RUSH: Here’s Wayne in Killeen, Texas. Wayne, glad you called, nice to have you on the program, sir.
CALLER: Rush, it’s a great thrill to talk to you. I’ve been listening to you since I was a young sergeant in the Army and now when I’m retired, a warrant officer, and working for the government again in support of our military. It’s an absolute thrill. You’ve always been there for us. Thank you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: Now, as your screener probably told you, I am supporting John McCain, and I would like to just say why for a second and I hope you’ll hear me out.
RUSH: Go right ahead.
CALLER: Okay. John McCain represents an opportunity for us I think to unite the country on the premiere issue of our times, and that is the international war on terror which Iraq is definitely part of. We can’t possibly risk having a Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama pull our troops out of there when we are so close to winning. John McCain represents an opportunity for us to win the election, and we’re all on the same team here, Rush. Romney would definitely have my vote, should McCain not win the election. But I think McCain represents a possibility, although not likely with the Democrats the way they are, a possibility of unity, at least for a brief period of time, and that’s what I have to say.
RUSH: Okay, interesting point. Two things. I’m going to write down ‘unity’ so I don’t forget to go back to this. All right, it’s McCain and Romney, but let’s include Huckabee here. Do you have any doubt that Romney or Huckabee would not stay the course in the war on terror and the war in Iraq?
CALLER: I have little doubt of that no, I think they would.
RUSH: No doubt. Okay. But you do have some doubt about Obama and Hillary?
CALLER: Yes, I do.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: They’ve stated it, Rush. I mean, they’re clear about it. They’ve stated their intentions, and I take them at their word.
RUSH: They’ve stated both sides of it. In a debate back in December, it might have been November, but they were asked point-blank, ‘Can you pledge that all the troops will be out of Iraq by 2012,’ in other words, four years after you take office, neither Edwards nor Hillary, none of them, except Kucinich, none of them said, ‘I’ll make that pledge,’ because the dirty little secret — I know I overuse that phrase — the dirty little secret is, there is no Democrat presidential candidate who is going to saddle himself or herself and their party with defeat in the war in Iraq and the war on terror while they’re in the White House. They would love to have been able to pressure Bush. They’re not going to be able to do that. They would have loved to have been able to pressure Bush to get the troops out so they can say Bush lost the war, Bush admits it’s horrible, it’s a big mistake, but when they’re in power, they’re in the White House, I’ll guarantee you they are not going to pull troops out of there unless they can claim that victory has been had. Guarantee you. So there’s no candidate, other than Kucinich — Huckabee, Romney, McCain, Hillary, Obama, all five are going to leave troops where they are.
CALLER: Well, you know, I understand your point there, and you may be correct. I won’t challenge that —
RUSH: Don’t doubt me.
CALLER: — but the message they’re sending is surely one of doubt. The people that are voting for them —
RUSH: I’m not saying there’s no difference here between Hillary and Obama and McCain and Romney on this. I’m just suggesting —
CALLER: That heartens our enemies, Rush, that strengthens our enemies, that gives them hope when they hear that.
RUSH: I know. The Democrats are the party of Al-Qaeda, I understand this. The Democrats are the party of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I understand this. Let me go, because time is drifting by here quickly. I want to go back to your unity comment, a question. Because you’re obviously a very serious guy, you’re a member of the US military, been on the front lines, you’ve been in harm’s way, we all have, most of us in this country, profound respect and awe for you, and you and your comrades are owed a debt that most of us will never be able to repay. You sound like a serious guy. This concept of unity, are you speaking of it strictly in terms of unity in the war on terror, war in Iraq, all of the issues that face us on national security? Do you really think that’s important and that McCain is the only guy who can take some of these fringe kooks on the left and some of these Democrats who have made their lives famous on the basis of being anti-war and turn them to unity with the national security crowd such as yourself, McCain’s the only guy that can do that?
CALLER: Sir, I’m not saying he’s the only guy that can do that, but what I am saying is when you’re in a fight, any hesitation by your enemy is an opportunity. If McCain is elected president, there will be pause, there will be a moment in which we can seize the pause to gain some measure of unity in our effort to extract this war and win it. And all I’m asking for is that opportunity. We don’t need the divisiveness that is giving our enemy hope; that is my point.
RUSH: And I certainly understand where you’re coming from because I know how irritated I am at the left and have been. If I wore the uniform like you do, I can’t imagine how literally angry and disgusted I would be with having to put up with some of the anti-war, anti-military, sabotage attacks that have been made against you, your comrades, and your commander-in-chief.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: I understand that, and that’s why I’m taking you very seriously here. But at the same time, I think — well, this is just my opinion. I’m not going to predict it, but I think that no matter who the president is, whether it’s Hillary, whether it’s Romney, Obama or McCain, that group of people that has been so disgusting — the Cindy Sheehans, she’s sort of a cartoon now, but these people out there who have done everything they can to sabotage victory, they are anti-war by virtue of DNA, by virtue of blood. I’ll tell you, they are going to turn on McCain just as they would turn on their own president, their own party, or George Bush. They’re always going to be with us.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, we just had an interesting call, a conversation with a decorated military man, and I understand where you military guys are coming from. You’re fed up with all of this division in the country, people attacking you, the mission, the commander-in-chief and so forth. In fact, I know it’s a secondary concern. The concern is winning the war, sticking to it, and you think McCain is really the best guy for that. The secondary thing is this unity business. I would punt the unity. It isn’t going to happen. These people, they’re liberal Democrats, and when the rubber meets the road, they hate Republicans, even if they’re McCain. Folks, you wait, if McCain ends up being the nominee, you’re going to see the Drive-Bys and the Democrat opposition research people releasing stuff about this guy that’s being held back now because they want to be the nominee. If you think that this unity business is going to take place, you do not know the left in this country. You do not know the enemy. Did Eisenhower get unity? No. Did Nixon get unity? No. Reagan get unity? No. Bush 41 get unity? No. Bush 43 get unity? No. Did Kennedy get unity? No. Did LBJ get unity? No. When the country is at war, the anti-war crowd is going to perk up, and a lot of them in the media.
But one other thing that I would like to ask those of you who are military — and you know of my profound, deep respect and awe for you in the decades of support on this program, but I would like to ask you about McCain’s support for closing Club Gitmo. Senator McCain wants to shut down Guantanamo Bay because of abuses that the Europeans are accusing us of committing, and so he wants to appease the Europeans and whoever the hell else around the world who thinks that we are committing torture. These are the people with whom we are at war. We have gleaned operational intelligence from people at Guantanamo. Waterboarding gave us everything we needed to know about the 9/11 mastermind and hijackings and the strategery and the operations of it. Waterboarding, not torture. The attorney general was put on the spot yesterday in hearings and he told the guys at the committee, screw you — he didn’t use those words. He didn’t back down. Waterboarding is not torture. I’m not going to tie my government’s hands. He said, (paraphrasing) ‘I would love to institute my personal preferences on these kind of things, gentlemen, but I am the attorney general of the United States, and my first duty is the defense and protection of the Constitution here. I am not going to just by fiat tie my country’s hands dealing with this enemy.’
Senator McCain wants to do that. He wants to bring these prisoners of war into the United States, give them constitutional rights and lawyers, and basically fight the war in the court system. So on the one hand Senator McCain sounds all gung-ho, I’m for the surge and this sort of thing, but if you look at some of the other things that he’s trying to do, like cut down on the interrogations that take place. I mean, isn’t that part of the war, the internal security of the country? We were attacked here on 9/11, after all. I don’t think we need to close Club Gitmo. Senator McCain says that if we waterboard these clowns we’re no better than our enemy. What do the troops think of that? I’m just throwing some questions out there, not trying to agitate, not trying to stir the pot. That happens naturally. Don’t have to try. Just throwing some questions out there.