Just on the 10:30 radio news: Republican criticize Obama for no Parade for the Troops from Iraq

[Botany]

I know this is like complaining about it getting dark @ night, snow being cold, or water being
wet but good God in butter am I sick of these assholes because if Obama had scheduled a
big ticker tape parade for the returning troops "they" would have complained the, "Obama is
just trying to suck up some of the reflected glory from the Iraqi war heros."

I tried to see if there were any online sources of this story but I could only find Fox News
and hated to post a link from them although in their story the White House said that w/ the
war going on in Afghanistan a big parade didn't seem appropriate.

The lied to start an unneeded war and now they are bitching that President Obama finally
put a stop to it.

[liberal N proud]

1. And if there had been a parade?

They would have criticized him.
They have become sad with their bullshit criticisms.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Christmas cards and parades.

They've got a whole arsenal of bad stuff on Obama. Had he organized a parade, they would have lambasted him for spending money we don't have. Can't win for losin'.

[arcane1]

3. Is that even the president's JOB???

[Aerows]

4. A Republican criticizing Obama!?

Someone alert the presses!

Seriously, Republicans criticize him and every other Democratic politician for existing. If Obama walked down the street, they would criticize him for something, even if it was because he accidentally stepped on an ant. Limbaugh would be demanding he be arrested for animal cruelty.

When you aren't interested in anything except taking lobbyist handouts, and have no urge to change the status quo unless it is to make it worse for everyone but yourself and your cronies, all you have to inspire support is criticism of your political opponents.

It's petty, it's childish, and even if the 20% on the hard right fall for it, the rest of the country doesn't. More and more people around me are starting to call the right-wing talking heads idiotic blowhards, including some conservatives. People don't give a shit anymore about petty criticisms, they want our nation's problems to be solved. Blowhards gassing off with criticism of everything while offering no solutions except "cut taxes for the rich" are useless and they only people that don't realize it are blowhards themselves.

[atreides1]

5. No Parade for a reason.

The "Global War of Terror" isn't over...what victory would they be celebrating?

[spanone]

6. this is from the mentally challenged rick perry

[Botany]

12. Obama and the White House have already done plenty for the troops.

Rick Perry is just being a horse's ass.

The White House had a Christmas message/service for the troops, Michelle Obama & Jill Biden
have been working for them non stop, and the White House issued a statement that the
best homecoming greetings would be by family, friends, and at their bases where they
are stationed @.

**************

URBANDALE, Iowa - Texas Gov. Rick Perry opened up a new line of criticism against President Obama today, saying he hadn't shown the proper courtesy in welcoming troops returning home from the war in Iraq.

"It really disturbs me that after nine years of war in Iraq, this president wouldn't welcome our many heroes home with a simple parade in their honor," Perry said during a meet-and-greet with the West Side Conservative Club here. He speculated that there was no parade due to the war's unpopularity among Democrats.

"I don't know," he said. "But Mr. President, our soldiers come first, and it comes before party politics."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57349246-503544/perry-obama-should-have-held-parade-to-honor-iraq-troops/

[randome]

7. He should tell them that private enterprise would do the job more efficiently.

There will be no parade because everyone -EVERYONE- knows that the war in Iraq was unneeded and that all the Americans and Iraqis who died because of it died in vain.

[JoePhilly]

8. Bush already celebrated via "Mission Accomplished!!"

[Botany]

11. Mission Accomplished

http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/23667

Statistics give some sense of the scale of the destruction inflicted by the American military:

• More than one million Iraqis were killed as a result of the invasion and occupation, according to scientific estimates carried out in 2007. The United Nations estimated in 2008 that 4.7 million people, or about 16 percent of the population, were turned into refugees.

• The infrastructure of the country, including the electrical system, was devastated. According to the United Nations State of the World’s Cities, 2010-2011 report, the percentage of the Iraqi urban population living in slums, defined as lacking access to basic necessities such as sanitation and water, increased from below 20 percent in 2003 to 53 percent in 2010.

• Real unemployment is on the order of 50 percent and inflation is over 50 percent. There has been a mass exodus of doctors and other professionals (estimated at 40 percent of those in the country prior to the war), and the education system lies in ruins.

• Iraq has experienced a staggering growth of infant and child mortality. A 2007 report estimated that 28 percent of children suffered from chronic malnutrition. An Iraqi government agency reported that 35 percent of Iraqi children in 2007 (about 5 million children) were orphans. An entire generation has seen their parents killed or disappeared.

[JoePhilly]

15. All of those things were simply "by-products" of the actual "Mission"

At least from a Bush / GOP / PNAC perspective.

The GOP is a mass of contradictions on this now.

1) Obama has failed and was wrong to pull our troops OUT ... and yet ...

2) We should hold a parade to celebrate their victorious return.

[Historic NY]

9. Did Nixon have one for the vietnam troops ............no okay.

these people are morans.

[starroute]

10. I'm looking at the Wikipedia list of ticker-tape parades in New York City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ticker-tape_parades_in_New_York_City

In the early days, they'd mainly have them for visiting heads of state until they got worried about assassinations. These days it's mostly sports teams.

Nothing specifically for returning World War II soldiers -- though there were several for the top generals and admirals.

I do see that there was one belatedly for Vietnam War veterans in 1985 and one for Gulf War veterans in 1991, followed a couple of weeks later by Korean War veterans.

But I don't find anything at all in DC -- and I'm coming to the conclusion that the whole "when Johnny comes marching home again" thing was mainly a matter of small towns welcoming their own returning soldiers, and that the idea that there even ought to be a major national celebration of returning troops is very latter-day and randomly applied.

[treestar]

13. They are getting pettier and pettier

I hope the voters have the brains to see that.

[NightTemplar]

14. they don't... nt

[Burgman]

16. They would have complained if he DID give a parade for the returning troops.

If Obama gave them each a million dollars they'd complain that it was either not enough or that he was a communist for redistributing wealth.