Obama misspeaks... except it's true. Their lives WERE wasted.

[Bonobo]

Does anyone here really buy the line that their lives weren't wasted?

Does anyone think it's anything but political bullshit?

They went in to protect us from WMD...there were none.

They went in to secure our liberty...it has been taken away.

They went in to bring democracy to Iraq...it is a sham

They went in to remove the brutal warlord...he was our creation.

They went in to give the Iraqis justice...we gave them torture and kangaroo courts.

We went in to improve their lives...we have destoroyed them.

So tell me how these soldier's lives have been ANYTHING BUT wasted?

Obama should answer the same way he answered the smoking pot charge, he should say they WERE wasted but I would NEVER do that again.

[lvx35]

1. Oh no, they died for Democracy.

That system where the majority decides what happens.

Too bad the majority of Iraq has wished the US gone for YEARS.

It was all a lie, and that means they were WASTED.

[incapsulated]

2. He wants to be elected President

He has to play politics. He isn't running to be the most popular person on DU.

You can say that lives were wasted in so many words without giving your enemies ammunition.

He handled it exactly right. He apologized for any misunderstanding or any unintended offense. Nothing wrong with that.

[Bonobo]

4. I guess you're right...maybe.

But it's more than a DU popularity contest. It is changing the way presidents talk to the people...starting with not fucking lying or condescending.
A new contract for a new generation...starting with no bullshit.

Obama is a long-shot anyway. He may as well try speaking the truth.. You never know, people may respond to not being talked to as if they were 10 years old... my 10 yeard does!

[Nite Owl]

3. Maybe they weren't wasted

but not what it seems. Maybe, we can only hope, that they gave themselves to a different cause: to save democracy right here. Will the purpose of this war really be to wake up Americans? To make them realize that this whole bag of conservatism that was sold to us is nothing but lies,suffering and death, that it does not value lives, that people do not come first at all to them. Maybe we will learn to stand up and not fall for their fear. We can only hope that they save America from the real terrorists within.

[Bonobo]

6. That is EXACTLY what Watada said in his speech on civic responsibility.

Still in the video forum. Catch it while it's (not) hot.

[Nite Owl]

7. Going there now

to find it!

[Nite Owl]

13. Just got to the part

at 23 minutes in. He's an amazing speaker, he's what we need to run for office.

Thanks for posting this, I rarely go to the Video forum and would have missed it.

[Bonobo]

14. You are SO welcome. Thank YOU for watching it. Please tell others.

[Nite Owl]

15. I'll give it a kick

and will send it out to my DFA and dem committee tomorrow.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. I've thought what he said myself many times. What have they died for?

[tblue]

8. He should say, "I didn't waste their lives. B*sh did."

Obama, just say it! It's time to stop kowtowing to the Republic party noise machine and acting like this war has any legitimate justification or served any acceptable purpose. Everything about this war has been a waste. The lives, the limbs, the tax dollars, the honor of this nation. It was all wasted wasted wasted wasted wasted. It's not Obama's fault it was wasted, and he shouldn't need to apologize for it.

[tomreedtoon]

9. The important point is WHO did the wasting.

It is so easy to turn that phrase around to say, "Osama...er, Obama...said that it's a waste to join the military. What a traitorous bastard!"

The proper way to say it is, "These people offered their lives and their labor to our country, and President Bush and his cronies wasted their earnest contribution. They should be ashamed."

And if you think it's easy to say it "right" on the stump, may I introduce you to Howard Dean, who screwed his Presidential chances because of a sore throat and over-enthusiasm?

[Bonobo]

10. Dean did NOT screw his chances. He was SCREWED.

In a way, WE failed Dean, not the other way around.

That famous DEAN SCREAM came from a track that turned off the background noise so that only Dean could be heard as if he was howling like a madman when in fact he was yelling to be heard over the crowd. It's like if someone is talking next to a loud vacuum cleaner and then suddenly you turn off the vacuum and the person is shouting.

You can bet your ass that someone in the medium intentionally torpedoed Dean with that.

And we "let" them do it, in a sense, by not attacking the media for that (as if such a thing was really possible).

Maybe next time, the "Blogosphere" could train ALL GUNS on the media if they try that shit again, but probably not

[Greyhound]

19. Yes, we screwed him. We (and I know there were many exceptions, myself included) bought

into the totally manufactured scream, just as you said. Further, when the facts did come to light, the sound editing by the M$M, we totally ignored it in favor of whatever nonsense was dumped in the trough for us to wallow in, as we always do. Every single day I watch important issues and developments brought into this potentially marvelous group of, mostly like-minded, politically involved and connected, people only to see them drowned out by the distraction DU jour.

And we continue to screw ourselves in the same way today, and every day that we allow our country to sink further and further into the depths of irrelevance, while "debating" over whether somebody can, in fact, walk and chew gum at the same time, obviously having learned nothing at all.

[tomreedtoon]

21. They emphasized the scream, but Dean did it.

The fact is that he was trying a professional wrestling yell of triumph before news cameras. He opened himself up for exactly that kind of exploitation by his enemies, and fell into it.

People here often complain about Bush and the other Republicans who sound like they were reading from scripts. Well, they do. And they sound perfect. It's when they get off script that they make fools of themselves. How often has Bush gotten into trouble when he tries to improvise? How often do people on DU's forums gloat at his stupid-ass gaffes?

Unless you are DAMN SURE you can speak off the cuff, you never should, especially if you're in a political race where the opposition can record and manipulate your words. Rodney King is not the only person who benefitted from a camcorder. So did Republicans. So did Democrats (remember "macaca"?)

Unless you are willing to muzzle yourself and stick to the script - and make sure the script has enough pre-planned responses for any concievable contingency - you shouldn't run for President.

I repeat. Dean screwed himself out of the Presidency by yelling. The American people have spoken; no yelling allowed in the White House.

[tblue]

11. Tho Dean wasn't my candidate, the media burned me up when they kept playing that

scream over and over and over. I knew exactly what Dean was trying to communicate that night. We all knew it. The RW media will take any little tidbit and turn it into the most grievous offense or the most sordid buffoonery. And then the candidates are supposed to, what, bow and scrape, and try to beg themselves out of that artificial hole? Media says jump and we say how high? Oh hell no. We gotta get off the defense and go on the offense and stay there. Make the Republic party squirm for a change.

[Imagevision]

12. Bush stated they died for a "noble" cause, they now have a government that

has stated that they want the Americans to leave by the fall of 2007, Bush has snickered and downplayed this remark from al maliki, but it is a true statement.
The Iraqi's want the the US. out asap!!

[MADem]

16. Jeez, let's run a robot for Prez, eh? I am sick to death of this "media POUNCE" bullshit

The media waits for a single comment that they can CALL a misstep and they beat it to fucking death. They did it to Kerry, they did it to Dean, now they are doing it to Obama.

Why don't they spend some time covering Mushmouth the fucking Monkey, and all the shit that comes out of HIS mouth?

It's disgusting, how they manufacture this bullshit "outrage." It offends the senses...

[Skittles]

17. they claim to care so much about the Iraqi people

when they didn't even give a damn about Americans in New Orleasns

[shaniqua6392]

18. I know he does not want to hurt the families of the troops who have died....

but it is the truth. They died for nothing. Their lives were wasted and there is no other way to put it.

[Greyhound]

20. He could never hurt them as badly as "our" government has hurt them.

IMO, this was a missed opportunity to clearly state, once and for all, that this mal-administration, has murdered, for no good reason, thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousand of Iraqis, and that it must stop now, and that they must, and will, pay for their crimes.