Obama, through a spokesperson of course, claims that the Pentagon suggested that to him it was not a good idea for the Illinois senator to visit soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, because it would be a campaign event.
Obama went shopping instead.
Earlier in his trip, he made it clear that he wasn't interested in listening to generals such as David Petraeus in how to conduct the war in Iraq.
Okay, assume what the spokesperson said it true. Obama still could have visited the troops at Landstuhl--without his beloved media throng.
Shameful.
CORRECTION 9:40 AM: Landstuhl is quite some distance from Berlin--it's located near the French border.
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1 comment:
The McCain lie that John Ruberry bought lock, stock and barrel...
Mr. Ruberry has "corrected" his post to point out that Landstuhl is quite some distance from Berlin. In fact, it's not even really a 'short' flight from Berlin.
And Sen. McCain, while he was in London raising money for his campaign (yes, he had to go to London) and in Paris to visit with Sarkozy, never even bothered trying to schedule a visit to Landstuhl's military hospital. Landstuhl is closer to Paris than to Berlin.
And the fact is that the Pentagon had approved allowing Sen. Obama to visit the wounded troops with campaign staff in mid-July. The Pentagon then informed Obama's campaign, at the last moment a week and a half later, that it would be considered a campaign event because of the campaign staff. Campaign events on military bases are against the rules (that's why Sen. McCain's tour of Naval bases last spring was carefully choreographed to hold events off-base at civic and private, not military, facilities).
And, once again, despite the lie in the McCain ad, the press was never going to be allowed to tag along. They were always scheduled to be sequestered at the airstrip's terminal.
Even the McCain campaign has now admitted they lied in the ad. Will Mr. Ruberry admit it as well?
For the record, Sen. Obama did visit wounded troops at the Green Zone's military hospital in Baghdad (during the Senate Delegation portion of his trip) and called GIs at the German military hospitals (during the campaign portion of his trip). And the press was not privy to either instance.
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