It’s confounding:
Friday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) reacted to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, downplaying ISIS being close to capturing Ramadi, saying, “This may be one of the most bizarre and insensitive statements I have ever heard a military leader make.”
Dempsey said, “The city itself is not symbolic in any way. It hasn’t been declared the caliphate or central to iraq. The issue isn’t brick and mortar. It is about defeating ISIS. I would much rather that Ramadi not fall, but it will not be the end of a campaign. Should, it fall we have to get it back.”
McCain reacted by saying, “Sometimes I think I have grown numb from the statements made by General Dempsey in defense of this administration and its feckless foreign policy. This is truly a stunner. During the surge, we had a battle to retake Ramadi and there was a loss of many American Marines and soldiers and many wounded in the battle of Ramadi, which was one of the signal battles of the surge as we took back over of Anbar Province. And now this general says it doesn’t matter. I wonder what he would say to the families of those Marines and soldiers, those brave Americans who were killed and wounded in the battle for Ramadi.”
“When a major city is taken over by the enemy, and it doesn’t seem to matter,” McCain continued. “And what is the business about it isn’t part of the caliphate? Who declares what the caliphate is? ISIS does.”
“This may be one of the most bizarre and insensitive statements I have ever heard a military leader make. But he is also the mouth piece for a failed—not only a failed policy, but there is no strategy in Iraq and especially in Syria,” he added.
According to McCain, 187 Americans died taking Ramadi.
The mother of the first SEAL to die in Iraq feels betrayed and wrote an open letter to Dempsey:
I am shaking and tears are flowing down my cheeks as I watch the news and listen to the insensitive, pain inflicting comments made by you in regards to the fall of Ramadi.
“The city itself is not symbolic in any way”? Oh, really? Are you willing to meet with me and with the families who have lost a son, daughter, husband, wife, father, mother, aunt, uncle, grandson, or teammate?
My son Marc Lee was the first Navy SEAL who sacrificed his life in Ramadi Iraq Aug 2, 2006. His blood is still in that soil and forever will be. Remember that was when so many of our loved ones were taken from us. You said that “it’s not been declared part of the caliphate on one hand or central to the future of Iraq.” My son and many others gave their future in Ramadi. Ramadi mattered to them. Many military analysts say that as goes Ramadi so goes Iraq.
What about the troops who sacrificed their limbs and whose lives will never be the same. Our brave warriors who left a piece of themselves in Ramadi. What about the troops who struggle with PTS/TBI who watched their teammates breath their last or carried their wounded bodies to be medevac’d out of Ramadi.
I’ve traveled to Ramadi and visited Camp Marc Lee in 2007. I brought back soil from that city where Marc breathed his last. I interviewed Iraqi General Anwer in 2010 when I returned. I asked him “If you could say one thing to the American people what would you tell them? He paused and with deep emotion said “We will tell our children, our grandchildren, for generations to come we will tell them what Americans have done. There is American blood poured out on our soil.” It seems the Iraqis understand the importance more than you do sir.
You sir owe an apology to the families whose loved ones blood was shed in Ramadi. Ramadi matters to us and is very symbolic to us. You need to apologize to our troops whose bodies were blown to pieces from IEDs and bullet holes leaving parts and pieces behind, Ramadi matters to them. You need to apologize to our troops who endured the extreme temperatures and battled the terrorists in some of the worst battlefields in Iraq, Ramadi matters to them. They carry vivid memories of the battles and the teammates whose future is gone, Ramadi matters to them.
You and this administration have minimized that Ramadi could fall, now you are minimizing that it is falling, but you Sir WILL NOT minimize the sacrifice my son Marc Lee made or any of our brave warriors!
Awaiting an Apology
Debbie Lee
Ramadi was won. It should never have been in jeopardy. There isn’t anything too low for this wretched administration.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Come on. Give me a break.
Gen Dempsey is loyal to his Commander in Chief. He does not care about the troops. They will follow or get thrown out.
This is all about staying in office. The disloyal go under the bus; this is documented.
He is not a jerk. He is just another a**-licker who got his position by promising to follow the party line.
Islam. All Islam. All the time.
Follow the Five Pillars.
And hang the Christians.
colon sucking military whore
My ex-brother in law’s (but still a good friend) father served in the US Army 36th Division (Texas Division). Several years back, a reunion group took a tour of where they campaigned in Italy, France and Germany. Even in Italy (though not so much in Germany), the citizens of the small villages they liberated celebrated their arrival and had feasts in their honor. Many people that survived the war still live there. In one village, there are the only two soldiers killed in action NOT buried in national cemeteries; the villagers wanted them to remain their and take care of the graves. The twin girls that helped prepare the bodies still live there.
In the larger cities of France, Americans are still despised, but in these small rural villages, they still remember the sacrifices it took to become free again.
People that have suffered tyranny and oppression appreciate liberation, as I am sure many, many Iraqis do. Sad that many of OUR citizens do not appreciate the sacrifices but, then again until very recently, we were unaccustomed to tyranny.
I like to think someone like Dempsey loathes doing the job he does, serving as a mouthpiece for the most failed administration in American history, but he has the choice not to, I suppose. However, such an insensitive and callous description of the loss of such a hallowed battlefield to this scum, due entirely to the failure of this administration to take known threats seriously, is inexcusable.
Dempsey should be “retired”. He’s a sycophant to your precedent, and both are hollowing out your military.
Is it possible for anyone on the right to understand the meaning of the words General Dempsey—or anyone else connected with the Obama administration—is speaking, without first having them framed or translated to support the approved right-wing political message?
What’s frickin’ difficult to understand about this statement? Even after FOX’s copy-cut-and-paste surgery?
Screw FOX News and their defeatist message. They want to portray anything and everything as negatively as possible so they can pin that negative impression on their political opponents. And don’t think for a moment that FOX doesn’t have political opponents. FOX isn’t a news outlet. It’s a republican political propaganda organ.
@Greg: You became an apologist for the General a bit too soon.
He apologized to the woman who wrote him that letter.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/04/21/gold-star-mom-who-wrote-searing-letter-to-top-u-s-general-gets-the-apology-she-asked-for/
And, look at the news.
Ramadi is falling.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/16/iraqi-city-ramadi-verge-falling-isis-prime-minister
Tens of thousands of Iraqis are walking (no cars allowed) with only the clothes on their backs and whatever they can carry (including elderly and disabled relatives) to Baghdad!
The looting ISIS will do in Ramadi will finance their campaign of death at least another 6 months.
Obama and the General are idiots.
He wasn’t apologizing for what he said. He was apologizing for the fact that what he said had caused her distress. The way his comments were framed by FOX News is more to blame than the ideas he was conveying. FOX News propaganda techniques operate on an emotional level. Their selected news bytes and presentations are calculated to generate outrage and anger, which can then be directed politically. My level of contempt for FOX News is pretty much off the charts at this point.
I met Dempsey in Iraq.. I was working to stop a project he and his staff had initiated that would have cost the US millions of dollars and would not help the Iraqis at all. He also wanted to spend millions of dollars on renovating the largest slaughter house in Iraq. The Iraqi government didn’t want the slaughter house renovated because it still belonged to Saddam’s daughter. I had to get the State Department involved to squash that effort. When he was the 4th Division commander, he not only developed his strategy for Iraq, but he published through numerous press conferences. He was only the Division commander, not the Corps or MNF-I Commander. Petraeus was the MNF-I Commander and he had disseminated his strategy. If Dempsey had an extra arm, he would constantly be patting himself on the back! He is well in over his head! I am sure he got this job because his boot licking skills are quite good.
@Greg:
Gee whiz, Greg, I have to ask; what WAS his message, other than what was reported? Or, is it simply that Fox is “wrong”, no matter what?
@Greg:
You’re right. He wasn’t apologizing for what he said.
Again, General Dempsey offered the typical left wing non-apologetic response to being called down on his thoughtless comments by saying “I apologize if my comments (fill in the blank with ‘hurt your feelings’ ’caused you stress’ ‘destroyed your reputation’ or ‘made you uncomfortable.’)
But Dempsey is just another Obama boot-licker who has more loyalty to his high ranking job than the men he leads. Upon the death of 13 Americans being shot to death by a radical jihadist at Fort Hood, General Casey said:
“Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” Casey said.
Got that, Gullible Greggie? 13 Americans who were in the service of their nation losing their lives is not as bad as the military losing “diversity” by not allowing radical Islamists to remain in the military. Did Casey apologize to the families of those who lost their lives at Fort Hood? NOPE.
Oh, and Casey said that on CNN so you can’t blame Fox for his comments being taken out of context.
You’re still an idiot.
I’ll bet FOX News hasn’t made a big deal out of the real-world effects of this story:
House votes to repeal estate tax
The real-world effects? As in, What are the results?
It’s a $269 billion tax cut for the richest .2 percent of those who die each year. For the rest of America—who will receive no benefit from the tax cut whatsoever—it will add $269 billion directly to the national debt. You know, that thing republicans are always saying is totally out of control because of democrats pissing away money on things like food stamps and healthcare subsidies?
So, if you want to see the idiot in the room, look in a damn mirror.
You can always tell when Greg has lost the argument. He changes the subject!
You want the subject to be a distorted interpretation of General Dempsey’s words rather than what General Dempsey actually meant. As far as I’m concerned, the right’s routine efforts to distort perceptions of current events for political is the subject.
He was not saying that Ramadi doesn’t matter. He was saying that the ultimate success or failure of the battle against I.S.I.L. does not turn on present success or failure to hold that city. Political opportunists are wanting to turn that statement into an expression of disregard for American lives lost there before. That sort of cheap political opportunism is pretty low, in my humble opinion. The people making a calculated effort to exploit such a contrived opportunity are the ones who are dishonoring the dead, not General Dempsey. Truth be told, they hope for failure as a means to their own political success.
@Greg:
Good. The “death” tax is an abomination and nothing more than outright theft. If you own a family ranch/farm of a mere 500 acres, with values at approx. $6,000 an acre, that puts you at the $3 million mark for land alone. Add structures like barns, cattle shelters, plus equipment (I take it you have never purchased a tractor) you are well over the $3.5 million mark.
Why should anyone who grew up on a ranch/farm that worked for meager wages knowing they would one day inherit that ranch/farm be required to pay upwards of 40% in taxes when they inherit what they have worked their whole lives to pay for? Greedy bastards, like all you progressives are, never saw a tax that you didn’t agree with, as long as people like Ted Kennedy could find loop holes by offshoring his money so his kids didn’t pay any death taxes.
And why is our national debt so high, Gullible Greggie? Crap like this:
“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent over $400,000 studying the satisfaction levels of the first sexual experiences of young gay men. “-
http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-spent-410265-studying-satisfaction-levels-of-young-gay-mens-first-time/
You’re an idiot, Gullible Greggie, but you do provide comic relief. Every village needs an idiot, you’re the one here at the FA village.
@Greg:
The “real world effects” should be that the government stop wasting money on corrupt, exposed officials (IRS, DEA, DOJ, HHS, EPA, DHS), stop luring millions of illegal immigrants into this country to live off the taxpayer and take a little effort to eliminate waste, duplication and fraud. Sad you do not find it despicable that the government has to steal from dead citizens in order to waste money.
He clearly said the fall of Ramadi didn’t matter. He clearly stated that if it falls (which, of course, would be caused by this administration’s failure and against which we are doing nothing), we will just retake it… as if the lives lost to capture and pacify it the first time were wasted and it is no big deal to spend more lives taking it back again. I actually doubt that is what he meant, but that is what he said. You would think a guy that gives orders for a living could make his meaning more clear than that and not need administration apologist lackeys to explain what he REALLY meant.
Hey, Greg… remember “Mission Accomplished”? How about the media using military KIA lists to try and embarrass a sitting President, then stopping the notifications when a liberal President takes office (and the list actually grows longer)? You know, I think you finally have a point there, but not the one you MEANT to make (unless someone else can step up and explain what you MEANT to say).
I served in the military. I’m the son of a career military man. My brother drew a retirement check from the military until he died. My wife’s brother draws a military retirement check. I know a bit about it.
Others have said similar things in different situations over at least the past five decades, but I’ll state it here as it is quite apt. “Most of the Pentagon should be tried for dereliction of duty for not resigning over Berserk Insane Oblameya’s policies.” To go along, however tacitly or passively, with this Bozo, is certainly dereliction of duty if not outright treason.
This man is not the man I worked for and admired. He is now one of obama’s butt boys.
@Greg: Ever the IDIOT Greg. Spouting off on something he’s got ZERO clue about. Hey Greggie, what’s rich? Let’s hear your definition. I’m sure we’ll all enjoy your response. Meanwhile back on topic, this General visits the White House with tubes of His and Her’s KY.
@Bill, #15:
What he said are the words that he actually spoke. Even with FOX News hacking out the middle, it’s abundantly clear that he didn’t mean what you would like people to believe.
This isn’t a matter of missing nuance. It’s a matter of refusing to understand the meaning of plainly spoken English sentences.
@Greg: Hitler at one point said the same thing about Stalingrad. People say the strangest things for political reasons or to justify failure.
@Oblamobinlyen, #18:
Here’s an instructive illustration that might help you understand one aspect of the situation better.