Chief Warrant Officer (4th Class) Michael J. Durant Issues Statement on Obama’s Cancelled Trip to Visit The Injured Troops

The Anointed One never has to say he’s sorry. Even when he’s “wrong” he’s always right.

FOLLOW THIS LINK RE THIS STORY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LifsuCdTnXo&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/28/andrea-mitchell-leads-med_n_115501.html

“As a sitting senator, a member of the Senate Armed Forces, it is your duty to understand the rules set forth by The Pentagon and military on visits to injured troops.”

And add President to that list. He doesn’t like the actual work and details Nancy, just like “W.” As Michael Durant says, it seriously calls into question his judgment and priorities. His lack of judgment and priorities are part of a much larger pattern (Rev. Wright et. al.) and his dangerous inexperience. He has NO CLUE how to conduct himself on an international stage, and at this delicate time in our history, how can anyone consider this person ready to be president? The fact that he didn’t WANT to see the troops and make it a priority (as McCain said, “if the Pentagon told me I couldn’t visit the troops privately, there’d have been a seismic shift”) shows he lacks compassion, conviction and authority.

Absolutely NOBAMA. This is not high school kids. Go back to pretending you’re a preacher/rock/movie star and leave statesmanship to the professionals.

BRAVO ! Officer Durant. Thanks for the Post Nancy.

And Nancy: thank you for your service.

He’s changed his story two or three times in regards to why he didn’t go. Incidents like this one are the true measure of a person’s character. If he can’t make the time to visit wounded troops (with or without his entourage), then he doesn’t have the best interest of the American people at heart. Period.
As many press people as there were traveling with him, word would’ve gotten out that he had visited the hospital. Even without pictures, people would’ve thought better of him for going. Instead, he has one more check in the negative column, and his supporters are having to spin it out the wazoo to try and make voters overlook it.

Michael Durant is more qualified to be president than Bambi.

The fact that he saw wounded vets in Iraq and Walter Reed was not good enough for you? And you don’t take McCain to task for having cancelled a visit in the same way last year? Give me a break.

I am so angry he disrespected our troops. The visit was on his calendar and I am sure the troops were excited about it all and there goes Obama throwing our troops under is f**king Clown Bus. I am actually still angry, I am a red hot mama over 40 and my vote is NOT GOING TO OBAMA. Please remember no vote is a vote for Obama so I beg you vote for McCain.

Clintons4Mccain rock!

BO spent 20 years in an anti-American church. That is all the wounded American soldiers need to know to understand where Obama’s symphathy and priorities lie.

I am sick of watching democrats try to defend Obama when asked “What has Obama ever done to distinguish himself to be President.” They all sit there with their mouths open, looking like fools. No one can answer with an intelligent, truthful response. You would think his marketing team would come up with a paragraph and pass it out to those democrats who are hawking Obama. This is getting to be humiliating for the democratic party.

Pelosi’s “he is fresh” is an insane response to why Obama is qualified to be president.

Thank goodness that our service people are willing to speak out! DUTY…what does this “light-weight” understand about that word? It was a slap in the face to these honorable people, regardless of rank, and their families, who are doing the “heavy-lifting” for this country! UNLIKE the wind-bags in Congress who are only interested in protecting their little “domains”!

Precious was tired. Precious needed some “me” time.
Precious couldn’t be bothered doing a public service without a crowd and cameras. Precious needs his entourage. As George Harrison sang “all through the day i me mine, i me mine, I me mine all through the night i me mine, i me mine, i me mine”

Obama is all about “ME”. Lord help us when
that phone does ring at 3AM……..

The latest explanation is that he could not go with his campaign adviser general because there was not a congressional staffer on the trip to go with Sen Obama and his Secret Service detail instead. They supposedly did not know this general could not get in. Why won’t the press ask why he did not go alone? Did he take Senate or campaign staff around in Iraq and Afghanistan? If he took campaign staff was this a violation of rules also?

There is something off about these explanations from the campaign. If they made a simple mistake just own up to it and apologize. These shifting and weird explanations are why this controversy will not go away. The public is not really crazy about the press trying to spin it for Sen Obama either.

Agree with you Irish….It ranks right up there with Kerry’s There will be a special Global Appreciation of Barry’s tan….Truly embarrassing….These Folks have got to be Purged from Office….

To Michael J. Durant: well said!

The excuses are complete bullshit on one reason alone:

Barry knows via his supposed visits to Walter Reed does not allow media or campaign workers to join in a vist.

Thus Barry already has experience with the rules of conduct in visiting military hospitals.

So what has Barry proven by his actions is one simple thing, even when Barry does have experience in situations, his own experience is completely useless!

excellent post and thank you Nancy for your service to our country.

I see this particular issue of not visiting the troops coming back hard on Obama – and rightly so.

It’s the perfect example of Obama as arrogant, aloof, self-centered, and wholly unqualified to be commander in chief.

Obama cares only about Obama…forget about the troops!!

Now, sorry, this is if off-topic, but I’d like to introduce someone…

INSIGHTANALYTICAL WELCOMES kenosha MARGE!

A big WELCOME to kenoshaMarge, who is honoring this blog with her first contribution! KM has “known” me since the old Buzzflash days and managed to find her way here after my hasty departure from that site during the primary season. I’m so glad we’re “together again” and I hope visitors will enjoy reading her thoughts. (She’s from the “North Country” and I’m in the Southwest, so it will be interesting to perhaps see different perspectives.) She’ll be posting when she gets the inspiration to get something out there…

AGAIN, WELCOME kenoshaMarge!!

GRL

Her first post is called:

ENABLING BAD BEHAVIOR….she examines the parent-child relationship re: the Democratic Party! A great read!

http://insightanalytical.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/enabling-bad-behavior/

I’m proud of your service and great articles Nancy and CW4 (Ret) Durant!

I double dog dare ya!

Thanks NancyA,

As a veteran from a military family, I salute you. And, thanks for these remarks from Durant. He echoes my thoughts exactly.

But, this is just another glimpse into Barack Obama’s brush-off of anything and anyone military.

He is refusing to attend a joint town-hall meeting at Fort Hood, invited by a coalition of military family and vet organizations. He doesn’t want to talk to military families. Now, these are the people who sacrifice so much and ask so little in return.

Barack Obama is determined to ignore them. That doesn’t say much about his qualifications to be CinC [the proper acronym is CinC, pronounced "sink"].

Obama thinks it’s all about the power of the title; but as every military commander knows, it’s about your people and how you lead them and take care of them.

Even the NYT took their tongue out of Obama’s ass for a day to write about the no-show.

mr obobo did not want to see/face the wounded veterans because their response to him would have been much less than perfect media fodder.

the word is that the troops favor Sen McCain. this information must be kept under the radar. if the wounded vets were positive about obobo you’d best believe he would have showed up with bells and whistles all over his empty suit.

he’s never going to be POTUS. not if the troops get to vote.

Hillary or McCain in 08.

Thanks for this post Nancy!

Has anyone at all reported on Durant’s statement??

MediaLizzy

http://medializzy.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/blackhawk-down-pilot-durant-obama-landstuhl/

has a nice post as well.

But has anyone at all reported on Durant’s statement??

How about we look at the facts:

In 2006, Senator Obama supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 80% of the time; McCain supported their interests 20% of the time.

In 2006, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator Obama a rating of B plus, McCain got a D rating.

In 2005 McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25% of the time; Obama supported their interests 92% of the time.

The above ratings can be found on votesmart.org under Interest Group Ratings.

Most recently, McCain not only opposed the new GI Bill (which would provide better education benefits to returning veterans) but he didn’t see fit to leave the campaign trail to vote against it (so much for being a man of priciple).

Both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton supported the GI Bill and left the campaign trail to vote in favor of the it.

Just looking at the facts, rather than basing opinions on rhetoric and false assertions, it seems safe to say that the interests of America’s soldiers are better protected by Obama than McCain.

New game of Under the Bus:

Who will be tossed under the bus now for Obama’s rilly-big-gaffe-of-not-visiting-wounded-troops?!

Wendy Morigi, Obama’s national security spokeswoman, who is also traveling with the campaign, said the trip “required extensive planning and coordination, and many key advisers volunteered their time to help make the trip a success.”

Similar to Obama’s structured, 300-person network of national security and foreign policy experts, his traveling advisers were given specific areas of concentration.

When Obama sat down Tuesday with Jordanian King Abdullah II at the royal palace in Amman, only one other person was in the room: Scott Gration, a retired Air Force general who built contacts with the royal court during his time in the service. Gration, who endorsed Obama last year, helped plan Obama’s meetings in Jordan.

Gregory Craig, a director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning under President Clinton, is doing the same in England. Philip Gordon, a director for European affairs at the National Security Council under Clinton and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is doing the advance work in Germany. And Anthony Lake, the national security adviser to Clinton, is picking up the task in France.

A trio of aides was dispatched for the job in Israel: Dennis Ross, the lead American negotiator under Clinton during the Oslo peace process; career diplomat Daniel Kurtzer; and Daniel Shapiro, a former deputy chief of staff to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).They were in the room Wednesday as Obama prepared to sit down with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the King David Hotel here.

Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state under Clinton, is providing counsel to Obama on the road, as are two other Clinton administration officials: James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser, and Richard Danzig, who was secretary of the Navy.

“They are a sounding board for Sen. Obama,” a campaign adviser said. “He values their views.”

Obama is also relying on two foreign policy staff members: senior adviser Denis McDonough and speechwriter Ben Rhodes.

The group represents “an effort to reach out to a broad array of people,” McDonough said. “People who have been with him from the beginning,” as well as recent additions to such as Ross and Steinberg.

http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=2&threadid=1064878

From FactCheck.org:

It’s a fact that Obama canceled a visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at the last minute after planning it for weeks. And it’s a fact that reporters and their cameras would not have been allowed to accompany him. Furthermore, Obama probably did go to the gym that day, as he does practically every day. So the bare facts stated in the ad are true, but they don’t support McCain’s insinuation.

We can’t read minds and so are in no position to know Obama’s motives, or McCain’s for that matter. It’s unlikely, however, that the absence of press coverage would have been a factor in Obama’s decision, as the ad implies. Obama says he never planned to take reporters on the Landstuhl visit, and Department of Defense rules prohibited him from taking reporters on previous visits he made with wounded troops.

Reporters were not allowed to accompany him when he visited wounded troops at Walter Reed Medical Center on June 28. The small “protective pool” of reporters that routinely accompanies him was told by Obama’s staff to remain outside, in the van, according to a reporter covering the campaign. Similarly, Obama visited wounded troops in Baghdad earlier in his overseas trip, but he did so without reporters and “without a lot of fanfare, just to say ‘Thanks’,” according to Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who accompanied Obama.

It’s true Obama made time for at least one workout while he was in Germany. And he has been known to dedicate more than a few minutes to his exercise regimen. Two reporters who cover Obama, and who were on this trip, tell us that the candidate works out every day, and sometimes twice a day. However, the video of Obama playing basketball featured in McCain’s ad is from his time in Kuwait, not Germany.

Durant is right on — of course, the Obamabots will just dismiss him as a “racist” — like everyone else who doesn’t worship at the alter of Obama.

Obama didn’t go because the MEDIA couldn’t take pics/videos to SHOW what he was ‘really’ doing. He’s such a fake.

Yes, but how long until this poor soldier will be forced to admit to ‘errors’.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10004597

Bingo! It Was Gen. Scott Gration!

Will Gen. Gration Be The Next Under the Bus?! Seems so; since his name has been leaked to the media as the “culprit” who created Obama’s problem!

Oh, they’re evah so predictable aren’t they? It follows a process each time. Problem? Culprit soon identified and tossed under the bus.

Jonathan Martin at Politico:

Jeff Zeleny has a valuable piece today trying to sort out the facts on why Obama canceled his trip to see wounded American trips at Landstuhl.

“Before his visit to Ramstein Air Base, which is near the medical center, was canceled, the plan called for reporters to stay behind at an airport terminal while Mr. Obama and one adviser met with the troops.,” Zeleny writes. “Why? The Pentagon does not allow reporters and photographers inside Landstuhl.”

This jibes with what Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told me last week — that military personnel at Ramstein had already made arrangements to hold the press corps and campaign staff at the airport there while Obama was driven the few miles over to Landstuhl.

Second, Obama’s campaign has still yet to offer a logical answer on the most obvious question: Why didn’t Obama just go alone, sans campaign staff.

“Even him going alone would likely be characterized by some as a political event,” Obama adviser Robert Gibbs told Zeleny. “He decided not to put the troops in that position.”

But if even this was going to portrayed as political — and I’m not sure it would have — then why was the visit scheduled in the first place? Putting them in “that position” apparently only became a factor after the Pentagon told retired Gen. Scott Gration, an Obama adviser, that he couldn’t join his candidate for the visit.

Excellent article, thanks to Michael for speaking out.

Paranoia? Don’t bet on it! The Army is caught Lying for Obama

So now they got the army handing out false photos for the great O this tells us one thing
this man has to be stopped and it is up to “WE THE PEOPLE” to stop him. It is clear the
party(s) – the media and now even the damned army– hell even our government seems
unwilling to defy this man. We are in deep doo doo folks ! Just because I sound paranoid
doesn’t mean this man is not a serious threat!

Last week I reported on a soldier who wrote about how Obama. Obama the ARMY to deny it
Had it squashed as a snopes legend- but it was not ! AND the Army has issued photos to back
up the lie which has proven their lie is “A LIE”

Did Obama Blow Off Troops at Bagram?

Monday, July 28, 2008 10:14 AM

By: Jim Meyers

The controversy over a report that Barack Obama “blew off” American troops during a visit to
Afghanistan has taken a new turn, with an assertion that a photo issued to discount the report
is false.

As Newsmax correspondent Kenneth R. Timmerman reported on Thursday, a U.S. Army captain
sent an e-mail about Obama’s hour-long visit to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan on July 19
during his week-long foreign tour.

The e-mail was first posted to the pro-military blog Blackfive.net. Signed by an Air Force Capt.
Jeffrey S. Porter, the e-mail said in part that Obama “got off the plane and got into a bulletproof
vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General who is the commander here at Bagram.
As the soldiers were lined up to shake his hand, he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went
into the conference room to meet the General.”

Obama then went to a tent “so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball,” the e-mail
continued, and “again shunned the opportunity to talk to soldiers to thank them for their service.”

The e-mail was quickly circulated in thousands of e-mails and dozens of blogs. Several liberal blogs immediately claimed that the story was a hoax or a fabrication and that there was no such Capt.
Porter.

But the Obama campaign went into high gear attacking Porter’s e-mail and got the Pentagon to
issue a statement contradicting the claims made. An Army spokesperson acknowledged the e-mail
was real and written by an actual Capt. Porter, at the same time seeking to deny its validity.

“These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect,” Army Lt. Col. Rumi
Nielson-Green told the New York Daily News.

Obama did not play basketball at Bagram or visit the tent, she said, adding that Obama “took time
to shake hands, speak to troops, and pose for photographs.”

Capt. Porter also issued a statement via e-mail, asking those who received a copy of his posting to
delete it and asking bloggers to take it from their sites.

“Some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong,” Porter wrote, according
to the Military Times. “This e-mail was meant only for my family.”

Porter did not, however, specify which information was wrong, not did he issue a blanket
denial of his account.

And the Army Times reported on Sunday: “An Army officer’s negative e-mail account of
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s visit with the troops in Afghanistan that
set the blogosphere ablaze prompted Army officials to correct aspects of the e-mail and resulted
in a statement from the message’s author that ‘some of the information that was put out in my
e-mail was wrong.’”

The Army Times story was accompanied by an Associated Press photo captioned:
“Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama speaks to troops at Bagram Air Field on July 19.”

That prompted the blog Blackfive.net to report: “We have established that Senator Obama did not
play basketball at Bagram airfield or visit a specific tent . . . However, that is not very important in
establishing whether he did indeed blow off the troops . . .

“I have been asking for photos and searched for hours for photos of the Senator talking to troops at
Bagram. That would debunk this whole notion that he didn’t talk to the troops at Bagram, wouldn’t it?

“At that Army Times post, part of their evidence is a photo of Senator Obama talking to troops at
Bagram.

“Just one minor problem here — that’s not Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. That’s Camp Arifjan,
Kuwait.”

Blackfive’s report includes an official Army photo showing Obama meeting with the same group of
soldiers depicted in the wrongly captioned AP photo. The official photo was taken at Camp Arifjan
on July 18.

Blackfive concludes: “So here we have a patently false photo in the Army Times.”

(Editor’s Note: Following the Blackfive report, the Army Times changed the caption to correctly
state that the photo was taken in Kuwait.)

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

I’m sure Obama will now meet some injured soldiers ON CAMERA and everything will be forgiven, at least the liberal media says so.

My dislike of Obama and the DNC hasn’t made me crazy enough to think Bush is now a great president.

Heh. Or to think that the GOP is a good party!

I’m with JozefAl. Lately I’ve noticed a lot of LaRouchies and extreme Repugs gravitating over here. I suppose it’s inevitable and unlike the Bambots we do tolerate differing viewpoints, but some of these folks need to remember that most of us were Hillary (Hillary=Democrat) supporters.

There is no liberal media. But there is a corporate media.

Amen. Amen. And yes.

Comment by mom2nomads | 2008-07-29 09:28:59
Most recently, McCain not only opposed the new GI Bill (which would provide better education benefits to returning veterans) but he didn’t see fit to leave the campaign trail to vote against it (so much for being a man of priciple). —————————————————————PLEASE just once try to keep all your facts straight not tilted towards Obama. Sen. McCain didn’t support the new GI Bill because it allowed everyone the same education benefit whether they served 1 yr or 20, Sen. McCain believes those that served 20 yrs should get more from GI Bill than those who serve 1 year.——–Now how do you defend Sen OBAMA allowing failed abortions to just die and not receive medical attention. You Obama supporters are unbelievable you just excuse everything he says or does. McCain is far from perfect (But he isn’t the one campaigning like he is perfect either that is your boy) but he is better than Obama.

You sad little fuckes. This story has been debunked.