CALLER: Rush, how you doing today?
RUSH: Just fine, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: Let me tell you what position I’m operating from. I am a Democrat with a big D, socially liberal, but I do not always agree with them when it comes to foreign policy, and that’s why I’m calling you today. I originally supported going to war in Iraq, of course, Afghanistan as well. And I’m just simply not convinced that a unilateral withdrawal is the right thing to do. Now, I don’t know if the current course is really working out, either, but I wanted to get on your opinion on that.
RUSH: Do you know that this is the first day that the surge is at full force?
CALLER: Well, why is it taking so long to get there? I just want to know, what do you think, number one, this is winnable by realistic —
RUSH: Absolutely. We’re in the process of winning it.
CALLER: Well, the thing is, I don’t see leaving Iraq and leaving a terrorist stronghold as a great thing. Now, the fact is they weren’t there to begin with, and now they are there —
RUSH: Well, things are what they are. We gotta live in the moment. You and I could have a discussion about whether it was right or wrong to go to Iraq, whether there were terrorists there or not, all of it’s meaningless now, because they are there, and the Al-Qaeda people admit it’s the number-one front in the war against the United States. They’re flooding Iraq with terrorists all over the place. Better we fight them there than over here. But regardless whether it was a mistake to go, whether you think it was or not, the reality is, what is, is, and they are there. And we cannot lose to them. We just can’t. We’re the United States of America. This would be the biggest mistake in the world to lose. This is something that has to be seen through for the future of the country, for the future of our developing future allied relationships, and, believe me, if we get out of there without finishing this job, we’re just going to have to go back at some point and do it, Lane. This is something that cannot be left undone.
CALLER: Well, you know, I kind of agree with you.
RUSH: That’s good, because I was right.
CALLER: I would like to see more success in Iraq, but —
RUSH: Wait a second.
CALLER: — but I will say this, Rush.
RUSH: We’re having all kinds of success now, and even the Democrats are admitting it.
CALLER: Who admitted it?
RUSH: Hillary Clinton, surge is working. Stand by for the audio sound bites. Carl Levin, just got back, surge is working. Nancy Pelosi’s steering committee chairman, a guy named Baird, California Democrat, surge is working. Two guys at the Brookings — where have you been? Everybody is admitting the surge is working. It’s bipartisan.
CALLER: I am glad to hear that. I am. I must say on another note, as a guy that agrees with you, oh, less than half the time, if that, you’ve got style, Rush. I’ve listened to you for a long time, and my friends are bewildered by it. They really are. But you’re an entertaining guy to listen to and you’ve got a great program.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that.
CALLER: I’ll tell you this, your programs are a hell of a lot better than the stuff on Air America, even though I agree with what they’re saying more so —
RUSH: You gotta be kidding! The fact that anybody would agree with anything said on that network makes me worried for you.
CALLER: Well, I am democratic and socially —
RUSH: That’s no excuse. You’re an American. How can you listen to that and say you agree with any of it? I don’t mean to yell at you. I’m just passionate about this. Don’t take it personally.
CALLER: (Laughing.)
RUSH: I’m not yelling at you.
CALLER: I don’t, Rush. I don’t.
RUSH: Lane, let me tell you something. I’m serious about this. Iraq is just one front in the whole war on terror, and we need you. We need as many people in this country as possible supporting the effort. You want to get rid of the partisan divide in this country; you want to get rid of all the bickering — and I know people on the left and some independents are made uncomfortable by this — can you imagine what this country would be like if we were unified behind this? After all, what’s not to be unified on this? This is the United States of America trying to beat back an enemy and prevent another attack like we had on 9/11. What in the world is there to oppose here? The opposition to this is based strictly on a deranged, irrational hatred of a single man that nobody knows, George W. Bush, and maybe Dick Cheney thrown in there as well. But it’s irrational. It makes no sense. This is your country. You live here. We were attacked on 9/11. This is something that has to be done, at some point.
If we don’t finish it now — and I’m not just saying Iraq, but the whole thing — we’re going to have to deal with it at some point. We’ve got Iran nuking up. We’ve got terrorists all over the world, Al-Qaeda and others launching attacks constantly. We have not had one here since 9/11. Don’t think that’s an accident, either. I think it’s because we’ve engaged them and we’ve weakened them. But to get caught up in all of the prefaces: Well, we shouldn’t have gone there; well, we just created more terrorists. All of that’s bunk and is irrelevant now anyway. You didn’t know about the surge and the people who were supporting it and coming back and saying it’s working. Keep your radio on. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is last night in Kansas City at the VFW convention, the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, speaking about the Iraq war and the surge.
HILLARY: We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq and in some areas, particularly in al-Anbar province, it’s working. We’re just years too late changing our tactics. We can’t ever let that happen again. We can’t be fighting the last war. We have to be preparing to fight the new war.
RUSH: Pure inanity, literal incompetence on display. It’s working, but it’s too late? It’s working, we’re just too late in changing our tactics? This is the woman who wants to be the commander-in-chief? It’s never too late for victory. See, this is the politicization of this, like I was just talking to Lane about. All of this stuff is irrelevant now. If you’re an American and you love your country and you understand the threat that we face, whether you dislike Bush for irrational reasons or whether you think they made mistakes in the first three or four years, is irrelevant. They fixed it. We’re doing it the right way now. It’s never too late for victory, Mrs. Clinton. ‘We can’t be fighting the last war, we have to be preparing to fight…’ I don’t even know what she’s talking about. Here’s the next bite where, after getting it on the record that the surge is working, especially in Anbar province, then the caveat.
HILLARY: As we move forward in these next months, awaiting a report from General Petraeus, we’ll have some very hard decisions to make.
RUSH: No, we won’t.
HILLARY: One decision I know we will make is to continue to honor the service of our own American troops —
RUSH: Not your party.
HILLARY: And make sure that they are given the respect that they so richly have earned. Some of us will disagree. I think the best way of honoring their service is by beginning to bring them home.
RUSH: Again, the woman who wants to be commander-in-chief admits the surge is working, but now let’s bring ’em home. The best way to honor their service is to bring ’em home. These are warriors. These are people who joined the US military in order to engage in operations just like this. So, the woman, the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee, wants to be the next commander-in-chief, let me translate what you just heard. ‘We’re winning. So let’s quit.’ That’s what she said. We’re winning; let’s quit. The no-onions strategy from the woman with the testicle lockbox.
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RUSH: One more Mrs. Clinton sound bite, and his kind of dovetails with something that her husband, Bill Clinton, said the other day that raised some eyebrows. He said something to the effect that he’d been talking to some world leaders and they hoped that his wife wins so that they can love and respect America again. It is strangely similar to John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, during the 2004 presidential race saying he had talked to world leaders, saying they hoped he won so that they could respect and love America again. Clinton is out there saying this, and I don’t have any doubt that he talks to these world leaders. Anyway, here’s a sound bite. This is, again, the VFW national convention last night in Kansas City.
HILLARY: I want to get back to a point where people respect and admire the United States again, not just because that would be a good thing, but because that’s critical in our fight against terrorism. People have to root for America. They have to want to be on our side.
RUSH: Okay, Mrs. Clinton, this is the thing that puzzles me about what you just said here and what your husband is out there saying. How in the world do you expect anybody to root for America when the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee is not rooting for America? If you have people around the world who are telling your husband that they want to like America again, and they want you to win, it must mean they don’t want to root for America. They want America to be a sideshow. They want America to be a lap dog. They want America, in other words, to have to go out and fight wars as though you write books about ‘It Takes a Village.’ We can root for ourselves, Mrs. Clinton. It doesn’t take a village to win a war, and it doesn’t take the world to win a war. It takes the United States to win a war. If the rest of the world doesn’t care or is not interested in our self-interest, and our national defense — they ought to be because the United States, being what it is, protects the rest of our allies. If they want us to go south, then you are the last person we need to have running the country because you’ll take it south. This makes no sense. Root for America by hoping America loses! It’s exactly what she said. How do you expect other countries to root for us, Mrs. Clinton, when you don’t and your party doesn’t? And if they are rooting for you to win, it must mean they want us to be wiped out, in a sense. You have to know how to read the stitches on a fast ball, folks. You have to know how to read between the lines with these people. You have to know how to translate what they’re actually saying.
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RUSH: We’re going Curt in Arcadia, Florida. You’re next, sir, on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello?
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: My name is Curt.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: From Arcadia.
RUSH: Yeah, I know, I just introduced you to the audience.
CALLER: Oh, hello.
RUSH: Hello.
CALLER: I wasn’t aware I was already on the air.
RUSH: Yeah, you’ve been on the air here about 30 seconds.
CALLER: Oh, sorry, sir. I’m just calling in reference to the gentleman last hour, the Democrat with the big D. He said he couldn’t understand why we were still in Iraq for so long.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: I just came back from Iraq back in October, and I can tell you one of the reasons — actually two reasons why I think it’s taken so long to get out of Iraq. Our soldiers over there are not only soldiers, but we’re playing correctional officers and police officers over there. And one of the reasons is the language barrier. People like me are training the Iraqis over there —
RUSH: Yeah, that may have been the case, but what I’m reading is that the tribal leaders, we’ve broken the language barrier in a number of these areas where the surge is taking place, they’re joining our side but they’re sick and tired of the brutality they’re seeing from Al-Qaeda. I’ll tell you something else. You know what I think is another problem with why this has taken so long? We’ve got a major political party in this country for the last four years that has been trying to engineer defeat and demoralize the members of the military. You can’t take that out of this equation.