First off, let me get this straight... I hate political smears no matter which side they come from. I hated the idea that John McCain's 2000 campaign may have been severely affected by
push polling orchestrated by Karl Rove himself. I hated that John Kerry's military service was
often questioned by those who never actually served with him. I hate the idea that a simple lie, spread quickly enough, accomplishes its goal even though it may be quickly exposed. After all, it's hard enough for people to make informed, rational decisions about our leaders without all the lies, innuendo, and hearsay that forces its way into the debate.
Which brings me to the latest smear to be directed at Barack Obama, who's already fielded his fair share of trash. I mean who could forget Fox News' phony "
Madrasa" story, or the "
Baby Mama" gaffe, or
Reverend Wright just to name a few. The bottom line is that Barack Obama already has several legitimate issues he must contend with during his Presidental run. One would think that his relative inexperience in government and making people comfortable with the idea of him "running the country" should be enough, but it seems like an almost daily occurrence that you still see people making the
Osama/Obama comparison in the hopes that it will grab a few votes here and there.
Which leads me to today, when I received a forwarded email from a loved one who's been conversing with me about the upcoming decision between McCain and Obama. She happens to support the Senator from Arizona, and I'm for... well, if you've ever read this blog, you can probably figure that out by now. The email's tone was a familiar one. It was a account of Barack Obama's visit to an Afghanistan base by a soldier, and had two separate forwarded introductions (one from his wife) which described it as this particular soldier's "first hand" account of Obama's one-hour stay.
The letter goes like this:
Hello everyone,
As you know I am not a very political person. I just
wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for
about an hour on his visit to 'The War Zone'. I wanted to share with you
what happened.
He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof
vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is
the commander here at Bagram.
As the Soldiers were lined up to shake his hand he
blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room
to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the
ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play
basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity
pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to
Soldiers to thank them for their service.
So really he was just here to make a showing for the
American's back home that he is their candidate for President. I think
that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here
you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are
providing for you.
I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball
Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheer leaders than from Senator, who wants
to be the President of the United States . I just don't understand how
anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that
he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and
our great country.
If this is blunt and to the
point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of
person he really is. What you see in the news is all fake.
In service,
(name withheld by myself)
Wow, pretty damning stuff, right? I mean a Presidential Candidate on a highly publicized, and scrutinized trip acting like a jerk to the men and women of the military? And being accused by a soldier willing to put his name in black & white no less? It didn't seem to make sense. I mean even if Barack Obama is this mean, was he this stupid to not be on his best behavior for a few days? I just had to Google the soldier's name... which is where this email starts to fall apart.
Now remember the fact that TWO PEOPLE prefaced this email with the idea that this was a "first hand" account. And then realize that NO WHERE in the entire email does the individual say anything about "someone told me", or "I heard it happened this way." Well, upon having the Army Times (and other news outlets) contact the solider in question, he proceeded to backtrack in his statement.
You see, as it turns out, there are
actual photos of Obama greeting troops, as well as the fact that he never even entered the "Clamshell" at this particular base. "These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect," said a Bagram spokeswoman, and that Obama "took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs" during his July 20 visit.
In a letter to the New York Daily News, the soldier writes:
I am writing this to ask that you delete my email and not forward it. After checking my sources, information that was put out in my email was wrong. This email was meant only for my family. Please respect my wishes and delete the email and if there are any blogs you have my email portrayed on I would ask if you would take it down too. Thanks for your understanding.”
Wait, "after checking my sources"? Did anyone get the idea that he was "citing sources" during his seven-paragraph trashing of Mr. Obama? And forgive me if I don't believe that this letter was truly meant for "only his family" either. Unless it's mandatory to sign "In service" to your wife and list yourself as an "Amercian Soldier" to boot. Heck, wouldn't your family already know which side you're on?!
At any rate, there are several sites like
this one and
that one which have exposed this cheap smear. However, sites like
Blackfive still post the letter as legit, and judging by the "
google power" of this little email, it's finding millions of email inboxes as we speak. The damage is done. As Mark Twain once said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." And the internet has only made lies exponentially faster.
