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December 31, 2007
Lying Is Stupid When The Truth Is So Easy To Find
Another Update:
I forgot to mention that only a month or so after, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's plane took off from this very airfield and crashed. We didn't know if it was because of tampering at our airfield or not, but I can tell you that security efforts were very stringent indeed after that event, not that they were lax before.
Update:
I've added some pictures I had to scan in of the air strip in question and Eagle Base.
General Nash's security detail standing in front of the entrance to the task force HQ. In case anyone cares, I'm the dopey one on the far right.
This is the landing strip as taken from the air aboard a blackhawk helicopter. Lots of land on either side of the runway.
This is how visiting dignitaries were greeted. I don't see much ducking and dodging, do you?
Capt Ed points us to a claim by Hillary Clinton related to Bosnia;
It turns out that Clinton wasn't quite flying solo into harm's way that day.
She was, in fact, leading a goodwill entourage that included baggy-pants funnyman Sinbad, singer Sheryl Crow and Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, then 15, according to an account of the March 1995 trip in her autobiography "Living History."
I noticed a couple of things right off the bat. First, she has the year wrong. I was an MP in the Army during that time and happened to be assigned to 2nd Platoon, 501st MP CO which supported the 1st Armored Division in Baumholder, Germany. Her trip couldn't have taken place in March, 1995 because we didn't go into Bosnia until December 1995. The Dayton Peace Accords opened up the door for us to go in. Then President Clinton came to Baumholder in December to deliver his message that he was sending us in and that we were to lose Christmas, which is exactly what we did.
Madam Clinton and her group actually came to Baumholder on their way down range and it was in March of 1996.
Regarding her claim of "dodging sniper fire", the airbase she landed at was Eagle Base located in Tuzla Bosnia. At the time it was the most fortified compound in the country. She flew onto the airbase in a C-17 and snipers where the least of her, or anyone elses problems. She even took the time to give a speech (presumably after she dodged the snipers)
This transcript is from PBS and is a discusion panel debating her image, and whether the trip helped it any. There was a clip shown on the show and here remarks are excerpted below (again, notice the date)
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton got a break last week from the slings and arrows of Whitewater and other misfortunes. She took a nine-day trip to Germany, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Italy, Turkey, and Greece with her 16-year-old daughter, Chelsea. After touring remote outposts in Bosnia, the First Lady thanked cheering U.S. soldiers in Tuzla for providing a good example to the Bosnians.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: There is no better example in the world of what a multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural team means in the United States military. You look around at the men and women in this room, you're letting people who have hated each other, who have killed each other know there is another way. Look to America. And that's what I thank you for. (cheers and applause)
The cheering soldiers, by the way, were ordered to be there.
Posted by Jonathan at December 31, 2007 12:41 PM
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Comments
It's kind of fuzzy, but is that Jim Floyd in the center of that picture?
Posted by: Simon at March 18, 2008 1:02 PM