Chimp greeted by stone-cold silence from troops at Fort Irwin

C

Cypress

Well-known member
I don't know if you saw any video, from the photo op Bush gave at Fort Irwin. It was the standard speech bush gives in front of the troops (since he can't find a "friendly" audience anywhere else).

It was like he was rolling out his "Greatest Hits" talking points from the last four years. The speech was peppered with the standard slogans like:

Freedom's on the march!
We have to fight them there, or they'll follow us here!
Iraq-9/1-Iraq-9/11-Iraq-9/11
Ocean no longer protect us!
The lessons of 9/11!


As we've seen for the past few years, bush always gets whoops, cheers, and hollers at these staged events with hand-picked soldiers.

The interesting thing this time, is the soldiers sat in stone cold silence throughout the entire speech. It seemed like when bush tossed out one of his Greatest Hits slogans, he'd pause for a moment, waiting for a big cheer....that never came.
 
Cypress said:
I don't know if you saw any video, from the photo op Bush gave at Fort Irwin. It was the standard speech bush gives in front of the troops (since he can't find a "friendly" audience anywhere else).

It was like he was rolling out his "Greatest Hits" talking points from the last four years. The speech was peppered with the standard slogans like:

Freedom's on the march!
We have to fight them there, or they'll follow us here!
Iraq-9/1-Iraq-9/11-Iraq-9/11
Ocean no longer protect us!
The lessons of 9/11!


As we've seen for the past few years, bush always gets whoops, cheers, and hollers at these staged events with hand-picked soldiers.

The interesting thing this time, is the soldiers sat in stone cold silence throughout the entire speech. It seemed like when bush tossed out one of his Greatest Hits slogans, he'd pause for a moment, waiting for a big cheer....that never came.
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Unless this is a different speech he gave in front of the military, from the one earlier in the week, I did see video of it, and it was pathetic. You could tell he was pausing right after his usual applause lines, but the applause didn't come. I think our guys in the military want out. Perhaps, more than anybody.
 
Darla said:
Unless this is a different speech he gave in front of the military, from the one earlier in the week, I did see video of it, and it was pathetic. You could tell he was pausing right after his usual applause lines, but the applause didn't come. I think our guys in the military want out. Perhaps, more than anybody.
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Good! So it wasn't just me imagining it. He was pausing briefly after each one of his worn-out slogans, expecting a burst of applause.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy! ;)
 
This is interesting. Often when we went to those things they would actually order us not to applaud, etc.

:dunno:

I'd be surprised if this wasn't the case, because a group of soldiers is bound to have about half that would simply be angry at everybody else for not promoting the war.
 
Damocles said:
This is interesting. Often when we went to those things they would actually order us not to applaud, etc.

:dunno:

I'd be surprised if this wasn't the case, because a group of soldiers is bound to have about half that would simply be angry at everybody else for not promoting the war.
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That would be believable I think, if it weren't for the fact that everytime in the past that I have seen him speak in front of a military audience, there have been loud hoo-haws (or whatever that chant is) and a lot of applause. I don' t know, seems strange.
 
Darla said:
That would be believable I think, if it weren't for the fact that everytime in the past that I have seen him speak in front of a military audience, there have been loud hoo-haws (or whatever that chant is) and a lot of applause. I don' t know, seems strange.
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It does. However, it would be very unlikely to find a crowd of the military that wouldn't have some of them supporting Bush. Complete silence is usually an effect of what they have been told to do than an indication of their own feelings of the matter.

If they were supposed to have a "clapterfest" then the Officers would have simply ordered a few to go and to be "respectful".
 
I am sure some around here still support bush, but they keep very quiet about it, might be getting to be the same in the military.
 
uscitizen said:
I am sure some around here still support bush, but they keep very quiet about it, might be getting to be the same in the military.
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Not really. Having been in the military during the time of all volunteer service I have some reasonable idea of the percentages you would find there.

Had they had less than half clapping or something like that I would be more likely to consider that those in the military were all against him... (exaggeration of course) than if there were total silence. The total silence smacks of an order rather than an expression of their beliefs.
 
Perhaps, but you were not in there at this time after several years of Iraq, held in longer than you expected, increased and lengthen deployments. Not quite the same now I would think.
also seeing your buddies shredded bodies has an impact....
 
uscitizen said:
Perhaps, but you were not in there at this time after several years of Iraq, held in longer than you expected, increased and lengthen deployments. Not quite the same now I would think.
also seeing your buddies shredded bodies has an impact....
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Once again, had there been like a small percentage clapping I'd be all with you on that. However, dead silence is not because of that, it would be far more likely to be because of an order than any idea that 100% of the military were against him. That's preposterous.

I remember all those posts from Herr Doktor and other lefties praising the idea that we should send more military because it would kill more right-wingers. Even they would admit it is far more right-heavy than left in the all-volunteer version of the military.
 
I can't really disagree with you Damo, but why the change in response from his prior speeches in front of the troops ?
 
uscitizen said:
I can't really disagree with you Damo, but why the change in response from his prior speeches in front of the troops ?
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You would have to ask the officers. Sometimes we had to remain silent because it was a radio address. Other times we did not. I just know that, especially in the DC area, we had to go to these things and we were either told to "be respectful" or to "be silent".
 
The timing on the response change is curious at the very least.

but yes the first thing you learn is to keep your trap shut when told to.
 
Damocles said:
You would have to ask the officers. Sometimes we had to remain silent because it was a radio address. Other times we did not. I just know that, especially in the DC area, we had to go to these things and we were either told to "be respectful" or to "be silent".
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Well guess what Damo? I like you too much right now to be able to argue with you today about anything. Well, I always "like you", but now I'm overcome with liking.

And my niece keeps shoving me off of the computer anyway.

But, give it a few days, and I'll be back at it with you!
 
Darla said:
Well guess what Damo? I like you too much right now to be able to argue with you today about anything. Well, I always "like you", but now I'm overcome with liking.

And my niece keeps shoving me off of the computer anyway.

But, give it a few days, and I'll be back at it with you!
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It shouldn't take even that long...

Let your niece have a shot at the thing.
 
Damocles said:
This is interesting. Often when we went to those things they would actually order us not to applaud, etc.

:dunno:

I'd be surprised if this wasn't the case, because a group of soldiers is bound to have about half that would simply be angry at everybody else for not promoting the war.
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this seems like a reasonable explanation. But, it is inconsistent with all the other times Bush has used audiences of soldiers as props. All those other times, there were whoops and hollers when Bush tossed out his talking points.
 
Cypress said:
this seems like a reasonable explanation. But, it is inconsistent with all the other times Bush has used audiences of soldiers as props. All those other times, there were whoops and hollers when Bush tossed out his talking points.
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I'm thinking it is more than likely that there is an officer somewhere who heard that it wasn't a "prop" show and ordered silence getting reamed right now.
 
Damocles said:
I'm thinking it is more than likely that there is an officer somewhere who heard that it wasn't a "prop" show and ordered silence getting reamed right now.
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That would be classic.

I swear to you, that on the video, Bush looked like he was pausing - just momentarily - after he tossed out one of his classic slogans, for the crowd to react.
 
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