NBC's Brian Williams About 9/11: 'People Forget the Crazy Pressure to Put a Flag on Your Lapel'
There have been some idiotic things said by liberal media members surrounding the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams added to the list Monday.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Williams said, "People forget the crazy pressure to put a flag on your lapel and without it you couldn’t be a patriot. You certainly couldn’t love your country" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BRIAN WILLIAMS, “NBC NIGHTLY NEWS” ANCHOR: Having listened to a lot of discussions on the war in Iraq in a lot of gatherings, I’ve settled on the word “elective.” It was an elective war on the part of George W. Bush because none of those pilots were Iraqi, because none of the people in those planes were Iraqi, and because as a wounded nation we gave a president in effect a blank check.
People forget what a crazy time it was. People forget that when I left that morning, I paused at the intersection knowing my kids were both in the same school and I didn’t know if there would be another day in America. People forget the crazy pressure to put a flag on your lapel and without it you couldn’t be a patriot. You certainly couldn’t love your country. So that same pressure made for some, some judgments and some permission granted by the American people to their chief executive.
Crazy pressure to put a flag on your lapel? In a time of war, one would think you wouldn't need to be pressured to do such a thing.
Americans have for centuries shown support for those that have died in a recent battle as well as those still serving their nation.
Anyone feeling pressured to do it, especially someone so in the limelight as a national television anchor, mustn't understand the way his fellow citizens feel.
Media members like to talk about how unified we were after the attacks, and how wonderful it would be for such unity to return. "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer did so on his program Sunday.
When we look at pictures of Congress singing "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capitol the evening of 9/11, we remember just how much we were one nation that day.
Part of that unity is displaying the flag, and Americans should have instinctually felt a desire to do so.
To ten years after claim that people were being pressured to show their patriotism and love of country following the largest attack on this nation's mainland is pretty despicable even for a liberal media member.
The disgust he should have expressed the morning after the tenth anniversary of this tragedy was for those Americans who believed they were pressured to act in a patriotic fashion and didn't instinctively feel the need to do so following the death of so many of their fellow citizens.
Calling out those that did just adds to the current disunity folks like him regularly blame on the overwhelming majority of Americans that are naturally driven to such displays.
Shame on you, Brian.
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Comments
where's the couch?
Submitted by kata on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:14am.
I feel like I am sitting in on his therapy session.
Oh, my!
Submitted by HockeyKid on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:24am.
The CRAZY pressure these schmucks face on a daily basis.
Tell you what, Bri: give me your paycheck, and I'll handle the CRAZY pressure of wearing a lapel pin and reading a teleprompter.
Jackwagon.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Riiiight.
Submitted by telecaster on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:27am.
What's, this guy just make this stuff up? Crazy pressure to don a lapel pin? What an idiot.
"People forget" ... you included, Brian
Submitted by Great Debater on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:31am.
When liberal-leaning media types reminisce about how "Bush took us to war in Iraq," they apparently (conveniently?) forget that "he" did so AFTER well over 100 prominent DEMOCRATIC politicians demanded direct military action against Saddam Hussein. They made this demand because he had steadfastly refused weapons inspectors' ability to verify he did not have WMD's. They said, "Even if he does not have them, we cannot take such a risky chance. We must go in and take him out, because even if he does not have them, he will restart production as soon as he can anyway." As it later turned out, he didn't have them, but clearly stated that it was indeed his plan to restart production as soon as the inspectors went away.
Oh, who were those 100+ Dem. politicians ... just lower-level types, right? Not exactly, they included the likes of Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Robert Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and etc. Also, they were given the exact same intelligence as Bush. Finally, unlike Obama with Lybia, Bush requested and received Congressional authorization to use force in Iraq ... before military actions ever began.
Yes, Brian, people do forget ... however, some people remember quite succinctly.
but,,,
Submitted by dmacleo on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:47am.
he did have yellow cake and supposedly previously destroyed chem munitions too.
Indeed he (Saddam) did.
Submitted by Gary Hall on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:55am.
Iraq's Yellowcake sent to Canada
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2008 – Defense personnel have completed the transfer of 550 metric tons of Iraqi uranium ore to Canada, Defense officials said here today.
(;~> gary
Great Debater...Good post. Let me add that during the
Submitted by Rush Fan on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 12:46pm.
Clinton Administration, the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 was passed by the House 360 - 38 and by the Senate unanimously. It called for regime change in Iraq.
In 1999 Professor Robert O. Freedman wrote in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs a brief report titled American Policy Toward Iraq and Iran in Clinton's Second Term.
Freedman wrote in part:
How quickly the Leftist media forget Democrat President Clinton's role in the "elective" Iraq war.
Brian Williams forced patriotism is nothing new from the Left. From their admiration and respect for Communist Dictator Fidel Castro to President Obama's belief that "American Exceptionalism is no different than any other nations (including Syria, Iran, North Korea, China, etc.), the Left despises those who display their patriotism and believe in this nation's greatness.
With the Left's control of education, from kindergarten to college, better known as reeducation camps, the reeducation of our youth so they agree with Obama's "American Exceptionalism" belief system is underway..
They cannot stand themselves
Submitted by richb313 on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:33am.
It is self hatred on display. They are confused by thier own feelings. They have been taught over the years the Multi-Cultural BS and all the other claptrap that passes for Intellecutual thought these days and the problem is reality.
Reality has a way of confounding Intellectuals who believe because they went to the right schools they are smarter than everyone else but when thier ideas are implimented things always get worse not better. It must make them very confused.
This confusion leads to these people saying and doing more idiotic things daily. They recognize thier own idiocy but cannot leave the reservation so they end up with self hatred instead. This self hatred cannot stay bottled up so they must lash out at the ones who seek truth.
It never ends well for people who keep trying to fit thier percetions to reality. You will be able to recognize the collapse coming because they will become more disconnected from reality until everyone can see them for what they really are, just one pathetic excuse after another with nothing of value to say.
"People forget that when I left that morning,
Submitted by SickofLibs on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:34am.
I paused at the intersection knowing my kids were both in the same school and I didn’t know if there would be another day in America."
I'm very sorry I forgot about that, Brian. However, I DO remember you had Cocoa Puffs for breakfast that day and wore that blue pinstripe, so that should count for something, no?
PS: Please continue not wearing a flag pin: I hate to see my flag defiled like that.
How can he sleep at night...
Submitted by BBallleaper on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:40am.
without a brain??????????????
Easy, the wind whistling
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:03am.
Easy, the wind whistling through is ears sounds like the waves on the ocean, kind of like putting a sea shell to your ear. The sound lulls the libturd to sleep.
Pressure
Submitted by grammajane on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:42am.
The only pressure American's will have, is to vote the Demo's out of office in 2012. Williams is getting worse every day and is a pathetic news reporter. His arrogance is nasty
→ OK, I remember
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:43am.
I remember the Liberals complaining that Conservatives were wearing flag pins as though it were a show of patriotism.
But aren't we beyond expecting Liberals to love their country?
CA
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:53am.
I think we're way beyond expecting even a minimum of patriotism from the left. I think their only allegiance is to themselves.
Brian, it wouldn't matter if you wore an actual flag, we'd still know you were sickened by the thought of a free America.
What Williams was probably
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:46am.
What Williams was probably thinking is that he REGRETS wearing an American flag pin but was pressured to do so.
Nothing Whatsoever To Do With It
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:54am.
Repressivist liberal history rewrite. As usual, leftist Brian Williams is full of B.S. America did not take down Iraq because of 911. And it wasn't just President G.W. Bush.
The Iraq Resolution or the Iraq War Resolution (formally the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, Pub.L. 107-243, 116 Stat. 1498, enacted October 16, 2002, H.J.Res. 114) is a joint resolution (i.e., a law) passed by the United States Congress in October 2002 as Public Law No: 107-243, authorizing the Iraq War.
Notable Democrat Senators out of 29 who voted Aye:
Baucus, Biden, Clinton, Daschle, Dodd, Durbin, Edwards, Feinstein, Hollings, Kerry, Reid, Schumer, Torricelli
Reads like a Who's-Who of the Democrats Party, doesn't it? I don't suppose they felt they were being forced to be patriotic.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
Exhibit A
Submitted by CoolShades on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:50am.
The big nasty American flag lapel pin flap. Yes, I remember this well. The liberals hated these American flag pins because they believed they were an eerie stigma of the Republican Party.
Your honor, Brian Williams is a hardened liberal and I place this clip into evidence as exhibit A.
No mistakes, please
Submitted by SaguaroJack on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:52am.
Brian, let there be no mistake: We don't want YOU wearing an American flag lapel pin. Someone might mistake you for a real American.
.
Brian Williams decided to
Submitted by Kenyon Schraeder on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 10:59am.
Brian Williams decided to forgo journalistic integrity in favor of a steady White House gig when Obama made him his chosen interviewer a.k.a. "special waterboy" early on in his administration. And the suits at NBC beamed with pride and great anticipation, despite all sorts of problems that would have prompted any management worth its salt to make drastic and sweeping changes.
So, NBC's premier "journalist" is now 110% "in the bag", as they say, nothing but a bought and paid for stooge, his credibility gone. And, after Mr. One-and-out leaves D.C. for good, expect Williams to do voiceovers for Saturday morning cartoons to supplement his income.
I never knew how much he suffered.
Submitted by NeoKong on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:06am.
And his wardrobe too.
Under pressure
Submitted by Restless Legs on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:13am.
True patriots felt no "pressure" to wear or display the flag. We did it because we WANTED to. The patriotism I felt in the weeks after 9/11 was like nothing I'd ever felt before. If you felt "pressure," Mr. Williams, that can only indicate that you weren't feeling the genuine patriotism that most Americans felt at that time.
where was your flag after the 93 bombing of the WTC?
Submitted by lrgon on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:01pm.
Did you feel compunction to wear a US flag lapel pin or fly Old Glory from your car back then? People were killed and hundreds were injured when Ramzi Yousef drove a rental truck packed with TNT into the parking garage of the north tower in 1993. That explosion that tore a huge crater in the basement of the parking garage was dramatic but not dramatic enough since few used that terror attack on our homeland to spark the urge to fly large American flags from their pick up trucks or wear a US flag lapel pin.
Ramzi Yousef and the "blind sheikh" were tried and convicted for their plot in the World Trade Center bombing. Yousef was actually extradited from Islamabab and dragged back to face the American scales of justice but did the johnny-come- latelies pull out their flag lapel pins when the virdict was read sentencing him to 2 consecutive life sentences?
Johnny-come-latelies are usually asleep to be much good to their country after shocking events like the OKC bombing or 9-11 occur. No video tapes or books and magazine articles on terrorism will shake them free from their TV remote control device. Not even for sex or vidoe tape will they stop and listen to patriots bearing dire warnings about what is coming to America. Football and basket hoops are too important to miss watching some dry documentary on the strategy and tactics of terrorism. Besides if it does happen they can always dig out their flag lapel pin and snarl at those who aren't wearing theirs to show just how patriotic they are.
No pal, It's the snarls I get for wearing the Flag.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 2:42pm.
From all the union wanna be Obama voters, those share the stash entitlement kooks HATE AMERICA.
I've seen their Hate, with my own eyes.
You Didn't Build That.
Why would you feel "pressured" ?
Submitted by Free Stinker on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:18am.
Oh yeah, we forgot. Brian Williams doesn't love America.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
A Country song writer's song WMGG
Submitted by lrgon on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:22am.
They thought to kill a symbol of our strength with a bomb in '93
they drove it to the tower's celler and there they set it free
Ramzi was hauled back to justice to face an American trial
he's locked up in an American prison living in solitary style.
They succeeded eight years later to bring the symbols down
the air planes that they hijacked only one struck the ground
the symbols are no longer visible; their shadow no longer there
they hated us for our freedom but our flag still flying there.
True Americans feel no
Submitted by rbosque on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:32am.
True Americans feel no pressure to put on their flag pins or to display any flag for that matter Brian. You should try being an American for once.
Flag on my lapel pin??
Submitted by Morganfrost on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:39am.
That's what this was about?
And, at what point did it become some accepted truth that the war in Iraq was wrong, or a mistake? We removed a megalomaniacal dictator who posed a threat to regional security, who gassed his own population, and dealt with dissent by putting people into shredders. No, Iraq didn't turn into the United States (did we expect it to), but it held free elections-- something it had never done before.
Yes, it's easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback and point to mistakes in Iraq, but I'd say we did a pretty decent job of accomplishing what we set out to do.
An offensive war with Iraq was stupid in view of our helping
Submitted by lrgon on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:23pm.
Iraq with foreign aid, diplomacy and good will during the 1980's. Those gased bodies lying around the desert rotting in the hot desert sun were obviously overlooked by our diplomatic mission back in those days when the US government enthusiastically called Hussein their friend.
So if it was for humanitarian reasons that we went ot war to stop Saddam from killing his own people then wouldn't you think that it is wrong to add to the body county of Iraqis by nearly two decades of bombing people in Iraq?
The death toll has risen not fallen as these figures illustrate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
It's a credit to George W. Bush when he admitted that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks. But the Project For the New American Century formed during the Clinton era convinced Bush to use 9-11 as the perfect storm to start a war with Iraq.
4 TRILLION dollars and nearly a decade after PFTNAC instituted their war.
4,474 US servicemen shipped back to America in coffins from Iraq.
How many killed and injured US servicemen and US civilians(?) All of that debt and injured and dead to wage an offensive war with a nation that didn't attack us on 9-11. here are the figures of the dead and wounded service men:
http://www.kold.com/story/15403041/us-military-deaths-in-iraq-war-at-4474
The body count of Iraqi children that secretary of state Mad Madeline Allbright said was acceptable has been reached. If 100,000 dead kids was acceptable for this mad little war lover, why don't we attack China and North Korea since they too murder their own people. And if Putin brings back the KGB and their Gulag system ready and set to go with torture and genocidal pogroms; hell, we'll be busy in war for a century.
History can be our guide and so will the Constitution if we allow them to gude us!
Let us remember that Iraq and Iran were in a deadly war and the US decided unconstitutionally to side with Saddam Hussein. The Ayatollah Khomeini regime had taken over after the Carter people betrayed the Shah of Iran and forced his removal.
Of all the nations in the middle east the Shah was our friend and ally and he played a vital role in stabilizing the entire middle east region. Once he was stabbed in the back by Carter all hell broke out. Our embassy people were kept hostage by the radicals that came in with Khomeini. But Reagan did not have to go to war against Iran to rescue those Americans. All he had to do was get elected and they let our people go!
Phweet. Whew. I believe that gassy loon fart had a little extra.
Submitted by The Vet on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:33pm.
Oh look boys and girls, the loon went to smell his own fart and got a little something on his nose. Stop laughing boys and girls. You will alert the loon to our location.
Just remember that Obama
Submitted by eaglewingz08 on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:40am.
Just remember that Obama refused to wear a flag pin as well. Yet we're supposed to think of them as patriots.
Remember, conservatives are
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 12:33pm.
Remember, conservatives are NOT allowed to question a liberal's patriotism while it's perfectly acceptable for liberals to question a conservative's patriotism.
Liberal double-standards & hypocrisy run amuck.
Politicians are silly
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:50am.
They take off their tie and roll up their sleeves in a farming community, they might need to scuff up their shoes a little bit. They might need to drop their gs down south, per Hillary. They hire million-dollar image consultants to teach them to move their eyes around to make their eyes look less dull on camera, or not to point (for which we owe the Clinton credit-card insertion gesture), how to stand, what things to emphasize in their speeches.
They call themselves "fighters" when they're never going to even so much as grit their teeth and grip a rope or wrest anything from anybody. Chances are they'll make a trade or two, or insist that they can make it look bad for somebody.
They are so silly, that occasionally we ask them to include in all their image consciousness an image we want to see. What?! Farmers and blue-collar workers don't understand you unless you at least have your tie undone?
A flag is a symbol and campaigns are full of symbols. And it is the press that tries to give us the notion that these silly people, whose bread and butter is basically symbol-over-substance, should make more decisions for us.
It was an elective war on the part of George W. Bush
Submitted by Conservator on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 12:36pm.
Was it an elective war for the numerous Democrats in Congress who forcefully supported the Iraq War with their words and votes?
Pray to me or Pray to Thee
Submitted by upcountrywater on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 12:42pm.
The Photo.
So that same pressure made for some, some judgments and some permission granted by the American people to their chief executive.
You Didn't Build That.
Geez.
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:06pm.
That's not a little disturbing.
Check this out: raising head during prayer
I wonder what his Islamic background was, especially in Indonesia, there's more than one kind.
And check this out too: I am a Muslim
Yeah, I know some of you might consider Pam Gellar a whack job, but she knows her stuff. There's a segment near the bottom about the "flagless president." But the whole thing should be required reading.
-Jon
The poor dear!
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 12:47pm.
Imagine the 'crazy pressure' Betsy Ross felt when she was asked to sew the first American flag.
Whew!
A Patriot's dream is the beauty of liberty
Submitted by lrgon on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:33pm.
The war for America's independence was a war fought against a powerful enemy (Great Britain) that was Christian in outward appearance but, nonetheless, still wanted to suppress the independence of the colonists. The colonists swore alligiance to the same God - Jesus as the British crown did; the colonists believed in the same traditions of law ( Writ of Habeas Corpus and english common law) as did the Brits. The key word was independence and that rights came from God and not a British parliament or "royal blood lines."
The American Flag should represent,, and must represent some thing unique in the world - liberty and justice and peace for all as part of the words of the Pledge states. It should not be just another nation's flag like the Union Jack, that represented for many years tyranny for those people not willing to kowtow to England's soldiers that were willing to stick their bayonets into anyone that dared Declare their Independence from tyranny. Therefore don't think that the Patriot Act is anything other than what it is- another union jack once again attempting to take our freedom from us.
Betsy Ross fashioned the American colonists' flag not to replicate the union jack or any other country's banner. The founders made our flag to represent peace, freedom and justice and ready to defend our way of life.
The Founders never intended our elected officials to use war as an excuse to write off our liberties by some bogus law with "patriot" in its title. They wrote them in so that we could read them, understand them and swear our allegiance to them. Our oaths as soldiers and elected officials is to the Constitution not to some guy with a bullhorn, a Bull Moose party or a line of of Obama bull.
Is Brian Williams ok?
Submitted by Lyn Free on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 3:21pm.
They style his hair and put make up on him before he goes in front of the TV cameras don't they? I think they do that for most TV personalities.
Anyway I'm worried. Could Mr. Williams' brain damage be caused by hair spray or makeup? I'm serious. It would explain a lot about NBC, MSNBC, CNN, etc. and their ditzy guys and gals that masquerade as real journalists.
Maybe this is all just some toxic effects of beauty products and not the infective, contagious liberal brain rot I thought it was.