Sounds Like His Heart Was In The Right Place
But it doesn’t sound like he knows the troops as well as he thinks he does. The Hill:
CBS Sports commentator David Feherty drew criticism Friday for suggesting any U.S. soldier would murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) if given the chance.
“From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death,” Feherty wrote in an a D Magazine piece welcoming former President George W. Bush back to Dallas.
Feherty, a former professional golfer who now helps call golf events for CBS, said that troops love former President Bush by contrast, and praised the former commander-in-chief for having prevented additional terrorist attacks during his time in office.
Liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America demanded an apology for the remarks Friday.
“Mr. Feherty’s violent comments about Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are disgusting,” said Media Matters President Eric Burns. “Suggesting that our troops would attack the leaders of the very democracy they’ve sworn to sacrifice their lives for is an insult to their integrity, honor, and professionalism. CBS Sports should demand its golf analyst apologize to our soldiers.”
Feherty’s rhetorical excess is one of many in a satire-heavy piece that also calls for capital punsihment for pro-lifers. The ones who owe the troops an apology for actual insult and injury are the ones … media, Congressional Democrats and left in general … who have pretended to support the troops all these years while seizing on every opportunity to disparage them, misrepresent what they are doing, cut their funding and render their sacrifices meaningless.
The American soldiers I’ve known have been highly disciplined in combat and in all their dealings with their superiors. More likely to take a bullet for Pelosi, Reid or any other American, not to mention Iraqis, Afghans, Frenchmen, Germans, etc., than that scenario imagined above. That includes soldiers I know who were, for a time, accused of war crimes and denounced by a number of media organizations, none of which bothered to apologize for their aspersions when the Hotel Palestine business was finally over and done with several years later.* Over the course of eight years of war we’ve seen two cases of fragging that I recall, one by a misguided Muslim and one that involved a personal dispute. Despite the many efforts by the left to paint American soldiers as war criminals, incidents of actual war crimes and misconduct in combat by the professional soldiers and Marines of the United States military are probably at a historic low for any army in any war.
Those apologies are long overdue.
OK, all that said … is Murtha in the elevator, too?
Savoring the moment, all indignant about the smear (oddly overlooking Feherty’s observation that none of the righteous are willing to give credit to George Bush or those soldiers for keeping America safe these past 8 years), it’s Crooks & Liars! Also, that great champion of troopism, HuffPo.
Newsbusters, with a little context, ponders the cherry-picking.
* Hey, Media Matters, that’s something you could get incensed about. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontieres wrote reports that, in RSF’s case, actually claimed murder, and in CPJ’s case, more gutlessly insinuated murder had been committed when 3rd ID tankers fired on the Hotel Palestine on April 8, 2003, despite the lack of any evidence to support their claims and insinuations. The Spanish courts indicted three soldiers for murder, but later dropped the matter. For lack of evidence to support charges of murder. There was one bright spot. CNN Chief New Executive Eason Jordan had to abase himself and became former CNN Chief News Executive for his general remarks accusing U.S. troops of targeting journalists.
Topics: al qaeda, media, military, pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:04 am on Saturday, May 9, 2009
8 Responses to “Sounds Like His Heart Was In The Right Place”
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May 9th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Our military is oath bound to protect the Constitution of the United States of America, against ALL enemy, foreign AND domestic.
The Constitution is NOT an office, nor an office holder. Domestic enemy ARE those who are working their hardest to transform the US into yet another failed socialist utopia, and ignoring, shredding, or pushing hard to reinterpret our Constitution into something that means only what the particular judge or politico wants it to mean in relation to their current perfidy and only for so long as that new meaning is convenient until the next perfidy requires a new meaning to the same clause or article within the Constitution.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:33 am
[...] surprisingly, Jules Crittendon somehow turns all of this into an indictment of the media and Congressional Democrats and wonders [...]
May 9th, 2009 at 10:47 am
[...] It’s the American left who owes our troops apologies, not CBS sports commentator [...]
May 9th, 2009 at 11:55 am
[...] Crittenden – Sounds Like His Heart Was In The Right Place (On CBS sports commentator’s comment about any soldiers would kill Pelosi or [...]
May 9th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I don’t know if any soldiers would actually shoot Pelosi, but if they were in an elevator with her, I’m pretty sure she’d have to endure a gaze that would shrivel her already wizened heart. Same for Reid, but Osama bin Laden would definitely not leave the elevator alive.
May 9th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I have every confidence that any soldier of ours would observe proper decorum with Pelosi, Reid, etc. because that’s what their training and ethic demands - they would respect their office regardless of the worthiness of the occupant.
As for the outrage industry of the left - - - what a bunch of sanctimonious jackasses.
Fehrety doesn’t owe anyone an apology except his employer - because he said something stupid, the suits have to deal with idiots like Media Matters ….
P.S. I’m not suggesting those particular suits don’t deserve it because they’re such good people, etc. …. not hardly.
P.P.S. - the suits would do themselves a world of good if they’d tell Media Matters …. “Look, he said something stupid. Most sane, socially well-adjusted people would say “well, that was stupid” and get on with life. That’s what you should do - get on with your life … you’re wasting my time with your phony, manipulative outrage.”
May 10th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Yes, I would say a sarcastic article about a recently-discredited-in-the-headlines congresscritter is not really much of an offense compared to, say, publicly accusing our top general of being liar. In a full-page ad in the Very Important Paper, wasn’t it? Before he even gave his testimony, wasn’t it? Let me see, the other thing that comes immediately to mind while we’re on the topic of poor judgment and bad taste is some kind of movie… starring a likeness of President Bush…. as himself being shot dead, wasn’t it? That movie actually ran in theatres and I remember exactly zero outrage. In many quarters, it wasn’t even considered odd. Now tell me again about your fine sensibilities?
May 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Frankly, I thought it was hilarious. After a military career that honed my very dark sense of humour to a fine edge, I can understand the sentiment. For those Professional Indignants who came down with a sudden & partisan case of the vapours, it reflected the attitude of practically every troop or Marine that I know, including my son, on his fourth tour in Iraq. No, people, Feherty wasn’t being serious - it’s a joke. Lighten up, & if you don’t get it, try to understand those of us who would find it funny, & why.