05 PM
In case no one has answered you guys:
The “Dear Mr. Obama” video features someone whose name (if I remember correctly, from Rush) is Joe Cook.
He says in his YouTube comments that he did the video himself – there is no “paid for by”.
capitalist piglet on September 16, 2008 at 9:06 PM
To one and all that are serving and have served in the military thank you for your service; you are truly the best of this nation. To those whose sons and daughters or husbands and wives are serving or have served, thank you for the sacrifice you make while your loved ones are away and for caring for them when they are injured. You too are what makes this country strong and we probably could not walk 30 seconds in your shoes.
With the Reserves being involved in Texas I agree with this sentiment:
And add my Amen to this as well. I hate this family has suffered their loss, but not only could this death happened here in the states, but I echo all those that have said they disgrace their son’s choice to serve in the military. He was grown and made an admirable choice in placing his country above himself.
freeus on September 16, 2008 at 9:06 PM
Whoo-boy. Are you the same Hog that posts over at RWN? As boldilocks posted, Coleman wasn’t even in the Senate when they gave the authorization.
But you don’t like facts getting in the way of your agenda.
I served in the military,and I told my parents that if anything happened to me,not to do this sort of thing.
I feel for their loss,but to use it to bash someone is bullshit.
x-wing on September 16, 2008 at 9:06 PM
…and their son served to ensure that, grieving or not, they could say whatever they want. All the discussion here is just perspective….
Puritan1648 on September 16, 2008 at 9:06 PM
No shame.
SouthernGent on September 16, 2008 at 9:15 PM
Heh, you have no idea how weird it is to see sailors walking around our landlocked base. My AF husband, thanks to this ad, is now threatening to posthumously letter-bomb any member of our family who dishonors his death if he ever dies in action. Thanks a lot, Allah!
Oh, and yes, for all wondering, Texas is very nice and roomy.
pookysgirl on September 16, 2008 at 9:20 PM
Yes. It’s not simply a comparison of recipes listing issues & positions, nor even resumes listing experience, although I do take those into consideration. But to me, it’s more a question of who we are as a people and who we want to be and what we want to leave behind after we’re gone. It’s a question of the fundamental values & beliefs that makes America great.
We’re all going to die, and when we leave, each of us will take something with us which is irreplaceable. Yet, what gives me hope for our country is that there are still people of great valor and honor springing up from the good earth of our land.
Loxodonta on September 16, 2008 at 9:23 PM
I’m glad that you aren’t holding your recruiter responsible for a round of BRAC cuts! :0
I firmly believe that recruiting, in general, is done wrong by the military. A subset of the career counselor rate should be a professional recruiting force. All too often we just send people to shore duty “back home” and expect them to have the skills necessary to be an effective recruiter. It doesn’t work that way. Working with sailors just out of “A” and “C” school everyday there is far more of a realistic understanding about going into combat (certainly far more than when I came in 23 years ago). It’s probably been three or so years since I’ve heard the “I just came in for the benefits” talk from those actually serving.
My biggest pet peeve these days is that the Navy signed up to fill billets the Army wasn’t able to fill on its own. I understand the concept of orders and doing the job the nation needs you to do but there is something fundamentally wrong in sending a sailor who signed up to be an Engineman off as an “Individual Augmentee” to be a .50 Cal gunner with an Army unit because the Army can’t do all of the mission it was assigned (proving yet again Clinton’s peace dividend was nothing more than redistributing wealth and making the nation less safe in the process). It seems to me the nation breaks its part of the enlistment contract when they train a sailor to do one job and then, after a few weeks of Army training they send that sailor off to do a low skill job with another service unrelated to what we hired them to do.
highhopes on September 16, 2008 at 9:36 PM
…the folks who end up with that ribbon around their necks, and the many more who end up with it handed to their survivors, were heroes long before they found themseleves in that tight spot, full of noise and rapidly shrinking options.
We send many, many more over to deceptively hostile places every day who’re potentially just as brave, many of whom would be names on monuments if they’re trapped by similar heroic circumstances….
…so, they’re all heroes…
…the sad thing isn’t that our leaders fail. All war comes after failure. The trick is to stop failing once you start issuing ball ammo.
The sad thing is that folks are more ready, as Momma Sheehan, to blame their leaders than they are the guys who actually pulled the trigger, set off the bomb, or (a peculiarly chilling twist to this war) wielded the steak knife. Mom Cindy even honored them with the appellation “freedom fighters”.
If the dead could only speak for themselves….
Puritan1648 on September 16, 2008 at 9:39 PM
People join the military for many, many reasons.
Of course it’s possible that these old fart’s son may have joined because Norm Coleman didn’t veto George Bush’s bill drafting him.
Or maybe – just maybe – the guy signed up, at least in part, to get away from his psycho moonbat parents.
Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Moonbat, but I’m going to have to with the odds on this one.
logis on September 16, 2008 at 9:43 PM
What a shame that those people would use their son’s life and death as a political commercial for a scumbag Democrat. They should be ashamed.
Jaibones on September 16, 2008 at 9:50 PM
Hi Squi…er, Sailors!
baldilocks on September 16, 2008 at 9:59 PM
I hear dead people speaking to all of us. And I bet you do too. Can’t you hear Captain John Paul Jones? “I have not yet begun to fight!”
And so, I pray that Americans will also listen to those of the past and present, great and common, who helped build and preserve our country, and not listen to people like Senator Harry Reid. “This war is lost.”
But then, I’m just a hopelessly old-fashioned old man. And it seems that far too many liberals no longer listen to what we have to say, and just want us to quietly go away.
Loxodonta on September 16, 2008 at 10:02 PM
Grief comes in many forms. I’m willing to cut the parents some slack because I don’t know how they are dealing with the death of their child. Having one’s child pre-decease you has to be hard for any parent. This could be their way of dealing with guilt or some other emotion we don’t know about.
That being said, it’s unfair to link this death to the war in Iraq if (as reported here) the helicopter crash was unrelated to combat. Still sad but these types of accidents can and do happen on a regular basis. Using the logic of the video, Norm Coleman could just have easily sent their son to die in the swamps of Fort Bragg.
highhopes on September 16, 2008 at 10:03 PM
No I’m not. Freedom of speech is our right. That couple has sacrificed a son for this nation. They can express how they feel and I won’t judge them for it.
Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Why does Cindy Sheehan come to mind? If Obama wants to talk about “bitter”, what better place to start?
Their son died to assure that they have the right to say what they feel, even to the point of disparaging his memory.
May Major Stuart Anderson, late of the United States Army, rest in peace.
And may Norm Coleman beat Al Franken handily!
unclesmrgol on September 16, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Agreed and well said. But we can darn well judge the Democrats who made the ad! And, I judge them to be vile.
Loxodonta on September 16, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Judging their actions towards a fallen soldier is also part of that “right”.
The fact that they are selfish and incapable of granting HIM the dignity of HIS life and death speaks volumes not about HIM but them.
I must have missed our invokation of the Alien&Sedition Act while I was doing my evening ablutions….
sven10077 on September 16, 2008 at 10:16 PM
sven, I usually agree with you, but do you really suppose to tell these people what they can and can’t do with the memory of their son?
that would be akin to Democrats telling Goldstar Mothers who are proud of their child’s service that they are out of line for feeling that way.
that’s my only point. I don’t agree with or support their political message. and I won’t judge them for what they say or how they feel concerning the death of their son.
if you or anyone else wants to, then go ahead.
Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 10:28 PM
I, for one, will challenge those parents and all of them… how dare they speak for the fallen ones… I am fortunate that my son told me that if I ever spoke ill of his service and its result… he’d haunt me, I believe him.
MNDavenotPC on September 16, 2008 at 10:29 PM
We must. I lost a good friend in Iraq two years ago who fervently believed in the mission. I cannot get the image of his lovely wife taking his memory and using it for Charmin to wipe her fourth point of contact if she were to replicate this set of antics.(she did not she is a lovely woman and I am tearing up now even thinking of her silent dignity)
I find the overt use of dead sons to advocate for the war unseemly, but I find the use of honroable dead men and women to undermine the recipient of their sacrifice to be enraging and showing a decided lack of honor and fellowship with the dead.
I cannot move from here, I apologize if you find my relatively polite and silent condemnation of this idiocy unseemly but I will not be swayed barring something from HIM saying “Norm Coleman killed me”…..
add in the non-combat related nature of his sacrifice and it would be akin to my mother running against a state senator for a training accident involving my death or something.
“no”.
sven10077 on September 16, 2008 at 10:34 PM
By blaming someone that wasn’t in the Senate who didn’t vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, where he died?
Their son was 44 years old for Christs sake, you don’t think he could make up his own mind?
x-wing on September 16, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Indeed, this ain’t the UK we don’t have 15 year olds, and the man died in the service of the US Army as a career soldier doing his duty. To paint him as a victim is unseemly. Their taking their view public invites a rebuttal this is mine.
“Leave your son’s sacrifices with another state as his home of record, out of your state’s race.”
sven10077 on September 16, 2008 at 10:42 PM
And that’s what is missing from this ad- We know that those old folks are Bush-hating liberals. We don’t know what Maj. Anderson thought about what he was doing over in Iraq. They said they were proud of their son but not once did they say they were proud of his service in the military. That speaks volumes.
P.S. The fact that helicopter accidents don’t just happen in combat zones aside, it is utterly absurd to suggest that Norm Coleman’s “standing up to Bush” would have made the difference. Minn just isn’t that important and Coleman just doesn’t have that kind of sway.
highhopes on September 16, 2008 at 10:46 PM
The stereotyping of military service members by the left and the MSM takes one of two forms: victim or criminal . They are incapable of viewing them in three dimensions or as volunteers, adults or warriors. Their default setting is to disrespect or diminish the valor and sacrifice of everyone serving. They cannot help themselves.
muggedbyreality on September 16, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Especially since he wasn’t in the Senate yet at the time of the vote to go into Iraq.
baldilocks on September 16, 2008 at 11:11 PM
No need to apologize sven, I am not offended. With that, I’m gonna bow out of this conversation, and let my remarks stand without further explanation as to why I feel the way I do.
Hog Wild on September 16, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Actually, it is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of that.
Aside from that fact though, you made a really good point there.
logis on September 16, 2008 at 11:44 PM
sven10077 & x-wing:
I’ve read your posts twice and thought as best I can about them. And just because I’m old doesn’t mean I can’t learn or change my mind.
So, yes. You are both right. The Major’s parents have done their son a grave disservice by allowing their grief to turn into such hatred that they are willing to use their own son to spread a lie for political purposes. It is shameful. All members of the Armed Forces, living and dead, deserve to be free from such treatment.
However, I am still very angry at the Democrats for making this ad.
Loxodonta on September 16, 2008 at 11:52 PM
44 years old?
I can’t believe this garbage. He’s 44 years old? A major, a volunteer……
I regret his death, but letting Stuart Smalley use him like this only dishonors this officer. He was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. He took risks, and lost his life.
His parents are blinded by sadness and their own political views; the people who used the parents are POS
Janos Hunyadi on September 17, 2008 at 12:09 AM
All politics aside, what is striking and meaningful about Joe Cook’s message is the morality of it– no matter what you feel about the war, parties, elections, et all, here is a poetic manifestation of the ethic that makes our society even possible. Only someone like this guy can speak with this level of authority on the ideal of sacrificing for something that is important.
Hochmeister on September 17, 2008 at 3:44 AM
We’re not “losing” anything (i.e. we all die). We live in what they created. These people left our country (nee the world) a better place. I pray our offspring will say the same thing about us.
drunkenmaster on September 17, 2008 at 6:50 AM
I saw RED when I saw this ad.
13Girl on September 17, 2008 at 11:46 AM
first time i saw it i thought of Olby too. wtf man. wheres the outragggez?
Drunk Report on September 17, 2008 at 3:21 PM
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