By his own defiant admission, David Letterman is not one of our nation’s intellectuals, nor is he going to be on anyone’s top-10 list of foreign policy thinkers.
Usually he’s just out to crack some jokes and give us a slightly goofy and sardonic good time. But darn it if the man’s not a patriot. It’s clear that the war in Iraq bothers him, casualties for no discernible purpose, and he’s willing to use his pulpit to show that angst.
Witness this clip of an eleven-minute (that’s long by TV standards) set-to with Bill O’Reilly, the serial fabricator from Fox, and poster child for Republican family values.
I’m not a great Letterman fan, but I think Letterman does himself, and the rest of us, proud here. It’s a long download, but worth it.
Incidentally, I was impressed to discover that Letterman is not just talk when it comes to worrying about the way our leaders treat the US military: according to the Wikipedia,
Letterman, along with bandleader Paul Shaffer and Late Show stage manager Biff Henderson, celebrated Christmas 2002 in Afghanistan with United States and international military forces stationed there. The three visited Iraq around Christmas in 2003 and 2004 as well.
You have your hero — comedian/blabbermouth Letterman — and I have mine:
by Oliver North
Vietnam and Iraq: Myth vs. Reality
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Much is being said and written these days about how the war in Iraq resembles the war in Vietnam. The theme began during the 2004 presidential campaign with Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry describing Iraq as a “quagmire” and demanding a “date certain” for a U.S. pullout. Purveyors of the “news” in our so-called mainstream media picked up the beat — though many of them are too young to know anything more about Vietnam than what they learned from a movie. The “Vietnam deja vu” howl is now in full cry. But it’s a myth.Having now spent nearly as much time in Iraq as I did on my first “tour” of Vietnam in 1968-69, it’s readily apparent that the parallels between the two wars are practically non-existent on the battlefield. In the press and politics — it’s a different matter. The barons of bombast have decided that Iraq equals Vietnam. Those who make this argument…
http://theconservativevoice.com/article/19721.html
He ran Iran-Contra. He took government money he wasn’t entitled to for a fence around his private property. Some hero.
Jim is practically the perfect troll. “I’m not a great Letterman fan” becomes “You have your hero”. Then he quotes an article by Olly which has nothing at all to do with the subject at hand simply because he hopes it will draw a reaction. And, of course, he’s blind to the fact that his hero’s claim that Vietnam could have been won if we’d only stamped out all that dissent is completely without evidence.
It was won, if we stamp out all dissent.
The link appears to be broken.
Have you all seen the new cover of the Rolling Stones Magazine?
Find out how our lawmakers have turned Capitol Hill into a stable of thieves and perverts. PLUS: Meet the 10 worst congressmen. It’s ugly.