During a Fox New's interview earlier today, Mr. Romney had a lot to say in defense of his failure to mention the troops during his acceptance speech. He claims to have spoke about the military when in fact he actually referred to a different beast, the Military Industrial Complex.
I think it's time we teach Mr. Romney the difference between the Troops and the System, don't you?
The Military - This word can be used in multiple ways. In Mitt Romney's speech, it is really short hand for the phrase Military Industrial Complex. Basically, the term Military means the troops, the brass, the defense contractors, and the defense industry all rolled into one. And let's be clear, that is exactly what Mitt Romney was referring to in his acceptance speech:
His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk;
He's not worried about the jobs the troops do, here, but the jobs that will be lost by the Military Industrial Complex.
That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.
Again, he's not worried about the troops but that the overall military system remains intact.
That's it folks. Those are the two sentences that Romney is trying to claim means folks like this:
The Troops - the people who sign up to serve the public good through military service. No, the troops does not refer to the Defense Contractors nor the Defense Industry. It usually doesn't refer to the Military Brass either. When you reach a certain level of rank you become responsible for the Troops - you're one of them but you're separate at the same time. When President Obama refers to the Troops, he's not talking about the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example. He's talking about the grunts on ground, the sailors on the ships, the airmen on the tarmac, and the soldiers in the field. Those are the people that Mitt Romney decided were low on his laundry list of priorities. As my son says, our Troops rank among the socks.
I, for one, am thankful that we can air this dirty laundry now. Romney, the pure business man that he is, has forgotten that our Troops are the backbone of our Military. It's no different than what Joe Biden said in his speech yesterday about Romney's response to Auto Industry:
I just don’t think he understood—I just don’t think he understood what saving the automobile industry meant-to all of America. I think he saw it the Bain way. Balance sheets. Write-offs. Folks, the Bain way may bring your firm the highest profit. But it’s not the way to lead your country from its highest office.
Mitt Romney does not understand the Troops. At all. We have seen that President Obama understands very well what it means to be a member of today's military and that our First Lady, Michelle Obama, understands what it means to be a member of a military family at war. I'm not sure the Romney's have the empathy to ever understand. They certainly haven't shown it up to this point so far.
Let's end this with a stark reminder of Romney's cluelessness:
Because when you give a speech, you don't give a laundry list. You talk about the things that uh you think are important. And I described in my speech my commitment to a strong military unlike the President's decision to cut our military. And I didn't use the word troops, I used the world military. I think they refer to the same thing. And of course going to the American Legion the day before during the middle of our convention made a much bigger statement to our military and our troops than the President who did not go meet with the American Legion. I also spoke to the VFW the week before, so I think our American military understands that I am fully supportive of their effort. And unlike the President who we understand from Bob Woodward's book, at least from the excerpts, the President was and the White House part of the author of this sequestration idea that would slash our military. I oppose that idea, think it is absolutely wrong to cut our military as the President is doing.
Mitt Romney's defense of failing to mention the troops during his RNC Acceptance Speech