Earl Shoup – 2/21/08

This page was last updated on February 21, 2008.

Pitiful excuse of a president; Earl Shoup; Beaver County Times; February 21, 2008.

This letter is of the same quality as Mr. Shoup’s previous letters.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Why do most of Americas conservative Republicans continue to defend a president who has this country in the dumper like never before?”

[RWC] Actually, liberal Republicans tend to defend President Bush more than conservatives like myself. I defend President Bush’s positions when they’re right, and oppose them when wrong.

“He should have been impeached from office three years ago because of all the incompetent, lame, stupid, empty-headed, inappropriate and unlawful actions he has perpetrated on and to this country since he has been in office.”

[RWC] I thought Times managing editor Tom Bickert was concerned about personal attacks. As I noted previously, Mr. Bickert appears to have a different definition of “personal attack” than I. Notice Mr. Shoup didn’t list any impeachable offenses.

“His latest blunder, of which there have been many, is his head-in-the-sand tour de force ploy of allowing Marine Corps bureaucrats under his watch to refuse an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles that were badly needed in Iraq as an internal military study recently uncovered.”

[RWC] MRAPs were deployed, just not in the numbers some wanted.

You have to love folks like Mr. Shoup. They can’t make up their minds as to whether President Bush ignores military recommendations or follows them.

“As the supreme commander-in-chief, how could he let such blatant non-action materialize under his administration’s guard? He should castigate any and all those bureaucrats, including himself and Cheney, who allowed this to happen.

“How many young Americans could have been kept out of harm’s way if this request had been fulfilled? The blood of all those who have fallen and been maimed by IEDS in Iraq and Afghanistan is the direct responsibility of an incompetent, pitiful excuse of a president, George Bush by name. I welcome all rebuttals from those who refute my words. A proud liberal Democrat.”

[RWC] I’m no military expert, but in his race to bash President Bush, here are a couple of items Mr. Shoup failed to mention from an AP article. First, “The Marine Corps’ acquisition staff didn't give top leaders correct information. Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, was not told of the gravity of Hejlik's MRAP request and the real reasons it was shelved. That resulted in Conway giving ‘inaccurate and incomplete’ information to Congress about why buying MRAPs was not hotly pursued.” Second, “The Combat Development Command, which decides what gear to buy, treated the MRAP as an expensive obstacle to long-range plans for equipment that was more mobile and fit into the Marines Corps’ vision as a rapid reaction force. Those projects included a Humvee replacement called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and a new vehicle for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.”

Were the correct choices made? I don’t know. I’m not the expert Mr. Shoup believes himself to be.