The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Keep In Mind That Our Response To The Various Middle East Crises. . .

Posted on | September 12, 2012 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

. . .is being led by a party that seems unclear as to what our navy looks like:

On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.
But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.
While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.
These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against.
“The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”

I guess you can’t expect your non-squid to know what a Slava-class cruiser* looks like, but hey: I haven’t been to sea in better than a decade, either, and I’m betting that Admiral John Nathman bought that crappy backdrop sight unseen.

This is either a tasteless prank, or a piece of colossal incompetence, neither of which is a savory possibility.

via Paco

Update: linked at Hogewash

Update II: ‘vendor error‘ => “Due to vendor error, incorrect images appeared briefly on screen behind fifty-one veterans during the convention and the DNCC apologizes for this mistake…This error should not distract from the words of Admiral Nathman and others who spoke to President Obama’s strong record on issues that impact those who have served our nation.”

*If that’s what’s in the foreground of the image; I’m not researching past the Navy Times image, and you really want to validate these points. Especially if you’re trying to honor our military.

Category: Democrats, Military

Comments

14 Responses to “Keep In Mind That Our Response To The Various Middle East Crises. . .”

  1. Democrats and the Battleship Potemkin | hogewash
    September 12th, 2012 @ 11:01 am

    […] sailor Smitty is not amused. I guess you can’t expect your non-squid to know what a Slava-class cruiser looks […]

  2. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 12th, 2012 @ 11:06 am

    I am feeling rather retro today…like 1979 retro.

  3. richard mcenroe
    September 12th, 2012 @ 11:13 am

    Russian warships have very distinctive superstructures and bows, owing to their principal operation in the North Sea and North Atlantic. Hard to miss.

    Then again, these are the same Democrats who did a “Kerry strong on defense” ad with stock footage of British troops in Iraq, so…

  4. JeffS
    September 12th, 2012 @ 11:27 am

    I vote for tasteless prank. All the DNC had to do was call the Pentagon Public Affairs Office to request appropriate footage. No doubt the Navy has zillions of terabytes of such video.

    Nope, they probably called the Russian embassy instead.

  5. William_Teach
    September 12th, 2012 @ 12:10 pm

    Remember when the DNC featured a photo of a Canadian soldier when they attempted to smear Bush and his treatment of soldiers?

  6. jwallin
    September 12th, 2012 @ 12:24 pm

    This is common among liberals. Since they’ve never been in the military and have no respect for those who serve, they don’t spend a lot of time making sure they don’t show something inappropriate. They picked that photo because of the jet formation flying over these ships when the photo was taken.

    Without out knowledge of the ships’ nationality, it does look like a rah, rah salute to the Navy. Just not ours.

    That the Admiral didn’t notice (or didn’t say anything) is an indication of how far removed command is from reality in today’s military. (some branches may be better or worse than others).

    Since the ships are shown in dark silhouette I can see how some intern scanning images in Google might have been misled into putting this together but someone should have vetted the decision.

    This is a statement about today’s liberals; they don’t fact check much, don’t care to. They go with the good visuals and the sound bites and don’t worry about the substance much.

  7. Carter's Mini Me
    September 12th, 2012 @ 12:39 pm

    It wasn’t a mistake. Leaving out God, dumping Israel, leaving out verbiage about Hamas in the platform wasn’t either.

  8. Quartermaster
    September 12th, 2012 @ 1:35 pm

    Y’all just don’t understand. That’s what the DNC wished our Navy looked like.

  9. Bob Belvedere
    September 12th, 2012 @ 1:51 pm

    Truth is relative to them, as is meaning.

  10. JeffS
    September 12th, 2012 @ 5:19 pm

    RE Update II: Still a tasteless prank in my mind.

    Ba-dump, ba-dump, goes the vendor under the bus.

  11. Bob Belvedere
    September 12th, 2012 @ 8:38 pm

    Perfect [even though that song iritates me a bit].

  12. Anybody Who Thinks General Dempsey Went Rogue And Called Terry Jones Is Missing The Point : The Other McCain
    September 12th, 2012 @ 10:06 pm

    […] in mind that the party which ordered Dempsey to place that calldoesn’t know what our Navy looks likecan’t tell an admiral from a general, andcould be suppressing the military vote.So, treating […]

  13. Red
    September 13th, 2012 @ 10:33 am

    ::face-palm::

  14. Red
    September 13th, 2012 @ 10:34 am

    The Vendor under the bus goes round and round…