"Vets For Freedom" Demands That Wesley Clark Apologize
Pete Hegseth, the Executive Director of the pro-military Vets for Freedom organization slammed Gen. Wesley Clark today for his outrageous attacks on Senator John McCain this weekend. The pro-military group is demanding that the Far Left Obama-surrogate Clark apologize to Senator McCain and the troops for his shameful partisan attack on McCain's sacrifice for this great nation.
Pete Hegseth was on Your World With Neil Cavuto today:
Hegseth was terrific as usual.
Pete Hegseth and the Vets for Freedom want an apology from the "political operative" Clark.
GOP.com has much more on Clark's attack on McCain's service.
Vets for Freedom also released this letter today demanding that Obama-surrogate General Wesley Clark apologize immediately to Senator McCain and all of those:
30 JUNE 2008Well said.
Dear General Clark,
Yesterday you appeared on CBS “Face the Nation” and made strong statements regarding Senator John McCain and his military service. Amongst other things, you claimed Sen. McCain “hasn’t held executive responsibility” and you criticized him because he didn’t command a “wartime [Navy] Squadron.”
You then claimed, in reference to war, that Sen. McCain “hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall” and concluded your political hatchet job with “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be President.” Even the show’s host, Bob Schieffer, let out a puzzled “really?” at the onclusion of your assertions.
Frankly General, you should know better. As a previous Commander of U.S. troops in harm’s way, you should take serious pause in disparaging the service record of a fellow decorated veteran. Even worse, your arrogant and careless words undercut the credibility of all those who served and continue to serve, in wartime and peacetime.
First of all, Sen. McCain’s service record is clear. After volunteering for a combat assignment in Vietnam, Sen. McCain was shot down during his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam and spent 5 ½ years as a Prisoner of War, enduring physical torture and repeatedly turning down preferential treatment and early release. For his service, he received seventeen decorations, including the Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
Most Americans would have ended their military career there, but Sen. McCain continued his service and eventually become the commanding officer of the largest squadron in the U.S. Navy. He turned an undisciplined and untrained squadron into one of the Navy’s best, earning the unit a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
So, let’s review your statements and check them against reality:
Senator McCain “hasn’t held executive responsibility.”
FACT: McCain commanded, and revitalized, the largest squadron in the U.S. Navy.
Senator McCain’s military leadership doesn’t count, because it wasn’t a “wartime Squadron.”
FACT: McCain volunteered to serve in Vietnam and upon his return, endured months of physical rehabilitation in order to continue his military career and command a squadron.
Senator McCain “hasn’t been there [war] and ordered the bombs to fall”
FACT: McCain flew twenty-three combat missions in Vietnam in order to drop bombs on the enemy. He was also “there” for 5 ½ years as a Prisoner of War.
“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be President.”
FACT: If serving your country, volunteering for combat, resisting the enemy, and receiving seventeen decorations for service does count for anything, then why are you on television, speaking as an “expert” on national security matters?
Your personal attacks came not from a General with respect for the uniform, but from a political operative dispatched to attack the military background of a political adversary.
On behalf of Vets for Freedom—and thousands of veterans and troops still serving—we urge you to apologize to Sen. McCain for your comments. We also urge you to apologize to generations of veterans who served our country in uniform. Service matters—anytime, anywhere. We await and appreciate your response.
Even the candidate you represent has said repeatedly that “[Sen. McCain] deserves admiration for his service to our country.” We will be watching to see if the professionalism you showed once while in uniform will finally shine through in your new-found political role.
Regards,
Pete Hegseth
Chairman, Vets for Freedom
Iraq war veteran
Earlier today after realizing a firestorm was brewing over the general's comments, Barack Obama did what he does best... He threw the general under the bus.
UPDATE: Wes Clark is not sorry.
posted by Gateway Pundit at 6/30/2008 02:11:00 PM
19 Comments:
Well said indeed!
God Bless Vets for Freedom, Pete and crew!
Listening to Wesley Clark is like seeing the anti-Clark Kent.
You always know he is not seeking Truth, Justice and the American Way.
More like Lex Luther, he spreads deceit, lies and mockery.
Obama had the nerve to say he's not attacking anyone's patriotism with a snip at the end that he 'sho will defend his if someone mouths off' (not exact words). Yet he has no problem calling someone else to do his work. Then when he has to answer, send out his staff. What a yellow punk.
What service does he have? I guess next he'll tell us he 'thought' about going into the military when in Hawaii and was 'forced' to go to college instead. This would be a good time to put out his vids re: how much he wants to increase the military, of course he'll use it to seem like a hawk, then the anti's will have at him. Oh, and his speech on more troops in Afghanistan... how long since he hasn't held the committee now?
With all that's going on in the world.
Keep an eye on that Europe trip and i'm sure he'll pop up on the fourth in Iraq (brand), two for one, knockout the pres. maybe doing it and getting the jump on Mc. I hope Wes explained Memorial Day to Obama at least.
I've not made it a secret that I have what is probably an excessive amount of disgust for the R.I.N.O. that John McCain is...
Yet Clark's most asinine comment about McCain war history about left me breathless...
Then again where have we heard that sort of shrill screeching before?
George W and the F-102
I'm not going to defend Wesley Clark's comments, and he should apologize - as soon as the Swift Boat Veterans apologize for slandering John Kerry. Kerry was a hapless candidate who deserved to lose, but his Vietnam record did not earn him the distorted, deliberately false, malicious abuse that the "swifites" handed out. The Swift Boart Verterans set a new low in American politics and in fact said things much worse than anything Clark said.
Pulled this off of HotAir from Ed Morrisey:
----
Update: The legendary Lt. Col. Joe Repya (ret.) of the 101st Airborne — a man I’m proud to have as a friend — responds in his new Eagle’s Nest blog:
"Barack Obama and the National Democratic Party should immediately denounce and dismiss General Clark from any future campaigning in this election year, but he and the Democrats will not! As Ed Morrissey points out, this is a planned attack on John McCain’s character.
The Obama Campaign, using their surrogates, have attacked McCain’s age, mental state, bravery and honesty.
Is this the “change” that everyone wants in Washington?
A ambitious young politician bent on personal destruction of an opponents record and accomplishments? How dare Obama and his minions attack the military record of John McCain. Where and when did Obama serve? What sacrifice has he or his family made on the battlefield? ….
Listen people, I have met General Wes Clark and I can tell you he is no General David Petraeus, anymore then Barack Obama is the quality of John McCain!"
Col. Repya is not one to mince words. Expect to hear more about this from Joe, and keep an eye on his new blog as he gets settled into the (obsessive) routine of blogging. (And yes, I warned him about the obsession ….)
----
Indeed and Obama will never be as good or close to McCain's accomplishments in life if We the People stand up and demand more for our country than empty slogan campaingns about "change and hope."
As Lt Col Repya asked...
Is this the “change” that everyone wants in Washington?
No! It is a farsical set of lies, fiction and fallacies wrapped up in David Axelrod's political marketing 101.
a) Make your puppet tell the world he is to nice to make nasty remarks.
b) have puppet's surrogates lash out at opponent and smear him.
c) have pupppet pretend to be sorry with faux gestures of magnanimous praise for service with more empyt sloganeering about patriotism.
Yada, yada, yada... schtick.
Axelrod, puppet master extraodinaire for a candidate that sit in a house of hatred for 20 years which lashed out and "G__ D___ed America" every single chance it had. Where does one get puppets like this?
From people like William Ayers and crew? I wonder how long Axelrod has known Ayers? In fact, I wonder how long he's known most of these Communist and Marxist after finding out his Mom worked for a paper that supported Communist.
Questions that according to Dave in NYC, have no right to be asked, or no meaning to a political candidacy of a Presidential contender?
Afterall, it was JFK that stood up to the Communist finally after his first meeting with Nikita. So, why has the Democrat Party embraced Communist for this 2008 Presidential run?
Legitimate questions? I think so.
So richard are you saying
that the 12 consider him unfit are liars?
Curious minds want to know...
Richard,
The Vietnam Veterans that attacked Kerry's record were once attacked by Kerry himself. And many of their complaints were very legitimate. Including him not releasing his records, which he has yet to do. But has said he would since 2004. He also had to correct his lies about Cambodia.
He made up fictional stories and went before Congress testifying against these very same Vets.
They had every right to go after him no differently than the Soros funded nutjobs that contributed to hateful attacks against Bush.
This fight goes back to their disputes from the 60s and was very personal. In fact Kerry insulted vets and "thru them under the bus" as murderers "reminiscent of Genghis Kahn."
It is no surprise that he ended up paying the piper for his disgraceful acts against our veterans after so many years. He finally got his due after all these years of participating in the smearing and hatred of our Vietnam Vets. Kerry pulled the political FlipFlop for his own Democratic clinb to the top upon liberal issues. Well, he paid for it and so will arrogant twits like Wesley Clark when he steps in it.
Again, this is the far left trying to smear our Vietnam Vets, this time it is McCain.
A hero that fought Communist. There simply is no defense at all in comparison to Kerry that came back and spit on the Vets.
McCain did not spit in their faces and join the Communist in protest. Kerry did. Huge difference.
And now today, Wesley Clark defends a man that surrounds himself by Marxist and Communist.
Juandos,
Thanks for the link. It helps to put it in perspective afterall.
Kerry used the photo, which incensed the former Vets that had to fight against him in the 60s for smearing them the first time around. Now Kerry wanted to use them yet again for his power trip into the Whitehouse.
Everyone should click on that link, then the photo. Here is the quote from the SwiftVets:
"The purpose of this photo is to correct the misleading use of our images -- against our will -- to further John Kerry's campaign."
So Kerry used the photo "- against their will -" for his purpose without explaining to the public that only 3 people out of 20 supported him as President.
Cause enough for them to fight back. He asked for it and received his just desserts.
Consider this, though: much was made in 1960 of then-Senator Kennedy's service on PT-109. And we shouldn't forget that PT-109, under Kennedy's command, was more or less sliced in two by a Japanese destroyer, forcing Kennedy to help bring his crew to safety in a nearby island.
Getting shot down versus getting your ship sunk. Compare and contrast.
Confederate Yankee had the best line of all about this.
The Saddest Thing About Barack Obama's Available Military Expertise...
...is that though he has Wes Clark in his corner, the only person he knows with the experience of getting a bomb on target is Bill Ayers.
That is going to leave a mark! hehehe!
Nahanni,
ouch! LOL... Hahahah... oh I can just see the Youtube Video now.
Obama, the Man, the Experience, the One...
bombs going off in the background.
You can count on at 3am...
phone rings.
Ahmmm, Obama answers... yeah? Whazzzup?
Billy Ayers, Barack! Barack!
Barack, Uhhh... Billy, man its 3am, why you messin with the big dog? Wifey be chillin.
Billy Ayers, my bomb went off.
Barack, Huh? what bomb? Where?
Billy Ayers, uh, it was an accident, really, I wasn't there...
Barack, Now uhhh... what honey(looking over at Michelle)? Yeah, yeah... I know, this does not look good for our kids. Uhhummm, uh, now Billy, terrorist attacked us?
Billy Ayers, well, technically yes, terrorist attacked America.
Barack, where billy! its 3am!
Billy Ayers, well, we blew up our bathroom. Bernadine was working with Nation of Islam and Klonsky ya know, with plans to bomb the evil white man in DC on 4th of July and we had an accident. But I think with your CIA connections now we can make it look like we were attacked by the evil Right Wing Bush lovers! Yeah, thats the ticket!
Barack, ................
Billy Ayers, Barack? Hello?
Barack, clink....
Billy Ayers, Barack? Hey? Hey man, brothers forever! what? Ahhhh, Bernadine he hung up! Told ya he'd throw us under the bus!
Video ends...
Barack Obama, at 3am. You to can be thrown under the bus.
Obama, the Man, the Experience you can count on in the dark of the night to throw your country "G__ D)____ America-KKK" country under the bus.
The tale of Wesley Clark is one of Jekyl and Hide. In the years prior to 2003, Wesley Clark was all about taking aggressive action against the enemies of this country. In the years after 2003 and his unsuccesful run for the White House in 2004, he's become a talking head for the left, standing in contrast to the former General he once was.
Less than 18 months ago, Wesley Clark offered his testimony before the Committee On Armed Services at the U.S. House Of Representatives. "There's no requirement to have any doctrine here. I mean this is simply a long-standing right of the United States and other nations to take the actions they deem necessary in their self defense," Clark told Congress on September 26, 2002.
"Every president has deployed forces as necessary to take action. He's done so without multilateral support if necessary. He's done so in advance of conflict if necessary. . .
Clark continued: "There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat... Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had those for a long time. But the United States right now is on a very much different defensive posture than we were before September 11th of 2001. . .
More Clark: "And, I want to underscore that I think the United States should not categorize this action as preemptive. Preemptive and that doctrine has nothing whatsoever to do with this problem. As Richard Perle so eloquently pointed out, this is a problem that's longstanding. It's been a decade in the making. It needs to be dealt with and the clock is ticking on this."
This is hardly the only instance of Clark heaping praise on the Bush administration for their robust response to terrorism, a problem Clark was well aware existed prior to 9/11. Need more evidence...?
"And I'm very glad we've got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice... people I know very well - our president George W. Bush. We need them there." - Clark in remarks delivered at the Pulaski County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 11, 2001
Then about 2003, Wesley Clark realized he might have a political future in the Democrat party and became an advocate for a party that seriously lacked credibility in the military community and on issues of national security and foreign policy.
Now the media puts him out there as if he's some sort of bastion of credibility, instead of a political opportunist.
Funny - Gore Vidal said the exact same thing about McCain on BBC's Hard Talk w/ Stephen Sackur 2 weeks ago!
Joshua,
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!
.....wipes tears of laughter from my eyes.......
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!
I have a lot of respect for McCain's service and what he went through for his fellow soldiers. But I really don't think Clark said anything inappropriate or incorrect here. If anything, the interviewer asked a stupid question, but that's nothing unusual.
Clark does not deserve the title General. He is a traitor working for a party of traitors. I use the word traitor in the Benedict Arnold sense of the word. As a former officer, Clark should have known better than to make those comments. Gen. Norman Shwarzkoff publicicly stated that Clark has serious character issues in 2004. Clark should lead a platoon of Marines on a mission in Iraq. How long would he last before being fragged? Senator McCain served honorably. That is a qualification to be President! You see he did his time and went to work. He did not come back and say traiterous things about the men he served with or his country as the traitors in the Demo-rat party do! Clark & Kerry for that matter are the lowest form of traitor there is! I hope Clark's comments are played non-stop until the election thus ending any chance B. Hussein Obama will end up in the White House
"is that though he has Wes Clark in his corner, the only person he knows with the experience of getting a bomb on target is Bill Ayers"...
ROFLMAO!...
Thank you nahanni for that!
I thought I was going to drown on my coffee...:-)
BTW the Confederate Yankee was kind enough to update the running count of Obamazoids under the bus:
Obama's Bus List. Now With More Carnage!
Regarding the idea that Clark should apologize, well I could go for that as long as its followed up by Clark committing seppuku...
Just think of the 'Al Gore' upside, one less emitter of greenhouse gas...
Hey joshua, no problem amigo...
BTW I think Ed Morrisey's pal the colonel knows a thing or two: "No! It is a farsical set of lies, fiction and fallacies wrapped up in David Axelrod's political marketing 101"
Have you noted how the libtards and dim-witted Dems have tried and are continuing to try to morph the phrase, "swift boating" into something akin to libel or slander when in reality it was all about the facts?
anon @ 8:44 AM said: "Clark does not deserve the title General. He is a traitor working for a party of traitors. I use the word traitor in the Benedict Arnold sense of the word"...
Amen!
For Democrats, military service is only useful in running for president if you were smart enough to wound yourself in the ass with your own shrapnel.
And there's no way, man, that John F'n Kerry's ("I'll release my full military record to the public any day now) grueling 3 months (give or take a few days) of service on a boat can be equaled by a few lousy bombing missions through anti-aircraft and missile fire, followed by getting shot down, wounded, tortured, and kept prisoner for 5 and a half years. I mean, c'mon, Kerry really *suffered*, unlike the vacation McCain had.
I think it's hilarious how all the brainless, red-neck Republicans are getting so frenzied that General Clark told the truth about McBush's war record.
General Clark is a far more honorable, accomplished man than McBush (let alone any chicken-hawk Republican) will ever be.
Hilarious.
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