February 27, 2016 07:34 PM UTC

The Gazette gives Mike Coffman another shot at Iraq War Glory

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• by: Zappatero

Being the largest conservatively owned/published/printed fishwrap in the state, the Colorado Springs Gazette has always been a preferred platform for local Republicans and Conservatives to spread their goodwill. And, being one of the most persistent overachievers on the Republican side, Mike Coffman has often been the recipient of The Gazette’s benevolence:

Since August 9,  [2006] the The Gazette of Colorado Springs has published weekly opinion columns by Republican secretary of state candidate Mike Coffman but has not published any columns by his Democratic opponent, Ken Gordon. Coffman, who temporarily gave up his role as Colorado state treasurer in the spring of 2005 to serve in Iraq, has been writing weekly “Over There” columns in The Gazette based on his recent tour.

Coffman apparently has used his Gazette columns as part of his election campaign, featuring five of the seven on his campaign website.

Coffman’s Gazette columns include descriptions of his service in Iraq in addition to such statements as “I strongly believed that once the United States made the commitment to go into Iraq we had to finish the job” (from his August 9 Gazette column) and “The press characterizes Iraq as having descended into a bloody civil war that has irreparably fractured the country. Nothing could be further from the truth” (from the September 20Gazette column).

In his August 9 column, Coffman explained that his initial service in Iraq was “as a civil affairs officer to help the Iraqis with their elections.” In his August 30 Gazette column, Coffman wrote, “With my elections work finished, I was slated to apply my economic development expertise for the remainder of my tour of duty in Iraq.“

We can thank Genius/NeoCon Hitman/Twitter Addict Sean Paige for Coffman’s well-purposed columns. Coffman won the SecState gig and has since become a congressman.

The calendar has given the Gazette the chance to revisit America’s awesome military victory in Gulf War I, where Coffman protected us from the spectre of Saddam Hussein stealing Kuwait’s (or KBR’s, or Halliburton’s) oil.

Down south with his fellow Marines, Mike Coffman was seconds away from blasting an Iraqi infantry battalion when fighting stopped.

Steven Lair got ready for the biggest bomb disposal job of his life in Kuwait City. In Qatar, Jaimie Robertson helped tell the story of the first Canadians in combat since Korea.

They were some of the 958,000 troops who were victorious on Feb. 28, 1991, when the Persian Gulf War ended.

It was the shortest war in American history, six weeks that included the largest air campaign and the largest tank battles since World War II. Fighting on the ground ended after 100 hours with Iraqi capitulation.

Now a Republican congressman from Aurora, Coffman remembers the end of the war clearly. To the front of his Marine unit in Kuwait, Iraqis began popping out of trenches. It was seen as an attack.

“I called the artillery battery and I’m going through the order,” Coffman said, recalling his demand for airburst rounds to take out the soldiers. He was seconds away from loosing the rounds, which would have killed scores of men.

Then his radio operator got his attention. “Sir, a cease-fire has just been ordered,” Coffman was told.

And a shot at another medal was thwarted by the do-gooder CINC….

And like Brian Williams*, Coffman was in the line of sight for some RPG fire, probably sold to the Iraqis by us.

After the ground attack launched on Feb. 24, Iraqi forces showed tenacity. Coffman remembers seeing a rocket-propelled grenade that nearly took his life.

“There was one coming right at me,” he said. “It just barely missed. They would have been picking me up from the desert with a spoon.”

It didn’t nearly take his life. If it had hit him, I’m sure it would’ve. But, it didn’t and flew by harmlessly, unlike the Gazette’s treatment of Coffman.

Coffman said the war showed him what concentrated American might can do. We had such overwhelming power that we took incredibly light casualties,” Coffman said.

And the formula for winning wars, courtesy of our brave and proud countryman Mike Coffman, and brought to you by the Colorado Springs Gazette.