Ari Fleischer can't name vet used in (his own) campaign ad

[Hepburn]

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer insists that all Americans are "making sacrifices" as the US occupation of Iraq trundles through its fifth year, although the real sacrifice of a veteran who left both his legs on an Iraqi battlefield isn't enough for Fleischer to remember the man's name.

In an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball Wednesday, Fleischer was promoting his new organization, Freedom's Watch, which has started a multi-million dollar pro-war advertising campaign that uses emotional footage of wounded veterans juxtaposed against 9/11 images to argue against de-escalation in Iraq.

After Hardball aired a clip of the first ad to be run by the group, Fleischer was unable to name double-amputee, Sgt. John Kriesel, who warns, "They attacked us," in a 9/11 reference used to bolster support of Iraq.

On the conflation of Iraq and 9/11, Fleischer says it is irrelevant that mostly Saudi terrorists -- and no Iraqis -- attacked the US.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Ari_Fleischer_uses_wounded_vet_in_0822.html

What an unbelievable fucking, idiot asshole. So typical of the BushCo mentality: Wounded, injured, maimed U.S. Vets are merely fucking props to be used to promote the neocon PNAC mindset and to keep the U.S. in Iraqnam.

How sick and sad....fuck those bastards for using our Vets like this! :grr:

Edit for typo

[shaniqua6392]

1. I was watching Hardball yesterday when this happened.

Unbelievable. I hope Sgt. Kriesel never learns how he was used by Fleischer's group to promote this war. It looks like he has been through enough already. I do hope they at least paid him a huge amount for doing this ad. It might make up for the lousy veterans benefits he is no doubt receiving.

[Hepburn]

16. I come from a family of vets....

...and this lying BS by Ari just pissed me off to the max! :grr:

[rasputin1952]

2. ?.....What has Fleischer sacrificed to the war effort, besides

what little credibility he had....:shrug:

Beating a dead horse here, but why is it always those who call upon sacrifice, NEVER sacrifice anything themselves?

For this sleazeball to take an amputee and showcase him is horrid....how about the amputees, those who have lost their sight, those who have lost their testicles, those that have lost their hearing, or ability to think rationally, that are against this war, there's a boatload more of them!

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of them...especially Sgt. John Kriese, who was used in this travesty.

[liberation]

11. There is no worse blind than he who doesn't want to see...

Sgt. Kriese got literally used, abused, and thrown away once he was of little use to them as a fighting machine.
That was, until they found yet another use for him, so the old adage applies to him: "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice..."

Sgt. Kriese had plenty of chances to see and think for himself, one would think that losing a limb would be enough to make one think, however it is clear that GOP-berry is the strongest flavour of Kool-Aid. The ruse of being "used" is starting to wear thin with these fools. If Sgt. Kriese cared so deeply about the safety of his son, he would have at least spent the five minutes it takes to figure out that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. Protecting someone takes a big deal of personal responsibility in order to make sure one is being effective as a protector, something that he and his ilk are/were not willing to do. Thinking for oneself is hard work don't cha know!

So yes, lets send some more of our boys to die and kill a few more thousand innocent civilians in the process, so that Sgt. Kriese doesn't have to face the truth: He was a willing tool that enabled an evil cabal's actions. I would frankly save my prayers for more worthy candidates.

Only in America wars need marketing campaigns. We have become the used car salesmen of human civilization. This is, we are becoming scum if we allow ourselves as a society to sink this low.

When is enough? Or can we go even deeper into the sewer? With people like Mr. Fleischer among our citizenry I am afraid that the answer is "yes, we can sink much lower."

[soothsayer]

3. eww, is Mel Cooley going to return to the WH press room once Snow melts?

[Tansy_Gold]

5. :spray:!

Ah, yes, the unforgettable Richard Deacon!

It took me a second or two to remember who Mel Cooley was, the name being instantly familiar but not quite in its proper place in the jigsaw puzzle of my memory.

Mel, however, had saving graces: he was funny, and no one besides him took him seriously. Fleischer is depressing, and too many people still believe his pompous, arrogant, self-serving, booooosh-licking lies.


Tansy Gold, who liked Buddy's Pickles better than the one we got now

[soothsayer]

12. Ah, Buddy's Pickles! Good pull. And AGREED.

[Jim__]

4. "...a multi-million dollar pro-war advertising campaign ..."

A pro-war advertising campaign - kind of says it all.

[Cha]

7. Why couldn't this BACKFIRE

on their lyin' scum asses?

[JTFrog]

6. WTF

is with this guy?

He honestly believes that this is a sensible statement?

"Surrender is not an option. It would be a catastrophe if we were to pull out of Iraq and Iraq turned into a bloodbath where terrorist were able to gather and attack us even more after we were gone."

How far down the rabbit hole have I gone?

[gratuitous]

8. It's "irrelevant" that we attacked people who didn't attack us?

I tell you, it takes an uncommon mind to think like that.

[Hepburn]

17. IMO...

...it takes a mind with a MENTAL DEFECT to think that. Geeeez, what if FDR thought: "Hey, Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor...so I am gonna bomb Cuba!" Yeah, that would have been the ticket! Sheesh :sarcasm:

Un-fucking-believable screwed up thinking...and what is frightening to me, it is not totally unexpected from BushCo.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Wounded soldiers are details to these people

It's the defense contractors that they really care about.

[zulchzulu]

10. Chickenhawks are a despicable breed of scum

Still using the ruse of Iraq connected with 9/11, Ari The Twit proves that it all is a marketing scheme for Repug votes.

[Supersedeas]

14. Gulf of Tonkin looks much like the 9/11-Iraq connection

[H2O Man]

13. Ari Fleischer

lacks the moral capacity to tell the truth twice consecutively.

[Hepburn]

15. Hard to believe that ANYONE....

...could lie like he does...but I guess it is an inbreed trait of the neocon animal.

[bleever]

18. The moment when Ari replied, "I don't have that soldier's name

in front of me" completely deflated the giant fear balloon raised by that deceitful ad.

[Botany]

19. I heard one of the "ads" yesterday

"I lost my legs in Iraq but what would be worse is to lose to the terrorists
in Iraq now that we are starting to see sucess on the ground. :puke:

rough quote

[bleever]

22. That's the one.

I.e., "People who want us to leave Iraq don't care about me having NO LEGS."

I salute the guy's service and sacrifice. I deplore the tactic of the ad. Hell, why not include some puppies in there while they're at it? Who can be against puppies?


(Nice pic.)

[pingzing58]

20. There's no reason why Sgt. Kriesel should not be cleared for duty and returned to Iraq.

[Hepburn]

21. And denied Vet's benefits....

....because he can serve, right?

:sarcasm:

What I want to know is HOW IN THE HELL could someone who sacrificed that much for NOTHING can sit there and ask others to go down the rabbit hole for those assholes. Maybe it is because he wants to avoid thinking that he lost his legs for NOTHING...I don't know. But, geeeeeeeeeeez, I would think that he would want to protect others from ending up like he did. All for fucking NOTHING but the lies of those immoral assholes in the WH. Fuck that shit!

:grr: