Neuharth Call for Pullout in
Iraq Draws Massive Response
By Greg
Mitchell
Published: December 23, 2004 5:00 PM ET
NEW YORK An E & P report on USA Today
founder Al Neuharth�s Thursday column for that newspaper has quickly drawn
hundreds of emails. After an early surge against Neuharth, the response became
equally divided.
In the column, Neuharth, noting
the many soldiers far from home and in harm�s way at Christmas, called for a
U.S. pullout from Iraq �sooner rather than later.� Neuharth served in World War
II in France, Germany and the Philippines, but suggested that avoiding service
in Iraq was proper today. He observed that WW II, on the other hand, was "highly
moral" and troops were �properly equipped.�
Here
is a sampling of the responses:
A.P. Oliver,
commander USN (ret.): �To withdraw troops from Iraq would qualify as the
greatest surrender in history and invite direct attacks here in this country and
ultimately drastically change the way we live. No respectful American could
agree with your illogical conclusion.�
J. Boke,
Titusville, FL: �Al Neuharth's war experience crippled his brain, or he's just
too old to have much left. War experience doesn't necessarily make one wise. It
CAN have a negative effect on one's judgement. It sounds like Mr. Neuharth, as
well John McCain, both suffered mentally via their strong emotional
suffering.�
Douglas Wickenheiser: "My son served
one tour at the time of the Iraq invasion and is slated to return for a 2nd tour
in May after only 13 months back in the U.S. This war should never have
happened. My son has a deep distrust of all in the goverment. As part of the
101st airborne he will have to serve up to 1 yr longer than he enlisted for due
to the stop-loss program. A full and quick withdrawal is the only answer to this
gross misuse of presidential power."
Michael
Bustamente, Sterling Height, MI: �Tell you what. We leave and the sanctimonious
jerks like you and your Free Press, you go there and stay after we leave.�
Richard C. Fairchild: �Al, thanks for your willingness
to express your view that we should bring our troops home sooner rather than
later, which I as a veteran of service both in the army and Marine Corps also
hold. To me, in this case, sooner means right away. I applaud your courage, you
will take heat.�
Henry Yang: �Did he really serve
in France, Germany and Philippines? Where was he when our tanks were
ill-equipped to deal with the hedge rows in France after the Normandy landing?
Do we need to count the number of unnecessary casualties because we were not
properly armed and equipped in WW II? By the way, how could we send soldiers to
fight the Battle of the Bulge with not properly clothed for the winter and does
he know how many soldiers froze to death?�
William
Billingsley: �There already are way too many without arms and legs. Withdraw. Do
it now. I hope we the people have learned from this but we didn't learn from
Vietnam. So I guess just more of the same.�
Cliff
Hair: �Never heard of Al Neuharth! What makes him so special and who gives a
damn what he thinks?�
Dan Conrad: "It is profoundly
tragic that the legacy of Vietnam, it appears, was to validate the practice of
wishing military failure on America to satisfy some
perverse need
for political vindication. The left leaning press and all their lapdogs can go
straight to hell."
Brenden O'Hanlon, New York,
N.Y.: "I couldn't agree more with Al Neuharth's opinions. The war in Iraq was a
humongous blunder that was decided upon at around 11:00 am on 9/11. The Bush
administration should be ashamed of themselves. Those who financed and planned
9/11 are STILL financing and planning terrorism. What a slap in the face of the
families of 9/11 victims."
Alec Jones, Hoover, AL:
"As far as I am concerned, Mr. Neuharth's opinion represents the very worst
attitude possible in today's geopolitical climate. Nothing more than a
unilateral withdrawal would encourage those who are our enemies and wish to do
us harm. With all due respect to Mr. Neuharth's past service for this country,
he is sadly out of date with respect to patriotism."
Edward L. McClendon: "Finally, a newspaper leader who says what every
thinking person in America is saying. Thank you, Al. I am ashamed at how the
rest of the civilized world perceives us."
Bob
Armstrong, Clayton, CA: "Tell Al that my Pop served on Guadalcanal and they sure
as hell were not properly equipped. The First Marine Division stormed ashore
with WW I rifles and had to eat captured Jap food for 3 months. War is hell and
every war has shortfalls. The M16 first sent to Vietnam was a joke. When the
Iraqi elections are held and they demostrate a willingness to fight for freedom
this will all worth it. If we fail it will be an Iraqi failure not ours."
Monica Palacios, Wales, MA: "Please let Mr. Neuharth
know that he is absolutely right about his views re: the Iraq war. More people
in the media should show his integrity and courage. If you all had, we might not
be looking at another 4 years of an impossible war."
Galen Heslet, Hemet, CA: �Al Neuharth should butt out. Nobody elected
him to run things in this country. His liberal-leftist negativity isn't doing
the troops in Iraq any good with this kind of tripe.�
Bill Rollins: �Al, I want to thank you for your bravery and you
pegged it correctly, we went into an un-moral preemptive strike that was
ill-conceived. We should have at least 500,000 to 750,000 troops well equipped
to keep it a moral war. Now we have split our britches and put our men in harm�s
way.�
Pat Giuffra: "I have asked the hotels to not
deliver USA Today any more to my room because of this type of distorted news
reporting that it is putting out these days."
Robert E. Buhts, Maj. USA (Ret.): "Mr. Neuharth is right on with his
call to get our troops out of Iraq. I have nothing but contempt for the GOP
draft dodgers and their spineless lackeys that got us into this. A bigger
mistake I have never seen in my lifetime. What is the goal for 2005? An equal
number of dead soldiers?"
Rand Oertle: "If he
fought in WW II, which his conclusions make me doubt, he is actively twisting
the truths of that conflict. Of course, twisting the truth for Mr. Neuharth is
his committed modus operandi. We didn't get out of WW II until the job was
finished. The defeat of Germany and Japan took years. Now they are our allies."
David Roberts: "I agree entirely with Al Neuharth.
So does Lt. General William Odom (ret.), former head of the National Security
Agency under President Reagan, who has said: 'We have already failed. Staying in
longer makes us fail worse.' It's time to get out of Iraq."
Al Fowler, Malcolm, NE: "Hero in '44 and traitor in '04. I will never
even ACCEPT a free USA Today from a hotel, and will make it a point to say why
when staying."
Tracy Dixon: "I am an active duty
soldier and I agree that we should have a clear cut goal and set a date to begin
pulling out of Iraq. Our goal should be training the Iraqi and pulling out. That
country will never be stable as long as the U.S. troops are there."
Travis Snyder: "He dishonors those who died by
inviting American surrender. This is no Vietnam. We can never have another
Vietnam."
Ken Smith: "I am also a WW II vet who
served in all three theaters. After eliminating all the false reasons put
forward for invading a small and defenseless country
the only one
that stands is that George Bush had a personal dislike for Saddam Hussein. In
short Americans and Iraqis are dying because our President had been given the
power to use our military at his own pleasure."
John Andrew Prime, Military Affairs Reporter, The Times At
Shreveport, La.: "With all due respect to Mr. Neuharth, who once led the chain
for which I now work, I must say his remarks regarding World War II are off the
mark. As for being well-equipped and well-prepared in (WW II) ...that is
hogwash. Our soldiers entered it using tin helmets from World War I, 1903
Springfield rifles and in many cases uniforms that still had leggings....Does
Mr. Neuharth recall the botched mass bombing in France in July 1944 where our
own air forces bombed friendly troops, killing thousands, including Lt. Gen.
Leslie McNair, one of the highest-ranking Allied general officer casualties of
the war? I am sorry, but as a military reporter and the father of a soldier now
over in Iraq, I have to say Mr. Neuharth is talking nonsense."
Phil Miller: �Bush and the Republican congress will do
more to defeat Bush and the Republican congress through
this
invasion than ANYTHING the Democrats could do. If Iraq actually gets a free
election it will demand U.S occupation troops leave asap, and then what will
Bush say?�
The Mulindwas Communication
Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
l'anarchie"
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