What President Limbaugh Would Do About Afghanistan

RUSH: Yeah, and he said he’s only talked to the commander-in-chief one time in 70 days.

CALLER: Right. And he was talking about, you know, be more careful in our bombing and stuff and I know that’s something that’s driven you crazy when the Democrats have said that in the past, and I was just wondering what you thought about that.

RUSH: It is a dichotomy. When the cowards who are our enemy bury themselves in homes in neighborhoods with women and children wearing the burqas, it is difficult for us to go out and get the guys because we are limited by our compassion for not causing collateral damage.

CALLER: So you would just take the gloves off?

RUSH: No. I’d listen to what the generals say. But the bottom line is, what would I’d do in Afghanistan? I’d win. Here. Obama has spoken up again. It’s not hard. You know, in a war, the operating philosophy is, ‘Well, what’s the endgame? When do you get out?’ After you win! We win; they lose. Here’s Obama, at the White House, after he met with UN Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen… Did they get a new secretary-general? I thought the Secretary General was Ban Ki-moon from one of the Koreas. Anyway, here’s Obama. He said this about their… By the way, he’s ignoring Richard Cohen’s warning and Howard Fineman’s warning to stay Off TV. Obama is on TV again saying Afghanistan… Well, you listen. Here’s what he said.

OBAMA: We talked about, obviously, the most important NATO mission now and that is Afghanistan, and, uh, we both agree that it is absolutely critical that we are successful in dismantling, disrupting —

RUSH: (sighs)

OBAMA: — destroying the Al-Qaeda network and that we are effectively working with the Afghan government —

RUSH: Mmm-hmm.

OBAMA: — to provide the security, uh, necessary for that country. This is not a[n] American battle. This is a NATO mission as well, and we are working actively and diligently to consult with NATO at every step of the way.

RUSH: He’s the NATO secretary-general, this Anders Fogh Rasmussen is the NATO general, not the UN secretary-general. But anyway, Obama, ‘No, this is not an American battle.’ He said that. You heard him. ‘It’s not an American battle. It’s a NATO mission…’ Who’s NATO? We are! We and the Brits are NATO. (interruption) Well, yeah, the Australians, you know, the people from Oz, cool, but it’s not an American battle? Why, I thought I distinctly remembered all during the Iraq war that Afghanistan is where ‘weeeee’ should have been! It’s where Obama was saying we should have been. We should have gone out there and captured Bin Laden. Now it’s not an American battle? It’s a NATO mission? ‘We gotta do what we can out there to succeed in dismantling, disrupting, destroying the Al-Qaeda network,’ but it’s not our battle. Therefore what this means is, when we lose, it’s not his fault; it’s NATO’s.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Chris from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Welcome, sir, it’s an honor to have you on the program, hello.

CALLER: Thanks for taking my call, Rush. I just wanted to call and weigh in on Afghanistan and the troop increase issue. You’re talking about a country roughly the size of Texas. Now, we’ve had 20 some thousand troops over there for the majority of the time. We are waging an unconventional war against small pockets of Taliban, targeting leaders. Well, the Taliban has adapted to our tactics, they have grown stronger, and they have a larger footprint in the country now. We need more troops over there. The first thing needs to be done is we need to secure the borders. We have an abundance of fighters continually funneling in from Pakistan into Afghanistan, causing the problems over there.

RUSH: You’ve been there, I trust?

CALLER: I’ve been there four times. Yes, sir.

RUSH: You’re US military, you served there four times?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: So, you know, the idea of not giving the commanders what they’re requesting over there seems to me like it’s politically driven. And if we’re going to make a decisive decision to go and win this war, then we need to support the commanders.

RUSH: Well, of course it’s politically driven because Obama doesn’t want to anger his fringe lunatic base who are anti-military, anti-war, anti-victory. He needs them supporting his health care agenda and so forth.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: You understand the concept of victory is not — in fact, did you hear Obama say today that this is not an American war, this is a NATO war. Did you hear him say that?

CALLER: It is, but who’s been taking the lead the entire time? It’s been the US —

RUSH: Of course.

CALLER: — it’s been US funded. It is our responsibility. We are over there for one reason and one reason only, to secure that country so that Taliban insurgents cannot set up a stronghold in that country and have free range to launch attacks on the rest of the world.

RUSH: Chris here is exactly right. Stateless nations are exactly the kind of places that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda target. That’s why they went to Afghanistan in the first place. It was a stateless place, they could take it over, the Taliban did. That’s why Somalia was attractive to them. I got a note, this is funny. I got a note from my good friend Andy McCarthy who is at National Review Online. He said, ‘Rush, I gotta respectfully disagree with you here. I think it’s great Obama is saying this is not America’s war. That’s the best chance we have of winning it.’ (laughing) Stop and think about this. Now, Andy, we’ve had him on the program, Andy was in the prosecutorial team that put the blind sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman behind bars. He has spent his life studying these people. ‘Rush, I gotta disagree with you.’ With Obama saying it’s not America’s war it’s the first chance we might really have here to win it since America can’t be victorious, but NATO can. This is Andy’s point, all these international institutions, global institutions, yeah, let them win, that’s great, bad when America does it. Making a little point.