Vince Avedon – 3/20/06

This page was last updated on March 26, 2006.

Put the blame on Bush; Vince Avedon; Beaver County Times; March 20, 2006.

As you read this, remember Mr. Avedon once wrote that a high school student who showed interest in enlisting in the Marines as a “was probably brought up to be a two-faced traitor to his country.”

Forgive me if I’ve written this before, but I’m glad I don’t live in Mr. Avedon’s world of perpetual anger. For his sake and the sake of people around him, I really hope what we read in Mr. Avedon’s letters is a persona he reserves for letters to the editor. That said, I wish Mr. Avedon had a regular column. The more people read the screeds of folks like Mr. Avedon, the easier it is to expose the true face of the angry left.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Unfortunately, letter writers Daniel Mullenax and Aaron Barr failed to understand how the military became the collection agency of the failed CIA jackals and Bush’s failed economic hit men.”

[RWC] Does anyone – including Mr. Avedon – know what this is supposed to mean?

Note the disrespect Mr. Avedon shows the men and women of the CIA who put their lives at risk for us.

“Do they realize their mission would be lighter, and most likely complete by now, if their commander-in-chief had a coalition that included Germany, Canada, Japan, Russia, Italy, Spain, etc? A coalition, which after 9-11, was more than willing to capture Osama? Do either of them get a ‘warm fuzzy’ remembering the ‘Mission Accomplished’ hoopla?”

[RWC] Japan and Italy are members of the coalition, and Spain was an original member of the coalition until it was cowed by terrorist attacks in Madrid.

What gives Germany, Canada, and Russia more moral authority than the U.K., Australia, Italy, Poland, and the other 40+ members of the coalition?

“Complete by now?” Does he believe the terrorists would have simply surrendered if Germany, Canada, and Russia had participated? Mr. Avedon fails to note Germany and Russia were major trading partners with Saddam Hussein.

Does anyone doubt Mr. Avedon would have written the same letter even if every country in the world had been in the coalition?

I love it that even after nearly three years, folks like Mr. Avedon still try to misrepresent “Mission Accomplished.”

“How can I respect their commander when he did this to them? What is the purpose of their letters when they say they don’t ask us to agree with the president nor ask for praise or respect? Then they insult every taxpayer by saying we spit on their sacrifices.”

[RWC] Does Mr. Avedon believe we’re so stupid that we’d believe he would respect anyone who wasn’t a flaming pacifist socialist?

How can Mr. Avedon credibly ask, “What is the purpose of their letters?” Here’s what Messrs. Barr and Mullenax were saying. We don’t ask you to jump up, wave the flag, and stage pep rallies for the war. All we ask is that you don’t publicly bash us and our mission and thereby give aid and comfort to the enemy trying to kill us. Mr. Avedon is so blinded by rage he doesn’t understand this, or doesn’t care.

Mr. Avedon believes “every taxpayer” publicly bashes the Iraq War?

“Mullenax said he was sent there to ‘try’ to make a change. That’s not what Bush said when combat commenced. Did we find any WMDs? Did we capture Osama? That was Bush’s rationale for going to war.”

[RWC] Mr. Avedon needs to read the Iraq War Resolution regarding “rationale for going to war.” President Bush never said the Iraq War had anything to do with bin Laden.

Does anyone believe Mr. Avedon wouldn’t have written the same letter even if we had found WMD?

“On March 5, Gen. Pace of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Iraq was ‘going very, very, well from everything you look at.’ Two days later, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, ‘The reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation.’ This was their words and not the alleged bias of CNN.”

[RWC] Assuming Mr. Avedon is telling the truth, what does this have to do with proving CNN is not biased? You’ll note Mr. Avedon didn’t tell us about the “analysis” and discussion of those comments by CNN talking heads.

“The reason we never hear Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity reporting from Iraq is because they are entertainers, not journalists.”

[RWC] Who claimed Hannity and Limbaugh were reporters?

I don’t know about Hannity, but Rush Limbaugh did report from Afghanistan last year. I’m sure that was an honest oversight by Mr. Avedon - not.

“And yes, I will continue to pray for Mullenax, Barr and all our troops, for when I recite before God ‘as we forgive our trespasses against us’, I include Clinton and Kennedy, not like those entertainers who consider themselves better than God to not forgive.”

[RWC] The words of Mr. Avedon’s Lord’s Prayer differ from those I learned. I thought it was “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The words cited by Mr. Avedon don’t make much sense.

For which Clinton (Bill or Hillary) and which Kennedy (Edward, John, or Robert) and for what should Mr. Avedon and “those entertainers” grant forgiveness? Who are “those entertainers?” Barbra Streisand? Al Franken?

Perhaps this says more about me than Mr. Avedon, but I don’t believe for one minute that Mr. Avedon prays “for Mullenax, Barr and all our troops.” I believe this claim is for show. After all, according to his own words, Mr. Avedon appears to believe “Mullenax, Barr and all our troops” “trespassed” against him. I believe Mr. Avedon is just another anti-war protester who doesn’t have the courage to tell us he really despises the troops.

Here’s what fellow anti-war guy Joel Stein wrote in an L.A. Times column of January 24, 2006. “I DON’T SUPPORT our troops. … And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they’re wussy by definition. It’s as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn’t to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.” While I obviously disagree with Mr. Stein’s position regarding troop support, at least he has the courage not hide behind a false claim of troop support.