For just one example of the disgusting exploitation of Capt. Scott Speicher by pro-war officials and pundits, I give you this from Jed Babbin on March 23, 2003, three days after the invasion of Iraq began:
He [Speicher] may still be alive in Iraq, rumored to have been kept as a personal torture toy for Saddam’s older son.
How must Speicher’s widow and two children have felt when hearing such rumors, which were cynically manufactured by the likes of Bush, Rumsfeld, and Babbin to sell their war?
I don't think disgusting is a strong enough word.
One can only hope that the Speichers will show the same feeling of betrayal that Pat Tillman's mother has shown.
This was actually not maufactured by Bush. President Clinton is the one who helped change his status from KIA to MIA. Why must you blame everything on Bush without knowing your facts?
Clinton, Bush, the Democrats, the Republicans…their all the same. Bush attacked Iraq? Clinton attacked Serbia. Neither country was any threat to America. The USA maintains the same stupid interventionist foreign policy whichever party is in power. They are the Republicrats, America's true and permanent government.
I included a timeline, in a link in this post and in article excerpts in my other post, which clarifies how the Speicher case unfolded over both administrations. I even singled out the Clinton administration for blame in the first post.
It appears you know nothing about the Speicher case.
1. Clinton, not Bush, received and investigated the satellite reconnaissance showing what appeared to be a crash site at the approximate coordinates where Speicher was shot down.
2. Clinton, not Bush, sent a team to Iraq to examine the crash site, positively identify the aircraft as Speicher's, determine from the ejection seat and canopy far from the main debris field that Speicher had ejected, and identified the flight suit found at the site to be identical to the make, size, and markings of Speicher's flight suit.
3. Clinton, not Bush, got information from Iraqi informants who had heard from several different sources — including Bedouin tribes — about an American pilot who had been shot down.
4. Clinton, not Bush, received and investigated the appearance of the letters "M.S.S." on a cell wall iln Abu Ghraib prison and determnined that the initials may have been scrawled there by Speicher (whose full name is Michael Scott Speicher).
5. Clinton, not Bush, carried on this investigation for more than seven years, at which time Clinton announced that the Department of Defense had reason to believe Speicher survived the crash sufficient enough to change his classification from Killed in Action to Missing in Action.
6. The investigation continued during the first year of the Bush administration, which nine months later announced another change in status to "Missing/Captured." Former President Clinton supported the change.
7. The Speicher family insisted to both the Clinton and Bush administrations that the Department of Defense aggressively puruse the investigation until Speicher was found, either dead or alive, and returned home.
The only one here who has to apologize to the Speicher family is you. If you had your way, Speicher's case would have been ignored and they never would have found out what really happened to him. Thank goodness Clinton and Bush weren't stupid like you.
You'll have to be more specific about what I supposedly got wrong. My first post was almost entirely excerpts from news articles. I included a link in this post to a Wikipedia timeline of the Speicher case. Do you disagree with the NYT or Wikipedia accounts?
And what do you think of Jed Babbin's comments in this post, or George W. Bush's and Donald Rumsfeld's in the other post? Nothing exploitative there?
Here's what you got wrong:
// For just one example of the disgusting exploitation of Capt. Scott Speicher by pro-war officials and pundits, //
Your contention that trying to find a missing service member is "disgusting exploitation" is incorrect. It's the right thing to do.
// I give you this from Jed Babbin on March 23, 2003, three days after the invasion of Iraq began:
He [Speicher] may still be alive in Iraq, rumored to have been kept as a personal torture toy for Saddam’s older son. //
This part you actually did get right; Babbin did in fact write that. He wrote it because that was the assertion of the Department of Defense under the Clinton administration.
// How must Speicher’s widow and two children have felt when hearing such rumors, which were cynically manufactured by the likes of Bush, Rumsfeld, and Babbin to sell their war? //
Your first error in this sentence is in claiming that "the likes of Bush, Rumsfeld, and Babbin" had manufactured the possibility that Speicher may have been captured and tortured. That possibility was asserted by the Clinton Administration years before Babbin wrote about it. Your second error is in claiming the possibility was manufactured. It was based on several intelligence sources available to the Clinton administration.
So in short, the ohly thing you got right was Babbin's quote. Everything else, i.e. all your claims and conclusions, are incorrect.
I hope this is more understandable to you.
OK, I can see from the start that you're either illiterate or a liar. I didn't say that searching for Speicher was disgusting exploitation. That was a stupid assertion for you to make, as anyone can look right up there and read my post. I said that throwing out rumors that Speicher was still alive and a "torture toy" was disgusting exploitation. I feel no need to respond to anything past that your initial distortion, except to say that I have no love for Bill Clinton, and that fact that his actions foreshadowed some of Bush's doesn't help the latter one bit in my eyes.
OK, I can see from the start that you're either illiterate or a liar. I didn't say that searching for Speicher was disgusting exploitation. That was a stupid assertion for you to make, as anyone can look right up there and read my post. I said that throwing out rumors that Speicher was still alive and a "torture toy" was disgusting exploitation. I feel no need to respond to anything past your initial distortion, except to say that I have no love for Bill Clinton, and that fact that his actions foreshadowed some of Bush's doesn't help the latter one bit in my eyes.
OK, I can see from the start that you're either illiterate or a liar. I didn't say that searching for Speicher was disgusting exploitation. That was a stupid assertion for you to make, as anyone can look right up there and read my post. I said that throwing out rumors that Speicher was still alive and a "torture toy" was disgusting exploitation. I feel no need to respond to anything past your initial distortion, except to say that I have no love for Bill Clinton, and the fact that his actions foreshadowed some of Bush's doesn't help the latter one bit in my eyes.
Perhaps he shouldn't have been there in the first place. I would argue BOTH Gulf wars were a mistake.
Technically, not really mistakes. A more correct designation is: crimes.
It seems to me, since there wasn't any real evidence and because of the politicization and the high media profile and because of the manipulation of Iraqi asylumseekers, at least by Dutch intelligence in this case, they weren't really interested in Speicher. If they were they would be negotiating with the Saddam regime. He just became useful again after 10 years. Americans need personal drama of someone they can identify with to stir them up. As for the relatives, well they have the honour to make the sacrifice for the greater good.
The way you wrote number 6 seemed interesting to me. Why the phrase "which nine months later" following the phrase "during the first year of"? Why not: The investigation continued during the Bush administration, and, in October, 2002, his status was changed to Missing/Captured? Better yet, why not: Under the Bush administration, the Navy continued the investigation, and, in October, 2002, changed his status to Missing/Captured? The use of the terms "nine months" suggested to me September, 2001 –which of course seemed a very interesting time to make a status change. It wasn't until researching it that I realized that your "nine months later" was meant to be read as 'nine months AFTER the first YEAR of the Bush administration, or 21 months into it. For comparison's sake, imagine: "We continued making love on a regular basis during the first year of our marriage, which nine months later led to our happy announcement of her healthy delivery of a baby boy." You see? Anyway, it's probably just me. I'm sure you didn't mean to write it up in any way that might have suggested anyone made the change in status sooner in the course of the Bush administration, and maybe even before 9/11, rather than later and therefore nearer the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
your point #4 — how did we — the US — get access to Abu Ghraib during the Clinton years???
There is little doubt the Speicher incident was distorted by the Pentagon/Administration to help build the case for war. Speicher became an unfortunate part of the general clamor for war.
This is what these mosters do. They love to play games with lives. It's that simple.
When it comes to celebrity KIA and POW FedGov military, the consistent and unvarying theme from the Pentagon – regardless of administration – is the cynical manipulation and exploitation. Speicher, Lynch, Tillman – all variations on a theme of lying.
The problem is the liars never get punished or held accountable. Bush and Cheney are enjoying a safe and luxurious retirement. They should be tried as war criminals.
“U.S. planes trapped the long convoys by disabling vehicles in the front, and at the rear, and then pounded the resulting traffic jams for hours. “It was like shooting fish in a barrel,” said one U.S. pilot. The horror is still there to see.
On the inland highway to Basra is mile after mile of burned, smashed, shattered vehicles of every description – tanks, armored cars, trucks, autos, fire trucks, according to the March 18, 1991, Time magazine. On the sixty miles of coastal highway, Iraqi military units sit in gruesome repose, scorched skeletons of vehicles and men alike, black and awful under the sun, says the Los Angeles Times of March 11, 1991. While 450 people survived the inland road bombing to surrender, this was not the case with the 60 miles of the coastal road. There for 60 miles every vehicle was strafed or bombed, every windshield is shattered, every tank is burned, every truck is riddled with shell fragments. No survivors are known or likely. The cabs of trucks were bombed so much that they were pushed into the ground, and it’s impossible to see if they contain drivers or not. Windshields were melted away, and huge tanks were reduced to shrapnel.
“Even in Vietnam I didn’t see anything like this. It’s pathetic,” said Major Bob Nugent, an Army intelligence officer. This one-sided carnage, this racist mass murder of Arab people, occurred while White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater promised that the U.S. and its coalition partners would not attack Iraqi forces leaving Kuwait. This is surely one of the most heinous war crimes in contemporary history.
The Massacre of Withdrawing Soldiers on “The Highway of Death
http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-death.htm
The Marines brought him home. Maybe all of you should focus on the things in your life that need attention and not the life of a man who achieved so much. Capt Scott Speicher gave his life for his country and now he is home, let him rest in peace. Let his family have closure and shut your mouth.
“Maybe all of you should focus on the things in your life that need attention and not the life of a man who achieved so much. Capt Scott Speicher gave his life for his country and now he is home, let him rest in peace. Let his family have closure and shut your mouth.”
This really illustrates the degree of brain-washed mindset that say follow order ,do what you are told ,and never think.People who lived under absolute dictatorship very much know about!