X

Obama’s Mess in Afghanistan

by Rush Limbaugh - Jun 22,2011

RUSH: I want to go back to September 29th, 2009, on this program. I was hosting the program that day. We would not go back for a sound bite when I wasn’t hosting, just so you know. September 29th, 2009, I had this exchange with a caller, Bob from Chicago, about the war in Afghanistan.

CALLER ARCHIVE: I was just wondering, Rush, if you were president what would you be doing right now in Afghanistan? What do you think we should be doing? Do you think we should be doing more anti-insurgency or more anti-terrorism, more or less troops, different troops, that sort of thing.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Well, I’m not a commanding officer. I would listen to those who are. It’s very simple: we win; they lose. I’d listen to what the generals say, but the bottom line is what would I do in Afghanistan? I’d win.

RUSH: Yeah, we win; they lose. And, by the way, I didn’t really invent that. I stole that. That’s something I heard from Ronaldus Magnus in talking about the Soviets and the communists. We win; they lose. But really it shouldn’t be anything that anybody should have to steal. Okay, Steelers playing the Buffalo Bills this week, Steelers fan, what’s the objective? We win; they lose. Okay, we’re going into Afghanistan to get the bad guys, what’s the objective? We win; they lose. But for guys like Obama and the left, no, no, no, no. Far more nuanced than just who wins. Don’t bore us with that kind of simplicity. In fac.t here’s Obama, July 23rd, 2009, on Nightline. The host, Terry Moran, they’re having a discussion about the war in Afghanistan. Terror Moran says, “Define victory for me in Afghanistan,” and he actually said, Terry Moran said, “Maybe victory isn’t the right word. Mr. President, would you define it for me.”

OBAMA: I’m always, you know, worried about using the word victory because, you know, it evokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.

RUSH: I remember playing this sound bite when it actually happened and I was stunned on two levels. A, Emperor Hirohito did not come down and sign a surrender. You let George Bush say something like this, all bets are off, they’re gonna send the guys with the little yellow bus and the white coats and have him taken off to some little insane asylum. Obama, 57 states, Emperor Hirohito, “you know, I’m worried about using the word victory. It evokes this notion of the emperor.” What he’s saying is, “That embarrassed me. I felt so embarrassed for the losers. This poor little Japanese guy, they drag him up to the USS Missouri –” I’m not saying Obama knows it was the USS Missouri. He just knows that Emperor Hirohito came down there, wherever it was. But it just made him nervous. I don’t like this whole concept of victory. December 1st, 2009, at West Point, New York, United States Military Academy, Barack Obama laying out his Afghanistan goals.

OBAMA: Our overarching goal remains the same: To disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future. We must deny Al-Qaeda a safe haven. We must reverse the Taliban’s momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government, and we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan’s future.

RUSH: Now, he’s gonna give a speech tonight in which he’s going to say that a lot of that stuff’s happened, and that’s why we can begin an immediate draw down of 10,000 troops. Now, it’s up in the air. Is he really going to say tonight that all of this has been accomplished and so we can begin this draw down? No. No. You know what’s really bottom lining this is he got Bin Laden.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Obama has an eight o’clock speech tonight from the Oval Orifice announcing defeat in Afghanistan. “Mr. Limbaugh, that’s outrageous, that you would say that the president of the United States is announcing defeat!” Well, if he starts announcing we’re taking the troops out, that’s what it means. It’s election time. It’s reelect time. His reelect numbers, the polling data in the White House is not good — and that kook-fringe base of his doesn’t want to be in Afghanistan in the first place. He promised ’em that he wouldn’t be there. Hell, he promised he’d get us out of Club Gitmo, he’d get us out of Iraq, and he would never expand Afghanistan. He’s done the exact opposite. We’re still in Iraq. We are just as big a footprint at Club Gitmo. Our thriving merchandise business is still thriving, Club Gitmo.

Of course, he went to the US Naval Academy, West Point, and announced an increase in troop levels to Afghanistan, but at the same time he said that beginning in the Summer of 2011 we’re gonna start bringing ’em home and everybody said, “You can’t say that!” He said, “I don’t care what you say, I’m gonna say it. I’m not gonna listen to generals. The generals don’t know any more than I do about this, and besides that I don’t trust the generals. The generals are military people and I’m Obama, and I don’t like military people.” He didn’t say that but we know that’s what he thinks. So the theory is he’s gonna announce 10,000 troops start returning home and so forth.

That does add up to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. That’s what he plans to do, and the speech is at eight o’clock Eastern Time. I have been asked if I’m going to be watching it. Unfortunately, if the speech were at eight o’clock here on the Left Coast I’d be able to see it. I’m not gonna be able to. You’re on your own tonight. Normally I would watch the speech so that you don’t have to, and then I would come in here tomorrow and tell you what, if anything, about it you should know — and, as an added bonus, what you should think about it. Sadly, ladies and gentlemen, I myself will be unable, at least to see it live. Now, it’s quite possible that later tonight someplace could have a replay of it, or there will be highlights.

I’m sure I’ll see some of it, enough to know. But dear old Cookie will be rolling tape. I’ll have sound bites on this tomorrow. Look, I know these people like every square inch of my glorious naked body. I know what they’re gonna say before they say it; I know what his rationale is gonna be. The fun thing is the drinking game. How many times does he mention Bin Laden tonight? You could get drunk. You could get drunk or you can make sure somebody else gets drunk. Every time he mentions Bin Laden tonight, take a swig — or take a swig of Two If By Tea. Seven-ten? Oh, that’s…? Brian, that 7:10 is not for me in terms of Obama, right?