Rush On Rush

Good take from Brian @ Liberty Pundit on the Democrats' ridiculous criticism of Rush Limbaugh after taking some comments of his from a recent show entirely out of context. I am particularly disgusted by Tom Harkin's consistent representation (or lack thereof) of the state of Iowa. You can watch this video of Harkin wondering if Rush is "high on his drugs again." Hey, Senator Harkin, it's so far beyond cliché that I hate to ask, but you know what happens when you "assume," right? Limbaugh (who I find to be one of the most arrogant-sounding radio hosts I've ever tried to listen to) was speaking of "phony soldiers," such as this one, in Rush's own words:

One of them was Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal," I say in quotes -- 23 years old.

What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart. It wasn't his being affiliated with post traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, though. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage in their view off the battlefield.

Without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq: American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account translated into Arabic and spread widely across the internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way:

'We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.'

Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, a poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court, and you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs' claim and his Army discharge record.

He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly -- 44-days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger. Never was. He isn't a corporal. Never was. He never won the Purple Heart and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen."

This is an example of a "phony soldier." Not someone who questions the war or the decisions of his superiors (that's another debate altogether). But someone who lies about his service and gets used by politicians to spread propaganda.