So per your analysis, his remarks were OK and the whole problem is the old right wing bogeyman?

Already answered.

So now its evolved into Durbin did not say anything bad about the military.

No evolution has taken place.

Durbin was talking about a set of specific events. He opined that if one were to guess who performed these acts, one would guess that very bad people had performed them.

There was no generalization about “the military”

Your original question was “Why wasn t there a mainstream liberal out there saying something about Durbin?”

Your last comment tries to take this discussion into a different area. This thread is slipping quickly off the front page, and I’m not eager to open up a new line of discussion.

Your nice example notwithstanding, I think we both have read what Durbin said and understand precisely the point he tried to make.

If Durbin’s detractors were genuinely concerned about the tender feelings of our soldiers, they wouldn’t have worked so tirelessly to keep his comments–excuse me–a distorted version of his comments–on the front page.

I’ll try once again to answer your initial question: there were no mainstream Democrats lining up to excoriate Durbin because they didn’t want to appear to be taking part in the shameless, politically motivate smear campaign being waged against him.

If someone shouts: “Why won’t your brother apologize for beating his wife?” which should I say? a) “My brother doesn’t beat his wife.” or b) “My brother really should apologize for saying those pants make her butt look fat.”

But Dugger, you support the way many of these prisoners were treated. You support torture.

The senator’s remarks, while apparently intended to apply to only a small number of us, actually hit ALL of us squarely in the heart. To compare any member of the U.S. armed forces with the murderous thugs who ran Hitler’s camp system, the Soviet Gulag, or who gleefully slaughtered entire populations in Cambodia, is an affront to all men and women of our military.

“Does Senator Durbin really mean to imply that WE are thugs and murderers? Does he really mean to imply that WE treat our prisoners in the same manner, as say, the totenkopfverbande treated prisoners at Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka, or Auschwitz? Does he really mean that?”

Durbin’s defense was that he, technically, didn’t know the Gitmo interrogators were military. Did dumb ol’ frat boy George Bush dupe yet another progressive?

Dugger

Really? Let’s find out. You have expressed support for the following things:

1. The military’s right to spy on American citizens.
2. Torture.

You could start a really nice police state with just those two positions Dugs.

Your dodging. Political give and take goes on all the time. Republicans do it, Dems do it, with each side often exagerrating the bad points of the other side. Durbin stepped away from that political give and take and targeted soldiers. Yet per your logic, since Republicans criticized Durbin in a way thought by your side to be unfair, Durbin’s smear of the military goes unchallenged by Democrats.

Dugger

stepped away from that political give and take and targeted soldiers.

Durbin s smear of the military

Right there are a couple of excellent examples of what I’m talking about. Durbin did nothing of the sort. To claim that he did is to misrepresent his statement.

If you want to put forward a misrepresentation of the facts, we’ll discuss that first and get back to what Durbin actually said later.

So when you said this: “You can criticize after the decision is made but you are, to an extent, then hurting those young men and women, even if you don t intend to” you meant what exactly? That war protesters were getting soldiers injuried? How do you mean hurting? You repeat the phrase but don’t explain what you meant. I wager, like most right wing idiots, you enjoy hiding behind insinuation all the better to play dumb when someone calls you on your crap.

Speaking of twisting someone’s words. Durbin never said our soldiers were Nazis. He said that the confirmed abuse at Gitmo sounded indistinguishable from the tactics used by Nazis and Stalin. You jump all over him for it but you have repeatedly said that you support these very same tactics. Furthermore, you have said that it doesn’t bother you that the Nazis and other despicable regimes have used torture, you still support its use. You support torture, so you support our troops using Nazi approved tactics. So what’s your problem with Durbin?

Durbin said that confirmed incidents of torture at American detention facilities sound indistinguishable from some of the torture tactics used by the Nazis and Stalin.

Where were the “mainstream Republicans” saying, “Now calm down, everybody. We all know that’s not what Dick said”?

There weren’t any.

If you’re going to point fingers at Dems for making too little of what Durbin said, it’s only fair to lay the same amount of blame on Republicans who made too much of it.

It gets weaker each time. You are saying, in effect, that what Durbin said about the troops was wrong, merited criticism, but Democrats get a pass because there was over-the-top criticism of Durbin from the right. What about Democrats showing the troops some respect by criticizing Durbins remarks and then respond as appropriate to whatever criticism of Durbin went too far. You make my point. To protect themselves politically, Democrats let the troop smear stand.

Dugger

Where does your brain go at times? Three irrational, uninvited, hate-filled posts in about half an hour.

Many regimes have used torture – including the Israelis. Even some supporters of the McCain law acknowledge there might be a time when torture will need to be used (extra-legally – the so called ticking time bomb scenario). Are they, along with the Israeli’s Nazis too, per your unmedicated logic?

No where, anyplace, did I say war protesters were responsible for soldiers dying. You flat made that up. I said and say “You can criticize after the decision is made but you are, to an extent, then hurting those young men and women, even if you don t intend to.”

And your first post is even more idiotic than the other two.

Dugger

Get rid of the Nazi analogy altogether.

Yes.

It’s best not to bring up Nazis unless you’re actually talking about Germany and World War II. If you mention them in any other context, you’re only going to end up arguing about whether the reference was appropriate instead of discussing the point you were hoping to make in the first place.

It should be clear why it is that we want to prohibit torture. We’re supposed to be The Good Guys.

This is brilliant logic Dugger, just brilliant. It isn’t the President’s fault that soldiers are dying in an unnecessary, ill-conceived and destabilizing disaster, it’s the fault of the people criticizing the President for launching the disaster in the first place.

I doubt you when you praise the troops for protecting our freedom when so often it sounds like you would have been fine living in Hussein’s Iraq, just as long as you were on the right side of the repression.