Veterans praise Bush, say protests disrespectful

[sabra]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15075092&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept_id=465812&rfi=6

Veterans praise Bush, say protests disrespectful

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer, The Associated Press

When President George Bush addresses the 106th convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday, Ken Munro won't be stepping up to the microphone to ask the president any questions out exit strategies or weapons of mass destruction.
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The Vietnam-era Navy veteran from Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., says his questions are answered.

"I get the answers I need from talking to the troops when they come back," said Munro, who along with his wife, Linda, is in Salt Lake City for the convention.

What those troops tell Munro is that any progress being made toward democracy in Iraq, or any good work being done, like the construction of schools and hospitals, isn't making the news at home.

"That's not news," said Munro, who discharged from the Navy in 1967 after serving on the USS Enterprise.

The Munros, whose nephew just left Wisconsin for a second tour overseas, think the president is doing a good job, said Linda Munro, who serves in the auxiliary for her husband's VFW Post 2534.

[jsamuel]

1. to say reporters that lead stories with "patriotic _____" are unbiased is

a farse

I saw a different reporter using that in the "content" section, not the "opinion" section.

[DanCa]

2. Frack Bush disgraced them at the convention

Purple heart band aids, closing down bases, robbing them of thier benefits. And we get blamed again. What the hell is wrong with people?

[ailsagirl]

3. Oh, we mustn't be DISRESPECTFUL !! What a crock

That's another neocon talking point-- it's unpatriotic if
you disagree with Chimpo.

It's disrespectful to protest.

SUCH CRAP!!!! WHERE THE HELL IS THAT WRITTEN?????
The Neocon's Guide to the New Millinneum???

:argh: :rant:

[Kurovski]

4. That's nice.

Everyone gets a chance to have a say.

But George will only invite those who fit his agenda, nothing new there.

[kbm8795]

5. Maybe we need to ask AP

if their management has decided the organization has endorsed the war now.

[tuvor]

6. I don't get this.

"Veterans have fought for the right you have to protest," says Sandi Moss.

And then she says it's disrespectful to protest.

Wha'?!?!?!

Anyway, the article cites two vets. Hardly a force to be reckoned with. Hardly worth the space to report it.

[ailsagirl]

9. Don't try to make sense of it-- it's nonsensical. But that doesn't

seem to matter to those freaks and their psychotic followers.

:grr:

[tuvor]

12. A decent reporter would have asked her to explain the disconnect.

But they're in such short supply these days.

[ailsagirl]

15. I'll say!!! LOL

[Rebellious Republican]

7. Not all Navy Vets feel the same as that old salt...

This Beirut era Navy Vet praise's Cindy Sheehan and says Bush disrespectful!

[johnaries]

18. Thank you for your service!

:patriot:

[DanCa]

25. Thank you for your service RR

[Catherine Vincent]

8. They should have phrased that as "Republican veterans

praise Bush". Because that's all that is. Those veterans don't speak for all veterans.

[Solly Mack]

10. What democracy in Iraq? Don't they mean theocracy?

[globalvillage]

11. He talks to troops when they come home.

Like this guy?

On Sunday, January 9th of this year, Marine Lance Cpl. Andy Raya left Camp Pendleton, took a one-way flight from San Diego to Sacramento, grabbed an SKS semiautomatic assault rifle he had obtained illegally, and made his way home to Ceres, a farming town in the Central Valley. Three months earlier he had returned from Iraq, where he had spent seven months driving supply trucks in the Sunni Triangle. Other than Marine Corps barracks, Ceres was the only place Raya had ever lived. He was nineteen.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7504249?pageid=rs.Politics&pageregion=single1

[jonnyblitz]

17. wow. i just completely read that Rolling Stone article.

damn.

[ltfranklin]

13. It's certainly expected....

Bush ONLY goes to venues that he KNOWS are his people...If there were any appreciable number of VFW people at that post that didn't support him, he either wouldn't go there or have somehow arranged to make sure they didn't show.

And I don't recall these guys pushing for "Respect for the President" when Clinton was in office.

[Aviation Pro]

14. Funny....

...everytime one of these "veterans" comments on the war they always, inevitably say something about "like the construction of schools and hospitals" in their talking points. I say that they are full of shit about talking to recent returnees and that the "reporters" should ask the "veterans" the names of those recent returnees in order to follow up on the purported progress.

(By the by, I get e-mail from soldiers stationed in Iraq - all of whom I've mentored, trained or served with - and they tell me what a clusterfuck it is).

[BrotherBuzz]

22. You might want to share those emails with DU

It might be cool if you started a thread with some excerpts from those email letters. By all means, protect names, personal stuff, and all that, but I think you would do us a great service by presenting an unvarnished picture of what our brothers and sisters really see over there.

Just an idea.

[B Calm]

16. Ken Munro doesn't speak for this veteran!

KISS MY ASS MUNRO!

[proud patriot]

19. Not the Vet that approached me today

He saw my Car and was overwhelmed with emotion .

He was drafted in 1970 and was hip to PNAC and
Mike Malloy .

[jedr]

20. It's hard to be a vet and admit that what you did;

was in vain....If he was on the Enterprise he may have done a lot of hard work on line in the Gulf of Tonkin...but he never smelled the dead burned bodies as we did on the Forestall...these are the same ones who bought into the "swift boat" madness, and left Max Celeland be disgraced ( who has done more for vets than any one man I can think of) and back the VFW as the busho cut vet benefits and will let these vets live on the streets as they try to cope with PTSD...all my vet buddies think that this whole thing is a bunch of crap and those I know who have come back seem to just want to be left alone...it's a big world and it takes all kinds. We are all a product of our experiences.:patriot:

[Quixote1818]

21. Construction of schools and hospitals? Oh the ones we blew up!

Wow, we are re-building things we destroyed. Big fucking whoop! They make it sound like Iraq didn't have any schools before we got their.

[Wizard777]

23. HUH? We're not Oxymorons and they are upset about it.

I know how peaceful protests work. But how do you stage a respectful protest? Pardon us but we disagree with you being right? No wait that's Bush's thang.

Please excuse my observation. But I think they are afraid he will cut their benefits again. The Son of A Bush is crazy! You know he'll do it. Thank you for listening.

Okay I tried. That is the best I can do. It's someone elses turn now.

[rasputin1952]

24. Meaning no disrespect to Mr. Munro or any other Navy vet, serving on a

Carrier in the Tonkin Gulf or South China Sea, is quite different from slogging it out in the mud during monsoon season.

I know that every job in the military has its place and we are all dependent upon one another. But for someone, (unless he was a pilot or assigned to fly in an aircraft), who had it relatively easy, he should not be so quick to decide the men and women on the ground are having it easy.

This guy is full of shit, I guess I can't be nicer than that in this instance. He talks to people he WANTS to talk to, and perhaps he should get his tail over there and see what is going on, if he wants to know the truth.