Your Guide to the Troop Hospital Non-Scandal

Posted by John Gorenfeld, Firedoglake at 3:48 AM on July 28, 2008.

So here's what happened. Sen. Obama, having visited wounded soldiers in Iraq, planned to do the same in Germany. Then he canceled, presumably because he agrees with the Pentagon's statement today that it would "not [be] acceptable" to use the Army hospital in the quaint town of Landstuhl as a campaign stop. Obama's people say they talked it over with the military for a while, and both entities decided it was a bad idea.

But fans of John McCain, playing into popular Republican themes this week, still suspect the dignity of the U.S. Armed Forces has been trod on, so they teem and rage. At the Web site ClintonDemocrats.com, for example, someone with access to a computer has opined that "Wounded Vets Don't Count With Obama." Points out fellow iJournalist "pat1755":

He [Obama] dont know what he is sayin just anything to make people like him He tells people over there our dirty little secrets we are not perfect blah blah then snubs our troops give them no credit they don't die to get 72 virgins in heaven they die to help people.

"Sen. Obama is more than welcome to visit Landstuhl or any other military hospital around the world," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told the L.A. Times. "But he has to do so, just as any other senator has to do so, in his official capacity. It is not acceptable to do so as a candidate." [L.A. Times]

ܶ From the Obama campaign, retired Gen. Scott Gration builds upon this premise: the senator "had every intention of visiting," but "learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event. Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go." [Reuters]



ܶ The Obama camp's Gibbs says, confusingly, that the Pentagon "cited a regulation." More Gibbs: "We believed that based on the information we received that any presence, even his own and only his own, would get into a back and forth on whether his own presence was a campaign event." [Politico]

ܶ Anonymous military officials vaguely described by MSNBC as "working on" the Obama visit--though it's not said in what capacity--"didn't know why" Obama didn't visit. "He was more than welcome. We were all ready for him." [MSNBC]



ܶ MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell: "The anger here in the [Obama] campaign is pretty intense at the Pentagon. They feel that the military are drawing some lines--they're not saying this publicly of course--but drawing lines that they might have drawn for other people." [MyDD]

ܶ Obama phoned hurt GIs today to make it up to them. [MSNBC]

ܶ Obama reportedly tells people over there "our dirty littel secrets we are not perfect blah blah" [see above]. [ClintonDemocrat.com]



Others are working hard to spread rumors that Obama hates the military.

ܶ Radio spots taken out this week by the Republican National Committee claim Obama "chooses Washington over our military" and votes against money for soldiers. It was McCain, however, who voted against the GI Bill, while pledging his "affection, respect and devotion," as opposed to government cash, to GIs. [YouTube]

ܶ In this season of popular e-mail forwards claiming Obama refuses to salute the flag, etc., an Army captain is "devastated" that his private letter, complaining about Obama's visit to Bagram--the stuff working GIs have been saying about comfortable politicians since before the age of Bill Mauldin--became a huge Hotmail hit. He retracts what he said. [New York Daily News]



Of course, had Obama visited the troops, the usual people would shed bitter tears at his supposed use of wounded soldiers in an uncanny recreation of Triumph of the Will.


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Tagged as: troops, obama