Party over country, hypocrisy over truth.
Sean Hannity is often praised for being a “great American” by hisfans, who undoubtedly consider the talk show host patriotic. Whilepatriotism can be defined in many ways, supporting the brave men andwomen who serve in the U.S. military is undoubtedly one of them. As heconstantly reminds his listeners, Hannity believes it is impossible tosupport the troops without supporting their mission in Iraq. Toquestion the president, his motives, or the wisdom of our currentpolicy is unpatriotic, says Hannity. At least that’s what he saystoday.
But it might be worth remembering whatHannity said in 1999 about U.S. military action in Kosovo: “It seemsthat we’re talking about a very ill-conceived military action here. Andnow the question is, do you go in further and deeper, or do you pullback and rethink what the strategy’s going to be here, because therehas really been no stated goal, mission, or objective.”
Hannity clearly questioned then-President Bill Clinton’s militarywisdom. Hannity continued, “There’s no stated goal. There’s nodefinition of success. All these important things. There’s no exitstrategy. One mistake after another. Why would you go in deeper when wehave not been successful up to this point? That seems to me to befolly.”
Hannity further explained his position: “Isay, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die fornothing. That’s why I’m against it.” It seems that once-upon-a-time,Hannity was concerned that American soldiers might die in vain.
Clinton insisted that the United Statesinvolvement in the Balkans was necessary and just, and believed thatSerbian President Slobodan Milosevic could become the next AdolfHitler. Hannity had his doubts, or as he questioned the president, “Myquestion … is from all reports that I have been able to dig up, 2,000[were] killed in Kosovo in the last year. We keep hearing the presidentrefer to genocide, ethnic cleansing, comparisons to Adolf Hitler. Isthe president purposefully using propaganda and hyperbole to garner theAmerican public for support? Every day now with the president and vicepresident, this Hitler analogy. You know what? That’s all propaganda.That’s misinformation.”
Years later, Hannity not only compared SaddamHussein to Hitler, but today he makes the same analogy about IranianPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In the ’90s Clinton insisted that it wasAmerica’s role to dethrone brutal dictators. Fellow talk show host BillO’Reilly sided with the president. But not Hannity, who said, “Is BillO’Reilly then saying we go to Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Sudan? Wheredoes this stop?”
In 1999, Hannity did not support thepresident of the United States and his mission in Kosovo, and heconstantly criticized Clinton, even as our troops were fightingoverseas. Today, Hannity says those who question Bush or our mission inIraq are aiding the terrorists and are “invested in defeat.” If this istrue, this is precisely what Hannity did in 1999. By his own definitionthis makes Hannity unpatriotic.
When Republican presidential candidate RonPaul questioned the wisdom of the Iraq invasion during a post debateinterview on Fox News, Hannity immediately dressed him down, asking”Are you saying then that the world has no moral obligation … when aninnocent country’s being pillaged, and people are being raped andmurdered and slaughtered, or in the case of Saddam, he’s gassing hisown people, are you suggesting we have no moral obligation there? Doyou stand by and let that immorality happen?” Paul replied “We have, onnumerous occasions.” During the Clinton presidency, Hannity wantedKosovo to be one of those occasions.
It might be easy to dismiss Hannity as a merehypocrite, but he’s actually something much worse. Whereas Republicanslike Ron Paul put America first, place the national interest abovetheir party, and oppose wars conducted by both Clinton and Bush on thesame principle, Hannity puts the Republican Party first and has noqualms about putting our troops in harm’s way and policing the world solong as the sheriff’s badge reads “GOP.” I have no doubt that if ourcurrent war in Iraq was the work of President Al Gore, Hannity wouldoppose it as he did Clinton’s war in 1999, simply because it was beingwaged by a Democrat.
A “great American,” indeed.