Edward Hum – 9/14/08

This page was last updated on September 14, 2008.

Terrorists have no native land; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; September 14, 2008.

Mr. Hum was a regular contributor (at least 28 letters) from mid-2004 through September 2007. After about 10 months, Mr. Hum came out of “retirement” to bash President Bush’s Air National Guard service with two letters in less than two weeks. It will be no surprise most of Mr. Hum’s letters are no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.

Mr. Hum is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, and George Reese.) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“It’s time to get out of Afghanistan.

“In his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in October 2002, President Bush said we can’t wait until the smoking gun becomes a mushroom cloud. He was stirring up support for the Iraq war.

“A week before Bush’s speech, an obscure Illinois politician named Barack Obama predicted this: ‘It’s a dumb war with an occupation of Iraq of undetermined length, undetermined cost and undetermined consequences which will strengthen al-Qaida and help them recruit.’”

[RWC] Are any wars of predetermined length, predetermined cost, and predetermined consequences? Is Mr. Hum trying to tell us al-Qaida is stronger now?

Though Mr. Obama claims today he would have opposed the Iraq War Resolution, we’ll never know. After all, it’s fair to assume a U.S. senator (not an obscure Illinois politician) with a middle name of “Hussein” would have been under great pressure to vote for the resolution, and even another local Obama supporter (Carl Davidson) wrote that Mr. Obama is “a triangulator par excellence” and “a lot of the local [Chicago] antiwar activists started calling him ‘Barack ‘Obomb ‘em’. He wasn’t listening much to us anymore, but to folks much higher up in the DLC [Democrat Leadership Council] orbit. He had bigger plans.”

“Who had the best judgment, Bush, McCain, Cheney, etc., or Obama? Now, John McCain and Bush have joined Obama in agreeing on a time line to leave Iraq.”

[RWC] Mr. Hum “forgot” to mention Mr. Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Mr. Biden also wanted to divide up Iraq into three pieces based on ethnicity and religion.

Hmm, isn’t Mr. Obama one of the guys who said the surge wouldn’t work? Isn’t Mr. Obama also one of the guys who said he would still have opposed the surge even if he knew then what he knows now? That’s someone with “the best judgment?”

FYI, Mr. Hum himself called for a surge in troops in 2006, writing, “We need 12 to 15 new infantry divisions to send to Iraq and the streets of Baghdad.” Funny how Mr. Hum failed to note that, isn’t it?

Regarding the claim Messrs. Bush, Cheney, and McCain “have joined Obama in agreeing on a time line to leave Iraq,” that’s a crock. Mr. Obama wanted to cut and run when things were tough. Today as a result of the surge Mr. Obama opposed and still would oppose, we’re able to talk about removing troops based on their success. That’s the difference between cutting and running at the Battle of the Bulge and sending troops home after Germany surrendered.

“They all agreed to put more troops into Afghanistan in 2002 to get Osama bin Laden but didn’t get him. By now, he could be in Pakistan, Indonesia or Philippines. There is no reason to control Afghanistan than there was to control Iraq.”

[RWC] Oops, Mr. Hum hasn’t been keeping current on his Obama/Biden propaganda. Mr. Obama wants more troops in Afghanistan and has said he’d expand the conflict into Pakistan.

“It is time to get out of Afghanistan. Terrorists have no native land. They are beaten by intelligence, police work and international cooperation, not by 4,000 killed and 10,000 arms and legs lost in Iraq.

“Are we safer now? After the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, it was eight years until Sept. 11, 2001. In 2009, it will be eight years after Sept. 11, 2001. It’s time to fight terrorism, not other countries.”

[RWC] Hmm, as usual, Mr. Hum has a selective memory. Here is a list of attacks against the U.S. between the 1993 WTC bombing in which six people died and 9/11/2001: 1993: U.S. peacekeepers in Somalia - 18 dead soldiers; 1996: bombing of Khobar Towers military barracks in Saudi Arabia - 19 dead servicemen; 1998: U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombed - 224 dead African civilians; 2000: USS Cole bombed - 17 dead sailors.

Shouldn’t the “intelligence, police work and international cooperation” Mr. Hum mentioned have prevented these attacks, as well as the attacks on 9/11?