Brownwood & "Neo-con Nuking Republicans"
Johnson: Nuke Syria? Just a joke
Despite quip, country remains serious issue, congressman says
10:48 PM CST on Thursday, March 3, 2005
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – U.S.-Syrian relations are often tense. U.S. officials are demanding that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon, and suspicion lingers that Damascus helped Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hide illicit weapons.
Still, some of Rep. Sam Johnson's constituents apparently were surprised when the Plano Republican said he'd like to take care of the problem – by personally dropping a couple of nuclear bombs.
"Syria is the problem," the former fighter pilot said at a pancake breakfast at Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen. "Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em, and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore."
Someone was offended enough to play a recording of the Feb. 19 remarks for Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper that first reported them this week.
Mr. Johnson said he's "absolutely" surprised that anyone took it seriously, adding that he's never advocated a nuclear attack on Syria.
"I was kind of joking. You know. We were talking between veterans," said Mr. Johnson, an Air Force fighter pilot in Korea and Vietnam, where he spent 7 1⁄2 years as a prisoner of war. "We were swapping sea stories – things that we'd done in the military."
He told the folks in Allen that he had shared his plan with President Bush and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, during a recent White House visit.
"President Bush knew I was joking," he said Thursday.
Casual remarks can bite politicians. President Ronald Reagan caught grief when he quipped before a live microphone that he had outlawed Russia, and "we begin bombing in five minutes."
"All right, I shouldn't have said it," Mr. Reagan would say later, though he blamed the news media for harping on a joke.
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Note for KXYL's "Neo-Con Christian Nuking" Connie & Marion and Sam Johnson and their Syrian Bashing comments: “ The 'Syrian Christians' numbering about 5 million, spread across various denominations is the largest ethnic group among the Malankara (Kerala) Christians. ”
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March 2, 2005
Welcome to the Bizarre World of Rep. Sam Johnson
Texas Republican Congressman: "Nuke Syria"
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