{"id":10075,"date":"2007-03-01T12:30:53","date_gmt":"2007-03-01T17:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10075.html"},"modified":"2007-03-01T12:30:53","modified_gmt":"2007-03-01T17:30:53","slug":"when-troops-lives-are-wasted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/when-troops-lives-are-wasted\/","title":{"rendered":"When troops’ lives are ‘wasted’"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a Republican frontrunner, [tag]John McCain[\/tag] sure can be careless<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican presidential contender John McCain, a staunch backer of the Iraq war but critic of how President Bush has waged it, said U.S. lives had been “wasted” in the four-year-old conflict. Democrats demand the Arizona senator apologize for the comment as Sen. Barack Obama did when the Democratic White House hopeful recently made the same observation.<\/p>\n

“Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be,” McCain said Wednesday on CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman.” “We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s that word again, “[tag]wasted[\/tag].”<\/p>\n

Shortly after the Letterman interview aired, the DNC called on McCain to take back the “wasted” lives remark.<\/p>\n

“Senator McCain should apologize immediately for his callous comments,” said Karen Finney, a DNC spokeswoman. “How is it that John McCain now believes American lives are being wasted, yet he so stubbornly supports the president’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq and put more American lives in harms way?”<\/p>\n

That’s a good question, but I have another: how is it McCain would use the same word on national television that got [tag]Barack Obama[\/tag] in hot water just two weeks ago?
\n
\nOn Feb. 12, during an appearance in New Hampshire, Obama told an audience that “we ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.”<\/p>\n

Conservatives were apoplectic<\/i> about his use of the word “wasted.” Michelle Malkin said<\/a> Obama’s choice of words proves that he has a “patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting view of all American troops as dupes\/victims who have squandered their lives.” Hot Air said<\/a>, “Of course<\/i> he thinks their lives were wasted. Everyone on the anti-war side does.” Dan Riehl referenced<\/a> Obama’s comment to call him a “piece of political detritis” (one assumes he meant “detritus”) and an “ex-coke snorting, ex-social working useful idiot.” Yes, they’re a classy bunch.<\/p>\n

Obama quickly realized that “wasted” was perhaps not the ideal choice of words. In an interview with a newspaper reporter, Obama said, “I was actually upset with myself when I said that, because I never use that term. Their sacrifices are never wasted.”<\/p>\n

He added that he would “absolutely apologize<\/a>” to military families if they were offended by the remark.<\/p>\n

“What I would say — and meant to say — is that their service hasn’t been honored,” Mr. Obama told reporters in Nashua, N.H., “because our civilian strategy has not honored their courage and bravery, and we have put them in a situation in which it is hard for them to succeed.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, McCain missed all of this. As such, I’m now looking forward to conservatives lambasting McCain, questioning his commitment to the troops, calling him childish names, and doubting his patriotism.<\/p>\n

You don’t suppose it’s wrong for a Democrat to say lives have been wasted in Iraq but it’s fine for a Republican to say it, do you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a Republican frontrunner, [tag]John McCain[\/tag] sure can be careless. Republican presidential contender John McCain, a staunch backer of the Iraq war but critic of how President Bush has waged it, said U.S. lives had been “wasted” in the four-year-old conflict. Democrats demand the Arizona senator apologize for the comment as Sen. Barack Obama did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}