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Who the Muslim Father’s DNC Speech Really Pandered To
Last Thursday night, speaking at the Democratic National Convention, Khizr Khan paid tribute to his son, U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq on June 8, 2004, after he tried to stop a suicide bomber.
As for every parent, husband, wife, brother, sister and friend who lost someone any war, I grieve with them. I am sorry for the Khan’s loss. I am a parent and can all too easily be sent to thinking about the loss of a child.So go ahead and hate on me. But of the almost 7,000 American families who lost sons and daughters in the last 15 years of American war of terror, why did the Democrats choose a single Muslim family to highlight?
No one knows how many hundreds of thousands (millions?) of non-American Muslims were killed as collateral damage along the way in those wars. Who spoke for them at the Convention?
I found the Democrats’ message shallow. It was pandering of the most contemptible kind, but not as some say simple pandering for Muslim votes from those alienated by Trump’s rhetoric.The Democratic pandering was to an America that wants to believe we have good Muslims (who express their goodness by sending their kids to fight our wars) and “they” have the bad Muslims (who express their badness by sending their kids to fight their wars.) The pandering was to the cozy narrative that makes the majority of Americans comfortable with perpetual war in the Middle East and Africa.
MORE: At one point Khan challenged Trump, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” True. But let us also remember the Clinton family sent no one to war. Their daughter did not serve any more than any Trump kid. Bill and Hillary served exactly as many days as Trump and Melania. Khan should have been more inclusive in his condemnation.I would also like to ask Khan how he reconciles his son’s death with the fact that only a few years later Iraq is still deep in war.
Trump is an ass and I do not support him in any way. I am particularly troubled by his hate speech directed at Muslims, and Mexicans, and everyone else he hates.
It is not disrespectful to discuss these things. Khan choose to put himself and his son’s death on television to serve a partisan political purpose. We need to talk about what he talked about.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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rich bauer said...
1“But let us also remember the Clinton family sent no one to war. Their daughter did not serve any more than any Trump kid.”
Chelsea: “Here’s how, because she never, ever forgets who she is fighting for.”
And if you put millions in Hillary’s pocket, she will fight for you too.
07/31/16 1:48 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
2Peter said:
“It is not disrespectful to discuss these things. Khan choose to put himself and his son’s death on television to serve a partisan political purpose. We need to talk about what he talked about.”unquote
Peter.. indeed it was a PARTISAN POLITICAL PuRPOSE!!! DUH!!! Look. This is a political war of ideologies. PERIOD. And like they say.. Nothing is sacred when it comes to the election of a new POTUS(ha..any political battle).
HOWEVER.. I don’t hold this against the Democrats. After all..they are fighting the most DEGENERATE political assembly in 100 years, if ever in this nation.
And frankly..what this tells me is there is a nation wide demographic of scum sucking morons that don’t have the mental capacity to understand their “personal bias’s”, be it racial, tea party, financial, or whatever, when aligned with a fanatical sociopath such as Trump, can bring on the destruction of their OWN lives.
When you say…”we need to talk about what he talked about.” Yeah.. we do. That’s what I’m doing.
And in that light.. for what that vile, maggot mouthed Trump has said.. I stand with those parents.
07/31/16 6:20 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
3goddammit.. I need to get shit faced drunk. At least I can think about something OTHER than this damn election.
Bartender.. two shots of the most potent shit you got, and a bottle of the best craft beer on hand. And then call me a taxi.
07/31/16 6:26 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
4btw.. speaking scum sucking Murikan racists halfwit fucking MORONS.. raised in a State where racist bias has been inbred from parents to progeny for 200 years..
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2016/07/31/miss-teen-usa-under-fire-allegedly-using-n-word/87888744/
I hope this punk bitch’s life descends into a cesspool of hell.
07/31/16 6:34 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
5I agree that it was a cynical and callous political move by Clinton.
If I were Trump I want to know more about the father. Did Khizr Kahn serve in the military in his native country?
When he came to the USA was he young enough to enlist. So it was OK for the family to shepherd the son into American military service. There may be much more to this story than will be known. Of course no one will have the guts to say the son was a clueless pawn in a bogus war.
07/31/16 8:29 PM | Comment Link
notlurking said...
6Glad someone opened this dialog…..maybe, just maybe his son would be an army lawyer now if this Iraq war disaster had never happened….
08/1/16 7:56 AM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
7That is left out of any of what is being said: why did their son die? For what? And who voted in favor of the war that killed him?
08/1/16 8:10 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
8This family needs to stop listen to the Hollywood Party. PVB, please tell Ann Wright to join you and her for lunch and talk ! This family could join Veterans For Peace.
08/1/16 8:44 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
9(correction) This family needs to listen to Peter Van Buren, and Ann Wright over tea, coffee.etc. I’ll buy.
08/1/16 8:49 AM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
10The family is now sadly a classic American creation, professional victims who do not realize they are being used by all sides (especially the media) and will soon be discarded by all sides and left to their grief when a new meme is needed.
08/1/16 9:24 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
11When Obama spoke at the DNC someone screamed “Stop Killing Children”. I grieve for any parent who loses a child. When Drones Fly, Children Die. What does this family think of drones? What do they think of the Obama Tuesday kill list? Peace…
08/1/16 9:28 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
12You do realize Amerika is the Dumbest Country on the Planet, right?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/01/us/elections/nine-percent-of-america-selected-trump-and-clinton.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
08/1/16 9:30 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
13I’m still -after decades of observing the Clintons -angy at how they can easily manipulate events to work in their favor. It’s my problem- I know. Susan Rice is handed a sheets of lies (Benghazi then Bergdahl’s honorable service)
but I think she throws up afterwards. The Clintons high five their mischief. I know- It’s my problem.
08/1/16 9:48 AM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
14Well put. I had the same thought in my head but didn’t know how to articulate it. It’s evil genius, aided of course by a gullible public and lapdog media. I think a big advantage the Clinton’s have is their singleness of purpose, simple self-promotion at all times. By never telling the truth the lies do not stand out.
08/1/16 10:00 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
15“…angry at how they can EASILY manipulate events to work in their favor…”
PT Barnum figured that one out long ago.
08/1/16 9:53 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
16https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJbSvidohg
08/1/16 9:55 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
17It’s the ultimate reality TV show designed to fool dumbass Americans that they have a choice in their pathetic lives and entertainment for the rest of the world to laugh at US making a fool of ourselves on TV.
08/1/16 11:19 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
18Imagine… a Stein/Turner ticket that jumps 20% in the polls in the 1st week? The only Clinton I want in the Whitehouse, is George Clinton and Bootsy!
08/1/16 11:29 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
19Chuck, and Bernie Worrell could have been Secretary of the Ivories- . but sadly he just passed.
08/1/16 11:35 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
20RIP Bernie Worrell. He had a bad final year. Peace Brother.
08/1/16 1:49 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
21I am Proud to Be… from George Clintons home town! Go team Funk… Have a nice day.
08/1/16 1:50 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
22Wouldn’t it be great if Trump had the guts to say to the Muslim parents, “Your son died in vain!” He was a clueless pawn in America’s pathological quest for global hegemony.
08/1/16 8:30 PM | Comment Link
lindaj said...
23Think of the way Cindy Sheehan has been treated. Casey Sheehan died a few months before the Khan’s son.
Cindy is still out there raising hell with the powers that be who sucked her kid in to the maelstrom. Long may she run!
08/1/16 8:37 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
24Donald’s foot kept him out of ‘Nam. If he keep his foot out of his mouth, he would be a shoe-in.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html
08/1/16 9:53 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
25Can the US fight a civil war and a global war against terror too?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/02/donald-trump-calls-hillary-clinton-the-devil-and-suggests-election-will-be-rigged
08/2/16 7:59 AM | Comment Link
Sokollu said...
26Trump’s statements are reprehensible and prove Hillary’s point that he is easily baited.
That said, Mr. Khan is now framing this as a First Amendment issue, waving the Constitution. Both he and Trump have every right to speak – and I don’t think Trump said otherwise but simply asserted a right to respond after Khan excoriated him by name.
And the Khans, who were clearly carefully selected as appealing victims, chose to appear on stage at a political convention, endorsing one candidate while denouncing another. That makes them public figures open to criticism, however stupid and nasty.
08/2/16 8:47 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
27Hillary/ForWar(D)2016/2017/2018…The MIC spending by the u.s. under Obomber is the highest ever !
08/2/16 9:43 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
28(comment deleted) Have a nice day.
08/2/16 12:13 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
29People (the D Team) voted for Obomber, because they thought Hillary was worse. Peace and Justice, United we stand ! (Wave MULTIPLE phlags)
08/2/16 12:59 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
30United we stand….but for what?
An 84-year-old man stabbed his wife during an argument that began over the sloppy peeling of mangoes, police said.
Uriel Bradshaw was arrested Saturday on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
08/2/16 2:08 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
31Give Trump credit, a Muslim-American was the greatest threat to Trump’s Amerika.
Can Trump get a Purple Heart for a self-inflicted wound?
08/2/16 4:40 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
32What the Muslim Father’s DNC Speech Really Pandered To? Unchecked Patriotism.
\
It allows US to do things in groups we would never do alone. It diffuses personal responsibility. “I was only following orders.” Iraq War was just a big Milgram experiment that got out of hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” – Oscar Wilde
08/2/16 7:48 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
33“Patriotism is your conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it.” —George Bernard Shaw
08/2/16 8:03 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
34“You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock patriotism out of the human race.” – George Bernard Shaw
Paraphrasing GBS, patriotism allows US to rationalize all kinds of evil shit. How many evil deeds have been done by “patriots” in the CIA and NSA? For example, were NSA “patriots” behind the attempt to influence the 2016 election? Who knows? The NSA would know but they aren’t saying. Why? Because they know the Russians didn’t do it. Edward Snowden has already admitted that. The National Security Agency has “all” of Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails and the FBI could gain access to them if they so desired, William Binney, a former highly placed NSA official, declared in a radio interview broadcast on Sunday. Speaking as an analyst, Binney raised the possibility that the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s server was done not by Russia but by a disgruntled U.S. intelligence worker concerned about Clinton’s compromise of national security secrets via her personal email use.
Another Patriotic Act?
If it came to light that an NSA employee acting alone or, more likely with a group of active or retired spooks, tried to fry Hillary for her national security violations that Comey refused to prosecute, perhaps these “good guys” are also the Anthrax Terrorist-Patriots who are back in business to affect the political process for the “greater good.” Why keep it a Big Secret? If the American public realizes it has been had by this group’s “patriotic acts”, then the unchecked powers of the NSA and perhaps the CIA will be seen as a threat to our democracy and it will create a demand for congress to control their powers. Of course, if the FBI is ever tasked to look homeward for the hacker, some poor patsy will be blamed and mysteriously die before he makes it to trial.
These “patriots” adhere to Edward Abbey’s definition:
“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
08/2/16 8:18 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
35The ruling elite are clever. They offer the lower class of warriors a chance at elevated patriotic dignity and acclaim. If those poor suckers ever woke up it could be a different world but most likely they will slumber for many more decades.
08/2/16 8:43 PM | Comment Link
Michael Murry said...
36Thank you, Peter, for expressing what I have been struggling to articulate for many days now. I recognize the time-dishonored debating tactic of “waving the bloody shirt,” because I had it waved at me about the time I graduated from high school in 1965. If we didn’t submit to conscription or enlist to fight those evil communist peasants in Southeast Asia, our government told us, then we would be pissing on the glorious memory of the Sacred Symbol Soldier (or Taboo Trouper) whose grieving parents would never forgive us for not sacrificing ourselves just as they sacrificed their own sons. … blah, blah, blah.
Unfortunately, waving the bloody shirt almost always works on Americans and You-Know-Her skillfully and cynically shoved the Khans out in front of her to wave their dead son’s bloody shirt at Donald Trump, who didn’t have the wit to simply and politely redirect their grief and anger at the persons truly responsible for it: namely, President George “Deputy Dubya” Bush and Senator You-Know-Her.
But I agree with you that this “waving the bloody shirt” gambit needs exposure and analysis. For my part, in the days and weeks ahead, on various Internet blogs that I frequent, I will try to amplify on this important topic because no one should get away with selling more endless war (and war-vultures like You-Know-Her) just because some other unfortunate souls bought into the lies and perished for believing the liars.
Again, good work and thank you.
08/6/16 9:44 AM | Comment Link
Noble Tuckey said...
37She said she felt “very nervous, because I cannot see my son’s picture – I cannot even come in the room where his pictures are”.
08/29/16 1:19 AM | Comment Link