Even though I remain undecided as to just who I would like to see win the nomination to face off against Patty Murray in the general election, It is with great sadness that I have to say Clint Didier’s name has fallen completely off of the list.
I was initially impressed with Clint, especially when he approached me outside of the Hilton the evening of the Lincoln Day dinner to thank me for serving in Viet Nam, having seen my Viet Nam Veterans cap I often wear.
Although undecided, I have been leaning towards him, in spite of him previously saying on his twitter page, “Just finished meeting with Ron Paul. What an inspirational leader! Makes me want to fight harder for Liberty!”
The looniness of Ron Paul is well known and seeing Didier describe him as an “inspirational leader” disturbed me immensely, but I continued to give Clint the benefit of doubt.
I can no longer hold that benefit of doubt as Clint has now come forward repeating Ron Paul’s claims of “Afghanistan is not a war, but a conflict” and “we should never have gone in there without a formal declaration of war.”
Audio of KUOW’s “The Conversation” with Ross Reynolds interview with Clint Didier HERE
Just as wrong as Ron Paul remains to be over this, since Congress overwhelmingly authorized going after the terrorists in Afghanistan, in the shadow of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that murdered nearly 3,000 innocent civilians and considering that groups like Al Qaeda and other radical Jihadists had been steadily attacking American interests for over two decades at the time, Didier is way off base as well, in my estimation.
We often hear Ron Paul worshippers proclaim him to be heir apparent to the legacy of Ronald Reagan. They cite Reagan’s withdrawing from Lebanon after over 200 Marines were lost in a terrorist attack there, but they ignore Reagan’s own words of,
“In the profound sadness that fell over the whole country in the aftermath of the Beirut bombing, I had to decide what to do next in Lebanon. Not surprisingly, there was new pressure in Congress to leave that country. Although I did my best to explain to the American people why our troops were there, I knew many still didn’t understand it. I believed in – and still believe in – the policy and decisions that originally sent the marines to Lebanon.”
Ronald Reagan: LEBANON, BEIRUT AND GRENADA
Didier brings up Paul’s notion of using “Letters of Marque and Reprisal” as viable alternative, ignoring that every other nation banned them in the mid-1800’s and that we are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, that forbids the use of mercenaries in warfare by nations.
Didier says in this regard, “So we put a bounty on their head through letters of marque and reprisal” adding it should be “One Billion Dollars.”
How disconnected from reality can he and Ron Paul be? Money isn’t what radical Jihadists are after. They are religious zealots misguided by their misinterpretation of the Qu’Ran and the false belief that God is on their side in this.
Last I recall hearing there has been a $50 Million bounty on Bin Laden with no takers that can get close enough to him.
As a Viet Nam Veteran, I remember well as congress pulled the plug on us, after tying our hands for so many years with ridiculous “rules of engagement” and losing over 58,000 of my fellow Veterans and we abandoned that struggling ally to fall under the darkness of communism for far too many years.
Didier and Paul, perhaps without even realizing it, are advocating just such a repeat scenario.
We have lost well over 1,000 of our Troops in Afghanistan and many more in Iraq, Troops who went off to war to protect our freedoms and fight to free people in a foreign land. Walking away and leaving the job unfinished once again would totally invalidate their sacrifices, as was ours by not finishing the job in Viet Nam.
Didier and Paul think it reprehensible that we did not formally declare war, ignoring the congressional vote authorizing the war, but abandoning friends in need to their fate of oppression seems not to bother them.
Another quote from Ronald Reagan, from a July 1975 Reason Magazine Interview,
“Once you are going to commit yourself to a combat role and you’re going to ask young men to fight and die for your country, then you have a moral obligation as a nation to throw the full resources of the nation behind them and to win that war as quickly as possible and get it over with…”
Sorry Clint, I still admire your football career, your devotion to your community and appreciate your shaking my hand to thank me for serving, but I cannot get behind any candidate that falls into league with Ron Paul or can treat the sacrifices of our Troops so cavalierly.
Being reported in both the Olympian and the Seattle Times, “The Associated Press is reporting that Gov. Chris Gregoire is not seeking re-election to a third term. Gregoire is still set to “announce her future plans” at a 10 a.m. news conference today.”
