“sniper snipe”
by Brian Thomas
Published: March 27, 2008
Hillary Clinton is no stranger to the school of public lying; as a matter of fact, she graduated with honors from the school founded by the industry leader, former President Bill Clinton. Since graduation she has become well versed in the art form, successfully covering her voting records on the Iraq War from 2001 - 2004. Regrettably for Senator Clinton, she was unaware of the fact that schools of communications and journalism across the country also produce graduates.
If a photograph is worth a thousand words then it can be said that a video recording can shut mouths. During a press conference in Washington, Senator Clinton told her tale of evading guerrilla snipers and her cool and collected attitude in the face of death as she and her daughter Chelsea visited Tuzla, Bosnia in 1996. She stated:
“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base… There was no greeting ceremony and we were basically told to run to our cars. Now that is what happened [Mason].”
Her version of the visit to Bosnia seems as if it were plucked from a script written for Governor Schwarzenegger during his action film era; it was just as entertaining, just as suspenseful and just as fake.
Shortly after her heroic story was relayed, reports of the senator’s trip to Bosnia and certain accusations began to flutter from news room to news room. Coincidently, CBS News had traveled along with the former first lady and her daughter to Bosnia and just happened to have a video recording of this alleged “Battle in Bosnia.”
Clinton seemed to have confused reality with the “3AM Phone Call” commercial she had created for her campaign. Within a few hours, CBS released the archived video and confirmed that the senator and presidential hopeful had not only exaggerated her experience in war-torn Bosnia, but had outright lied and constructed this outlandish story in order to portray strength in crisis situations.
The video clearly shows Hillary Clinton exiting her plane to the applause and cheers of a greeting ceremony. Also, for a person who was supposedly being targeted by unrelenting sniper shots, she and the crowd seemed rather calm as the first lady nonchalantly shook hands with bystanders and posed for photos. The video also captures Clinton as she and her caravan “walked,” not ran, to their vehicles with no urgency at all.
On March 25, in order to contain the damage caused by this political flop, Clinton apologized for her false statements. She explained that she did not purposely try to mislead the public, but that she had only a “different memory” of the events that occurred twelve years ago, or she “misremembered” as Roger Clemens would articulate.
Clinton would have most likely not chosen this particular story to highlight her foreign policy credentials had she realized that a video of her Bosnian trip would emerge from the grave, hindsight being what it is. This, of course, was a crude attempt at developing a strong character in the face of an election crisis, the second failed attempt to formulate a certain persona for the Democratic candidate. It was only a few months ago when Clinton tried to soften her appearance by shedding tears while speaking with several volunteers who asked her about her quest for the presidency.
So, how can we tell who Hillary Clinton really is when all we are shown is a clever façade and all we are told are lies? The truth is - we cannot. The only thing that anyone can derive from the current debacle is that the senator from New York has shown us again that she is not above lying in order to stabilize a political future. Now it would be naive to believe that she is the only politician to use such tactics; however, the fact that she has done so, so recklessly, should be a cause for concern.
On the other side of the issue, Barrack Obama has seized this opportunity to place the media’s attention on Clinton’s lies and away from his political strife involving remarks made by his friend and pastor of twenty years, Reverend Wright. Obama continues to use this new leverage in order to keep his own skeletons deep within his closet. Democrats heading to the polls in these last days of the primary season have a tough choice ahead. Do they choose the candidate who has been caught lying publicly or the candidate who seems to be hiding his true feelings and contempt? Better yet, should the voters choose the devil they have come to know or the devil that they have not met yet?
—
(email this article or post to social network)
—
(6)
April 15th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Good article, I just hope that we choose the devil that acts like a conservative. McCain is a moron but we can live with that. Clinton is a liar, but we know that and there is only so much damage she can do. Obama is creepy, he has an unknown agenda and has the ability to do so much more damage then clinton ever could. McCain needs to be elected, then have a heart attack and die. Then his conservative VP (cross you fingers) can go forward. Other then that, go Hillary. If its Obama, well he will probably finish that fence in Mexico in order to keep us in.