RUSH: Ed in Jacksonville, Florida, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Yes, Rush. Nice to speak with you.
RUSH: Yes, thank you.
CALLER: I’ve seen in the news in the past day or two that President Bush has okayed the killing of militant Iranians in Iraq.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Do these sorts of political and military strategy decisions actually come from the president?
RUSH: Well, actually they could have come from Scooter Libby.
CALLER: (Laughing.) I was just wondering how high up the ladder do these decisions actually come from.
RUSH: Well, here’s the Washington Post story. “The Bush administration has authorized US military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program.” Just for the sake of discussion, let’s say it did go to the president. I have no doubt that it did. It wouldn’t bother me if it did. What’s important about that to you?
CALLER: Well, it seems that the liberals blame everything on the Bush administration, on President Bush in particular.
RUSH: Mmm-hmm.
CALLER: So I’m just kind of wondering like, what sort of level… I’m sorry that President Bush doesn’t control every aspect of the economy and the war in Iraq and all that, so —
RUSH: More than you know.
CALLER: Yeah. (Laughing.)
RUSH: Oil!
CALLER: So I was just kind of wondering, is it just more mud being thrown against him when they come out in a derogatory fashion towards him?
RUSH: Well, okay. Now I understand where you’re going. The story doesn’t even have to say Bush personally. The headline: “Troops Authorized to kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq — Administration strategy stirs concern among some officials.” The whole slant of this story is, “My gosh, this guy is insane! This Bush guy is insane! Doesn’t he hear us telling him to get out? Doesn’t he hearing us telling him he can’t win? Now he’s going to start killing Iranians? Oh, no! Now we’re all going to die! Oh ho-ho!” Meanwhile, the president is up there theoretically flipping the bird to all these people saying, “I gotta defend this country. We are in a war, and the Iranians are in there sponsoring the insurgents. They are provided them with IEDs and ammo and I’m going to start treating it as such and we’re going to root these people out as well.” It’s a war! I can’t believe — not talking about you out there, Ed. Well, I can believe it. That’s what’s sad. But to me, it makes perfect sense. Yet the Washington Post, the Drive-Bys publish this as though it’s another indictment against Bush’s sanity! See, they just can’t deal with the fact that he won’t listen to them! He’s ratcheting it up even more, and they go, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?”
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RUSH: Carolyn in Casper, Wyoming, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. I just wanted to say I’m honored to talk to you, and my comment is that I am very much distressed and disgusted that we learned nothing in Vietnam. My husband fought in Vietnam, and it was nothing more than a political war. We lost many lives, and yet here we turn around and now we’re in Iraq, and we’ve turned this into a political war. Instead of going over there and realizing it’s a war and getting on with it and getting done.
RUSH: Wait a minute, now, Carolyn. Who is this “we”?
CALLER: Um…
RUSH: It’s the Democrats.
CALLER: Leaders, I guess.
RUSH: No, the leaders are not… The president is the leader! He’s not turning it into a political war. The Democrats are politicizing the troops, is what’s happening here. They are playing politics with the troops.
CALLER: Well, yes, I agree. I agree with that.
RUSH: And the Drive-By Media.
CALLER: But how can we expect to win a war when we don’t give them the authority to do it?
RUSH: Well, that hasn’t happened yet.
CALLER: Well, if they continue on this way…
RUSH: Presidents don’t have —
CALLER: I mean, we’re prosecuting our men for fighting.
RUSH: No, we’re not, the Democratic Party is in the media.
CALLER: That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m sorry. I’m not explaining myself well.
RUSH: Well, yes, I know. I know what you’re trying to say, but I’m just trying to recharacterize it.
CALLER: (Laughs.)
RUSH: The president has not surrendered the authority to prosecute the war yet, Carolyn.
CALLER: I understand that.
RUSH: He’s not going to, and they are not going to seriously de-fund this. This is a political. This resolution and all this is pure Democrat politics. They’re trying to frighten a bunch of Republicans into joining them. This is about everything but victory on their side. But the president is not capitulating to it, and what’s happening, the Democrats and the media — since they can’t impeach Bush, constitutionally — this is how they’re attempting to ruin his presidency with this, and they’re not going to stop.
CALLER: Well, I agree.
RUSH: The danger is how many Americans go along with it. In fact, after his State of the Union speech… I think you need to be a little bit more hopeful out there. I understand the anger. I appreciate the anger. Make sure that you channel it in the right place, particularly when the next Election Day comes up. The fact of the matter is that after the president’s State of the Union speech, a majority of the American people want to one win. They watched the speech; they enjoyed what he had to say. If there was massive American sentiment for getting out of the there, the Democrats would go ahead and de-fund the operation, but they don’t dare. By the way, this trip that Pelosi and the Democrats are taking over to Iraq?
You know this airs a bunch of possibilities here. One is going over there, photo-ops, come back and say they’ve gotten the lay of the land, and it’s not possible to win. They give themselves credibility because they’ve been there, and they’ll probably come back with some stories from a few more nameless troops who say, “We don’t want to be here! Please get us out. It’s a lost cause!” So be ready for that. But there could be another reason why they’re going over there and that is they see the handwriting on the wall, which is we’re going to win this, which is that there’s progress being made, and they’re trying to give themselves cover in any number of ways. Whatever. The purpose of their trip is purely political, and it’s aimed at their power and survival, not winning the war, and not anything else. But don’t cave yet. Don’t believe that the majority of the American people agree with the kind of nonsense that you’re hearing from Democrats and the media on television about this.