Battle of the Bilge

BotB Verdict

Summary

Although the words attributed to President Obama in the chain email below are completely false and have already been debunked here, there has been a new iteration with additional packaging that has gained some traction. While the commentary is new, the quotes are still just a fabrication, originally written in a satirical column.

The Current Iteration

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT EVER MADE BY A PUBLIC OFFICIAL LET ALONE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. AND THIS GUY IS OUR “COMMANDER IN CHIEF”. HE IS A DISGRACE.

UNBELIEVABLE PRESIDENT??? HERE IS HIS RESPONSE WHEN HE BACKED OFF FROM HIS DECISION TO REQUIRE THE MILITARY PAY FOR THEIR WAR INJURIES.

WHAT AN EMPTY HEADED PERSON HE MUST BE….

Bad press, including major mockery of the plan by comedian Jon Stewart, led to President Obama abandoning his proposal to require veterans carry private health insurance to cover the estimated $540 million annual cost to the federal government of treatment for injuries to military personnel received during their tours on active duty. The President admitted that he was puzzled by the magnitude of the opposition to his proposal.



“Look, it’s an all volunteer force,” Obama complained. “Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice? It doesn’t compute..” “I thought these were people who were proud to sacrifice for their country, “Obama continued “I wasn’t asking for blood, just money. With the country facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I’d have thought that the patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation’s deficit. I guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my fellow Americans.”

Please pass this on to every one including every vet and their families whom you know. How in the world did a person with this mindset become our leader? I didn’t vote for him!!!

REMEMBER THIS STATEMENT… “Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice?”



If he thinks he will ever get another vote from an Active Duty,Reserve, National Guard service member or veteran of a military service he ought to think it over.. If you or a family member is or has served
their country please pass this to them.

Please pass this to everyone. I’m guessing that other than the 20-25 percent hardcore liberals in the US will agree that this is just another example why this is the worst president in American history. remind everyone over and over how this man thinks, while he bows to the Saudi Arabian king.

Origins

As previously reported, the quotes attributed to President Obama are directly from a 28 March blog post from John Semmons, whose column Semi-News — A Satirical Look at Recent News appears in the Arizona Conservative, a web community of bloggers. The quotes in question were made up, of course, and the writing is nothing but satire. Here is the direct link

Alterations from Original Email

Besides the fake quotes, the only thing that remains from the original email is the paragraph that starts with ‘Bad press, including major…’. Everything else, from the ‘Outrageous statement’ to calling the president ‘an empty headed person’, to the call for action of sending the email to everyone you know is new. Also new are the two pictures, obviously intended to accentuate the snobbish persona that he has been saddled with since he was a nominee for president.

One iteration also added the following to the article as an intro:

Most people will say this article is BS, so do me a favor and let your fingers do the walking over the key-board and research this, don’t be surprised at what you find.

Please do. In addition to our article, and the link to the obviously satirical piece, here are some additional resources that will help you find the truth of the matter:

Snopes Page
TruthorFiction Page
Fact Check Page
Media Matters Page

If you search Google using only the quotes only, you’ll find the above pages plus a ton of message board and blog postings that repeat the lies, most without any dissent or corrections. Unfortunate, but that’s the way the internet works…

No matter what your personal views of President Obama are, he is no doubt a clever politician. And the golden rule of politics is never insult the troops. Common sense should come in to play here.

Discussion

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BotB Verdict:

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Note: In the FDR quote I erroneously placed ‘immigrations’ in place of what he actually said, ‘immigrants’ – Hat tip to my trusted nitpicking sidekick, James “eyebrows” Naughton.

Summary

Although the words were spoken almost a hundred years ago, a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt regarding immigrants coming to the United States has been given new life recently by a chain email that has popped back up in to the cyberverse. The words are correctly attributed to President Roosevelt, but the email misstates the date and circumstance in which they were delivered. The accompanying picture is not one taken while he delivered this speech. In fact, it wasn’t delivered in a speech at all. While the email does not go in to any overt xenophobic rants, the quote has been used as a rallying cry for anti-immigration sites.

This Round’s Most Common Iteration

A 1907 PHOTO

Perhaps this is one email that needs to be forwarded until everyone with a computer receives it.
The year is 1907, over one hundred years ago.
READ THE PRINT UNDER THE PICTURE!

US President Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907:

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American… There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
Every citizen needs to read this!
KEEP THIS MOVING!

Historical Facts

While it may appear at first glance that the message President Roosevelt was trying to get across was against immigration, in reality the president was only advocating compulsory learning of the English language and a support for the nation at large, above and beyond the immigrant’s home nation. You’ll hear no objection to this point of view from us, but let’s get the facts straight.

First, the words in the email are from a letter that President Roosevelt sent to the American Defense Society in 1919, incidentally three days before he passed away. According to UrbanLegends.com:

“Americanization” was a favorite theme of Roosevelt’s during his later years, when he railed repeatedly against “hyphenated Americans” and the prospect of a nation “brought to ruins” by a “tangle of squabbling nationalities.”

He advocated the compulsory learning of English by every naturalized citizen. “Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country,” he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. “English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools.”

The entirety of the letter can be read at the Snopes.com page regarding the email, by clicking here.

One would be well off to ‘remember, remember always’, the quote at the top of this email from Teddy’s cousin FDR as well. While there is no doubt that to be an American should mean that you embrace and assimilate to better the national cause, we are a nation of immigrants, and that should never be forgotten.

Note: Battle of the Bilge apologizes for the long delay between posts, as I have been out due to sickness and am just now catching up on work

Discussion

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“The fabric of our collective will has begun to fray, weakened all the more by a series of pernicious myths that thicken the fog of war.” – Colonel Joseph Collins, (USA-Ret)

MOAA Life Member and National War College Teacher Helps Clear Up The Air

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar for journalists regarding Afghanistan at the Medill School of Journalism put on by Military Reporters and Editors and the National Defense University. With the current dramatic events unfolding politically and militarily over the future course of the war, the timing was excellent. Also excellent was the presentation by Colonel Joseph Collins, (USA-Ret), who is a current teacher at the National War College and a former deputy assistant director of defense for stability operations.

In addition to these accomplishments, Colonel Collins is also a Life Member of MOAA and graciously gave us the go ahead to share what he felt are three pervasive myths regarding Afghanistan. We thank him for helping the home team. Below are exerts from each myth. To visit the full story at Armed Force Journal, click here.

Myth 1 – Afghanistan is not a vital interest to the United States, we should withdraw.

Colonel Collins explains why Afghanistan is a crucial theater in the war against violent extremist Islam:

…Our mission in Afghanistan remains what it was in the fall of 2001. We must prevent the re-establishment of a terrorist stronghold there and defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban, who, if anything, have moved closer together over the years. Our methods for achieving our objectives include counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and state-building. All are necessary. Those who think we can ignore Afghan needs while we use their country as a counterterrorism platform are naïve or shortsighted. Unless we create a decent, stable country in Afghanistan — not a Utopia — it may again be conquered by an al-Qaida ally, and the need for counterterrorist operations there will never disappear.

He continues to explain that Yemen and Somalia are unpredictable as bases for al-Qaida and that their best opportunity is to regain operational control of Taliban dominated Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Myth 2 – The Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan. They can’t be stopped.

This type of reporting or propaganda encourages defeatism, according to Colonel Collins, and is not the reality of the situation.

The Taliban can be defeated and blocked by strategies that protect the population and build up the security capacity of the Afghan state, its provinces and its districts. Counter-sanctuary activities by Pakistani forces could easily disrupt their base areas and training grounds. Better coordination with Persian Gulf allies and stronger counternarcotics efforts could dry up their financial base. To win faster, we will have to fight harder and smarter, drastically increasing Afghanistan’s capacity to manage its own affairs. The truth is that Taliban forces have made great strides, but they can be stopped. The Taliban cannot win unless the West quits.

Defeating the Taliban strategy of outlasting the determination and will of the international forces is the best path to victory.

Myth 3 – Afghanistan has always been unstable and has never had an effective central government. Trying to build one is a waste of time and resources.

Prior to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the nation was a much more secure place. It was even a tourist destination for a lot of hippies and members of the New Age movement.

From the early 1900s to the Soviet invasion in 1978, Afghanistan was a poor, but relatively stable, developing country. The government writ large — national, provincial, district and at local levels —was in control at home and generally at peace with its neighbors. In the postwar era, the country was courted by the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both of which during the Cold War provided significant foreign aid. It had a draft, a functioning Army and Air Force, as well as a significant Western presence. From the early 1960s onward, it had both a king and a functioning parliament.

Underneath the surface, however, the pressures for modernization and the pull of tradition and religion produced both leftist and religious extremists. In 1973, the king was deposed by his progressive cousin in a velvet coup. After a Soviet-backed, Marxist coup in 1978 — which the late anthropologist Louis Dupree characterized as “more Groucho than Karl” —the country spiraled rapidly downward. Even before the Soviet invasion in December 1979 to shore up its position on its southern border, the Afghan people were widely in revolt, energized by the need to deal with atheist invaders.

Since the Soviet pull out, the nation has experienced nothing but bloodshed, with a civil war leading to a Taliban government and the war with the United States.

Nation Building and Setbacks

While the bombings, raids and battles raging daily between the Taliban, al-Qaida linked forces and the international coalition grab all the press coverage, there has been a determined attempt to restore the nation of Afghanistan to its prior self-supportive days. But this effort is useless while Taliban and their cohorts are attacking bases, bombing embassies and threatening schools and government institutions that support the international coalition. As the White House, Congress and DoD discuss our next moves, these concepts should be clear.

Discussion

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“The wisest have the most authority” – Plato

A Myth, But a Fun One

Sometimes we stumble across old stories about the military that are virtually impossible to corroborate, but make for amusing reads. This story, about a lieutenant commander, J.P. Fyffe, details his exploits and attempt to make a statement about a bad policy that was in place at the time. In August of 1870, as the story goes, LCDR Fyffe was given command of a frigate stationed outside of San Francisco. The policy of the Navy during this era was that the cost of any move one had to make to a new assignment must be handled by the service member and then the costs would be reimbursed after they arrived. After LCDR Fyffe, who lived in Connecticut, attempted to get money for a train ride across the country and was denied, he decided to make the journey entirely on foot and report back to his ‘superiors’ his progress on a daily basis.
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“Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it.” – Tony Blair

Prankster Activists Strike Again

Last year, the group The Yes Men printed a fake version of the New York Timeswith a headline that read “Iraq War Ends” and distributed thousands of copies on the streets of New York. This year, they’ve spoofed the New York Post in a special global warming edition with the alarming headline “We’re Screwed”:

The second story in the fake newspaper carries the title “Pentagon top brass warn: Act now, or pay later with ‘lives’”. Although the paper is clearly a spoof, the article itself is not too far off the mark, and except for the fact that they are taken cobbled together to form one narrative, the quotes and references to the NDU study are real.

The Article Text

The Pentagon has run the numbers. And they’ve decided global warming is real, it’s happening now, and it’s a US national security threat.

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