Let’s Hope We Fix the Rules of Engagement

Chuck in Snoqualmie, Washington. Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Good morning, Rush, I appreciate all you do each and every day.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. I appreciate that you appreciate it. I’m glad somebody does.
CALLER: Two really quick comments.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: My first one is a question for you. I don’t understand, because the Democrats, right up until the election and even afterwards, were accusing President Bush much being a buffoon because he was losing so much respect around the world and he couldn’t lead the nation’s superpower in building this great coalition to go in here and help us in Iraq. So now since the election, they changed 180 degrees, and now they’re saying, well, the Iraqis don’t need anybody else’s help, we’re all free to pull out and to let them handle this on their own. I don’t understand.
RUSH: Yes, you do. Tell me what you think they’re really saying.
CALLER: Cut-and-run. It’s all politics. It’s just shows —
RUSH: Of course. Whatever Bush does, they’re going to disagree with.
CALLER: That’s right. And you had a caller before, Mike, who just came back from Iraq, and I can tell you it was the same in Vietnam because I flew around in a helicopter gunship while they were shooting at us. I’m mounted on a 75,000 (unintelligible) light with an infrared scope mounted with twin 50-caliber machine guns, and there’s nothing worse than when those tracers are coming up at that damn helicopter, you’re calling in for permission to fire, and they’re telling you to wait one-zero to see if friendlies are in the area. That’s not how you fight a war. You go in there and take them apart, that’s why they call it gunship. It’s just so frustrating. You know, they put all these rules and regulations, ?Well, we’re going to fight a war according to the way that the peaceniks want us to fight it.? That’s not how it happens, you know. It’s just ridiculous.
RUSH: Well, you know, I hear these stories and I hear them frequently about the political correctness, the politically correct handcuffs that are placed on our troops, and you’re describing them as they existed in Vietnam, and it doesn’t surprise me. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if you told me that you had a straight line to the Oval Office and had to get permission from LBJ to return fire, that’s how micromanaged that war was, or McNamara. But while we got all these politically correct handcuffs on our troops, we still hear all these stories about how they rape and murder and pillage. They go in, as John Kerry said, and terrorize women and children at home during religious ceremonies and so forth. These two things don’t go together and it sounds to me that the kinds of things that these guys get accused of are just the things that happen in war, and that we are trying to eliminate with our guilt laden political correctness.
You know, even in the middle of fighting a war, the predominant concern is that the enemy like us. How ridiculous is that? Well, they must like us and they must appreciate us and they must understand that we’re Americans and that we have ideals, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that we end up as the targets. I know it’s absurd. But, the president last night said that some of these restrictions are going to be lifted, and I certainly hope they are. I’ve been hearing these stories long enough and it’s frustrating to hear. Thanks very much for the call, Chuck.