RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number two — did you see over the weekend that the war in Afghanistan’s over? (interruption) Yeah. Yeah. I remember on Friday, if you recall, if you were here, you might not have been because it’s a big travel weekend, but I want to revisit something. Grab sound bite number one. Let’s go ahead and play audio of me last Friday as we headed into the Memorial Day weekend, ’cause this sets up this Afghanistan comment.
RUSH ARCHIVE: This, to me, is one of the most important Memorial Days, and they’re all important, even that little characterization should give you an idea how tough this one is to talk about. This particular Memorial Day with everything going on in Iraq and the Middle East and ISIS now just running out of control and our leadership seemingly unconcerned, the Iranians nuking up, but Iraq and what’s happening there has got to make this Memorial Day a real challenge for a lot of American families. Those who had family members who served in Iraq, who were injured and wounded in Iraq, or died in Iraq. I mean, they might legitimately be asking themselves this weekend, this Memorial Day, why, what was the point, was it worth it? And you wouldn’t blame ’em if they did. It’s a toughie. It still needs to be acknowledged.
RUSH: Yeah, and I can’t help but remember as I listen to myself say that — boy, every time I do that I’m reminded how lucky you people are that you actually get to listen to me. I never do. Not live. I can’t. I’m too busy doing it, because I am me. The only time I get to hear me is like this. Audio sound bite or something. It just strikes me how fortunate you are. Anyway, as I listen to this I’m also reminded about how Obama and Biden are out there claiming victory in Iraq. Iraq was a success story. Shortly after Barack Obama’s been inaugurated and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, is that not an ongoing joke, a poor joke, a bad joke, but isn’t it typical?
Anyway, they’re out there claiming credit, they wanted to claim credit for the victory in Iraq. It was so good, things were so stable, it looked like such a success, and now look. Ramadi falls, and now we’re told by our Department of Defense wizards of smart that, yeah, well, the Iraqis are getting ready to fight back. The Iraqis know that they’ve gotta defend themselves. The Iraqis know they’ve gotta take all the training we’ve gave ’em and they’ve got to act in their own interests now. The Iraqis are gonna be preparing to take Ramadi back. Right. Exactly. You gotta get ’em back first. They’ve all split. I mean, and here’s Obama. This is yesterday in Arlington, Virginia, at the Arlington National Cemetery, just a brief little 16-second sound bite here.
OBAMA: For many of us this Memorial Day is especially meaningful. It is the first since our war in Afghanistan came to an end. Today is the first Memorial Day in 14 years that the United States is not engaged in a major ground war.
RUSH: There wasn’t any applause there. Why do you suspect there wasn’t any applause? I mean, you would think that a line like that, “Yay, right on, dude, yes siree bob.” But when he said today’s the first Memorial Day in 14 years the United States is not engaged in a major ground war, why wasn’t there any applause? Take a stab, Mr. Snerdley. (interruption) Exactly. We’re losing them, is why. They don’t like losing.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The website Vox, which is a relatively new website. It’s the home of I say the young whippersnapper, young liberal journalists who were working at the Washington Post like Ezra Klein, some other places. And they just, you know, felt constrained even there, so they formed their own place here called Vox. A bunch of young, hip Millennial journalists of all stripes swear by it. They have a story, to give you an idea of what happens on Vox, this actually ran on Memorial Day: “It’s Time We Have a Holiday to Honor Those Who Try to Stop Wars, Too.”
Ah, yes. It’s not enough that we have a Memorial Day where we remember American military veterans who died preserving freedom for the United States. No, no, no. Now we need a holiday to honor those who try to stop wars, too. I don’t know what they want to call it.
It starts out by saying: “Memorial Day and Veterans Day often get equated, but there is an essential distinction between the two. Veterans Day honors all who have served the American military in wars. Memorial Day honors those who’ve perished. It’s an annual reminder that wars have grave human costs, which must be both recognized and minimized.
“Those costs are not inevitable. We ought to also set aside time to remember those throughout American history who have tried hardest to reduce them, to prevent unnecessary loss of life both American and foreign: war resisters.”
That’s exactly what we need, especially on this Memorial Day, where the families of American uniformed military personnel who were injured or perished in Iraq, you really — you know, you try to put yourself in their shoes and imagine how tough this Memorial Day was. Every day’s gotta be tough for them, but now particularly when you see ISIS on the run and these families are asking — you know they are. They’re asking themselves, was it worth it?
They’re all volunteers. These people signed up. I mean, I’ve done a troop visit to Afghanistan, I’ve talked to these guys, and these women, too. This is what they did to save their country. This is what they did to protect their country. It’s all they knew to do. They joined the military after 9/11. They wanted to serve. They wanted to protect. They wanted to defend America. They didn’t want to ever see that happening again. That’s the only reason they did it. Some of them got shipped out to Iraq. Some of them got killed. Families well aware.
And now there’s Obama celebrating the first Memorial Day in 14 years that we’re not at war and everybody knows, yeah, because we’re cutting-and-running and losing them. And Americans don’t like celebrating that kind of stuff. And now heaped on top of that we need to set aside a national day for war protesters? You mean people like Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman, the Chicago Eight or whoever? People like Neville Chamberlain, a national holiday for people like that? All over the world, by the way. War protesters all over the world. Yeah, that’s exactly what we need, folks. Exactly.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Robert in Coronado, California, really glad that you called, Robert, great to have you with us today. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I share a hometown with Paul Tibbets, Quincy, Illinois, who was the pilot of the Enola Gay. And I think in that vein, if we’re gonna try to honor people who ended wars, I would start with probably Harry Truman as the first honoree, and then maybe even like the crew of the Enola Gay would be right up there.
RUSH: This is great. Robert, I have to applaud you. This is great thinking. What he’s reacting to, folks, is there’s a story in a relatively new left-wing child left-wing website called Vox. They ran it yesterday, Memorial Day: “It’s Time We Have a Holiday to Honor Those Who Try to Stop Wars, Too.” They’re not thinking of guys that drop bombs on the enemy to win the war. That’s be great though. Just throw Harry Truman at ’em and Paul Tibbets, the guy that flew the Enola Gay, exactly right.
And then the whole team that worked on the development of the nuclear bomb. You know, put them up there, too, honor them. I mean, just go whole hog with this. But that’s not what they’re thinking, as you know. They’re thinking of people like Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman and the anti-war, global peace march, anti-nuclear disarmament or what have you. But they mean war protesters, and I don’t think that they would think of Harry Truman as a protester, but I love your idea.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: You bet. See, he was speechless. I know this happens. A caller calls and the host praises them and agrees with ’em, and they don’t know what to say. They’re just so moved. I totally relate and understand it.