Short Takes
by admin ~ July 29th, 2009.Class Act
Iraqi War veteran Paul Hackett ran for an Ohio House seat as a Democrat. He was hailed as the next coming. He lost.
He then ran in the Democratic primary for Senate in Ohio, until the powers that be in the Democratic Party forced him out in favor of the better-positioned Rep. Sherrod Brown.
A dream deferred, Hackett now does cable news shows. In a recent debate with former Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor on John Kasich’s Heartland, Hackett showed his classy side:
KASICH: Joining us now from Cincinnati, Paul Hackett, a Marine who served in Iraq and lost a congressional race last summer. And here in the studio, Dan Senor, the former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. I don’t know — who are the appeasers he’s talking about? I mean I don’t know anybody that doesn’t recognize that the war in Afghanistan has got to be won, that Al Qaeda’s got to be snuffed out, that extremists have to be dealt with. Who is he talking about here?
DAN SENOR, FORMER COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY SPOKESMAN IN IRAQ: He’s talking about people who believe that we would be better off, John, if we withdrew from our military engagements, whether they’re in Iraq, whether they’re in Afghanistan, whether it’s a strong posture, vis-a-vis Hezbollah.
KASICH: Who’s saying we ought to withdraw from Afghanistan? I haven’t heard anybody say that.
SENOR: There are people — there are many leftist centered activists, political activists.
KASICH: Who? Name me one.
SENOR: Moveon.org has talked about that we should be scaling back our resources in places, our military engagements. They haven’t been specific about Afghanistan but they’ve been specific about Iraq.
KASICH: That’s a riff…
SENOR: John, the important point is, look, we are on the offense now. It’s complicated, it’s ugly, it’s messy, and it involves some rough periods like we’ve experienced over the last few days and we’ll be experiencing for the next couple of years. But the fact is, is some of the people we are fighting are sort of pushing back a little bit. It’s sort of a one step forward, two steps back. Whether it’s Hezbollah pushing back, whether it’s the insurgency or the civil war going on in Iraq that’s pushing back, whether it’s threats against Karzai that are going on that are pushing back.
And if we withdraw right now, we have some 140,000 troops in Iraq right now, just take that engagement alone, and if we withdraw it would be the single largest engagement that was withdrawn immediately or according to a timetable in American military history. And imagine the signal that would send to the war. It’s an important moment.
KASICH: All right, Paul, I think you favor the immediate withdrawal. Tell me what you favor. But here’s the deal. If somebody favors immediate withdrawal, and I’m not a fan of this war, by the way. But if they want to just get out of there right away, the whole bottom could fall out over there, couldn’t it? And throughout the whole region, so, is that a responsible place to be?
PAUL HACKETT, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Well, first of all John, suggesting that the whole bottom would fall out implies that somehow it hasn’t fallen out. I mean, to have Herr Senor on your set as a military expert is somewhat of a joke. He knows absolutely nothing about the military, he’s never served in the military, he’s never been professionally schooled in the military.
KASICH: Who are you talking about Paul, is that me?
HACKETT: I’m talking about your guest, little Unterfuerher of Propaganda, Mr. Senor there who’s an apologist for the failings of the CPA. I mean he ought to be ashamed of his service or lack of service with the CPA, because that’s what got it all started.
KASICH: Paul, wait, wait, wait, hold on now. Now look, I mean, this is not about ad hominem assassination here, I asked you a simple question.
It’s hard to determine what’s more offensive – the attack on Senor as a Nazi or Hackett’s tired “I served! I’m a he-man! Look at me!” rap (later in the exchange, Hackett chest-thumps “Look, in this conversation I’m the only guy who’s fought the War on Terrorism. I’ve looked it in the eye and I’ve anguished it”), but I think I know what tilts it in the end.
Senor is Jewish, his mother is a Holocaust survivor, and he keeps kosher.
“That’s just more of your typical strudel and schnitzel goose-stepping, Mr. Wiesel, and I won’t stand for it!”
No wonder the Democrats knee-capped this fool in Ohio.
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