Michael S. Steele, the controversial chairman of the Republican National Committee, is an embarrassment to his peers, his country and the fighting forces of the United States across the world.
For the good of his party and the salvation of whatever reputation he has left, he should resign immediately.
But he won't -- and his colleagues won't vote him out, either, because the Congressional elections are four months away and they don't want to rock the leaking GOP boat any more than it is right now.
In case you were shell-shocked by July 4 fireworks explosions and did not read a newspaper, listen to a radio or view a television news broadcast, Steele is the 52-year-old history-ignorant politician who misspoke at a small fund-raising event last week in the tiny Long Island Sound fishing village of Noank, CT (Pop. 1,830), 84 miles southwest of Boston.
The fund-raising event was closed to the media but a non-media video-camera-carrying guest at the event caught Steele's comments and posted it immediately on YouTube. YouTube then carried it to the rest of the world.
In his comments, Steele erroneously told guests, "Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of (President) Obama's choosing...not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."
A blatant lie, of course.
Fact: Former Republican President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Afghanistan in October 2001, less than a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC.
Steele said, "If he (Obama) is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan."
Steele said no foreign power has ever won a war in Afghanistan in over 1,000 years.
Fact: The British succeeded in the first Afghan War of 1838 to 1842, and again in the second Afghan War that began in 1878. The Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 guaranteed the independence of Afghanistan under British control in foreign affairs. In the third Afghan War in 1919, the Treaty of Rawalpindi finally gave Afghanistan full control over its foreign relations.
Read up, Mr. Steele. You are no student of history. You are an embarrassment to the entire nation. Resign now and save whatever face you have left.
What do you think?
