Whoa! Dick Durbin on the local news re: soldiers in Iraq

[Cuban_Liberal]

Dick Durbin was interviewed on our local news about soldiers returning from Iraq on leave. He said (paraphrasing), "They say one thing when the cameras are rolling....'everything is great'... 'we just want to come home'..etc.', but when the cameras are off, they say, 'Please get us out of there, Senator--- it's a hell hole, and I'm afraid we're all going to die".

http://www.wandtv.com

[in_cog_ni_to]

1. OMG....that man rocks!

I'll have to catch the 10:00 news and see if they replay it. What channel was it on?

[Cuban_Liberal]

2. Ch. 17 out of Decatur, the ABC affiliate.

http://www.wandtv.com

:)

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Thank you. I hope they replay it tonight.

:hi:

[kenny blankenship]

3. what they need to realize is

If many of them feel this way together, then there is no one in the world with more power to bring them back from hellholistan than themselves. Not even President Asshole himself has as much power over this than they do.
When did the First World War end?

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. It would take the media's input to get them on the air

and I don't see that happening. The cabal owns the media. I'll be very surprised if my ABC news replays Durbin's remarks tonight.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. A great unsung hero of the Senate.

Durbin is one of my favorites.

[Snotcicles]

6. Rummys gonna wanna have a chat with those boys

from ILL. when they get back to camp.

[TahitiNut]

7. Well, d'oh! What else is new? Same thing in Vietnam.

Your ass would be on a LRP or playing forward observer if you had the temerity (idiocy) of speaking the truth to the press. The military is very adept at dealing with "boat rockers" ... as any guy who ever wrote his Congressman would tell you. (Great way to get your ass in a sling.)

[kenny blankenship]

10. You may know the answer to my question

When did the First World War finally end, what prompted the Armistice?

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. If yuo are thiniking when the troops rebelled

wrong answer


The Italians rebelled and were slaughered. Most militaries are pretty good at keeping good order and discipline

The troops don't have as much power as yuou think and mutiny is punishable with death in a combat zone

[TahitiNut]

14. 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918

Many ascribe Germany's capitulation to the threat of riots/revolution inside Germany. The German Navy and Army had mutinies. German forces were beaten militarily in the field and the war was entering Germany itself.

"If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied." - Kipling.

[kenny blankenship]

17. These events are linked closely.

"Many ascribe Germany's capitulation to the threat of riots/revolution inside Germany"

They weren't just threats and they weren't happening in a void disconnected from military realities. The most important riots/revolts took place in the naval shipyards of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, in support of the mutiny of the Imperial Fleet anchored there. On the 29th of October, 1918 men and officers of the Kaiser's Navy in Wilhelmshaven refused an order to set sail from their harbor for a final (for them) battle with the British Navy. In the first week of November this mutiny had spread to Kiel as well. There, with the striking workers and the sailors linked up, simple refusal to go became open revolt, with the Red Flag raised over the Kaiser's warships. Other support trades in these ports went on strike in solidarity with the sailors and then promptly declared a revolt, replacing the presence of the Imperial government with Workers and Soldiers Councils, first in Kiel then elsewhere. They wanted an end to the war, an absurd demand if the war's end was already all but accomplished. The revolts spread quickly to other ports of northern Germany, Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg. The revolt spread as strikes, riots, and Workers' Councils from the northern ports and reached southwards all over Germany; but it started as a disobeyed order on a ship.

Before the mutiny the writing was on the wall for Germany to be sure--they were definitely going to lose the war; but the war was still in France. Before it swept into Germany wreaking total devastation on German civilian life, as would happen at the end of WW2, German sailors, soldiers and workers simply came to their senses and realized that they had no interest in continuing any actions that helped the war continue another day. They could stop the disaster before the worst of it reached their homes and families, simply by refusing to participate any more. In the face of this the old political order of Germany withered and blew away practically overnight. The King of Bavaria Ludwig III, fled the country, as did many other princes and dukes. The Kaisar abdicated. These revolts happened not because German forces were beaten militarily (though it was known that this would occur), but in order to end the war and rebel against the authority of the elites who had started it and refused to quit.

If there is a signal event that prompted the German capitulation, the mutiny of the Imperial Navy that began in the last days of October 1918, is it.

[unhappycamper]

15. both sides ran out of people

from the flu pandemic of 1918-1919. BTW - the "Spanish Flu" was somewhat misnamed. This flu started outside Ft. Riley, KS.

[dweller]

9. it would be great if someone could

get that saved/digitilized and on the internet*s so more could see it.

dp

[NYC]

11. Good for him.

People need to know the truth.

[saltpoint]

12. impeachdubya is right. Durbin is largely unsung --

-- but he's doing fine work on the Senate floor.

Maybe he needs to be on the national ticket?

[DemBeans]

16. I love Durbin.

He's smart, very personable and he's tough when he needs to be. I was actually hoping he'd throw his hat into the ring in 2004.