As if Barack Obama is not having enough fault-finding of his foreign tour…
First, there was the smear. According to the Daily News on July 24:
“The latest chain e-mail smear against Barack Obama: He “blew off” troops at an Afghan base to shoot hoops for a publicity photo. The letter was apparently written by a Utah Army National Guard intelligence officer in a linguist unit at Bagram Airfield who claimed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was rude to G.I.s.”
Then there was the rebuttal and condemnation of the smear. In the same Daily News article:
But angry Army brass debunked the Obama-bashing soldier’s allegations, which went viral Thursday over the Web and on military blogs such as Blackfive:
“These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect,” said Bagram spokesman Army Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, who added that such political commentary is barred for uniformed personnel.
Obama didn’t play basketball at Bagram or visit the Clamshell, he said. Home-state troops were invited to meet him, but his arrival was kept secret for security reasons.
“We were a bit delayed … as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs,” Nielson-Green said.
And then there was the reporting on the rebuttal of the smear. In its usually accurate “Early Bird Brief” e-mail to readers of Defense News summaries of articles in its “DoD Current News Early Brief,” prestigious Defense News has the following summary:
POLITICS
Army Refutes Slam Of Bam
[New York Daily News, July 25, 2008, Pg. 7]
An Army spokesman denied that Osama bin Laden “blew off” troops at an Afghan base in order to shoot hoops for a publicity photo.
Wow, a good thing that Osama “blew it off.” What would the Al-Qaeda troops say of their leader shooting “hoops” with American troops!
In all seriousness, I am sure that Defense News will correct this faux pas, post-haste.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.