RUSH: To the phones, Chris in Waynesboro, Virginia. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Good afternoon, sir.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: An honor to finally speak to my political science and life professor after nine years.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: Hey, the thing I took away from that speech last night was the politicalness of it, putting troops in, pulling them out 18 months from now just before the election. And in my opinion, from now on, starting at the end of that speech last night, through to the election, every American life lost in Afghanistan from here out is not lost in the defense of our freedom and our way of life, it’s more lost in the defense of —
RUSH: Pursuit.
CALLER: — pursuit —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — of getting Barack Obama reelected.
RUSH: That’s quite a serious charge you’re leveling there, sir.
CALLER: Well, what else can you say?
RUSH: You have called the most listened to radio talk show in the world, and you have suggested that every Afghanistan military death be charged to Obama’s reelection campaign.
CALLER: Yes, sir. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to win. As you said earlier, it’s a war, you go to war, you go to war with everything you have and you win it. He doesn’t want to win it. ‘I’m just going to give 30,000 troops and help ’em out a little bit, but in 18 months we’re going to take them back.’
RUSH: The reason that I will consider this is because, never forget, the Democrat Party and the State-Controlled Media gave us the daily body count from Iraq as a means of ginning up public opinion against George W. Bush and the war. Speaking of this date of mid-2011, Good Morning America today, Diane Sawyer talked to Plugs Biden. She said, ‘President talks about withdrawals beginning July 2011, but if the Afghan troops are not ready to take over, will he start withdrawing anyway?’
BIDEN: Look, we put together a strategy that’s narrowed and focused, that our allies and our military and our civilian leadership thinks will work, and I’m assuming it’s going to work, and the fact of the matter is in July 2011 there will be an awful lot of American troops there and the only question is the gradual how steep the slope will be to begin to withdraw.
RUSH: So you see they’re kind of walking back from this now. When Obama says it last night, it sounds hard and firm, 2011, we’re going to get out of there, but Gates is running around, ‘It depends on the conditions on the ground,’ and here’s Plugs saying, ‘Look, there will be an awful lot of American troops there in 2011. I mean the only question is the gradual — how steep the slope will be to begin withdrawal.’ And Plugs’ basic message here is, ‘Look, shut up, the strategy is gonna work, so just back off.’ Plugs wasn’t through. Diane Sawyer then said, ‘Well, Senator McCain and the Republicans and many others have been saying to set a targeted withdrawal date only emboldens enemies and dispirits allies. Does it?’
BIDEN: I don’t know how it does either of those things. First of all embolden the enemy how? There will be over a hundred thousand American troops, 135,000 NATO and allied troops in the region. How are they emboldened knowing that by the time we train up the Afghanis we’re going to be gradually handing off beginning in 2003? This idea that somehow they’re going to lay low and all of a sudden come racing back when we only have 98,000 troops there, it’s just not logical to me.
RUSH: He meant 2011, but he said 2003.
John in Cape Coral, Florida, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. You’re next.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush, and good afternoon. Hello?
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Good afternoon.
RUSH: Good afternoon.
CALLER: I’ve been a listener for 20 years.
RUSH: Appreciate that very much, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: I just about vomited when I heard this speech last night. I called and told your man what had happened to the general of the World War II who said, Americans will not permit a defeat, they want winners.
RUSH: I hate to tell you, we’ve had a bunch of military people call last week, sir, and they said it’s not the military you think it is, Mr. Limbaugh, it’s not the World War II military. It’s been taken over by political correctness. And with this president, I say this purposefully, with this president, ‘Our enemies have a point in not liking us. They have a point.’ That is Obama’s message to the world when he apologizes. ‘They have a point.’ And sometimes, you know, we deserve a comeuppance, he believes.
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RUSH: Here is Thomas in Rockville, Maryland. You’re next, sir. I’m glad you waited. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. I thought it was just sadly ironic that the supposed foreign policy expert, Joe Biden, was talking about with just such indignance that, what did we think, that the Afghanis are just going to lay low and then just come back out when there are only 98,000 troops left? He’s missing the entire point. He’s missing the point that you tried to put forth during the Iraq war when it was at its highest. It’s a lesson the Democrats should have learned when they were fighting Vietnam, and it’s not about the number of troops, it’s about the stomach that this country has for fighting the war. That’s what we need to be concerned about —
RUSH: Exactly.
CALLER: — not the number of troops.
RUSH: It’s about the commitment.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And there was no commitment. The only commitment last night was to the American left. The American left was who Obama made a commitment to. ‘Yeah, I’m going to send a measly amount of troops, don’t worry, I’m going to get ’em out of there in a year-and-a-half, you guys, I’m on your side.’ His commitment was to his leftist base last night. The Taliban, what are they going to do? Biden’s an idiot. They’re going to sit around and, ‘Okay, the United States does not have the will, they don’t have any purpose here, this is all a political show, all we have to do is bide our time. They might even leave sooner if we stand down.’ Because the Taliban can be sure by what Obama said last night that Obama’s not going to really have these troops try to do anything, they’re just going to be there. But the rules of engagement are going to be so limited, they just have to bide their time. And in the meantime — and this is crucial now — this mission supposedly is about training an Afghan army in 18 months.
I have been there, folks, some of these people do not know what a pencil is! Some of them cannot read. The idea that we’re going to train an Afghan army to deal with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in a year-and-a-half is a joke. All the Taliban is going to have to do is run around to any of these people that might think they’re going to show up in the Afghanistan security force and say, ‘Look, the Americans just said last night they’re leaving. And we’re not. We’re going to be here. And we’re going to be watching between now and when they leave to see what you do. And if you happen to try to help ’em out while they’re here, we are taking names, and we will know who you are, we will track you down, and we will find you.’
Can you imagine? Let’s look at this from the opposite perspective. Let’s pretend — well, don’t have to pretend. They do. Let’s pretend that Mullah Omar went on Al-Jazeera TV in primetime last night to make an announcement on his intentions in the war in Afghanistan. And imagine if Mullah Omar, or maybe a joint appearance with Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is Bin Laden’s right-hand man, imagine if they both went on television, primetime, worldwide TV, and announced that they’re going to train a whole bunch of Mujahedeen, they’re going to train a whole bunch of new terrorists, but in 18 months they’re leaving for Somalia, or they’re leaving for the caves in Pakistan. What would the reaction be?
We just had the leader of the free world on worldwide television last night say that we are leaving Afghanistan, beginning in the summer of 2011. Now, the people that are over there, our enemy, they look at that as a concession speech. They look at that as a surrender speech, if they believe Obama means it, and they probably do. That’s how we would take it if Mullah Omar showed up on our TV sets last night and said, ‘In 18 months, after we up-staff with more terrorists, we’re going to move outta here, and we’re going to go back home to Pakistan.’ What would we do? We would applaud, all right, these guys are giving up! All right! We beat ’em. That’s what we would be doing. So what do you think they’re doing?
What do you think Mullah Omar and the boys are doing? They’re thinking, okay, Obama has just signaled that we won. That’s what that speech was last night, that’s why the cadets looked sleepy. That’s why they were nodding off. That’s why they looked bored. It’s why all the media today is, ‘I’ve never seen this done before, I’ve never seen announcing an uptick in war, and then you say it’s over in 18 months. Two years.’ They can’t figure it out, never seen it done before. So the winners here, this is clear, this is a policy statement Obama delivered to the kook-fringe left out there. But just again, imagine if our enemy goes on TV and says, ‘Okay, we’re quitting in 18 months,’ what would our reaction be?